Runes of Mortality: A Reverse Harem Urban Fantasy (A Demon's Fall series Book 2)

by G. Bailey

  “Even for me?” I tease, and he doesn’t answer as I kick my boots off and remove my leggings and bra before getting into the bed with him. Connor pulls me towards him, pressing our bodies together as my head naturally rests on his chest.

  “By the way, I like to sleep on the right. I was just messing with you,” I grumble against his chest.

  “I would have moved to the right if you wanted,” he says. The liar.

  “No, you wouldn’t have,” I call him out on it.

  “You’re right, Blue,” he chuckles, and not much later do I fall asleep to the sound of his heavy breathing.

  Evie

  I wake up to the sweet smell of bacon and lying on what I can only assume is the most comfortable bed in the world. I blink my eyes open to see light golden hair right in front of me, and I quickly realise I’m lying on top of Connor as I use a hand to gently rub my eyes. I must have climbed him like a monkey in the night or something. I hold in a groan when I move a little and feel his hard length pressed right up against me. Stupid female hormones making me a mess. And being surrounded by hot guys, that doesn’t help one bit. Connor grumbles in his sleep, stopping my internal thoughts, and his hands tighten on my hips. I can’t help myself when I rub a little against his hard length, the pleasure rolling through me is amazing.

  “If you keep doing that, I’m going to be ripping those lacy panties off and sliding inside you. Which kind of defeats the point of us going slow,” Connor protests and rolls us over, so he is lying on top of me. His blond hair is a sexy kind of messy, matching his gold eyes that are streaming with desire. He presses his length into me once more, and I moan from the intense feeling.

  “Sorry, kinda not sorry. It’s been a long time and I’m just…” I drift off, knowing he understands and a smirk stretches his lips up, making his sexy dimples pop out.

  “Let me give you what you want, fuck, I’m dying to taste you, but it’s only going to be about you. I need to know we will be much more than just once before we go further, Blue,” Connor grumbles, leaning down and kissing my chest right above my breasts. I give him a single nod when he lifts his head to look up at me, and he slides under the blanket, the sound of him ripping my underwear off a second later fills the silent room. I gasp as he roughly pushes my legs apart, diving in between my legs like a starving man. His tongue swirls around my clit, and it doesn’t take long before I’m moaning loudly and bucking on the bed. His one arm holds my waist down and the other slides up my chest, grabbing my right breast, his talented fingers finding my nipple. I bite my lip as the pleasure overwhelms me and everything blacks out for a second in the ecstasy. When I come back, Connor is climbing his head out of the sheets and holding himself above me. He then climbs off me to my side, pulling me against him, kissing my forehead.

  “Thank you,” I breathlessly mumble against his chest, which vibrates with laughter.

  “You don’t have to thank me, Blue. That was all my pleasure,” he tells me, and I snuggle into his chest, enjoying the warmth until three loud knocks on the door interrupt our silence.

  “One minute,” I shout, climbing out of bed, and Connor just puts his hands behind his head, not having a care in the world. I pick my leggings up off the floor, slip them on and straighten my tank top before cracking the door open a bit. Trex is stood outside the door, his arms crossed, and his eyes narrowed into angry slits.

  “Training in the basement. Ten minutes,” he bites out and storms off out of sight. I shut the door with a sigh, and go to sit on the bed, pulling my socks on.

  “Trex never shared anything, not even weapons when we used to train,” Connor says. His comment isn’t random, and I know what he means and suggests. It’s not uncommon for demon women to have more than one mate in their lives, and I grew up seeing it almost everywhere. Demons were, and are, hunted so much. Women demons are usually the weakest; therefore, they end up being the ones dead more often. There just weren’t enough demons, so naturally women ended up with more than one demon interested in them as a mate. I turn slightly on the bed so Connor can see how serious I am as I talk.

  “Trex can rather learn to share, or he doesn’t get to play at all. Anyways, I get the feeling he doesn’t want me,” I state.

  “Is sexy teacher Evie going to teach him to share?” Connor snickers.

  “Something like that,” I wink, and he boisterously laughs.

