40. Dagon
Chapter forty
Dagon
We were lying on the ground, Di sprawled on top of me, my arms and wings wrapped around us. This was where he belonged, in my arms and nowhere else.
When we accepted our mate bond, something that had been hollow for the past several years finally became complete. For a moment, it was like my entire being was torn parts, and then seamlessly put back together, intertwined with Diablos.
An invisible thread now connected us, and I could feel it vibrating softly. I'd always be able to feel it. It bound us, allowing me to sense his location, emotions, and possibly even communicate through it.
My heart thundered with happiness and love. My mind still struggled to grasp that this moment had finally arrived.
We were mated.
Di was mine, only mine, and I was his.
He nestled his head into my neck, sending a shiver of desire through me.
The sex we had after completing the bond exceeded anything we'd ever done.
Sex with Di was incredible, but this was beyond words.
Feeling him inside me, his thrusts, the movement of his hands over my body…
everything had been perfect. I couldn't decide what I enjoyed more, having Di inside me or being inside him.
When he came, I experienced something intense and wondered if he felt it too.
“Love?” I asked.
“Yeah?” He lifted his head, giving me a lazy smile.
The moonlight caught his eyes when he looked up at me, and I lost my breath for half a beat.
The brown was still brown — but underneath it, somewhere in the iris, there was a low gold-red shimmer that hadn't been there yesterday.
The mark of what he was now. The Archer.
My mate. Both at once, hidden in plain sight inside the eyes I had loved since I was twenty.
I would have to ask him later if he had noticed it in a mirror. For now I just looked.
Moving a strand of hair from his eyes and gently cupping his face, I asked, “Did you feel it? When you came inside me?”
“Feel what? Because I felt many things,” he teased, arching a brow.
“When we came, specifically when you filled me with your cum, I felt your pleasure as if it were mine. Everything felt intensified.”
“I did, and at one point, I thought it was too much. The pleasure was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.”
“Me too.”
I kissed him slowly, savoring every moment.
Stars twinkled above us, the moon bathing us in its soft glow. Di rested his head on my chest again, tracing patterns on my skin with his fingertips. Gazing upward, I wondered, how did we end up here? How did I get so lucky?
“Maybe I’m the lucky one,” Di said.
“You heard that?” I startled slightly.
“Hard not to hear when you said it out loud.”
“I didn’t.”
“What?” Di froze.
“I didn’t say it out loud. You heard my thoughts.”
“What!?” He jumped and tried to sit up quickly, but I held him firmly in place.
He'd gone very still under my hands. I could feel his pulse jump, actually jump, under the skin of his throat.
"It was in here," he whispered, tapping the side of his own head. "Not behind me. Not in front of me. In here. Like, like a thought that wasn't mine. Like remembering something I never lived. Fuck, Dagon, your voice was inside my head."
"I know," I said gently.
"I don't know what I expected the mate bond to feel like, but it wasn't your voice showing up in my brain unannounced." He laughed, small, shaky, awed. "How are humans supposed to handle this. How do demons handle this. Holy shit."
"Most demons never have it," I reminded him. "Mates are rare. The bond is rarer. You're holding something most of my kind dies without knowing."
That sobered him.
He let me pull him back down onto my chest.
“Relax, sweetheart. It’s the mate bond.”
“But how? Can you hear my thoughts too?”
I shook my head reassuringly. “No. You sense the thread between us, right?”
“Yeah, it’s a little bit strange. It feels like something I've been missing my whole life, finally making me whole. I can’t see it, I can’t touch it, but I feel it inside, binding us together.”
“I feel it too.” Kissing his nose, I kept talking, “When you want to say something to me telepathically, just reach out to the thread with your mind and speak.”
“Reach for it?” He looked puzzled but adorable. “How can I reach for it?”
“Close your eyes.” When he hesitated, I added softly, “Trust me.”
“I do.”
He closed his eyes, and I guided him gently, even though I was learning myself. Earlier, when he heard my thoughts, I'd instinctively touched our bond without realizing he'd hear me.
"Feel the thread between us. Take a moment. It's part of us. Then reach for it with your mind and speak."
I closed my eyes, becoming lost in the sensation until I heard him clearly in my head.
“You know, my demon, now that I can do this, I’ll constantly bug you with thoughts about books. No turning back now.”
Laughing softly, I opened my eyes to find him gazing at me tenderly.
“I love you with every part of me. Thank you for choosing me, for choosing to spend your life with me.”
“I love you too, Di. Thank you for choosing me. I’ll spend an eternity cherishing you and every second we have together.”
We smiled at each other, and I felt Di's relief. He'd been anxious about me hearing his intrusive thoughts. I felt the panic through our bond. I never want to make him afraid of being together with me. I would also never betray his trust by doing something he wouldn’t want.
"I won't reach in, and just read your thoughts" I added quietly, in case he needed to hear it out loud. "I promise you. Your head stays yours. Always."
He kissed the corner of my jaw in answer. Two parts of the same vow holding each other.
We cuddled quietly, basking in the bond, until Di suddenly jumped to his feet. Alert, I quickly stood up, looking around for danger.
“Holy shit, I can see!” Di exclaimed.
“What?” puzzled, I turned to him.
He was looking around the forest with an expression I had never seen on him. Not afraid. Not amazed. Confused. Like he couldn't reconcile what his eyes were telling him with what his brain expected.
"Dagon," he said slowly, "how far away is that tree?"
I followed his gaze. A pine maybe sixty feet through the underbrush.
"Sixty feet, give or take."
"I can… I can see the bark. The texture.
There's a knot in it. There's moss growing on the north side.
There's an ant on it." He turned slowly, taking the whole forest in.
