I suppose that was to be expected, in a way, given he wasn’t—but he sure did sound it at times.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I swallowed thickly.
“Liar,” he said again, this time with heat. “I can smell him on you.”
Him? Who the—
Realization hit me.
Before we’d come here, I’d been in the diner.
Flint had touched me.
“Who?” he asked again. A single word uttered softly had never sounded so deliciously damning.
“Does it matter?” I asked again. This question defined a lot. It answered a lot.
It confirmed a lot.
“Yes,” the demon hissed. I closed my eyes.
Fuck.
There was no playing this off. He was definitely interested.
“Stop touching me,” I snapped. It probably wasn’t the wisest thing to say to a demon, mind you, but it was the best I had when my heartbeat was currently going a hundred miles an hour.
“No,” he said. This time, the softness in his voice had something else there. Warmth. For the life of me, I couldn’t understand why.
I growled in frustration, but that only seemed to encourage him. His lips barely touched me, but their shadow scalded what little skin they brushed against. Ecstasy ignited within me.
“You hate me. You hate my kind. But your body likes my touch,” he whispered. “It loves it.” He placed a hand on my hip, but was blocked from my skin by the holster at my side. “You are not like the humans. Weak of mind. Of will. Any other being, you would not feel this. Why do you think that is?”
He leaned back to see what was in his way, and I made a decision.
My heartbeat stopped.
Red tinted my vision as rage flooded. I slammed my foot down on his own, but the demon moved faster this time. He seemed to predict what was going to happen, because the moment my heart ceased to pound, he paused, his entire attention shifting.
Strong arms wrapped around me even as I tried to unleash myself on him.
“I knew you were in there,” he murmured.
It was hard to land blows when he crushed me to his chest without actually crushing me. I reared back to slam my forehead into his nose. A crunch sounded. His grip didn’t loosen in the slightest.
Power thickened as my magic rose with my rage. White fire consumed both my arms.
A pained hiss slid between his lips, but he held strong, or at least tried to.
My wild movements were harder to contain when I was on fire.
Two blows at his chest from my flaming fists sent him stumbling back.
The suit he was wearing now hung in tatters as it went up in a blaze. The white flames eating at it.
“I know who you are, Piper Fallon. I know what you are. I know why you hunted Kenneth du Lac, and I’d be willing to bet it’s also why you called me from beyond,” he said, stalking forward once more. “But you underestimated who you called. Who I am. You opened a door, and I smelled you, I felt your magic, I heard the beat of your heart—and it called to me like nothing in all this universe has. I am here because you brought me here, and no matter where you run—I will find you again.”
I swallowed hard. The fire in me still burned. In this state, I was more susceptible to magic in the air than ever before. My baser survival instincts warped. I was burning, my emotions unraveling more with each passing moment as the aphrodisiac slipped into my skin and filled me with an awful fuzziness.
“Why?” I answered in an angry growl. The fangs that descended from my gums dripped with my blood and made my words convoluted.
“Because you’re mine,” the demon answered, as if it were so simple.
“I belong to no one,” I answered. He smiled again, and while it was cruel, it was also pitying.
“You think that now,” he said, looking up and down my form. “But I’ll convince you. There is no other in this entire universe for you, woman.”
I knew what he was saying, though he didn’t use the word.
He must have seen it in my eyes because that pitying edge disappeared behind cruel amusement.
“Yes,” he said softly. “You know what I speak of.”
“I’m human. It’s not possible.”
“Maybe you were once.” He scanned the white flames before staring in my eyes. “But you aren’t human anymore. You’re as bound by the laws of magic as any of us.” The remaining pieces of his shirt fell away, revealing smooth, branded skin.
“You’re lying,” I