Page 6 of The Demon Mark

He intended to consume her entirely. But first, he had to get her away from so many prying eyes. For all that he did in his kingdom and all the lives he took, so far, they had not rebelled against him. Envy wanted to keep it that way.

Her hand was still on his ankle, a smear of blood left so prettily against his skin. The woman had really cut the oracle’s face terribly. The sight of something so violent ruined all that beautiful marble skin.

Standing, he scooped her up in his arms. She hardly weighed as much as the dense pillows he’d been propped against. Her limp body was unwieldy though, and it took him a few tosses to get her situated in his arms. Even then, all he could think about was the banquet of a form that was now so close to his mouth.

He wanted to lean down and taste the water that pooled in the hollow between her breasts. He wanted to sip from that shimmering liquid in her naval, and by all the gods in his kingdom, he wanted to lick his way up her body until he could suck one of those pert little nipples into his mouth. Like a rosebud, it was right there. So close to his lips that every exhale must make them pearl even tighter.

The fierce reaction was startling. He hadn’t reacted like this to a woman in a very long time. Perhaps that should have been concerning. But he had her in his arms now and was there really any reason to be concerned? He could walk out of this bathhouse with her and no one would stop him. Or if they tried, they wouldn’t get very far with that attempt.

“Thank you,” a priestess said as she approached him. Her eyes were downcast on the floor, but he could see the strength flexing in her muscles. This was a strong woman, and she wasn’t about to let him do anything with the oracle in his arms. “I will take her from here.”

“Is the oracle all right?” someone else shouted.

“She’s not dead, is she?” Another asked.

Then a few of the men stood up, their expressions one of hesitation along with determination.

Orphe squawked on his shoulder, and he knew what the sound meant. The priestesses weren’t the only ones who were willing to fight for this oracle. Shockingly, even this made him envious.

What was it about this woman that made everyone want her? Even him?

He settled all the rage in his body, easing the demon in his chest by clutching her a little tighter to his chest. He had her. No one else was going to take her from him.

“Move,” he growled, his low tones enough to send the priestess skittering away from him.

The second woman who tried to stop him was repelled by a zing of magic he sent in her direction. The violet orb wasn’t much power. Just enough to sparkle over her skin and make her frantically rub it off. At least now they knew how dangerous he was, though. A man who could cast magic without a word wasn’t one to be trifled with.

As he made his way through the crowd, he scanned his eyes in every direction. There had to be a back room. The oracle hadn’t actually come out of the water like she’d been lying in the depths, just waiting for them. She wasn’t a sea creature.

So there had to be something...

“There,” Orphe said in his ear.

Envy turned to look in the direction she was looking, and he could see it. A glimmer in the stones of the wall. A faint wrongness that suggested there wasn’t a wall there at all.

Perfection.

He walked straight through the wall and heard the priestesses move to stand in front of it as the crowd of people rioted.

“Where is he taking her? What is he doing with the oracle?”

If only they knew he was going to devour her magic for himself, they really would have pushed through the wall of women protecting her. They would have shrieked in anger and tried to get her back. But they would have failed.

The back rooms of the bath house had been turned into a nightmare of a circus show. The moment he walked through, he was greeted with a riot of color. Fabric covered every single wall, tapestries and banners and personal items hanging from them as though the performers in this crew had been here for a very long time.

The woman who had breathed fire was already back here, huddled in the corner of the room and staring at him with distrustful eyes. The shapeshifter appeared through another wall, his body already bloating with a shift. Perhaps he would turn into a bull and try to charge Envy. That would be an interesting turn of events.

But he had the woman in his arms, and none of them would take the risk that their attack might result in her death.

He lifted one hand near her hip and waved at the two of them. “Where does she go?”

The shapeshifter was huffing out of his mouth and had already twisted into some inhuman shape, so he couldn’t reply. But the fire breathing woman pointed at another wall. “The master keeps her in there.”

“My thanks.”

As an afterthought, he nodded for Orphe to take flight. The spirit would go to get them payment for their loyalty to their king, even if they didn’t know who he was in this moment.

Envy paid those who worked with him. It was one of the few reasons his people were reluctant to challenge him.

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