Page 125 of Tales of a Deadly Devotion
‘Loyal pets don’t stray this far from their leash. You’re hiding right here with me, Thean,’ I spat. Hating how easily their name slid between my fangs. ‘Lies and games. Don’t you ever tire of it?’
I couldn’t help the humourless laugh that slipped from my lips. The exhaustion that bit into my bones. The games I also played, irritated every time I fought with them. It unsettled me how much it felt like fighting myself.
‘It’s kept me alive and you enjoy the challenge too much.’ They studied me too closely. So many emotions hidden in the depths of those otherwordly eyes. That gaze never straying lower than my face, because as they said – I didn’t give them permission to look. Despite standing naked before them, covered in nothing but mud and my own fearful sweat.
‘You incense me,’ I snapped. Yet no other forms came, no growls or sharp scales. My beasts were not in agreement with me. Fuck them. Fools to be seduced so easily. I’d fucked strangers I trusted more than this creature.
Thean leant closer. Their smile slow and wicked. ‘If only you didn’t want it so much, little love.’
Those eyes dipped down to my fangs. It was too hard to catch my breath. Their thumb and finger caught my chin as if they wished to examine them more closely. I should have hissed or pulled away, but I was a fool. I always had been, wanting too much to see what they’d do next.
‘Did you think of me when you made those little fangs?’ The words were soft, cautious. A question they knew they shouldn’t want.
‘Only how viciously I’d bite you.’ My voice didn’t sound steady. Not with them holding me like that. Not with how focused they were on my lips.
‘Don’t tease.’ They were too wicked with their amusement, making my anger curdle inside of me. At myself. At all my secrets and lies.
‘I’d be an interesting pet for your master.’ I let my lips curl into my own vicious smile. Watching amusement gutter out of their eyes. ‘But you already know that, don’t you?’
What a vicious little beast.Those words came back to me from that fucking awful witch’s lips. Only she wasn’t wrong. Was she?
How valuable. Valuable enough that I’d be seen as a prize and if Thean handed me over, how she’d reward her voyav. Let them back in so easily no matter how far they’d wandered or for how long.
‘Yet. Here we are,’ I taunted. Home. ‘Safe.’
Something moved across the voyav’s expression, their features shifting in the blink of an eye. Unsettled between female and male as if I’d unnerved them. ‘Foolish to think you’re safe with me, little nightmare.’
My thigh burnt from the memory of their touch last night. My beasts letting scales tickle the corner of my jaw they’d touched as if relishing in the memory of it. My tongue darting out across my lip as if to taste even the fucking perfume of them in the air between us.
How they tormented me. So I’d give this madness back to them. I stepped closer, seeing them tense, how their pupils got impossibly darker. Verr. That’s what they were, a predator. Only I was a predator too, and perhaps I’d forgotten that in this mortal skin.
I was right. The voyav wasn’t as loyal as they seemed. A necromancer was a creature the Countess would cherish, yet she didn’t have one. Couldn’t, because if she did, the Council would never have stood a chance against the death summoning the Countess would command.
Thean hadn’t given that necromancer over. They hadn’t said a word about Kat’s blade, nor her true line. They’d kept quiet, because they wished to stay here. Far away from that master.
‘Who is the liar now?’ I whispered against the curve of their neck. Letting my tongue drag across their perfumedthroat. Feeling the unsteady beat of their pulse, the killer in me relishing it. Letting my fangs give the smallest nip.
My smile sly as I pulled back, finding victory in the stillness of them. Only I should have known better. Their retaliation was quicker.
Their fingers curled into a fist in my wild dark curls, pulling my head back to claim my eyes. Rough and gentle all at once. A strange mewing sound slipping from between my lips. Betraying me as desire sparked warmly in my core.
‘If you want to play … all you have to do is ask.’ Those ancient eyes traced every inch of my face. Breaths unsteady as if trying to find their patience. ‘You can use those scales to cover yourself.’
The words came reluctantly, as if the thought to help me had squeezed through their lips against their will.
Shock flashed thought me. I’d never thought of it. Always seen myself and those beasts as two sides. That they couldn’t meet, not even as I felt soft scales ripple and twist across my skin, covering my nakedness at their suggestion. Listening to them.
I snapped my teeth. ‘Repulsed?’
At the mess of me. The uneven flesh and the creatures that prowled beneath. I didn’t care if they were. Maybe I’d prefer it.
‘Beautiful little nightmare.’ They smiled, the knuckles on their other hand dragging the barest ghostly path so gently down my breastbone, yet those eyes stayed on my own. ‘You haven’t been paying attention.’
The taunt spurred something feral inside of me as my claws dug into their jacket. Thean came closer, until I could feel their breath caress my throat, until I couldn’t smell the remains of my fear or the mud. Until all I could scent was them.
I wanted the madness of it. Only Thean Page had no mercy in them.
Those fangs dragged over my throat, almost in promise. A delicate scratch that made a wanton needing ache between my thighs. How delicately they touched me, the brush of their fingers teasing. Knowing they didn’t need to be gluttonous, to grip and demand my flesh. No, it was as if I was a feast to be savoured.
