Julie grabbed her taller cousin and pulled her into a tight embrace. “If Manx is right, then I can help. I’m going to imagine an invisible doorway behind that arch. I think Saint is harmless, but if I’m wrong, just call my name, and the door should appear to take you home.” She pulled back with a bemused expression. “That sounded even stranger than I thought it would.”
Ume smiled fondly at her cousin. “If this works, you have to promise me you’ll write about it. It’s a perfect sequel to your bestseller.”
Julie blushed. “Believe me, the thought had crossed my mind. Be safe, cousin. I’ll be waiting.”
“What do you think they’re talking about?”
“Our imminent demise, no doubt.”
Saint glared when Manx began to chuckle. “Don’t laugh, traitor. We saw you cozying up to the enemy.”
Manx held up his hands. “Just trying to help you two out, brother. For a couple of guys who just well and truly claimed their women, you’re both looking pretty bad.”
Liam’s smile was slow, but satisfied. “I’m just trying to recover. My shy, little mate is actually a hellion.”
A shimmer of humor crossed Saint’s expression. “I’d say I told you so, but demons never brag.”
The shifter tilted his head. “What about you? Have you decided how you’re going to break it to her?”
He knew what had to happen. He just wasn’t sure he wanted to do it anymore. He knew what she was. He had his answers. She didn’t know it, but magical blood ran through her veins, faint, but it was there. She was closer to her kitsune character than she realized. Only she wasn’t just a character. And this was no longer a game.
Ume had changed something in him. Shredded his defenses and made him face a part of himself he’d buried long ago. The part of him that was like his father. A slave to his needs. Controlled instead of in control.
He’d lost it. Couldn’t rein in that half of him that he knew would scare her. He’d felt the demon rise and made Manx blindfold her, so she wouldn’t be able to see his eyes, wouldn’t be able to see them turn fiery red. In the end none of his precautions mattered. In the end she had to beg him to stop. He’d become a monster.
Demons didn’t fall in love. But what he felt when he looked at her…he wasn’t sure how to handle it.
He should just send her home. Before she found out. Before she knew the man she’d shared herself with, the man who’d gained her trust, was born from darkness. Didn’t deserve her.
But some masochistic part of him knew he had to finish it. Knew he had to see this through to the end.
Saint ignored Liam’s question and shared a look with Manx. “When we go through the arch, take these two home. And Liam, make sure you get to Ume’s house as fast as you can.”
He turned toward the embracing women and raised his voice. “Ume, its time.”
Time to finish the quest.
She walked beside him the last hundred feet in silence. A silence that was driving him crazy. “Ume, I—”
“Don’t. Don’t apologize again. If you do I might have to cut off something important.”
Noticing the grip she had on her kitana, he smiled. She was so strong, his Ume. So fearless. But she wouldn’t need her sword for this first battle. He had to warn her. “They say there is one hall we have to get through to get to the Demon King’s most treasured possession. You have to face things about your past, about yourself, that aren’t always pleasant.”
He wished she didn’t have to go through it, but he couldn’t change it. If she was going to see him, she needed to see everything.
Ume squared her shoulders and kept walking. “I liked this better when I thought I was crazy. When I didn’t believe any of it was real.”
Saint took a slow, deep breath. “I know.”
He glanced at the plain, unassuming building that housed his lair and had to smile. How many gamers had imagined a palace made of gold, with jewel-encrusted doors and fire-breathing dragons guarding the gate? It used to amuse him, how people let their imaginations run away with them. Now he just wanted this to be over.
And he wondered about the one thing he had no control over. What she would see in the hall.
The doors opened on their own, and Ume inhaled sharply. “I guess he’s been expecting us.”
“I’m sorry if I hurt you. I couldn’t seem to stop. I lost my head.” The words came tumbling out. He wanted her to forgive him as Sinner, the man she’d known. It would be something he could hold on to.
