“I don’t know. There has to be something. Something you can’t do that I can.”
Even as he chuckled dismissively, she knew he’d already thought of something. His eyes were too intense, his body leaning towards her.
“What is it?” she asked.
“There aren’t many things I can’t do for myself. But yeah, I can think of one.” He winked. “You might even enjoy it.”
She blew out a puff of air. “So predictable. Just like every other male. Let me guess: you can’t suck your own cock.”
His eyes widened with mock horror. “I would appreciate it if you’d avoid using that kind of language in front of me, hunter. I’m very sensitive.” His smile grew. “Although you’re right—I can’t suck my own cock. Even if I could, I don’t think I’d be into it. Not nearly as hot as being inside someone else’s pretty mouth.” His gaze dropped to hers. “Guess what I’m going to be dreaming about tonight. But only dreaming about, because demons and humans don’t go well together. In fact, I could be executed for any of the many, many dirty things I want to do to you.”
“I thought execution wasn’t a big deal for you.”
“Nothing you could provide me would be worth the pain of hell, I know that.”
“Don’t worry, I’m not putting out to get your help.” Not like it sounded terrible, of course. Even though Addison and Parker had said sex with a demon left a human destroyed, Keira wasn’t entirely human. At least not in terms of injury and healing. She could take the heat, just like she had the last time she’d fought him.
She had. She’d taken his heat. An idea started spinning, but didn’t latch onto anything. There had to be something.
“What else do you have to offer?” he asked, exposing his interest even more.
“I have a book about demons.”
“Not interested. I already know about demons.”
“I didn’t mean I would give you the book. It’s too valuable and there’s too much useful stuff in it. For instance, you’re a Fosfer demon, right?”
“Yeah,” he said warily.
“You’re stubborn and rude and arrogant.”
“Huh. I guess there is some useful stuff in that book.”
“That isn’t in the book—I was just telling you that you’re stubborn, rude, and arrogant. But it taught me about your weaknesses, aside from the salt thing that everyone knows.”
“When you go back to the library, you should let the librarian know that book is all wrong. Fosfer demons don’t have weaknesses.”
“Every being has weaknesses. The glamour you use to be corporeal creates heat, right? And if you can’t get rid of that heat, you set fires.”
His expression hardened. “Where did you get the book, puppet?”
“Doesn’t matter. What does matter is that if you don’t control your heat and release it somehow, things burn. But using your glamour is hard work. So your...stamina isn’t that good.”
“My stamina is just fine. If I could show you how fine it is, I would.”
“How long can you keep it up? Your glamour I mean. An hour tops, right?” She felt the corners of her mouth lift and saw his do the same. Oh shit, they were flirting. You don’t flirt with a demon without flirting with death.
“Hours, maybe days depending on a few factors,” he said. “Wait, what are we discussing again?”
“Glamour, of course. Your kind has never developed more...endurance, because you don’t need to stay corporeal for too long. Just enough time to put evil thoughts in people’s heads.”
“All you need to know about my endurance is that it’s waaaay more than you could ever handle.” He turned to go. “By the way, I don’t put evil thoughts anywhere. I work with what’s already there. All demons do is suggest someone use what already exists. We don’t change natures, we nurture them.”
She needed to focus or things were going to go farther off course. There was only one thing she wanted from this demon, and it had nothing to do with all the images currently swirling around her mind.
“Isn’t there something that you need to stay in a physical form for more than an hour to do?”
“Sure, but I thought you said you weren’t putting out,” he said, smiling. “Doesn’t matter anyway. Because even if I did, I would need—” His smile faded.
She watched him do the math, getting more nervous the longer he kept her waiting. Everyone wanted something they couldn’t have. That was central to how his race could do what they did. There had to be something he desired that he couldn’t have without her. And that wouldn’t kill her in the process. Maybe she should’ve mentioned that earlier.
He stared at her so hard, she wondered if she was blushing. When he scratched the stubble on his jaw, she wanted to touch it too. To know his heat. To know if he would burn her. She reached towards him, coming back into reality and intelligence before he noticed. Her fingers dug into her thighs.
“You would be my outlet,” he said. “You’d let me put my heat into you when the pressure got too bad, before things got dangerous. That’s what you’re offering?”
I guess I am. She nodded slowly. “If I can do it without burning to death.”
“It would be dangerous. You know that, right? I’d be hotter than I was the other day. If we did this I’d need to use you as much as you can stand.” He stalked her, each gliding step closer filled with a you-just-made-a-big-step-towards-the-white-light feeling. But she refused to be intimidated, or at least show him how intimidated she was. This was her only shot, and if he hadn’t already killed her, he wouldn’t decide to do it right after she offered to do him a favor.
“Can you feel me, puppet?” he asked when he was about two feet away, the warmth of his body seeping through her clothes.
“Yes.” Knowing what was coming forced her back a step. Damn it.
“It’ll only get hotter. You sure this is what you want?”
“Just...go slow.”
He reached towards her cheek, his hand stopping about an inch away. Her skin felt like it was baking or like she’d fallen asleep in the sun and woke up burned. But nothing she couldn’t handle.
