Page 34 of The Demon's Discovery
He hauled me to my feet, and held my body snugly up against his for a long moment, even his wings wrapped tightly around me. I felt his heart racing under my palm as he hastily checked me over, hands brushing along my shoulders, my hips, my face. He pressed a kiss to my forehead once he was satisfied, then tucked his wings away while his eyes and fangs also returned to normal.
“You’re alright?” The deep concern in his tone chased away any vestiges of fear.
“I’m fine. Clumsy and embarrassed, but fine thanks to you.” He nodded sharply but didn’t answer my question. “Why do you have wings?” I asked quietly, blood rushing in my ears still. The way he’d checked me over, stared at me, kissed me, had everything in my body reaching for him.
He smiled grimly. “That is an awfully long story.”
I plucked up my bravery before responding, transforming the swirl of emotions in my chest into something useful. “Then it’s lucky I don’t have to leave any time soon. And when I do, it’s only to go down the hall and upstairs.” He clenched his jaw and put an arm around my shoulders, ushering me over to the chaise he’d purchased for me. “Vassago.” Every muscle stilled for a moment before he turned and handed me a mug of tea. He sat across from me with a glass of wine. “I need to know. I deserve the truth. I know what I just saw. What I’ve seen before and had no way of explaining.”
“It makes me feel a certain way when you get stern with me, Little Dragonfly. Perhaps you should do it more often.”
Vassago watched me over the rim of his glass. Everything in the room was suddenly too loud, my heartbeat the most offensive of all. It was an insistent throb in my ears each andevery time he looked at me that way, when his voice dropped and he used that tone.
I sipped my tea, hopeful it would clear the sudden tightness in my throat.
“Lara once asked me if I held titles. I do. Several, in fact, but the one I’ve held the longest is Mighty Prince of Hell.”
“What… what does that mean, exactly?” I asked, throat dry despite the tea. I thought of our afternoon in the observatory, the stories he’d told me so casually.
The corner of his mouth twitched, and I had to resist the urge to sit back as he leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. “Once, I was in charge of legions. There were twenty-six under my command. Once, I was nothing more than a soldier among soldiers, fighting battles that quickly grew pointless and tiresome. My brother Rylan and I plotted to heave Hell together. He’d had enough, but I wasn’t ready. It was the only time I ever lost a fight to him.” He smiled, as though the memory was a fond one even though he hadn’t been the victor. “You must never tell him so, but his timing was more correct than mine. There was no point in staying, though I did for several more years.
“Here though, on Earth, in Cyntere, in Revalia, something feels different. At the very least, using my skills to find lost treasures, to protect humans, to teach them, I have purpose. Once—” He broke off, shaking his head. “Long before any of that, I chose to fall from the heavens and became… this.” He settled back, draining the remainder of the wine in his glass.
As usual, he had a vest on, but several buttons on his shirt were undone. As it gaped, I couldn’t help but stare at the tattoos that spanned along his collarbone and down his breastbone. They were white against his skin and almost iridescent, something that looked like letters in a language I didn’t understand. I’d never seen anything quite like them. I blushed,fisting my hands as I realized I had my fingertips extended as though about to trace along their edges.
“If this isafteryou fell, what hope do the rest of us have?”
He choked, a rivulet of wine escaping the corner of his mouth. It should not have been half as tantalizing as it was watching him catch it and brush it aside with his fingertips.
Once he managed to swallow, he burst out laughing. I’d never heard him truly laugh before, if this was what it sounded like. This was a deep, rolling noise, one that made the hair on the back of my neck tingle, and a pulse throb between my thighs. This Vassago, the uninhibited one, was dangerous.
“Little Dragonfly, you underestimate yourself.” He grinned once he’d stopped laughing, those golden eyes focused on me in a way that made it feel like he was looking through me.
“You’re a literal demon?” I asked, instead of responding to his flattery. “It’s not just a cheeky nickname from Magnus or a term of endearment?”
“Indeed.” His expression fell, seriousness clouding his features. “Though where that overgrown statue is concerned, I believe it might be both.”
I smiled, appreciating that he had an equal nickname for my uncle. “And the archmage?”
“Him too. Though it’s not widely known, I’m sure you can understand why.”
I could. “Is it a secret?”
“Not as such, but we also don’t announce it. It’s complicated with Rylan especially, being monitored as he is by the mage council. We don’t want to jeopardize his ability to run this school. We have tried to keep ourselves spread out so we don’t draw attention. There’s no precedent for what might happen if we were all together. We never have been, at least not earth-side. Not for longer than a few hours at a time.”
“How many of you are there? You keep sayingwe.”
“There are seven of us, altogether. Rylan and myself, plus Seir, Sitri, Ipos, Bas, and Tap. Though any of them may have chosen another name, like Rylan has.”
“And you all live on Earth?”
“No. Two of my brothers inhabit Hell primarily still, two others split their time between the two places. Only Rylan and Tap are here full time like I am. Though Tap’s situation is… complicated. Not like mine or Rylan’s; we’re free to do what we like. At least the last we spoke, that was the arrangement for them all. Things could have changed, I’m not sure. We don’t stay in close contact.”
“That’s too bad. Do you miss them?” I could tell by the shift on his face this wasn’t the question he’d been expecting.
“Not as such. I know I could find any one of them if I needed to, and we see one another now and then. We can get messages passed, though it often requires some patience in expecting a response. Everyone attended Rylan and Calla’s wedding not long ago, but dispersed as quickly as they came. They seemed well.”
I nodded, imagining such a gathering. “Your talents are all different?”
