It was an inkling, but I suspected they were still there. Ihopedthey were still there.
BecauseIdidn’t have the power to kill Abaddon.
Buttheydid.
The archdemon’s breath grew short and heavy with lust. He was fully erect now, his cock straining against his trousers, barely keeping him in. My beast was tense, but she had no ability to shift and fight him.
This was all on me to get us out of this.
“This is the first time you’ve given it to me,” he grunted in my ear, fingers digging hard enough into my flesh to leave bruises.
“W–what?”
“Your submission.”
My blood ran cold, and I bit my lip to hold back a rattling growl from my beast. He would never have my submission. But survival meant pretending like he did. When I didn’t protest, he glided his hand down my side to slip over my thigh and under the slit in my dress.
My heart slammed against my ribcage when his fingers slipped between my legs to stroke the place he once claimed was his. Lucifer had ripped my panties off back at the fountain. They probably still sat on the floor in a heap. Abaddon gave me a sickening grin, and I practically shriveled in on myself, my beast my only strength in this moment.
“Lure him to The Fates. Don’t let him touch us here.”
“Not here!” I pushed out.
Abaddon paused, then to my relief, his hand dropped from my sex. His eyes narrowed. “Where then?”
“The Eighth Circle,” I ground out with a swallow. “My old home. I’d like to see my old home before it’s over.”
He chewed his lip in thought. Then shook his head. “No.”
My heart dropped. “W–why not?”
I resisted the urge to recoil when he suddenly ripped the fabric of my dress to expose my thigh. I waited for his assault but found him pointing to a mark on my inner thigh. A mark that hadn’t been there before.
My lungs seized when I saw a familiar crest seared into my flesh like an old scar that had been there for years.
Lucifer’s sigil.
“W–what…?”
“Lucifer’s mark,” Abaddon muttered, the dark timbre of his tone making the hairs on the back of my neck dance.
“It wasn’t there before.” I couldn’t take my eyes off it. Then again, it had been there, long ago. Now that I saw it on my flesh once more, I remembered. The mark of my true mate. I didn’t know if physical marks were a thing with other shifters, but the devil marked his woman. The dark depravity of it was deeply erotic and comforting, even if it was a little primitive.
“Wasn’t there before he claimed your cunt, your heart, and your soul.”
Tearing my gaze away, I lifted my attention to Abaddon and gave him a nonchalant shrug. “So what? You’re not telling me you’re gonna let another male’s mark keep you from having your fun?”
His lip curled with a sneer. “You stupid woman. He reclaimed you, meaning he can track you now. We leave this elevator, and he will hunt you down and take you before I can kill you myself. But that’s what you want, isn’t it?”
That wasn’t exactly my plan. But Abaddon wasn’t too far off. I definitely had no intention of sleeping with this fucker. “All I want is to stay alive as long as I can.” At least that part wasn’t a lie. “Take me to the caves beneath Devil’s Head. It’s a complicated network of tunnels in the mountain. There are countless nooks and crannies to get lost in. It will be easy to lose my trail there. By the time he finds us, you would have already gotten your rocks off by strangling me and started your plot to try to take back the throne of Hell or whatever lame-ass plan you’ve slapped together.”
A vein in the demon’s jaw ticked. I kept going before he could decide against my plan.
“You pretend like you get off on rape, but you got pretty damn excited by my submission.”
I pressed closer to him. I deserved a fucking Emmy Award for the sultry smile I managed to give him.
“Imagine how good I could make it for you by having me as a willing participant. Show me my home one last time, and I’ll bereallygrateful.”
