Corson

Beside me, Wren threw her arm up to shield her eyes from the sun. She blinked rapidly against the influx of light. Turning, I gazed into the tunnel until my eyes adjusted to the day. Unlike the trap we’d fallen into, this tunnel entrance didn’t drop into the earth but had a gradual ascent until it became a twenty-foot hole that was even with the ground.

When my eyes stopped burning, I faced forward again. I stared at the small trees before us while I tried to get my bearings, but I had no idea how far we’d traveled from the others or where we were now.

Wren pulled her knife from its holster and crept into the forest. I stayed close to her side, listening and searching for any hint of an enemy as she circled some of the trees in an ever-widening pattern. She hadn’t spoken to me since telling me that what happened between us was a mistake. She may believe that, but I still wouldn’t allow anything to happen to her, and I was determined to prove to her it hadn’t been a mistake.

Her eyes searched the barren canopy of tree branches overhead before looking to the trunks. She ran her fingers over a couple of them, her brow furrowing as she studied the woods. In the short time we’d been in the Wilds with them, I’d come to realize that the Wilders had their own way of marking and learning the land.

She walked over to a boulder and circled behind it. I couldn’t tear my gaze away from the concentration etched onto her face or the grace with which her lithe body moved. It felt like it had been weeks since I’d last seen her, instead of however much time had passed below ground. This woman had no idea how pretty she was.

“Do you recognize this area?” I asked.

“Not sure.”

She glanced at me before hastily looking away again. Pink color tinged her cheeks as she strode over to a boulder that stood a good two feet over her head. She circled behind it, but when she didn’t reemerge, I stalked around to find her kneeling on the other side. Her left hand rested against the stone, she looked from it to the trees and back again. She adjusted her hold on her knife to trace something on the rock with her fingers.

Stepping closer, I stared at the jagged lines on the surface of the stone. The lines looked as if they’d been etched there by weather and time, but they fascinated Wren. Her fingers stilled on the second line, it was more jagged than the others and had a lightning bolt appearance to it. Wren glanced around the trees again before focusing on the boulder once more.

Her fingers traced the third line then moved five feet over to dip into a thumb-sized hole there. Her mouth pursed as if she’d tasted something bad. Then, her hand fell away and she rose.

“I know where we are,” she murmured, and her haunted eyes finally met mine. “We emerged about ten miles from where we left the others.”

“How do you know that, from those lines?” I asked with a wave of my hand at the stone.

“The Wilders have a way of marking things. Before you ask, no, I’m not going to reveal it to you.”

“I see,” I replied.

My eyes fell to her mouth when her tongue licked her lips. She caught the direction of my gaze and stepped away from me. “I know where we are,” she said again, “but we have to be careful. The last time anyone was in this area, there was a threat here.”

I glanced at the wavy lines and small hole on the stone. What kind of strange secret language do these Wilders have?

If Wren had her way, she would take that knowledge to her grave.

Unreasonable anger surged through me at the possibility of Wren’s demise. The tips of my talons prodded against my flesh. They sought to break free to destroy any threat to her, but I kept them restrained. The only risk to her now was her mortality, and I couldn’t fight that. Her death was inevitable.

My teeth grated together as I inhaled a steadying breath before speaking again. “What kind of a threat?”

“Not the ouro or jinn. This threat was before either of those creatures came to Earth. Most likely it was demons.”

I stared at the markings as if I could somehow figure out her words from those three lines and the indent.

“Probably lower-level,” I said as I lifted my head to survey the woods again.

The wind lashing through the trees caused branches to click together and created a howl that rivaled the hell hounds when they were on the hunt. The air smelled of rotting leaves, but I didn’t scent other demons on it.

“What makes you say that?” she whispered.

“Lucifer kept a leash on the upper-level demons following him. Few of them came to Earth until Lucifer himself did. It was the same for many of the lower-level demons, but they’re not always the brightest, and they’re more intent on murder and mayhem than the upper-level demons such as me.

