Page 79 of Demon Monster's Little Human

“What. Did. You. Do?” He growls each word, his breath scalding against my cheek.

My heart pounds. “Nothing.”

“Bullshit.” His grip tightens. “I can feel you.”

Feel me?

The realization slams into me, cold and violent. We are connected.

Not just through touch. Not just through the raw hunger we shared last night. Something deeper.

His blood. My magic. The consummation.

I inhale sharply. “We?—”

Bound. The word flickers in my mind like a curse.

Dain’s expression darkens. He steps back like I disgust him.

“This is your doing.” His voice is sharp, accusing.

I shake my head, struggling to breathe. “I didn’t?—”

“You drank my blood. You used my power. And now this?” His wings flare, barely fitting in the tight space. “You bound us.”

Bound.

The word coils around my ribs, sinking into my skin like it was always meant to be there.

“No.” I shake my head. “I didn’t do this. I didn’t?—”

“Then why,” he snarls, stepping toward me again, “can I feel your every breath?”

I can’t answer as I don’t know.

But I suspect.

I suspect the bond isn’t just an accident. I suspect it was always meant to happen. I suspect the Purna in me, the magic I still don’t understand, has been waiting for this moment all along.

But I don’t tell him that.

Because if I do…

I think he might actually kill me.

33

DAIN

Liora is inside me.

Not just her body, not just her scent clinging to my skin, not just the memory of her breathless moans from the night before.

Something deeper.

I feel her. Her thoughts, her emotions, the raw pulse of her magic woven through mine.

I cannot tear it out.

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