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“Come on, dammit!” Even after trying with all his might, Evan couldn’t make him budge an inch from his place.

He frantically looked at the Hellguards closing in on them, then at Zeev, who stood still with one hand holding a flame and the other clasped behind his back.

At last, he sneered at Xen. “If you don’t move your ass, I’m gonna leave you here!”

Xen chuckled softly, probably because no matter how threatening, Evan’s words lacked conviction. But also because heknewEvan wouldn’t leave him behind. He hadn’t left him back at the Old Temple while facing Zeev’s demon form.

He’d only fled after finding out Xen was an Eternal, proving that the only thing that could make Evan Blackwood flee was embarrassment.

After several failed attempts, Evan stopped trying to drag Xen and grabbed the front of his robe. “If you don’t want to run, then do something!”

Xen stared at him for a moment, still vaguely amused. Then his eyes flickered to Zeev and hardened.

Without a word, Zeev released the flame to hover near the couple, pressed a palm against his chest, and bowed his head.

Like lightning, he flashed out of the cave, towards his fellow Hellguards. Midway to the giants, a flare of light and dust burst from his scrawny body, and he transformed into his Hellguard form, crashing headfirst into the demon at the front.

Zeev was not bulky like them, but he was taller, so the impact was similar to a rod ramming into a rock.

The first demon tumbled back into the second, who in turn crashed over the next, and in a domino effect, the five Hellguards crashed to the ground with an exploding roar.

Evan gasped as the earth thundered under his feet, eyes still glued to the other demons who were already standing back up, swinging whatever they could get in their hands at Zeev.

“Will he be able to fight them?” Evan’s chest labored, pulse pounding in his ears as he watched the demons fight. “Tell me he’s going to last.”

“Barely,” Xen eyed Evan with an indiscernible look. “I drained most of his demonic energy while breaking his curse, and he hasn’t had time to rejuvenate. At best, he can hold them back for about three minutes.”

“This is the part where you go and help him.”

“Why?”

Evan hadn’t known Zeev for long, and disagreed with his strange, callous logic sometimes. But that didn’t mean he wanted him getting crushed by Hellguards while trying to save him and his heartless master.

With his hands still clasping Xen’s robe, Evan yanked his face closer. “You listen to me and listen well. You’re not going to simply let him get pummeled by those demons. He protectedyourprecious relic for three hundred years!Three fucking centuries!And even after being released from the curse, he blindly followed you again. There’s your ‘why’. So, help him. Have some humanity, you inhuman piece of—”

Xen cupped Evan’s face, brushing a speck of dust from his cheek with his thumb. “Alright. I’ll help him.”

“Then go—”

“On one condition.”

Evan pursed his lips, barely suppressing the urge to punch that handsome face. But then his eyes flickered over Xen’s shoulder to the two giant hands trying to rip Zeev’s head off. A sharp exhale left him. “What condition?”

“One kiss.”

Evan’s frown tumbled from his face like a five-pound weight. His lashes quivered furiously before rearing back, but Xen had already wound one arm around his middle, holding him still.

There was a literal battle shaking the earth behind him, but he gently cradled Evan in his arm like he was a girl who’d received the first flower of her life. Like a man who’d found his long-lost lover.

After a moment of dumbfounded staring, Evan pushed at Xen’s chest with a renewed vigor, trying to suppress the conflicted feelings flooding his head. “You fucking—how can you think from your dick while your friend is dying?!”

“He is not my friend,” Xen cocked a brow. “Besides, if I was thinking from my dick, a kiss would be the least of your concerns, Little Storm.”

Blood drained from Evan’s face, then pumped straight down his body with double intensity, setting his skin on fire. Hearing Xen say the word ‘dick’ was sexier than anything Evan had ever heard from anyone.

But kissing a Demon King?Thisparticular one?

Xen yanked Evan closer, staring down at him through heavy-lidded eyes. “One kiss.”