3. Little Demon
Archer
I tugged the blue crocheted blanket around my shoulders as I sat down at the kitchen table. Never in my life had I come that hard, and I was still reeling from the rush of it. The taste of Leni was still on my tongue, and I never wanted it to fade.
Her kitchen was comfy like the rest of her home.
Very different from my apartment. I had my own style, of course, but it felt so impersonal compared to hers.
All the neutral tones I’d gravitated towards over the years felt boring and lifeless next to the bright colors of all the objects she owned.
From the couple of pink flower pots to the few indigo blue mugs hanging from a rack, everything was loved and well-worn.
There was a window to my left that showed the moon dancing over the water outside. I smiled as I looked out, listening to Leni move around the kitchen.
I couldn’t wait until it was daytime and I could really see the island we were on. I wondered if we could go swimming. It’d been a long time since I’d done something like that. Vacation wasn’t exactly a priority most of the time even though I loved the beach. Gods, when had I become so lifeless?
A cup clattered against the counter and I started to get up, but Leni waved her hand. “Stay. Just post-orgasm clumsiness.”
I settled back into my chair with a smug smile. I’d made her orgasm. I’d do it again. The gel she’d mentioned? I desperately wanted to know how that would feel once I was inside her. The taste of it had turned me feral.
I also wanted to spend time stroking the orgasm button she’d mentioned.
“Shouldn’t I be serving you?” I asked.
She shot me a look over her shoulder, and my smile broadened. “I do actually want to know more about you, you know. At least until we go back to bed and fuck like animals again.”
My heart skipped a beat. Truly, I had so many questions for her. Questions about sphinxes, too. Wing sensitivity was common with any creature who had them, but there was likely more I should know if I was going to please her.
Leni placed a copper kettle full of water on the stove top. The flame burner snickered to life as she turned it on.
“What do you want to know about me?” I asked. “I have so many questions for you, too.”
Clearly, we were sexually compatible. The sparks were so hot, I worried about us catching fire.
But what about the rest? What about our lives? Our friends and family? If we mated, where would we live? Would I move here with her? If she’d spent over a thousand years here, I certainly didn’t expect her to relocate to my boring apartment in the city.
If there was one thing I knew about lust, it was that it wasn’t enough to sustain a relationship.
“Hmm. Tell me about your life. The good, the bad, all of it,” Leni said.
Did I have to talk about the bad? I let out a hum, eyeing a tin of cookies on the counter. She caught my gaze and to my surprise, brought the tin to the table with a wink. I cracked it open and picked up what appeared to be a butter shortbread cookie, and let out a soft sigh.
“It feels silly to talk about my life,” I said. “When you’ve lived so much longer and have your own island. I feel like you’re probably at least ten times more interesting than I am.”
“Maybe to you,” she said.
The kettle started to squeal and she lifted it, pouring the water over two tea bags. She brought the mugs to the table and sat down, her wings relaxing behind her.
Her expression softened as she studied me. She propped her chin up with her palm, her claws resting against the curve of her face. “I love my life. It’s exactly how I want it, except it’s been lonely. I’ve wanted a mate for quite some time. Which is why I want to know about your life.”
I felt like she was skipping over quite a bit there, but decided I’d go first. “I have an older sister. Her name is Inferna. She has two mates, and they’re both witches. Art and Calen. And then I have two fathers.”
“And one is an incubus and the other is human?”
I nodded as she slid a mug across to me. I washed down the rest of the cookie with a sip of tea.
“Were they matched by the Barista?”
“Yeah,” I said. “A long time ago. Well, it feels like a long time ago since it was before I was alive. But not too long ago for any monster.”
Leni smiled. “Right. What are they like?”
“Happy,” I said. “They love each other. Sometimes I don’t get it. My relationship with one of my dads is a little strained, though, so perhaps I’m being judgemental.”
“I’m assuming he’s the monster one.”
“How’d you know?”
She shrugged. “I’m no stranger to complicated family dynamics. And I know how incubi can be. Possessive and passionate, yes. Patient? Absolutely not. Which can be very difficult if you’re a parent.” She wrinkled her nose. “I do not want offspring.”
