myself safe. Instead, I’d run horns first out into the battle.
And when Kimaris found out I took down a demon general to protect human men? Shit was going to get real. For me and for these humans.
I climbed back over the gate, careful not to touch anything with my dirty arm.
“Deyva, wait.” Stavros’ footsteps were beating against the ground to catch up with me.
“I’m fine. I’m just gonna wash up in the locker room,” I said.
But he didn’t slow down. He grabbed my shoulder and I flinched, more out of habit than pain, but Stavros just spun me to face him. My body hurt, my heart hurt, my fucking head hurt, and I didn’t want to deal with whatever it was he needed to say. Except he didn’t speak at all.
There was anger in the tangle of his brow, and terror in the whites of his eyes. His hand grabbed my face and his other arm wrapped around my waist, pulling me roughly to his chest. I gasped as his mouth landed over mine, searching hungrily, devouring me, a groan vibrating in his chest as he kissed me over and over again. I wasn’t human and I shouldn’t have been so breathless, so weak-kneed. My heart shouldn’t have beat so hard. I would blame the battle if anyone asked, not the desperately sweet flavor of relief on Stavros’ tongue and the way he almost pushed his life to me, as if he knew how to feed me without me simply taking.
“You could’ve been killed, Deyva,” Stavros mumbled against my lips, his nose nudging against mine, head turning just enough to scratch his cheek against mine as he moved to suck on my lobe.
“Probably not, but you definitely would’ve been,” I said, leaning into him, shivering as he huffed against my neck. “If I had been, the town would’ve been relieved. You wouldn’t have to play sacrificial lamb anymore.”
Ew, you sound insecure and human, I thought for a brief moment. Then Stavros reared back, face stricken and pale as he met my eyes. A slow flood of shame ran down his face and I tried to pull away, but he only squeezed harder around my waist.
“Fuck. Fuck, Deyva, I’m a coward,” he said, pulling me closer, pressing a long kiss to my cheek. “There’s literally nowhere else in this world, or the one before the Rising, that I would rather be than lying around on that miniscule fucking couch with you. Or bending you over an altar.”
And like the completely basic human I was starting to resemble, I smiled a little at the warmth in his voice and the way it flavored the air between us.
“Come on,” he said, and it wasn’t the church he pulled me towards, but the front door of the priest house.
14
Succubus Soup for the Soul
Stavros
You really fucked this up like a professional, I thought, watching Deyva tip her head up to the stream of the water coming out of the shower head. It was probably only lukewarm, and I’d have to pull her out of there soon to keep conserving water, but for now I was just watching.
“We’re really gonna have to work on your guilt complex,” Deyva murmured, turning and blinking at me as water ran down over her head, her throat, her breasts.
I dunno why I made her leave the shower curtain open. So I could feel like a horny shitheel instead of just a typical asshole?
“Staaaaav,” she exhaled, shooting me an exasperated glance. “You can’t even do turned on right? Come here.”
I shook my head and crossed my arms over my chest as if that could physically hold me back from joining her in the shower. “I get in there with you and we’re not gonna be talking cause I’ll be too busy putting my mouth everywhere else.”
“Wow, sounds terrible,” Deyva said drily, turning away again.
I stood up from the counter and moved so I was standing at the very edge of the tub as she ignored me in favor of scrubbing the arm she’d shoved up inside of a demon general. I was getting misted by the spray of the shower but I didn’t care. Despite my words to Deyva, I didn’t really plan on us being clothed for a whole lot longer. It just wasn’t gonna be in the shower.
“I owe you an apology,” I said, watching her still, her eyes growing wide as she stared blankly at her own arm. “It was really easy to make excuses for what we’ve