Chapter 9 Now We’re at War with Interdimensional Cockroaches
nine
Now We’re at War with Interdimensional Cockroaches
Ilunge forward, magic surging through my arms. A golden sheen encases my makeshift staff and I whap the first skreet on the top of the head. It skreets—a sound that perfectly matches its name—and whirls around for its glowing portal.
I lock the bo staff under my arm and give the second one a heavy backhanded swing.
The blow cracks against the monster’s side, and it too flies for its portal.
There’s just one left and it looks at me like an angry dog ready to fight over a bone.
Acidic drool drips from its razor-sharp teeth.
Its mouth opens wider and it screams. The noise hurts my whole body and turns my stomach like I might puke.
Rhazan steps in front of me and gives the monster a bout of fire. It runs, antennae singed and face blackened, then jumps through the rip in space. The portals snap shut with an almost comical plink and then the bar is empty—save for us and a few overturned bar stools.
Rhazan turns to me, his gaze roving over my body. “Where did you learn to fight like that?”
“My parents owned a wuguan—a martial arts studio,” I say with a shrug, fighting off the emotion trying to worm its way into my voice. “I was sort of working my way up to help them run it one day.”
“You were…what happened?”
I harden myself, remembering that this pain is old and it can’t hurt me right now.
“Same thing that always happens when you dream too big. Someone comes and takes a shit on all of it.”
He raises an eyebrow. “Someone defecated in your parents’ studio?”
“Not literally,” I say with a laugh that helps break up the tension.
He takes a breath, a curious expression crinkling his brow, but then I see him decide against whatever he was going to say. He blows the breath out in a sigh and looks around the room.
“The wards broke,” he murmurs, then walks toward the bar to right a chair.
“I guess we better firm them up.”
He bobs his head with an affirmative grunt as he inspects the glassy wall of the bar. “Skreet is not a forgiving creature. It will likely seek revenge, or at the very least, hold a grudge.”
“Oh, great, so we’ll meet again,” I grumble as I shuffle my feet.
Despite my sarcasm, I want to stay longer, explore more, talk to him…but I’m unsure what else to say that’ll make him want me here. I’m not sure why I want him to want me here. He’s been a huge asshole.
“Come back tomorrow night,” he says, and my stomach gets all fluttery.
I cross my arms and squish the feeling. “I can’t. I’m busy.”
“With?”
“I’m getting the café ready for business. If it’s not opened in a month, we’ll be out of money.”
“Fine. Two nights from now. We can’t delay any longer than that without risking both of our businesses.”
“Fine.” I huff, then the butterflies return. “You need my help?”
He scowls at me over his shoulder. “I need my magic that’s in your astral body.”
I tut, lifting my chin. “This is what you get for putting brands on people that didn’t ask for them.”
“I was trying to protect you,” he says, standing to face me.
“Which I obviously don’t need,” I say, twirling the broom handle around my hand and across my forearms in a showy display.
He grumbles something that’s definitely a different language as smoke curls from his nostrils. I smirk, knowing I’ve won again.
Round three, me.
He steps closer, his skin radiating heat and frustration. “You may have fought off two skreet drones, but you would quiver at the sight of an overlord, let alone the Hive Mind itself. And if you’re as careless with your sweets when the shop opens, it won’t be long before you’re paid a visit.”
He’s towering over me now and I feel like maybe I need to rescind that round point.
“Jiahui,” he says, my name a slow-burning fire that crackles in the back of his throat. It sends a shiver down my spine and makes my nipples peak.
I swallow hard. “Yes?”
“I will come to your shop in two days to help you ward, to protect you and your family because you need protecting.”
I’m nodding—helplessly, stupidly. He pushes my pinkish hair behind my ear, his talon grazing my cheek.
The sensation of danger prickles along my skin, but the risk feels more like a reward.
His fingers trail down to my neck, lingering on my collarbone before he pulls away.
He turns for the bar and begins righting the furniture.
“I need you to come back that night so that I may utilize all my magic to ward my bar, and only refuge, from these monsters. Will you come back?”
I nod again.
His expression glows with satisfaction, but not a trace of a smile. “Good girl.”
A gratifying shiver rolls down my spine, and I whimper at the feeling it leaves in my belly. Ugh. What is wrong with me?
Rhazan drags a stool close and sits like a king preparing to pass judgment.
“Now, bend over my knee.”
I gasp, heat flushing my face. “No, sir, I don’t think so.”
