“He’ll die,” Baylee said.
“The water didn’t try to kill him. Darik, I need a sample of your blood. Come up to my room soon.”
“Will do,” Darik said.
“N—no,” Baylee protested, through chattering teeth. He stroked Kirkyn’s nape, his fingers tingling.
“Hush, Baylee,” Kirkyn ordered.
He was still weak, could barely hold onto Kirkyn as Kirkyn set him on the chair in the living area of his suite.
Kirkyn quickly divested Baylee of his underwear and shirt. Kirkyn’s jaw clenched, and Baylee noticed Kirkyn was trying to keep his eyes on Baylee’s face.
“I’ll get a towel,” Kirkyn told him.
“That could help,” he said and reached out to snag Kirkyn’s wrist. Kirkyn turned to look at him, and Baylee reached up to cup his face. “Thanks for saving me.”
“Not a problem,” Kirkyn said tersely and tried to tug his arm away, but Baylee held him fast. “What?”
“I mean it,” Baylee said. “I know you probably don’t believe me.”
“I do,” he said and leaned in closer and brushed his lips against Baylee’s. “You smell so much more alluring when you’re wet.”
Baylee reached up and drew Kirkyn’s head down. At the same time, he parted his lips, and Kirkyn’s tongue slipped inside.
Baylee moaned, pulling Kirkyn closer, needing his touch, his body against his.
“Baylee.” Kirkyn tore his lips from Baylee’s. His breaths were ragged, but his eyes, those strange eyes, glowed but not as brightly as they did sometimes when the demon looked back at him in the heat of arousal.
Baylee traced kisses along Kirkyn’s jaw as he tore Kirkyn’s wet shirt open and pushed it from his shoulders.
“Baylee.” Kirkyn buried his fingers in Baylee’s rich black hair, pulling his head closer.
Baylee nipped at his collarbone and licked the column of Kirkyn’s throat. Kirkyn hissed, and Baylee bit him lightly before drawing his tongue lower. He circled the tan areola before grazing the tiny nipple with his teeth.
The heavy groan falling from Kirkyn’s lips had Baylee pinching the other nipple. Then, he swiped his tongue over it before biting it.
“Take these off a second,” Baylee said, tearing at Kirkyn’s belt. “I want to feel all of you against me, baby.”
“This is crazy,” Kirkyn said raggedly as Baylee straightened. He sat on the coffee table and stripped off his boots, tossing them aside along with his socks.
“What’s crazy about it?” Baylee asked, leaning toward him to work Kirkyn’s belt open and tear the button of his jeans free of its mooring. “We’re two consenting adults with needs.” He bit Kirkyn’s shoulder, causing him to gasp.
Baylee knew exactly what pressed Kirkyn’s hot buttons and had no qualms using the tricks he’d learned. He wanted him and not just for the warmth. He needed him just as badly as he had before they broke up.
“I want these off,” Baylee ordered. “Now, Kirkyn.”
Kirkyn stood, and Baylee dragged the zipper of Kirkyn’s pants down and peeled the soaked fabric down long legs. He kissed one thigh up over the rise in Kirkyn’s briefs and caught the waistband in his teeth and tugged the underwear down.
Kirkyn shivered, and Baylee gave him a smile. “You’re always doing something that turns me on,” Kirkyn told him.
“My pleasure,” he said, running his hands up Kirkyn’s thighs to cup his ass. “Now, get some lube. I want your big dick up my ass ASAP.”
Kirkyn left him alone, and Baylee stood. He swayed, a little unsteady, but Kirkyn was back before he even had time to think about it. Baylee pushed Kirkyn onto the couch and put a knee between his thighs.
“Lube your dick and give me what I want,” he said in Kirkyn’s ear. “Don’t make me wait too long.” He bit Kirkyn’s lobe, and Kirkyn stroked his hands down Baylee’s back and gave his ass a light tap.
“You’re so damned bossy,” Kirkyn said, a note of amusement in his tone. “Lucky for you, I don’t mind.” Kirkyn claimed his lips and delivered another tap to Baylee’s ass.
