Chapter Twelve
Archer
W hile Aaliyah is watching Tyson reunite with his lovers, I watch her.
After all, it’s what I spend most of my time doing, isn’t it? Lucky for me, Naomi enjoys watching her just as much as I do.
Jealousy radiates off Aaliyah, and I can’t help wondering what’s making her the most jealous. Is it the fact that the three of them are touching Tyson? Even though she’d deny it until she was blue in the face, it’s clear that she’s found some kind of connection with the dragon. I’ve already had to deal with my own bout of jealousy over him. I hadn’t been able to tear my eyes off the two of them that night at the bar. The way they moved together; the way their bodies reacted.
I wanted it to be me she was dancing with. I wanted it to be me she was lusting after.
It used to be me, and it’s all my fault that it’s not me now.
Shaking my head, I force my thoughts away from the past. Now isn’t the time to think of it.
The other possibility is that Aaliyah is jealous of the connection the four of them share. It’s clear they love one another, and that they didn’t doubt Tyson would come to their rescue. What they share would be clear from space, so there’s no way for us to miss it.
Naomi and I can offer that to Aaliyah if she would just give us a chance. If she would just hear me out and let me explain what really happened back then, I know she’d be willing to give me a second chance. Naomi is already getting under her skin, as she’s known to do. My demoness is nothing if not persistent, I would know.
Unable to leave the underworld to search out Aaliyah, I’d become a shadow of my previous self—pun fully intended—especially since I knew my actions weren’t solely my own. Godsdamned arrogant gods messing where they shouldn’t be. Who has ever heard of a god interfering in the life of a demon? Not me. At least not until it happened.
I don’t even know when or how I caught Naomi’s attention, but one day she sat down beside me at the bar and refused to leave until I bought her a drink. Then, it wasn’t until I would tell her my name. And then, until I told her something about myself. I’m sure you get the point. I certainly wasn’t looking for someone to bring to my bed—not when my heart was still with Aaliyah.
Only, Naomi wormed her way into it as well. I’ve always believed our hearts are big enough to love more than one person at a time, but my love for Aaliyah had turned into an obsession I couldn’t shake. Not even once the god finally left me alone. Somehow, Naomi retaught me a healthy way to love someone while I fell in love with her.
When I told her the whole story about what happened with Aaliyah, she was the one to suggest we return earthside so we could convince her to join us, except I wasn’t allowed to leave the underworld for hundreds of years. Naomi considered coming on her own before declaring she would be by my side the entire time, even while I couldn’t leave the realm we’d been born to. I thought it was too much, but she didn’t care.
She’s too good for me, just like Aaliyah, but I’m selfish. There’s no way I’m letting either of them go.
What can I say? I’m a demon, after all.
A grin tugs at my lips as I turn my attention to Naomi. She grins as she meets my eyes before turning her attention back to Aaliyah, who now looks poised to run as all attention turns to her.
“Who do we have here?” the blonde woman asks as she saunters forward, as if she hadn’t just been through who knows what. “They’re all very pretty, Tyson. Did you bring us presents? Ohhhh, you brought us a daddy too?”
I feel a blush creep up my neck as her eyes land on me with her last words. My cock is also harder than it should be.
“River,” the dark-skinned man groans, pulling her back against his chest. “Do you have to flirt with every person you meet?”
“Just the hot ones,” she chirps with a grin. “And you can’t tell me he doesn’t look like a daddy.”
The man doesn’t answer out loud, but if the smirk he wears while he eyes me up and down is anything to go off of, he agrees.
I’m never getting my cock down now.
Naomi’s sultry laughter fills the room. “You can flirt with me any time you’d like, pretty girl.”
“Okay, that’s enough,” Tyson huffs as he steps forward, gesturing for the others to join him as he stops in front of us. “This is my family. The flirt is River, a water nymph—“
“And nymphomaniac,” the one with the long platinum hair mutters, and I have to fight back a laugh.
Tyson’s eyes narrow as he glares at the man. “The one who thought he was being quiet but certainly was not, is Reid. He’s a kelpie. Then there’s Hayes, a dryad.”
