Page 22 of All Your Deadly Truths (The Filthy Duet #2)

Xeraphine

Seven days later

T he light coming in from under the door makes me groan.

It wouldn’t be so bad if my head weren’t at the foot of the bed, right where the sun’s rays are blistering through the window. Then again, I can blame Kai for fucking me so hard and making it impossible to even turn my body to lie properly.

Asshole.

Rubbing my eyes, I shift slightly, the blankets wrapping around me like clouds. Why they’re so thick, I’ll never understand. It’s not like he gets cold. It’s the same damn concept as having a big, expensive kitchen: pointless.

I’m about to give up on searching for him under the blankets when fingers lace between mine and yank me roughly.

His bare skin against mine immediately sparks my Amoro, flooding me with serotonin.

No, I can’t go another round. I actually need a break or so help me, I won’t get out of bed, and I can’t spend another day lying here. I need to go to the gym or something, to get out of this apartment, or I’m going to go insane. More so than I already am.

“Good morning, little demon.” Kai hoists my arm over his head and hooks it around his neck, his free hand lacing through my hair that needs a good combing. “You were making some delicious noises. It was like you were summoning the monster to ravage you ? —”

“Kai, fuck Belial himself, I need a break from you.” I’m unsure of where to shift. Can’t go down because I can feel his cock twitching against my thigh, and if I move up, he’ll just latch right onto my nipple.

“Remember when you said you didn’t need a safe word with me?” he purrs, and drags me down to him, my feigned attempt at pushing away goes completely disregarded as his lips meet my neck. “Your cunt is dripping on my cock…”

A groan escapes my throat, heavy with indecision. Fuck, he is so hot, and yes, I want him.

His tongue flattens against my skin, running across the tender part where he has been nibbling and sucking over the past couple weeks since returning from the incident with Daigo. It’s the place I know he wants to claim me, and although I heal, all of the attention there has made it sensitive.

Nibbling up my neck, he draws closer to my lips. Bumps line my skin, the zing of lust pouring from him straight into my pores, making me crave everything he is offering, even if I know I need a break. My Amoro is crying out for him, and I’d be an idiot to say I wasn’t doing the same.

“You’re panting now…” he comments with a smirk.

“Fuck you, stop calling me out.” I bring my free hand to his neck and grip it. “Kai, we can’t stay in bed all day.”

Wait, yes we can. What am I saying? All I want is to be right here. Why am I in such a hurry to get away from him?

I…

With a swift shift, he rolls us opposite of each other, his body now sandwiching me to the bed. My eyes widen, lips parting as he licks his. Now, as I’m looking at his features, it feels like I haven’t seen him in so long. Hadn’t I just gone to sleep with him last night?

His bright, crimson eyes soften, a slight veil dimming their intensity, the slant of them only enhancing his effortless allure.

His flawless ebony skin glows under the light, and I remember him once telling me about the discoloration on his upper lip—the one that went away after the Vampiric Night took him.

Drawing my hand to his cheek, my thumb caresses against his lips.

“Endearing this morning. That’s odd of you.”

My breathing picks up, and I could swear my heart is rolling around in my stomach. Heat is building behind my eyes, and I can feel that something is wrong. Like I’m about to lose him. “Kai…”

“Little demon, what’s wrong?”

“I… miss you…” My bottom lip trembles. “I’m sorry…”

He leans down onto me, his hands shifting to cup my face. “Don’t be sorry. It’s okay to cry.”

Warm tears fall down my temples.

“It doesn’t make you weak, baby.”

“I—”

“Not here…” he whispers against my lips. And the moment my eyes close, th ey don’t reopen in a place I took for granted.

It wasn’t sleep I fell into—I’m pretty sure I blacked out.

A rough, dry groan escapes me, accompanied by the sound of cracking glass beneath my palm. Shifting is a struggle, but at least she allowed me the ability to move my limbs this time. It just gives me a false sense of hope that I have any freedom and power in this room.

However, I think I’ve finally destroyed her patience.

Bringing a hand up, I glance at the pieces of glass embedded into my palm. Blood pools and cascades down my wrist to my bare thighs. Warmth pours down my eyebrow and into my eye, the burning immediately making me close it. Tears build under my lid, trying to flush the feeling of iron and salt out.

The loud clatter of metal against the hollow wooden planks makes me turn my head.

Out of one eye, I watch as my mother, consumed by her Amoro, raises her hand and slaps Archer—the guy with the snake-like attitude.

