Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
Ilyas
I worked out in the gym with Syke. Neither of us really needed the gym, but we were both from warrior species, so sitting around made us uneasy.
“Want to spar?” I asked him over the sound of the treadmill.
We’d been through six treadmills in the last year because they just weren’t made for the speed of a creature.
He hit the stop button and levitated above the slowing belt. “Yeah, sure.”
We stood in the middle of the mats, and I took off my shirt so it couldn’t be used to put me on the ground—not that Syke would need to use such underhanded tactics.
He was fast and clever, and he had experience from time immemorial.
Still, fighting in your human form was like a muscle, and it was best to work it.
My phone chimed again, probably another email from the key’s office, requesting my presence at the formal gathering to meet with the French delegation, just like the fifteen emails before it.
I’d given my answer and made myself clear two days ago.
I was too busy with my employment to attend some stuffy ball where they would try to barter me off like a prized cow.
I barely dodged the fist coming for my face, ducking out of the way at the last moment, but I still felt the chilly shadows wrapped around Syke’s hands. “You seem distracted, and quite frankly, I find that a little insulting.”
He sounded pissed, but I’d known him long enough to recognize he wasn’t angry about my inattention, it was just his way of asking what was wrong without seeming like he cared. Sighing, I dodged his fist again and threw a combination of my own, which he easily avoided.
“Just flight business. They want me to be at this stupid reception, and I don’t want to go.” I sounded like a petulant pebbling.
“Then don’t go.” Syke made it sound simple, and for him, it probably was that easy.
Demons didn’t have clans or families or any such thing.
They existed on the mortal plane, ostensibly under the control of an archdemon who would just put them down if he felt like they did something wrong, and to say a demon’s moral code was a little skewed was an understatement.
Selling drugs outside of an elementary school? Fine. The mortal police or the Creature Oversight Committee would bring you to justice and shackle you inside one of the angel-shielded prison cells.
Got yourself bound to a witches’ coven? The archdemon was coming to ash you into the seventh pit of despair.
Demons just wandered around the human world, kept out of trouble, and lived however they wished to live. They didn’t have to care about the expectations of their families or guilt about not wanting to continue their bloodlines with other suitable fucking gargoyles.
I grunted as Syke’s fist connected with my abs.
If he’d been human, he would have broken his hand, and I would have barely felt the blow, but neither of us were, and I felt that fucking punch.
“It isn’t that easy. Without a bond of my own, or another decent excuse, they can try to order me to bond with someone to preserve the race. ”
Syke screwed up his nose. “And they call demons the bad ones. At least we don’t make our young breed like livestock.”
I raised an eyebrow. “They breed like rabbits all on their own.”
Syke chuckled. “Not wrong.” We all knew Syke went to a creature friendly sex club on his days off. A lot of brave little humans went too, desperate to fill something that was missing in their lives with Syke’s darkness… or his cock. Probably both.
We fell back into a fighting stance. “So all you need is another bond?” He shrugged. “I’ll do it.”
I was so shocked, I dropped my guard and took a fist to the face. Syke pulled back at the last moment, but it still hurt. I stared at the demon who’d been on my team for nearly a decade. We were teammates, and more than that, we were friends. “You’d do that?”
He shrugged. “Sure. You’re a mortal being, so it wouldn’t be forever, even if it’s a hundred years or so. Barely a blink in time. Besides, I like your company more than others.”
I just stared. “Uh, thank you, but I don’t believe demons can bond in the ways of pack creatures. I don’t believe my key would believe it matters.”
Syke shrugged, reaching down to grab his water bottle. “Offer stands.”
I grinned at him. “Are you getting soft in your old age, Syke? First, ashing that guy for a human girl, and now offering to be my life partner… You’re going to have to hand in your demon card and see if Allison can put in a good word for you with the archangel.”
He threw the bottle at my head, and I shifted at the last minute so it splattered on the wall behind me as I laughed.
“Forget I said anything, fucking rock-brained asshole,” he muttered, but his lips were curved in a smile. “You know, there is someone here who can form bonds and is probably in dire need of one.”
He meant Eric. I frowned at him. “Wouldn’t that be… I don’t know, unethical?”