Baylee moaned as he picked up the lube from the couch and flipped the cap. Their tongues dueled in a slow, sweet kiss that made his stomach flutter and his head spin.
“Damn, you’re such a good kisser,” Baylee said breathlessly.
“Don’t you ever just want to kiss me?” Kirkyn asked.
“Without fucking?” he asked as he squeezed lube into his hand. “That’s for cuddling on the couch.”
“And you don’t want that with a demon?” Kirkyn asked.
“Right now, I want what only you can give me,” he said and slicked Kirkyn’s cock with lube. Baylee stroked his thumb over the head and pumped the shaft. “I want this so bad, but if this is your way of telling me no, then I’ll stop.”
“I don’t want to stop,” Kirkyn said. “I just want so much more than being a sex toy.”
“You’re not just that.” If only. Then he’d be able to stop thinking about him and stop wishing Kirkyn was just a call away.
Baylee shifted position and tucked the head of Kirkyn’s dick at the entrance of his ass. He slid down the thick pole a few inches.
“Drive it in me.”
Kirkyn gripped Baylee’s hips and thrust, seating his cock fully, and Baylee groaned. The little bite of pain was perfect. His blood was liquid fire, warming him from the inside out.
“Oh, yeah,” Baylee whispered. “I love the feel of you inside me, Kirkyn.”
Baylee lifted his hips and lowered himself on the thick penis. He leaned toward Kirkyn and braced his hands on the back of the couch and began riding Kirkyn with need. It was like he hadn’t just had Kirkyn earlier today.
“Baylee,” Kirkyn cried as he gripped Baylee’s hips tighter, thrusting up in time to Baylee’s movements.
The move created delicious friction, and Baylee’s cock rubbed against Kirkyn’s belly, activating another layer of pleasure within him.
“Kirkyn!” Baylee was catching fire, and the heat in Kirkyn’s eyes told him he wasn’t the only one.
Baylee set up a steady rhythm of hard strokes that pushed Kirkyn to the depths of his ass. He threw back his head as the passion built to a white-hot knot in his belly. He couldn’t get enough.
“Up, Baylee,” Kirkyn ordered. “This just isn’t working for me.”
Baylee climbed off him, and Kirkyn stood and urged Baylee to his knees on the couch before moving up behind him and guiding his dick back into his ass.
Baylee moaned his delight, and Kirkyn drove into him, taking him with a nice even beat that took his breath away.
Kirkyn slapped the side of Baylee’s ass hard, and Baylee let out a rough cry. Kirkyn kissed his nape and fucked him hard and deep. The drive-in sent him higher, and the retreat of Kirkyn’s dick made him groan.
The man was big and knew just how to stroke his ass. Kirkyn hit his sweet spot as Baylee gripped the back of the couch with one hand and his cock in the other. He pumped in time to Kirkyn’s thrust.
His balls drew up tight, his body buzzed with pleasure, and with one more hard thrust into him, his body tightened.
“Fuck!” A harsh cry was ripped from Baylee, and tiny points of color flashed behind his eyes as the bliss tore through him.
Behind him, Kirkyn’s cry was a soft growl as his semen pumped into Baylee, the heated jets filling his ass.
“God.” Baylee leaned back against Kirkyn, whose arm came around him as he stroked and kissed him down.
“I think you’re warm enough,” Kirkyn said and pulled out of him with a grunt.
“Kirkyn.”
“You’re making me hungry, Baylee, and I can’t feed from you right now. You’re too weak. Let go,” Kirkyn said. “Besides that, you made it damn clear the last time I did how much you despised me for doing it.”
Baylee faced Kirkyn, and his skin was a bit gray and his eyes glowed blue-gray, desire slowly receding. Baylee stared, and Kirkyn turned away.
“I’ll get cleaned up, and you ca
n use the shower. I won’t take long.”
The hurt in his voice was a stab to Baylee’s stomach. He started to speak, but Kirkyn was gone, leaving Baylee with an ache in his chest.
Chapter Seventeen
“Who the hell am I to criticize?” he asked out loud. Kirkyn was the sexiest man he’d ever been with and the only man to accept him for what he was. He never questioned any of his little quirks, but Baylee supposed that was because Kirkyn knew sprites well.
