Page 59 of The Demon's Delight
“Probably not. Depends on what you’re asking for.” I found myself blushing, going along with this playful demon’s game.
“Nothing too taxing. Just… a kiss.”
He’d gotten very close, his hand resting on my cheek like he had a habit of doing, his breath feathering across my face. Despite all my reservations about jumping into something like a mate bond, I trusted him. I was not afraid of him or his intentions. So, I pulled my bravery up around me like a comfortable blanket and let myself have something I wanted for a change.
“Take what you’re owed then,” I goaded. His tongue teased across the points of his teeth before he lowered his face, lips pressed almost chastely against mine. “That is not a kiss. Where is the demon I met the night of the festival?” I teased, taking both control and his face in my hands, covering his mouth with mine.
Seir grunted in surprise, lurching forward against me, hands protectively curving around my ribs. I licked at the seam of his lips, earning myself another growl as he opened for me, all too eager to devour me once I’d shown my intent.
He lowered us down so I was on my back beneath him, all his hard angles pressed up against me. Heat coursed through my veins as he pulled his lips away from mine and slid them across my jaw, then down my neck. I could feel his need pressed against my stomach, and gasped when he nipped at my collarbone with those sharp teeth.
“Hailon…” His eyes were molten gold, dripping with desire as he pulled back far enough to gaze down at me. They roved over my face, my throat, fingertips tracing across my skin and leaving a fiery sensation in their wake. “I need you to know that it makes no difference whether or not you’ve decided you’re mine. Of course, I’d prefer it that way, but even if I’m not… I’m yours. I have been since you summoned me into that terrible little room in Olinbourg.
“Banishing me back to Hell won’t undo whatever bond cracked wide open inside me the second I looked into those incredible eyes of yours. I spoke the truth when I told all those men I belonged to you. I did. I do. I always will.” His eyes were soft, pleading as they took in every detail of my face. He placed light kisses at the edges of my mouth, the tip of my nose, my forehead.
Emotions backed up in my throat, threatening to choke me.
He’d shown me more kindness, more trust in a couple of weeks wandering the realm than anyone else in my life had ever done. Seir had always given me full agency over myself, believed what I stated were my limits, and protected me. Without question, he had offered his help and had never asked for anything in return.
“Seir, I?—”
“Don’t. I didn’t say that because I was trying to prod you into a declaration of your own. I just needed you to know.” He kissed me again, thoroughly and completely, rendering me speechless and somehow also removing most of the executive function from my body. I was nothing but a boneless mess incapable of coherent speech.
He gave me a grin that would haunt my dreams when he pulled away. Then, he placed his hand over his heart. He let it rest there a moment, then brought his fingertips to his lips, then mine. The green in his eyes was intense among the glowing gold,and I understood the gesture to be some kind of oath the way he delivered it. Despite the soft tilt of his lips, the movements were intentional. Reverent. My heart ached it was pounding so hard, the sweet gesture nearly too much for me to manage.
I closed my eyes, reveling in the cacophony of pleasurable sensations crushing down on me, the feeling of his body against mine, the taste of him on my lips. I was hovering right on the edge of committing to the biggest decision I’d ever make. And I was definitely leaning in.
Then something shifted, and everything felt too light, too cold. The weight and sensation of him touching me was… gone.
I opened my eyes, and abject panic settled in. My chest felt like someone had filled it with the coals from the fire, and I instantly started sobbing. Everything hurt as I rushed to sit up.
“What’s happening?” I asked, but nobody was there to answer. “Seir?!” I looked all around the camp, in the darkness along the trees, even up in the sky. But it wasn’t a trick.
I was alone.
Seir was gone.
Chapter 27
Seir
“No. NO!” I spun in a circle, staring up in horror at a black ceiling and dark walls instead of a starry sky or the trees around our little camp. “Fuck!” I swore, the oath out of my mouth before I could temper my emotions. I curled into myself, the mate bond burning so intensely I worried it might turn me to ash from the inside out. It clearly did not appreciate the sudden distance between me and Hailon. I wondered fleetingly how there were mates who existed at long distances from one another for years or decades. Though it did make sense why they went mad if they tried.
“Is there a problem, Seir?” my unit leader asked, a dark eyebrow raised as he assessed me from behind his desk. Keplar was a hulking figure, a shadow demon of massive size and imposing personality. He’d always been fair, however, and seemed wholly disinterested in posturing for the sake of feeding his own ego. Not for the first time, I thought he and Magnus, who was in fact a stone kin general, would have gotten on famously.
I forced my body to straighten up, though I couldn’t make myself remove my hand from where it clutched at my shirt over my heart.
“Sir, hi. I was in the middle of something, and?—”
“You’ve been absent for more than a full shift cycle without checking in.”
I did a quick mental calculation, realizing I hadn’t been keeping track since early in our journey, and he was right. “I’m sorry about that, it wasn’t intentional. I talked to Meg, she sent a note?—”
“Yes, I got the note. Unfortunately, because you were gone that long with no further communication, summoning you back was my only recourse. I’m owed a debrief on your whereabouts and activities, at the very least.”
“Of course.” I tensed, unsure how to speed things up and cursing myself for having gotten comfortable being gone, not calculating the time difference from the start. I was wasting time in Hell while Hailon was alone, potentially being followed. I had to get back to her as quickly as possible.
“Well? Start at the beginning.”
