Chapter 39
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Vhaena
VOW TO VOW
Ikissed him like I wanted it to hurt.
And maybe I did. Maybe I wanted to punish him for every touch that never came, every chance he never gave me, for every truth he never told even if it was to keep me safe.
It was rough. There were no caresses or gentle touches. Gone was any softness between us. It was as if time didn’t exist because we had run out of it.
Daemon groaned against my mouth. It was guttural, dark, and desperate, like it was his demon who had come out the moment our lips touched.
My hands fisted into his shirt, trying to tear it from his chest, pulling his body toward mine and crushing myself between him and the coarse bark. The urge to kiss him overwhelmed any logic. I was so angry with him, but I had to touch him. And I had no idea why.
His hand came up to the back of my head, tangling his fingers in my hair and roughly tugging my head back.
I parted my lips as his tongue swept across the seam, but before he could invade my mouth, I invaded his.
His lips bruised mine with every punishing pass of his tongue, devouring me like it was his sole purpose to condemn me.
There was nothing tender between us. Nothing but years of pent-up longing that turned into brutal savagery. No matter that we had already been together only hours earlier. This was different.
I bit his lip, slicing the delicate skin with my teeth. I drew his blood, tasted him on my tongue. The small droplets were warm and smooth with the flavor of retribution.
He growled deep in his chest like he couldn’t take another second of it before he lifted me off the ground as if I were weightless.
My legs wrapped around him as he carried me away, between the trees, over slick rock, and through thick mud.
Nothing was stopping him. Not even the whipping wind of the storm’s rapidly approaching center.
Hot tears still flowed down my cheeks as he carried me away. His tongue swept out, licking them off my heated skin.
“Are you licking my—”
“I will taste every part of you. From the metallic tinge of your blood, to the sweet flavor of your cunt, and especially the salty tears you shed because of me.” He kissed the top of the ‘V’ he’d carved into the back of my shoulder, still tender and aching.
I needed vengeance for him clawing me without me knowing who he was. I didn’t have fangs or claws, but I had the splintered end of my spoon.
I yanked the spoon from his grasp and dug the wood into the back of his shoulder beneath his shirt. He hissed but didn’t stop me, didn’t flinch, as I carved a ‘V’ into his back with the wound from the spear in the center of it.
“If I’m marked with your vow, then you’ll be marked by mine,” I said as I pressed my shoulder to his. With my front to his, our scars touched.
Vow to vow.
“And what is your vow to me?” he asked, hissing as I ran my tongue over the top of it like he had done to mine.
“Your vow is to protect me. Mine is to never leave you, whether in your ruin or your death.”
He approached a rocky overhang only a few feet away, but I wasn’t sure we’d make it.
His mouth was on mine once again, licking the blood lingering on my lips, and his fingers slipped beneath my skirt, trailing their way between my legs.
Before I could think, he pressed two inside me, one from each hand, curling them in opposite directions—and I was nearly undone from that act alone.
I writhed in his grip, trying to get away from his fingers but also needing so much more at the same time.
He pulled his fingers out as we walked beneath the rocky overhang, which was just large enough to shield us from the storm and far enough from the rest of the world to pretend it didn’t exist anymore.
Then, he set me down on soft, moss-covered stone. He tore at my clothes, yanking them off my body while I did the same to his, until both of us were completely naked. No mask. No blindfold. Every truth and inch of skin laid bare.
He took a step back and stared, his eyes trailing up and down the curves of my body, but I was too occupied taking in his.
He was bruised and scarred more heavily than I had realized, covered in scrapes and cuts.
I matched every dip and muscle with the memory of my fingers on his body from the night before, mapping him with my eyes for the first time.
Daemon’s body.
I had known it was him. I just wasn’t ready to see it. Now, I couldn’t stop seeing him. I couldn’t stop looking at him. At the man—the demon—that I had desired for so long.
“Tell me you want me, Vhaena. That you want me.”
