Page 100 of Devil Bound
His skin on my feathers gave me his emotions like bubbles in a boiling pot, coming up and bursting on the surface, offering brief glimpses before they did.
He liked this.It made him feel good.He liked being held, and he wanted to claw at my skin because he craved that tender nearness.Every other muddled thought was that he shouldn’t let himself feel the things he felt, especially not for an immortal.
That lovable idiot.I lowered him so it changed the angle, and his fingers dug into my hair and feathers.I found a rhythm that still allowed me to watch as he lost himself, just like he had lost himself earlier when I’d taken him.Before long, he was floating, his self and everything tethering him to where he was completely abandoned.
Right before he came, I glimpsed an unfamiliar vastness.I could feel his magic in the background, like a second heartbeat, and I saw what I was pretty sure Tiamat had seen right from the get-go.I couldn’t believe I’d missed it all this time.
Human magic was like birds; like sparrows flitting through the day.The size of a human’s grasp on magic could vary, but even if it was bigger than normal, it was never so large, vast, without defined edges.
Nelly’s was.His magic was no sparrow shape, his magic was a giant bird made of blackness, feathers soft as midnight, beak a crow’s cawing in the heart of darkness.
Everything fell into place.He was the child of an immortal, had to be.The child of a god, not a god himself, but a mortal with the choice to be what he wanted.
This was the kind of revelation that could pull the rug out from under a person.I would’ve liked it to matter, but if I were to be honest—which I generally was—it didn’t.Nelly was my necromancer, demigod or not.He wasmine, and nothing beyond that was of even the slightest importance.
I felt his muscles clench around me right before he came in my arms.His body trembled, his emotions swirling all over the place, and he went boneless shortly after.
With him like this, carrying on was a thrill.I let myself go and watched his face, coming when his big golden eyes blinked at me in the subtle glow of my wings.I bent to kiss his neck even as I pushed myself as deep into him as I could, spilling everything I had to give.He felt so warm and soft around me, and being inside him gave me a strange rush of power…and love.
Yes, I loved that stubborn man, and had done ever since I’d pulled the zombie off of him.
Well, maybe it had been lust back when he was lying under the zombie, but no one just pulls a zombie off another person if they don’t feel anything for them.Zombies are too disgusting for that, too leaky.
I’d never tell Nelly of my love, not unless he told me first.I was still the Devil, after all, and as of a few hours ago, he’d seen fit to leave me money as payment twice.My pride could only take so much.
I held Nelly a while longer, not least because he showed no indication of letting go of my wing.He was too tired though, and I felt his mind floating, so in the end, I pulled out as gently as I could, set him down, and cleaned him up.
I washed his hair last, then turned off the water, shook out my wings, and folded them away before wrapping Nelly in my too-big-for-him bathrobe.I dried myself off and let him brush his teeth, then carried him back to bed.He didn’t say a single word, and he was out like a light almost as soon as his head touched the pillow.I watched over him for a long time.
53
Lionel
“Takeoffyourshirt,Lucy.If you are mowing the lawn, Nelly and I might as well enjoy it,” Tiamat said as she poured me some coffee in a disturbingly floral china cup.
Her housewarming party was coming up, and she had declared that Lucifer was to get the garden into shape, which he had grumbled about all morning.Through his grumbling, he had ignored my protests that I needed to go to the station and have a longer chat with Christine about last night’s events.
Soul sat under the round patio table and was probably happily drooling away.The shallow cut on her back had already scabbed over and really didn’t seem to bother her any.Tiamat had said she wore it like a badge of honor.
Lucifer stopped pushing the mower.“Yes, Dragon Mother.”He pulled his shirt off, and it sort of looked deliberate the way he did it, his abs facing us.Calculated.Maybe I was imagining things.“Hold that for me.”
He tossed the shirt at me with a knowing grin.I caught it easily and tried to fight the urge to rub my face in it and inhale his spice and fire scent.What was wrong with me?
“I like your colleague,” Tiamat said as Lucifer continued with the lawn mowing.
I let the shirt drop to my lap where I could safely ignore it.“She’s the best.In fact, I need to go talk to her.Would you mind—”
“Oh, stop, you silly darling.”Tiamat put a large slice of cherry pie on the creepily floral plate in front of me.“You are not sneaking out of my house while I have Lucy doing his chores.Besides, your Christine was very understanding after I explained everything to her yesterday.”
“You.Explained everything.”I gaped.“Could you do that again?Because I don’t know everything.”
She shrugged.Her green eyes caught the sunlight and her skin looked like polished amber.“The murderer who enjoyed burning witches will die horribly, because he was cursed.By Soul.He bit off more than he could chew when he decided to abduct you, what with you being a demigod.In addition, the Devil himself decided to put an end to the goings-on and make sure you’re taken care of.Alcide happily filled in the more detailed account of what happened during his and your captivity.He’s a wonderful storyteller, that one.”
I’d frozen, a piece of cake skewered on a fork decorated with yet more flowers halfway to my mouth.“Say what?”
“Alcide provided a detailed account and explained how he’d been kidnapped and that one of the other victims is likely his former teacher.He suspects his teacher was forced to do the warding.He said you got the murderer to turn on you when he was ready to kill him first.”
“No, about that…that… Did you say I was a…” I couldn’t even say it.She had to be wrong.“You said half god?”
