Page 73 of Firedrake Betrayal
“You’re not the same. When he slipped into my dream, he looked like you, but I knew it wasn’t. I didn’t feel safe.”
“I make you feel safe?” His dark blue eyes soften as he tucks a strand of hair behind my ear.
I nod. “Why haven’t you fed on me?”
“What makes you think I haven’t?”
“I asked Dominik what it would feel like, and I don’t feel drained or exhausted like he said I would. In that distracting lesson with the blue spatula, you told me an incubus needs sex to get stronger, but you slept with me and didn’t feed. Not now or back in Chicago, and you could have back then. I wouldn’t have even known what you were doing.”
He looks at me for several seconds. “You asked before how I aligned my demon half with my human half. The answer is, I haven’t.”
I scrunch my nose. “You haven’t?”
“Being half means I don’t need to feed to survive the way a full incubus would,” he explains. “It also means I’m weak.”
“You’re not weak.”
“I am not a garden variety incubus,” he gently interrupts me. “I’m an oddity. Most halfies like me don’t get any juice. My ability to wield fire was rare enough for my da to want to use me in whatever scheme he didn’t want to risk himself.”
What he’s saying—or not saying—finally makes sense.
“You said you fried the witch who cursed you, but I haven’t seen you use fire once.” In the compound, when a guard lunged at me, Patten shot him. If there was a time to use his ability to fry someone, it was then. “And because you haven’t fed, you can’t fry anyone?”
He shakes his head, drawing me against his chest. “It is what it is, beautiful. While I’d appreciate being able to set dragon guy on fire, it’s not something I need.”
But there’s a note in his voice that makes me think he’s not being entirely honest with me or even himself.
He’s humananddemon.
Not one or just the other. Both. Surely he misses the other half of him?
I broke the witch’s curse and he can have sex with anyone and feed, giving him back the power he had before.
So why isn’t he feeding and regaining the power it sounds like he misses?
“Patten…”
He kisses me. “You wore me out, so how about we get some rest?”
He doesn’t want to talk about this. There are so many things I’m actively avoiding talking about too, namely my emergence, my pregnancy, and Dominik. It would be hypocritical of me to push him to talk when, if he asked me about any of the above, I’d do my best to change the subject.
“Okay.”
He nods, not quite meeting my eye. “I don’t know much about taking care of a baby, but I thought I could help the kid learn how to fight, maybe defend themself.”
My heart melts.
I swear there must be literal puddles forming beneath me because of Patten’s hesitant, but deeply, deeply sweet offer. He thinks he’s as bad as his dad, but he wants to look after my child in a way that his dad didn’t look after him.
“Patten?” I wait until he meets my gaze and I smile. “You have so much more to offer than you think. A lot more. Thank you.”
He grins and pulls me close. “And if you need me to kill dragon guy…?”
Would that make everything easier?Yes. I sigh. “Don’t tempt me.”
He laughs.
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