He gave me an incredulous expression. Yeah, demons and ethics weren’t exactly regular companions.
“I mean, he doesn’t want an orc clan, and even if the human accepts the mate bond, it won’t be enough.
We both know it won’t. He’s going to have to bond someone else eventually anyway before the clan sickness surges again and can’t be held back by the pretty little human’s soft hands and tenuous mate bond. ”
“Soft hands, you say?” I rumbled at him, and I swear if he could flush, he might have.
“All humans are soft and weak.”
Yeah, he wasn’t fooling me. Could I suggest a bond with the orc? It would tie me to Hailey as well, and I wasn’t sure either of them were ready for that. Sighing, I shook my head. “It wouldn’t be right. They should form a clan with creatures who fit with them, not because they are desperate.”
Grunting his disagreement, Syke shadow walked to the wall and picked up his discarded water bottle. When we walked into the common room, both the orc and the girl were awake.
Fuck, Syke’s bad habits were catching up with me.
The air between Eric and Hailey seemed more settled than it had been the last time I saw them together, awake at least. They’d obviously come to some kind of understanding, and given the soft smile on Eric’s face and the way his arm rested over the back of her chair, his hand wrapping lightly around her upper arm, it had been a positive one.
Otis was sipping his tea and listening to Hailey tell some story about her time as a—
“You were a stripper?” Syke asked in surprise.
She raised a snarky eyebrow in his direction, but I could see the tension in her shoulders. “Yes. Do you have a problem with strippers?”
I stifled a snort. Syke gave her his signature sinful smile, and I watched the expression daze her. He could be a charming fucker when he wanted to be. It was how he led you down the road to hell. “On the contrary, I love strippers. I find them delicious.” He made a meal of the word.
“Syke,” Otis chastised.
The demon chuckled and headed to the coffee pot. “It was just a question. Not my fault the human has those puritanical morals that plague her kind and she took offense.”
Eric growled low, already protective of his mate.
He might not be the most dominant of orcs, but he had that fierceness that all pack creatures got about their bonds and their young.
If Syke attacked Hailey, Eric would attempt to tear him to shreds, despite the fact that he had no chance against a demon of Syke’s age.
“I wasn’t a very good stripper. They stopped letting me do lap dances because they turned into therapy sessions instead of something sexy.
I convinced an accountant who was in love with a girl at the grocery store to be brave for a moment, ask her out politely, and show he’d respect her answer no matter what it was.
Then, he wouldn’t need to pay to have my tits in his face, and he could have tits in his face that meant something.
” Her smirk was completely unrepentant. “Apparently, he was a big spending regular. I almost got fired. From then on, I was only allowed on stage, but it wasn’t really for me.
I needed the money, but I didn’t like the idea of being followed home by some patron one day.
” She let out a mirthless huff. “Who knew it would happen anyway?” She chewed her full lower lip, turning to Syke.
“I think I said thank you last night, but if I didn’t, thank you for saving me.
I don’t want to think about what might have happened if you hadn’t left me that safety net. ”
Syke waved a hand like it was nothing. It wasn’t nothing.
Killing a human was bad news. It was touch and go if the archdemon might consider it a death penalty offense, though experience told us that killing scumbag humans was considered more of a kindness to a species they considered weaker than themselves.
They didn’t hold the preservation of life very high on their ethical agenda.
If the cops, or worse, the Creature Oversight Committee got hold of it, however, then they might not feel so lenient.
Syke cleared his throat. “You can thank me by never mentioning it again. Never.” A chill passed through the room, and Hailey nodded.
“Understood.” She stood and stretched. “If it’s okay with all of you, I might go back to bed and nap for a little longer. I didn’t sleep very well.”
Otis smiled at her. “Of course.” I belatedly realized he was in his minotaur form.
She must have sensed my surprise, because she added, “Uh, just so you know, you’re welcome to walk around in your creature form.
I won’t run away screaming or have some kind of mental breakdown or anything.
If you’re uncomfortable or whatever…” She was rambling, and Eric looked down at her like the sun rose and set on the curves of her cheeks.
She disappeared from the room, Eric chasing after her.