I woke with the memories still bubbling in my head, threatening to spill over into reality as they had at Akil’s hotel. Sitting bolt upright, I reined in my fears and swept them back into their mental box where they belonged, sweeping my hands down my face to chase the remaining fragments of the nightmare away.
Thoughts grounded in the now, I realized I was alone. Nothing unusual there, but I knew Stefan had left the apartment. The room was warmer, for a start. Sunlight streamed in through the high basement window, instantly brightening my mood. I had no idea what day it was, or where I was, or what I was going to, but it was okay because I was alive.
The lounge looked the way I remembered it: trashed. Perhaps I could mail the apartment owner some cash. He was going to need it.
On the countertop, Stefan had left a note, scrawled on an unopened letter.
Gone for the evidence. Stay here. Do NOT go back to Akil.
No, ‘Love from Stefan,’ Ha. If he was gone, that meant the hounds had gone too. I tossed the note aside and strode out into the daylight. No money. No phone. My only choice was a long walk. Dressed as I was, blood-splattered and disheveled, I soon caught a few wayward glances. Some people even crossed the street to avoid me.
Retracing my steps from the previous evening, I came across Stefan’s wrecked car. Crime scene tape flapped in the breeze, cordoning off the crumpled barrier and dented lamp post. Gouges in the pavement further up the street and a trail of shattered glass made it clear where the car had rolled. The truck remained, front end caved in, awaiting recovery. I ducked on by with guilt sitting heavily on my shoulders. At least it didn’t look as though anyone had been seriously hurt.
After I’d walked for twenty minutes, a black limo pulled up beside me. I stopped, planted a hand on my hip and admired my bedraggled and distorted reflection in the privacy glass. The door opened, and Nica smiled up at me. “Wow, rough night?”
“I’ve had worse.”
“Get in.”
It became clear she had no idea what had happened to me. Akil had asked her to take a car and driver to the street she’d picked me up on. Apparently, he was working. My invite would have given him knowledge of my whereabouts. She fished for answers, but I was in no mood to talk. I feigned tiredness and pretended to sleep the rest of the way.
Chapter 10
Left alone until that evening, I was grateful for the time to clean myself up and to think. Nica had left some clothes for me, asking if I wanted to have my things brought over from my old apartment. I smiled and didn’t answer. ‘Some clothes’ turned out to be a black lace dress. I groaned and rolled my eyes at Akil’s choice of clothing. Give me jeans, and I’m happy. Dresses just felt plain wrong, but tonight I had a plan.
I held the dress up against me in front of a full-length mirror. Considering what I had in mind for the evening ahead, it was the perfect combination of intricate lace with conservative coverage. I dressed and left the bedroom, scrunching my damp hair in my hands as the tinkling of piano keys drifted down the hall. Fantasia in D-Minor, Mozart. A peculiar mix of haunting melody and light upbeats. One of Akil’s favorites.
I followed the sound of the music, padding barefoot down the hall, passing the lounge until I reached what appeared to be a study. A speaker-dock on a shelf played the music. Equalizer bars jumped on the docked phone. A fire flickered in a modern alcove fireplace, and glass across the front sealed in the dancing flames. Books sat neat and orderly on their shelves, some very old with weathered spines and tanned leather covers.
Then I saw him, suited up and seated leisurely in a high-backed chair, glass of red in one hand, open book in the other. His laden gaze rested firmly on me. I swallowed, vision briefly blurring. The weight of his stare quickened my pulse, stealing away the confidence I’d embraced all day. I bit into my lip, feeling as though I were shrinking in size with every second that ticked by.
The music stopped. The fire crackled behind its glass cage.
Only when he looked away did I breathe again. He closed the book, stood, and placed it neatly on a desk. An eclectic collection of swords displayed on the wall behind the desk drew my attention: six stunning swords from various locations around the world, although one appeared to be missing. Its brackets were bare.
