Chapter Eleven
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Theo
M anaging to make it through a shower, put on pants, and prop against the counter drained every bit of my strength. I could slide to the marble bathroom floor and sleep right here.
I hurt everywhere. The healing potion helped, but I knew the moment Val stopped touching me and took away the mating magic, that she was what made the real difference in me being able to function instead of being stuck in the infirmary downstairs.
She’s my mate.
I can’t let her go. Without her, there’s no way I’ll have a chance at keeping the kingdom intact once my father steps down.
My mother knows this. She helped my father take the crown with the two of them being fated mates. So what the hell kind of deal did she offer Val that would include us being kept apart? Does she hate the Bonetti family enough to jeopardize the future of the throne? Or does she have a bigger reason behind her political machinations?
I put aside those questions for later. First, I need Val to tell me what the offer was so I can raise the stakes.
My mate takes that moment to yell from my bedroom. “Do you need help in there? If you say yes and I come in to find you naked, all talk of truce ends. I have a dagger with me, and I’ll finish whatever your family started in those fights earlier today.”
I let loose a long exhale. The Fates must hate me to match me with someone so determined to kill me. I still don’t believe she intends to hold to the temporary truce she offered after she threw down the challenge to make her a demon deal she couldn’t refuse. Her viciousness shouldn’t be so intriguing. Or so sexy. I can’t afford to show more weakness in front of this woman.
“I don’t need assistance,” I lie.
The door leading from the bedroom into the attached bath opens a few inches. Val’s face appears in the opening—gorgeous blue eyes, messy brown hair, long lashes, and the pouty mouth that makes me fantasize all sorts of devilish things. Despite the exhaustion that leaves me feeling as though I could sleep for a year, both my cocks rise in appreciation.
Until Montejanus flies into the space above her head. Nothing like a judgmental soul guardian who hates my kind to kill the mood.
“You look like shit,” my mate announces.
So much for good impressions.
At least she doesn’t wield a blade when she comes striding into the room—although she has one holstered against her thigh, and where did she find those shorts that barely cover her ass? The matching silky top dips over her chest in a tempting neckline that makes me imagine how her bare skin would look if I stripped the fabric off her. Of course, I’d have to be able to do more than prop against a countertop to take advantage of the situation.
“Come on.” She lifts my arm over her shoulder and takes hold of my waist. Gods, she smells delectable. Like sugar, soap, and warm spices mixed in the most seductive scent. “I’ll help you into bed. Then you’re on your own.”
Not if I can help it . I lean on her a bit more than I should. Who knew wet hair was a turn on? Apparently everything about my mate has my brain skipping to sex. Which won’t be happening anytime soon. I go with the most surefire way to kill my libido—discussing my mother. “Will you tell me what my mother promised you? It seems unfair to force me to bet against my own prior deal without knowing her counteroffer.”
“Prior deal?” Her voice comes out slightly strained, and I ease off even though it denies me the soft press of her curves. “Oh, the contract at the not-so-haunted house. Your mom offered way better than a sad imitation of a kink club menu. So basic. Was that really the best you could come up with?”
Well, fuck me. I don’t have to fake the near stumble that has me shifting weight onto her for a moment. I thought I’d been fairly extensive in listing the possible hard limits a match might have. But apparently my mate has a few secrets that I’ll need her to share. So much for stopping my one-track mind. “What do you know of kink clubs and their menus?”
“Ugh, you’re heavy,” she protests. Her soul guardian headbutts my back where my wings would be if I didn’t have my human glamour in place. Having Montejanus shove me forward has me adjusting my weight. She grips my waist tighter. “We did an episode where my older sister and I interviewed members of a club in Los Angeles. The producers rented the entire dungeon— or studio as the owners called it—so we could host a big party. The whole thing made me shudder.”
“Kink did?” Because here I’d been imagining her bound in bright ribbons, tied to my bed, begging for my touch.
“No, the show. The way it mocked kink.” She ducks her head and shoves me toward the bed as though she has revealed too much.
I’m not letting her leave now without more explanation. “And you don’t agree with that?”
“What I don’t agree with is shaming people for legal, consensual fun.” My bold, unapologetic mate is back. While I normally go for quiet, easy conquests, she’d be a beautiful one to break. Except the thought of breaking her leaves me unsettled.
She releases me, striding away as though she has said all she plans to say on the topic. I don’t want her to go.
Having her consent to be my mate isn’t a game for me. It’s the game. The win I need or I’ll lose everything. Playing my next move like a high-stakes bet at family poker night, I strategize on how to make her stay. I’ll need to give her something that’ll keep her from walking out the door. “If you’ll stay to help me heal, we can talk about reconnecting you with your friends.”
Val stops, glaring at me from over her shoulder. Montejanus swoops toward the bed as if defending a woman whose sharp tongue and even sharper blades prove she can take care of herself.
I raise the bet. “Shadowvale, show us the minotaur’s match.”
An image shimmers across the stone walls, glittering into view like the castle wants to impress Val as much as I need to. The redhead sits in a goddess-worthy dress with flowers woven into her hair. While there’s no sound, it’s obvious she’s laughing as she clutches a small carving in her hand and looking to someone past the limited picture of the mirror view.
