Chapter 12
Chapter Twelve
Daruka
Something wasn’t right.
No, not Asmoday’s wobbly legs that slowed our progress out of my room and into the hall.
When a building shook like that, you got down to the main floor. Common sense.
That something’s not right sensation was courtesy of the crazy-ass coffee shop owner.
She’d not liked me from the first moment she laid eyes on me.
The whole “You stole him from me, you bitch” bit she’d screamed when she found Asmoday and me naked out on the back porch was only icing on a very not-tasty cake.
My “Guess you should have been better in bed” retort clearly hadn’t helped our deteriorated relationship if she was so angry, she was rattling the walls of this formidable, old building.
Asmoday said she wasn’t a powerful witch, but I begged to differ at the moment.
Although what was probably most interesting—I didn’t think her not being good in bed had anything to do with what was going on between Asmoday and me.
I was pretty sure that had nothing to do with anyone except the two of us.
And it wasn’t all about sex.
Don’t get me wrong, he could officially call me a sex addict at this point, but that wasn’t all there was between us.
And yeah, that made me super uncomfortable.
Enough so that I’d been dodging him since yesterday evening. Normally, the only people I dodged were my dad’s minions.
Problem was, eventually I was going to leave this small town in the middle of nowhere, Texas, and newsflash, I wasn’t about to head to the elfin forest. With Asmoday as a very obvious exception, I didn’t think demons were allowed there.
Not that rules necessarily kept demons from doing whatever the hell they wanted—or whatever the hell my dad instructed them to do—but still, my bet was, Asmoday’s people had wards and spells and shit to keep me out.
Which hardly mattered, because let’s get one thing straight: motherhood was not in the books for me.
And staying with Asmoday meant there’d be expectations, and while thinking about the process of seeing to those expectations was even now warming my thighs, the end result was… just not going to happen.
Me? Raising children?
Ha!
Not to mention, Asmoday was half elf. I was zero elf. Any children we produced together would hardly qualify as elves.
But they’d have a whole lot of demon in them.
And I was 100 percent confident that a whole lot of demon was not who the elves wanted running their forest.
Also, how could I forget for even a single moment that my father, the king of the underworld, expected me to take over his family business?
What was it with our families and their insistence that we be just like them? Why couldn’t we be our own selves?
Not that I had any clue what that looked like at this point, but damn, it would be nice to be allowed the opportunity to figure it out.
Downstairs in the lobby, I abruptly stopped and pushed Asmoday up against the stained glass window that wrapped around the double front door of this old antebellum home.
He was getting less wobbly with each step, but he still wasn’t fully functional.
Guess it was good to know that curse worked, since I’d never used it before today.
“Is that really your expectation?” I demanded, twisting my hand in the front of his vest.
“I’m going to need just a tiny bit more information in order to answer that question,” he replied, holding his thumb and pointer finger about a quarter centimeter apart.
“Me. You. Your responsibilities,” I said, watching his face for clues.
His gaze darted to the side. “This isn’t the time or place, and honestly, that’s a subject I have zero interest in talking about, ever, so…”
“If you want a repeat performance of our back porch antics, you’d better start confessing.
” It was totally a bluff; if he asked, I’d ride his extra special cock right this minute, despite the fact that our shadows could be seen through the window and despite the weird earthquake-like shaking I was pretty certain was the workings of a certain super-jealous coffee shop witch who clearly lied to Asmoday when she told him she didn’t have much magical power.
“Aw, come on, that isn’t fair,” he practically whined. “How about if I promise to admit everything later?”
“How about if you tell me right now?”
Pursing his lips, he straightened to his full six and a half foot height, thrust out his spectacularly muscular chest, and brushed the wrinkles I’d caused out of his vest. His ears twitched; his leathery black wings partially expanded and then, like an accordion, pulled tight against his body.
Krishna hovered at my elbow as if he were as invested in Asmoday’s answer as I was.
Let’s not even get into why I was so invested.
Asmoday spread his arms wide. “Yes, Daruka, at some point, my family expects me to take a mate and get her with child. And no, I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to take over, and I don’t want to have kids. I’m a demon, for the love of fire and brimstone.”
He narrowed his eyes, glaring at me. I darted my gaze back and forth, like that would somehow help me understand why he was looking at me like that.
“Part of the issue is, the person I think is my mate is—”
I lifted my hand, cutting him off. “Don’t go down that path. Not right now.”
“You’re forcing me to talk about my deepest, darkest secret, and now we can’t talk about yours?”
Whatever I may or may not feel for Asmoday, while confusing and frustrating, was definitely not my deepest, darkest secret.
Luckily, the building gave another shake, this one hard enough to knock dust from the ceiling and send a landscape painting that was probably a couple hundred years old crashing to the floor. I heard shouts and screams from outside; Selina’s fury was shaking up the entire town.
“What are you expecting?” Asmoday asked as the three of us simultaneously darted glances at the closed door.
