Page 18

Iris

“W ill you tell me?” I asked in a low voice, afraid if I spoke too loud, I might scare her.

She froze for a moment before relaxing. “About what?”

“Why Xira is so sad,” I said. “It feels like loss, and if I’m right, you’re feeling it too.”

“Yes. We may have lost someone very important to us,” she replied after a moment, her tone tight.

I would have to be careful about this topic.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered. “I can see how much it hurts.”

“She was…” Yien paused for a while, but I didn’t say anything. “My sister. Allura. I… can’t say much.”

My heart broke for Yien. A sister? No wonder they were both so sad. I wanted to help. To talk it out. But I could feel I was pushing too hard.

So… I deflected.

“Your hair is so pretty,” I cooed as I ran a comb down her wet strands.

Her shadows had come out to play as soon as we sat down on the bed. They snuck up my legs and held on to me as I started to brush her hair. She stayed still, not speaking, but her shadows told me all I needed to know.

While at first I couldn’t read them, now they told me how Yien was feeling—not in colors, but with their actions. And right then, they were holding me close.

Every time I moved the slightest bit out of reach, they would pull me back and wind further up my legs and arms, slipping into my robe and rubbing mindless patterns over my skin. They needed the comfort.

She needed the comfort, even if Yien didn't want to admit it. Her shadows told me every little thing she was thinking.

Xira fully believed they had lost Allura, but for the first time, I saw disbelief and frustration on Yien’s face. She didn’t want to believe it. It was almost an insult for Xira to even suggest what she had.

But Xira’s emotions and the blue that surrounded her told me that she firmly believed their sister was dead. There was even a burst of pity that flooded through her aura when she realized that Yien wasn't going to accept her words easily.

“No one's ever brushed my hair before,” Yien said, breaking the silence.

“Have you ever let anyone?” I asked and moved on to another section. I was about halfway through.

“No,” she answered.

“It's okay to rely on people sometimes,” I advised. “Especially me. You chose me as your companion. So I'm here whenever and wherever you want me.”

“I didn't ask for you to brush my hair,” she said bluntly.

If she had been a normal human, my feelings might have been hurt by those words. But this was Yien, and I could sense that she had some trouble putting what she actually felt into words. So, I let it slide.

“No, but I knew that you needed it.” I smiled lightly. She couldn't see it, but her shadows traveled further up my legs and arms, tickling my skin, telling me that she heard the smile in my voice.

“I’ve never needed anybody.” That was a lie . Or maybe she just couldn’t comprehend the concept of someone helping her. Of someone wanting to help her. Maybe she didn’t understand what it meant to be needed or to need someone.

But I could show her.

“Maybe you have, but you haven't been able to put it in words,” I said with a shrug. “Everyone needs someone, demon or human.”

“Do you need someone?” she asked, and I paused, letting her hair slip through my fingers.

Her question caused my heart to skip a beat in my chest. How many times had I laid in my bed, my mind screaming into the void, begging for someone to come save me? How many times had I sobbed, curled up into a corner because of what my parents were putting me through?

“I’ve needed someone for a very long time,” I admitted. I never thought it would be possible for anyone to come to my rescue. But it happened in the most twisted, fucked-up way, when I least expected it.

And I’m not sorry it happened this way.

“You weren’t happy. I could tell when I first saw you—you were afraid on that stage, but it was more than that. But something has changed since you've gotten here. You feel… less tense?” Her words were careful, like she was afraid of my answer.

“Yes,” I said carefully. “I think the other humans would be appalled if I told them that I would rather be here with you as a demon’s pet than back home.”

“I’ll always be there for my pet,” she vowed, twisting around to look at me. Her eyes scanned my face, searching for something.

“Is that all I am to you?” I asked. “A pet?”

A slow smile spread across her lips. It was enough to cause my heart to jump in my chest. Every time she showed even just a little bit of emotion, my own feelings went haywire.

“No,” she answered. “You're my companion, but you like it when I call you my pet.”

