Page 9 of Taken by the Twins (Sombra Demons #7)

CHAPTER 9

JARED TURNER

TANDY

R ight after my demons grabbed me by the hands and brought me to Sombra, all I wanted to do was go back home.

Why? That’s a good question. If I’m being honest with myself, it’s not like I really had anything to go back to . My gig as the closing act for the nostalgia show only ran until the second week of January. After that, I didn’t have anything lined up.

I’d sublet out my apartment in New Jersey when I got the stipend to stay in the hotel so I’d be close by to do drop-in appearances at the club’s whim. Because I thought I’d book another job in the city, they have it through May, so I’m technically homeless at the moment since I sure as hell can’t afford my hotel room without the stipend.

My friends are hanger-ons or ex-lovers. My family is nonexistent. No matter how old I get, I can shake the scandal that derailed my life.

I wanted to be just like Whiskey Rose. The platinum albums, the fans screaming my songs back at me, the movie deals and endorsements… I wanted that to be me. One big mistake later and I’m a has-been and a punchline.

But in Sombra… it didn’t have to be like that. So there’s no delivery. No shopping malls. No internet or phones.

There’s also no judgmental stares. No whispers everywhere I go. No sense of failure dogging my heeled steps.

It took me a couple of days to get to that conclusion. Most of that was because, at first, I was just so fucking stunned that anyone would want me so badly, they’d whisk me away to another realm, then spent their every waking moment trying to tend to my every need in a bid to convince me to accept them as my forever mate. What’s especially surprising is that they’re massive. Strong. Obviously hung. They’re also demons, which gave me a pause at first, but besides the glowing eyes, ridges over their nose, and pointed horns, they’re really not that different from human men. They believe I promised myself to them after I read that weird spell in the old book. If they wanted to, they could do whatever they want to me, and it’s not like I could stop them.

But they would never . I quickly learned that ‘demon’ doesn’t mean ‘bad’ or ‘evil’. They’re just another kind of person, only one that is both full of magic and immortal.

And if I go along with it and let them mate me, I will be, too.

Lucian is good . Thanks to this essence exchange thing—which is basically them learning everything there is to know about Tandy Lewis with a simple touch—he knows just the right way to convince me to give him what he wants.

Immortality and a loyal demon husband? Not just one, either, but two ?

The true loves meant for me alone?

I made it, like, three days before I decided that, if you can’t beat them, join them. I wasn’t going back to New York. Not anytime soon, at least, and really? It wasn’t that big of a loss.

But if these two wanted to take their turns with me? I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t interested. Completely full of shit if I tried to pretend that I wasn’t curious, or that something about their demon features didn’t rev my engine a bit.

Add that to the dreams I have… dreams or maybe visions … every time I close my eyes and, hell, I’m only human. There’s only so much I can resist. A demon who looks at me with his mismatched eyes as if he worships the ground I walk on? Who talks to me like a person, not a conquest, brings me food, offers me anything, and takes my hand as if I’m precious?

I knew I was going to have my way with Lucian sooner or later. Of course, because I’m Tandy Lewis, it ended up being sooner if only because I needed to lick my wounds a little after Damien’s obvious rejection.

I kissed him and he walked away. I made the first move, and he told me to eat, then disappeared.

And now he ’s gone.

Lucian’s trying his best to hide it, but he is visibly worried about his brother. Snapping his fingers, the two of us are dressed less than minute after he realized Damien seemed to have vanished on us. Not in clothes, though; he’s magic, but certain things like cotton and polyester are out of his wheelhouse. Besides, when you can use shadows to cover up, why not? It’s quick, efficient, and it makes disrobing for sex super easy.

His eyes flash. Tongue darting out, he swipes it over his bottom lip, rumbling softly as though enjoying my taste.

