Page 42 of The Damned (Coven of Bones #3)

I snarled, turning toward him as I bared my teeth.

Teeth that shouldn’t have been as long as they were.

I stared down at the scales on my arms, confusion dawning through the jealous rage that consumed me.

It was there for a fleeting moment and then gone, just long enough to notice the faint blue tint to my skin.

Like I was already dead and rotting, like I’d been trapped beneath the surface of the water and drowned.

The siren form my mother had given so much for me to have.

“Aren’t you going to do something?” Proserpina said, her voice going shrill as tears filled her eyes.

“Looks like Margot has it handled to me,” Beelzebub said with a shrug, leaning his shoulder into the wall as he stared at me. “It’s about time someone put you in your place when you show your whole fucking ass.”

“Beelzebub, you’ve got to be fucking kidding me. Control your girl or I will,” the blond said, earning a snarl from me. It was obvious there was a certain level of comfort between the group and Beelzebub, and that only drove my anger higher.

The sound was echoed by Beelzebub’s smile dropping off his face, pushing off the wall with his shoulder as he closed the distance between us.

“Remember your place, and no one controls her,” he said, the words laced with malice.

Proserpina reached out for him, touching a hand to his arm like it might entice him to offer her aid, but his attention didn’t so much as flick toward her or away from the blond.

He twisted his arm, catching Proserpina and pulling her arm back at a bad angle while the man watched.

“You lay a hand on my woman, and it will be the last time you have hands to put on her,” he warned, the threat sending a ripple up my spine.

The man huffed, looking back and forth between Beelzebub and me as if trying to make sense of our bond.

I leaned into Proserpina’s space, nearly touching my forehead to hers in something akin to affection.

Trailing a single black nail over her cheek, I watched the blood well beneath the line I drew.

I leaned closer, dragging my tongue over the droplet of blood where it slid from the wound.

I pulled back more slowly than I wanted to, revulsion making my stomach churn as the sweetness of her blood danced over my tastebuds.

“You no longer have the right to touch him,” I growled, waiting for her responding nod.

She didn’t seem particularly inclined to Beelzebub anymore since he’d allowed me to put my hands on her anyway, but I followed it with a threat that could have probably remained unspoken.

“The next time you do, I won’t only take a sampling. ”

“I thought sirens only ate men?” the blond man asked as I pulled back, dropping Proserpina to the floor.

Beelzebub was at my side immediately, wrapping his arms around me and guiding me toward the mirror on the wall.

The gaunt face staring back at me was anything but beautiful with hollowed-out cheeks and bluish skin.

I looked like I belonged in the depths of the ocean, not trapped in the confines of Hell.

My eyes had bled to black, filling the whites and the irises, but was slowly receding as I stared at myself.

The iridescent scales that played at my temples fading back into smooth skin, my cheeks filling and life returning to my features.

“I don’t discriminate,” I said, turning to face the group that I had to assume comprised the Order of the Fly in Beelzebub’s absence.

“I think it’s best we got some rest,” Beelzebub said, guiding me back out of the dining room. He didn’t waste any time on those we left behind, instead guiding me to the stairs.

He led me into what I had to presume was his bedroom, closing the door behind him.

It horrified me to realize that there was none of the telltale fear that usually came when I was locked behind a closed door with a man, only a sigh of comfort at the thought of finally not having to deal with external threats.

Moving from the hardwood floor to the soft shag rug that covered the center of the room, I took in the space around me.

His ceiling was arched, a massive bay window offering him a view of the mud pits out the back.

With an ornate black headboard and dark walls, the room was devoid of almost any hint of color.

A seating area in front of the bay windows called to me, and I dropped into the first chair with a ragged sigh.

“You should lie down for a bit. Get some rest,” Beelzebub said, gesturing toward the bed.

I wrinkled my nose, shaking my head. “I don’t want to think about who’s been in that,” I snapped, fighting back the urge to vomit.

Beelzebub chuckled as he knelt at my feet, sinking back onto his haunches as he raised one booted foot and untied the laces.

“You didn’t seem to mind when it was Amelia’s bed, and I think we both know she has had far more partners than I have,” he said, finally tugging the boot off.

My sock followed, and he gripped my foot in both hands, massaging the tight arch of muscle on the underside with deft fingers that were definitely meant to distract me from the matter at hand.

“Unless it’s not so much about the potential of bodily fluids, and more that they were in there with me. ”

There was a teasing lilt to his voice, and I ground my teeth together to keep from cursing him out and showing my hand.

“I thought we were in Gluttony? Why am I being so affected by completely illogical envy here?” I asked finally, wincing at the confirmation of my feelings.

While I was certain there was a magical explanation for it, at least one I could lean into, I hated that there was no way to disguise what I’d been feeling after my antics downstairs.

Beelzebub pressed his thumb into the center of my foot, gliding it down to my heel in a move that drew a moan from me.

I covered my mouth immediately when he smirked, his gaze turning heated.

“If those are the sounds you make when I rub your feet, then I shudder to think what you’ll sound like when I make you come,” he said, making me tug back my foot.

The words served as the sharp reminder I needed, grounding me in the knowledge that this would never work.

“Beel—” I started.

“The reason you were so jealous about Proserpina touching me,” he said, changing the conversation as he stripped off my other boot, “is because you are a Red. Gluttony is about overindulgence of vices, drugs and alcohol, but also food, and you, my love, feed your magic through sex.”

I swallowed, fumbling for a response because that couldn’t be true in these circumstances. “If that’s the case, wouldn’t I be jealous of anyone being touched? Wouldn’t I want to eat them all?” I said with a scoff.

“We all have our favorite foods, Margot. If presented with a buffet of options, are you going to gravitate toward the carrot… or the chocolate?” he asked, rubbing his hands over my foot for a moment more before he stood fluidly, catching my chin between his thumb and forefinger.

I stared up at him in shock, my face aching with the effort of restraining my smile. “Did you just compare yourself to a piece of chocolate?”

He shrugged with a smirk. “It’s your favorite food, isn’t it?

” I stared up at him, the grin fading from my face at the knowledge.

It wasn’t like it was a well-kept secret, but it did mean he’d been paying even closer attention than I’d thought before we fell through the gate to Hell.

He leaned down, touching his mouth to the corner of mine in a quick brush before he pulled back just far enough for me to see his broad, playful smile.

“I’m going to go hop in the shower. Let me know if you get hungry. ”

He stepped around me, and I turned to watch him go as he shucked his pants off before he turned the corner into the bathroom, baring the full length of his body to my view.

His wings blocked his midsection, but there was absolutely nothing standing in my way of a view of his ass as he stepped out of his pants with grace.

I turned back to face the bed before he could turn the corner and give me a full show.

Nope.

No.

I sat on my hands, refusing to admit that I was even the mildest bit curious.

Nope.