“I told you to return to my office earlier and you didn’t. You could’ve been hurt.”
“Could’ve but wasn’t, because I’m a badass,” I say, setting the broom handle against the bar.
“You infused your weapon with my magic. A normal broomstick would’ve done nothing but upset them. Without me, you would’ve been hurt, and so—”
He props his thigh up by resting his clawed foot on the stool’s support bar.
“I’m going to punish you.”
He points to his leg, a silent command to come and bend over him. I lock my knees together and bite my lip.
“You need punishment, Jiahui.”
My heart thunders in my ears. Do I need this? Maybe. Do I want it? Hell, yes.
“Guess you never did finish that other lesson…”
I walk to him, reveling in the way his eyes follow the flow of my hips when I move.
I stop beside him, nerves firing through my gut like little explosions.
I’ve never done kinky stuff before. I’ve never done stuff before.
And now I’m about to bend over an ifrit’s knee and let him spank me for being a bad girl.
Warmth pools in my lower belly.
I touch his leg, hands gently grazing the fabric of his pants as I lower myself across him.
His thick thigh flexes under my stomach and I clench up, too.
He grabs under my chest and across my shoulder, supporting my upper body.
I hold on to his forearm with both hands and my back arches, presenting my rear.
He sighs deeply and bathes my lower back in heat and smoke. My breaths come in staccato pants as his other hand caresses my left cheek.
“I don’t want you to get hurt,” he says, then lifts his hand.
I grab his arm tighter, preparing for the strike. It hits with a loud crack that reverberates through my body with delicious heat. I yelp, my feet kicking off the ground until I’m suspended by him.
“I would be very upset.”
His hand comes down on the other cheek with a gratifying clap that echoes throughout the bar.
He hits the same cheek again, fast, and without warning.
I moan against the strike and arch my butt higher.
He massages the spot for a moment, his fingers dipping lower and rubbing the inside of my thigh.
I turn my head to look up at him. He’s watching me with an intensity that feels borderline obsessive.
And I fucking love it.
“Why would you be upset?” I ask, my voice a small, shaky thing.
His racing heart is visible in the glowing veins of fire on his chest and arms. He huffs, spanking my left cheek again. The smack makes all the fiery lines glow brighter, and his trousers pull tighter.
“Because.”
“Because why—ah!”
He spanks me again, harder. The sting turns into a burn that washes through my body.
Liquid heat pools at my center, and dangerous thoughts bloom from the spot.
His growing length pulses against my side and his fingers dip low once more, smoothing through my crack until he’s just barely grazing the warmth of my core.
I squirm, desperate for a little bit of friction there.
He leans down, his lips hovering over my ear.
“Because your body carries my magic now. And if anyone else dares touch what's mine”—he growls the word, and I moan at the possessive rumble—“I will burn their soul from the inside out.”
I dig my nails into his forearm, fighting the urge to push one of my hands between my legs and make myself come. The crack of his palm against my ass rings out twice more. Each one brings me a little closer to madness.
“Tell me you understand,” he says, smoothing over the hurt he’s just done.
“I understand, RhazDaddy.”
“Fuck,” he rumbles, and his fingers dip down to my aching core.
I mewl, my mind turned to mush by his huge hand. I’m just a dragon chasing fire, daring it to consume me.
“What are you doing to me, Firecracker?”
His fingers press hard, right where I need them. I wriggle on his lap, getting the pace I need to climb to soaring heights. All the heat he’s poured into my body with every spank coils down into my clit, pressure mounting until I’m crying out with every circle of his hand.
“Rhaz, I’m—”
The blaring siren of my morning alarm rips me through the realms and into my body. I gasp, throwing myself out of bed and across the room. I trip, sheets knotted around my legs. I’m covered in sweat and the bubbling tension in my lower belly is right at the edge.
I smash my hand down on my phone to silence it and see the burning brand on my wrist.
Hell…I could call him. I could just summon him here to finish what he started.
The reverent way he watched me strikes a guilty chord in my gut. It whispers that I’m not going to be here forever. That once everything is done with Zhao Shang, I’m going home to Boston. That he said he’s tied to this place.
And I can’t tie myself to him.
I swallow that knowledge down and wrap it up in a neat little package before setting it aside and finishing myself off.
The climax rips through me like a lightning strike—I bite down on my pillow, breath stolen, vision white.
When the last wave of pleasure washes over me in a full-body convulsion, I gasp.
This fire demon is breaking me.