Page 10 of Taken by the Twins (Sombra Demons #7)

CHAPTER 10

MY DEMONS

TANDY

I follow the noise because it has to lead me to Jared.

Lucian is right at my side. He already informed me that, in the human realm, it’s expected to go in the faintest form of their shadows they have. Close to a mist, if you didn’t know he was there, you’d be hard-pressed to see him.

Me? I’m shit out of luck. If I had accepted his essence, he could’ve wrapped me up in his shadows, hiding me, too. But he’s a twin. That means Lucian can’t give me that essence unless Damien does at the same time. So though I’m completely visible and I’m pretty sure Lucian would prefer I hang back before we know what’s happening, I lead the charge and he’s smart enough not to try to stop me.

I mean, this is Jared . I’m not afraid of him.

But one look at my ex-lover crouched down slightly, his back up against a corner, arms thrown over his perfectly-styled hair as a dark shadow—as Damien—whips around him, clearly terrorizing the human male… he’s definitely afraid of one of my mates.

Any hope that Damien was following the duke’s law by staying out of sight are completely dashed. Sure, he’s not in that solid, red-skinned demonic form they have, but with his mismatched eyes blazing out of his inky-black shadows, there’s no doubt that he’s here, and that Jared has already seen him.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit.

What now?

I don’t know, but when Jared’s head jerks up, I realize that I made a major boo-boo.

I kind of said that out loud, didn’t I?

Whoops.

Using his back, he pushes up off of the wall so that he’s standing. He’s still covering his head, though he shifts his arms so that he can find me standing on the other side of the room.

“Tandy? Tandy? Is that you? For fuck’s sake? Do you see this? Help me!”

I swallow the nervous lump in my throat. Then, I lie . “See what? There’s nothing there. Are you okay? What’s wrong with you?”

Whether it’s because of the fact that I’m here or that Lucian is, or that he’s been caught, Damien’s dark shadows fade until, like his twin, he’s barely visible. I still sense him, though, and he hovers close enough to Jared that he can swoop down on him again at a moment’s notice.

I have to diffuse this situation. I have to find a way to explain what happened that won’t get Damien in trouble, then get out before Jared realizes that me even being here is impossible.

“Was it a bird? You know better than to leave a window open in the city.” Here’s hoping he’s actually still in the city—and that’s still thick and self-obsessed enough to buy my explanation. “All kinds of riffraff can get in.”

He straightens. His gaze travels over me, from my ‘just got fucked’ hair to the slinky, black shadow dress that might pass as a LBD, only it’s so tight, you can see everything . From the outline of my pussy to my nipples poking through the woven shadows—and my bare fucking feet—I can only imagine how I appear.

Like a former lover desperate enough for a taste that I’d show up unannounced at his place like I’m ready to seduce him so we can have sex.

If I invite him to the bedroom, he will. I have no doubt about that. But since it seems like I ’m the desperate one, he’ll get his kicks knocking me down first.

That’s what Jared Turner does, after all.

“Speaking of riffraff, Tan… I thought you learned your lesson. Breaking in to see me? Didn’t that earn you your first probation?” He smirks, and I can’t help but wonder how I ever thought of him as so handsome, I’d throw my friendship with Sierra away for his grin.

He’s not wrong. I was wild in my youth, and more reckless than I should’ve been. I didn’t take the break-up with Thr33peat or Jared well. With the band going away and my life falling apart, the rumors of Jared fucking Molly May on the side broke me.

So I broke into the hotel where they were in bed together, got really pissed, broke some stuff, and got my ass arrested. His manager pressed charges so that Jared could keep up his image as a golden boybander, and the story told to the press was that I couldn’t accept it when he broke up with me, so I attacked him and his new girlfriend.

It was the perfect PR move. After the fallout he endured for cheating on Sierra, he got the public back on his side by painting me as the seductress who tempted him away from his true love, and the insane ex who couldn’t take it when he tried to find love with someone else.

I became the villain in both stories, Jared’s rep got cleaned-up, and it only received another boost when, out of the kindness of his heart, he ‘convinced’ his manager to drop the chargers.

But not until my mug shot was splashed all over the papers and blogs, of course.

How did I ever think he was charming? How did I ever fall back into bed with him, even while knowing I was his second-choice whenever Sierra turned him down again?

Because I was lonely. Because I was desperate.

Because he had a hold on me…

Not anymore.

Jared chuckles, completely unaware what’s really going on here. It’s like he completely forgot he was being cornered by Damien in his shadow form a moment ago, and if that means my demon didn’t break that stupid first law, I’m cool with whatever made him suddenly forget. I’ll make my excuse to leave before he wonders out what I’m doing here, Lucian and Damien will come with me, and everything will be okay?—

And then Jared just has to go on and say,“Tandy Lewis. Look at you. Still think you’re twenty, huh?”

It’s the way his smirk reaches his tone. It irks me even more, and though my demon twins are still hiding in this room, I only have eyes for Jared as I glare at him.

“I’ve grown up, Jared. I’ve moved on.”

“Sure you have.”

I fist my hands at my side. “Screw you. Know what? This was going to be my year. Sierra and I finally patched things up. I’m getting jobs, Jared.” Before I found out I was meant to be a pair of demon twins’ mate. “I’m doing better. Definitely better than you .”

