Darkness rose to swamp the room and Tegan lifted his head and looked across the map at Vail. Rosalind nervously glanced over her shoulder at him too. Tegan had heard from Thorne that Vail reacted poorly to magic being used near him, that a madness gripped him whenever he sensed it.
The fates were cruel to pair him with a witch.
Rosalind turned to Vail and Tegan watched the tender exchange between them as she sought to soothe her mate, one that had him realising that fate had perhaps been kind to Vail after all. It had given him a mate who could free him of the black stain on his soul, restoring him to the male he had been before he had gone to war with his brother millennia ago.
The room grew louder as everyone tried to figure out how to provide Taryn with backup without using another dragon.
Bleu held his hand up. “I will shift into a dragon.”
Silence fell again.
Loren was the first to find his voice. “How?”
Bleu looked to his left, at his prince. “I will drink Taryn’s blood.”
The dragon female blushed hard.
Hunger filled Bleu’s violet eyes.
Loren looked at Taryn.
Bleu growled low in his throat, a feral snarl that had Sable gasping and Loren’s expression blackening, turning as dark as the one his brother had worn just moments ago. Loren narrowed his eyes on Bleu, anger brightening them together with something that surprised Tegan.
Amusement.
Tegan didn’t see what there was to be amused about. Bleu had just openly threatened him for looking at his female.
Or was it because the elf had threatened him, his behaviour revealing that the dragon was clearly his fated female?
Loren held his gaze, not backing down even as Bleu scowled at him, his lips compressing as he frowned at his prince.
“I think we are done here for today. Relay the plan to your people and we will meet again tomorrow to go over the final details.”
Tegan didn’t wait around to see whether they were going to fight.
He stormed from the room, heading at speed towards the steps that would take him down into the heart of his castle.
To his rooms.
Because he needed to be alone.
He needed to call Suki.
He couldn’t go on any longer without asking her the question that had been slowly destroying his sanity over the last few days.
Did she love him?
CHAPTER 33
Suki stared at her fifth shot of Hellfire, watching the way the colourful lights rotating above the bar area of Underworld reflected off the dark surface and the damp black counter beneath the glass. Music pounded in her ears, but she didn’t hear it. People crowded her, but she didn’t notice them.
All her focus was on that shot of liquor and the escape it offered if she dared to consume enough of it.
Allura and Vidia had brought her to London, forcing her to go with them on a hunt she wanted no part in. Apparently, it was better than sitting in her room, spending every waking hour trying to figure out how to win back a demon who had banished her sorry ass from his kingdom.
Suki hadn’t had the energy to tell them they were wrong about her. She didn’t care about Tegan anymore.
She really didn’t.
She knocked back her drink, grimaced as it burned on the way down, and slammed the empty glass back onto the black bar top.
Fine. She did.
She cared about the bastard.
She cared about him so much that she wanted to go home, because this foolish attempt by her sisters to get her to get over him by finding another man was pointless.
It was never going to happen.
Tegan was the only one for her now.
She would sooner starve than seduce another man.
Kyter poured her another shot and slid it towards her, a worried and pitying edge to his golden eyes as she glanced up at him.
Things had to be bad if the jaguar shifter was looking at her like that.
The gaggle of females to her left suddenly perked up, growing louder and throwing off heat that had her frowning at them, wondering what had got them all riled up and horny.
A shiver skated down her spine as her senses lit up, screaming a warning at her.
She slowly turned to face the man who slid onto the stool to her right.
He raked long fingers through the soft spikes of his blond hair as he spoke with Kyter, his steel grey eyes bright in the flashing lights.
He was handsome enough, drew the gazes of more than just the horny hen party to her left, but he was dangerous.
She could feel it.
She focused on him, a struggle with several large shots of Hellfire in her system. It took a few attempts that gave her a headache and made the room wobble a little, but eventually his aura appeared.
Suki stiffened.
Blue tendrils rose from his wide shoulders and the haphazard spikes of his fair hair.
An incubus.
She reared back, almost falling from her stool as instinct screamed at her to get away from him. He cast a black look at her, his eyebrows dipping low as his lips compressed in a hard line, as if her reaction had irritated him. She had every right to react to him the way she had. He was a bloody incubus!
Her heart pounded as awareness of how tipsy she was, and how vulnerable that made her, shot through her. Flashes of all her previous fights against incubi rushed through her mind, interspersed with that dreadful day her mother had been stolen from her by one of his kind. She threw a glance around at the crowd that now hemmed her in, keeping her in close proximity to the bastard.
She swallowed. What could she do? She couldn’t teleport with so many humans around, not without getting into a world of trouble. She debated whether to squeeze through the crowd or vault the bar and flee before the incubus could launch an attack.
Her gaze locked back on him and something else hit her.
There was something different about him.
Wrong.
When Kyter moved away to get his order, the man turned on her.
“You got a problem with me?” He narrowed his grey eyes on her. “Never seen a vampire before?”
