Page 13 of Taken by the Twins (Sombra Demons #7)

CHAPTER 13

IN THE SHADOWS

TANDY

T hree steps. I make it three steps past the threshold of the cabin where I stopped before Lucian materializes out of the shadows, grabbing me gently and pulling me against his solid chest.

I immediately struggle, even though I know who has me. But I have to.

“Let me go, Lucian. Now!”

He does. As though he’s also remembering the way that Jared grabbed me, setting Damien off, he immediately releases me once I tell him to.

I whirl around, pointing my finger up at his face. “What are you thinking, grabbing me like that? Damien just flew into the shadows. The woods , Lucian.” The woods he warned me about, the ones right on the edge of the shadows. Because of freaking course. “We have to go after him.”

Lucian’s tone is mournful. “I cannot.”

What? “Yes, you can!.”

“I promised him that, if this happened, I wouldn’t follow him into the shadows.”

And? “ You did. I sure as hell didn’t.”

“Tandy—”

“Do you trust me?” I ask Lucian.

“Of course I do.”

“Do you love me?” I demand.

“With everything I am,” he vows.

I pat his chest. “Good. What about Damien? Don’t you want him back with us?”

Lucian’s chest is heaving under my palms. It’s taking him everything he has not to toss me inside—or to go after Damien himself. “He is my twin. You are our mate. The gods decreed that we three were fated to be tougher.”

I hold up my hands as I take a step away from him. “Hey. Can’t go against the gods, right?”

“Tandy, please. Just wait a moment?—”

I can’t. “He won’t hurt me.” I believe that. Lucian… I can tell he wants to—and there’s only one way he will. “See the future, Lucian.”

“I see red,” he whispers. “Always red with you, dear one.”

Red like my hair.

Red like human blood.

I shake my head. “Know what? I don’t give a shit what you promised Damien. I don’t give a shit what you saw, either. I’m Tandy. I’ll always do what I think is right at the time. Sometimes that ends up with me in the backseat of a cop car, but oh well.” I wave my hand. “I’m good now. And I’m getting Damien back. Will you stop me?”

Lucian’s eyes—the right one purple, the left one white as though he’s taking some of Damien’s demonic side into him, keeping his twin with us—blaze into the shadows. “I will give you until the black moon rises,” he grates out. “Then I’m coming for you, Tandy.”

Fair enough. He promised his twin he wouldn’t chase him. But he won’t be going after Damien. He’ll go after me.

I blow him a kiss. “I’ll be right back.”

And I’m bringing Damien home with me.

I know he’s here. I know it. It’s harder to pick him out of the shadows surrounding me since, everywhere I look, I see blinding white eyes staring back at me, but I feel him. In my chest, in my heart, I know that Damien is here.

I don’t want to believe he’s watching me without letting me know where exactly he is. That would be cruel, especially when any of the monsters in the shadows could attack me.

If he lets them eat me, I guess I’ll know where we stand once and for all, huh? And maybe that’s my panic talking, the overwhelming anxiety that the demon I’ve known for little more than a week could disappear out of my life as quickly as he entered it, and shatter it.

And I do mean shatter. When Jared broke my heart, I pieced it back together. Same with every other love I’ve had before or since. I moved on. I showed the world that, no matter what, they’ll never break Tandy Lewis. Even when it was my fault, and then when it wasn’t, I always come back swinging.

But if we lose Damien… is there coming back from that? I thought the guilt I suffered for betraying Sierra was bad. It took me twelve years to get to the point where she actually attempted to reach out and mend our old friendship. But if I came between a pair of bonded demon twins who’ve been codependent for three thousand years ?

No. There’s no coming back from that.

So I just have to make sure that I do what I said I would and bring Damien back home with me.

If he cares… if he really cares… there’s only one way I can think to reach him. If he ignores me, I won’t give up, but if he answers?

Then I’ll know my protective demon mate is still in there somewhere.

Cupping my mouth, I call out, “Damien? I need you.”

No response. I spin around, trying to find him in the darkness, and open my mouth.

Before I can shout again, the air shifts. There is no such thing as wind in Sombe; at least, not in the part of the shadows where we hide. So when my hair flutters around my face, my shadow dress wafting in the unnatural breeze, I’m hoping that the mass of shadows that just whipped around me is Damien and not one of the completely soulless demons who live out here.

Through the shadows, firm flesh finds me. Hands lands on my upper arms, shadow claws tickling me even as I feel the heat from the demon at my back. He’s careful, though, very careful when he lifts me a couple of inches off the ash before turning me to face him.

It’s dark as fuck in here. The only light comes from the white eyes gazing down at me, but it’s enough. I’d recognize his inky black features and infamous scowl anywhere.

“You shouldn’t have come,” Damien says, voice as soft and lyrical as ever. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

This from the demon who handled me as easily as if I was a grown human maneuvering a toddler around? Please. Demonic or halfway there, I don’t think he can hurt me.