Ume didn’t disappoint him, though the relief in her expression broke his heart. “Is that why you’ve been acting like this? Sinner, you didn’t hurt me. You may have ruined me for sex with anyone else again.” She chuckled wryly. “But you didn’t hurt me. Well, not in a bad way.”
He wanted to beat his chest with pride. Wanted to take her again. Wanted to do anything but what they were about to do. “Ume, we don’t have to go in there. We can find another way.”
Her expression softened. “I’ll miss this too. But I can’t stay here forever. It’s amazing, but it’s not real. It’s not my life.”
A muscle ticked at his temple as he forced himself to let it go. He’d broken, given in, given her an option. In the end she’d made her decision.
They walked through the doors and found themselves in a long narrow corridor covered with artwork. Japanese wood block prints.
“Beautiful,” Ume whispered, making Saint flinch.
“Look closely. You should recognize something.” Hadn’t he created it so she would? Once again, not his best plan ever.
“My mother? Sinner, that’s my mother holding me as a baby. That’s when she gave me the necklace.” Ume absently stroked the pearl drop at her throat. Saint noticed for the first time it had taken on a new luminescence.
He walked with her in silence, listening to her translating the symbols that ran alongside the paintings. It told the story of a woman who had been protected by the spirit of a kitsune ancestor. An ancestor who had been enemies with an Oni and worried that its human family was being threatened. The only way it knew to protect them was to sacrifice its body and give its spirit, in the form of a pearl, to hide its progeny from the demon’s view.
Ume’s mother had been the last of her line until she’d had her little girl. She so loved her baby that she wasn’t willing to take any chances. She gave the child her talisman, thinking enough time had passed that it would be safe.
But the Oni had been patient, and it had known. It chased the woman in her dreams, making her fear for her child, making her insane. Every night for years it played with her, taking revenge for all the time it had waited to attain the kitsune star ball. The soul of its enemy.
The next few prints sank Saint’s heart, since he easily understood the translation. Ume’s mother had suffered, but she’d also learned how to control her dreams. Learned that she had power in them.
It had taken time, but she had patiently developed those powers, until one night, when the Oni had promised that he would find a way to kill her daughter on her sixteenth birthday, that the talisman could not protect her from everything—she struck out. She battled with the Oni bravely, as a kitsune warrior, until both of them were near death.
The mother knew she would have to sacrifice herself to stop the Oni once and for all, but she didn’t hesitate. As her ancestor had before her, the mother willingly gave up her body for her daughter’s life.
“I never believed her.” Ume was crying. “I called her crazy. But she wasn’t was she? She sacrificed herself for me. Why would she do that?” The hand on her face curled into a fist. “And why would Saint show me this?”
“A mother’s love. And he didn’t do this. You see the truth inside you. Some see cheating on their wives, or bullying their children. Your biggest shame, your sin, is this. I’m so sorry, Ume.”
And he was. Sorrier than she would ever know. A fucking demon. A demon who, if he hadn’t been sent to the abyss by Ume’s mother already, Saint would ha
ve found and destroyed himself. Now that she knew, she would never be able to forgive him for what he was.
And he would never recover.
“Come on. It’s time to finish this.”
They walked toward the end of the hall where it opened up into a large throne room. The Demon King’s lair. Only he wasn’t a king. Wasn’t even a whole demon.
And his only treasure now was her.
Chapter Seven
Ume was wrung out. She wasn’t sure she would ever be able to forgive herself. What her mother had gone through for her was unimaginable. Had her father known? Had he had any idea? Was that why he’d abandoned Ume before her mother’s ashes had even been interred—because he knew it was her fault?
And was this why she’d been pulled into Saint’s damn game? For her necklace? She was still holding it, felt it warm her hand, pulse against her fingers. She hoped the kitsune spirit would be with her now. If she had to fight a demon, she would be a warrior like her mother.
The room was huge. And empty. One throne chair sat on a dais, but it wasn’t particularly ornate. Just a chair. No paintings hung, no treasure chests lined the walls, no people waited for an audience. As throne rooms went this one was a little…well, sad.