Either he was trying to trick her, which really pissed her off, or that weird sensation she got from him was because he was a rare half-breed.
“Piss off. Just leave me the fuck alone and we’ll be just fine. Got it? I don’t want any trouble.” Her eyes leaped to the humans pressing against her on all sides as they attempted to reach the bar and order more drinks.
Her throat closed, fear tightening it as she sought an escape route.
“That makes two of us. I don’t want any trouble either.” His smooth, deep voice had calm washing over her.
Was he trying to charm her? She glared at him. He glared right back.
His features remained tight for long seconds, and then he sighed and slightly shook his head.
“Look. I’m here to relax, not get into a fight. Got it?” He held her gaze, demanding an answer.
Suki swallowed hard. Was he telling the truth? Could she really trust an incubus, even one who was part vampire?
“How about I help you trust me? Ah. I could tell you my name. It’s Payne. Hell, I’ll even tell you where I work. Vampirerotique. Heard of it?” He leaned a little closer.
Suki nodded.
Who in the immortal community hadn’t heard of the erotic theatre run by and catering to vampires? Her sisters had seduced several of the vampires who worked there, and sometimes they hung around outside when the performances finished to feed off the second-hand sexual energy the patrons gave off as they left the theatre.
She had never been brave enough to go with them.
Okay. Maybe it was more like they had never invited her. Maybe the one time she had asked to go too, they had refused to take her because they believed she would scare off the vampires and ruin things somehow.
Payne arched an eyebrow at her row of empty shot glasses. “What has you so down in
the dumps anyway?”
Suki knew better than to speak to him, knew she should be trying to figure out how to escape his grasp, her mouth had different ideas. He was the first person to speak to her all night other than the bartenders, and she was tired and worn down, and maybe a little drunk.
“I fucked everything up with a guy.” She shrugged when he swivelled on the stool to face her, all of his focus settling on her, and knocked another shot back to steady her nerves. If her sisters saw her speaking to an incubus, even one who was only part incubus, they would have her head, but she needed to talk. “I wanted to prove myself to my clan and he was the perfect target, a demon I met in this bar. It all started out as a seduction.”
“And it ended with a broken heart,” he offered, resting his right arm on the bar.
Colourful fae markings tracked up the underside of his forearm, disappearing beneath the rolled-up sleeves of his dark pinstripe shirt. Her markings had been done with ink, but his were natural, a record of his bloodline that confirmed he was an incubus.
The flare of red in his irises said he was also a vampire, just as he had told her.
She wasn’t sure how she felt about him as he waited for her to speak, as she slowly relaxed and that urge to run for the hills faded. She hated incubi. They were all bastards, out to hurt her kind for no damn reason. But he seemed nice.
Genuinely nice.
She put it down to his vampire side.
She nodded and thanked Kyter with a smile as he poured her another shot.
That crimson corona shone brighter as the incubus-vampire stared at her. “I know a thing or two about seduction, and I know a thing or two about love. You have it bad for him, don’t you?”
She forced herself to nod again. It wasn’t as if telling him that gave him any power over her, and he didn’t look interested in attacking her. Because he was only part incubus? Or maybe because he obviously identified more with his vampire side.
“Hey, at least you’re not spouting that shit about not being able to love.” Payne hiked his shoulders when she frowned at him. “A vampire friend of mine has a succubus for his mate. I get along with her well now.”
“You didn’t get along with her all the time?” She sipped her shot this time, maintaining the buzz.
He chuckled. “There was a time I was trying to get her away from my friend. She was a little obsessed with him… Maybe addicted is the better word. She couldn’t leave him alone… all because his aura was shadowed. Silly succubus didn’t know what it meant.”
Suki’s eyes widened and she almost dropped her glass. “You know about shadowed males?”
The look Payne gave her asked if she was crazy or stupid. “Of course I do. Incubi experience something similar when they meet their mate. I had one hell of a time with my one.”
She got stuck on one word.
Mate.
He leaned closer, frowning into her eyes as she stared right through him. “So… you look like you’re about to pass out. Do you need another drink, or are you having a revelation?”
“The latter,” she muttered, reeling and feeling as if she was in danger of toppling from her stool as she swayed, unable to believe what was whirling around her mind.
Tegan was her mate?
She hadn’t thought it was possible for her to have a mate. None of her lessons and none of the books in the library had ever mentioned them.
She stared at the incubus-vampire. “You’re sure… you’re sure a shadowed male means a mate?”
“I’m not yanking your chain or anything.” His look turned serious as he tilted his glass of dark liquid towards her. “If the demon has a shadowed aura, then you’re his fated one.”
The bubble of feelings that filled her on hearing that Tegan was more than just a demon she loved, that he was her mate, suddenly popped as reality slapped her hard.
“He dumped me.” She necked her shot, savouring the fire as it burned away her pain.
