CHAPTER EIGHT
EIRIENNA
Scathe was back to his flirty self, but she'd seen things he probably didn't mean to show her when the blank expression he tried to maintain had slipped.
Pain. Sadistic female laughter. Blood running down slime-covered brick walls. Rusted cage bars. A clotted pool of gore. Restraint spells inducing fresh agony. Sharp metal manacles clamped too tightly on his wrists. Bright slashes of spiked whips cutting into his flesh. Another's sour breath on his lips. Violation. Humiliation. Over and again and knowing it was forever...
After what he'd been through, no wonder he hated the Empress so much. Eirienna hadn't experienced the trauma and torture he had, but she knew what it was like always bending to another's will, and following someone else's rules.
If this demon could possibly help, could she afford to refuse the offer outright? And if he could kill the higher level demons, maybe she could learn from him.
"Spectacularly powerful, huh?" She laughed. "You really are full of yourself."
He toyed with the end of her braid as it lay on her shoulder. "I'd rather
you
were full of myself."
She swallowed, body suddenly ripe with lust. How did he do that to her so easily?
Back down, Eirienna. Run. Before you're in over your head... But... once. Just one time. For real. For me. No one need ever know.
"That can be arranged," she whispered, her voice husky.
"Naughty Hunter. I like you." Scathe took her chin in his fingers and pulled her mouth to his.
Fire and blood, so tempting. She deepened the kiss, urging him on.
He crushed her to him, his big body molding to hers like molten stone. His tongue grazed her eager fang tips, and spicy demon blood spilled.
She froze. How could she have been so careless!
Demon blood was like acid. This stupid mistake could kill her.
But... it didn't burn. His blood should have melted her mouth to mush. Instead, her own blood heated. Thirst parched her throat, and she sucked more from his tongue. It sizzled, a hot stab of promise that pooled sweet slickness between her legs.
Her knees weakened. What was that? Some seduction spell?
His groan tantalized her. "Careful what you swallow," he murmured. "I might forget my manners and reciprocate."
She shivered. Sharing blood wasn't something she did. Done correctly, the experience was intense.
Or do she heard.
Another kiss, deeper and more breathless, his tongue seducing every part of her mouth. His shadows teased her collarbone and slipped inside her armor.
"What?" she panted. "Are you planning to steal my blood?"
"I was planning not to need to. Do we have a deal?"
Twin tongues of shadow curled around her nipples, tweaking them to hardness. She gasped into his mouth, every nerve alive.
"So ready," he murmured, appreciatively. "Say yes, Eirienna."
Eirienna barely heard the request. Sweet delirium had dazzled her stupid. She'd forgotten what the word no meant. Ejected it from her vocabulary completely. She wanted him to suck her aching nipples. Tear off her armor, lick her all over, bite her, and swallow her blood until she swooned. Bare her body to the moonlight, spread her legs, shove himself in deep, and fuck her senseless.
Anyone could see the two of them here. Hunters could come looking for her any minute. Augisto could be following her again. She didn't care. The risk only added to the thrill. Here and now was what she'd yearned for, and she wasn't letting it slip away.
If that made her bad? So what? It was just this one indulgence.
"Shut up and get on with it," she snarled.
"Do we have a deal?" His insistent whisper scorched her lips. He tugged her nipples again, too gently, torturing her. "Because I can make you wait. You know I can."
Oh, she remembered her unsatisfying dreams. That wasn't going to happen again. She squirmed, wild. "More. Please."
"Then say it."
"Yes, damn you."
"That's all I needed to hear." Velvety black shadows enveloped her, sweeping her off her feet. She spiraled in nothingness, dizzy, yet utterly safe in his embrace.
Hot wind blew her hair and carried the scent of fire. Her back landed on warm sheets, and her bedroom settled around her.
Shadows unfurled, and Scathe coalesced atop her, massive, and deliciously real. She laughed, breathless. He was threatening and thrilling.
"My place?"
"It's closer, and infinitely more comfortable, than my place." He whispered a spell, and the lights popped on, dim and fiery, illuminating her red velvet cushions, the sweep of silken curtains, his hell-black eyes.
"How do you know where I live, anyway? Have you been stalking me?"
"I'm obsessed with you," Scathe whispered, dusting her throat with fiery kisses. He eased her sword from its sheath and set it aside. "I am a demon, after all. Does it turn you on?"
Fuck, yeah. "A little."
"Win-win, then." He parted her legs with his thigh.
Damnation, it felt good. Feverish, she wrapped one leg around his hip, pulling him onto her, drinking in the dark promises of his kisses, his body's brutal strength, the steely swelling of his cock rubbing against her right where she needed it.
