Page 100 of Bad Demon

Relic closed in, until my back was to the wall, and I had nowhere to go and nowhere to look but up at him. He was breathing hard through his teeth, his gaze searching mine. Without a word, slowly, his big body shaking, he dipped his head to my throat and breathed in deep, a low growl rolling from him on his next exhale.

When he lifted his head, his eyes were still glowing, but they weren’t red anymore; they were gold.

“Relic?” I whispered.

He cupped the side of my face, the rough tips of his fingers sliding gently down my cheek, making me shiver, and he waited. Waited for me to say whatever it was I’d come here to say.

But looking into his eyes, gods, I thought I knew the answer already. “I never owned your soul, did I?”

Still, he didn’t answer, just kept his wide beast’s eyes locked on me.

I stumbled on, tripping over my words. “R-Rune said no one Hell-born has a soul, not the kind a soul collector can own. I-I never had any control over you, did I?”

He shook his head.

“And you … you were with me because …”

He looked at my mouth, then back up, but he didn’t fill in the silence like I desperately wanted him to, to make this easier on me. What he’d said to me on the phone, when I thought I’d released him, filled my mind.

“You don’t own shit, Fern. Everything I’ve done with you—for you—was because I wanted to.”

“Because you wanted to … be near me.”

The beast flashed through his eyes, the predator right there, watching me, so goddamn intense.

Finally, he spoke. “You never had control over me, not for one second—at least, not the way you think. Everything I’ve done with you, every minute I’ve spent with you, has been of my own free will. Because I wanted to be there.”

“Not the way I think?” I whispered. “What does that mean?”

“You tell me,” he said, voice pure grit. “Why do you think I couldn’t stay away from you, Fern? Why do you think, to me, you are the most beautiful, sweet, lovely, sexy, fucking perfect female to ever exist?”

I opened my mouth, then snapped it shut.

“Say it,” he said huskily.

I shook my head. “I can’t.”

“Why?”

“Because it can’t be what I want it to be. It can’t be that,” I said, voice breaking as tears stung my eyes.

He curled his fingers around the side of my throat. “I’m in love with you, Fern Honeycutt. You are the only one to ever make me feel this way. You are the reason I can feel this way because you were created by the Fates to be mine and I was created to be yours. You are my mate, Tinker Bell. The day I walked into that shop, the first time and saw you standing there, was and forever will be the very best day of my immortal life.”

The things he’d just said, it was everything I’d ever wanted to hear.

“I’m scared,” I whispered.

“Me too.” He brushed his thumb over my jaw. “I’m fucking terrified you’ll leave me again.”

I reached up, taking that strong throat between my hands, one of them over his new tattoo. “I’m terrified you’ll come to your senses and realize I’m not who you want or that this isn’t real.”

“That will never happen, and I promise you, it’s real.”

“Are you sure?” I said. This felt too good to be true, like every one of my childhood dreams—that, one day, someone would save me, love me, want me—had become real.

“Yeah, Fern, I’m fucking sure.”

“You really love me?” My voice sounded strange to my own ears. My heart was pounding so hard, I was trembling.

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