Page 31 of A Cursed Heart

Malacoda

The world around me was dark until it wasn’t.

A shaft of light illuminated whatever place I waited in.

There was a vast, empty feel to this space.

Was this the end for me? I didn’t want it to be.

My worries over Ryan’s safety kept me on the spot rather than exploring the place I found myself in.

Had I done enough to protect the man I loved?

What if I had left him when he needed me most? I would never forgive myself.

“Hello brother. It has been quite some time.” Dagda’s face came into view, looking exactly as he had just before the attack which had ultimately killed him.

He was sitting in what could have been the concubine’s palace back home at the height of his power.

Reclining on one of the plush divans, he was the picture of a powerful king.

“Am I dead?” While I wanted to speak to him, to ask him why he thought to keep me locked up for so long, I found I didn’t care. All I wanted was to get back to Ryan. To see if he was safe.

“No. Your lover is healing you right now. He is how we are having this conversation.”

“He is?”

“Yes. Will you thank him for this chance to apologize? I am so sorry, Malacoda, for the torture you endured. I realized my mistake after Velandra took us, but it was too late. Far too late. I could not undo the magic in time.”

“You are sorry? Sorry?” I raged. Ryan’s face flashed in my mind, then my little darling Freya. I calmed instantly. “It does not matter, what was done is done. If I had not been trapped there, I would not have met my Ryan.”

“This is true, though I wish you did not have to wait so long to gain your freedom,” Dagda said, regret etched on his features.

“Am I? Free, that is?”

“Yes.” He gave a faint smile. “When you jumped in front of that bullet, you proved you loved someone more than you loved yourself.”

The long years of my life had been a punishment I had to endure alone. Now, finally, it was done. “It’s really over.”

“Yes.”

“How are you here?” My brother had died so long ago in that palace. I’d watched him die.

“When we were with Velandra, I tore a piece of my soul and placed it in the gem with you. Our blood connection and with me being the source of the spell, meant I could cleave a part of myself to it. You were never truly alone, brother. I was with you all this time.”

“You were?”

“I was. And I am so extremely proud of you. My final act, with the magic I have left, is to return you to Ryan. You will be changed, but I hope you will be happy.”

“I’ll be with Ryan, so I will be. Thank you, Dagda, for staying with me. For meeting me here.”

“Does this mean you forgive me?” he asked hopefully. He stood, coming close enough to clasp my elbows.

“I do,” I said honestly. Knowing he had forgone resting just to be with me healed something inside me. It was easy to forgive him after making that sacrifice. “May we meet again when my soul is called home.”

“Farewell, Malacoda. Enjoy your human life.” Dagda kissed my forehead, then was gone.

When I came to, Ryan was sobbing over my body.

My thoughts were only of him. The relief I felt at being back by his side tempered the feeling of wrongness inside my body.

With difficulty, I focused on the moment with my lover.

His sweet words were especially lovely given everything we had just been through.

I wished to heal him, to take his pain away.

The sight of his bloody and beaten face angered me.

Only hearing that Scythe was dead calmed me.

It felt like we were only given a second before more chaos surrounded us. Yet there, in the middle of the storm, was Ryan telling me he loved me in return. My feelings for him had only grown since our relationship had turned physical. My love for him had worked wonders. It had set me free.

They whisked him away before I could tell him anything. At least I had time to link us. It felt different with my new magic.

Follow my lead, he urged me.

His story was easy to follow. He told them we had feared Salvatore would come for us. Once Freya was sleeping, I had taken her to Lydia’s place. When I returned, Salvatore had broken in, demanding his revenge on Ryan for giving the FBI proof of his crimes.

Trying to save Ryan’s life, I had tackled Salvatore.

We had tussled, and in the process, he had knocked me out.

Then Salvatore had turned the gun on me.

Fearing for my life, Ryan fought Salvatore.

He wrestled the gun away, but not before it went off.

Fearing I had been shot, Ryan knocked Salvatore to the floor.

The man was reaching for the gun again when Ryan took it and shot him, knowing there was no way to ensure our safety while Salvatore lived.

Ryan believed Salvatore’s shot had hit me because of the blood covering my body when I was only unconscious, hence his emotional state and reasoning for killing the intruder.

