almost jumped off the sofa. A dark shadow filled the doorway, a writhing mass of stygian smoke, solidifying before my eyes. The mist of power receded to reveal Azazel’s face, even more achingly beautiful for the fury refining his features. Eyes sparking lightning, he advanced into the room.
Chapter 5
“Brother!” Azmodea called, her voice all chirpy.
She rose from the sofa and walked over to him. Unfazed by his one-second-away-from-murder expression, she went up on her tiptoes and kissed him on the cheek. I’d once seen a grumpy pit bull being loved on by a fearless kitten, and the effect was quite similar.
“Imagine my surprise,” Azmodea tweeted, “when I found out I had a sister-in-law.” She slapped him on the shoulder. “How dare you not tell me? To think, I allow you to use the gate in my territory, and you turn around and smuggle a human in without letting me know? And not just any human, but your wife? Why was I not invited to the wedding?”
“What,” he growled, “are you doing here?”
“Getting to know your lovely wife, of course.” She put her hands on her hips. “When were you going to introduce us?”
His expression clearly said never, and Azmodea narrowed her eyes.
“Now, I know you don’t like to share,” she said, “but this is ridiculous. You can’t keep her for yourself. She’s family now.”
If possible, that word infuriated him even more. “Leave,” he snarled.
He was awfully good at snarling and growling.
Azmodea clucked her tongue. “Are we in a mood today, oy.” Turning to me, she stage-whispered, “I’ll be back, darling.”
“No, you won’t.” Azazel glared at her.
“Sure, sure.” She waved him off, but winked at me and mouthed, “Yes.” Walking past him, she patted him on the shoulder. “I expect you at dinner tonight.”
Sauntering out of the room, she left me alone with a hunk of rage in demon form. I’d gotten up from the sofa and now stood there, skin tight, my heart racing.
Dark power murmuring about him, he went to the door with deliberate calm, placed his palm on it and pushed it shut from inside. The metallic clang of it closing reverberated in my core. His hand still on the door, he looked at me over his shoulder. Lightning fire flashed in his eyes, the brutally beautiful lines of his face hinting at leashed anger simmering just beneath the surface.
“What part,” he muttered, his voice silken violence, “of ‘you are not to leave these rooms’ did you not understand?”
I trembled. My hindbrain screamed at me to run and hide. To appease. To do something, anything, to defuse the threat in front of me. He’d been less scary when he was growling and snapping.
That gecko part of my brain, however, didn’t seem to be in control.
“I will not be caged here.” The words tumbled out past the knot in my throat. “These rooms cannot be my whole world. I need more than this.” I gestured around me.
Gaze fixed on me, he prowled over, all lethal grace and banked power. He advanced with such predatory intent, I forgot to breathe until he was right in front of me. Involuntarily, I backed up—or tried to. My legs bumped into the sofa right behind me, and I went down, grabbing the cushions as my butt hit the seat.
Following me, he leaned in, put one hand on the backrest next to my head, the other on the cushion beside my hips, trapping me with the calm of a hunter fully in control of its prey.
“What you need—” his tone caressed my senses with velveteen menace “—is a lesson in humility.”
God help me, but the shiver coursing through me at his words was all thrill and no fear. Breath coming fast, I stared at his mouth just inches from my face. His power crackled between us, an invisible touch that was too much and not enough.
“I have to warn you,” I whispered. “I think I suffer from a selective learning disability.”
The tiniest twitch of his mouth, not quite a smile, but something shifted in his energy. “I have been kind with you. You’re provided with more than the contract specifies. By rights, I could have you hanging upside down from manacles in my dungeon. You think this is a cage?”
His power whispered over my skin, and I squirmed. Not in terror, mind you.
“I could lock you in with the hellhounds if you require a demonstration of what a real cage looks and feels like.”