My eyes met his, and I didn’t hesitate.
“I’ve always wanted you, Daemon.” His breath hitched at his name. “Even when I pushed you away.”
“You won’t ever do that again.” His claws emerged, slowly elongating from the tips of his fingers as his demon rose, like each curved point was one more link to the chains snapping around his control.
I shook my head. “Every time I went outside, I searched for you.”
His lips parted, and his chest heaved with each word.
“For years, every chance I got, I thought of ways to find you. To see you.”
Small mounds appeared beneath his damp hair, one on each side of his head.
“To have one more moment with you.”
Like mountains rising from the pits of hell, bone crawled from his temples. Two curling black horns curved around his head with sharp, elegant precision, like a crown of sin.
My eyes widened. Not in fear but in awe. Because this was him, stripped bare of lies, of his mask, of the human shell he’d always hidden within. This was Daemon.
He lifted a hand to his head, running his palm over the ribbed bone. He seemed surprised as if this was a new discovery of himself. But he didn’t try to hide them, didn’t recoil from his true form.
Neither did I.
I reached up and traced the horns with my fingertips, from the curve of them to the sharp points at the ends. When my lips lifted into a small smile, he grabbed me up and slammed his mouth against me again. His hands roamed over my body, like he was touching me for the first time.
“I won’t be gentle,” he warned as he laid me back on the moss.
“Then don’t be,” I panted, more than ready to take him as he was.
He didn’t wait. He pushed himself down my body and pressed his mouth against my pussy, licking up to my clit before going back down and burying his tongue inside me.
It was hot to the point of searing. It was too much. The sensation of his mouth unraveling me from the inside out made me feel like I was about to burst out of my skin.
I grabbed his horns, needing something to hold on to. He gripped my hips hard enough to bruise and pulled me closer, driving his tongue even deeper before licking back up to my clit and swirling there, making my back arch from the intensity. Hells, I loved it.
I wanted that feeling over and over again.
I moved his head side to side by his horns, the arched tops grazing against my inner thighs. My eyes flicked down to see his head between my legs, immediately finding his eyes. He was watching me while I used him to bring pleasure to myself.
Good. He had said he wasn’t going to be gentle—neither was I.
I let go. I let go of all restraint, of any insecurities, and I fucked myself with Daemon’s face. His voice rumbled against me as if he liked it just as much as I did.
Uncontrollable whimpers escaped my lips as I moved him back and forth in a messy rhythm.
They quickly became guttural sounds I hardly recognized, then screams as his name ripped from my throat over and over like a prayer.
The moment I came, he plunged his tongue inside me, lapping at my release like it was the ichor of his life.
Now, it was too much. I pushed against him, trying to relieve the sensitivity, but his grip didn’t falter. He kept going, licking and sucking, and there was no stopping him.
“Daemon…wait…”
He shook his head, staring up at me with a wicked glint in his amber eyes.
My body vibrated from the stimulation. I had already gone over the edge, and now I was plunging down into unknown depths I wasn’t sure I could handle. But he was taking me there regardless.
Unnatural sounds trembled from my lips in what felt like an eternity of sensation I wouldn’t survive. Then, I burst. As if I were electrified by the lightning outside, every nerve in my body convulsed uncontrollably.
“You taste like my greatest sin,” Daemon rasped in a low, dark tone, kissing my sensitive clit and making my entire body twitch.
“Now let me taste mine,” I breathed heavily.
I didn’t give him a chance to speak before I sat up on my weak knees and let my mouth fall open. His eyes flared, glowing with something dangerous that I wanted to discover. Then, he stood, bringing his cock in front of my face.
My tongue licked the tip, tasting the bead of arousal there, and he let out a tight breath.
I took him into my mouth, stretching my lips around him until he hit the back of my throat.
I choked a little, and it sent him into a frenzy.
He fisted the hair at the back of my head and used me like I had him.
“Fuck… Your mouth feels so good.”