“I don’t either,” I said. “I can’t even do pets. I mean, I’d love a dog or something eventually.”
“There are two cats on my island you can befriend.”
My eyes widened. “Really? I’d love that.”
She nodded. “The cat distribution system applies to rural areas too, apparently. I have tried multiple times to move them indoors, but they both prefer to roam. I keep them fed and watered and give them love.”
I grinned. “I’m impressed you’ve heard about the cat distribution system.”
She tipped her chin up proudly. “I know how to use the internet, thank you. I like the memes. They amuse me.”
I laughed and let my head rest in my hand, smiling at her. “Maybe tomorrow you can show me your island.”
“Of course.” She hesitated for a moment. “I didn’t ask, but will you need to go home this weekend? I really whisked you away, didn’t I?”
“You did, but I have no complaints. As for going home, no. My job is remote, and I may have taken off just in case . . . something good happened.”
I hadn’t really believed this would happen and yet, here I was—sitting at a small table with the one meant to be my mate. It didn’t feel real.
Leni’s eyes brightened as she sat up a little straighter. “Really?”
I nodded. “Really.”
“Amazing.” She relaxed, and my chest squeezed with that feeling again.
The one that made me realize how different lust could feel with your fated mate.
It wasn’t a guarantee, of course. Every person could make their own choice.
Free will wasn’t eliminated by fate. If Leni and I decided we didn’t want this, we could walk away without any sort of cosmic consequences.
But the idea of doing that felt wrong down to my bones.
There was the distinct flicker of hope that this could be my future. That I’d finally found my mate.
Even with how complicated my relationship was with my father, Dante, I knew how much he loved my other dad.
I’d grown up in a house full of monsterly love.
I’d watched them grow together, communicate, be parents to me and my sister.
They’d done a damn good job, and I knew I was loved despite everything.
I’d always wanted this.
For so long, I believed I’d never have it.
“I guess now I can understand him a little more,” I mumbled to myself.
“Who?” Leni asked.
I winced. “My father.”
“What happened to make your relationship so complicated?”
I hesitated. For so long, I carried a lot of shame with me for what happened years ago. But I’d also been so young, and looking back, it wasn’t nearly as terrible as it had been at the time.
Eventually, I’d need to share this with Leni. Might as well do it now.
“I fell in love with a guy named Ian when I was a teen a little over ten years ago,” I said.
“A human who couldn’t see monsters. Because I’d grown up in a world where everything monsters do is normal, I thought mating bites were normal.
I did not realize how serious they were or that it was something that really only worked for fated mates. ”
Her golden eyes softened with sadness. She pressed her lips together as she listened.
It wasn’t easy to talk about any of this, but it was the reason I never thought I’d be sitting here. It was why I struggled with my father. It was why I struggled to exist as myself sometimes.
I drew in a breath and continued. “I swore up and down that he was the one. My dad insisted that he was not my mate, though. So, of course, being rebellious, I decided to prove him wrong. I bit my human boyfriend. Of course he was not my mate. So instead of finding the one, I bit someone who was definitely not human hard enough that he had to go to the hospital. The Barista was able to smooth everything over, I changed schools, I apologized to Ian, but the damage was already done. It was humiliating and horrifying. I’d never felt so ashamed.
I was so angry with myself.” My voice was now a whisper, everything inside me shrinking.
What if she hated me for this?
“You were so young,” she said. “How could you possibly have known? Especially if your parents hadn't told you.”
“I should've known. There really isn’t an excuse. I’ve spent a lot of time working through what I did.
Even though I had his consent to bite him, he didn’t know what I was really trying to do,” I said.
“I should not have bitten someone just to prove my dad wrong. I should not have tried to push for something that deep down, I knew wasn’t true anyway.
I just wanted a mate, you know? I wanted what my dads had. ”
I swallowed hard, thinking back to it all. Even my sister had been furious with me.
“It was such a mess. And then everyone treated me differently, and that only made my relationship with my dad more strained. Dante and I kept bumping heads and it created a divide in our family. Even though Inferna and my other dad tried to make it better, things are still weird between us. I love my family, though.”