She wasn’t wrong. I liked it when she called me hers .

Her shadows slithered up my legs, teasing the junction between thigh and hip and brushing slightly over my underwear.

“Is that your way of saying you want a distraction?” I asked her.

“Distraction?” she purred. “How can my little pet distract me? It seems like I've been doing all the distracting.”

I bit my lip, unable to hide my smile. “We can make a little competition out of it. See who could distract the other more.”

Her eyes lit up at this.

“Do you want to touch me, my pet?”

“I want to taste you,” I said, lowering my voice. “I want you to ride my face while your shadows fuck me. I want to see who can last the longest. Who can keep up while the other becomes a quivering mess.”

She let out a light laugh, and the sound made me burn all over. It was so unrestrained, so… genuine. For the first time that day, there was lightness in her eyes.

“The only quivering mess will be you.” The certainty in her voice won her a glare from me.

“If you're so sure,” I sang.

“I am,” she said, her body puffing. “Your cunt sucked me in so greedily last time; you really think this time will be different? I'll have you begging for me to make you come while I'm riding your face.”

Fuck.

I couldn’t stop the shower of excitement that went through my body—not that I wanted to.

* * *

“My little pet's mouth is so sweet,” Yien said on a moan as she dragged her cunt across my tongue.

I gripped her thighs, my hands and arms shaking as I tried to hold myself together.

“You're not giving up already, are you?” she asked, a playfulness to her tone.

I made a noise and used my tongue to tease her entrance before running it up and around her clit.

“Just like that, my little pet,” she cooed. “Your master’s so close. Show me how good of a little human you can be.”

I had already lost the competition many times. Her shadows were forced deep into me, rubbing against my G-spot while another played with my clit. If there was one thing I learned quickly about Yien, it’s that she loved a good competition.

It was unfair. She had so many shadows at her disposal. Three pumping into me, stretching me. Another on my clit. Two more pulling apart my legs and forcing them to keep still so she could continue working me as orgasm after orgasm crashed through me.

But I would never back down from a competition either, and she hadn't even come once. She looked down at me with a smug grin. I glared back at her, digging my nails into her thighs to keep her still so I could suck hard on her clit.

Her mouth dropped open, and she let out a shaky groan.

“Are you going to make me come, my little pet?” she asked. “Are you going to lick up all my nectar after I spill all over your mouth?”

I made another noise, trying to tell her that I would like nothing more.

She let out a growl and leaned forward, placing her hands on the bed, grinding fully against my mouth while I flattened my tongue.

“Just like that,” she breathed, her pants filling the room, our moans entangling.

It was such a surreal experience. She was a completely different person.During our time alone together, she showed me more of herself than I ever got to see outside the bedroom.

I watched as her eyes hooded, her mouth widened, her face twisted in pleasure, and her body shuddered against me.

Bloodlust played at the edges of her face, and her shadows paused as her orgasm ran through her body. Her movements became wild, her hips bucking against me as she sought her continued pleasure.

Her wetness leaked onto my mouth, and just like I wanted to, I cleaned up every bit of it, moaning at her taste.

She was every bit the demon I first thought her to be. But seeing her as she came was like seeing her in a totally different light.

I was starting to understand just how wild she could get. How her claws could dig into the soft mattress. How she cried my name as her orgasm consumed her.

I had never felt more powerful in my life while still being controlled. But the type of control she had over me was comforting. I knew that no matter what, I could let myself go and she would take care of me, and so I did just that.

My orgasm followed shortly after hers. I cried into her folds as I desperately tried to lick up the wetness that had spilled from her cunt. A clawed hand came to grab my hair, forcing me still as she teasingly ran her cunt over my lips.

“Did you think we were done?” she asked, a light laugh falling from her parted lips. “I won fair and square. Do you know what my reward will be?”

My eyes shifted to hers just in time to catch her wicked grin.

“Get comfortable, pet. I'm going to show you what my shadows can really do.”