I squeezed my thighs together, feeling the heat pooling at the bottom of my stomach again.
He wasn’t gentle. Just like he promised. He fucked my mouth relentlessly.
I couldn’t breathe, but I concentrated on the feel of him. The veins against my tongue, the ridges between my lips. Every time he pulled back, my tongue swirled around the tip, and he groaned, slamming into me even harder.
“I’m going to come inside that pretty mouth of yours,” he groaned through panting breaths. “You’re going to swallow it. You’re going to taste me, just like you wanted.”
Looking up at his face with his cock in my mouth was the most erotic thing I could have imagined. Except I didn’t have to imagine it. I didn’t have to imagine him anymore.
Daemon Corse had his cock in my mouth after he used his tongue to make me come in ways I didn’t know my body could.
My eyes watered as he continued to thrust into me. He buried his cock between my lips and roared over the thunder, releasing in my mouth. I swallowed, feeling his hot cum slide down my throat.
When he was finished, he pulled out, and I sat back on my feet.
We stayed there for a moment, coming down from the high of release.
He cupped my chin, kneeling in front of me, pulled me to him, and held me.
I wasn’t sure how long we stayed like that before he started cleaning me up with his shirt, gathering me into his arms. The rain still fell around us, but it was lighter now, like the storm had spent itself just like we had.
My body trembled, not from cold or fear, but from the aftermath of everything we’d just done. The bruising grip of his hands still stung my hips. My legs were weak and limp. I could still feel his mouth on me and mine around him.
He placed gentle kisses to the cut on my shoulder, inaudibly whispering against my skin. I didn’t know when I started crying or if I had ever even stopped. I was just…overwhelmed.
Not only had I given myself to a demon—fully, completely—but I had given myself to Daemon. Yet the tears weren’t from that. They were flowing because I realized I had given myself to him long ago.
His thumb wiped at the tears on my cheek. “Are you alright?” he asked softly.
I nodded and reached up to trace my fingers over the cut I’d carved into his shoulder.
“I’m not sorry,” I whispered, my throat raw from the moans he’d pulled from it and his cock slamming into it.
He kissed the tender spot on my shoulder again. “Neither am I.”
The silence settled again, but all the tension that had filled it before was gone. We stayed there for a long while, holding each other as if it were for the first time. His fingers trailed along my body, and I relaxed into it.
But after some time, reality crept in.
“Why didn’t you just tell me, Daemon?”
“I wanted to tell you but not like this.” His jaw clenched, and I felt the tension radiating through him. “You’re in danger now because of it. I wish you hadn’t seen me.”
“I’m glad I did. And I’m sure I’ll be fine. The other demons never have to know, right?” I looked up at him.
His face was hard and apologetic. “They’ll know.”
My brows pinched together. “How—”
“It’s difficult to explain.” He sighed. “But they’ll know. This is serious, Vhaena.”
My heartbeat picked up as I glanced at his horns. It hit me then. I knew next to nothing about demons or what they were truly capable of. If he feared them, I was in more danger than I had realized.
“When they find out who you are to me—that you know my identity—they won’t blink before taking your life and mine. They’ll make an example out of us to the other demons with a slow death. It’ll be a statement, and I won’t be able to stop them.”
A chill ran down my spine, and my stomach twisted. My dream-come-true just turned into a living nightmare. “There’s nothing you can do?”
“There is. I’ve already figured out how to keep you safe from the other demons.” He tucked a stray hair behind my ear.
“How?”
His lips slowly spread into a terrifying, demonic smile. “I’ll make sure there aren’t any left.”
More violence?
“I—” I struggled for words. “You’re just going to kill them all?”
“Yes.” And all the warmth around us disappeared with the stark chill of his tone.
“Every last one of them who ever tries to come anywhere near you. I’ll slaughter them all.
I won’t let them touch you, and I don’t care what it will cost me.
” He looked at me like I was a curse and a blessing all at once. “My vow still stands.”