Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Ember stood bent over the counter with her arms folded atop it, smiling as she watched Nyte speak to a customer across the shop who was gesturing at Nyte’s clothing.
To the man, Nyte appeared human, and he was currently modelling one of the outfits that normally adorned a mannequin.
But to Ember, he was the gorgeous, starlit demon he’d always been.
And fuck was he sexy.
A black and purple corset vest accentuated his narrow waist, showing off his broad chest and wide shoulders, and the black shirt beneath it perfectly molded to his lean, muscled arms. Ember’s gaze ran down his body, and she caught her bottom lip between her teeth.
Those black trousers hugged his thighs and taut ass.
Even knowing what lay beneath them, his clothes made her yearn to peel them off and reveal his sinfully hot body an inch at a time. She shifted, rubbing her thighs together as desire kindled in her core.
The past several days had been a complete one-eighty from the prior week.
Nyte had rarely left her side, had barely been able to keep his hands off her.
The night he’d taken her flying, when he’d finally given in to their mutual lust and longing, he’d stayed with her in bed until she’d fallen asleep.
He’d stayed inside her. And it’d been that way every night since.
Ember’s pussy and ass clenched with the memory of his cocks, the sensations still fresh from what they’d done this morning before coming to the boutique.
As though sensing her thoughts, Nyte glanced her way. His violet-blue eyes flashed with heat, and the corner of his mouth curved up into a smirk. There was a devilish promise in that brief look that sent a rush of want through her.
I can’t wait until closing.
Someone cleared their throat near Ember.
Startled her from her ogling, she straightened and looked at the woman standing on the other side of the counter, who waited with an armful of items.
“I’m so sorry,” Ember rushed to say, gesturing to the counter. “You can set all that here.”
The woman chuckled as she laid down the skirt, handbag, and jewelry she’d been holding. Leaning forward, she pointed discreetly toward Nyte. “I don’t blame you. He’s hot.”
Ember grinned.
And he’s mine.
Though that wasn’t true, was it? Maybe he was hers for now, but when the full moon rose in five days, he’d be released from the spell binding them together. He’d be free to leave her.
The happiness that had been burning bright inside Ember snuffed out. She forced her smile to remain in place as she chatted with the woman and rang up the items.
“Oh, and this.” The woman plucked up the last pack of incense sticks from the basket next to the register. “I love these.”
“They’re my favorite too.”
Especially since the spicy, woodsy scent reminded her of Nyte.
Once the woman paid and left the store, Ember looked back at Nyte.
The man was still chatting with him, chuckling loudly at something Nyte had said.
For as curmudgeonly as he often acted, the demon really could be charming when he wanted to be, and he’d taken to interacting with customers in the shop with an ease and enthusiasm that continued to surprise her.
Since there was no one else currently in the store, Ember took the opportunity to head into the back room and get some more incense to restock the basket. She rose on her toes, grabbed the box on one of the upper shelves, and pulled it down.
“Finally!” remarked a high-pitched voice.
Ember yelped, the box slipping from her grasp, as a tiny glowing figure flitted beside her. She fumbled, desperate to keep the box from falling to the floor. Once she’d clutched it tight against her chest, she looked at the sprite. “Starling?”
Starling grinned as she landed atop the box. “Who else would it be?”
A shiver ran through Ember. She hoped she’d never have to learn firsthand how razor-sharp those teeth really were.
At a glance, one would think Starling was a fairy from a fairytale, delicate and beautiful, but there was a menacing edge to her beauty.
Maybe it was the uncanniness of her more inhuman features, like her third eye, her elongated proportions, and her extra set of arms.
She was a bit unsettling up close.
“I’m just surprised,” Ember said. “I haven’t seen you since that first night.”
Starling chuckled. “Oh, but I have seen plenty of you.”
Ember arched a brow. “What does that mean?”
The sprite waved her upper right hand dismissively.
“I have been waiting to speak with you alone, which has been difficult since the two of you have been inseparable these last few days. Not that I am complaining. I have waited centuries for Nyte to drag himself out of Despair and live again, and my is he living. You have certainly brought out something new in him, witchling. Seeing the two of you, hearing the two of you…”
She grinned wider and fanned herself.
Ember gaped at her. “Wait, wait, wait, wait. You’ve been watching us have sex?”
Starling rolled her eyes. “You mortals are so uptight. But no, I did not stay to watch. I simply check in from time to time. I am…keeping guard, you could say. Which is why I must speak to you.”
“Why me and not Nyte?”
“Because this is something only you can do.” Starling flitted up to hover in the air in front of Ember. “Did Nyte tell you Sarnessa is looking for him?”
Ember’s stomach dropped. How long had Nyte known? And why…why hadn’t he told her?
She looked down, clutching the box. Did he…
still have feelings for the succubus? He’d spent four-hundred years in self-imposed exile to overcome the pain of her betrayal.
He would’ve still been there had Starling not invoked the summoning through Ember.
He’d said it was because he had been left vulnerable, because he’d needed time for his heart to recover.
But that didn’t mean he harbored no feelings for the succubus who’d awoken so much inside him.
“No,” Ember said with a shake of her head as she slid the box onto a shelf. “Nyte didn’t tell me.”
