Chapter 26 Again
AGAIN
Kat
Unfortunately, it wasn’t all coming undone, though the runes remained firmly undone themselves.
Studying them could only come after her work at the post where Kat was compelled to act as if everything was normal.
There was mail to sort, drayks to shoo, and Brioni to entertain.
All of it was enjoyable, though, especially when Kat knew to look forward to having her legs spread on Azrion’s desk.
She hummed to herself as she climbed the ladders, and needled Brioni for more details about her harrowing adventure during meals, and when Alamar asked if everything was all right in that way of hers that said she knew something was at the very least strange, Kat could only shrug and say, “Of course.”
Upon opening one of the letter drawers, a particularly feisty drayk insisted on giving Kat back a folded bit of parchment instead, a note from Azrion that said he’d been to the apothecary and collected some ingredients and would be coming to collect her that evening.
She couldn’t remember the schedule from the contract, if there were festivities at which he needed to attend with his mate, but she made sure to change her clothes before he arrived, and even chose something she hadn’t planned on keeping herself—a dress that fell only to her knees and sleeves that stopped at her elbows.
She was confused when he arrived with no carriage but pleased to have his arm to loop hers around as they strolled through Heck.
He asked after her day, happy to hear about the minor altercation she got into with a drawer that refused to budge and turned out to be full of eggs, and she wanted every detail about his visit to the infirmary to check on Zaiya who dutifully remained at sleeping Elliran’s side.
“The healer almost didn’t let me in because of my robes,” he told her.
“But then she asked me to walk up the hall and come back, and apparently following her direction meant I was allowed entry. I’ve heard the yellow variety of our kind have a special intuition, but I’ve never seen it in action until now. ”
Kat snickered, asking if he found anything new, and they fell into a hushed conversation until they reached one of the more residential areas of Heck.
The houses here were small and set farther apart, but it was nothing like the big estates in Azrion’s section of town.
Warm light spilled out of the cottage windows, and low stone fences covered in moss ringed the yards.
It was like the places Kat did her best to avoid back in Ankerick because nothing bad ever happened there, and she herself was the something bad that was meant to be kept out. Or at least she used to be.
“It’s this one, I think,” Azrion led them down one of the flat stone paths toward a homey arched door.
“You still haven’t told me what we’re doing.”
“Collecting one last ingredient. Kizros apparently doesn’t carry everything I need but said I could find the missing one here. The only hitch is that, as you know, I’m not particularly competent communicating with the guard.”
The barracks were nowhere nearby. “I don’t follow.”
“Sure you do.” He gave her arm a little shake and rapped on the door.
A moment passed and then another, and Kat wondered if they should leave, but Azrion just wore a pleasant smile for the door until it finally opened. A demon with skin as red as human blood and a face run through with utter annoyance stood in the shadows of the entry.
“Hello!” Azrion chirped, grinning ear to ear.
The demon only grunted.
“Kizros sent me,” he went on brightly.
The demon grunted again, and the sound might have turned up at the end as if in question. He stepped out of the shadows and revealed a bandage over one eye and a missing horn.
“I am on the hunt, as it were, for a bit of misty buckthorn bark, and our dear mutual friend says that you might be willing to donate a sliver from your backyard.”
The demon’s one eye narrowed, flicking away from Azrion to Kat. She thought maybe this was the part where she should come in handy, but she had no idea what to do until a shadow peeked out from beside the demon in the form of another human.
“Sev, who is—oh.”
Oh was right, and the pieces fell together.
Azrion knew his limits with guards, but one that had a human in his home already would surely be more amenable to a second.
When this human put her arm around the demon’s waist, there was friendliness Kat wouldn’t have expected if she wasn’t so intimately aware how talented demons were now with their tongues.
“You must be Ember.” Kat stuck out her hand, and it only shook a little. “I’m Kat. I work with Bri at the post. And this is Azrion.”
The demon bowed in that silly way of his, and the other one rolled his singular eye in that inexplicable pupilless way of all demons.
The human gave Kat’s outstretched hand a long look before gripping on—extremely tight for such a small woman.