Her hit is hard, and I can see the skin immediately peel back from his cheek.

He, being an Incubus himself, heals the injury almost instantly.

Drawing my knees up to my chest, I rest my head against them.

I can’t hear what she is saying—I’m certain the punch that knocked me out was directly against the ear closest to her.

My body is so tired, exhausted of healing, and my Amoro that I’ve finally been able to connect with, is depleted. I’ve been fighting a losing battle.

Slowly, I open my eye, feeling the grittiness and irritation as the blood mixes further with my tears. I look once again at my palm and begin picking out the shards protruding from it.

“She’s angry…” I murmur, tearing them out one by one, like petals on a flower. “She’s not angry…. She’s furious… She’s not furious…”

I feel the floor below me shuddering, and I put my forehead against my knee. “She’s livid?—”

The grip on my hair tears me backward, dragging me across the floor. On instinct, I reach up and grab hold of her wrist and dig my nails hard into her. Feeling the puncture, I wiggle them further, looking to just cause her any sort of pain or discomfort at this point.

When I’m tossed, I’m given no chance this time to bring myself up as a foot presses roughly onto my stomach, keeping me flat on my back. “Xeraphine, you and that fucking Amoro are pissing me off. ”

“You don’t… say…” I grit through an uncomfortable cough. “Could have fooled me…”

She shifts down to a crouched position, her heel digging harder into me. “Ahh!” I scream through clenched teeth. The feeling of her fingers entering my core has my body going cold.

“So fucking mouthy.” As she curls her fingers, those sharpened points of her nails slice through me and I vibrate under the agony it causes. “Your Amoro is killing your chances of sleeping. There is no point in this fight, Xeraphine!”

I have no idea how I’m doing it, but the Incubus she has under her thumb has been incapable of getting me pregnant.

It isn’t for a lack of him trying, that’s for sure.

I’m not going to question what is happening, because I’d rather suffer like this than ever carry a fucking baby, especially for this bitch .

I tear my mind away from the sensation of her entire hand inside me, attempting to release a breath as I think of Sydni’s pretty pink nails. The sparkly ones that used to piss me off for being so girly—now, I just wish I could sprinkle a little of that shit around me for some good .

“I’ll rip every part of you out, Daughter.”

There is no way for me to take a meaningful breath. “I’ll grow it all back.” My voice is strained under the pressure, and just as I’m sure she is about to grab whatever she can, Archer speaks.

“It could be that her Amoro has met its Mark.”

Bile rises in my throat, but I don’t let it show. I’ve never spoken about why I was pregnant, and even if she tried to coerce me, my Amoro has given me all the strength I need to protect the one thing I can right now—Kairhyse.

The moment her fist isn’t inside me, gentle hands grab my shoulders and begin lifting me to a seated position. It’s the damn Mundane, Jay. I can’t begin to describe my hatred for them all, but he is at the top for sure.

He is sympathetic and tender, just the way Dominic acted, until he showed the true monster he was.

Jay has not cracked from that facade, even as he assisted in raping me.

He just wants to cosset me and clean me up after everything.

It’s got to be some sick fantasy of his.

The comment about how he was upset he couldn’t sew me back up after what Lars did to me, solidified that strange need of his.

Sicko … All of them…

When he draws his hand across my wet cheek, I weakly raise my arm and slap him across the face. “Don’t touch me…” I release a heavy breath and slump over, bumping into Archer’s leg, I think.

“She’s not claimed, I’d know,” my mother says with impatience layered over every word. “Whore probably fucked so much trying to get her revenge that she came across one of our own and they latched.”

Jay is coming to my side again, and I groan. The only person I ever want caring for me is Kairhyse.

These stupid fucking Mundane emotions. I miss him. I miss him so fucking much. Godsdamn it !

Clenching my jaw and squeezing my eyes shut, I fight the wave of dread threatening to spill from me in the form of tears.

“Could have been the boyfriend,” Archer says, just as the leg I was keeping propped up on moves and I fall down to my elbow, which shakily keeps me from landing on my face.

“He’s dead,” Tali says nonchalantly.

My bottom lip is between my teeth and I bite so hard I pierce right through the flesh. The strength I had in my arm slightly gives, and I begin crawling toward the wall closest to me.

She’s wrong. He isn’t dead.

“If we had the body, her Amoro could?—”

He isn’t dead. I just cannot hear this. Think of anything else, Xeraphine. Think of anything but the fact you could have got him killed .

“Both their bodies burned in the?—”