Page 57 of Demon Heart: The Complete Series

ROMAN

T he garden smelled of roses despite there being nothing but purple sunflowers sprouting from a blanket of blue-black grass.

I immediately started looking for an exit along the pitch-black edges of this damn place, fingers itching to draw my dagger.

But as docile as the butterflies and the caterpillars moving about the garden might be acting, there were more of them than me.

And they might be packing teeth or some other nasty surprises.

For the time being, I kept my hands off my blade and a lid on my Synth.

“It feels warmer here,” I said, stuffing my hands into my pockets. Going for cool indifference, waiting for my moment to bust his face.

“I know.” No further details from Butterfly.

If this demon could easily teleport us around, what else could he do?

Stay calm. Glean information. Get away from this creepy yet sexy demon.

Butterfly twirled his fingers. The grass between us swelled, creating two chair-shaped mounds positioned opposite one another.

“Would you like some water?” he asked.

“No, thanks.”

“Then have a seat.” He gestured to the smaller mound of grass pretending to be furniture.

Hesitantly, I sat down. “Nice.” The softness was a relief to my backside. “Really comfortable.”

“I know.” Again, no extra sprinkle of detail from him.

He steepled his fingers together, leaning forward with his elbows on his big thighs. How that loincloth didn’t slip to the side to reveal a bollock was miraculous.

“I offer nothing but comfort to my friends,” he said, a warm breeze licking at my face as he spoke. “You have no need to fear me.”

“Even after you kidnapped me?”

“I simply claimed what is mine, Roman.”

“Yours?”

“You are my witch. I created the power within you. I gave you the ability to cross time.”

I sat up straighter, a sudden dryness in my throat. “What…” Fuck. “You need to start giving me some proper information. Now.”

His eyes found my dagger, still sheathed to my body, Skele beside it. “Interesting.”

Come try taking them off me…

“Your poor mind must be struggling to comprehend this,” he added.

“Understatement.”

“Which brings us to why you are here,” he said.

Finally!

Butterfly sat back in his chair, crossing his legs. “I have many gifts. For example, I can sense you enjoy a tea made from chamomile.”

My scalp pricked in response, my lips longing to be perched on the rim of a steaming cup of chamomile tea.

“I sense things, Roman, including things hidden within the layers of time. The future, the past, the present. I cannot see things as clearly as I would like, but I can feel them. Ripples across my skin, kisses on the back of my neck. They call to me, inform me. I sensed my death by Arcana in the years to come. Not the exact moment, but the day around it.”

What the actual hell? “I have no idea where you’re going with this.”

He smiled, a butterfly landing on his bare shoulder. “You have found yourself in the years between me sensing my death and me meeting it. This is the point in time where I found a solution to my problem.”

My heart beat harder and faster as I listened, my hands balled into painful fists. “Did you sense me in the future?”

He shook his head. “I sensed a different future, a changed magic. Arcana is dead, is it not?”

“Y-Yes.” Man, my throat was desert sand.

“Yet magic remains. Witch magic. Tell me, where did Arcana go? What is this magic you possess?”

I shuffled uncomfortably. The chair may as well have been made of broken glass. “You didn’t sense those details?”

“As I said, I do not possess great foresight. I sense things. In time, around me.” He stopped there, waiting for me to speak, smiling with seductive menace.

“It just went away,” I said. “My magic is Synth.” I explained it, along with the Trace magic warlocks used each month— basically the heavily diluted remains of Arcana which fell as snow once a month.

Don’t tell him anymore!

I left out the part about Synth starting to weaken, some spells now completely lost for good.

“And it hurts you?” Butterfly questioned.

“What?”

“It leaves your hands in pain.”

I shuddered. God, he creeped me out. “How did you know that?”

“I sensed the pain, the abomination.”

“Abomination?”

“This Synth is a magic that should not exist. Arcana had its time. Now it is this Trace—the only magic you should be able to wield.”

He wasn’t exactly wrong. “Synth was made to keep demons from taking over our world.”

“And created suffering for warlocks in the process.”

“Yeah.”

“How do you feel about that?”

“Does it matter?”

No response.

Here came a limp answer. “I feel bad for them. Things need to change.”

“Do they?”

“Yeah. Things should be more equal.”

He drew a deep breath through his nose. “We can change things together.”

Here we go. “How?”

“Do you want to change the future with me?”

“Hell no.”

He cocked his head curiously to the side. “Why?”