“How much can you control your temperature?” She’d already touched him a couple times—sometimes it burned and other times it didn’t.
“With a healthy balance of rest, food, and mind play, it’s the equivalent of a bad human fever. But you’re right, the longer I use my glamour, the hotter I get.” He moved his hand down to her neck as if he were caressing her, touching her like a lover would, but from an inch away.
“If you act as my outlet, it will burn,” he said quietly, watching her, looking for signs of weakness or a change of heart probably. She’d never show him either. “A human could never handle it.”
“Yeah well, I’m not quite human.”
“I know. If you were, I wouldn’t be this close to you right now. But regardless of how quickly you heal, it will burn.”
“Touch me.” She didn’t know why she said it. Well, yes, she did, but she didn’t want to think about it now. She just wanted to feel, to know how much it would hurt and how good it could be.
As he held her eyes, she saw his doubt. She also saw his desire. For her or for what she was offering him, she didn’t know. He brushed his fingertips along her jaw. She clamped her teeth together and closed her eyes, absorbing the pain, living in it until it didn’t hurt anymore. Until it was pleasurable, sending a different kind of heat through her. More. She wanted more. Needed it...and him.
“Is that all you can do, demon?”
“You have no idea what I can do, puppet.” His voice was so low, so quiet, she wasn’t sure if she’d heard him or was just imagining this whole moment. “Or what I want to do.”
“Show me.” She stumbled back as the fire intensified. Her eyes popped open when she felt his hand close around her jaw, his body hard against hers. She couldn’t speak, too overwhelmed by the sensation of his incredible heat covering the front of her body. Everywhere they pressed together aching. She stared at
his lips, wanting to feel them too. To feel his tongue in her mouth, burning her from the inside, filling her.
As if he knew, he leaned down, his lips hovering just out of reach, releasing a growl from deep in his chest. “I’ve heard burning to death is a terrible way to die, puppet.”
“Then it’s a good thing I didn’t put it on my list of things to do today.”
The longer he stared at her, the more she thought that he might have scribbled it on her list for her. She swallowed, trying to focus, to use her head instead of letting her body take over.
“Do you want what I’m offering or not?” she asked.
“Fucking-A, I want it.”
“Good.” She took a deep breath, knowing she was about to do something very stupid. If he wasn’t so close…if she could think straight…“There’s one more thing.”
He chuckled, backing up a step. “It’s bad form to add things once a deal has been agreed upon.”
“Did you learn that from your boss?”
“And a whole lot of other things. I’m guessing you didn’t think this all through before you started talking, but I’ll play. Let’s hear it, this condition you want to add.”
“Kiss me.”
“What?” he asked mid-breath, the rest of it never happening.
“Kiss me right now.”
“You have a death wish, don’t you?”
Maybe. “Is it going to kill me?”
He sighed, closing his eyes. “A kiss? Probably not.”
“Then what’s the hold-up?”
“Because I’m trying very, very hard not to lose control right now,” he said through his teeth. “So you’re going to need to be a little more patient.”
He leaned in, his eyes still shut, until their mouths hovered a centimeter away from each other.
“I’m not a particularly patient person,” she whispered.
“Neither am I.” His arm wrapped around her waist just before his lips landed on hers. Perfect timing, because the jolt of that connection would’ve knocked her on her ass. He may have miscalculated—this might actually kill her.
His lips learned hers quickly and then things got blurry. His tongue was hot but not burning, just overwhelming to her senses. As if her nerves were getting too much stimulation at once and her brain couldn’t sort out the messages. She pressed her hips against his, feeling his erection. He slid his hand down to her ass, pulling her in so tightly that her feet left the ground.
She ran her fingers through his hair, grabbing hold of it and moaning when he rocked his hips, pressing her between his cock and the wall.
A second later, he ripped his mouth away from hers, dropped her, and threw his hands out to the sides, his fists clenching and unclenching. “Damn, puppet.” His brow was tight as he stepped backwards. “Yeah, that can never happen again.”
Thankfully, she took a deep breath before she spoke. Because what she would’ve said was, ‘why the hell not?’ “Do we still have a deal?”
“No way.”
“What? Why the hell not?” Ironic, that.
“I can’t…I can’t do this.” Davyn backed away so fast, she didn’t see him move.
“Wait! Don’t go.”
“You’re too fucking dangerous, hunter. You make me—” He shook his head, long strands of hair whipping his face.
“I didn’t make you do anything.”
“Yeah, you did,” he shouted angrily. “You make me…feel.” He swallowed harshly. “But I can’t feel.”
“Demons can feel.”
“Not like this we can’t. Not if either of us wants to stay above ground.” And then he was gone.
She slumped back against the wall wondering what just happened and why she was so upset about it.
Ten
Keira stayed in the light as long as she could. Shadows kept spies and serial killers safe, at least from other spies and other serial killers. But the Heights was built out of shadows and a bunch of other fun stuff, and there was no way to avoid them.
Next time, she was going to write the address on her hand. Seriously, how did she think she was going to find a three-century-old vampire if she couldn’t remember a street address? It wasn’t as if she got leads like this often. It hadn’t even cost her much, just a threatening telephone conversation and the promise of her blood. As if she’d ever let that happen again, but the informant didn’t need to know that.
