CHAPTER SEVEN
Saylor
It’s two days later when I get back to my house and find Bane, sitting on the edge of my bed, his head in his hands. He’s dressed in his usual all black, his muscles straining against his tunic.
“Bane,” I whisper, moving toward him. I like coming home to find him here. He lifts his dark eyes to me, and I straddle his lap, wrapping my arms around him, my gloves running through his thick, dark hair. He holds me tightly like I’m his lifeline. He looks tired and drained. I hate that I left him alone in my bed the other morning. Can I trust him? Let him in? I’m exhausted, and not just because I managed to track down and kidnap Jagger from the strip club last night.
“Sunshine,” he rasps with a deep sigh.
“Are you okay?” I ask him as he gently nuzzles my neck, breathing in my skin’s scent.
“I am now,” he rasps, kissing my neck. “Sunshine, I need—”
The banging on my front door has my head snapping toward it. Bane makes a pained sound deep in his throat.
“Saylor! We have a lead. We need to go now ,” I hear Sage call out, banging again. “And why the fuck am I warded out?”
Fuck.
“All you have to do is invite him in,” Bane says, his lip twitching.
“You meddled with my wards?” I ask, grinning.
He rests his forehead against mine. “Have to protect my woman.”
My heart melts.
Fuck it.
I’m going to tell him everything. We can’t go on like this, and I don’t want to hurt him.
My brother bangs again.
“Will you be here when I get back?” I ask him, kissing his lips. “Wait for me. There’s heaps of food in the kitchen if you get hungry.”
“I’ll try,” he replies, licking his lips. My lips touch his forehead.
A gentle vow.
Pulling myself away from him, I rush out after my brother.
Shadow.
Focus on Shadow.
And after he’s found, I can give everything I am to my mate.
***
Bane is gone when I make it back home a few hours later. Deciding to go and hunt him down for once, I find myself standing outside the castle gates in Chaos, the Incubus Kingdom capital. I’ve been here once before for an event years ago, but it’s nothing like I remember. The castle is surrounded by mountains as far as the eye can see, and the view is incredible. The weather? Not so much. The sky is gray and gloomy. The air is thick and muggy, almost suffocating.
There are two guards standing at the gate. “Hello, I’m here to see Bane, please.”
The male on the right arches his brow as he gives me a once-over. He has green eyes and hair so blond it’s almost white. “And who might I say is here to see him?”
“Saylor.”
After standing here for ten minutes, I decide to take matters into my own hands. Sliding off my gloves, I stare at the tattoos on my palms. The left one has a key in the middle of it, and the right has a lock. Pressing them together, I close my eyes and picture what I want the guards to see.
In my mind, I’m now in a different realm, one I can completely control and manipulate. I can make anyone see what I want them to see. Other than Bane, apparently.
Once I’ve created and locked in the illusion in my mind, I twist the lock in my palm to the right, locking it in place. Then, I slide the gloves back on. If I don’t lock my made-up reality in place, I could get lost in it. That’s why I always wear the gloves. With the material in between, I can’t accidentally touch my palms and produce fucking mayhem. The only time I don’t need to do this is if the illusion is just me changing myself. That magic comes to me quite naturally.
Leaving an illusion of me waiting patiently at the gate like a good girl, I zip myself into an open window above. Glancing around, it’s clear I’m in a male’s bedroom, but from the scent, I don’t think it’s Bane’s. The bed takes up most of the room, enough to fit at least five people, and is draped in velvet sheets.
“Well, what do we have here?” A deep voice rasps as the bathroom door to the right opens. My head turns to see a male standing there, one with long brown hair and green eyes. He’s wearing nothing but a pair of pants, sitting low on his hips. His abs look like they’ve been sculpted from stone. I don’t know many incubi, but I do know that they recharge their magic through lust and sex, and the sexual vibes this one gives off are something fierce. He gives me a slow once-over, his gaze lingering on my breasts.
I cross my arms over my chest and raise my brows. “I’m looking for Bane.”
“And who are you?” he asks, leaning against the doorframe and studying me, his arms resting on the wood above his head, showing off his ripped biceps.
Yeah, he’s hot.
But he’s not Bane, and I feel nothing.
“Saylor.”
The sexual tension from him dries up like my vagina when a man asks me if I can change into someone else for the night to mix things up.
And yes, I’ve been asked that before.
Multiple times.
He lets go of the frame and comes to stand in front of me. The next words that come out of his mouth take me back. “So you’re his selfish little mate who keeps running away and won’t even feed him.”
“What the fuck are you talking about? The man can’t make himself his own fucking sandwich? He lives in a castle. I’m sure that he is well—”
Fed.
Oh fuck.
Demon.
Blood.
“Why didn’t he say anything?” I snap as the realization hits me. “And who the fuck are you?”
All the times he kissed, sucked, and looked at my neck like he wanted to devour me, he actually did.
He was hungry.
For my blood.
“I’m Axe,” he says, his green eyes narrowing. “His brother. And does he look like the type to beg someone for something?”
Now that he mentions it, he tried to tell me something before I left with Sage.
Was he going to tell me he needed to feed?
Fuck.
I’ve messed up. I’ve been a shitty mate, and I’ve been so focused on my own shit I didn’t even consider the fact that Bane needed blood.
This is exactly why I knew the timing was all off to meet him.
“Where is he?” I demand to know.
Axe’s tongue darts out over his bottom lip. “You think you are worthy of him?”
“The fates think so.”
“You haven’t bonded with him yet.”
“That’s none of your fucking business. We will do it in our own time,” I snap.
“ Your own time, you mean.”
“You’re a dick,” I mutter.
“Can you fight?”
“Yes.”
“Strong magic?”
“Probably stronger than you.”
“Doubtful. Can you cook?”
“No.”
That’s a straight-out lie.
We don’t tell men we can cook. Then they try to hire us for free.
I definitely can cook and bake. With that many brothers, I had to find a way to make them do my bidding growing up. Salem’s weakness is strawberry cheesecake, Silver’s is chocolate biscuit pudding, and Sage’s is chocolate brownies with ice cream. Shadow’s was honey cake.
Plus, I live to eat, and sometimes I have to make my own shit since I’m not living in the castle anymore. Independent woman and all that.
“What a shame,” he mutters, making me want to punch him in the face.
“Enough with the questions. Where is he?”
When he hesitates to answer, a bad feeling slivers down my spine. “He had to feed. He’s waited too long. He was weak, Saylor.”
He went to feed from another female.
The thought makes me feel sick, my stomach twisting into knots, my chest tight.
“Where can I find him?”
He’s mine.
His happy little blood donor is on her way.