He seemed to be pretty much recovered from the jolt I’d accidentally given him, but I wasn’t exactly in a hurry to go to battle with the local witch.
Especially over a guy I hadn’t even admitted to myself was mine to fight over.
“What do you mean?” I asked, hopefully sounding casual.
“You’re expecting trouble. I can tell. What do you think is going to happen?”
I sighed. “I’m guessing Selina wants to duel or whatever supernatural people do when they fight over a lover.”
“Really?” Krishna said, sounding shocked.
Asmoday barked out a laugh. “I don’t think that has been a thing for hundreds of years, Daruka. Although I do appreciate your willingness to dual on my behalf. It’s very romantic.”
“It really is,” Krishna agreed.
“Damn it, it isn’t on your behalf,” I argued, even as my stupid cheeks heated. “I don’t think she’s going to give me a choice.”
He sobered and gave the walls a critical glance. “I’m not so sure. Whatever is messing with this place is seriously powerful, and Selina is definitely not. I told you, she barely has any magic. I’m sure that’s why she’s such a bully. She secretly feels inferior.”
“I have some pretty steep expectations”—and my own feelings of inferiority—“and you don’t see me treating other people like shit,” I pointed out.
“What expectations are those?”
Oops, I shouldn’t have said that. “Later. Seriously. Whatever is going on in this town is clearly more urgent than my family issues.”
He didn’t press, simply waited.
He waited some more.
“What would you do if you didn’t go back to manage the elfin woods?” I asked after the pause became awkward.
“Run a bed and breakfast in Arrythmia, Texas.”
I stared at him. “Are you serious?”
He spread his arms, his wings stretching along with them. “I came here to hide from my life, and what I found was the life I actually wanted.”
“That’s pretty deep,” I admitted. Was that even possible? To stumble into a tiny town full of eccentric creatures and realize this was what you wanted all along?
Maybe. For him. For all the others in this town. But me?
Running from my dad was a full-time job. One I’d happily retire from.
But not here. There were a million reasons I couldn’t stay here. I couldn’t think of them right now, but they were there, in the back of my mind.
I was sure of it.
The look he gave me told me he doubted those reasons existed. Shit.
When we were done dealing with this Selina mess, I probably needed to tell him about my situation. He needed to understand what I was up against. It wasn’t fair to keep stringing him along, as inadvertent as it may be, without him knowing the full story.
Because I was reasonably certain once he knew that I was being hunted by my own father, Asmoday wasn’t going to want a thing to do with me.
Even though there was no way I could possibly move to the elfin forest with him, the idea that he’d push me away was making me unaccountably sad.
I wasn’t used to feeling emotional over another person.
It had always been my mother and me against the world—or, more accurately, against my father—and other than grieving her death, I’d not ever had to worry about catching feelings for someone.
Let’s not even get into the fact that I may or may not be catching feelings for a freaking lust demon.
Who was also part elf.
Who was supposed to, at some point, create a baby or two to carry on his legacy.
Who I was pretty sure had hopes that I might be the other half in that whole baby creation process.
And I thought my life was complicated when all I was doing was trying to outrun the devil.
The old house started to shudder and shake again. This time, it lasted for what felt like a century but was really maybe thirty seconds. But thirty seconds was a crazy long time when you were standing inside a 150-year-old building that was undoubtedly not built to withstand earthquakes.
Plaster rained down from the high ceiling, smacking into the chandelier, shattering several of the bulbs and sending clouds of dust and glass particles down on us.
I gave Krishna a little shove. “Go. Wolf out and get out of firing range. We’ll take care of Selina.” I’d suggest Asmoday follow him, but I already knew he’d refuse to leave my side. Krishna had far less reason to stick around.
“Nuh-uh. I’m staying with you.”
“Demons are way less destructible than werewolves,” I pointed out.
He stubbornly shook his head. I was about to use my mom voice—which was weird because nope, not mom material. But damn it, I did not want Krishna to be injured or worse over some stupid vendetta Selina had against me.
The door swung open, and all three of us jumped to avoid being hit by the slab of heavy wood.
I got distracted.
By the tall, debonair man standing on the sidewalk at the end of the path of pavers leading up to the front porch.
He struck a pose, both palms resting on the head of a sleek black cane. His tailored suit and shiny red shoes complemented the adornment.
The man had a head of thick, slicked back dark hair that revealed a sharp widow’s peak. His eyes were black under bushy dark brows. A shadow of stubble circled his mouth, which curled into a smirk as his gaze scanned the exterior of the house.
Behind him, Main Street was jammed with demons as far as I could see, some in human form, most in their natural, highly disturbing forms.
Pretty sure every single resident of Arrythmia was lining the sidewalk, gaping at the sight.
The man’s gaze finally reached me.
He spread his arms wide, clutching his cane in one hand. His grin widened too.
“Ah, there’s my spawn!”