“Some of the lower-level demons who broke free when the gateway first opened probably chose to remain on Earth rather than return to Hell. I’m sure some upper levels also opted to stay instead of returning to be ruled by Lucifer. However, they probably would have preferred to reside wherever Kobal wasn’t.”

“And Kobal wasn’t in Hell,” she said.

“Not often. We stayed mostly on Earth to protect the humans after the gateway opened.”

“What is the difference between an upper and lower-level demon?”

“Upper-level demons are born of two other demons. Lower-level demons are created by those souls who are so malignant they are never allowed to leave Hell to be reborn on Earth again. Lower-level demons feed off the remains of the wraiths when the higher-level demons finish with them. Or at least they used to get our leftovers. On Earth, they’ll be able to feed off whatever wraith they find instead of having to wait for us to finish with them. Lower-level demons are strong, but they have no other abilities beyond their strength. They have animalistic features, and I don’t mean just horns and a tail.”

Her eyes went to something beyond me as she replied. “I’ve seen the difference between upper and lower. Those twisted monstrosities came into my house.”

I fisted my hands to keep from reaching out to comfort her. She would only turn me away or shut me out again if I tried.

“Yes, they did,” I agreed. “There are more lower-level demons than upper because of how we reproduce, and all of the lowers were on Lucifer’s side.”

“And now they’re scattered like the rest of the things from Hell,” she said.

“Or they’ve regrouped under new leadership. Most likely under one of the other fallen angels.”

“Whether the threat was upper or lower demons in this area, we’d still better get out of here.”

Her eyes briefly met mine before darting away again. I resisted grabbing her shoulders and making her look at me. I stepped closer to draw her eyes. Instead, she turned away to inspect the trees.

“In the beginning, the demons would attack a place and move on after destroying everyone they came in contact with,” she said. “After a while, they started settling into areas that we learned to avoid. We could be near one of those areas now, but I don’t know. I haven’t been in this section of the Wilds in years, and whoever left these markings didn’t leave a date. They were probably in a rush.”

“With the entrance to the ouro’s den so close, I doubt many demons are around here anymore,” I told her. “The ouro didn’t care who or what it ate, or which side its prey fought on. It only cared that its prey screamed while it died.”

“Delightful.”

She pushed back the loose strands of hair that had come free of her braid. Her nose wrinkled when dry ouro blood flaked off her hair and she glanced down at her blood-splattered clothes.

“If there is anything nearby, it will smell us,” she murmured.

“There’s no preventing that unless you plan to walk around naked.”

She frowned as if she were considering it. Then, she glanced around the trees again. “It’s too cold for that, and we’ll be slower if we’re freezing. Plus frostbite and hypothermia could become an issue, for me at least.” She worried her bottom lip between her teeth as she contemplated this. “No, we’re better off staying dressed.”

I now had another reason to hate the colder weather in this area of the world. I’d expected her to flat out refuse my suggestion; I knew how unreasonably attached some humans were to their clothes. Apparently not Wren, but I should have expected her response. She hadn’t survived out here by clinging to misguided modesty.

“Do you run around naked often?” I’d meant the question to come out as teasing, but instead, it had been a near growl. The idea of others seeing her exposed in such a way irritated me far more than I’d expected.

She glanced at me from under her thick fringe of blonde eyelashes. “Only when necessary. Do you?” she retorted.

“In Hell, some demons wore clothing, but I preferred not to be encumbered by it. Most of us started wearing clothes on Earth so we could fit in better with the humans. Our nudity was odder to many of them than our looks.”

“I can see that,” she murmured.

“Can you?”

“Yes. Even if it makes no sense, many people stick to what they know. Most still expect others not to run around naked in front of them. Sometimes, it can’t be helped.”

“No, it can’t,” I agreed.

She wiped her hands down the front of her shirt to brush away more of the blood. When she was done, she bent and scooped up handfuls of dirt. It must have rained while we were in the ouro’s nest as a thin wet sheen glistened on the leaves covering the ground. The dirt she pulled from the earth oozed from between her fingers as she smeared it over her shirt.

