Ah. Kai felt only a small measure of surprise—he was sure, if he’d been able to taste their father’s soul, it would have been rotten to the core—but the small amount of shock was quickly overshadowed by rage. He’d never met this mother, could hardly care about her fate, except that the news had upset Sascha, had wounded him deeper than Kai had yet seen.
If Kai could resurrect Sascha’s father and kill him all over again, he would.
“Zaychik,” Kai murmured, keeping his voice soft, tugging Sascha into his arms.
He was stiff in Kai’s hold. “I come from evil stock,” he said woodenly. “Half of me…half of where I came from…it’s corrupt. Rotten.”
“I’ve tasted your soul,” Kai reminded him, stroking a hand down his spine as they entered the elevator. “There’s no evil there.”
Sascha tucked his head into Kai’s chest, his next words muffled by the fabric. “Maybe your taste buds are faulty.”
They weren’t, but easy reassurances didn’t seem to be enough for Sascha at the moment. “What do you need?” Kai asked.
“I need to go to my apartment,” Sascha murmured. “And I need you to help me forget.” He lifted his chin, meeting Kai’s gaze. “Can you do that, demon? Can you help me forget?”
Kai could do absolutely anything, if it meant lessening Sascha’s pain. “I’m at your command,” he told him. “Always.”
Sascha’s New Yorkapartment wasn’t at all like the house in Maine. It was…cold. That was the only word Kai could think of to describe it. Large and modern and technically beautiful, but cold, with its white couch and white walls and white appliances.
Kai shot a questioning look at Sascha after the brief tour. Sascha only shrugged. “I went out a lot, when I lived here,” he explained, voice still listless. “Watched TV in my bedroom when I stayed in. I didn’t really make it a home, I guess.”
He led Kai to the bedroom. There was a bit more of Sascha’s essence here: a colorful bedspread and an overflowing closet, for example. Although, the clothing was all wrong—black and gray and beige.
Sascha flopped face down on the bed, then turned his head to the side to speak clearly. “My mother didn’t leave me.”
“No, she didn’t.” Kai sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, not sure how best to comfort. He knew nothing about families. Demon parents—if one could call them that—didn’t stay with their spawn. They raised them to self-sufficiency and moved on.
“But I lost her anyway.” Sascha rolled onto his back. His limbs were limp, but his gaze was suddenly fierce. “Promise Iwon’t lose you,” he ordered Kai. “Promise that you’ll never,everleave.”
“Never,” Kai swore. He could give Sascha that, easy as breathing.
Sascha smiled weakly. “The fact that I’m asking you—after we’ve just met, really—that’s all wrong, you know. It’s just evidence that I’m too fucked up for a relationship. Too codependent, given the chance.”
“I care not.” It was the opposite, in fact. KaiwantedSascha to need him, to demand for him to stay. Kai had found exactly what he’d never known he was waiting for—nothing could make him leave now. If that made him codependent, so be it. What did that matter to him?
Sascha kept eyeing him, like he was looking for an answer to something. There was a brittle edge to him now. He was all sharp edges, but it was like he’d crack to pieces at one wrong word. One wrong answer.
“You said you wanted to fuck me in your human form,” he eventually said, almost conversationally. “So you could fuck me as hard as you wanted.”
“Yes.” Heat flashed through Kai at the reminder of their time on the dance floor, Sascha pressed against him, swaying so enticingly.
“Well?” Sascha cocked a brow.
Kai hesitated. “You don’t wish to…talk?”
“I donotwish,” Sascha said firmly. “I want to forget, for a little while. Who I am and where I come from. I don’t want to know anything except the feel of your cock inside me. Can you do that?” He smiled meanly. “Or do I need to call in another stud?”
Kai growled, no matter that he knew Sascha was only pushing at him, making sure he wouldn’t break under pressure. “You think to toy with me?” he asked, his voice soft and dangerous.
Sascha’s eyes flashed. “I’m asking you to toy withme.”
His anger at the mention of another man aside, Kai’s cock was filling rapidly with Sascha’s demands. Perhaps Kai should offer soothing words, should tell Sascha fucking could wait for another time. Perhaps that was what a human man would have done, one who knew what the pain of losing a loved one was like.
But Kai was not a human man.
“Take off your clothes, then,” he ordered, standing from the bed.
“No,” Sascha countered, his tone petulant. “You do it.”