  “Go and get him then. I will make breakfast for you when you’re done, and you are wrong about Trex wanting you,” he tells me.

  “See, one of my guys is already well-trained,” I say, and Connor’s eyes widen a little at my statement. “Shit, I didn’t mean to—”

  “I’m one of your guys. I’m pretty sure we both know that. It was a nice shock to hear you announce it,” he stops me in the middle of my speech to say. Connor stretches over the bed, pressing a gentle kiss on my lips and leaning back.

  “Got it,” I whisper and clear my throat, standing up and walking to the door. This is too much feeling this early in the morning. I wink once at Connor, who looks very pleased with himself, before leaving the bedroom. I stop off at the bathroom to freshen up and put my hair up in a tight ponytail. I walk out the bathroom and smile over at Azi, Nix and Hali sitting around watching morning tv. Azi catches my eye as I make my way to the basement. He mouths ‘good luck’, making me want to chuckle, but I hold it in as I open the door. Time to see exactly how pissed off Trex is.

  Evie

  “You are two minutes late,” Trex snaps at me as I get to the bottom step. I cross my arms and keep my head high as I stare him down. Trex is stood in the middle of the room on a mat, his hands wrapped in white bindings. The bright white lights glare down on him, showing the sweat dripping down his muscular arms and the way every bit of his body looks tense and strung up. Trex has shaved his hair at the sides and back of his head and trimmed the top, somehow making the already deadly attractive man sexier.

  “Two minutes never killed anyone, Trexy,” I say, purposely using the name I know winds him up. If he is going to pick a fight, I might as well play.

  “Get in here and fight me. We need to train, you can’t be sloppy with what is coming for us. If you want to be queen, you need to be the best and strongest Protector. Which you are not right now,” he states, his voice cold and lacking any emotion. I feel like we suddenly don’t know each other as I maintain eye contact with him. He has thrown a wall up between us, and I know it is because of what happened with Connor, which he no doubt heard. I want to think he is jealous, that there might be something between us other than this hateful tension, but I doubt it. Connor was wrong.

  “If I remember right,” I drawl as we start to circle each other like we have fought a million times, “I won the last fight.”

  “I let you. Why would I kill you when I needed your help in Hell? I won’t go so easy on you now, Evie,” he tells me with a revengeful glint in his eyes. I chuckle, shaking my head and not believing a word of his bullshit. He runs at me, and when I spin out of the way, he impresses me by predicting the move and catching my arm. I use the pressure of his grip to fling myself around him and jump on his back. He flips me over onto the mat, effortlessly, and holds his hands on his hips as he grins down at me. I smirk and swing both my legs into his, knocking him to the ground, and jump on his back before he can roll over. I hold him down, leaning close to his ear to breathlessly whisper.

  “You’re too cocky, Trexy,” I quip. He moves from under me so quick that I don’t get a chance to stop him as I fall to the ground. I roll over only to have him pin me down on the mat with a grunt escaping his lips as I knee him in his balls. Cheap shot, I know, but worth it to see the pain on his cocky face.

  “You drive me mad, you know that? I fucking hate how you drive me mad,” he tells me, his words slightly breathless as he keeps his head close to mine. We both just stare at each other, his musky, peppermint scent taking over my senses. I look away, only to come face to face with his runes on his arms. Trex has the sa
me as mine, but they somehow look like so much more. I want to ask about the black rune as I stare at it, but he grabs my chin with his other hand and makes me look at him.

  “You were jealous. This is what this is all about,” I state, knowing he is going to deny it. As suspected, he narrows his eyes, pulling back a little so he is resting his hands on either side of my head.

  “I don’t get jealous,” he growls out, and I only raise my eyebrows as I observe his green eyes that are full of obvious denial.

  “You do, and did,” I point out, and he shakes his head. He doesn’t look at me, as he climbs off me and sits on the mat. I sit up and cross my legs, waiting for whatever he clearly wants to tell me. He starts harshly undoing his bindings, and I move closer, pulling his hand to my lap, and begin doing it for him. I don’t know why I want to help, and I don’t even look at him when he lets me.