Akil set down his glass of wine, fingertips teasing across the rim, making the crystal sing. He came toward me with clear intent in those dark eyes. Fear threaded through my limbs so that I stumbled back. I may even have yelped a little right before he clasped my face in both hands and kissed me. The urgency of that kiss surprised and excited me. I responded in kind, devouring him as the fear quickly turned to fire in my veins. His element called to mine, sinking heated tendrils through my flesh and drawing the slumbering power out of me. I pulled him tight, needing him close, grinding my hips against him while his hands slid down my back, cupping my behind. He lifted me, and I instantly hooked my legs around him, throwing my head back as his mouth teased kisses down my neck.
He carried me to the desk, sweeping its contents aside before planting me on the edge. His sultry touch rode up my thighs, hitching back my dress. The demon in me purred her glee, curling power around my flesh and reaching out to him. As I let down my guard, my element flared within me, spilling over my human body, revealing the truth about me: a human-demon hybrid. The unfurling of my one insubstantial wing completed the transformation. I flexed my power outward, stretching my ethereal wing higher. It felt like stepping out into a glorious summer’s day. The weight of control lifted from my shoulders. With Akil, I could be me—all of me. I didn’t need to pretend.
Akil growled low in his throat, fingers teasing out the ribbon of my dress. He sunk his other hand in my hair, holding it there as his mouth found mine once more.
“I thought I’d lost you,” he breathed. “I searched...” He pulled back enough to peer into my eyes. “Don’t ever do that again.” His growl teased my desire even higher.
I grinned and nipped at his lip, fingers fumbling with his shirt buttons. I gave up and tore it open, pressing my warm hands against the sculpted contours of his chest. I felt my own magic flexing around me, my one deformed wing trembling as he slipped my dress from my shoulders. Arching back, I let his mouth roam, his occasional nip sending ripples of pleasure through me.
His hand on my leg pressed higher, easing my thighs apart. I wanted him, but it was more than desire, I ached for him. Human and demon, all of me. I was his. His touch smoldered against my skin. His hands awakened wave after wave of power, calling it from every cell in my body. I blazed with energy, and he wanted it. I could see the hunger in his eyes. His power raged an inferno inside him. Blinded by the all-encompassing heat of desire, I couldn’t have resisted him if I’d wanted to.
He tore my underwear free, jerking me off the desk against him. The short-lived dress slipped down over my hips and pooled at my feet. He backed up a few steps. His heated gaze devoured me, drinking in my hybrid appearance. Where others had considered me grotesque, he had always enjoyed the intimacy every time I laid all of me bare.
I stepped up to him, clutched his torn shirt in both hands, and pulled him into a fevered kiss. His hands found my hips, but I knocked them away. He growled a warning just as I turned him and shoved him back against the desk. He panted through clenched teeth, lips pulled back in a wolfish grin. I stepped up to him, sliding my hand down his chest and dipping it below his waistband. It was his turn to arch back. A humble groan escaped him.
I had power over him. Nica had been right, but it wasn’t something I could use lightly.
Withdrawing my hand, I held his stare as he lifted his head, then shoved him down onto the desk. He didn’t resist but opened his arms, completely giving in to me. I tugged his trousers lower before climbing over him, trailing moist kisses up his navel, tongue teasing across his rippled chest before swirling around a nipple.
“Muse…” he growled my name, bucking a little.
I reared up, stretching my wing high behind me, and straddled hi
m. He groaned something, the words lost as his original accent slurred them, before locking his molten gaze on me. I began to rock my hips. I had him. All of him. Utterly and completely at my mercy and I liked it. My element spilled from me, rolling in and out like waves on a beach, as his reservoir of power flooded over me, into me. I lost myself in it. My memories, my fears, my suspicions, they were all chased away by the insatiable need to have him inside me. The rush of delight rode higher. The lights above flickered. The fire in the hearth roared. I summoned the residual energy into me, calling to the latent element found everywhere and letting it bloom inside of me until I couldn’t take any more The pressure released, snatching a cry from deep within. Akil bucked, fingers digging into my thighs as he threw his head back.
He didn’t see me falter, but he heard me whisper, “Would you ever hurt me?”
He cried out, the human part of him spilling his seed into me. But I saw what I needed, the glimmer of uncertainty in his eyes, the briefest flicker of doubt. He’d answered my question before he could stop himself, too lost in desire to lie.