“Aren’t dryads supposed to be women?” I blurt out, already shaking my head before I finish the question. “Shit. I’m sorry. That was a dumb question. Please ignore me.”
River grins up at me. “What if I don’t want to ignore you, Daddy?”
My cock jumps, eyes widening again as I turn my attention to Naomi and Aaliyah, who are both fighting back laughter.
“Behave, sprite.” Tyson slaps River’s ass before turning back to us. “This is Archer and Naomi, shadow demon and nightmare, respectively. And this is Aaliyah, and I have no idea what the fuck she is.”
Reid perks up at Aaliyah’s name, his gaze hungry as it trails over her body, causing me to clench my jaw. Just what I need—another man lusting over the woman I love.
“This is Aaliyah?”
River ducks away from Tyson and moves over to stand in front of Aaliyah. When she speaks, she’s practically purring. “Tyson, you did not do her justice when you told us about her. I think you might be the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”
Aaliyah just blinks at the smaller woman, who has to be at least six inches shorter than the woman I wish was still mine. “I… Uhhh…” She glances around the room with wide eyes before she uses her smoke form and disappears into a vent.
I chuckle, drawing the others’ eyes to me. Tyson is frowning as he glares at me. “What’s so funny, demon?”
“Aaliyah isn’t one much for emotions. She was likely feeling overwhelmed so she did what she does best—she ran.”
“And how do you know that, demon? Because you’ve been fucking stalking her?” Tyson takes a step in my direction, chest puffed up.
I shrug, his anger not worrying me in the least. “No, that’s not how I know. It’s because we were once lovers—more than lovers, really.”
All four of them are staring at me now.
“You were but…” River prods, and I sigh. I didn’t anticipate having to explain myself to four people who are practically strangers, but since I know they’re going to end up important to Aaliyah, I relent. If I intend to be in her life, I need them to understand what happened between us, and preferably win them to my side.
“I know Aaliyah hasn’t told you what she is, Tyson, and I won’t be the one to spill her secrets, but let’s just say she’s very long-lived, just as we are.” I gesture to myself and Naomi. “I met Aaliyah for the first time about fifteen hundred years ago.”
Four sets of eyes widen, but it’s Hayes who clears his throat and speaks first. “I’m sorry. Did you just say fifteen hundred years ago as in five hundred more than a thousand?”
I laugh as I nod. “As I said, we’re long-lived. We ran across one another, and she didn’t care much for me at first. Something about me being too arrogant—she wasn’t wrong. But it was the first time anyone had called me on it. I was enchanted. I only had her first name, so it took me over a hundred years to hunt her down. She wasn’t exactly happy to see me at her door. In fact, she shut it in my face.
“I stood there in shock for a few moments before the door opened once more and a very satisfied-looking woman stepped out. She paid me no attention as Aaliyah glared. Apparently, I’d interrupted a night of sex with her plaything—though she phrased it differently. She let me have a piece of her mind before telling me, in no uncertain terms, to leave her the fuck alone. Only I couldn’t.
“I built a hut in her village and made sure we ran into each other multiple times a day. At that point, I didn’t know what she was, but she knew I was a demon. When she left that village and went to another, I followed her. Again and again, over the course of nearly a hundred years, she would move and I would follow. She rarely spoke to me but glared regularly.
“I’m not sure what changed, but one night, she showed up to my home, and as soon as I opened the door, she pounced on me. I won’t get into the details, but I’m sure you get the picture.” I chuckle, taking a moment to remember that night. We’d stayed up all night, satiating our lust over and over again. It was probably one of the best nights of my life. “I will admit, I’d long ago fallen in love with her. She did not return my feelings, and I was okay with that. At least for a time.”
Shaking my head, I gesture to the office behind me. “Shall we sit? This is quite a long tale, and I’d rather sit while I tell it.”
“Yes, please, Daddy Archer. I really don’t want to be in this room anymore.” She practically bounces across the room as I follow her with my eyes.
A hand comes down on my shoulder, and when I glance back, I see it’s Hayes. “You might as well get used to it. I don’t think she’s giving the daddy thing up any time soon.”
“I…” I shake my head. “Yeah, I don’t even know what to do with that.”