Open and shut case, Ryan explained. Did you get the pieces of the ruby?

They were hidden in the pockets of my pants. Yes, though it is useless now. I can feel trace amounts of magic there. Like an echo.

It’s part of our story. We need to keep it.

Though I had a complicated past with the heart ruby, it hurt to see it so damaged.

The color was all but gone, leaving behind something akin to moonstone with flecks of gray all over it.

It was also in pieces, no longer resembling a heart.

Still, I agreed with Ryan, it was part of us, of how we came to be, so it had to be preserved.

It was morning by the time everyone cleared out of Ryan’s apartment.

We were given time to pack some things to stay in a hotel, allowing the investigators to properly document the scene.

Lydia had called several times because Freya was upset.

Waking up somewhere completely different from where she had fallen asleep was going to set her back, I could tell.

“Want to vanish to her once we get a little away from the apartment?” Ryan asked when we were in the car.

“Ryan—”

“What’s wrong?” He immediately pulled the car over to give me his complete attention.

“My magic… I am no longer a demon.” Finally, I could put into words what I felt. I barely remembered the last line Dagda spoke to me. The talk with him felt like a dream now that I was back where I belonged.

“Huh? But you did the link earlier.”

“Which I had to end sooner because it took so much of my remaining magic. I don’t know how it replenishes while I’m like this. I just know this is what I am meant to be now. Human, like you. Dagda told me so.”

“Dagda? Your brother?”

I explained the dreamlike state, that moment where I thought I was dead. Ryan’s face went through a cycle of emotions from fear, then anger, to grief. “He loved you.”

“Yes. He did. It was easy for me to forgive him for what he had done. It was not out of malice. My brother wanted me to be the best version of myself. My imprisonment was not supposed to last that long. Though if it had not, I would not have met you. It feels like fate.”

“Fate?”

I reached for him and cupped his face. My smile trembled. We had come so close to losing each other. “Yes. Like I was supposed to be waiting for you. Only then could I be free.”

Ryan leaned into my touch, his eyes soft. Even with the cuts and bruises all over his face, he was still beautiful to me. “What happens now?”

“We live our lives together.”

“Together,” he echoed with a smile.

The state of Ryan shocked Lydia and Freya.

Though he assured them he was okay, Lydia fussed while Freya clung to Ryan and cried.

Neither of us liked seeing the usually happy little girl be so upset.

Unable to tell her the truth, we went with an accident as the excuse for the injury.

Then, instead of going to a hotel like we planned, we took Freya away to the beach for a few days while the apartment was fixed up and cleaned.

A vacation was exactly what we needed to come to terms with what had happened.

Over the days, Freya calmed as Ryan’s cuts and bruises faded.

My limited magic was able to speed the process at least. It appeared it replenished itself like it had before with the ambient magic in the air and time. If sex worked, I was not sure.

“Are you alright?” he asked during the drive back to the city.

“I am. It’s an adjustment, but I’m getting there.”

“Do you miss being a demon?”

“It was all I knew, so part of me mourns it. I enjoyed the power, though still having some magic is better than none at all. I just—“”

“What?”

“Worry that your feelings for me have changed now I am no longer what I was.”

“They haven’t!” Ryan’s horrified expression was almost amusing.

“We have not… been intimate since my change.”

“Aww, fuck. Mal…” He glanced in the rearview mirror to see Freya with her headphones covering her ears, her screen lit up with the newest movie craze.

She had moved on from the demon movie, thankfully, and had even seemed to have forgotten I used to be one too.

“Look, we were sharing a room with Frey. There wasn’t really the time for anything other than a quick handjob in the shower, and you deserve better than that. I wanted to wait until we got home.”

“Of course, I’m sorry. I just—”

“Fuck! I’m screwing this up. You must feel so weird adapting to your body being different, the magic loss, seeing Dagda… I should have supported you better.”

“You had enough to do with Freya, the FBI, and your work.” His employer only allowed him one day off because they were afraid of falling behind.

“There’s no excuse, Mal. We’re a couple now. We’ve got to support each other through difficult times. You were there for me while I basically ignored you’d gone through this incredible change. I mean, I didn’t even ask you how you felt about being human now!”