Normally, when a daily order came into the grocer’s from the same address, the assumption was the blood would feed a vampire coven or at least a couple, but she’d had a hunch that this was for a party of one. That much blood, that frequently, for only one person meant he was newly turned, and newly turned didn’t happen anymore. Reproduction was cause for execution, so no one dared do it. Except Lamere. He’d already done it once, leaving the fledgling to fend for herself. So Thom Platt could be Lamere’s second, except smarter because he wasn’t foraging for food on the streets like the first one had.
“He’s not here.”
Keira flinched at the sound of Davyn’s voice, her weapon out from under her jacket instantly. But he wasn’t there. She peeked around the corner and saw him sitting on the front steps of a building—the one she was going to. As usual, the demon was stuffing his face.
“Who?” she asked.
“The vamp you were coming to see. Uh…Orin? Otto? Otis? It’d be a lot easier to remember someone’s name if they thought in third person. Like, ‘Otis is afraid this incredibly handsome demon is going to kill him. Otis just wet his pants like a little girl. Otis needs his mommy.’ That kind of thing.”
“His name’s Thom. And did you actually see him or are you just being weird? I had it all set up.”
“I wouldn’t use Otis again. Lamere pays better than you do.”
“I didn’t pay him anything.”
“See what I mean?”
“Anyway, his name is Thom.” She pushed her hair off her face. “Did he say anything while he was wetting his pants?”
“Lots of ‘no’s and ‘please don’t kill me’s, but not a lot else. Oh. Except where he’s supposed to meet Lamere.”
She glared at him, knowing he wouldn’t tell her anything important until he was done with his dinner. And his dinner filled up three big bags. Despite being annoyed and impatient, she sat down next to him and picked one up.
“Hey, go get your own food.”
“I didn’t have a chance to eat,” she said, pulling out a comically large sandwich. “Besides, you have enough for a family of starving bears.”
“Male bears live alone unless they’re in the mood to fuck, so…you might want to rethink the comparison.” He took the food away from her. “Plus, despite what people say about me, I’m not a charity. I bought you one meal you barely touched and got no play in return. Unless you count that incredibly awkward and awful kiss the other day, which I don’t.”
Considering how badly he freaked out after it happened, she was surprised he brought it up. She’d thought of little else, but she figured he probably had a life and hadn’t thought about it at all.
“Yeah, it was really gross, wasn’t it?” She barely held in her smile when he whipped his head towards her. “If all demons kiss like that, it’s no wonder there’s a law against them subjecting humans to anything else.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“Nothing. It was…” She grimaced, taking the sandwich out of his hand while he was so very distracted.
“It was what?”
“Never mind. It’s not important. Forget I said anything.”
“It was what?” He didn’t give her much time to respond, not that she was going to. “It was fucking hot, that’s what it was. Not demon-hot—amazing-hot. That kiss was thirty seconds away from you ripping my pants off, and you know it.”
“Are you sure you’re thinking of the same kiss I am?”
His laugh sounded forced. “So all that moaning you were doing was what? Moans of disgust? Your hands all over me and your
hips grinding against mine was some kind of pat down, right? Why exactly was your tongue so fucking deep in my mouth? Looking for weapons? We both know it wasn’t because the kiss was ‘gross.’”
“You seemed like you were enjoying it a lot, so I was…trying to be nice. I didn’t want you to feel bad just because you lack certain skills. It’s not a big deal—you have a lot of other skills, Davyn. Don’t worry about it.” Shit, she couldn’t hold it in anymore. She held her—his—sandwich in front of her mouth to hide her smile, but he heard the laugh she couldn’t stifle.
“You think that’s funny, don’t you?” He jumped off the step, his food dropping onto the cement and flying in every direction. “That wasn’t funny.”
“Yeah, it was.” She stood and brushed her butt off. “And you’re just a sore loser.”
“I don’t lose.”
Keira felt herself being lifted off the ground until only her toes touched it, Davyn’s hands on her ass and his cock touching her right where it shouldn’t be. Because it felt too damn good. She raised her chin with her eyes shut because looking at him would only make things worse and make her willpower that much weaker. But she felt the warmth of his breath with every word he spoke.
“If we didn’t have somewhere to be, I’d remind you just how awful that kiss was. Do you think we have time, puppet? Demons don’t do much kissing, and yours are the first human lips mine have ever touched. Maybe if we tried it again, you could give me a few pointers. What do you think?”
The only pointer she could’ve given him was, ‘do more of everything you did last time and please, please, please do it now.’ She wouldn’t beg, ask, or even nod, but if he were ever going to read her mind, now would be a really great time.
“Well…”
“Never mind.” He dropped her so quickly, she tumbled backwards and landed on her ass. “I don’t care how humans kiss because it’s never going to happen again. So let’s get back to you not eating my dinner.”
“Damn, you’re moody.” She stood, wiped off her butt again, and tried to salvage what was left of the sandwich. “How about we get back to you telling me where Lamere is?”