Page 10 of Grabbed By the Guard

Perhaps she understands some Sombran after all. That, or my pleading sways her. Either way, she darts out her hand, pressing her palm against mine before making a strange shaking motion with her arm.

I want to tell her that she need not do that to pass me her essence. Just her willing touch, flesh against flesh, completes the essence exchange.

That’s not all that happens. Before, I was too focused on bringing her into the shadows that would lead us to Sombra to notice how different her temperature is from mine. Once we’re bonded and she becomes immortal, she will match my heat. For now, her skin is chilled, ripping a gentle moan from me and sending shivers down my spine.

Is it the moan? Or the way my fangs flash as I arch under her touch? As her essence floods through me, filling me up from foot to horn, my first impression is that I’ve done something wrong. She’s frightened… no, she’s angered.

“What the fuck?”

My mortal rips her hand out of my hold. Courtesy of her essence, I easily translate her English expletive into Sombran. That one word—fuck—means the at of mating in her language, and I grin.

See? That’s all it took. My mate gave me her essence and already understands that she is, in fact, my mate.

“I appreciate your enthusiasm, female, but I think we should wait until we’re in Nuit before we learn each other's bodies.” However, if she wants to make sure that I can pleasure her… I gesture at my shadow coverings. “But if you’d like me to assure you that I have a cock, I can show it to you now.”

Her mouth falls open. “Are you… did you… no! Keep your pants on, you demon perv!”

Perv? I don’t know that word. “I am not a perv. I am a guard—and your mate.”

She scoffs. “Whatever you say. It doesn’t matter. I don’t know what happened or why you pretended not to know English until right this second, but I don’t care. I’m probably hallucinating this anyway.”

Hallucinating? Oh. Seeing things that do not exist. “This is all real,” I tell her. Dropping low, I scoop up some of the ash from the local ash field. Rising again, I let it fall from my palm. “We are in Sombra.”

Crossing her arms over her delectable chest, she snaps, “I don’t know what Sombra is, either, but it’s not New York and that’s all I care about. So if you’ll just get that patch of darkness back so I can go home… that would be great. Yeah?”

The patch of darkness she’s referring to is the travel spell that brings a demon from Sombra to another plane.

“Why would I do that? I only just retrieved you, mortal.”

“And? You can bring me back.”

I set my jaw. “I will not. I went to the human realm for my mate. I found her. Now you’ll stay with me.”

She blinks. I’ve surprised her, and I can sense her changing tactics at my blunt refusal to let her go. I haven’t been able to delve into her essence enough to learn much about my mate, but it’s clear that she is stubborn like her male—and she proves it when she says, “Well, sorry, but you got the wrong girl. I’m not Sierra.”

“Not-Sierra? That is your name?”

I know her human tongue… why don’t I know her name?

“What? No. I’m Billie… but that’s my point. I’m Billie. I’m not Sierra.”

What is a Sierra?

Her essence… the exchange is complete, but she has somehow managed to conceal much of herself.

That interests me as much as it frustrates me. As she is my mate, I want to know everything about her, but as a soldier who knows better than to share his essence freely, I am pleased that she is smart enough to hold some of herself back. She’s become someone that I can study, a female to learn, and I look forward to that almost as much as I do the moment when she will give up denying that she is mine and welcome me into her heart—and her cunt.

I close my eyes, attempting to focus. Learning about your mate through their essence is supposed to be as instinctive as breathing for a Sombra demon. And yet… though I have hers, it seems as though it’s been protected behind a wall.

Sierra… I see a human female with honey-colored eyes and hair like a length of twine tossed over her delicate shoulder. My mate is fond of her, and this other mortal is one of my mate’s motivations to return to Man-hat-tan. New York. Her clan.

She needs to speak with her… the word I think means ‘friend’, but it seems more like kin. As though they are family. My Billie has to warn her about…

Trevor.

What is a Trevor now?

I delve deeper, claws curling to pierce my palms, my hands fisting as another image flashes through my mind. It’s off another mortal, male this time, and he’s… he’s…

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