Page 89 of Beauty's Monstrous Demons

“They’ll be dead in the next few hours,” he says casually. “I need to pay them a visit today.”

“Is that necessary?” I ask, raising my brow. Speaking about the death sentences my scent match has planned out wasn’t a conversation I thought I would have this morning.

They’re always surprising me.

“They’re revenge demons,” he says. “They’ll plot out ways to kill us all otherwise.”

“Then, I guess it is,” I say, shrugging. The movement moves my shoulder, making me hiss.

“Ah, you’re going to be sore for a little while there. Take a look. Please don’t be mad,” he says softly.

Staring at him for a moment because that sounds ominous, I take a small breath so as not to wake Alecto, and look at my shoulder. There’s what appears to be a healing bite mark on the skin, and I shiver as Samael’s lips move to the shell of my ear.

I’m not afraid of him, which is funny due to his being a fear demon. Right now, I’m more curious about how this bite is healing so quickly.

“Usually, I can tell when you’re in trouble,” he whispers. “Yesterday, I had no idea, and I decided while I was looking down at your sleeping body in my arms that I needed to change that. You’re mine in every way that matters, it felt right to make that permanent.”

“Why does it look like an older bite?” I ask. “I mean, it’s bruising, but the teeth marks are already scabbing over.”

“I think you’re sharing my ability to heal faster,” Samael explains. “I’m hoping that’ll extend to other things as well.”

My mortality.

“Yes, an extension of your natural life span would be more than I could ever dream, but there are other things too,” he says. “You’ve been so tired recently, I’m hoping our bond will help give you a boost in energy to be able to finish out this semester. You’re taking such a heavy course load along with work and performing.”

Nodding, I gaze at the bite mark some more. I’m not mad. He and I have talked about it, and he kept saying that he’d give me his bite bond soon.

“What changed?” I asked. “Was it just the attack?”

“I realized there would never be a perfect moment,” he says. “You’ve more than given your consent to me, though I was hoping you’d be awake when I bit you.”

Huffing out a small laugh, I nod before looking back at him.

“Sometimes, the perfect moment is the one you make,” I say to him.

“You noticed the new bite mark on your shoulder,” Phenex says sleepily, kissing my neck. “Samael has been quietly agonizing about it all night. I think it gives the perfect amount of ‘fuck off’ vibes to the world. I wish I'd have thought of it instead of biting your hip.”

“Well I’m very partial to that bite mark,” I tease him.

“Good morning, pretty girl,” Alecto mumbles against my skin. “You scared the shit out of all of us.”

“I know,” I say, instead of telling him that I didn’t do anything. I chose to walk away from Bast. “I’m sorry.”

“You didn’t do anything except refuse to be in an asshole’s presence,” Phenex says. “Speaking of which, he should be feeling the full weight of his actions right about now.”

A familiar banging on the apartment door makes me wince.

‘“Why is he here?” I ask.

“He’s living in a world where you’re dead,” Samael says, kissing my nose before getting out of bed.

“Never piss off a fear demon is the lesson of the day, kids,” Alecto mutters, sitting up and crawling up my body to thoroughly kiss me. “Good morning, Lorelei. We may as well see about putting the bastard out of his misery.”

“It hasn’t been twenty-four hours,” Phenex grunts. “I don’t even know if he’ll realize he’s seeing Lorelei.”

Great, I’m a ghost.

CHAPTER 20

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