If Tegan was her mate, surely he wouldn’t have ditched her like that? Although maybe he would have if he had been convinced she had been playing him. Gods, did he think she had used her charms on him? She hadn’t lied about them. They were completely unreliable and mostly useless. There was no way she could have charmed him, not even by accident.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Payne swigged his drink and she pulled a face as it left a red smear on his glass. Blood. Definitely a vampire as well as an incubus then. He smirked at her. “But then I’m also sorry you’re proving yourself to be as weak and pathetic as incubi believe your kind to be.”
She hit him with her best glare.
His smirk widened into a devilish grin. “If my mate had tried to dump me, I would be fighting for her, not sitting in a bar drowning my sorrows.”
“I can’t fight for him,” she snapped. “He banished me with a spell and now I can’t get near him. He thinks I betrayed him… that I just wanted his throne. Gods, maybe Julianna is right and I need to get even somehow because this is driving me mad. I keep trying to think of ways to get him back and make him see he was wrong, and I’m coming up with nothing!”
“Sounds like a good idea.” His grin faded, handsome face sobering as he sipped his drink again. She frowned at him and he shrugged. “I’m just saying maybe a little payback is good. He’s a demon and you’re his mate. He’s probably going mad about now. A little push and you won’t need to go to him… he’ll come to you.”
Heck, that was tempting.
She shook her head. No. It wasn’t a good idea. Tegan was mad. He was mad with her. Taunting him was only going to make him angrier.
Payne set his glass down, pulling her back to him as it hit the black bar top with a hard thud. “All you really need to do is toss him a little incentive.”
An incentive didn’t sound too bad.
“What sort of incentive?” She leaned closer to him.
Before she knew what was happening, Payne had grabbed her phone from the counter, lifted it so it was facing them and had leaned in close, pressing his cheek to hers. She tensed, every instinct telling her to move away before he hurt her, but she stifled them and remained where she was.
If it meant seeing Tegan again and having a chance to explain, she could suffer being close to an incubus.
She looked up at the phone, right into the camera, and leaned closer to Payne as he pressed the button, snapping a picture of them together.
He was quick to break contact with her and toss her phone at her. She scrambled for it, managing to catch it as it arced towards her, and clutched it in both hands, bringing it down in front of her.
She stared at the picture, a vicious knot twisting inside her, tangling all her feelings together as she hesitated. It took her an entire song to find the courage to turn the image into a picture message. Another half a song passed with her thumb over the send button as she waged war with herself.
Maybe the incubus was wrong and Tegan wouldn’t care. Maybe her demon was already over her.
She wasn’t sure she could take knowing that he didn’t want her anymore.
The damned incubus took the decision out of her hands.
Literally.
He snatched the phone from her hand and she gasped and lunged for it, her eyes widening as her hand flew towards him. Too slow. His thumb came down on the send button.
“Gods fucking damn you, incubus!” She grabbed the phone from him and fumbled with it, her heart pounding in her ears and fingers shaking as she tried to stop the message.
Too late.
It was sent.
She turned a murderous glare on Payne, an urge to claw him to pieces lashing at her. What was the point? Nothing she did now could change what he had done. The message was gone, flying through the ether to Tegan.
It was all in the hands of the gods now.
Either she was about to get her demon back.
Or he was about to break her heart forever.
CHAPTER 34
Tegan stormed out of the sq
uat two storey pale grey stone building and across the courtyard of the garrison, his muscles rippling and aching as fury mounted inside him, a fire that boiled his blood in his veins and had his fangs emerging as his horns flared. He pushed past several elves and demons of the Third Realm, not caring if his brutish behaviour caused a fight.
Because he wanted one right now.
His soul screamed in agony, heart a shrivelled black thing in his chest as he glared at the high glittering grey walls that encircled the garrison near the mountains that acted as a border between the elf kingdom and the First Realm of demons. The lush green hills that undulated around him did nothing to soothe him today.
Several males from his legion saluted him as he passed. Their gazes tracked him when he stomped onwards without greeting them, turning his glare on those around him now as rage got the better of him.
His eyes betrayed him, picking out the mated couples scattered around the packed courtyard. Loren and his female, Olivia. Rosalind and Vail. Thorne and Sable.
He tightened his grip on the phone in his right hand, the image he had just received burned on his mind as he gritted his teeth and growled through the pain.
A photograph of Suki and another male.
A handsome male.
He snarled, barely biting back his urge to throw his head back and roar.
He needed to go to her, to snap the male’s neck before she did anything with him, but he couldn’t.
The war was about to begin.
He staggered to a halt as questions bombarded him, ripping at the tattered shreds of his heart and his soul.
Hadn’t she felt anything for him after all? Was it truly over?
He scrubbed his left hand over his face and tipped his head back to stare at the blue sky. Gods, he had been a fool. Ryker had made him see that and he needed to tell her, he needed to know what she had wanted to say to him.
But he was needed in Hell.
The urge to go to her had darkness seeping outwards from beneath him, spreading across the ground, and a few sensible males edged away from him, giving him more space.
The thought of her with another male slayed him.
Seduced by a Demon King Page 35