“You’re here.”
“Finally.”
Two identical voices. Two identical men. One with black eyes. One with red. Both wore hooded sweat jackets and jeans. Both wore black combat boots. Both held Blackberries.
And both of them had identical faces to her warrior.
“Sinner?”
Ume looked over at him in confusion. Was this another test?
Her warrior shook his head and walked further into the room. “This isn’t a test, Ume Wu. It’s not a trick.”
He turned to face her and the two images of him walked over to stand beside him. “I am Saint. Human.” His human half saluted her. “And demon.” The demon licked his lips and snarled.
Both figures stepped closer, into him, and disappeared, leaving only her warrior in the room, his arms out as if in supplication.
Ume’s breath had been knocked out of her. “Why?”
His laughter was self-mocking. “Because I was bored and you were unique. An anomaly. Entertaining. And you had a magic in you that I didn’t understand.”
“You were bored? You did all this because you were bored?”
“At first I just wanted to watch you. Know you. I touched your mind in the game out of curiosity. But then something happe—”
“You fucking bastard.” Ume dropped her sword and flew at him, needing to feel his flesh beneath her fists. She pounded on his chest, kicked his legs out from under him, unable to calm the rage that was consuming her.
Saint didn’t defend himself. “I’m sorry.”
“Fuck off.” She could hardly see through her tears. “I trusted you, you liar. You just wanted my necklace. You just wanted to trick me. You’re a Goddamned demon? I hate you.”
Saint rolled her over so quickly her head spun. She was on her side, his hips pressed against her thigh, his hands gripping her wrists on the floor above her head. “Hate me, Ume. Despise me. But you need to know I didn’t want your damn necklace. I just wanted you.”
They glared into each other’s eyes, their hard, panting breaths the only sound in the room.
Ume’s body was quivering, but it was no longer just with rage. He had to be a demon, how else could she explain it? He’d been playing with her this whole time. She should skewer him with her kitana for putting her through all this, for reminding her how it felt to be able to run. For showing her the truth about her mother.
But being this close to him, smelling him, was making her body heat with arousal.
She saw his pupils dilate as he sensed her instinctive response. Saw a spark of ruby red in their black depths and was shocked at her reaction. It wasn’t normal to want someone this badly. Especially someone like Saint.
She could feel his erection hardening against her leg and she licked her lips. Her body was tuned to his, trained to his. Those hours in that room of the inn filled her mind. The way he took her. The way he’d played her.
Something was seriously wrong with her.
His smile was dark and wicked. It made her tails twitch. “If this is how you hate, Ume, then please, hate me more.”
She pressed against him, arching her back. She couldn’t seem to help herself. “I hate you.”
He growled, bending down to take her mouth in a soul-stealing kiss. He took her breath, gave it back to her. His tongue tangled with hers, and she drank in his taste. She could feel his hands tearing at her underwear, at the fastenings of his pants, and she wondered that he didn’t make their clothing magically disappear. Even a second was too long. She was already wet. Already dying for him. Would it ever stop? This addiction?
He kept her on her side, lifting her knee high against her chest, and then he was there. Inside her. No preliminaries, no wooing. It was always like this between them. An instant blaze. But she didn’t need any romance. She didn’t want romance from him. Though he gave it to her anyway. In the way his fingers twined with hers as he thrust at an angle that brought her instantly to that rocky, jagged edge. In the way his soft lips begged her for more without a word. Seduced her.
She tore her mouth away from his to grab a lungful of air. “I hate you.”
Saint groaned. “I hate you too, Ume. You’ve ruined me. Fuck, you feel so good. I hate the way your pussy feels like it was made for my cock. I hate how hot and sweet and wet you get. How I know I could do any filthy, dark and dirty thing to you and you would just fucking love it and ask for more.”
“Yes.”
His hips jerked. “Yes? Is that a request? Let’s see how sweetly you hate me after this.”