“You said that same shit when you were twenty-one,” he says, laughing. My blood fucking boils . “Twenty-four. Twenty- seventy. The big three-oh. I guess, at thirty-two, maybe this could be your year. I wouldn’t hold my breath, though.”

“You’re such a fucking dick ? — ”

“Oh,” he says, running his fingers through his hair, straightening his back as I haven’t just caught him cowering and whimpering moments ago, “I know that. That’s something you always like about me. Being a dick.” He drops his hand to his crotch, squeezing himself. “Sucking my dick. Fucking my dick. Huh, Tan?”

Off to his side, Damien growls .

Uh-oh.

Jared frowns, glancing over there. “Maybe that was a bird before, but what the hell was that? You bring a dog with you when you decided to break into my place tonight?”

Shit. “A dog? What? No.”

Jared shrugs. “Doesn’t matter anyway. You’re here. You’re a month late to answer my texts, but since you went to the trouble to figure out what condo I rented now that I’m back in New York again, I forgive you. Let’s fuck.”

A month ? Time must run differently in the demon world or something because, at my count, it hasn’t even been a full week since New Year’s Eve.

Whatever. That’s something to deal with later. For now?—

Before Damien can growl again, I shut Jared down. “I’m not here to sleep with you.”

“Why not?”

Maybe because my legs were still quivering from the orgasm Lucian gave me as I walked into this room?

I don’t tell him that. Instead, I say, “Because I’m too good for you.”

It’s true. It was always true. He used my own insecurities against me, then proceeded to wield them for the next twelve years. Whenever I was weak—at twenty-one, at twenty-four, at thirty —he was there, to fuck me and use me and discard me.

You know who won’t do that?

My demons.

I scoff, then turn away from Jared. “I was always too good for you. It just took me to right this second to see it. But I see, Jared. I see a lot know.”

And I have the doppelseers to thank for that.

Am I psychic too now? Those dreams of mine… maybe they are visions. Or maybe it’s wishful thinking that has me imagining Jared getting old and wrinkled, still making moves on women half his age, never finding true love… while I spend the rest of eternity with my demons.

I see it. A glimpse of the future, a flash of the happily ever after I always wanted… I see it, and, suddenly, all I want to do is go back to Sombra, curl up with Lucian, and get to know Damien better.

That’s my fate. It might not have been the new year I planned, but my future will be better because I see it and I cling to that promise of forever with Damien and Lucian as I start to walk away from Jared.

But my ex? He doesn’t have magic, like my mates do. He can’t see the future, not like I’m beginning to suspect that I can; and wouldn’t that have been much handier when I was younger and would’ve known better than to keep my distance from Jared.

He also seems to have forgotten all about the shadows that were terrorizing him and the growl that unnerved him because if he hadn’t? He might’ve thought better than to lunge for me, grabbing my arm in a bruisingly tight grip.

“Hey. Where do you think you’re going?”

I shake my arm. “Let me go!”

“No. You’re here. I’m horny. We’re going to fuck. You know you want to. You know you want me.”

I do not .

“Jared, get off!”

The air shifts. It’s charged with something I can’t quite explain, only that I’m suddenly far calmer than I was two seconds ago.

“Release the female,” booms a familiar voice.

My head whips around. So does Jared’s.

It’s Damien. He’s not even in his shadows. Fully manifested in his seven-foot-tall demonic form, horns arching, eyes blazing… he glowers down at Jared.

Jared lets go of me even as he says, “What the fu?—”

“Now, Damien,” orders Lucian from somewhere behind me.

Damien didn’t even wait for the command. As Jared starts screaming, Damien grabs one of the chintzy awards from by the TV that Jared packs with him and carries wherever he goes as some sort of validation. Crossing the distance easily, he cracks it over the back of Jared’s head, then backs away from Jared.

From me .

Jared crumples as Damien moves to the other side of the room. The screams stop, but I can’t help but gasp.

“Holy shit, Damien! Did you kill him?”

“For speaking to you in such a manner, I should have. But, no. He will sleep, and when he wakes up, he’ll have a bump on his head and the absolute certainty it was all a dream. But if he thinks to use his tongue against you in any way, his head will ache again, and he’ll know better than to offend you.”

I stare at him, stunned.

Firstly, that is the most Damien has said to me since we’ve met. Secondly? I’m sold. This demon came all the way here to warn my ex away from me, and when Jared ran his mouth, Damien didn’t just take care of it with his brute strength.

Using their magic, he’s going to accomplish what I never could: getting Jared Turner to leave me the fuck alone.

Pushing off of the couch, I dash around Jared’s prone body, then fling myself at Damien.

He’s in his shadows, but that doesn’t stop me. I’ve learned that, go about an inch or two past the hazy outline of a shadow demon and you find flesh. I do now, throwing my arms around him, squeezing him tight.

For a split second, I think he’s going to slither out of my grip. Maybe this much physical affection is too much for him. He freaked out a bit when I tried to kiss him, and this hug is definitely more intimate—but he doesn’t.

And when Damien hesitantly lifts his arms, returning my hug, I let myself melt against his shadows.

Damn it. It feels right.

It feels like home.

They feel like home.

And, when I finally pull away from him again—the first to break the embrace—I offer a hand to each of the demons before telling them, “Let’s go home.”

Because Sombra?

I think that’s my home now, too.