  “Connor and Nix…they are my family. You get that?” he finally says, as I undo the binding and pause, finally understanding his anger. “I have to protect them. I always have, and I always will. Family means everything to me.”

  “You think I am going to split your family up?” I ask quietly, understanding what he’s saying without him spelling it out. I can see his point of view, relationships with more than one person don’t usually work out well, and I’m not the easiest person to be around.

  “I know you will. I won’t let you ruin us because you decide you only want one of us in the end. Or you leave with Azi. Connor would be crushed; he can’t lose anymore, and he has already left his mother in prison to save Hali for you. Connor knows Erica might use his mother against him, but he is still here for you. Nix and me…we went through a lot as kids. Fuck, even more as teenagers,” he explains to me, and I can’t believe I forgot what Connor told me about his mum being locked up. I sit back a little, clearing my throat with the guilt I feel. I will get Connor’s mum freed. Somehow.

  “Nix told me about what happened with your father…” I carefully say into the tense silence in the room.

  “Nix doesn’t remember everything. He was so young, and it was my job as the older brother to protect him…and our sister,” he says, the words sounding painful and full of regret as they leave his lips.

  “It was not your job to protect them, you were only a child,” I argue, knowing a child cannot be expected to protect anyone from the kinds of things he must have gone through.

  “The day it happened, I had been out playing football with some other Protectors. See, there was a girl I was trying to impress with my footy skills, and I didn’t want Nix to come. I thought he would embarrass me,” Trex humourlessly laughs. “I made him stay at home, and fuck, it’s a decision I wish I could change. I was a stupid kid.”

  “You saved him in the end,” I comment quietly, feeling his intense stare on me as I finish the bindings on his one hand and scoot across the floor a little to start his other hand.

  “I walked into my once happy home, seeing my mother dead on the floor, her hands wrapped around her cut throat. There was so much blood and I just attacked my father. He knocked me away like a bug, and I knew he was going to kill me. Nix was screaming in fear as he ran into the room, and it took me a few moments to even notice he was there. I just knew my father was going to kill him too, his hand still had the dagger he used to kill my mother with as he walked over me as I was trying to find a way to get to Nix. I saw a dagger on the floor near my mum, one she no doubt tried to save herself with. My father didn’t even notice that Nix had picked it up and he had stabbed him in the back, not at first. When I ran to Nix, pulling him to me, my father looked down at his chest like he could see the dagger and then back to me. The betrayal and hate in his eyes still fucking haunts me,” he mutters the end part, shaking his head like he is trying to make the memory leave him. “I should have protected Nix.”

  “I understand the feeling of being haunted by your past. Everything I’ve done…sometimes it feels like it suffocates me,” I say, opening up to him a little and feeling confused about why I even decided to tell him that. Trex doesn’t reply to me, he only places his hand over mine for a brief second.

  “We cannot escape the past and what we did. I sometimes wish I could redo this life, make better choices, but in the end, I know life was not given to me to be easy,” he says.

  “Life has never been easy. It has been a fight, and what scares me most…when the fight is over, what will I do?” I humourlessly chuckle to myself.

  “My sister walked into the room, seeing our parents and me holding Nix. I grabbed her as she screamed, pulling her to me and Nix. I made a vow to myself. A vow to never let them down again. I’ve already failed them once when my sister died, and I won’t let Nix down again,” he says, going completely cold on me again. I’ve been pushed away somehow in the blink of a simple sentence.

  “You see me as a threat,” I figure.

  “Nix…he is complicated. If he doesn’t want to share you with Connor and Azi, he will be destroyed by you. Or worse, you decide you don’t want him. I will lose him,” he informs me.

  “I can’t make you any promises. I don’t know how I feel or what I want, but you cannot tell me what to do. If you told me a year ago that I’m a goddamn princess, half angel and that I like four guys at the same time, I would have hit you with something as I laughed,” I say, and to my surprise he laughs a little.

  “Four?” Trex asks, somewhat softly in a gruff voice.

