Chapter Eight
Haide
He drags the tip of his nose along the curve of my neck, slow and deliberate, as if he’s peeling back the layers of my skin to feast on every secret I keep hidden. Every fear that I’ve buried deep in the marrow of my bones where no one would ever be brave enough to find.
“You are extraordinary, Haide,” he murmurs, his voice working me into a haze. “A damn rarity…”
A groan slips from my lips before I can stop it as I lean into his touch.
He snaps at my lips, teeth catching just enough to draw blood.
Am I really about to fuck a demon?
This damn demon? Crap. Yes?
I draw forward, fingers locking behind the thick cord of his neck, and—
He’s gone, cold air snapping me back to reality where his warmth was moments ago.
His chuckling rolls through the wooden door.
“Asshole!” I growl, throwing at it as if it’d do anything.
I’m mated to a damn beast. I almost laugh, the thought so ridiculous.
But somehow the world feels right, like the truth has been buried in my mind and only now has enough confidence to appear.
And I mean, it makes sense. We’re both here, and my people seem to think he’s worth a damn—so my instincts can’t be complete shit, right?
I rip the sheets off my body and make my way to the dresser, finding it filled with leathers of all styles.
“Meet me at the Tavern.” His voice is as clear as if he’s still in the room with me.
“We need to get to Zev,” I reply, pulling out the first items I see and shoving them on.
“And we have said we will,” he growls, so low I feel it in my belly. “But there’s something we must complete first.”
Could someone like him understand my chaos? My thirst for danger?
I’m not so sure. Guess we’ll find out.
“So, are you impressed, my little mate?” he asks, gesturing in front of himself. The tavern spreads out before us in a display of wood-carved furniture and flashing lights. Heavy rock music pounds through the speakers.
“Maybe a little.” My fingers find the back of his neck as I slowly lower myself to his lap.
He doesn’t move, allowing me to do with him as I will.
“I bend for no one, not even you…” he declares, obviously sensing the rush of power coursing through my veins.
“We’ll see about that,” I tease, leaning in to him and drawing my tongue over his jaw. He tastes of some kind of nectar, sweet enough to be addictive, but enough spice to confuse me. “Since all you do is bore me.”
“It’s better when sheep don’t know they’re lining up for slaughter.” He pauses for a moment. “Chaos is just noise. Subtlety, my little pet, now that’s dark arts.”
His hand clamps my ass, yanking me forward.
The chair groans, nine feet of horned arrogance and me balancing like a circus act.
For the first time I feel every rigid inch pressed against denim and leather.
Heat, promise. Big enough to split me in half and make me thank him for stitching me back together with his tongue.
Challenge accepted.
I roll my hips, dragging leather across obsidian skin. A low growl vibrates through his chest into mine. He doesn’t blink, just watches, gold horns flickering in the strobe. I lean until our lips graze, sharing breath, letting him taste the need riding my tongue.
“Subtlety?” I whisper. “I’ll write my name on you in bite marks. Nothing quiet about that.”
His fingers flex, nails scoring through leather. “Careful, mate.” His grin deepens. “I bite back.”
Please fucking do.
Music howls, lights stutter, blood still seeps across the floor and nobody here cares—too busy fucking toward their own demise.
I savor their ignorance, power flushing my skin.
Then he shifts, pressure right where I’m soaked, friction sparks lightning straight up my spine.
I inhale, drowning in burnt sugar and brimstone, drunk on a demon who smells like mine.
Another rock of my hips, another inch of him answering. The room tilts. I clutch his shoulders, nails scraping gold that flakes away, revealing human flesh beneath. Mine. Air leaves in ragged gasps.
“Still think evil needs chaos?” I pant against his jaw.
He licks the shell of my ear, forked tongue flicking. “Keep moving. Let’s see who breaks first, your restraint or my patience.”
Sparks explode around the coiling pressure growing in my stomach, and a laugh rips out of my mouth like a wild creature riding the edge of surrender and war. “Spoiler, horned beast, neither of us breaks. We shatter together.”
With every rock of my hips, I draw his pants down and he does nothing to stop me. Sex fills the air, intoxicating, but it’s him I want.
All I want.
He draws his tongue out, tearing my shirt off while keeping a possessive hand at my back. “Don’t fucking turn around. No one sees this but me.”
He tears the last scrap of lace from between my thighs and the sudden cool air hits the wet heat that’s already dripping down my inner leg.
“Look at you,” he rasps, voice thick enough to choke on. “My little Hellpet, soaked and ready for a demon.”
I brace my palms flat against his tar-and-gold chest, muscles bunching like hot cables under my fingers. “I’m not here for your sermon, Nightkin. I’m here for your cock. Give it to me or I’ll start carving pieces off your adoring audience until you do.”
