Chapter 18 - Fates, Fins, and Fangs

DESPITE ALL THE TEASING and innuendos, in the end, we really did just curl up in Chike's bed and go to sleep. Even Rhys, who told me he usually didn't need much sleep, ended up passing out, exhausted from the fight and his wounds.

I slept for a while, as dead to the world as my lovers. But for some reason, I woke up in the wee hours of the night and couldn't go back to sleep. My mind was restless, still trying to take in and accept the fact that the world I knew was changed. That the beautiful men curled at my sides weren't human. My closest friends had hidden this from me for years, and that was something we needed to talk about. But that wasn't what had me wide awake before the sun even thought of rising.

Something tugged at my chest, a sort of anxious, nervous unease that made me want to get up and pace around the room. I felt like I was missing something important. And nothing would make sense until I found whatever it was.

I carefully climbed over Rhys and got out of bed, smiling when Chike rolled into my spot, wrapping his arms and legs around the vampire in his sleep. They were so cute. And so obviously into each other but trying not to freak me out. I'd let them stew for a while longer before I told them I didn't mind. In fact, the thought of them together was hot. But they needed to suffer a little for not telling me this whole other world existed.

I gave in to the restlessness inside me and pulled on a pair of fluffy slippers I'd stolen from Gesa, along with my draw-string sweats and worn t-shirt. Being as quiet as I could, since apparently all the people around me had super senses, I eased out of the bedroom and headed downstairs.

I made my way across the house to the kitchen. I was surprised to find a low light already on in there, and I crept toward the soft sounds of someone pouring something into a cup. The restless feeling in my chest intensified, and it was hard to breathe. I stepped into the kitchen, and froze.

I don't know who I'd expected to be up at the butt crack of dawn making hot cocoa. But I definitely didn't expect it to be White. He was wearing a t-shirt with a fox emblazoned on the front, but it was clearly borrowed from one of Gesa's crew. It was about two sizes too small, stretched tight across the clearly defined muscles of his broad chest. He still wore his suit pants, but he was barefoot, and his black hair fell across his brow in a tangled disarray that was way hotter than it should be.

I huffed a laugh at the sight of the dark, menacing millionaire wearing a too-tight t-shirt and making his own cocoa, barefoot in someone else’s kitchen.

He turned to me and arched one dark brow. His handsome face looked...tired. But he smiled faintly when he saw me. "Good evening, Miss Vindler. Or should I say good morning?"

I slid onto one of the tall stools at the bar and braced my elbows on the countertop. "I don't think it's evening or morning. I'm pretty sure we're trapped in some sort of Twilight Zone right now."

He shrugged and went to rummage around in Gesa's cupboards. "I won't say you're wrong. It has been a rather...trying day."

I shook my head at that. Trying. That was one way of putting it. "If you're looking for marshmallows, they're over there." I pointed to the cupboard behind him.

He grinned like a kid when he found a bag of mini marshmallows. Bringing them and the cup over, he set them in front of me like an offering. I arched my eyebrows at him in surprise. "But this is yours."

He shrugged. "I needed something to do. I thought Orion might like it, but he's still sleeping. So please, help yourself. I can make more."

I really wanted to ask him what he'd gotten up to with the weird, kinky thing Orion had become. But this odd little moment was awkward enough already. I scooted the cup closer to me and loaded it full of marshmallows. "I'm surprised you know how to operate a stove," I said, trying not to smirk when he glared my way.

"Why wouldn't I know how to operate a stove?" he demanded, as if I'd just insulted his intelligence.

I finally did grin then. "Because you're a rich mafia Don who has people to wait on him hand and foot. Don't forget, I've seen where you live."

He rolled his dark eyes. "Why does everyone insist I must be a mob boss or a crime lord?"

I wrapped my hands around my cup of cocoa and soaked in the warmth, since it was still too hot to drink. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe because you're all big, dark, and scary? And the fancy suits and the way everything seems to belong to you around here?"

He huffed. "I cannot help what I am. To make changes and protect the ones you care for requires a certain amount of power. In this world, that power comes from money and favors. Influence." He shrugged. "And the suits are my armor. It's important to encase oneself in confidence."

I stared at him. "In this world? Meaning you aren't from this world?" I tapped a fingernail on the edge of my cup, my mind whirling. "No one else will tell me what you are," I said slowly. "They talk about each other. Chike told me what powers Gesa and her family have. He told me about the guy that owns the bakery down the street and how he's a selkie. But they refuse to say what you are."

He leaned back against the counter and the soft, light expression he'd worn moments before faded away. "It's for protection," he said calmly. "My kind are few, and it is best if we stay under the radar. The others believe outing us will activate a curse." He shrugged and gave me an evil grin. "It's not true, of course, but I encourage the story. It keeps people from poking around."

I sighed. "Your people. So, you're an incubus, like Orion?"

He let out a short bark of laughter, as if I'd just said something ridiculously funny. "No, Troya. I'm not an incubus. But we're from the same realm. We're...refugees, I suppose you could call it."

I rubbed at my chest. That strange, burning, restless feeling hadn't let up this entire time. In fact, it was getting more and more urgent.

"Did that weird guy at the hospital have something to do with what happened tonight? And why did he think I knew you?"

White closed his eyes in a long blink. Then he came closer, standing across the bar from me, his black eyes delving into mine. "I have my own questions for you," he said, dark gaze intent.

"I understand you can see things now that you couldn't before," he said softly. "You can see through glamour? See the others around you?"

I nodded. "It was just once in a while at first. I thought I was going crazy." I let out a nervous laugh. "But after tonight...it seems to be permanent."

I ran my eyes over him, seeing nothing but a tall, broad-shouldered guy, devilishly good-looking, with his black hair and eyes, but otherwise normal. "Why can't I see what you are?"

He gave me a weird smile, kind of half-smug, half-sad. "Because demons don't use glamor the way earth-plane supes do. We don't hide our magic, we sort of...turn it off altogether."

I blinked at him. Demons. Well, duh, Troya, incubus were demons. But...demons?

I must have made a really weird face, because he came around the bar, his own face full of concern. "Don't be afraid. I would never harm you." His dark brows creased. "I know you won't understand yet, but you're mine, Troya. You've always been mine. We—"

He reached for me, his big hand slipping across the exposed skin of my forearm, landing on my elbow. My world shattered at the touch of his skin against mine.

Voices whispered in my mind. Images flashed before my eyes. Emotion flooded my entire being, making my chest clench as pain wracked me.

I jerked backward, knocking the mug of cocoa off the countertop to smash onto the floor in a mess of crockery shards and sticky liquid, my stool clattering after it as I stood and tried to back away. But I hardly even noticed any of that. All I could see was the image of the blood-stained prince that had haunted my dreams, superimposed over the man who stood before me. I knew him. I knew what he was.

He was the man I'd loved. The man who'd murdered my sister in cold blood. The blood-stained demon prince was love. He was pain and betrayal.

His black eyes were full of pain, but I backed away, a scream tearing loose from my throat. He was a demon. He was my demon. He was pain, and loss, and lies.

He was reason I lost everything.