Page 34 of Nightmares and Numerology

Mating was one thing. I’d claimed Lydia as mine in a proper demonic fashion. Not this… romance stuff Fifi enjoyed. I would much rather play games with my infernal mate than chase children on a sun-soaked lawn.

Fifi, on the other hand, looked transcendent, happiness pouring like light from her skin. Her demon was closer to the surface when she touched her betrothed, making her appear brighter, younger, and more fiercely predatory than I’d ever seen her. No one could deny she was a beautiful succubus. If Roy ever did anything to wipe that look off her face, I’d find a nice, secluded place to stash his body.

Some of her enthusiasm dimmed when I gestured for her to join me in her office. At first, I thought she’d tell me to F off. I’d probably earned that sentiment by now. But after a moment, she broke away from a group of well-wishers, dragging the strapping sasquatch in her wake.

Fifi wasn’t outwardly intimidating, certainly not as menacing as the wall of muscle who decided to stand sentry by her door, ready to thrash me if I said or did something stupid near his girlfriend. Well,fiancéenow. She had a rock on herfinger and everything. Mother would admire the ring, even if she hated what it stood for.

“Do I say ‘congratulations’ or wait patiently for you to read me the riot act about what not to do while I plan Roy’s bachelor party?”

Fifi’s lips quirked, and she couldn’t help an adoring glance upward. She looked at the brutish sasquatch like the moon and stars shone out of his broad, overly muscled frame. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the male physique. It could be intriguing in the context of the female he was with but almost never by itself. I preferred the fairer sex. Still, I supposed he ticked enough boxes of conventional attractiveness to convincingly snare an odd duck succubus.

“You owe me five bucks,” she said in a lilting sing-song.

I raised an eyebrow. “Do I want to know the bet you’ve got going, or will it just piss me off?”

Roy shrugged. “I was sure you’d react badly to our engagement. And if you had reacted badly, I would have taken it very seriously, and Fifi would have hated that. I don’t like anything that makes Fifi unhappy.”

“Your point?”

He frowned at me. “I don’t get why, but I know she loves you.”

I dared a glance at Fifi. I didn’t want to meet her gaze for too long, sure she’d see the mortifying truth the instant we locked eyes. I’d gone completely insane. I had betrayed every ethos I once held dear because... the ‘why’ didn’t matter. Not when I was with Lydia. To my horror, I found my sister watching me with a small frown on her face.

“I’m beginning to think your underwhelming reaction to the news is less about me and more about you. What’s happened now? Did Lydia break up with you for your idiocy last night?”

The note of worry in that last question almost made mesmile. Fifi had too big a heart to be a demon. We were selfish creatures. Or we should have been. I knew I shouldn’t want Lydia the way I did. Even if it felt insurmountable to slap a label on it yet, I knew without a doubt that I’d been locked into a Koloth’s mating bond. It should have frightened me, made me angry, disgusted me. I wasn’t built for this.

Instead, I hated to admit it, but I was thrilled. Utter insanity to feel this way. Fifi would laugh herself sick when she pieced it together.

“Sort of the opposite.”

Her brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you aren’t the only one bound by a foreign nation’s customs and rituals.”

“What is he going on about?” Roy asked her. Fifi shook her head.

“Except, I don’t think Lydia meant to do it,” I continued and by this point, I was pacing. “I mean, we consulted the coven when Lydia had some physical changes occur. But the long and short of it is, Lydia and I...”

I paused. It seemed a bit indelicate to describe what we’d done. ‘Sex’ was too tame a word. ‘F-ing’ was too harsh and blunt to adequately describe it. I’d gone deeper into Lydia than I’d ever been into a woman’s mind before. Usually, it was just a flickering image or a breathless thought that urged me in the right direction. Sexual tableaus were as varied as the people in them, so even a sex demon enjoyed a little silent prompting now and then. With Lydia, it hadn’t just been a mingling of energies. She’d given me more than that, and it floored me. She hadn’t said it aloud or even to herself, but she...

She loved me.

It was the only explanation for our current predicament. Koloths mated for life and were fiercely loyal. And that should have frightened me. Now, I was just grateful. It’s hard to arguewith a fact when it’s got its magical hooks into you. And the truth of the matter was that I wouldn’t be mated if she didn’t feel deeply for me. And I liked it. Craved it. Wanted her now more than I ever had before.

“You had sex,” Roy said bluntly when I failed to come up with the right words.

“Yes. And unbeknownst to either of us, the Koloth’s magic was seeping into Lydia’s soul. When we were together, it sparked something. She looks... different. Demonic, like us. I don’t know if it’s reversible, and she’s understandably freaked out. But she’s even more freaked by the mating bond she initiated. It’s apparently permanent. So plan for a double wedding, sister mine. It’ll save you on venue costs.”

Fifi stared at me in shock before spluttering, “She what?”

“She enacted a mating bond with me. It’s quite similar to yours, I’m told.”

She and Roy exchanged a longer, tenser look before they both turned back to me. “How big an asshole were you about it?” Fifi asked.

“I wasn’t,” I replied curtly, frowning at her.

“According to you or according to the rest of the world?” Roy asked.

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