He snarls—pleased, not mad—fangs catching the strobing red light.
“Threats? That’s my language.” A snap of his wrist, the front of his leathers splits open.
His thick shaft gleams with the same bronzed gold that melts into his skin, black veins pulsing under the surface, tip already weeping a pearlescent bead that hits my stomach like candlewax.
Thighs trembling, my knees slide farther apart on the broad leather of the chair. I’m wetter than the blood still puddling the floor. I sink forward, letting the broad head nudge the small of my belly.
“Take a seat, Hellpet,” he orders lazily. “Show the world who it belongs to.”
Something feral claws into my brain when the room spins, colors bleeding together before I’m falling, body hitting a mattress. My mattress. Back in my room in his dark castle.
“Did we just—”
“Portal on the island. Yes, Hellpet.” He drags his claws down my ribcage, and I arch into the sting as he shreds the fabric from my flesh.
Clothes gone, I lay bare with nothing but the strap of Zev’s knife at my thigh, spread over silk sheets as he grabs me by the waist and rolls onto his back, sliding me in one swift motion over the length of his cock.
I hiss as he marks every inch of me with every slow descent. The walls bleed ink around me as I roll my hips over him greedily.
My fingers dig into his chest as he sucks my nipple into his mouth around a growl, sliding his tongue up over the curve of my sternum.
My heart thunders in violent waves, each breath desperate as I near the edge.
In a sting, teeth sink into my chest, over my heart, and my back arches as I scream out, before warmth slowly bleeds through my veins.
The world tilts and I reach for the knife at my thigh.
With every roll of my hips, I claim him.
Mine.
Mine.
Mine.
I slide the tip of the blade over the tar dripping off his chest, right where his heart would be if he were human. My chest is damp, slick with not just sweat—but blood.
A dark grin spreads over my face as my orgasm rips me back into place, chasing, chasing, hungry for it.
My Nightkin growls with satisfaction. My hand finds his horn to hold him in place as I slowly draw the blade up his chest.
“Mine.” I launch it into his chest with everything I have, my orgasm rolling over me as he growls, filling me up with his cum.
But more. More. Something shifts in the air around me, a darkening at the edges of my vision as I continue to roll my hips over him. Black smoke curls off my shoulders, drifting upward in lazy threads as the walls in my room slowly fall around us.
Blood dribbles around my blade, the wound open and mixing with the crimson trickling down my own skin, warm and sticky.
I swipe my hand over it and rub it over his face.
“Mine.”
Each thrust is a war. Every grind a conquest. Pain and pleasure braiding so tight I can’t tell which is winning. My thighs quake, slick heat pulsing as he drives deeper, relentless, a demon claiming every shred of me. And I want him to.
His chest heaves beneath my hand, gold veins throbbing beneath my grip.
I rake my nails down the sludge of his chest as it parts.
What…
Darkness swallows the space again and my vision swims, blood loss turning the edges fuzzy, but I don’t stop.
Can’t stop.
Another wave builds as my hips slam down, taking all of him, splitting me open. Something fractures deep in my belly, but I don’t care. The pain only turns to pleasure.
To heat.
To want.
Mine.
I suck in a deep breath. The concrete behind the headboard blisters and cracks, black flames crawling up the wall and blending with the sound of our slapping bodies.
With an almost too gentle palm over my throat, his fingers flex over the mark seared over it. Electricity zips sears through me as my gaze flicks upward to the cracked mirror hanging above the bed.
His hand fits perfectly. Every ridge, every callus molds to the jagged scar like it was carved for him. Just like it did when me and…
Wait, but—
Consciousness is near, so close. Everything’s burning around us in dark fire that eats the room with a hunger that matches our own, claiming us both. Black smoke continues pouring off my skin, rolling down my arms as the world slowly disappears into the darkness.
My core clenches, I gasp. I can’t breathe.
It’s right there, an insatiable burn rippling through me in a slow, violent wave of heat. Red, everything’s red. The room catches on fire. Everything burns. I tilt, he holds me in place, and my eyes open onto his.
Molten hell of—flicker.
Blue…
Bright, piercing blue. Not right. Not him.
The Nightkin’s mouth spreads to a smirk, blurring in and out. I’ve seen this smirk before. My chest tightens, blood bubbling up my throat, coppery and thick, choking me as I try to speak. His face hardens, liquid gold melting, glitching. Blue eyes lock on mine.
Too familiar.
“Do you understand now, my little monster?” he rasps against my lips, but his voice…
“Oh my god.”
My strength fades, limbs heavy as lead. Blood spills past my lips, hot and endless, painting my chin, pooling beneath me. I can’t hold on. The room spins, the mirror’s reflection blurring. His face, those eyes and that voice burn into me as the last shred of light slips away.
“Legend?”