Page 40 of Bound By Darkness

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BARON

Pain lances through my head like a wildfire blazing through the forest. There are too many smells and sounds for me to attempt sleep. I feel a slight breeze against my cheek and open my eyes. The useless little creature that never shuts up says something to me about bathing, but I don’t bother answering.

Instead, I sit up from the mattress to see Eilish struggling to remove her clothes with her hands still bound.

I stand and walk silently across the floorboards. A fire crackles in the hearth beside the tub, and she glances over her shoulder at me with that bashful look in her her eyes—one I believe to be legitimate, even if the others don’t. If they bothered to study her mannerisms and the way she acts in general, they would come to understand she isn’t playing a part. She honestly has no idea what it means to be what she is. But that’s the problem with Cambion and Dragan—they’re so busy attempting to assert themselves to one another that they miss everything going on around them.

Fools.

Yes, Succubae are the epitome of seduction. Yes, Eilish exudes sex appeal, but no, she doesn’t realize it.

At the sound of snoring, I look over my shoulder to find the sprite passed out on the bed, beside the hearth. It’s just as well, as the bloody thing irks me to no end.

“He must be tired,” Eilish points out with a hesitant laugh. I say nothing, because it’s easy to see she’s attempting to make small talk to cover the fact that she’s nervous. I’m not nervous.

I take her in from head to toe and I appreciate what I see. Unlike Cambion, whose overt hatred is overdone, and simply masks the fact that he wants this woman just as badly as all of us do, I want her for other reasons.

Her pretty face and body are simply icing on the cake. It’s the cake I wish to possess.

Even now, with the way she holds her roped wrists out in front of her, pleading with me to remove them, with that look in her eyes, she might as well be asking me to fuck her.

“I can’t do much of anything with my hands bound,” she says.

I say nothing as I approach her, absorbing her soft appearance. She can sate my hunger—both sexual and beyond. She’s already proven she’s able to offer me sustenance with her life energy. I’ve never sampled her blood, but I yearn to taste it. I can only imagine her flavor. Perhaps it’s ironic, but this demonic angel has awakened in me desires I didn’t believe I had. In the beginning of my acquaintance with her, I was convinced that physical desires characterized every other man save myself.

Yes, I’ve fucked women since my rebirth, but I can’t say I actually enjoyed it. There were many moments when I was not able to reach orgasm and after a few less than satisfying lliasons, I had, more or less, decided to forego the sins of the flesh altogether.

Until now.

Now I experience physical desire in a way I never have before. And while this newfound part of my personality causes me some chagrin, as no man wishes to be slave to his lust, I also am grateful as I feel… invigorated and, dare I say it, alive.

I bring my attention back to the lovely vision before me as her pink tongue darts out to wet her succulent lips. The heat in the room causes a pretty flush to blossom on her cheeks.

When I step closer, I feel a sharp pain at my temples. It’s gone a moment later, though, once I stare into the depths of her cerulean gaze. I close the distance between us, until perhaps only a few inches separate us.

Eilish looks up at me, her eyes wide and questioning. There’s fear in their depths. She’s wise to fear me as, to her, I’m unpredictable. She doesn’t understand me. Furthermore, I amvampire and I was created with death magic. I am death just as much as I’m a death dealer.

Eilish is right to fear me, though I would never harm her. No, according to the Midnight Queen’s message, I am now Eilish’s caretaker and protector. And I will champion Morrigan’s cause for she is the reason I am here.

I lift my hand, and my fingers brush a lock of Eilish’s hair from her face in a gesture too tender to be my own. I glare at the appendage as though it’s betrayed me, instantly dropping it back down to my side. There are very few moments when my body does or feels something that must harken back to the days when I lived as Baron. And I do not enjoy those moments for they feel foreign and strange to me.

A puff of her warm breath caresses my face and I feel my fangs lengthening of their own accord. I bite down on my tongue. Copper floods my mouth.

I could take her right now. And she would allow me due to what she is.

I wouldn’t debate the deed in my mind, such that I’m quite certain Dragan does. Yes, I witnessed their tryst in the woods. No, I wasn’t jealous. I was more transfixed by the sight of them than anything else. And after witnessing their sex, it only made me want to experience the angel hybrid all the more. So, no, I would not regret my decision to fuck her. My morals aren’t hazy. I don’t see in shades of gray, but rather in stark, contrasting colors that allow me to admit I’m no hero.

I never claimed to be.

“Why did you offer to share a room with me?” Eilish wonders as she studies me with undisguised curiosity.

Without responding, I reach forward and start to remove the cloak from around her shoulders. My movements are so quick, they appear as a blur. She gasps and looks around in shock as the fabric drops to the floor. My eyes land on her bound wristsand my blood begins to heat. The ropes add to the eroticism of the moment, because she’s victim to whatever I choose to subject her.

“Baron?” she whispers.

“My name isn’t Baron,” I retort with iciness on my tongue.

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