Page 18 of Taken to the Shadow Realm

Bitterness rose in my chest. I am jealous of what the souls are showing her.

She cleared her throat before looking back at me with a forced smile. “Nothing you haven’t seen before, I’m sure.”

“I haven’t,” I said quickly and closed the space between us. My shadows traveled up her body, keeping her in place. I needed to see it once more—that devious pink that covered her face and neck. Can I make her react that way again? “I’ve never seen anything that turned my skin the shade of red that graces your face.”

“What do you see?” she asked.

I didn’t want to tell her. A part of me wanted to protect this idea she had, that the souls were beautiful… because why should everyone have to suffer seeing the same things I did?

I’m sure the souls enjoyed the attention after years of me ignoring them.

“I asked you first,” I said.

I thought it was impossible for her face to get any redder, but she proved me wrong.

“I saw a demon between a girl’s legs,” she mumbled. “Tasting that thing you call nectar.”

My body responded before I could think. I was leaning down, pulling her to me, getting our faces impossibly close. I could smell her. The arousal that was building between her legs.

She isn’t disgusted by the idea. She likes the image of a demon licking her.

“How did it feel?” I asked, trailing my shadows up her legs. “The memories were in your head. Could you feel it too?”

“Yes,” she replied breathlessly.

I reached past her to where her hand had been, searching for the same memory. I wanted to feel it. Wanted to see what the humans felt when a demon did that to them.

But as soon as my hand came into contact with it, images of the woman being torn apart by the demon she thought she loved raced through my mind.

I felt the pain. Tasted her blood. Heard the sounds of her begging them to stop.

I jerked away and turned from Iris’s curious gaze.

“What did you see?” she asked, her voice hesitant.

“The demon you saw between her legs ripping her limb from limb because they liked how she tasted a bit too much.” I didn’t mean for it to come out as a growl, but it did, and before I knew it, I had turned away and started walking toward my home without waiting for Iris.

“Come,” I ordered. “Humans need to eat to live.”

Iris

“Thank you,” I said sheepishly as a small demon with short blue hair and matching horns came to deliver yet another dish piled high with questionable meat to the dining table.

The demon’s jeweled eyes lingered on me before shooting Yien a look, but she just waved them away.

“Am I not supposed to say thank you?” I asked, a slight teasing in my tone.

Yien’s face was impossible to read, but her tendrils swished back and forth lightly.

“You’re my companion,” she said. “Some masters would not like what’s theirs talking to other demons.”

“Good thing you’re not most masters,” I said, then used my hands to pick at a piece of meat from a random plate.

This better be human-safe. Should I ask what it is? Do I want to know?

Trying not to grimace, I plopped the food into my mouth.

I expected something gross. A taste that matched its look, but instead a delightful burst of spices played across my taste buds.

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