Her magic tingled, sparks dancing over her skin, and his shadows responded, wrapping around her and teasing her to shuddering pleasure.
"Uh." She struggled for reality, rational thought, anything but the animal instinct to screw until she died. "Aren't we supposed to be hunting?"
"The demi-demons won't come back for hours. They need time to gather the courage to risk it again." He ripped at the fastening of her pants.
Eirienna helped him, wriggling the leather over her hips. He yanked them down to her knees and flipped her over.
He traced the ink at the base of her spine. "Dragon. I knew it."
"No one likes a smart-ass." When he tore her panties away, she whimpered with need. She wanted to be naked in his hands. But getting undressed took time. She wanted him now.
He gripped her bare ass with hot, rough hands. "You're gorgeous, my Hunter."
Eirienna tilted her hips in invitation. His zipper rasped, then his smooth flesh slid between her thighs. Big, hard, and so hot she gasped.
She was wet and more than ready, though. He slid in to the hilt. She'd had big men before. But Scathe was... A word slipped into her mind unbidden, and it made her flush with the indignity...but yes. That was it. Indomitable.
And not just magically.
Gods, she was going all damsel-in-distress. The next thing she knew, she'd be begging him to tie her up and have his way with her.
And damn if it wouldn't feel good.
He growled, grazing the back of her neck with his teeth. His breath lit a delicious heat under her skin. "You feel good, baby," he whispered.
Had he heard her thoughts? Was he reading her mind? But she forgot about it when he began to thrust. Hard and slow at first, then faster. Her inner muscles quivered.
He gripped her hips, and the force of his thrusts knocked her breath from her. "Don't... call... me... baby...Oh, fuck. More... Harder... Right... there...yes..."
I'm in bed with an incubus.
She couldnt tell if that was thrilling or terrifying.
But it didn't matter. Nothing mattered but the liquid fire of his shadows licking her skin. The silky sweep of his hair on her shoulders and back. The shiver in her flesh when he pushed in, and the sweet anticipation of his return when he withdrew. The heady scent of roses and male sweat.
He shifted position, pushed closer, trapping her hands above her head in one fist. His other hand slid over her belly, between her legs to play with her clit.
Her feminine muscles clenched hard, gripping his massive cock tighter.
Scathe groaned, and his thrusts quickened. "You're so fucking tight."
She was growing light-headed. "Everything's...relative..." A breathless chuckle.
"Come, then, my sweet Fae. Let's finish this." He eased out long enough to pull her around to face him and tug her trousers fully off.
He kissed her hip bone, nipping her with a little snarl. Kissed between her legs, traced a finger along her sex.
"So pretty, baby." He pushed her thighs apart and delved his tongue inside.
"Don't call me baby." Her words had no heat as her eyes rolled back. Fuck, he was good. Just how she liked it, not too fast, the pressure insistent, and damn, his mouth was hot and smooth, like liquid sunlight.
He spread her thighs wider, exposing her. Ah. So sensitive. She arched into his tongue, and he suckled her so exquisitely.
Maybe she'd let him call her baby, but only when he was making her feel like this. And she'd never tell him.
Eirienna surrendered to the sensations as he skillfully coaxed her to the edge of pleasure and held her there until she thought she'd die.
"Please." The word slipped from her. She hated how pleading made her feel weak, but she didn't want to fight this battle anymore. He was a far more experienced wager of this sort of war. "Now."
He gave her what she needed. With a throaty cry, her back arched and the tight coil of urgent need building inside her released. Waves of bliss, almost too much, swept through her. Strands of her magic twined with his, merged and danced in the air.
A part of her she'd always kept back from everyone broke loose and soared free. For a moment there was panic and vulnerability, then Scathe was there, embracing her in a cocoon of shadowy safety.
Surrounded by him, everything felt right, to the depths of her soul. Perfect. Like she could float in this feeling forever. As the orgasm ebbed, she returned to her body, utterly limp and sated.
Scathe's eyes glowed red as he moved up her body, licking, nipping, and sucking.
She wrapped her legs around his hips, and he was in her again, like the first time all over again but hotter, deeper -- he could go so deep inside her.
Digging her fingers into his hair, she dragged his mouth to hers. Tasted herself on his tongue.
Sleek muscles bunched in his arms as he braced himself and drove into her. Molten delight twisted in her belly, tighter, higher...and she broke, gasping into his mouth, the spiraling sparkles of heat like magic exploding in her blood.
Red light burst from her talisman, mingling her magic with his. So bright. So powerful. Like nothing she'd ever felt.
Scathe's entire body went taut, and his cock jerked within her. He came, hot and ferocious, groaning like it hurt, but he liked it.