“If something’s already happened, shouldn’t it stay that way?”

“Why should it?”

“Ever heard of the butterfly effect ?”

God, the irony was painful.

“Explain it to me,” he said.

I did.

“Fascinating.”

I leaned forward. “How is this possible? Is time on a loop?”

“The device works.”

A jolt of unease hit my chest. “Huh?”

Two more butterflies landed on his shoulder, flexing their wings. “I do not want to die according to destiny.”

“Who does? At least you can prepare for it, I guess.”

This whole him sensing his death thing kept tangling up my thought processes.

Damn.

“This morning, the device I designed reached its final stages,” he said. “Ready to be grown, to gather power. To find a vessel strong enough to incubate it.”

“What—”

“Do you want me to explain this to you?”

I nodded, hoping I’d wake up for real this time.

Ah, if only this were a dream.

“Good. Then be quiet.” He lifted a hand to allow a butterfly to land on his knuckles.

“I have no real dominion over time. However, it is something to wield. Something to be manipulated, tempered even. I knew if I found the right ingredients, a flaw in time’s design, I could create a miracle.

” The butterflies on his shoulder flew off.

“The answer hid in the air. A hum of constant energy most are unaware of.”

“But you sensed it,” I cut in.

“I did.”

“So, time is a type of energy?”

“It is. I stole a piece of it, keeping it locked in a jar.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. “You kept a piece of time in a jar? How is that even possible?”

A mason jar appeared in his left hand, manifesting from thin air. “This is my extra supply.”

Within the glass cylinder, tiny bursts of lightning flared, translucent clouds rolling like a mini storm.

I leaned forward, arse on the edge of the grass seat. “You’re telling me that’s time?”

“Yes.”

“What would happen if you opened the jar?”

“Chaos in the wrong hands. Thankfully, I have skillful hands for handling such energy. And the jar is coated in a magically resistant substance I made using seeds harvested from this garden. The glass is reinforced to withstand accidents. Even the lid is a challenge to unscrew. No spell can break in, no piece of time can break out.” The jar vanished.

I sat back, blinking at his hand.

Time? He actually possessed a piece of time? “Is that a specific time in there?”

“No. Merely the essence of it. Which brings me to the device.”

Slimy hands dragged their fingertips across my soul as I waited for him to continue.

“I created a device in order to use time. At least in theory. I poured my will into it, my blood, my sweat, my dust.” He wiggled his fingers, the glittering dust falling from the tips.

“What is that stuff?”

“Part of me.”

“Okay. But what is it?”

“Magic, Roman. My magic.”

Demons possessed their own magical skills, which included shifting between their forms. And this demon seemed more juiced up than most.

“Eventually, the device accepted no more of me, requiring a chance to learn new things, to absorb the world around it and find a vessel of its own choosing.”

“This is really confusing.”

Why couldn’t we get down to fighting? Slicing at his face was easier than this headache.

“I commanded the device to anchor itself to me here, to return to me in this time after its becoming.”

“So, this device sprouted legs and wandered off?”

The demon cocked an elegant eyebrow at me.

“I gave it to a trusted friend. This morning.”

Head fuck! “No little legs, then?”

“What are you trying to say, Roman?”

That I’d love to kick you in the face? “Forget the legs. Have you been stuck here in this time?”

“It is the power of the device.”

“So, this isn’t real.”

“Oh, it is real, Roman. Very real.” He stood up, his hair swaying like a silk curtain behind him.

I stood too, not wanting to sit while he towered over me, my heart pounding, ready for a scrap.

He pointed at my chest. “I created your heart. Your essence, everything you are. It seems to have spent these long years feeding upon your realm, building its strength. To grow, to transform. And then it found you.”

What. The. Hell. “I don’t… You did… How…”

“Something triggered its activation. A crack of thunder…” He cocked his head.

“I was…” I widened the hole in my jumper to fully expose my scar. “I was shot. But…”

“I must discover its story in your time.”

“You can’t sense it?”

“Not clearly.”

I touched my scar. The gunshot was the trigger for my…

…my heart.

The device.

This can’t be real…

“I don’t understand,” I whispered. I’d had surgery in a human hospital to fix my heart when I was three, not an organ transplant. There shouldn’t be anything other than a regular, working heart in my chest. The surgery saved my life, I got to live on because of it. Not this mess.