“Meg.” Val comes closer. Without looking away from the image, she asks, “Does she know we can see her? Can she hear us?”
“No and no,” I explain. “It’s a recording of when I did a welfare check on her earlier today. She too has a soul guardian.”
“Like Monty?” The little asshole shifts from dragon to his furry form so she can hug him to her. Dreadful little beast. I’m the one breaking client confidentiality to win Val over, and he’s the one she pulls close.
“Hers is a cat. Not whatever that is.”
“He’s a mongoose.” Val uses her most judgmental tone.
“He’s a menace.”
She glances back to the projection of her friend. “Can you show me Rosemarie?”
Of course she gives me an impossible task from the start. “No.” When she twists her face into a scowl, I hold up a hand before she can argue. “Not because I don’t want to. The gargoyles have strict rules over their realm since it’s the place in between life and death where humans pass to the After Worlds. Your friend Rosemarie will become queen of the Bridge of Souls, guiding the dead in their transition across.”
“She worked for the hospice unit back home. She’d be perfect for that.”
“Her soul guardian is the owl you saw at the house before her gargoyle mates took her to safety. With them protecting her, every dimension in existence would have to fall before she was ever in danger.”
“And Ava?” Val takes a step closer, stroking her fingertips over Monty’s fur.
“She wound up with her fated mate aboard a pirate ship.”
“She hates the water.”
“Her kraken mate sails with an honorable enough crew, but I’ll track them as best I can and retrieve her when they come to port since she didn’t sign a matching contract.”
“You’ll let me see her when you find her?” She holds up a finger. “And by see, I mean an in person visit where I can talk to her. Not like this with Meg,” she finishes, gesturing toward the image.
“I promise, and promises are something dealing demons take very seriously.”
She stares at me, a challenge in her eyes. At least she doesn’t reach for the jeweled dagger strapped to her thigh. I can only assume Shadowvale conjured the holster for her, and I highly approve of the look, if not the death threat associated with it.
“I’ll hold you to that promise.” She tips her head toward Meg’s face as the display fades. “What do you expect in exchange for keeping me updated on my friends?”
“Nothing.”
She scoffs. “Liar.”
I change tactics, looking for an angle where she might tell me what she’d be willing to give me. “Perhaps I felt bad about tricking you.”
“You don’t.”
“True.” The woman reads me too well. I go to laugh, but pain stops me.
“Your ribs looked like they could be broken,” she says.
“Merely cracked?—”
“Same difference. Do they hurt?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” The stern jut of her chin shouldn’t be so kissable. “Do you need an ice pack or another healing potion?”
“Nothing would help me heal faster than physical contact with you.”
“Yeah, that’s not happening.” Only she doesn’t move away from the bed, and her gaze stays pinned on my bare chest.
“I could be back to almost full strength by morning if you sleep here with me, which means I’d be able to search for Ava as well as the culprit opening the portals. If they can tear a hole between worlds, who knows who they might grab next? It could be anyone.”
“You’re trying to guilt me into saying yes.”
“Is it working?”
She sits on the bed, taking off the thigh holster and slipping the dagger under the pillow closest to her. “If you try anything?—”
“I won’t.” I don’t admit that I probably can’t in my current condition. “No soul guardians on the bed,” I tell Montejanus.
The mongoose ignores me, scurrying across the mattress like a hairy rat.
“If I stay,” Val says, “then Monty stays, and he can sleep wherever he wants.” The little fucker curls next to her, his eyes gleaming amber with triumph.
I magic off the lights except for a faint glow from the bathroom. I’m not stupid enough to give her a reason to go running from the room. Or to stab me. Not when she’s the key to me healing quicker. I can’t remember the last time a simple invocation of pre-spelled magic gave me a headache. But then today’s been one battle after another.
Val lies on the bed, wrapping her arms across her chest and heaving a big sigh which does nothing but showcase her breasts. Infuriating woman.
Except as a tense silence fills the room, she doesn’t glare at me. Instead, she stares at the ceiling as if working out a life-altering puzzle. I can practically feel the worry radiating off her.
Sure, I could ask what troubles her, but she would doubt whether or not I cared. If our positions were swapped, I would do the same.
We’re not friends.
Hell, given her frequent inclination to kill me and yes…my technical kidnapping of her, we’re enemies. But she healed me because we have a common goal in her friends’ welfare, if for very different reasons. So I stick with the only subject she might expect from me. “The mating magic won’t work unless we’re touching.”
“I’m your one and only destined mate, and you want me to believe you’re suddenly an expert on mating magic?”
I almost don’t answer, almost don’t offer up information she might use against me or my family. Because that’s all I’ve ever known. In my world, information is currency for making or breaking a deal. Yet she rushed to help me when I was the most vulnerable. “My parents are fated mates.”
Rolling onto her side, she props on an elbow to look down at me. Gods, she’s gorgeous. No matter the damn soul guardian wrapping himself around her ankles. She trails a finger along the space between us that suddenly seems to stretch for miles. I need her closer. I want her wrapped in my wings.
She bites her bottom lip before curling her mouth into a half-smile that promises wicked things. “You mean your mom and dad, the king and queen of all the hell dimensions?” she asks. “Since that’s why you need me. No fated mate, no crown for you. It seems I hold all the power in this little deal between us.”
Fuck .