Before the yellow blood of the ouro had streaked her, the shirt she wore had been a pale brown; now it was swiftly becoming the deeper color of mud. She rubbed more of it across her cheeks and over her forehead until it covered her face.

“Normally, I wouldn’t care if you walked around with a giant sign over your head, alerting every carnivore within a hundred-mile radius that you’d make a tasty treat. However, I’m going to be walking with you, so…” Her words trailed off as she scooped up more mud. She gestured toward my hands, and when I held them out, she plopped the mud into my palms. “Dirty up.”

I smiled at her as the mud squished between my fingers.

“What are you smiling about?” she demanded.

“You think I’d be tasty,” I replied with a wink.

The scowl she gave me only made me smile more. “I hope something eats you,” she stated.

“We both know you don’t mean that.”

She didn’t respond, only slid her arms into her shirt and spun it around so she could coat more dirt onto the back of it. Through the brown caking her face, I saw the blush creeping over her cheeks.

I had to resist running my hands over her cheeks to brush away the dirt so I could expose more of her enticing blush. Instead, I focused on rubbing mud over me as she smeared some over her ass and down the backs of her thighs. I didn’t think she knew how close she was to playing with fire as she worked, but my gaze fastened ravenously on her hands while they traveled over her body.

After a minute or two passed, she looked up at me and froze. Then, she wiped off her hands on the boulder, pulled her knife free and turned dismissively away from me. I didn’t have a chance to finish with the dirt before she disappeared into the trees.

“What’s the rush?” I asked when I caught up with her.

“The less time I spend with you, the better,” she retorted.

“You weren’t complaining about my company in the tunnels. In fact, I think you rather enjoyed it when you were riding me.”

A muscle in her jaw twitched, but she still refused to look at me. “It’s been a while for me, and one dick is as good as another in the dark,” she replied flippantly.

My talons unleashed as unexpected rage burst through my chest. Wren’s head shot toward me when I growled. Her eyes widened on my hands before sliding up to my face.

“Is that so?” I inquired of her, unable to keep the fury from my voice.

She edged away from me and shifted her hold on her knife. The last thing I wanted was to scare her, but I couldn’t regain control of myself as my blood pumped hotly through my veins. I knew Wren was brazen, knew the only thing she feared was her desire for me, but her words had pushed a button in me that I’d never known existed. I didn’t care how many other partners the women I’d fucked had. Didn’t care if they left my bed and climbed into another’s an hour later.

But Wren was different. I hadn’t even fantasized about another woman since meeting her, yet she’d just lumped me in with all her other men—men I’d gladly kill before letting them take her again.

She was mine.

Something niggled at the back of my mind, something important, but I didn’t stop to think about what my possessiveness meant as I prowled toward her. It didn’t matter what it meant; it only mattered that it was true. She stopped backing away from me, planted her feet, and lifted her chin as she gazed at me.

“I will stab you if you don’t back off,” she vowed.

“No, you won’t. You’ll try, I have no doubt, but you will not succeed.”

“You underestimate me, demon. You have no—”

Her words cut off when I moved to stand before her in the space of one second to the next. Gasping, she swung her knife up, but I caught her wrist and pinned it to her side before she could sink the blade into my heart. Turning to the side, she stomped on my foot and drove her elbow into my ribs. I bit back a grunt and grabbed her other arm when she tried to slam her palm into my nose.

The second I seized her hand, she swung her head back and smashed it off my face. Blood burst from my nose as it broke with an audible crack. She was gearing up to headbutt me again when I retracted my talons and spun her around. Wrapping her within my embrace, I pinned her arms to her sides and lifted her off the ground.

“Enough, Wren!” I commanded when she thrashed in my arms. “I’m not going to hurt you. I would never hurt you.”

She threw her head back in response. I managed to dodge the blow that would have taken out some of my teeth, but before I could completely recover, she swung her foot back. The flexible maneuver had me questioning if she was part ciguapa demon with their backward feet, when her heel connected with my balls.