I fell forward and kissed him hard, deliberately nipping at his lip and drawing blood. He pulled me down and turned me onto my back, so he had the advantage. As his kisses burned down my breast and his fingers kneaded, I blinked back tears, quickly sweeping them aside before he could see. I feared the truth and what it meant, feared that Stefan had been right.
Akil was lying to me.
I had to find Stefan, but first, there was one last thing I needed to do: talk to my brother.
Moonlight spilled through the drapes, its milky caress draining all color from the room. The quiet seemed complete, as though the world outside had been smothered while I dosed. Carefully easing the sheet off me, I sat up in bed, slowly turning my head to look down at Akil. Moonlight lay across his face and chest. The sheet bunched around his middle, one arm cast behind his head. He was like temptation personified, which of course was deliberate on his part. Nothing about his male physique was an accident. His vessel hadn’t been born in the natural way of things. It had been constructed in the image of this era’s notion of perfection. It was an act—a mask—deliberately designed to seduce, and it worked on me. Sure, I knew what he really was, but I certainly wouldn’t have jumped his demon-bones if he had revealed his true self. My head was too full of human desires for that.
I ached in all the right places, my lips flirting with a smile. I could so easily have lain back down, eased my arm across that delicious body, and stayed that way until the demands of the real world pulled us apart, but that was the coward’s way out, and a coward was one thing I had never been. I gently rose from the bed and tiptoed out of his room before jogging quietly back to the guest room where I quickly dressed in jeans and a sleeveless top. I had a jacket somewhere and would need it. It was approaching 3am and would be near to freezing temperatures outside. I found my suede jacket and tugged it on, peeling my hair from inside the collar. A figure in the doorway blocked my exit.
“It’s late,” Akil said. “Or early, depending on your perspective.” He paused, giving me a moment to fill the silence with an explanation.
In the low light, it was difficult to see his expression, not least because I couldn’t ignore the fact he was naked. My wide-eyed gaze roamed all over him. “I er… I was…” My voice quivered, a croak fracturing my attempt at confidence. “My cat.” Yes, blame the cat. “I need to feed Jonesy. I’ve not been home and he’s—”
“Resourceful, I’m sure.”
I definitely detected irony dripping from those three words, or was it barely concealed anger? He sauntered toward me, the light from the window silhouetting his body. I didn’t move, didn’t dare to. That stare of his crawled over me while his expression remained impassive. He moved around me, circling me, easing closer with every step until he stood before me and tilted my chin up.
“Why did you ask me whether I would ever hurt you?”
And there I was thinking I’d gotten away with that little gem. I couldn’t lie to him, not when he glared right into my eyes. He’d know a lie immediately. I chose instead to stand firm and glare right back at him. “I don’t trust you.”
“When have I ever given you reason not to trust me?”
His teeth appeared perfectly white. His eyes were a little brighter than the ambient light could account for. Even his expression had lost its human fluidity. His whole body tensed. He had never given me a reason not to trust him. That was what made all of this so difficult to digest, but he couldn’t deny his very nature; could he?
He released my chin and stepped back. “What did he say to you?” I blinked, trying to pluck one of Stefan’s pieces of advice from my memory, but I’d already hesitated too long. “Don’t lie to me, Muse. I will not tolerate lies.”
That was rich, coming from a demon masquerading as a man.
Akil clench his right hand. “You were with Stefan. Were you not?”
“Yes,” I replied, struggling to retain my stubborn bravado. “He saved me from the Hellhounds.”
Akil arched a single eyebrow. “Ingenious, isn’t he?” he said dryly.
Ingenious indeed. “Why didn’t you help me?”
Akil regarded me, eyes narrowing a little as he considered his reply. “Your brother Valenti sent those hounds. You know I cannot interfere with his intentions.”
The convenient ‘gentleman’s agreement between demons’ excuse. The Princes had agreed never to dabble in each other’s lives. Apparently immortality bred contempt. They lived too long to get along, so instead they agreed to disagree and moved on, preferring to dabble in the lives of humanity. The same agreement bound the Princes’ offspring, Val, being the son of Asmodeus, was obliged to follow the same ground rules. Akil could no more meddle in Val’s machinations than Val could in Akil’s. Didn’t seem to stop Val from trying to kill me though, a crime for which one detective had recently been skewered.