“You won’t,” I say, lacing my voice with absolute certainty. “But, Damien… you’re the one who’s hurting. You don’t have to. I can make you feel good.” And then, because I am absolutely certain that this demon will never do anything more except reject me and hurt my feelings, I drop my hand, searching his shadows for the cock that has to be in there.

I find that, too.

It’s hard. Heavy. As deliciously thick as his twin’s which tells me that they really are identical .

It’s also undeniably an erection which means that, even if he believes he’s on the cusp of losing himself forever to the shadows, he is at least attracted to me.

Does he recognize me as his fated mate?

I squeeze. “I promise. I want this. I want you .”

“You are Lucian’s,” he rumbles.

With my other hand, I cup his throat because it’s about as high as I can reach while still holding onto his dick. My fingers dip an inch or so past his shadows, but the way his face tightens, his eyes closing briefly as though it feels amazing to him as it does me… I don’t think he minds.

Especially when I add in a soft whisper, “I’m yours. I always have been, even if I was too slow to realize it. But until you claim me as your mate, you won’t believe it. Will you, Damien?”

“If I do this, you won’t be able to change your mind. If you choose Lucian?—”

Is that what this is about? That he honestly believes that I would pick one twin over the other? Sure, Lucian is kind and sweet and I can talk to him for hours. But Damien? If I get to know him, I’m sure I’ll find things I can talk about with him, too. I already know his possessive side is perfect for me, and even if I had my doubts, Lucian loves him.

Lucian loves him, so why wouldn’t I?

“I did choose Lucian,” I remind Dmaien. But before he can walk away from me like I saw in my terrible dreams, I hurriedly add, “And this is me choosing you. It’s the three of us, okay? Forever and ever, that’s what I promised you. That’s what I’m hoping you’re going to promise me. But first… I need you Damien. Don’t you need me?”

Damien doesn’t say anything right away. Then, he moves so quickly, for a hot second there, I think I fucked up. Like, really fucked up. That I misjudged him, and that he really did go demonic. The white eyes are throwing me—I didn’t realize how much I got used to the purple one until now—and as he hoists me up, urging me to wrap my legs somewhat around his tree trunk of a thick waist, I think that fucking Damien might be the last thing I do.

And if it is? What a way to go…

But, no. I shove that idea out of my head before Damien can pick up on it from my essence before he’s not trying to get away from me. As he shoves my shadow dress up so that I’m naked from the waist down, it’s the exact opposite.

He’s not trying to get away from me. He’s trying to get inside of me.

Can he see in the dark? I’m not sure, but it takes him a few moments before he’s lodged the tip of his shadowy cock inside of me. Sensing the slight resistance because a) he’s seven feet tall and he’s huge , and b) I’m nice and wet, but he’s attempting to fuck me standing up so that angle is different than in missionary, Damien hesitates.

Ah, hell, no.

I shift my hips until I can take him myself. It helps that, as a shadow demon, Damien can control the shape and size of his shadows. When I’ve seen him or Lucian like this, it’s like a hazy silhouette of their true features. But then I saw Lucian turn only parts of himself to shadow when we fucked, like his claws and cock, so I know they can control them.

Damien does now. Making his cock the perfect size to stretch me out completely without hurting me at all, he bottoms out inside of me as I cling to his biceps with my nails.

He roars again, only this time? It’s a sound of pure pleasure that echoes in the eerily quiet shadowy woods. At the sound of him claiming me, the other white eyes wink out, leaving us completely alone.

Fine with me. I’m more than a little preoccupied as Damien— my Damien—begins to thrust.

As the roar dies out, the only sounds I hear are his soft grunts, my muffled moans as I bury my face against his chest, and the squeak as his shadow dick moves in and out of my soaked pussy. I can tell what he’s doing. This isn’t about pleasure, or about making love. Not really. That will come later, when it’s me, Damien, and Lucian together, but for now?

He’s doing exactly what I basically begged of him. He’s claiming me as his.

So me? I just kind of hang on for the ride as he fucks me. But just like when Lucian was about to come, the same strange thing happens after Damien picks up his rhythm: I start to come around his cock without anything other than penetration to get me to do it. And that’s definitely more unexpected this time. Bless Damien’s heart, but he’s awkward, kind of stilted, and his movements are quick as though he’s hurrying to finish. I did expect this first time would be as quick as it was when I enjoyed Lucian’s solid body so I’m not disappointed at all when that same warmth floods my pussy as he climaxes inside of me, but that’s because I’m climaxing with him.

They’ll learn. With Tandy Lewis as their mate, I’ll teach them about stamina in no time. About what I like, and how to make me come before they nut in me. Granted, for absolute beginners, Lucian managed to before—both when he fucked me and when he ate my pussy out—and as I squeal against his pec, Damien is doing it now, but just in case it’s only beginner’s luck, we’ll have to work on it.

Hey. We have all eternity to get it perfect.