Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
Vhaena
UNDENIABLE
Taking away my sight enhanced all my other senses, and I felt everything with more intensity. My nerves were ignited. Everywhere he touched was like fire on my skin. Every groan of pleasure from deep in his chest echoed in my mind.
Part of me wanted to take off the blindfold so I could see him. But another part, the deeper, trembling part, didn’t. The vision I’d conjured in the darkness of my mind was entrancing, untainted, and dangerous.
I felt powerful. I felt desired. I felt free.
The image I’d conceived in my mind of him—of us—was mine. I wasn’t giving that up. I fell into that illusion…of Daemon and me. I wanted to live in it and see him not with my eyes but with every part of me.
And I did. I had never felt more connected with someone, like we had surpassed the confines of this world and touched something I wasn’t meant to understand.
I was breathless and completely ruined.
The demon held me in the water for a long while. My body went slack as he brushed his hand down my hair in rhythmic motions.
“Are you okay?” he asked softly, feathering kisses down my neck.
Was I? I didn’t know how to respond. I was more than okay. Physically, I was a little sore, but I had never felt so euphoric, and it was a feeling I wanted over and over again. Yet, he had somehow changed the very fabric of my being, and I didn’t know what to do with that.
I had fucked a demon.
I had fucked a demon in a glowing river on the Wal of Two Tears island during the Hunt.
And I liked it.
I didn’t feel guilt or shame, and I knew it wasn’t just due to the lingering orgasm.
To be honest, his question caught me off guard. It was caring and empathetic—so unlike what I had expected from a demon.
“Vhaena,” he said more sternly. He cupped my face and kissed me. “I need you to say something. Use your words.”
“Yes,” I finally answered. “I’m okay.” And the moment the words came out, I realized it was true. “Are you okay?”
It occurred to me that he may have also just gone through a reality-altering moment. That was what I really wanted to ask, but I wasn’t sure how.
He placed a kiss on my forehead before answering. “Yes. Of course I am.”
He slowly pulled out of me then, and the loss felt immediate. The warmth had been taken from me, inch by inch, leaving behind a hollow ache where he had fit so painfully perfectly.
The demon continued to hold me close as he swam to the other side of the river, and I wondered how deep the water was. I heard the rocks shifting beneath his feet while he carried me across the bank, then carefully set me down on the grass.
I reached up to remove my blindfold, but he grabbed my wrists.
“Not yet. Stay here, and don’t move.” He didn’t let go until I nodded and lowered my arms.
A second later, I heard him moving through the water again.
I couldn’t move even if I had wanted to. My muscles had turned to mush, and I was practically limp. The only reason I wasn’t a motionless pile of skin and muscle was because he had leaned me up against the trunk of a tree.
The high of my release still rushed through me, tingling down every nerve in my body.
I had never come with a man before. I’d touched myself in the past, more times than I could count, but every past sexual encounter left me dissatisfied, pretending they were successful so I didn’t bruise their ego.
But I didn’t have to pretend this time. And it was so much fucking better.
Better than anything I could have done with my hand.
I guess demons fuck better.
I still couldn’t believe it, and I was convinced that it truly hadn’t hit me yet despite saying it to myself over and over.
I really thought I would have felt regret or repulsion or something other than…
contentment. The feeling simply fell into place on my soul, like it was something that was meant to be there all along.
Except, I screamed Daemon’s name. I hadn’t meant to, and I hoped the word was garbled enough by the surrounding rushing water to sound more like ‘demon’. He hadn’t said anything, so I assumed it did, but the embarrassment was still there.
As I sat there waiting, the effects of my orgasm began to dissipate, and reality settled over me.
The darkness from the blindfold seemed to close in, and trepidation crept up from the corners of my consciousness.
Unable to see, fear clawed its way into my blood, into my mind.
I didn’t want to be alone. But when I heard the water from the river beating against the demon as he made his way back across, all that fear slithered away back into the recesses of my mind.
His presence was what made me feel safe, I realized.
He got closer and closer until he was right in front of me. I flinched when I felt his hands on the side of my head, not expecting his touch.
I sucked in a ragged breath as he pulled the blindfold off over my head. My eyes remained shut, taking just another moment before I finally got to see who he was.
“You can open your eyes, now.” He was within inches of my face, and my heart beat faster.
My eyes flew open.
A black mask with blue slashes…
In an instant, I became nearly irate. “Are you kidding me?” I scoffed, rearing my head back.
“What?” His head tilted to the side.
“We just fucked, and I still can’t see you?”
He lowered his head like he was smirking behind the mask. “Not yet.”
My eyes narrowed. “This is such bull— Hey!”
He forced the blindfold back over my eyes. Oh, this asshole was going to get it.
“What do you think you’re—”
A punishing kiss and a hand around my throat cut me off, and I sighed against his lips. His tongue pushed into my mouth, and I welcomed the taste of him again, meeting his strokes. He tasted like danger wrapped in unshackled desire—like a secret never meant to be unveiled.
It ended too quickly, leaving my lips cold and longing for more.
“You seem much less hostile with the blindfold. Do I need to make you keep it on?” I could hear the humor in his tone.
I crossed my arms and groaned in frustration.
“No,” I grumbled.
He chuckled, then pulled my blindfold off again—fully this time—while his other hand fell from his face where he had replaced the mask.
He had his hooded shirt, my spoon, and both pairs of our shoes sitting in a pile next to him.
