Chapter Twenty-Four

The fact that I had no way to get down to Senki hit me once I was fully dolled up and ready to go. It was all right for Cora. She could totally do the teleportation thing that Conah did. She’d done it ever since I’d known her. It was a standard ghost ability to wink out in one location and materialize in another. Or a tulpa thing, as the case may be. But me … I was stuck.

“You could call Nox,” Cora suggested.

“Call him to transport me to town? Hardly a productive use of his time.”

She wrinkled her nose. “Well, you know what you have to do then.”

“I’m not asking Conah.”

“Yeah, being up close and personal to him would be too distracting.” Cora gnawed on her bottom lip.

“Not Azazel either,” Cyril piped up from his coil in the center of my neatly made-up bed.

Cora snickered.

“Shut it.” It was impossible to keep anything from these two. Cyril the spy and Cora, who could read me like a large print book with pretty pictures. “I’ll ask Mal.”

Ha, they didn’t know about the kiss in the lounge the other day so—

“After that kisssss in the lounge?” Cyril said.

“What kiss?” Cora smiled slyly. “You dirty little ho.”

My cheeks heated. “It was a moment thing. It didn’t mean anything.”

“And all the panting,” Cyril said. “Picture me rolling my eyes.”

I covered my burning face with my hands and took a deep breath. “Things have been complicated. I mean, the guys are all attractive, and I’m horny.”

Cora’s expression grew serious. “Or maybe you’re growing fond of them? Maybe you like them.”

I didn’t want to talk about this because liking one guy would be okay, but liking three … That was just asking for heartache.

“Cor, can you ask Mal if he’ll fly me and Cyril to Senki?”

“On second thoughtsss,” Cyril said. “I think I’ll give it a misss. Sssnakes weren’t meant to fly.”

“Oh, come on.” I walked over to the bed and ran my hand over his scales. “You can wrap yourself around me real tight. It’ll be fine.”

He raised his head and looked me in the eye for a long beat. “Bring me back a rat.” He tucked his head into his coils and fell silent.

There was a knock on the door, and Iza entered. At least I thought it was Iza because she was almost unrecognizable in an ankle-length navy dress. Like Cora, Iza could do the teleport thing, but any shopping from the market was usually delivered by drake and carriage.

“Head to the pinnacle,” Cora said. “I’ll send Mal up to you.”

I stood on the pinnacle, wrapped in my calf-length coat, hair tucked into my hood. But unlike the last time, I was sweltering. The coat felt like too much, and my skin ached to taste the chill air. I pulled down the hood and tipped my face up to the sky, sighing as the crisp evening air trailed icy fingers across my cheek. The world was a vivid shade of purple and red; sunset in the Underealm was truly magnificent.

Awareness pricked the periphery of my senses.

I was being watched.

Mal stood by the glass doors that led onto the pinnacle, hands loose at his sides, gaze fixed on me. There was an unfathomable expression in his eyes that he buried quickly under his signature smile. The smile that said he didn’t take me seriously, that he was all about the laughs and the sarcasm.

“Hey.” I offered him a tentative smile. “Thanks for agreeing to do this.”

“Not like I had a choice.” He sauntered toward me. “Your tulpa materialized in my room just as I was about to shoot a load into the demon riding my cock.”

Oh, the images that came to mind … “I’m sorry. Shit.”

“It’s okay. I finished. Your tulpa said she’ll meet you at the tavern.”

“Cora. Her name is Cora.”

“Whatever.”

Was he deliberately being a dick? “No. Not whatever. I don’t want you calling her a tulpa. Would you like it if I went around calling you the demon?”

He shrugged. “Look, do you want a lift or not?”

The last thing I wanted to do was have him touch me now. But Cora was waiting for me. I’d promised her a night out and some girl time.

“Please.” I bit the word out through clenched teeth.

He moved closer and plucked at a tendril of my hair before twirling it around his index finger.

“Please, take me, Mal,” he said in a breathy voice. “Say it. Say it just like that.”

He was so close that our body heat kissed, and the chill air was suddenly too warm.

What the fuck was this hot-and-cold shit. “No.”

“No?” He tugged on the tendril of my hair. “You don’t want me to take you to the tavern?”

“I do. But I’m not saying … that.”

“Cora’s waiting for you, Fee, and I could be naked in my bed, having my cock sucked dry right now. Instead, I’m out here in the cold with you.”