“I do,” he rumbles, and just when I can’t help but wonder if he can read my mind as well as see the future, he says, “It’s your essence, dear one. Your scent becomes infinitely sweeter when you think of mating. And though there is nothing I want more than to return to your cunt again now that I’ve experienced the wonder of it, I must go.”

I clutch his arm. Earlier, whenever I dared touch one of these demons, their skin was so feverish, I got the feeling I’d burn if I held onto them too long. Now? Something tells me that banging Lucian already changed me a bit because while he’s warm, it’s not so noticeable anymore.

Or maybe that’s just because I worked up a sweat myself as he fucked me…

I give him a squeeze. “Let me come with you.”

He searches my face. “You are my mate, Tandy. Our mate. True, Damien hasn’t mated you yet, but you are meant to be ours. You gave us your essence. You gave me your body. And still you want to return to your human world?”

Hang on?—

“Is that where he is?”

“For our bond to disappear so completely, he had to have gone off-plane. We do not have the ability to open portals on our own. There wasn’t enough time for him to find a mage to do it for him. That leaves only the human realm. We’ve been there before. Because of our bond with you, the pathway is open to us both.”

Oh. Okay. I can totally see where he got that idea. Considering I spent my first few days nagging him to open that portal and ship my ass back to New York, it makes sense that my request to tag along with him would be seen as a sneaky attempt to go home.

Maybe before I had that moment with Lucian, I might’ve. Maybe if he didn’t tell me that Damien took off while we were fucking. These two are the tightest pair of twins I’ve ever met; considering they’re immortal demons who’ve been around for, like, three thousand years according to Lucian, they have to be. If me getting it on with his brother was enough to send him not only out of their cabin, but out of their world ?

Damn. I should’ve waited a couple of minutes for Lucian to grab his brother and start that threesome after all…

“This is my fault,” I blurt out. “He left because of me.”

“Yes. He did.”

Wow. What happened to my sweet demon who calls me ‘dear one’ and caters to my every request? I really hope that wasn’t just an act to get me to fuck him, because while it worked, it really sucks that he’s not pulling any punches with me now.

I release Lucian, stepping away from him.

The demon surges forward, cupping my cheek gently, turning his claws to shadows as he caresses my skin. “No, Tandy. You misunderstand my bluntness. That was not my intent. To hurt you… I would never. But you are not wrong. Damien left, but not because you welcomed me into your cunt, dear one. If I mate you, it’s almost the same as him mating you. But there is another…”

“Another?”

“Another male. One you’ve mated before.”

Woof. One? I don’t slutshame, but the numbers just a bit higher than that—and these demons know . It doesn’t really bother me, especially since I just eagerly let him fuck me, too, adding to that number, but just in case, I ask, “The essence exchange thing tell you that?”

Lucian nods. “I can choose not to see things about your past that will only make me jealous and wish there was a way I found you earlier. But Damien… he is a sensitive male.”

Don’t snort, Tandy. Don’t you do it…

I choke instead. “Damien? Uh… you mean, like, your twin who walks around with a stick up his ass? That Damien?”

Lucian frowns. “I assure you, there is nothing lodged inside of Damien’s posterior.”

I wave my hand. “It’s a human expression,” I tell him. Note to self: he might understand English because of my essence, but he doesn’t quite get the nuances yet. I purposely make it more clear. “I’m just surprised you call him sensitive when he acts like he’d be happier if I never intruded on you two.”

“And that is why you must allow us to give you our essence,” Lucian tells me. “Because, my dear one, Damien wants you more than I do. And, I assure you, I want you very, very much.”

Oh. I know that. I have the evidence of his ‘want’ currently making my inner thighs sticky.

But Damien ?

“You sure?”

He nods. “I share essence with him. I know how he feels, even when he can’t find the words to say it himself. Just like I know that, in his own misguided way, he’s decided the only way to convince you to stay is to get rid of any reason for you to return to the human world.”

“He doesn’t have to worry about that,” I admit. “I’m pretty sure I don’t have one.”

