Page 95 of Devil Bound
He was exceedingly cute when he grumbled.I still wanted to chain him to the bed, but that was probably not the best idea, seeing how he’d been chained in a kill room.I’d read several romance novels where one character suffered from PTSD, so I knew all about that.I preferred the ones with amnesia, but I could work with PTSD.Nelly was going to be fine.I’d make sure of that.
“Forgive Lucy his little lies.”Tiamat walked up behind Nelly and pulled him to his feet.“I’m almost certain he means well.Sometimes.Now, did you do that?”
She pointed at the human dressed in rubber boots and bleeding from his cheek.Soul had taken up position in front of the man and was growling at him and baring her teeth.Her fur was matted with blood, but she gave no indication of caring.Good hellpoodle.She had her priorities straight.
“Did I do what?I did nothing,” Nelly said.
“He sounds faint.Dragon Mother, my boyfriend sounds faint.Maybe it’s best that I hold him?”
“Oh shush, Lucy.”Tiamat tilted her head and looked deep into Nelly’s eyes.Then she nodded.“You pulled some of his life from him.Well done.It isn’t an easy skill to grasp, not without a mother there to teach you the way.”
If at all possible, Nelly turned paler.“I…I can’t have.That’s wrong.It’s just…wrong.” Nelly shook his head, and I saw his hands tremble.
“Maybe we can talk about it another time?”I stood, pulling Nelly away from Tiamat and against my chest.He was trembling all over.“Tiamat, Nelly needs to rest.We’re leaving.”
The Dragon Mother nodded indulgently.“Yes, yes.I’ll meet Christine then take the little dog home and see to her wounds.Your Soul can stay with me for tonight.”Tiamat looked fondly at the feisty hellpoodle.“I get the feeling she wants to see this man dragged off in chains even as the curse she gave him settles into his bones and eats him from the inside out.”
Said man had the nerve to look up and point at Nelly.“That demon spawn isn’t right!”
Soul jumped to snap at his gloved hand, and he quickly pulled it back.
“Unwise, human,” Tiamat said.
He hissed at her.“What do you know?He—it—needs to be dealt with.Before it gets worse!”
I felt Nelly jerk at the words.I brushed his hair back and kissed the top of his head.
“I’ll teleport us, Nelly.Don’t use your magic during it.”
Nelly nodded against my chest, and with magic at my bidding, I folded space and took us home.
51
Lionel
Thistimearound,Idefinitely felt the strong currents of magic forcing us from one place to another.I didn’t have a reference point to describe it properly, but it was strong magic, the kind I felt could drag me under and devour me whole if I made so much as a wrong move.
I tightened my fist around the fabric of Lucifer’s T-shirt and pressed myself closer to him.The scent of the stuffy basement room with the disgusting drain vanished, and then I heard cicadas and smelled grass and earth and all the clean things nature had to offer.
Now I was out of the basement, reality caught up with me.Why was I pressing my face against the Devil’s chest?I straightened.I shouldn’t evenbehere.I should be telling Christine everything that had happened.I needed…I needed to understand everything that had happened.
I’d had a connection to the corpses from the salt marsh and even to Lily earlier.It had been brief, but it had been real.Or at least seemed real, although maybe it was simply the aftereffects of the tranquilizer.Necromancers couldn’t do what I thought I’d done.
I thought it through, willing myself to find the logical explanation that had to exist.Maybe there’d still been blood down that drain and spattered everywhere.Fine, I’d never gotten much from blood before, not in the way it had happened tonight, but maybe me conjuring those apparitions was a possibility.Despite the wards.Somehow.
The other thing… I took a few steps back and away from Lucifer.He had brought us to the lawn by the crossroads.His eyes were impossibly shimmery, impossibly blue even in the darkness.They were full of magic, magic that also rippled around him.
“Why didyousuddenly show up?”I asked.
He was really…beautiful.And maybe I shouldn’t have asked my question with that harsh undertone.
“You test me, Nelly, you really do.”
He closed the distance between us and once more gathered me into his arms as I just stared, mesmerized by that boiling, bubbling power just beneath his skin.
As he touched me, I felt that power like wind, like a small storm that died after a moment.I saw silver in the night and realized he was currently holding me wrapped in his arms and also circling me with his wings.
I gaped.They were massive.They were beautiful.Not white, not gray, but pearlescent silver that caught whatever light the night had to offer and reflected it a thousand times.They shimmered faintly in the darkness, glowing.I had the immediate, desperate longing to see them in the daylight, even if I thought they might be blinding then.