He slowed his thrusts and Ume’s head tossed on the ground. No. She needed more. She needed that frenzied out-of-control feeling back again. She didn’t want to think. She only wanted to feel.
His thumb, coated in her arousal, pressed between the cheeks of her ass. “I can take away most of the pain in here, Ume. Or just a little. I know how you like a touch of pain, don’t I?”
“Mmmmmm, oh I—oh!” Ume gasped as his thumb pressed inside her ass, stretching her, readying her for more.
She’d never imagined anything like this, never imagined she would love this feeling. The kitsune in her had no such limitations. It shouted for joy and rolled over onto its stomach, offering Ume up like a sacrifice.
“Oh, baby. Have I mentioned I hate how perfect you are for me?”
His cock slid out of her drenched sex, the head pushing inside the tight ring of muscles and filling her. Oh God, filling her so completely she could hardly breathe. The stinging stretch only added to the pleasure. A feeling unlike any she’d ever known. Too much. Not enough. Too far.
More.
She felt her tails wrap around his waist, pulling him closer, deeper and he cried out. “Yes, Ume. Damn, you’ll kill me.”
The tip of one tail pressed between his muscular cheeks, tracing the sensitive skin teasingly as he rocked inside her.
She knew the instant he lost control. His growl sounded feral, and she could see his red eyes in her mind. One hand gripped her hair, the other cupped her shoulder for purchase as he took her like a man possessed.
A demon possessed.
And Ume loved it. Every sensation, every stretch, brought her closer and closer to her release. She was leaping from the edge of that cliff and diving head first into the fire below. His name a scream on her lips.
“Saint.”
The sound of her voice triggered his own climax, sending him hurtling after her into that space where there was nothing but ecstasy. Nothing but this.
When it was done he collapsed beside her, pulling her into his arms and murmuring her name softly. Over and over again. Ume. Ume.
She wanted to stay this close to him forever. And that one thought gave her the strength she needed to go. When she could breathe again, she
tugged herself out of his arms and stood up. She looked down at her clothes, torn in some places but still on for the most part, and straightened her skirt.
“Ume?”
She couldn’t look at him. She didn’t dare. She wasn’t sure how she felt about anything. All she knew was she needed to go home. “You can put this scene on the wall now. Add it to my sins.”
She turned and ran down the hall and out the door, not stopping until she’d reached the arch and cried out, “Julie!”
A door of light appeared out of thin air, but Ume didn’t have time to marvel. She heard Saint calling her name, coming closer. She had to get out of his world.
She was crying as she walked through the doorway.
“Are we too late for the intervention?”
“Lower your voice, Thomas. He’s depressed not deaf.”
Saint wanted to smile as he listened to Mac and Thomas bickering outside his bedroom door. He wanted to, but he couldn’t. Couldn’t feel anything lately. Didn’t care.
He’d lost his treasure.
“Saint, we’re coming in.”
He looked up from his position on the bed to watch them all pouring into the room. Mac, Thomas, Liam. His eyes widened. Margo and Julie? Interesting.
Liam caught the direction of his glance. “She knows, Saint. I told her everything.” He shrugged helplessly. “She’s my mate.”
He noticed Julie blushing and it made him snort. Ah. A reaction. So still something in there after all. Damn it. “Congratulations.”
“He speaks.” Margo smiled at him compassionately. “We’ve been worried.”
“Why? I just wanted some alone time.”
Thomas pointed at him. “Hah. That’s how we know something is off.” He gestured around the room. “Notice anything else wrong with this picture? Saint, unplugged. No computer, no phone, no game system. And you’ve been like this for what? Two months? You can’t fool us, buddy. This is a full scale emergency.”
Mac was staring at him intently. Damn vampire empathy.
“Go away.”
“She misses you.” Julie’s soft voice had everyone turning in her direction, including Saint. “She’s better now. Stronger. The physical therapist has been shocked with how much stronger…but she misses you.”
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