Hayes claps his hand on my back a few times as he laughs. “That’s usually the reaction she gets from people. You’ll get used to it.”
Shaking my head, I watch as everyone relocates to the office before following them. That confirms that they’re planning to stick around as I thought they would. I drop into the only empty seat as Naomi turns to Tyson.
“What about your sister?”
Tyson’s face falls. “I didn’t find her.”
“Alistair said she was somewhere safe and secure.” Reid lays a hand on the dragon’s. “I’m sorry, Ty. He didn’t tell us anything else. We’ll find her, I promise.”
Tyson leans in to brush his lips against the other man’s. “Thank you, baby boy. I know we will.” Then he turns his attention back to me, all softness gone in the blink of an eye. “I believe you were telling us how you’ve been stalking Aaliyah for centuries.”
“You call it stalking. I call it persistence,” I say dryly. He’s not wrong. I did stalk her for a long time. “We stayed in that pattern for another century before I was called home to the underworld. My father had been killed in a battle with another demon clan, and it was time for me to be crowned.”
“I’m sorry. Crowned?” River’s face lights up when she smiles. “So you’re some kind of demon king?”
“I was. I am not any longer, but that’s part of the story. When I told Aaliyah I had to return home, she surprised me when she said she wanted to join me. It was the first hint that she felt something for me besides lust. There was no way I was turning her down, so the two of us made our way to the underworld for my coronation. My mother didn’t care for Aaliyah and the feeling was mutual. Because of that, I didn’t see my mother for a long time.
“Things between Aaliyah and I were going great. Eventually, she told me she loved me, and I was finally able to tell her how long I’d been in love with her. She laughed, but it was more teasing than anything else, and it just made me love her more. It’s then that Aaliyah finally told me her true lineage. I’d seen a lot of her magic over the years and wasn’t able to piece it together, but it made perfect sense when she told me.
“Unfortunately, that’s when things started going to hell. Almost overnight, my thoughts turned dark, and I was sure that she was going to leave me. At this point, I’d known her for nearly four hundred years and looking back now, she’d given no signs that she was even thinking about running. But that voice inside my head wouldn’t stop, so I did something I shouldn’t have.”
I pause there, trying to figure out how to explain the rest without giving away what she is. “I won’t go into the specifics because that’s her decision if she wants you to know what she is, but let’s just say I tricked her. Tricked her into being stuck in the underworld, in my home, for the next hundred years.
“Obviously, she wasn’t a fan, and she grew to despise me—not that I can blame her in any way. I was terrible to her.” I raise my hands in front of me as Tyson and his entire family look like they’re going to come out of their seats and beat the shit out of me—even River. “I never hurt her physically. No, what I did was so much worse. I trapped her and allowed her to wither away, locked inside my home with no interaction with anyone but me, instead of allowing her to flourish at my side.
“The voice inside my head plucked at all my worst fears about losing her—don’t think I’m using this as an excuse. I was horrible to her, and I deserve the punishment I was given.” Sighing, I look down at my hands. “The moment the hundred years were up, she left my house and went straight to the demon council. She told them what I’d done, and I was called to them. My kingship was stripped from me and given to my younger brother, and I was sentenced to not leave the underworld for a thousand years.
“I’m guessing they thought I wouldn’t be able to find her after that long, but I’ll always find her.” I shake my head. “After I was banished to the lowest level of the underworld and told to find my way back, the voice didn’t stay long. The last thing I remember was hearing its dark laughter before it was just gone. Eventually, I found out it was the trickster god, Loki. I know someone put him up to it, but I haven’t been able to find out who. My guess is that it was someone in my family—likely my mother or brother.
“Not that it matters now. The moment my sentence was up, Naomi and I made our way earthside to find Aaliyah. I need her to know that my decisions were influenced by another. I’d like to think that on my own, I never would’ve hurt her as I did.”
Tyson’s voice is practically a growl as he says, “And you want her back.”
I nod. “Of course I do. But not just me, Naomi too. And I’m guessing the four of you are interested as well. What a conundrum we find ourselves in.”
“Are you serious right now?” Reid asks, drawing our attention to him as steam practically pours off him.
Well, this should be fun.