“I know who you are,” she said, dark eyes taking her in, and then she turned their clasped hands a little more and pointed to the hibi raya embroidered on her sleeve.
Beneath it, a silver cuff gleamed, and Kat’s matching one caught the same light.
“What do you need the tree for?” The red demon’s voice was flat.
Kat expected Azrion to trade a nervous glance with her, but she should have known better—his mouth was already open and words were pouring out about an exciting experiment that was almost entirely made up except for the need of a rare species that just so happened to grow in the “fine backyard of this cozy home.”
The red demon looked to Ember for approval.
“Give them whatever they want,” she said, and both stepped aside to bid them entry.
Azrion beamed, but Kat was taken aback. Ember, a human, commanded her demon with such ease, and it was as if he yearned for it. Could she…could she do the same?
She felt Azrion slip away as his lips grazed her cheek.
He told her he would return in but a moment, the red demon leading him through the house and out the back.
Kat was left in the small entry with Ember, and she had the wild thought that she should ask for demon-wrangling tips, but the human’s face went livid.
She snorted and stomped into an alcove off the entry.
“Eat,” she barked. “I didn’t learn how to tenderize cobgruk for nothing.”
Kat noticed the second demon in the house then, hunched over the dining table and an untouched plate.
His gray skin was similar to Ragnar’s, but his hair was a pretty dark blue.
For a brief moment, he looked as though he might throw his fork at Ember, and she silently dared him with arms crossed over her chest and flaring nostrils, but then he stabbed the meat on his plate instead and made a show of chewing.
Ember smirked and turned back to Kat. “You want some? I made a double batch.”
Kat shook her head politely. “Sorry to interrupt dinner. We didn’t think about that, we just left the post and came right here. Azrion is, um…really excited to get that sample.”
“Huh. Cute.” She grinned like they were both in on some joke.
“Well, I’ve been meaning to thank you for the clothes anyway, so I’m glad you’re here.
You’ve probably heard that I’m on house arrest. Well, I’m not really supposed to be anymore, but there are some details that I guess the council still has to sort out. ”
Kat swallowed back that they’d found Elliran. It was too risky for others to know, but she realized it was the final key to her fellow human’s freedom. That was, if she and Azrion could ever figure out those damned runes. “It’s a nice house to be arrested in at least.”
“Right? I have my own bathtub upstairs. Well, I guess it’s Dav’s for the time being.”
The gray demon grumbled something about a recipe book.
“You know I can’t read that,” she hissed back.
Dav only smirked and stuffed his mouth with a heaping bite.
With another snort, Ember gestured for Kat to follow her into the parlor on the other side of the house.
“Did we interrupt something?” she asked tentatively.
“Not at all. It’s actually nice to talk to someone who enunciates every once in a while.” Ember straightened the parchment on the short table before the sofa. “What are you going to do with the tree stuff?”
“Oh, I’m not really sure. Magic-y stuff.
” Which was the truth, though not all of it.
Kat looked around the room to cover that she wasn’t being totally honest and noted the weapons hanging on the wall.
Mostly bows and a few decorative arrows as well as a huge set of antlers above the fireplace. “Do you hunt?”
“Me?” Ember chuckled. “Only men.”
Kat had no idea what to say to that, but Ember smiled slyly.
“Thankfully there aren’t any of those around here. All these things belong to Severath. He just put them back up on the walls since he’s no longer afraid I’m going to off him in the middle of the night. At least not with a weapon anyway. So you and mister fancy pants aren’t a secret anymore?”
Kat blanched.
“Bri told me. She talks a lot.”
“That she does,” Kat muttered, stroking a feather that hung from one of the arrows.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to say. And I get it anyway, trust me. Demons look big and scary, but they’re actually just really big babies.” She called the last three words loud enough so that they could be heard across the house.
“This cobgruk needs terratnon,” the gray demon called back.
“I’ll terrat your non,” she snapped.
“…terribly curious, but impossible to ignore. So you know, we tried a caligo alder too, but the results were a mess.” Azrion’s voice floated in from the kitchen, full of life.
The red demon stalked into the main part of the house, head swiveling from Dav to Ember. “What is going on?”