He ran his fingers through his damp hair and pushed to his feet. Nothing had been wrong with their relationship except his fear of all the things he’d learned in church and seen in the movies about demons.
Baylee went to look out the window and rubbed his shoulder, which itched a little where the fragment had been lodged.
The dregs of daylight were fading softly to night and a flicker of color played around the lake. He’d never stopped loving Kirkyn, but things had gotten all screwed up in the stalking.
“Can we go on from that?” he asked himself out loud. “The man could just kill me this time.” He shook his head wondering why he wanted to take that chance when Kirkyn had his cousin someplace waiting to kill her. “But what if he doesn’t?”
“Your turn, Baylee,” Kirkyn called.
Baylee slipped into the bedroom where Kirkyn was naked. The tattoos on his back caught his eye. Kirkyn had told him they were just flights of childish fancy. Looking at them now, Baylee doubted the hammer and the shield with its intricately done runes were just that.
He walked over and stroked his finger over the hammer. “This is like Thor’s hammer,” he said.
“A weapon of destruction, as well as life,” Kirkyn told him quietly and moved away as he pulled on a T-shirt.
“Kirkyn, don’t lie to me, please.”
“About what?” He was pulling on briefs now.
“M-my cousin,” he said, almost choking on the words. “Where did you put her?”
Kirkyn sighed. “I sent them away, Baylee, because I knew she’d become a pawn. They’d just use her baby as a weapon against Blade, and that was a risk we couldn’t afford.”
He sighed, relief flooding him even as anger pricked him. “Kirkyn, you bastard.”
“Me? How could you think I’d harm a pregnant woman, Baylee?” he asked and threw a cold glare at him.
“What about the blood in her cabin?”
“I thought it would look better if your family got the impression she’d been taken, so I told them to stage the scene and get out. Snevil might have died helping them escape.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me that?” Baylee demanded.
“Why don’t you just go take a fucking shower, asshole?”
“Kirkyn—”
“No,” he snapped. “You should have known me better.”
Baylee stared at him. “That site Demons Are Among Us said you’d destroy my family. So did you,” he shouted.
“I’ll go get you some clothes. We don’t have time for this shit. It just distracts from finishing the job.” Kirkyn grabbed a pair of pants and jerked them on. Baylee watched for a moment then went to shower.
He was stupid.
Kirkyn had never given him any indication he’d lay a finger on a woman, especially in harm. Though Baylee imagined Kirkyn would have no problems defending himself against a female’s attack.
That was different than a harmless woman.
He lowered his head under the hot water to rise his hair. He’d hated Kirkyn and missed him for so long he just didn’t know—
He was just scared. He didn’t think a man should kill his lover, because things didn’t work out. That was just wrong.
Why were those demons even allowed to get close to humans if they became unstable after a breakup?
He finished his shower and stepped out into the bedroom wrapped in the towel to find Darik there with Kirkyn. Darik had changed, too, and the two were talking quietly.
“What are you talking about?” Baylee demanded. The accusatory note in his tone had him flinching as Darik gave him a questioning look.
“We were just talking about the water,” Darik told him. “That whirlpool is still down there, but the tentacles are gone.”
“Darik’s contacted sprites in the city, and there are two black holes forming there, and each has two sets of tentacles attached to it. And the black log had formed in four places, which means more black holes are coming,” Kirkyn told him gravely.
“But the one black log structure here is dying.”
“How?” Baylee went to stroke his hand along Kirkyn’s back, and Kirkyn looked at him, his eyes darkening.
“The remedy seems simple, but I’m not sure how effective it’ll be. So, I’m not going to say anything until we’ve tested it.”
“You still haven’t told me what it was,” Darik said.
“I need you to find a crone or a wise one among the sprites. They’ll know the stories of the land,” Kirkyn said.
“What are you looking for?”
“Connections between species,” Kirkyn told him. “Or any stories that detail anything remotely like this that happened before.”
“You need me here,” Darik said, and a soft tingling sound lit the air.
“No, I don’t,” Kirkyn said with a shake of his head, and Darik gave Baylee an amused look. “Get Trinity and get out of here. Take your team. Those men will be in danger as the landscape changes. Better you all stay as far from the affected sites as possible.”