Starling moved closer and placed a hand beneath Ember’s chin, lifting it, forcing Ember to look at her.
She was surprisingly strong despite her diminutive stature.
“I know what thoughts are traipsing through your head, witchling. Cast them aside and set them ablaze so they never return. He carries only hatred for her. If he did not tell you, it is because he did not want to frighten you.”
“Then why are you telling me?”
“To prepare you, because she will come. What she stole from him before she will try to take again. She covets its power, and it will be especially potent now. So I have a boon to bestow upon you. Something to use against that succubitch.”
Starling flew to Ember’s shoulder, placing her mouth near Ember’s ear, and whispered words that Ember couldn’t understand. Words that resonated with untold power, sending a chill down Ember’s spine even as they sparked an electric tingling in her fingers and toes that crackled up her limbs.
And though it didn’t make any sense, though it wasn’t how reality was supposed to work, she felt those words take root in her mind. It felt like simply hearing them made them part of her, like she could call upon them whenever she needed.
When Starling finished, she drifted back with a smile. “Recite that incantation against her.”
Ember touched her fingers to her chest, where she felt magic swirling inside her, ancient and mysterious. “You want me to cast a spell against a succubus?”
Starling nodded with a grin. “Send her straight to hell.”
“I don’t know if I can do this. I don’t even know how I summoned Nyte to begin with. I was sleeping!”
“Ah, witchling. You have the power in you. You were never taught to harness it, but it is there, and it is yours to command. And when the moment comes… I believe you will know what to do with it.”
Ember’s brow furrowed. All of this was so new to her. Things she’d thought were make-believe, things that should’ve existed only in fantastical fiction, had become part of her reality. Why would she ever have thought that she could cast spells? That she was a witch?
I’m seriously going to need to have a talk with my family.
The curtain into the storeroom was swept aside, revealing Nyte in the doorway. His eyes flicked to Starling. “I thought I felt your presence here, sprite. What mischief are you making now?”
“Mischief?” Starling scoffed. She pressed the side of her face to Ember’s cheek, her wings fluttering against Ember’s hair. “I am simply having a chat with our lovely witchling.”
One of his dark brows arched. “Our?”
She pouted and flitted over to Nyte, crossing her arms. “You are such a possessive nocturnus.”
He smiled at her, his bared fangs conveying little warmth. “With all the watching you do, you’ve surely heard my claims on this mortal. She is mine.”
A light, tinkling giggle escaped the sprite. “And I am overjoyed to hear it.” She patted his cheek with both of her tiny left hands. “I must take my leave. So much to do, you understand. Ta-ta!”
The sprite disappeared, leaving behind a little cloud of fading stardust.
Quirking a brow, Ember crossed her arms, cocked her hip, and looked at Nyte. “How long have you known Starling was watching us?”
Chuckling, he walked toward Ember, wrapped his arms around her, and drew her against his chest. “From the beginning, but it doesn’t matter. She was always going to watch her little scheme unfold whether we knew it or not.”
He curled a finger around a lock of her hair as he lowered his face, skimming the tip of his nose over hers, his lips teasingly close to her own. “Regardless, she’s not watching us right now…”
His hands smoothed down to her ass, trailing heat, and began bunching up her short skirt, exposing more of her thighs little by little.
Ember’s breath hitched, and she grabbed his forearms to stop him. “Nyte! The store’s open. Someone could walk in.”
“I locked the door and turned the sign.” Nyte dipped his head farther and grazed her neck with his fangs, making her shiver. “I need you. Now.”
He opened his mouth wide and bit down.
The flare of pain forced a cry from her lips, but it was swiftly carried away on a rising tide of pleasure. Ember lifted her hands and slipped her fingers into his hair to clutch the dark locks. She held him closer as pleasure shot through her, going straight to her clit and making it pulse.
His fingers flexed, curling around her ass, pressing his claws into her flesh.
“Nyte,” she moaned, each gentle pull from his mouth making her core clench as the hollow ache within her grew. A breathless laugh slipped past her lips. “You said you weren’t a vampire.”
He withdrew his fangs, and his tongue slid across the wounds, making them tingle and grow warmer. With a chuckle, he lifted his head to meet her gaze. “So long as it gets me another taste of you, I’ll be whatever I must.”
Nyte slanted his mouth over hers in a hungry kiss, pressing her back against the wall.
She tasted blood on his tongue, mixed with the flavor of him, and God, why was that so titillating?
He lifted her off her feet, parting her thighs wide, and she wrapped her legs around his hips as she returned the kiss, parting her lips and welcoming his sinful tongue.
His tail trailed along the back of her thigh, curling in to slide beneath her underwear. Ember whimpered as it brushed over her pussy. She felt the material being tugged to the side, felt air against her heated center, and then Nyte’s cock was there, its head nudging against her.
With a growl, he pushed inside her, slowly, deeply, his girth stretching her, his length filling her, and Ember gasped against his mouth. As he’d said, he was made to fit her perfectly.
Nyte’s eyes blazed with fierceness and possessiveness, holding her gaze captive as he thrust inside her, gradually bringing them both toward the heights of rapture. Neither of them looked away even when the universe began to shatter around them.