Chapter 35
Idon’t keep us lingering in the chaotic mess caused by me killing someone.
I’d say I’m sorry, but really, I’m not. He was likely on his way to death anyway, and I refuse to repeat myself to people who don’t matter.
He was a grown man, fully aware of who he stood in front of, and he still chose to reach for what wasn’t his.
The world’s better off without him, regardless of what anyone thinks.
I get us onto the cracked road leading deeper into Demour. When we reach a cluster of parked cars, I put her down and immediately head toward one of the trucks.
“Car theft, I must admit, wasn’t something I did often until now.” I glance back at her, catching the eye roll.
“Murder, yes. Carjacking? Not so much.”
She shakes her head and crosses her arms.
“Looks like this town has some residents,” she says as I open the driver’s side door of an old two-door truck. “I wonder if it’s authorities, or people who just… don’t care about their lives.”
I pop the visor down, and a pair of keys falls right into my hand. Nice.
“Or maybe Necroth,” she continues. “Though if they have the right mind to drive, that makes me concerned.”
I jiggle the keys to get her attention.
“Why’s that?”
She smiles, hurries over, and slips into the truck, crawling across the bench seat into the middle.
I slide in beside her and start up the truck, letting it rumble to life.
We both know the farther we go into Demour, the fewer resources—and the less life—we’ll find.
But we can at least stay comfortable in a vehicle until it runs out of gas.
Judging by the gauge, we’ve got a few hours.
“Ashspyte is what killed these people, along with the land, but it also preserved them and prevented cell breakdown. Scientists never figured out if it was parasitic or viral. I’m going with the latter.
Something that hijacked the nervous system enough to give Necroth their basic motor functions back. ”
“It’s hot how smart you are.”
Her soft laugh warms my barely beating heart.
“Necroth never had brain function, not without an intervention factor. If they’re evolving enough to…
drive, and if that’s the population of these towns?
I’d classify that as not good. Witches can use Ashspyte as an ingredient to bring back the dead.
The caster has to give a lot of themselves to do that—some say their soul. ”
I wrap my arm over her shoulder and drive us down the uneven, cracked road. The town is desolate, buildings boarded up, doors reinforced. I’m certain I see a few shadows darting between structures, but I don’t linger long enough to risk plowing into a parked car.
It’s bone-deep eerie.
And if I wasn’t confident I could rip a Necroth’s head clean off, I might actually be concerned.
“But for their evolution to be… like this?” she says quietly. “That’s concerning.”
“Again, why’s that?”
“Demons can control Necroth because they walk the line between life and death. Born of the Beyond, walk amongst the living,” she answers. “That includes the naturally created ones, and… the manufactured ones. They’re essentially Demons themselves. Or another subset of them.”
“I’d not go that far… right? Belial didn’t create them.”
She takes a deep breath and nods.
“Yeah. I mean, it makes sense. Necroth are unnatural. They have no souls. Everything that made them them has already been taken to the Vayl or the Beyond. So whatever’s left is animated by a toxin that’s said to have originated from Belial himself.”
“Wow… wow.” I laugh nervously. “What?”
“Right. Everhaven’s educational system isn’t the best, even before the war.”
I pinch her arm softly, and she yelps. “Hey!”
“I’m going to spank you for basically calling me stupid again, little slayer.”
That gets me a soft laugh from her, and I smile like an idiot all over again. How’d I fight this for so long?
“Looking forward to it… Anyway, before we get off topic—” Bloody Beyond, I want her to get off this topic and onto me.
“It was said that Ashspyte didn’t come from the core, but from a strategic opening of gates to the Beyond.
They let it seep into this world, killing resources and causing the Old War.
It wasn’t just Everhaven that was hit, and honestly it would explain why certain continents were only affected on one or two sides, not the entire land mass. ”
“That’s a myth. Has to be.”
“Maybe,” she hums thoughtfully. “Regardless, you should tell Atlas that if the militia isn’t already studying their evolution, they need to. Necroth shouldn’t have an active brain without some external influence. Something pushing them to function beyond a brain-dead… well… zombie.”
I drag my fingers across her arm. “I’ll mention it… Did Ashspyte affect your home?”
“No, it didn’t.”
She pauses, but I can feel there’s more she wants to say, so I stay quiet. When she finally speaks, my chest constricts.
“Hatred did.”
