36
EVIE
M y lungs burned. The forest floor was damp, the rain steady. Running was futile now. It was merely a performance. Kylo’s dark laughter echoed through the woods, and it made me feel stupid, childish—like an injured rabbit trying to outrun a wolf.
More than that, it was as if the universe itself was laughing at me. Taunting me. Because all I could do in this life was run, over and over again, even if the tactic didn’t make sense anymore.
My body moved, but I went nowhere.
The lesson was smacking me in the face at this point, even as I put my hands over my ears and shut my eyes to the truth.
In front of me, a shadow in the shape of a man appeared. I skidded to a stop, immediately turning to dart in the opposite direction.
I slammed into a rigid body. The air deflated from my lungs.
“Wanna try again?” Kylo asked. He looked down at my feet. “I may have to buy my adorable little forest nymph yet another pair of sneakers.”
I stared up into his eyes—and I saw something inside them that I didn’t recognize. It wasn’t fury or disappointment or any human emotion I could discern.
It was frighteningly vampiric. His pupils were dilated, his eyes a dark storm, his lips a smile that veered on the edge of psychopathic.
Cold terror coated my skin along with the rain. Because I didn’t see the man who brushed my hair with tenderness.
I saw a monster.
More laughter followed me as I took him up on his offer to run again. I knew I could use my power. I knew I wasn’t without defense.
But it was too risky. My power was what had attracted those born in the first place.
Kylo was right. About all of it. I needed training. I needed to stop running. Or I was going to put myself and everyone I loved in danger.
My legs continued to pump. Leaves and twigs crunched under my feet. Tears began to blur with the rain as they streaked down my cheeks, all of these pent-up emotions boiling over into a release that was more grief than violence.
This time, when a being appeared in front of me, he was solid. He was a dark god, a being that didn’t belong in this world. The bastard son of Lillian, a blasphemy of humanity.
Kylo bared his fangs, and his shadows shot through the air in smoke and whispers. They solidified around my limbs. I couldn’t yank free. The more I struggled, the tighter they became. My monster stalked forward, still grinning, his eyes more deranged than before.
He nearly looked like he was holding his breath.
“I told you what would happen if you ever tried to hide from me,” he growled. His voice boomed against the tall evergreens.
More and more shadows coiled around me like snakes.
“It was my only stipulation in the deal you proposed. You agreed to the terms of your own free will.”
I couldn’t think straight—couldn’t remember what he was talking about. His power was deafening, a call to bend at the knees.
And the sickest part of all was the way my core turned molten. The way my body craved him.
The way I’d wanted this monster to catch me.
Kylo’s nostrils flared. His gaze was piercing as it moved from my face to between my legs. A shadow teased between my thighs, and I whimpered.
At that noise, Kylo’s eyes nearly rolled back. He cursed.
Then he lunged.
I was on the ground with a hand around my throat before I knew what was happening.
“You. Will. Never. Be. Able. To. Hide. From. Me. Again.” His words scraped out of him as his jaw flexed, and his fingers squeezed the sides of my throat.
The bundle of nerves between my thighs ached. I channeled power to scald his hand.
When he released me with a hiss, he chuckled, his smile cruel. He peeled me off the forest floor and held me in his lap so that my back was to his chest. His power rattled my bones. I couldn’t channel, couldn’t resist him.
Not even when he leaned forward and sunk his fangs into his own wrist.
“No,” I whispered, my voice a scratchy rasp.
He was going to make me swallow those beads of crimson so that he would know where I was at all times—so I would be forever bound to him by blood.
I squirmed. Shadows coiled.
“Don’t you fucking move,” Kylo said.
The onyx limbs pulled my legs apart.
Blood spilled from Kylo’s wrist.
My next plea came out in a scream. “Please, no!”
In a blur of movement, he’d taken his opportunity to press his wrist up against my open mouth. I tried to clamp down, but the flesh of his arm prevented it. Strange-tasting, powerful copper flowed across my tongue.
“Swallow, baby,” Kylo said, his voice softer now.
His cock twitched against my ass, impossibly big and hard.
His other hand raked through my hair in soothing strokes. “Shh, shh, shh,” he soothed as I coughed and struggled and fought. “Be my perfect good girl and swallow. ”
My mouth pooled with blood and saliva. Tears ran down my cheeks. Cool air tickled my exposed skin beneath my drenched dress. Shadows still held my thighs apart, spread wide and bared to the dark, rainy forest.
Kylo forced my head back, and blood slid down my throat. Scrambling for air and on the verge of retching, I swallowed.