My breath exploded from me as fire lanced from my groin to the rest of my body. Gritting my teeth, I turned her to face me. She yanked one of her arms free and swung her hand at me. Throwing my arm up, I knocked the knife from her grasp and pulled her down to the ground. Straddling her waist, I pinned her hands above her head while she squirmed beneath me. Despite her human status, she was a hellion who was determined to castrate me.

She bared her teeth at me and planted her feet on the ground to thrust her hips up. The abrupt movement knocked me forward a little, but I quickly righted myself.

“Enough! I am not your enemy, Wren!”

She went still beneath me, her chest rose and fell with her rapid inhalations as she gave me a look that made my heart sink.

“Are you going to rape me now like I’ve seen so many others of your kind do, demon?” she spat.

Those words made me feel like she’d broken my nose and kicked me in the balls all over again, and I finally realized that I’d been going at Wren completely wrong. She didn’t flirt, didn’t appreciate being admired by a man—never mind a demon—and she wanted nothing to do with being teased.

I’d assumed she would warm to my ways, but I knew now that if I continued to push at her, I would only succeed in pushing her away.

She wasn’t like the demons of Hell who saw sex as a recreational pastime. She wasn’t like the humans at the wall who had seen a lot in their lifetimes, but most not as much as Wren. Most of those people hadn’t seen the worst of what demons and humans could throw at them; Wren had.

The people at the wall had bedded demons out of curiosity; most had come back because they enjoyed it. I’d watched some of the Wilders come to the tents of my friends too. Those Wilders had seen some of the worst of what Hell could throw at them, but they’d still been curious. Wren’s curiosity was outweighed by the fear she would be hurt, and that I would be the one to do it.

I didn’t want her to be like any of the others I’d been with, not my Wren, but I didn’t know how to convince her that she could trust me. Though she would never admit it, the vicious sides of humans and demons frightened her. This woman who had tried to kill Kobal, followed us back to the wall, and remorselessly broken my nose was far more vulnerable than I’d ever realized.

She couldn’t deny the attraction between us. Actually, she could and often did deny it, but deep down she knew the truth, even if she would never admit it. However, she didn’t need someone flirting with her; she needed someone to hold her and assure her that the atrocious things she’d witnessed over her lifetime wouldn’t happen to her. Wren’s biggest nightmare was my kind and all the things they could do. Her abrasive, self-assured demeanor had hidden her insecurity from me, until now.

Releasing her, I leapt up and landed three feet away from her. She lay on the ground, blinking at the sky before rolling to her side and rising. Her eyes were wary when they met mine, but she braced her legs apart in preparation of fighting again.

“You will never have to fear me, Wren,” I promised her. “I will never harm you. I desire you, I will not deny it, but I’ll never push you into something you’re not ready for.”

“Since the day we met, all you’ve done is push me!” she retorted.

“And for that, I am sorry.”

She gawked at me before clamping her lips together and giving me a sideways glance as she edged toward her knife. “What is your game now, demon?”

My teeth ground together as she called me demon in that disgusted way she had of spitting the word out. “No game,” I assured her. “Reclaim your knife, Wren. I will not take it from you again.”

She hesitated before striding over to pick up her blade. She never took her eyes off me as she slid the knife into its holster. “Lead the way,” I told her and wiped the dried blood away from my upper lip. My nose had already set back into place, but it still throbbed.

She glanced at the flakes of blood on my hand. “I don’t want you behind me.”

“It was a good blow,” I told her, “but my nose is healing, and I don’t hold grudges.”

She rested her hand on her knife. “So you say.”

I couldn’t help but smile at her. “So I say. I will walk beside you if you prefer.”

“In front of me.”

I didn’t say a word as I walked past her and into the woods. I didn’t look back, but I heard the crunch of footsteps as she fell in behind me. My senses remained focused on her, the increased beat of her heart and scent. I offered no threat to her right now, yet her trepidation didn’t ease. Eventually, she would learn to trust me.