Suddenly, Jinx stopped walking, every muscle in his body going tense. Alarmed, I looked around, with my sight and with my magic but I couldn’t sense anything. Then Jinx moved, pulling me towards the hotel we were walking past. I let him tow me into the lobby but when he started to head for the elevators, I dug my heels in.
“No,” I said sternly.
He flashed me an exasperated look, unhooked his arm from mine and dashed towards the stairs.
“Stop!” I commanded.
He came to a halt as if he had run into an invisible wall. He whimpered, his whole body vibrating with his desire to move, but my command and the collar held him in place. I walked around to face him. His eyes found mine, wide, imploring, desperate and sad.
I sighed. “Fine, just walk slowly and don’t attack anyone.”
He nodded enthusiastically, and I released him. He bounded a few steps, glanced back at me and slowed to a walk. I chuckled and followed him. What the hell was he up to? What about this very average hotel had caught his attention? We went up three flights of stairs, enough for me to mourn inadvertently scaring him away from the elevators.
He walked quickly down the third-floor hallway. I trailed behind him carrying the bag of cakes. He turned to one of the doors, placing his hand over the lock. A tiny flare of magic and it opened with a beep. I hurried up to him, praying the room was empty, otherwise some people were going to get the fright of their lives.
He ran in and I dashed after him. The first thing that I noticed was that the room was not empty. There were two people in it. One was a large, well-built man. Great, I thought in despair. Then I noticed the second person was a jaw droppingly gorgeous young man. All long golden hair and vivid emerald eyes. He was an incubus.
Jinx ran up to him, grabbed his shoulders and started babbling excitedly. A long string of words that sounded similar to Enochian. I knew many arcane languages but not whatever Jinx was speaking. I dropped my bag in surprise. Jinx’s voice was beautiful. Melodic, smooth as honey with an enticing lilting accent. I could listen to it forever.
The new incubus was staring back at him in complete astonishment, his beautiful eyes huge and his face pale. Jinx stopped talking and was clearly waiting for a reply.
“Um…” said the incubus uncertainly. “I… I’ve been here since I was a child, I don’t remember how to speak the language. I’m sorry.”
Jinx’s shoulders dropped, he released the incubus and slumped over to the corner of the room. The very picture of crestfallen and disappointed.
The new incubus’s gaze fixed on mine. His green eyes questioning. Asking for answers I didn’t have.
“I’ve never heard him talk before. He can’t speak any human words,” I explained as I pushed aside my excitement at discovering that demons had a language no one else knew about. Everyone assumed Enochian was spoken in Hell. This revelation could make me famous.
“You are his master?” questioned the incubus calmly, but I sensed his power and the threat. He was not happy and an unhappy demon was a dangerous one.
All thoughts of my academic discovery were thoroughly squashed by my sudden burning desire for self-preservation.
I held my hands up in surrender. “Consensually!”
“Consensually?” The incubus’s brows furrowed in confusion.
“I didn’t summon him. He is my boyfriend. The Council arrested us and ordered me to either banish him or collar him. He chose the collar.”
The incubus stared at me for a long tense moment before nodding and letting his power subside.
I hid my sigh of relief. I had no idea what I would have done if he hadn’t thought my answer was satisfactory.
“Can I have some help over here?”
I looked over to see the human on his back on the bed, with Jinx straddling him and holding him down. I hurried over and pulled him off.
“Jinx!” I admonished.
He scowled at me and crossed his arms, going into a full on sulk.
“Are you hungry?” I asked. “How can you be hungry again? I fed you this morning!”
I felt a moment of panic as I realized I was blurting out the details of our sex life in front of strangers but then I remembered they were also an incubus and human pairing and if anyone would understand, it would be them.
Jinx started to shake his head but then changed to a nod before finally settling on a shrug. I tried to decipher his gestures. He hadn’t been hungry but now he was?
“You wanted to feed from him?” I tried to keep the hurt out of my voice.