As soon as I did, Kylo started combing through my hair again. I swallowed more, and I stopped struggling. Depraved desire pooled in my stomach before traveling lower. I sucked in air. I leaned into Kylo’s soft touch.
“That’s it, angel. I knew you could be a good listener for me,” he cooed, kissing my head as his own breathing became shallow. His cock twitched again, pressing into my ass as he lightly rocked his hips.
He slowly removed his arm from my mouth, painting my lips with his blood as he did. The hand returned to my throat.
“You’re mine, Evie,” he whispered. “You were always mine. But now, your body has been marked the same as your soul.”
A shadow dipped beneath my soaked cotton panties. Another yanked them to the side, exposing me further.
I gasped as a cool, skin-like tip brushed my entrance.
“Good little angels get rewarded,” Kylo whispered into my hair, his voice still strained with lust.
My body was charged with electricity, my skin screaming for touch. I’d never felt more alive.
I’d never felt safer, more protected and held.
I arched my back, and the shadow limb plunged inside me.
A cry left my lips.
“Shh,” Kylo whispered. “You can take it.”
It was bigger than anything I’d ever had before, perhaps the size of three of Kylo’s fingers. I was full and panting and covered in blood, and I couldn’t get enough of it. I couldn’t get enough of him.
The only man capable of catching me—of forcing me to stop running when I couldn’t do it myself.
The shadow angled against that spot inside me that had me moaning and trembling. As it pumped, Kylo’s cock pressed harder against me. His teeth scraped the shell of my ear. The sharpened points of his fangs made me shudder.
His bloody hand dipped between my legs and found my clit.
“Fucking mine,” he growled.
My whimpers transformed into a scream as he targeted my clit and the shadow somehow grew inside me, filling me to my limit.
I bared down, my legs shaking as I fell over the edge and rode a wave of release for longer than I thought possible.
Kylo’s second hand covered my mouth, stifling my scream as he chuckled.
“With my blood and shadow inside of you, your veins flooded with your release and fear…” He groaned, hips still rocking. “I’ve never scented anything more maddening.”
His shadow slowly eased out of me, and I felt empty. I was drunk with pleasure and darkness. I needed more.
The shadows holding my legs were looser now. I made slow, careful movements, twisting to straddle Kylo. My core met the bulge in his pants as I locked my eyes on his. His hands dug into my hips. He flashed fangs as I pressed down.
“Evie…” he groaned. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
I glared. “Then teach me.”
Kylo’s eyes really did roll back this time. A muscle in his jaw feathered. “That is not what I meant, angel,” he said, as if each word scraped up his throat like glass. He cursed, his grip painful now as his fingers dug into my flesh. “You aren’t ready for me. Not yet. Not like this.”
I ground against his cock, my clit somehow still aching for more. “Please,” I begged, needing all of him.
Kylo’s eyes flew open. “Greedy little creature,” he growled. He tore down my dress, freeing my breasts as he squeezed each nipple.
I whimpered, and he grinned. He sucked one of the nipples into his mouth, swirling his tongue soothingly before scraping his fangs against the sensitive skin. I gasped, the pain transforming into pleasure in some wicked form of alchemy.
He stared angrily into my eyes. “You want to be taught another lesson, baby? Fine. Get on your knees and open your mouth.”
My heart stumbled. I did as I was told, feeding off his praise, desperate to please him like he only continued to pleasure me without any reward.
“Good girl,” he said, brushing a thumb over my parted lips. “Wider.”
I opened my mouth wider. My gaze dropped to his pants, where he was unbuckling his belt. Anticipation was a forceful sensation in my blood. I’d fantasized about seeing him—all of him—every day since we met, no matter how many times the thoughts felt like a curse that plagued me against my will.
I wanted to taste him just as he so desperately wished to taste me.
His cock sprung free, and I couldn’t help but gasp. My eyes went wide.
It was larger than my imagination had allowed, thick, hard and dangerous in a way that made my mouth water on instinct.
Kylo gripped my hair at the base of my scalp. He sharply inhaled. “Having second thoughts, baby?”
I gazed up at him.
Another unconscious groan left his lips when my eyes found his. His grip on my hair tightened, and his other hand slowly stroked his length.
“Why is it so big?” I blurted, my cheeks instantly reddening.
Kylo looked two seconds away from unraveling, and the sight of it drove a mix of fear and lust to my core. He chuckled darkly.
“Gods above, Evie,” he hissed. He moved forward, painting my lips with the beads of moisture at his tip. “Taste me.”
I licked my lips, letting the saltiness coat my tongue. I swallowed down my fear and kept my mouth open as Kylo praised me.