He must have held it all above the water when he crossed, since it was still dry.
I slightly regretted not taking off my shirt and skirt before going into the water because my now-wet clothes chilled me to the bone in the cool breeze.
“After the Hunt, I’ll make it so you can see me—you’ll take an oath during a demon ritual. But I can’t do it without putting you in harm’s way—even more so—until then.” He gathered my wet hair in his hand, twisting it in his fingers before placing it on my shoulder.
“Because of demon rules, right? I think you called it a Ministry earlier.” I wrapped my arms around myself. It wasn’t necessarily cold out here, but being sopping wet made it feel like it was.
He nodded, shifting to his knees.
“So it’s just more demons. No offense, but I wish they were all gone. Then all my problems would be solved.”
He stilled for a moment, then shook his head. “You and I both,” he said under his breath. Then, more clearly, “You’re shivering.”
“I’m wet,” I said flatly.
“Oh, I felt it.”
I rolled my eyes. “I meant my skin.” I gestured to my body.
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
“I don’t exactly have a towel or a dry change of clothes,” I huffed a laugh.
“Well, I can fix that.”
My brows pulled together.
“Stand up and lift your arms,” he commanded gently, pulling me to my feet.
I kind of liked when he told me what to do. Which sounded terrible, but I was just going to keep that to myself.
I did as he requested and raised my arms over my head. He tenderly lifted my shirt off, dropping the dripping material with a splat. Then he hooked his fingers into the waistband of my skirt and pushed it down to my ankles, and I stepped out of it.
I suddenly felt self-conscious wearing nothing but my panties in front of him. I had no idea why since we just had sex. Only minutes ago, my breast was in his mouth, and our bodies were tangled together. But this felt different. More exposed. More…intimate.
The heat of the moment was gone, and it was just me and him. No haze of lust. No urgency. Only bare skin and silence.
Maybe it bothered me because this wasn’t about desire anymore. It was about him—and the unnerving realization that I wasn’t bothered at all.
“Here. Put this on.” He handed me his shirt, slipping it over my head and pulling my hair out from the back. It swallowed me, going halfway down my thighs. Damn, he was tall.
He grabbed my discarded clothes and turned to hang them on the tree limb.
I gripped the fabric at my collarbone, tugging it closer to my nose.
His scent clung to the shirt. Like earth and the smell of rain before a storm.
I inhaled it, letting it wrap around me and seep into my lungs.
I really hated how it made my eyes roll back and how it instantly gave me a sense of comfort.
I was so fucked.
The demon lay down on his side beneath the tree and patted the ground in front of him.
I hesitated. I was in absolutely nothing besides his shirt and panties.
“Come here, Vhaena, or I will drag you down here,” he said more firmly when I didn’t move.
I sighed and went to him, letting him pull me down beside him until I was resting against his bare chest. One arm wrapped around my waist, drawing me closer so there wasn’t any space between us, and the other tucked underneath my head like a pillow.
He was warm against my back. I closed my eyes and wiggled just a little to press into his heat.
Then my eyes popped back open when I realized what he had just said…
“Wait, how do you know my name?” What I was really asking was I do know you, don’t I?
Just like before, my mind flashed through every man I had ever met. Everyone from those I had met in my childhood, to shop owners and past lovers, to even those I was closer to.
Many were immediately crossed out on my mental checklist. He couldn’t have been older than thirty. And really, he didn’t seem any younger than me, so I knew he was at least twenty-six.
That didn’t leave a lot of options.
I knew for certain I could eliminate one—the only one who would have me throwing myself straight into the other demon’s claws—Asher.
But Asher’s brother and my brother’s best friend…
No. It couldn’t be Daemon. There was no way that Daemon, one of the most gentle, sweetest guys I’d known, could be anything like this demon before me—bossy and demanding. Besides, Daemon had had plenty of opportunities over the years to pursue me and never did.
No matter how many times I thought he felt the same way I did, he never spoke about it, and I’d convinced myself that it was all in my head.
Not to mention, Daemon would have sided with his brother; he was too loyal of a person not to, and I was sure Asher had told him some twisted form of what he did to me.
I couldn’t bear the thought of Daemon believing the lie.
“I watched you for a few days, remember? Inka said your name a couple of times,” he explained.
Okay…maybe I didn’t know him at all.
Ugh, this is so frustrating, I internally groaned.
The rhythmic motion of his chest against my back was calming.
Everything was so quiet and peaceful; for once, I didn’t feel afraid.
Not at this moment. The water created a dull roar, soothing to my overworking mind, and the glow of the luminescent river tickled against the leaves above, giving me more light than I’d had any other night on the island so far.
A shadowed movement in the branches caught my eye, and lo and behold, it was the damn raven. I had completely forgotten about him, too distracted by the demon behind me. It was baffling that the bird was still around.
Oh god, was he here this whole time? Did he watch me get screwed by a demon? Ew.
I shivered at the thought but remained silent. And we stayed there just like that, for a long while. He didn’t make a sound. He didn’t stir once. The sound of his breathing was like a lullaby, and my eyes grew heavy.
“So now that we’re across the river, what do we do?” I asked, wondering what tomorrow would bring.
“Wait out the rest of the Hunt then get you on the ship back home. But for right now, sleep.” His arm around me tightened, and he nuzzled his face against my hair. “I’ll be right here.”