He glanced at me before returning his eyes to the road. We were nearly home. I couldn’t wait to sleep next to Ryan once more in the room that smelled like us, that had memories of us all over it.

“I—” How did I feel about my new life? Over the last few days, I had thought of little else, even as I tried to keep Freya occupied when Ryan was working. “It’s everything I didn’t know to ask for.”

Ryan’s head turned towards me, his eyes assessing me. “It is?”

“Yes. As a demon, I had all this power. This temptation and greed, too. My head was a noisy place sometimes.” I used the analogy Ryan used with Freya sometimes. “Now it is quieter. I feel at peace.”

“That sounds nice, actually. For what it’s worth. I love human Mal.”

“Human Mal loves you just as much. Now that I am like this, I don’t have to worry about living a life without you or trying to change you to keep you with me, which would have been selfish.

I have a normal human life span like this.

” I paused, relishing our future, the one I saw stretching out in front of us.

“Now we can live as equals. We are partners now that there’s no bond tying us together. ”

“You’re wrong. It might not be a cursed gem, but there’s something between us. You are mine, and I am yours. That’s just how we’re supposed to be.”

The apartment felt different when we returned. Freya didn’t seem to feel it, but I could tell Ryan did. He let out a shiver when he walked into the freshly painted kitchen. A wall had needed repairing from Ryan’s fight with Salvatore and a bullet hole.

“Are you going to be okay here?” I wondered aloud. My concern was for Ryan’s mental wellbeing. He kept staring at the spot where I’d lain after I was shot.

“Not sure.” He shook off whatever he was thinking and brightened. “Let’s get Freya into bed. I want to take my newly human boyfriend to bed.”

“I like that idea.”

Tired from a day by the sea and a long car journey, Freya gave in to sleep quickly. Once we locked up and took turns in the bathroom, we sat on the bed awkwardly.

Ryan was the first to break the silence.

He chuckled. “It’s still us. You’re still the same Mal, just without the extra appendages.

” I missed my tail and horns, but with all the time I had spent in my human form, it had become normal for me to look like I did.

My hair was still scarlet, my eyes the same brown I’d chosen to blend in better.

Even my markings remained, though they looked like tattoos now.

Reaching out, Ryan pushed my hair off my shoulder and kissed my neck. I bared my throat for him, letting him lick a line up to my jaw. When he met my lips, our kiss was hungry, the days of uncertainty melting away with each sweep of his tongue against mine.

I fell back onto the bed, drawing Ryan with me until he was pressed against me from shoulder to hip. I lost myself in Ryan’s touch, his kiss. Slowly, he stripped me out of the sleep pants and boxer briefs I wore until I was bare to his gaze.

He explored my body with his mouth, nipping at sensitive areas until he reached my leaking cock.

He took me into his mouth while his fingers brushed over my hole.

His touch began tentatively, then grew more confident as I moaned for him, gripping his hair while he sucked me down and opened me up for him.

By the time I was ready for him, I felt on the brink. Ryan’s heated gaze turned to a smirk when he caught me watching him undress. He slicked up his length and settled between my legs.

The first push inside me burned some. Without my demon magic, I had to bear the flash of pain. I was still testing the limits of what I could do with my human body’s lesser power.

“You okay?” Ryan whispered. He pecked my lips and sank deeper inside me.

“Yes,” I breathed. The stretch turned from a sharp ache to something far more pleasurable.

“Fuck, you feel so good like this, Mal.”

Then he thrust, and I thought I saw stars.

We moved together, moaning and panting, growing sweaty and more desperate for release. I felt magic sparking under my skin, sending me soaring. I came with Ryan’s name on my lips, pulling him along with me. He filled me with his come before collapsing beside me, my hand in his.

“Holy shit, that was good!” Ryan grinned at me. “I dunno but that felt better somehow than when you were a demon, don’t you think?”

I grinned at him and squeezed his hand. He was right. We felt more connected than ever before. “I do. There’s one downside to being human now, though.”

“What?”

“No magic to clean us up.”

Ryan cackled. “It’s a small price to pay for keeping you forever. I’ll get a towel.” His kiss was sweet. I ogled his fine ass as he walked to the bathroom to get something to clean me up.

Keep me forever? Yes, I’d like that very much.