I dropped my gaze, unable to carry the weight of Akil’s stare on me any longer. “Those hounds could have killed me. Stefan was there. He saved me.”
“What lies did he tell you?” He seemed more concerned about what Stefan might have said than about the fact that I could have been killed.
“Akil.” I smiled thinly. “What is this? Why are you behaving like this?”
“I’m not the one sneaking out the door.” Akil moved closer again, taking both my hands in his warm grip and lifting them between us. “He told you I sent those hounds. Didn’t he?”
A shiver rippled through me. I closed my eyes. Somewhere amid all the uncertainty, the doubts poking holes in my perception of Akil, the seed of mistrust had been planted. Its creeping vines strangled my conviction.
“What else did he tell you?” His voice had softened, but as soon as I opened my eyes, I saw the barely suppressed anger tightening his smile. I would need to tread carefully, like walking on hot coals.
“Let me go.” I yanked my hands free and staggered back. “He said you sent the hounds—okay—then told me not to come back here.” I threw up my hands. “What do you want from me? It’s not like I wanted to be there with him. I had no choice. You’re lucky I’m here at all, Akil. Those hounds…” My stomach flipped just thinking about how close they’d been. Stefan had faced one of those creatures head-on. Who does that?
Akil had fallen quiet. I could have left it at that, but I knew of one more chink in his armor, one last little shard of truth that would unnerve him. “Stefan said I’d swapped one owner for another. To be honest, right now it’s beginning to feel that way.”
Anger immediately flared in Akil’s eyes. “Do not ever compare me to your previous owner—that despicable excuse for a demon—Muse.”
I took a deep breath. “Stefan said you were too demon to love me.” I watched Akil flinch back as though I’d hurt him. “That you were just playing with me, a cat with a mouse. He implied that when you got bored of me…” I shrugged a shoulder. “You’d kill me.”
For a few sec
onds, neither of us spoke. I watched him closely for any clues as to what might be going through his head, but he’d locked away his emotions. Then he quite unexpectedly laughed.
“He’s got balls. I’ll give him that.”
I frowned. Laughing hadn’t been the response I’d expected. Fury, I’d expected. Akil’s crooked grin confused me. Why wasn’t he angry? He stopped before me, bowing his head so that his lips brushed mine. “He is nothing, Muse. How can he possibly understand what we have?” The words whispered against my lips, tugging at the embers of desire settling inside of me.
I chased the tease of a kiss as Akil pulled back a little, leading me in to him.
“He cannot know you, Muse. Not as I do. I would not have bothered with you in the beginning if I didn’t see something in you I admired. You were a crushed and broken thing, like a butterfly crumpled in the hand of a child, but I saw the beauty in you. I found you, Muse. I created you. Someone like Stefan, he will never understand what we have.”
“I didn’t believe him,” I whispered. Placing both hands flat on his chest, I soaked up his warmth. “I just… I was afraid.” It wasn’t strictly a lie, but neither was it the truth.
“I know. Don’t worry about him. He’ll be dead soon.”
I let Akil pull me against him, hiding my spike of fear behind the flush of desire. I couldn’t ask what he meant, not without rousing suspicion, but I couldn’t get away either. I would have to wait until morning before I could make my escape. Until then, the only action I could take was to convince Akil I had no doubts about him. I was a rather convincing liar when the situation demanded it. Lying to Akil with my body was easier than lying with words. A trait beaten into me to aid in my survival. It would serve me well now.
Chapter 11
The flame twisted on its wick like a tiny exotic dancer. In the gloom of the humble basement apartment, the candle barely penetrated the shadows loitering beyond the coffee table. Stefan’s artwork still adorned the walls, and those marks were the reason I was back. They subdued elemental magic, and that’s exactly what I needed if I was going to survive an encounter with my brother.
Demons & Djinn: Nine Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy Novels Featuring Demons, Djinn, and other Bad Boys of the Underworld Page 151