The night had gone from black to silver-blue to legible for him.
"It's dark, Dagon. The moon's behind a cloud. It should be pitch. Why can I see? It’s dark, yet I can see like it’s a day.”
He looked around the forest in awe.
Realization struck. “Your vision improved. You accepted to bond with a demon after all,” I smirked, hauling him into my arms. “You’re a demon now, Di. Part of my powers are yours.”
“Holy shit, this is amazing. I can see details I could never before.” He stepped out of my embrace and kept looking with fascination around us. My eyes traveled down his body, and I admit I got distracted by his cock. Fuck, he looked so tasty and sinfully hot. He caught me staring.
“Dagon!”
“Yes, love?”
He smirked knowingly and slowly put on his clothes, intentionally teasing. Maybe he was the true-born demon here.
“What other powers might I have?” he asked when he was dressed. Why was he dressed?
“That I can’t answer, love. We will need to find out together.”
“Okay, let’s try something. Hit me.”
“What!?” I almost screamed. “Not a fucking chance.”
“Ugh, fine,” he relented.
“You hit me,” I retorted.
“Yeah, no, thank you.”
“You wanted me to hit you, but refuse to return the favor? Double standards?” He glared playfully, and I laughed. “Come on, do it, love. You won’t hurt me, I promise.”
I dressed quickly because my sweetheart was determined to learn more about his new powers.
I encouraged him again to hit me. When he finally swung at my stomach, I intentionally didn't block it, wanting to measure his strength.
His punch landed solidly, making me stumble back, groaning in pain. "Fuck."
"Oh, shit. Dagon!" Di rushed forward as I doubled over. "Are you okay? Damn it, I didn't mean to hurt you. Why didn't you block it?"
I caught the shake in his hands when he reached for me.
He wasn't just sorry. He was afraid.
I straightened, slower than I needed to, to make sure he saw I was fine.
To make sure his brain didn't get to spend the next hour rehearsing the punch and turning it into what if I'd hit him in the throat.
What if my new strength is the next thing my brain uses against him.
What if I'm the weapon now, in three new ways instead of one.
I could feel the spiral wanting to start through the bond. The thread between us went tight.
I caught his face in both hands.
"Di. Look at me. Look at my eyes. I am fine. I asked you to hit me. I let you. I wanted to know your strength so we could both know your body. You did nothing wrong. Do you hear me?"
He nodded but I felt the tension through the bond.
"Say it back to me. Out loud."
"I did nothing wrong," he whispered.
"Again."
"I did nothing wrong."
"One more."
"I did nothing wrong, Dagon."
I kissed his forehead. The thread loosened. Not all the way. But enough.
"I’m okay, my love. I wanted to see how strong you are. Hell, if you managed this, we can confidently say you're damn strong.”
“Are you sure you’re fine?” he bit his lip anxiously.
“I’m sure.” I kissed him tenderly, feeling him melt into my embrace. “Let’s go back to the house.”
“Okay.”
When we got back there, we tried other things. Di was curious about what else he could do.
“Do you want to try to summon Blue?” I asked.
“The little one who saved my life and who I wanted to kill for not letting me get to you?”
“Yes, that little one who is not little, by the way.”
“I know, I know. Yeah, I want to see him again. How do I try?”
“I feel a unique connection with him, different from ours. He’s a part of me. Try to pinpoint it and call him to you.”
Di closed his eyes and focused. I could tell he was struggling. “I can feel him, I think.”
“We can try later again,” I suggested.
“But I want to see him.”
“I can summon him. It’s no problem. With Blue, I’m not controlling him. He just listens to me, because he wants the best for me, because he's a part of me. And I do think at one point you'll be able to summon him, because you're a part of me too. The biggest part of me.”
He smiled and I noticed his eyes got glassy.
I summoned Blue. Purple-blue smoke swirled around us, revealing Blue's small dragon form. He bounded over happily. After greeting me, he settled contentedly into Di's lap. Di froze, unsure.
Blue tipped his head up and looked at Di. Not at me. At Di. His blue-purple eyes – the same color as his fire – narrowed in what I had spent fifteen years learning to read as recognition. Then he butted his small horned head against Di's chest. Once. Gently.
Di's hand came up, slowly, and rested on Blue's head.
"Hey, little guy," he said softly. "Thanks for not letting me run into that fight. And for the demon you incinerated on top of me. I owe you. A lot."
Blue puffed a small ring of blue smoke at him in answer. The dragon equivalent of anytime.
I laughed warmly. "You two look adorable."
“Umm, what should I do?”
“He likes you. Scratch behind his ears or on his back” Di tentatively lowered his hands and touched Blue’s head. Blue purred, and smoke came out of his nostrils. Di laughed and relaxed next to me.
Next, we tried fire. It turned out he couldn’t summon or control it.
“So basically, my only powers as a demon are seeing in the dark plus being super strong?”
“Don’t forget Blue,” I supplied.
“I don’t think he counts. He just likes me.” As if Blue agreed, he puffed, and blue-purple smoke filled the space around us.
“Blue,” I warned. He turned his back to me and curled on the bed. Talk about a moody dragon.
Even though Di was disappointed at lacking wings or horns, happiness radiated through our bond. Our love echoed around us and within us.
Somewhere, outside the warmth of this room, outside the bond humming between us, outside the small fire-dragon now snoring on the comforter…
the world was still moving. King was still sitting in his house with a family that didn't yet know what their brother and son had become, and what I always was.
Tomorrow we would have to go home.
Tomorrow we would have to tell them.
But tonight, tonight was ours.
We fell asleep entwined. Before closing my eyes, I kissed Di’s forehead, whispering through our bond, “I love you.”
“I love you too, my demon.”