“He believes otherwise.” And then, to my shock, he says two words that change everything: “Jared Turner.”

My stomach drops. “How do you know that name?”

“Because Damien thought it so loudly before he cut off our bond, it echoed into mine and rattled around my head. I should’ve known then… I believe that he has gone to confront him. This male who he believes owns your heart… and if this Jared has it, we never can.”

That’s fucking bullshit, first of all. Maybe demons don’t quite get it since they only have this one true mate that they’re searching for, but humans can love an infinite amount of people. I’ve given my heart away before to have it broken, smashed, stomped on, and I still hold it tight, ready to share it with someone else.

Could it be these demon twins? Maybe.

Do I still love Jared Turner? Not a chance.

But does that mean he needs to get involved in this? When I don’t even really know what this is?

No fucking way.

“What is he going to do to Jared?” I ask, more concerned about Damien than my ex.

Lucian thins his lips, fangs overhanging the bottommost one before he grits out, “I don’t know.”

And that scares the ever-loving shit out of me, because if there’s one thing I’ve gotten used to when it comes to Lucian, it’s that he knows everything .

In the end, Lucian realizes he has no choice but to let me go after Damien with him.

That one hundred percent has everything to do with me. I, uh, kind of freak out about the quiet twin going after Jared—and when it hits him that I’m actually worried about Damien , not my asshole of an ex, he grabs my hand, tears open a portal, and pulls me through it.

Right before we left, he explained that while his purple eyes means that he is a magic user in his world, it usually takes a different skillset to do portal travel like that. However, after I read that verus amor spell, I somehow created a rift between my world and his that he can access.

That means, if I go back to Earth, he can always come after me. Because of the way both Damien and Lucian have my essence, Damien could take a trip to the human world—and, using my memories and the way I ‘imprinted’ on Jared, he could find him .

Only one problem, and it’s a biggie.

I knew there had to be a reason why my demons felt the need to take me right to their realm. I’m right. Turns out, Sombra demons aren’t allowed on Earth. There’s this guy called Haures, the demon duke of Sombra, and he has a bunch of rules.

The first one? No one from my mortal world is to ever know that demons exist. There have been slip-ups over the years—which would explain why my fellow humans talk about demons, and we have legends of our owns about them—with all offenders earning a pair of enchanted golden chains clasped around their wrists, and a stint in a demon jail—and that’s if the duke is feeling merciful.

Otherwise it’s death by shadows.

Seriously. Lucian warned me against leaving the cabin and making a break for it in the shadowy woods that surround the twins’ cabin because, if I did, I was risking the demonic creatures that haunt those woods coming after me.

And while I might look like lunch to some of them, others might see a female and take me—and, unlike Lucian and Damien, they won’t wait until I consent to have their way with me.

He didn’t have to tell me twice. Between the two demons providing me everything I wanted while waiting for me to agree to be their mate and some crazy demon who would rip me in half, I knew I was better off sticking around here. Damien might be closed-off and more than a little scowly, but I would never want him to be tossed to the woods like that.

Especially if he gets in trouble because he has the wrong idea that I’m still in love with Jared Turner.

I can only imagine what he saw in my memories to believe that. Just goes to show that the essence exchange isn’t exactly foolproof, that it’s up to the individual to interpret what they see and sense about me, because Damien is about to throw his whole future away in order to make sure his brother has one.

Lucian doesn’t come out and say it, but maybe I’m getting better at reading him because I… I know that’s what he’s thinking. And though he doesn’t regret what we just did, he’ll move past it because he needs to rescue his twin.

And I refuse to be left behind if I can help.

Like me, Jared is constantly traveling. That’s why, when the portal spits me out in an unfamiliar room with hotel standard art on the wall and the sterile scent of a rented space in the air, I don’t jump to the conclusion that we ended up in some random spot.

Especially when I hear a very familiar voice shouting nonsense and gibberish, fear coloring his voice all the way from another room.

Jared .