“Nothing,” the two said in unison and then the Severath’s eye fell on Kat, arresting and inescapable.
“They’re bullying each other,” she blurted then slapped a hand over her mouth.
“I told you that will not get him to do what needs to be done.”
Ember rolled her eyes and sidled up to the red demon, giving his side a poke. “But it works on you, Sev.”
Severath turned a slightly darker shade of red. “Be that as it may, demons can vary widely in their personalities.”
“Look, darling, I’ve secured our long-sought-after tree rind!” Azrion flitted into the room, earrings jangling as he bobbed his head happily. “And our new friends graciously allowed me a sample of their moon flower as well.”
“You see,” said Severath.
“New friends,” Ember repeated, nudging the demon and grinning.
Azrion strut over to Kat and gracefully slipped the flower behind her ear. “Ah, yes, my theory was correct—it pales in comparison to your beauty.”
“We have to go,” Kat forced on a smile and pulled Azrion out the door while he shouted gratitude over his shoulder.
By the time they returned to Azrion’s office at the scholar’s hall, Kat had gotten over the minor embarrassment, and in fact discovered she might have liked the public praise because she found herself smiling every time she touched the flower behind her ear.
She found a safe shelf to store it on as Azrion spread his day’s plunder across the desk.
She wished she were the bits of plants and jars of seeds that he was running his hands over, but she was soon absorbed in learning what each did and how they might connect to the runes.
They worked late into the night again with little moments of excitement dotting an otherwise grueling ponder.
Kat flipped through books and Azrion whispered to himself with his head tipped back, and they each scratched out copious notes.
Kat was sure she wasn’t coming up with anything of import, but Azrion encouraged her anyway, so she kept at it until three yawns caught her in a row.
“Tired?” he asked from across the desk, a suggestive flicker to his eye.
“Not yet,” she said, and they crashed into one another atop the papers and quills.
This time Azrion took her on the floor, and while his tongue was just as potent, the show was even more enthralling.
He was on his knees between her legs, his tail thrashing as his hips moved with every lick at her center, and she imagined what it might be like to get him naked, to see the muscles in his thighs clench in the same way his forearms did around her legs, to gaze on all that lavender skin and whatever he was hiding away in his—oh, and that fantastical thought pushed her right over the edge.
Kat came down from another climax with a contented sigh. She nestled back against the cushions he had piled in the corner, but when he crawled toward her to snuggle in at her side, she stuck her hand out and held him at bay.
Azrion wiped at his chin but remained on his hands and knees. She very much liked to look on him like that. But I think I’d like to look at a little more.
“Az,” she said, and she meant for it to come out sweetly, but her voice was hoarse from crying his name earlier. “I was thinking…”
“I do love it when you think, darling.” He sat back on his haunches, hands on his knees, waiting for whatever she would ask.
No, not ask. Tell.
“Well, it just seems to me that you’re the one getting all the practice,” she said carefully, rubbing one leg against the other from her reclined position and waking up the heat between her thighs all over again.
“But you’re not getting much…relief.” Her gaze fell between his legs, and of course she could see it straining against his pants, but that was as far as it had ever gotten, and that really wasn’t fair, was it?
Azrion’s cock certainly didn’t think so, but a whole chapter from its perspective would probably be a little much. Not to mention singularly focused and ultimately a mess.
The demon cleared his throat, and the purple of his cheeks darkened, which in turn made the tingle between her legs heighten. “I, uh, am more than happy to please you alone.” He attempted to lean forward again.
Kat lifted a foot this time and planted it on his chest. “Do you know what would really please me?”
Azrion’s tail flicked dangerously through the air as he cocked a brow.
“I want to see…it.” Well, that wasn’t as commanding as she’d hoped, but at least it came out.
“Considering there is very little blood in my brain right now, I do believe you’re going to need to be quite a bit more specific, darling, lest I make an embarrassing, intractable error.”
“Your cock,” she said, throat tight but not completely strangled. “Show it to me.”
“Well, there’s no misunderstanding that,” he admitted and sat back again. “You’re sure?”
Kat let a smile curl up her face, both sincere and wicked. “Now.”