Leni pressed her lips together. “You fucked up. Mistakes are very normal, and while that mistake was a bad one, I’m certain you’ve put in the work to make up for it.”
“I’ve tried,” I said. A tired, bitter laugh left me. “I actually got an email from that guy a couple years ago. He ended up being mated to a werewolf and was very much part of our monster world after all. He told me everything was fine and he hoped my life was good.”
When I’d gotten that email, I wasn’t sure if it helped me or not. I’d been convincing myself I didn’t deserve love. I didn’t deserve to be wanted. The moment I started getting feelings for someone, I ran the other way.
This time felt different.
I had a feeling if I ran, Leni would chase me. I liked the idea of being caught by her.
“Unfortunately, parents make as many mistakes as regular people do. I wish that they were perfect, but it's impossible to be so.” She wrinkled her nose and grabbed a cookie from the tin, biting into it. “I’ve fucked up plenty of times in my life. Some decisions were far worse than your mistake.”
We sighed together. For a moment, I worried that I’d ruined the vibes, but her tail curled around my ankle, comforting me.
“Maybe now that I understand this fated mate feeling a little bit more, I can have a conversation with him,” I said, thinking about how that might go. “Although, he owes me a fucking apology.”
“I’m sure he does.” She thought about my words for a few seconds then leaned forward, propping her face up with her hand. When she looked at me, all my worries suddenly evaporated.
She was beautiful. I envied artists and their ability to capture people with paint, because I wanted to have her face on a canvas above my bed, always looking at me.
“I think it's worth having the conversation if you would like to have a stronger relationship with him. But no one is required to keep family in their life. I do not speak to my family. I have long since been cast out of that riddle of sphinxes, and it will be like that for the rest of my life. They don’t like me.”
“Why?” I asked. “You're lovely. You're perfect. How could they possibly not like you?”
Leni chuckled and shrugged her shoulders.
“My family is very secluded. Almost like a cult, honestly. The closest comparison I have are human religious groups that isolate themselves from the rest of the world. That is how my family is. They do not think sphinxes should interact with other monsters, or humans for that matter.”
“But why?” I asked.
“Well, sphinxes hold knowledge that has been deemed sacred.
Some have the gift of prophecy. They are meant to protect that knowledge, as has been done for eons.
But I've never had an interest in that. Of course I love to read, and I love to learn new things, and I do all the time—but my desires never aligned with what they wanted. Because of that we fought a lot. I was never good enough. I was never enough.”
I scowled. The idea of anyone making her feel that way made my spine stiffen. “That’s such bullshit.”
I wasn’t really sure I could fight a whole family of sphinxes, but I kind of wanted to try now.
“I’m sorry your family is awful,” I said. “Even with the complicated relationship, I know I’m loved.”
“It’s okay. I’ve long since let it go.” Leni’s gaze narrowed on me. “All of my sacred knowledge is about sex. It can’t get much better than that.”
I laughed and lifted my mug. “To sacred knowledge and sex.”
Her face lit. She clinked her cup against mine. “To sacred knowledge and sex.”
We both took a sip, and I sank back in the chair, regarding her thoughtfully. “This date has ended up being quite the surprise, and I love it. Thank you for whisking me away. I didn't expect for us to make it past the front door.”
“Oh, I’d hoped we would end up right in my nest. But I didn't let my expectations get too high, because I didn't want to be disappointed.” Leni’s fangs flashed. “You are the furthest thing from a disappointment.”
“I hope so,” I said. “Although I'm happy to keep earning that compliment.”
Her smile turned wicked. “And I can think of a few ways for you to do so. After a good night’s sleep. You’re going to need it.”
She was right, unfortunately. Even though I wanted to stay up all night fucking, it would be good to rest before doing more.
Leni stood up and took our empty mugs to the sink. She came back to the table, towering over me as her hand slid into mine, our fingers intertwining. I brought her soft knuckles to my lips, grazing them with a kiss.
“Bright and early, I’ll wake you,” she promised. “Come to bed, little demon.”
“Yes, Mistress.”