Page 69 of Demon Bound

“No.” He was being evasive, not looking back at her.

“You don’t want to tell me.”

He lifted his gaze cautiously. “No. You can ask me whatever you want.”

She smiled. “So?”

He took a long moment to organize his thoughts, staring at the fire. “Others have done it to me,” he said finally, turning to show her his back. There were scars on his shoulders and the back of his neck that she had noticed before but only now realized were bite marks. “These were put here when others subdued me and fed from me.”

Raiya’s eyes widened. She had known he had suffered in the hells, but seeing this evidence of it on his body made her want to do terrible, violent things to whoever had put those marks there.

She swallowed her outrage. “Haven’t you—surely there are times when demons make love consensually?”

“Yes, sometimes. If it’s agreed upon as a mutual exchange of energy. But my people never truly trust each other. It’s done quickly and fearfully and we hurry to part ways before one of us can turn on the other. There is no passion.”

“And that thing you did to make me… more receptive?” she asked. “What was that?”

His expression dulled. “It’s a simple magic to help a receiver ready themselves. Most of my kind know it.”

Raiya’s skin crawled. It made sense. Apparently, it was common for people in the hells to be forcefully prepared for intercourse.

“It will not hurt you,” he said, “and it will not alter your thinking or make you desire anything you did not desire before. It only opens your body. But I deeply regret using it without your permission.”

“It’s fine.”

“No, it isn’t. You should be angry, Raiya. You should not allow anyone to treat you poorly. You should have struck me. I have betrayed you, just as your husband did.”

“You’re nothing like Nirlan. You would have stopped if I asked.”

He was still frowning. “If I had hurt you, would you tell me?”

She smiled ruefully. “You know, Nirlan would always get angry when I told him he’d hurt me.”

“Why?”

“He didn’t want to be reminded that he is the sort of person who hurts people.”

“When you first freed me from Nirlan’s dungeon, you said that you didn’t care if I killed you, as long as I killed him as well.”

That seemed so long ago now. She’d been so desperate. “That was the truth.”

“You were brave to sacrifice yourself in order to destroy him.”

She wrinkled her brow. “It was suicidal, not brave.”

“I disagree. You were strong, even at your weakest.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “I still owe you a death. When we find a way to remove this curse from my hand, I will kill him.”

She felt a rush of excitement and apprehension at the idea of destroying Nirlan, of turning all the pain he’d inflicted back on him. She had a blood thirst. It was probably what had drawn her to Azreth in the first place.

“You know,” she said slowly, “we could just leave the binding alone. As long as it’s incomplete, I don’t think it will harm you. If you keep away from Nirlan, you could just ignore it.”

The glow of his eyes intensified, but his voice was calm. “I don’t want to keep away from him. I want to tear out his backbone so that he will be as spineless in body as he is in spirit.”

She smiled. “I will keep working on it.”

“Please do.”

The fire went out, reduced to embers. She shivered.