Page 9

Iris

“S o, you’re not going to eat me?” I asked as I pushed myself up onto my knees. The bed tilted under my weight, bringing me closer to the breathtaking demon in front of me.

From the moment I saw her—Yien, she said her name was after I offered mine, even if she didn’t say anything else about her—I knew she was different.

Her aura was large—larger than any of the others’—and completely devoid of color, save for a few dark sparkles hidden throughout. Even those were spread out, some of the inky tendrils extending out, trailing close to me but never touching.

Her hair was as long and black as her aura. Her eyes all black except for the small white pupils. Her horns curled backwards with glittering gems embedded in them.

I want to trace them with my fingers. The irrational idea popped up in my head, and I realized that, even as I got closer, she didn’t move from her seat at the end of the bed. She was looking at me, her expression devoid of emotion, and even without being able to see her colors, her eyes told me everything.

She was curious. Just as curious as I was.

I had never been with a woman before. Even if I wanted to, Father always set me up with men. Selfish men who didn’t know what to do with their own equipment and who didn’t care about making it pleasurable for a woman.

But this demon… She ignited something in me I had never felt before. A want.

I wanted her.

More than I had any man.

“I don’t crave human flesh anymore,” she finally said, her answer straight to the point without any further explanation.

I had been caught off guard when I woke up in a cold castle-like structure with no memory of how I got there, but when I saw her sitting at the end of my bed waiting patiently for me… I wasn’t afraid.

She seemed different from the ones at the auction. Those monsters projected their bloodlust far and wide, potent enough that it made the air thick with it.

Even without the colors in her aura, I felt none of it from her.

And if she wanted to eat me, she would have already. So why am I here?

“Why me?” I asked. “Do you need my powers for something? The other demons seemed to want them for themselves.”

I could still hear their shouts in my head. The fear I felt when I saw the bright, colorful bursts of red—what I came to realize was bloodlust.

Then I remembered the caress of what I learned was her aura.

I had never met someone who could control their own aura like she had.

“I want a companion,” she said, her eyes trailing my face.

A companion. Maybe she is lonely?

Whatever it was, it didn’t sound like I was to be her sex slave.

“But why me? And what does a companion do?” I asked, moving my hands forward. I was so close to her now that just one wrong move and my face would be buried into her robes.

All the late nights in my bed, I would dream of moments just like this. Whisked away to a world where I would be wanted, and not just for my father’s money.

Wanted for me . Taken care of and allowed the freedom of any other human.

Being sold at an auction was a pretty twisted way to get it, but beggars couldn’t be choosers and all that.

“Are you not scared?” she asked, her aura coming to tease my fingertips. It was a ghost of a touch. Not as heavy as a hand, but the weight was there. “Your human friends were.”

“I am,” I admitted, my eyes searching her face for any bit of emotion I couldn’t glean. “But I’m more curious than anything.”

She tilted her face forward, long hair brushing across my cheek.

“Curious?” The tilt of her lips was enough to send my heart racing. My own reaction caused the haze in my mind to ease just the slightest bit.

What is happening to me?

I was just about to be handed off to another man for marriage when I was kidnapped and brought to a demon realm to be someone’s… toy ?

I had no business being flirty with someone who could eat the flesh off my bones.

But I am.

I gave her a short nod.

“About so many things. You’re some type of demon… right?” I asked. “Where am I? Can a human even survive here?”

She tilted her head slightly.

“Demon, yes. You’re at my home. I live here with a few other demons. I believe a human can survive here. You will be proof.”

Her last sentence had a burst of amusement running through me.

I’m to be her guinea pig. I kept waiting for that thought to scare me, but it didn’t.

“Where is here?” I asked, trying to dig a bit deeper.

“The Shadowlands.”

Given the color of her aura, the name definitely fits her.

“Okay…” I trailed off. “Tell me more about yourself.”

“I am the keeper of this realm,” she said. “The shadows surrounding us are my responsibility and the reason I am tied to this realm. I am them, and they are me.”

I nodded and let out a breath.

“Okay.”

“Okay?” she asked. “Are you not scared?”

I shook my head.

There was something so… freeing about being rid of my father’s pressure. Of not having to be married off to a random man who only wanted my family’s money.

“I can’t read you,” I admitted. “I’ve seen everyone’s aura for as long as I can remember. Everyone but yours .”

She stared at me for a long moment before I felt the heat of her aura racing up my arms. I held my breath as the tendrils teased the straps of my slip and brushed the tops of my breasts. Some teased my calves, slowly working their way up to my thighs.

“No one can read me,” she reasoned. “You are no exception.”

Or so she thinks. Her words ignited a challenge in me. Something I hadn’t felt since I was a child.

“I may not be able to read you, but I can see them ,” I said, and let my hand brush across the tendrils lying on the bed around us. “Though they give me no indication of what you’re feeling. They’re just… black.”

“You can feel them too. I see you react to them.”

“I do,” I confessed on a breath.

Her tendrils continued to travel, wrapping themselves around me and slipping under my dress. My body pricked with heat when they reached my inner thighs.

“Is this why you wanted a companion?” I asked, allowing her tendrils to pull a strap off my shoulder.

“You mean, do I want to touch you?” she asked. “Have you touch me? Taste the nectar from between your legs that causes demons to go mad?”

My face flamed, and there was a pulsing between my legs when I thought of her face between them.

Nectar was certainly a word for it. But the image of being spread out before her was feeding my desire for her. For something new. Something otherworldly.

“Do you?” I asked. “Is that why you purchased me?”

Like a switch, her tendrils pulled back.

“No,” she spat.

The sudden change caused me to pull back slightly.

“No?” I asked, confusion filling me. “Then why am I here?”

Had I misread the situation?

“As a companion,” she said and stood from the bed. “I’ll come pick you up in the morning.”

And without another word, she turned and left. The tendrils of her aura pulled away but lingered at the edges of my room.

I sat back on my heels and buried my head in my hands.

“What the actual fuck?”