me as he came, filling me until I could feel him dripping down my thighs.
The moment she’d looked at me with those wide, defiant brown eyes and told me to do it, I knew I was fucked for this woman. Foolishly, madly fucked. When she made herself my willing victim, I wanted to steal her away back to Hell right then and there.
I hadn’t planned to offer her a deal. Some demons loved nothing more than collecting human souls to raise their status in Hell, but I honestly couldn’t be bothered. I shouldn’t have bothered. But now I couldn’t get the idea out of my head: she was mine. I needed her soul. Fucking her, claiming her body, listening to those cute little whimpers as she shook with pleasure — that could become a quick addiction. The kind of thing I wanted guaranteed to me for eternity.
I’d offered a damn good bargain too. Considering the circumstances, my protection should have come at a far heavier price than just her soul.
What else was I supposed to do? Stick around, risk my life, and protect her out of sympathy? Out of kindness? I’d been trampled over by enough humans to know better. She’d pay up or I’d be gone. I’d take the grimoire and be on my way.
The taste of her lingered on my tongue, the sweet scent of her in my nose. I leaned back against a nearby headstone, holding her against me, my eyes half-lidded as I surveyed the dark, empty graveyard. Her orgasms had shattered her, but we couldn’t linger there for long. More Eld would come.
Rae sighed, and for a moment, I thought she was asleep. I’d left dark red marks across her neck and shoulder from my bites, marks that would be purple bruises by morning. I’d be gone, but my marks would linger on her for days.
Mine. My human, my doll, my tender flesh, mine.
Maybe I’d give her more time to think on my deal. Maybe a few more days on Earth wouldn’t kill me...or maybe it would, and I was getting disastrously obsessed over a human plaything.
She stirred, and suddenly stiffened. Slowly, as if she were trying not to startle a wild animal, she squirmed out from my arms and stood. She brushed the blades of grass from her skirt and plucked at the leaves and twigs in her hair, a little tremble in her hands. It occurred to me that she’d be cold without her leggings — the leggings I had completely destroyed.
“I’m escorting you home,” I said, not bothering to get up yet. The cold headstone felt good against my back. “You’ll give me the grimoire, and I’ll be gone.”
I waited for her protest, looking forward to more sassy defiance. But instead, with her back turned to me, she said, “Why were you in Abelaum? Before I summoned you?”
“I was in service to my previous summoner.”
“And that was?”
“Kent Hadleigh.”
She turned, her expression tight and desperate. “You mean to tell me that Kent Hadleigh is...a wizard?”
“Magician.” I shrugged. “Even the most non-gifted mortal can use the words written in the grimoire. But once they no longer have the book, it’s impossible to remember what was written in it. Attempts to copy the text will rapidly fade and become illegible. Once I destroy the grimoire, no one will be summoning me ever again.” I grinned proudly at the thought. My freedom had been a long time coming.
I rose, stretching my arms over my head. The night air was cool and the sky was clear, sparkling with stars and the faint glow of the sickle moon. The singing of the crickets and the sound of the breeze rattling the pine needles made me want to run through those woods one last time. I felt good for the first time in a long time.
Rae was watching me suspiciously, eyes narrowed. I could practically hear the gears turning in her head.
“Well?” I nodded my head toward the cemetery gate. “Would you like to lead the way home?”
She folded her arms. “Why did Kent summon you?”
I sighed heavily. So nosy, this one. Endless questions. “For the same reason his father and his grandfather summoned me. They needed protection from the Eld.”
She gulped. She shot a nervous glance over her shoulder, toward the chapel, where the body of the beast lay.
“How can something like that exist?” she said softly. “It seems like they’d be killing people all the time, that they’d be seen.”