Page 83 of The Demon Crown

Gods, the things they could make him do if they used her as a threat.

Because she was his treasure, and she had agreed to be that. Just moments ago. Only hours ago, when she had screamed and clenched around his cock. She was his.

And he would protect her. She was more important than a tiny village that no one would realize had disappeared in the middle of festival season.

“No,” he growled. “We’re leaving. I am sorry to disappoint you, treasure, but there is nothing we can do.”

She took a single step back from him and the look in those eyes nearly sent him to his knees. All that work. All that time he’d spent building up her trust and showing her that he was a worthy man to give her energy and time to... it all disappeared.

In that crushing moment, when he felt like the world had ended, she ran from him. Again.

The damn woman was fast. He had known that. But he was a demon king, and he’d been so certain he could catch up with her. The desert worked with her body, though, propelling her forward and rolling her down the hill. Light on her feet. Whereas the sands slowed him down. It was mere seconds, but it was enough for her to disappear, nude, into the fires and the screams.

Bellowing her name, he waded into the chaos with rage simmering underneath his skin. He searched for her, ignoring all the people who ran toward him for protection. He did not care for them. They could defend themselves or run for all that he cared.

Until the first three people turned toward him, their bone white masks gleaming in the firelight. They were not like the other man he’d already killed. That one one had thought he could attack without others. The three of them moved as one.

They were faster than the first, better with their swords and more calculated with their swings. They would die easily enough.

He felt his entire body ripple with his battle form. His hair grew more wild, the claws on his hands lengthening into curved daggers. His tail lashed behind him even as his feet dug more firmly into the ground. Greed became thicker, stronger, more massive than ever before as he let out a roar of rage that shook the desert sands.

The three did not stop to look at this new form, nor did they slow. Their blades whirled, and he caught the first in his hand. It sliced through his skin, but he didn’t care. He used the weapon to yank the man forward and tore out his heart with savage glee. The still beating organ hit the ground before his blade did.

One of the others stuck a sword through his chest, but the pain didn’t even register. He just used the weapon to drag the warrior forward and then latched onto his throat with his teeth. Shaking the limp body like a dog, he felt the tendons and arteries tear long before the blood sprayed all over his front.

The third? Where was the third? He wanted to taste his blood. He wanted to feel it splatter all over his body as he tore and destroyed and killed.

Then he saw the last man who had dared to attack him, already in the arms of his brother. Gluttony stood in his pretty clothing, not a drop of blood on him. But all ten of his rapier thin claws, straight and narrow like pins, stuck out through the man’s chest.

Gluttony tilted his head to the side, watching as the man died before he slowly pulled out his claws. “Interesting when they die, isn’t it?”

“Delicious,” Greed snarled, his voice hardly recognizable.

“Ah, I forgot you feasted upon them as they died. And you think I am the problem?”

Greed stalked past his brother, blood dripping down his chin as he searched through the crowd for Varya. He felt the shadow of his brother moving beside him, the flames bothering neither of them. “What are you doing here?”

“I heard there may be a fight and why would I not indulge myself in a little fun?” Gluttony gestured with those massive claws, each now about a foot long, as he flicked them free of blood. “Besides, you could use the help finding your little lost bird.”

“Treasure.”

“Ah, whatever it is you call her.” Gluttony pointed at him. “You realize you’re naked, yes?”

He didn’t care. Greed grunted in response, only to have Gluttony lift a brow.

“If I feast on a little blood, would that really be such a bad thing?”

Right now? Greed didn’t care what he did. Another group of warriors ran at them and he felt his mind go blank. Greed did what he was best at. Fighting was no longer as much a part of his life, as he’d promised himself that he would be a better man. He wasn’t the warlord who needed to conquer and claim anymore. He had other ways to feed that side of him.

He was wrong.

The rage that coursed through his veins, the greed that he devoured was beautiful and unending. This was who he was. The monster that stalked through the sands, like the great beasts of old. Like the lions and the massive saber-toothed beasts that had haunted these people for generations. He’d taken this desert by force and he would remind them all why they feared him.

His first glimpse of Varya was of her dragging another woman out of a tent. They were both covered in soot and ash, dark streaks over her pale skin that made her look like a banshee. He’d screamed her name, but she hadn’t even looked at him before handing the woman off and disappearing into the crowd again.

Then he was back to fighting with his brother. The horrific sight of Gluttony with his fangs sunk into a woman’s neck, greedily drinking her dry while he fended off the others with nothing but his claws... It would haunt him for many years to come.

The second time he saw Varya was as she beat out the flames with one of the rugs she’d dragged out with her. Her naked torso gleamed in the firelight with sweat, his visible red marks dotting down her torso where he’d laved her with his tongue and sucked the sensitive flesh.

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