He entered my mouth slowly as I acclimated to the size of him.
“That’s my sweet angel,” he said, his voice raw as his body shuddered with pleasure. “Misbehaving brats get their throats fucked.”
His cock slid in deeper.
“But you’ve already paid for your transgressions by letting me claim you with my blood, so I’m going to warm you up first,” he said. He slowly rocked in and out as my eyes watered. “Breathe, angel. Relaxing makes it easier.”
The way he was teaching me, as if I were one of his students being tutored, made me slick with need in the most perverse of ways.
I tried to inhale as he sunk deeper. A primal noise escaped his throat as he held me in place, forcing me to take every inch.
When I gagged, his cock only throbbed inside my mouth—as if Kylo enjoyed the noise, reveling in my discomfort.
“Look up at me,” he said, the command throaty and swimming with desire.
I met his eyes, and he gave me another inch. I tried to pull away, but he kept me still, hushing me and consoling me as tears ran down my cheeks.
“So fucking pretty.” He showed me his fangs, his tongue running across them as if soothing some kind of ache. “You are so fucking pretty with my cock shoved down your throat, tears running down those rosy cheeks, and my blood smeared across your lips.”
He raised the intensity, pumping in and out, a little deeper and faster each time. When I gagged and struggled, he gave me a break to suck in air.
Drool dribbled down my skin. A shadow crept between my legs, rubbing against my clit.
“The pleasure will help you take more,” Kylo explained.
I moaned, and Kylo was more violent with his next thrust, turning my moan into a gurgle as he smiled down at me wickedly.
My hips rocked against the shadow, and the pleasure did allow me to take more of Kylo as he used me mercilessly.
Suddenly his grip on my hair tightened, his cock lodged deep, and his shadow yanked back as I struggled.
“Do you understand what almost happened to you in these woods, Evie?” he suddenly growled as I choked on him. “Do you understand what those born demons would’ve done to you if I hadn’t arrived? They could’ve tortured and killed you for what you are. They could’ve subdued your power and taken you as a slave.”
I felt his raw anger with every violent thrust.
“Nod if you fucking understand me, angel,” Kylo said through a clenched jaw, glaring down at me.
With his cock down my throat and his grip on my head, I managed a tiny nod.
“I can feel every beat of your wounded, frightened heart, little one,” Kylo said. “I will be able to hear it no matter how far away you are until the end of time.”
I should’ve hated his guts, but I didn’t. Something tight inside me yielded, like a long exhale.
“You will never be unsafe again. I will protect you forever.”
I looked up into his hooded eyes—those deep blue pools of certainty, possessiveness, and violence.
The tip of shadow was back between my thighs, coaxing me back toward release.
He must’ve seen it in my face—the submission, the crumbling of that defensive fortress—the one whose walls he’d vaulted right over.
Kylo had already burrowed himself deep inside me, before he’d forced his blood down my throat. Only the gods could rid me of him now.
I moaned against him as I fell over the edge. My body trembled with the force of my second orgasm.
Kylo’s cock jerked violently. “Swallow every last drop, baby.”
With a growl, he unloaded into my mouth, coating my tongue with his cum. He withdrew slowly, and I did as I was told.
He scooped me into his arms. His lips brushed my forehead and then my lips. “You are perfect, Evie.” His voice was soft as it skated across my skin, and I melted into his arms. “I think I’ve always been waiting for you. My soul recognized yours the moment I saw you.”
My hand trembled as it reached for his face, and he leaned into my touch with a small smile.
I almost kept my mouth closed. I almost chose to hide again.
“My soul knows yours too,” I whispered to The Devil who held me in his clutches.
Kylo looked at me like I was the cosmos itself, as if I held his every last dream in my palms.
“Let me in, Evie,” he said. “Let me love you.”
I went rigid in his arms, my lips parting. He hadn’t said the words—not quite. But it was close enough to make me squirm, to make fearful tears bloom in my eyes.
I kissed him. I locked my lips with his as if I could taste the truth in his skin. As if I could ascertain the weight of his words and guarantee he wouldn’t abandon me, that he really was going to keep me safe, that he wasn’t just using me for some game of power.
Memories reached from the abyss—from a farmhouse in the rolling hills in the countryside—and I kept that door locked tight.
Kylo broke away. “Why are you crying, sweet girl?”
I needed to know that the past wouldn’t repeat itself. I wanted to beg him to reassure me, but that would mean I’d need to open the door and reveal what I’d locked away long ago.
I shook my head. “I don’t want to love you.”
Kylo smiled. “Well, that’s too bad.”