“Oh, Amarah… I’m sorry.”
She’s made it painfully clear her kind isn’t liked, and the fact that I was part of that group until I got to know her—it stings.
Just as I’m about to try to gently push for more, her hand slides across my thigh and right over my dick.
“It’s fine. Let’s move on.”
For the first time, I don’t want to. “I’ll listen. You can tell me.”
I want to press. I want to demand she let me in. But she grabs my cock through my pants and squeezes.
“I’m fine, really… May I?”
My grip on the steering wheel tightens, and as the enclosed street lined with decaying buildings opens into a highway littered with abandoned cars, I shift.
“May you what?”
She slowly unzips my pants, and I tut. “What would you like?”
The moment her hand slips into my open fly, I grab her wrist and pull her back. I release her only long enough to retake the wheel. With how uneven the road is, I can’t afford to hit a massive pothole and send us careening into a stalled vehicle.
“Let me hear you tell me what you want. May you… what?”
She grumbles, leans down against my chest, and then quite literally bites my nipple through my shirt. My cock jumps in anticipation. When will she learn mine are just as sensitive as hers?
“Don’t make me—”
“Beg? No, little slayer. I just want to know what you want. With that voice that can say the smartest things… and make the most delectable noises I’ve ever heard.”
A soft whimper trembles out of her as she rubs her forehead against my shoulder.
“Kayn.”
Fuck, the way she whines my name sometimes… I want to talk about her past more than anything, but the moment she sounds like this, she’s got me wrapped around her damn finger. And the thought of her mouth on me? I can’t think of anything else.
“Let me suck your cock… please.”
I move my hand from around her shoulder and slide it into her hair. “You ask so nicely, my little slayer. How could I deny you anything? Especially when it comes to what’s yours.”
The way her heart skips does something to mine.
It feels good to make her flustered, happy, frustrated—Gods, just making her feel anything is a hit of pure serotonin. I love it.
“Thank you,” she coos, sliding her hand back to my lap.
The button on my pants pops, and when she tugs them down, I lift my hips for her.
The moment I’m free, she sucks in a sharp breath. She doesn’t speak, but the sound is enough. As her warm fingers wrap around my girth, I lean my head back against the rear window.
I keep my eyes forward. Barely.
The world narrows into a single tunnel, just focused enough that I won’t hit anything… but all I can think about, all I can feel, is her hand beginning to stroke me slowly.
“Gods, you’re so…” She scoots her hips away from mine and leans over me. “Hard, already.”
“I wonder why,” I say through a groan. “Spit on it, little slayer. Make a fucking mess while you stroke my cock.”
She does exactly as I command, and as warm liquid gathers around the head, her hand twists and spreads it down my shaft. A groan rumbles in my chest as she strokes all the way to the hilt before dragging back up for another slow pass.
“That’s it.”
I thread my fingers through her hair, not pushing, just anchoring her. She’s exploring—looking, learning—taking in my cock like I plan to do to every inch of her perfect body.
Her heartbeat kicks into a rapid rhythm, and when she leans forward to drag her tongue across the piercings, I hum my approval.
She’s keeping most of her thoughts to herself, but a few threads slip through the bond, mostly her worrying about how she’ll fit me from this angle.
Which she won’t. And I don’t expect her to.
Without a word, she wraps her lips around the head of my cock, and sucks.
I have to blink hard to keep my eyes open because godsdamn, her mouth feels incredible. Her tongue and hand working together sends an immediate, electric pleasure straight up my spine.
“Fuuuck,” I groan, and the sound makes her whimper around me.
She fucks me with her mouth just as exquisitely as her cunt did a few days ago, and I’m a madman for more of it. When she lowers her head further and the tip hits the back of her throat, my hand fists in her hair. I’m not holding her down, but Gods, I would if she were ready to take it.
When she finally pulls up for a deep breath, I tighten my grip in her soft white hair.
“Take a deep breath when you go down,” I command while shifting down to look at her briefly. One of her hands is still gripping my cock while the other is steadying herself on my thigh. “You know how to tell me to stop.”
She sucks a deep breath through her nose and pushes her head down, then I hold.
I take my foot off the gas because the feeling of her throat closing around me has me actually twitching.
The thought of spilling my cum down her throat, making her swallow every godsdamn drop I give her, has me bucking my hips up to give myself that extra inch.