“What brands? And why do you say you’re nothing? That’s not true. You’re—”
“A slave,” he growled, holding out his wrists again. “Bound here.” He placed one hand over the matching circular design on his chest. “Controlled here.” He pointed a claw at the tattoo encircling his neck. “Tethered here.”
Her blood went cold, and suddenly, everything started to make sense. What the tattooed demon and the one on the phone had said. The way Mist kept referring to a mistress. His mechanical repetitions of the futility of rebellion.
If he was enslaved by some kind of magical binding, of course he would have an obsession with rule breaking. It would have been drilled into him, probably with a lot of pain, that he should always obey his owner or he would be punished.
So why had he disobeyed in the first place?
I wanted to taste freedom. I wanted to bond with a female. I wanted to be something other than myself.
Her heart cracked, her throat constricted, and it was hard to force the words out. But she had to know. “That’s why you wanted to spend time with me? Because you—”
“It’s irrelevant,” he growled, his brow low over his glowing eyes. “It’s against the rules, and rules are not to be broken.”
He stepped out of the shower and around her. Without thinking, she dropped the showerhead, sending water spraying across the room, and grabbed his arm.
He froze, staring at her hand.
“Where are you going?”
His gaze snapped to hers, his eyes narrowed. “Why do you care?”
She couldn’t speak. She honestly didn’t know. Years of Iris drilling into her the evilness of demons could not be forgotten so quickly, and yet, she couldn’t ignore her own instincts.
He loomed over her, dropping his head to pin her with a fierce glare. His enormous size was never more apparent than it was now. She’d never felt small or delicate a day in her life, but she certainly felt it now. He could crush her in a second if he wanted.
“Release me now, or I’ll give in to the urges I’ve been fighting since I caught your scent for the first time.”
She didn’t let go of his arm.
A cruel smile twisted his near-black lips. “I will hunt you and taste you,allof you, and I will do it in this form that repulses you.”
Repulsed her? Her head was spinning, but she knew enough to know that wasn’t how she’d describe her feelings. She was scared, yes, but not in the way he thought she was.
“I— I don’t—” Her useless stuttering silenced when she felt a sleek rope sliding across the backs of her thighs.
His tail.Oh god, he had a tail. Because he was a demon and she was a witch, which meant he could kill her at any time without breaking his precious rules, and no one would come to save her.
The tail went across both her legs and curled around her thigh.
Her heart hammered, but not with fear for her life.
“That’s what I thought,” he hissed, and with a jerk, he extricated his arm from her grip.
He stepped past her without another word and disappeared down the hall, leaving a trail of water behind him.
13
Mist The Mark
Lily stood frozen by familiar fear.He’s gone for good. He doesn’t want me, and he’s too dangerous anyway. He isn’t human. He’s a demon, and like Iris said, there are no good demons.
He could kill me as easily as breathing. He could eviscerate me with his claws, strangle me with his tail, or tear my throat out with all those sharp teeth. He said he wanted to hunt me, for god’s sake!
Not only should I let him leave, I should run screaming in the other direction. I’ll learn every single anti-demon ward in existence and cover the flat with them, and then I’ll never go outside again. I can get my groceries delivered so I don’t have to—
“Shut up!” Lily hissed at herself. She was sick and tired of that stupid, whiny voice in her head. The one that made her cringe whenever she looked in the mirror. The one that made her second-guess everything she did. The one that made her feel weak.