Do not think about his cock. “You don’t get cold.”

He unzipped my jacket, and I sucked in a breath as blessed cool air rushed in to replace the heat.

“And neither do you, it seems.” His eyes were dark now, or maybe that was the sun going down.

I held my breath as he slid his arm around my waist, and bit back a moan as his fingers slipped under the hem of my shirt to skim across my naked skin, and then his palm branded my abdomen just under my left breast. If he slid his hand up an inch, he’d touch the underside of my boob. I was wearing a strapless bra, but still, he’d be touching my boob.

“Come on, Fee.” His lips brushed mine so lightly it could have been a dream. “Just say it.”

I could say it. End this moment, but I didn’t want it to end. I wanted him to hold me. Touch me. I wanted this thrill.

“I’m freezing my balls off,” he said against my mouth.

I wasn’t sure what made me do it. I mean, I didn’t think, I just reached between us and cupped his balls through his joggers.

His eyes widened, and he sucked in a sharp breath.

I squeezed gently, and his forehead dropped to mine, and his groan traveled down to pulse between my thighs.

I lifted my chin, breaking forehead contact, and brushed his ear with my lips. “They feel pretty hot to me.”

A ragged chuckle broke from his lips. “Touché, Fee. Touché.”

Which meant we were done. Which meant I needed to stop touching him, but it took everything I had to drop my hand. The backs of my fingers grazed his hard cock as I pulled away.

“Fuck, Fee.”

“So, Mal, will you take me?” My voice was breathless, my tone thick with desire, but I didn’t care.

Mal looked down at me, and his jaw tightened. “You’re fucking dangerous, Fee, you know that?”

And then I was hauled tight against his body, and we were hurtling toward the stars.

Senki was a town divided. One half modern and up-to-date in all the Shoel tech and the other preferring to stick to the old ways. The tavern was located at a crossroads, and it was one of the only places where the residents of each half mingled.

I’d visited the quaint market with Kiara but hadn’t ventured into the industrial side of town yet. The tavern building was a mishmash of both schools of thought and both ways of life. On the one hand, the roof was slate, and modern windows spilled light onto the gravel drive, and on the other, a well stood in the driveway and pens housing cows and chickens could be spotted off around the right side of the structure. It was a low, long building reminding me of a barn conversion.

“You want me to come in with you?” Mal asked.

It was the first thing he’d said to me since we’d taken off from the pinnacle, and he sounded weary.

I glanced sharply at him. “Are you all right?”

He looked momentarily torn and then sighed. “Your ass still weighs just as much as it did when you got here, you know. If not more, because of the muscle mass.”

Urgh. He was incorrigible. “I can manage. You can go.”

He shrugged. “If you need a lift home …” He backed up. “Don’t call me.”

And then he was gone, shooting up into the night sky like a lone star eager to rejoin his brethren … and where had that poetic thought come from?

I shook it off and headed inside in search of Cora.

Warm air hit me. Probably from the huge fireplace to my right. I registered music next—some lilting melody that I didn’t recognize. It provoked a sense of nostalgia in my chest.

Where was Cora? I scanned the demonic faces—some looked human and others not so much. The outfits were different too. On one side of the room, the demons were dressed in modern clothes, denim-type material, and shirts, but there were a couple of groups dressed in tunics and tights or baggy trousers that cinched at the ankle where they were shoved into boots. The women wore corset dresses. I caught some curious gazes, but on the whole, everyone was too busy having fun to linger on me for too long.

I spotted Iza first. She was sitting on a podium where four imps were playing music. She saw me and waved. Her face was bright with happiness as she nudged the lute player. He looked up with beady black eyes and then grinned, showcasing pointy white teeth.

Ah, young love.

“Fee!” Cora waved at me from the bar. She was holding a pint glass. She grabbed another, then made her way over. “What took you so long? I got you a pint. It’s their version of ale. It’s super tasty, though, really fruity.”

She was taking her ability to drink and eat pretty seriously.

“Guess what?” she asked, but then continued before I could do any actual guessing. “We could have just booked a drake and carriage to get here.”

“The market delivery method?”

“Yeah, I was talking to Bartok, the owner, and he said the Dominus have the number for the service.”

So Mal could have called me a carriage? But instead, he’d forgone fellatio, left his bedmate, and delivered me here personally. Butterflies did a little jig inside my belly. He’d chosen me over a blow job.