  “You may be an asshole, but I’m coming to understand you a little better. We are pretty alike, you know?” I remark, not wanting a answer.

  “I won’t hurt my best friend or brother. No matter what I feel or want,” he replies, his voice gone completely emotionless once again.

  “Got it. I’m not them, I don’t mean as much as them to you. I’m used to that feeling,” I say, dropping his hand.

  “You could mean everything, but this isn’t just about what we want or need, Evie. My family is everything,” he says, his words a whisper, but he means every single one of them. Trex doesn’t stop me as I walk out the basement, hiding my emotions, and trying not to let his words affect me. What did I expect? For them to just choose me or something? I’m not the girl the guys choose at the end. I’ve always known that, and it’s about time I focus on the important things. Like revenge.

  Evie

  “Wow, flipping hell,” Connor coughs out as I walk into the lounge and finish clipping the last dagger to my hip. I frown as I look around at everyone staring at me, and finally at Hali who comes out the kitchen with Star. Star runs to me, sitting at my side as I rub her head. I don’t know how, but I swear Star has somehow gotten bigger in the last day. If she keeps growing like this, I’m going to need one hell of a massive bed for her to sleep in.

  “You look like Cat Woman, you know, without the cat ears. Though you do have the coolest cat,” Hali points out, and I frown at her, looking around the room at the guys who are all still staring.

  “I needed something lightweight and easy to move in, so I made a portal to the local village and found this outfit in a store,” I shrug, leaving out that the store was some kind of sex shop which was kinda creepy and awesome at the same time. Nix clears his throat.

  “You look stunning, love,” Nix states, and stands up to clip his sword onto a holder on his back. I notice that he is the only one dressed to fight, but then again Azi never dresses for a fight as he looks scary as he is. I quickly run my eyes over Nix’s tight black clothes that show me his toned body, the visible tattoos on his neck and arms matching the outfit. I have to ask him to show me his tattoos at some point. “But we haven’t discussed how to break into the Protectors’ city. The ward is a massive wall and surrounds the entire city.”

  “Not to mention Erica will have people looking for us since we stole Hali,” Connor points out. I go to ask how they managed to get Hali out, and use that way to get in, when an idea springs to mind.

  “Wall? Not a dome?” I ask, tilting my head to the side as a very
good plan runs through my head.

  “Yes…” Trex replies with a hint of sarcasm.

  “Okay. Well I only want one of you with me when I go in, and I know just how to,” I say with a big happy grin. The guys all flash me questioning stares, but Azi just grins. He knows exactly what I’m thinking of.

  “I am going with you,” Nix states firmly, and Azi is the first one to react.

  “Yeah, that is not happening,” Azi growls as Trex and Connor quietly chat between themselves. “Evie is not being put in danger without me there.” I walk over to Azi, sitting on the edge of his chair. I know that he is just scared to lose me again, even if the big bad demon won’t say that out loud.

  “You can’t go. There are demon alarms which will trigger if you attempt to enter the city,” Nix tells him. I place my hand on Azi’s shoulder before he can argue, and I give him a warning look.

  “We need the keeper, who won’t likely help me with an overlord demon at my side. They are right. You can’t go there with me this time, but Nix isn’t a totally bad fighter. You saw him in Hell, he will be my backup,” I say, and Trex coughs out a laugh in the background as I wait for Azi to agree. His eyes roam my face before looking at Nix and back to me.

  “Fine,” Azi replies to me, getting up off the chair and walking over to Nix, whispering something low to Nix that I can’t hear before going to lean against the wall. Connor gets up and comes over, handing me a tablet as I stand up. He clicks it on to reveal a map, and Azi looks over my shoulder as he comes to my side.

  “I’ve marked where you will need to go, but I need to know where you will be entering the city. I think this wall is—” he starts off.

  “We aren’t going through any wall,” I comment, and wave my hand. I take the tablet off Connor, zooming back out and looking at the building we need. It is right in the middle of all the high rises, and perfect for my plan. I fixate the memory of the tower into my mind before handing it to Nix who has a rucksack on.