Page 18 of Drawn to the Demon Duke (Sombra Demons)

I shift in my seat, turning toward Dagon. “Go,” I tell him gently. “I’ll stay right here in the garden. See what my mate wants. I’ll be fine.”

Poor Dagon looks torn. On the one hand, he means it when he says that he’s here to take care of me. On the other, his loyalty better be to Haures first in public because, otherwise, that’s a shadow offence and even I know that. I could probably save him again, but then I’ll never get rid of him.

And I like Dagon. I do. He’s the puppy I never had as a kid, but I wouldn’t mind five seconds to myself for once.

“Go,” I tell him, a little more oomph in my voice. “Really.”

The order does what it’s supposed to: Dagon nods, then strides toward Tropp.

“I will return,” he says solemnly to me.

I smile.

Trust me, Dagon. By now, I don’t doubt it.

Tropp doesn’t even give me a second look. Leading the hunter-turned-bodyguard toward the throne room door, it’s as though I’ve ceased to exist to the guard.

To Tropp, maybe.

But the red-skinned, spiky-haired, one-horned demon that seems to take his place?

Nah. As he stalks out of the garden’s furthest shadows the moment Tropp and Dagon are gone, it’s clear to me that I have all of his attention.

I don’t want it. There’s something crazed in his vibrant purple eyes. He’s hunched slightly, racing right toward me, and I’m barely standing before he’s mere inches away from me.

He smells sickly sweet, a hint of wispy shadows coming from the tips of his pointed ears, his fingers, his elbows adding a burnt aroma to it. Like when you try to make homemade caramel and keep it on the pot too long.

My lips twitch, a quick smile. “Hello. I’m Susanna. Can I help you?”

His eyes flare, going from purple to white and back. From what I’ve learned, purple means ‘magic’. Mage . He’s a spellcaster.

And I’m in trouble.

“I see,” he whispers, his voice low and ragged. “The gods grant me visions and I see … I see that you will lead to the end of Sombra. Your arrival in our world will bring about its ruin.” Another flicker, white, then purple, then white this time. “I can’t allow you to destroy our people.”

I hold up my hands, heart starting to pound wildly as he leans into me, spitting on my face as he hisses at me. “No. You’ve got it wrong. I wouldn’t?—”

I never get the chance to tell him what I would or wouldn’t do. Faster than I expected—and I should’ve known better because Sombra demons can be quick —he wraps his big paws around my neck and squeezes.

He closes my throat off right away. I gasp, unable to get one last breath. He squeezes harder. Black spots form at the corner of my eyes.

I claw at his hands, but I’m human. I’m mortal . My fingernails don’t do any damage to him. Even if I did, all he would have to do to heal would be to turn to shadow before returning to his solid form and he’d have nothing to show I even tried.

That’s why Haures has scars when no other demon does. He has his own unique abilities, but he doesn’t heal the same way. And me?

I’m a goner.

Haures…

In the seconds before I’m about to lose consciousness, my life really does flash before my eyes. I think of Mom. Of Mindy. Of Amy.

And then, my soul crying out to his, I reach for Haures.

When the pressure on my throat releases mere moments before everything turns black, I have a moment where I think that I skipped the whole unconscious stage. That I went straight to Heaven or something because, suddenly, there is Haures.

Ferocious and glorious, his blue eyes blazing in fury, his white hair streaming behind him beneath the gold moonlight…

He’s here. My mate is here.

The howl of rage he lets out brings me back around. I’m not dead. I’m gasping, on my knees, sucking in breath after breath, rubbing my neck. I’m alive ?—

But that crazed seer won’t be for much longer.

It’s the bond. I can sense Haures’s fear that I was hurt, anger that I was left vulnerable, and that same rage that one of his people tried to harm his mate. As the demon duke, there was nothing else to do. He’s judge, jury, and, in this case, executioner.

He doesn’t ship the seer off to the shadows. He doesn’t retrieve Glaine for the sword, either.

Instead, picking the seer up by the throat, dragging him off of the cobblestones where he must’ve thrown him after ripping him away from me, Haures does exactly what the rogue demon did: he wraps his hand around his throat and squeezes.

Flames burst from his fingers. Gentle flames, delicate flames, that lick at the seer’s flesh.

I can’t imagine they would really hurt a demon who calls this world home, but the moment his eyes fade back to purple and he sees that he’s both facing off against Haures and that my mate’s hand is on fire?

The seer starts to beg. To please. To demand mercy.

In response, Haures only squeezes infinitely harder until the seer’s entire body is engulfed in the slightly transparent flames.

Releasing him, the seer hits the cobbles with a loud thud . He doesn’t stop-drop-and-roll or do anything to put out the flames. As though accepting his fate, he just curled up at Haures’s feet.

His expression is terrible. “You tried to harm my mate. I’m not that merciful.”

He clicks his claws together. I hear a soft pop , gasping when the seer… he… he’s ash. Like, just ash . He doesn’t even burn all the way. With a burst of Haures’s magic, he turns my attacker into a pile of greyish-white ash and nothing else.

As soon as he has, wild eyes search for me. “You called me through our bond. I felt you needing me. Thank the gods I reached you in time. But did I? Tell me, Su… tell me you are unharmed.”

My throat’s gonna hurt like heck tomorrow, but I’m alive. He saved me just like he promised he would. “I am.”

“Good.”

Not quite the response I expected, but okay?—

Whoa.

“Haures? Haures!”

My demon mate just crossed the distance between us, hefting me up, swinging me around, searching for somewhere else to place me once he was done.

I figured back on my boots, away from the pile of ash, would work…

and then he tilts me back with his impressive strength, laying me out on the cobblestones surrounding the fountain.

“Apologies, Su,” he says, “but… the gold moon… and almost losing you… I cannot help it. Your mate requires his female.”

I see that.

And, know what? I’m a-okay with it, too.

My close brush with death might’ve just made me screwy.

Nearly being choked to death… I don’t know.

I shouldn’t be so turned-on by the fact that my mate just barbecued another demon for me, but he’s right.

Something about the gold moon had me fantasizing about Haures all afternoon, and if that’s what he needs to blame this sudden desire on, sure. Let’s go with that.

Still I can’t help but tease him. As he works single-mindedly to get my skirts out of his way, I say, “I thought dukes don’t say sorry.”

“No. I said that a duchess never apologizes. But a demon duke will do anything to get to his mate’s sweet cunt.”

I grip my skirts with both hands, yanking it up so that my lower half is bared to Haures. “Well, damn. All you had to do was say please.”

“Please.” It’s a whisper. It’s a groan. It’s a prayer to the Sombran gods, and a plea to the mortal woman he has on her back. “ Please .”

I let my hair cushion my head, staring up at the gold moon winking back at me. “I’m yours, Haures. I’m yours .”

One thing I’ve learned since living in Sombra?

Every happy-ever-after is going to look different.

Mine? Mine’s going to be with a fierce demon who comes when I subconsciously call him, kills for me, then buries his face in my pussy, while the ash of the demon he killed sits just beyond his bare foot.

And I wouldn’t have it any other way.