Darik gave him a suspicious look. “What aren’t you saying?”
“The water dangers didn’t affect you, but the plant ones might,” Kirkyn told him.
Darik was gone without further questions, and Baylee dropped his towel and pulled on the clothes laying on the dresser.
“I’m glad you sent him back,” Baylee said in a petulant tone.
“He helped save your life, Baylee,” Kirkyn said coolly.
“He’s already mated.”
“I didn’t miss that,” Kirkyn said and sighed. “Why don’t you go get something to eat? I need to work.”
“I’ll bring you something,” Baylee told him. “You have to eat, too.”
“Food can’t help me.”
“Once I’ve eaten I’ll take care of you,” he said carefully.
“We can’t do that, Baylee,” Kirkyn replied. “It’s one of the things that will prevent me from not hurting you. You want me to let you go? Then, don’t help me continue to be enslaved by you.” Kirkyn turned his back to him. “Go.”
Kirkyn’s words nearly knocked Baylee off his feet. “You’re not going to kill me?”
“No. When I pulled you out of that river, I realized nothing had changed. I still love you as passionately as before, and even though there are beings who could accept me, you aren’t one of them.” The words were quietly said. “I hated you for it, but this evening sucked it all out of me.”
“Just like that.”
“I won’t take your life,” Kirkyn snapped. “Let me do my job, so I can put as much distance between us as possible.”
Baylee exited the room, the relief that had washed over him long gone. He didn’t know how to feel now that there was no threat of death hanging over his head.
Chapter Eighteen
Baylee finished making dinner and sat down to eat it with his grandmother, Payten, and Astarte, along with a few others. They were all silent as if each of them was considering the ramifications of a world infected by demons.
“The sprites won’t survive,” Clarity said. “And I doubt a meeting with the demon can do much to change things now.”
“You have nothing to bargain with,” Baraq said. “From what I saw in Bossier, this region is done for. Dead nymphs and sprites. You won’t survive long no matter what Kirkyn’s working on.”
“Might not be too late,” Baylee said.
“It is,” Baraq replied.
“He’s right,” Astarte commented. “This is the worst we’ve seen it. The other pla
ces were barely touched by it and will be forever changed, but the death of millions is coming here.”
“We’ll relocate,” Clarity told Baylee. “I’ve already begun communicating with others as far as Virginia. We’ve also been invited to Ireland.”
“What about Blade’s family in New Orleans?”
“They’re leaving. A wise one there said he’s seen this before. The change will affect the entire state and most of the South,” Clarity said. “He said the last time it happened, the infection began here and wasn’t as invasive, so most humans survived.”
“Payten, you should inform the Council,” Baraq said. “There isn’t really anything they can do here except evacuate and leave the humans to fend for themselves, as they won’t trust anything as the truth until mass deaths begin.”
“That first time was a demon invasion?” Baylee asked, recalling the stories his grandmother had told him.
“Yes, but it wasn’t bad. He’s right. Some things changed, but not like this. I just wish Blade and Alisa—well, you and I will leave soon with the others.”
And just like that, his life could be his own again. He could be in Ireland being romanced by the Irishman his grandmother thought would be right for him.
So why were his limbs tingling and going cold?
Why did he want to hide and rail against leaving?
“I can’t go,” Baylee said. “Kirkyn said he’d leave me alone if I gave us another chance.”
“You’ll die here,” Clarity exclaimed. “We are leaving in a day or two.”
“You should go,” Baylee said. “I’m going to finish this with Kirkyn.” He pushed his chair back and took his plate to the kitchen.
“What are you talking about?” Astarte demanded, coming in behind him.
Baylee put his plate in the dishwasher. “Go away.”
“Take them out,” she ordered. “I’m prepared to contain him, but I won’t be able to if I miss. He’ll disable me and come after you.”
“I can’t leave,” he insisted. “I think whatever he’s going to do will require my help. I just wish he’d talk to me.”
“You had his ear whenever you wanted it,” she muttered.
“And you hate me for it? Did you think he’d date you?”
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