“My heart…”

He slowly approached me, my skin buzzing with unease. “Do you need to rest your head? Be alone with your thoughts? My chrysalis will provide adequate comfort.” Closer, closer. “Or do you require physical distraction?”

Man, that voice! My balls responded with a tingle, a rush of blood swelling my dick.

A gentle breeze shimmered through his purple locks, his eyes glinting with what could only be described as rising horniness.

Or was that just mine?

“My cock will ease any troubled mind,” he purred.

I backed away. “Nope.” He wasn’t the first demon to offer his shagging services to make me feel better.

Again, what was with these guys?

“Are you sure?” he said.

“Very sure.”

He stopped. “I’m glad. Not that you are displeasing to the eye. On the contrary. And I do enjoy fucking humans and demons alike. However, you are not my choice of lover.”

“Good. I’m glad.”

A tingle of curiosity tingled in my balls.

Shame on me! My balls were for a spider, not a butterfly.

He smiled. “My goal is not to hurt you, but to nurture you. To help you control your new power. I trust you have my mark?”

My hand immediately went to my left bicep. “Yeah. Right here.”

Cut by Xavier.

I kept that to myself.

“Excellent. It will help stabilize the device,” he said, “begin to give you some idea on how to move between time correctly.”

Shit. Would it being cut break me further? It didn’t seem to be screwing me over.

Yet.

“As opposed to the chaos of before,” I retorted.

“I am truly sorry for your suffering.” He bowed his head. “The mark will always let me find you.”

Obviously, I trusted his him as much as I trusted my safety swimming in a pool of hungry crocodiles. Having a possible tracker on my bicep also sucked. Although Xavier might have fucked that up for him.

For all his sensing, the cut on the tattoo didn’t seem to bother him.

Had he even noticed?

“So, what’s your endgame?” I asked.

This was seriously twisting me in knots. Big time. How was I supposed to function? How was I supposed to do anything other than pass out from this overload of info?

No way. No passing out for me.

Fuck that.

“I want to hear the device’s story first,” he said. “Together. If I tell you my goal now, your reaction may jeopardize our growing relationship.”

I sat back down, my knees too weak. “Shit.” I took deep breaths, my fingers still pressed to my scar. “I’m having a big reaction right now. On the inside.”

“You are?”

I hunched forward, head between my legs. “This is too much.”

“I am sorry, Roman.”

Fuck off! “You’re not.”

“I am, truly.”

“Then tell me your endgame. Revenge on the witch or warlock who killed you?”

“Warlock, I believe.”

“That doesn’t tell me anything.”

“I do want revenge, yes.”

He threw me off for a moment. “Oh.”

“Is that enough for now? Can we find the other answers together?”

“What other answers?”

“Are you missing something?” A black-and-purple skin-tight catsuit pasted itself to his skin, making him look like a superhero ready for a sex party, hugging every muscle. It parted in a V at his chest, showing off the lines of his pecs. Boots covered his bare feet.

That bulge could take my eyes out.

“What are you doing now?” Should I go for a stab? Maim him and run like hell?

“I’m ready for a trip to the future,” he said.

“What?”

“Whenever you are, of course. You hold the power. Is it showing itself to you yet?”

“No. I can’t take you into the future.”

“We will return here after.”

“To kill a warlock.”

He smiled.

“I can’t do this.”

A butterfly landed on my leg.

“A little encouragement, perhaps,” the demon purred, opening his hand. He blew on it, his dust coming at me in a glittering attack.

It shot up my nose before a pulse of pain throbbed in my temples. “What—” I went to get up and chew him out, but stayed put.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

What was that? A clock?

Time…

Tick. Tick. Tick.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

The two sounds merged into one, loud and echoey in my ears. One force, one endless beat.

And there was more…

Beneath the sounds, another rang out. Sharper, higher pitched. Not painful or anything, but clear. A code relaying information, a power attuning itself to a body designed to channel magic.

Demonic. Fairy. Synth. Part of this realm, part of mine. A device in my chest of many colors. A rainbow of energy, ready to be used, giving me life and some command over time. It waited for me to use it as my Synth spells did.

“What do I say?” I asked, my voice echoing as the sounds did.

“Can you feel it?” Butterfly asked.

“Yeah…”

Anchored here in this time and to mine, the sharp sound seemed to clarify. A single path, back and forth, waiting to be walked.

A spell like any other. No specific wording to it, simply a calling to get the cogs moving. Bring it to the surface, get those boots onto the path.

As easy as that.