I sighed. “I can handle myself.” Then muttered under my breath, “You’re the one that brought me.” He gave me the stink-eye before stopping in front of the door.
“I feel a lot of imps and something else,” he whispered, touching the door. “Can you tell me what kind of demon it is?”
I looked back at the door and closed my eyes. Without words, I let my magic stretch out into the mansion and now my eyes were inside instead of out here with us. Not literally, but I could see everything as I traveled through the rooms figuratively. “I don’t see anything,” I told him. “Not even imps.”
“Ohh, they’re in there. I can sense them,” he answered.
I groaned. “Then why aren’t we just going in and taking them out?” I saw another door and opened it. When I did, something roared, and I opened my eyes and gasped. “Okay, there’s definitely something huge in there and he sensed me, so I hope you weren’t planning on doing a sneak attack.”
He looked at me like I was crazy. “Does it look like I need to sneak?” Sebastian opened the door and all hell brokeloose. Imps stepped out of the walls and ceilings. Others flew and crawled over surfaces.
“Ohh.” I smiled up at Sebastian. “That’s where they were.”
“Stay back,” he said, stepping in front of me. A tiny bit of heat crept up my stomach at a time like this. Maybe I had a thing for heroic guys because Sebastian was making me feel things I hadn’t since… Ever.
Twitchy fingers. Twitchy fingers.
The darkness liked him too. It was hard to take my eyes off him when the darkness was begging for me to touch him. Touch and take. Touch. Take.
A huge ass sword materialized in his hand. He began slicing through the first row of imps at his feet. Then the next row. Again and again. Seeing him had my own adrenaline rushing, and I used it to blast a few back that were getting close to our right. Only I noticed Sebastian sway, then stagger in the corner of my vision as I took out more imps. Turning slowly, I saw him grab his head and turn his attention away from the imps so that he could look at me. “Izzie… you’re gonna have to touch—”
With a defeated grimace, he face-planted onto the stone floor. His curse couldn’t have happened so quickly, could it? Right in the middle of this mess? I bent down and picked up his sword, but it was too heavy for me to even swing. I blasted some imps with my magic instead. “My hero,” I muttered as I dropped down to my knees beside Sebastian and pushed him on his back. “More like sleeping beauty,” I whispered as I slowly began to peel off my gloves. One of the imps that were flying latched onto my hair and began to tug at it. I blasted it then scrambled back to his side. “Please work. I kind of like you, Mr. Handsy. I don’t want to hurt you.”
I touched my palm to his cheek. Heat sparked low in my belly, reaching an epic peak. I washot—the orgasmic feel to ourtouch had me fighting for air and he woke immediately. He moved faster than I had time to register, his hand seeking out one of mine while his second slid across the back of my neck and pulled me in. His nose and cheek met the side of my neck and he practically nuzzled me. I gasped as he blew his breath across my skin. Something was yanking on my hair again and I was aware imps were jumping all over us and flying around, but I couldn’t separate us. Sebastian had to be the one because I was in a state of bliss. He finally pulled away. He yanked the imp from my hair and crushed its neck in his palm. Even that was oddly sexy.
I reached out for him again, the darkness purring in my ear for me to do so. I felt sated and drained all at once over simply touching him. He lifted me until I was standing. I swayed this time, and he caught me. “See?” was all he said before his heated smirk hardened. “Later,” he promised, and the darkness worshipped inside me. I didn’t know what was happening and why the darkness didn’t affect him, but I shook my head and tried to come back to reality. It took a few seconds but just in time to blast some imps with my magic.
“I don’t think there are any children here,” I told him as he sliced into imp after imp until we were left with green guts and blood on us and everything else in the spooky mansion.
“One of the Reapers likely found the kids,” he replied, wiping his blade against his pants. “Looks like the address Payne gave me was just one of her hideouts.”
The mansion shook, and Sebastian reached over and steadied me.Thump, thump, thump.Something was moving. He was touching my skin again, and the heat licked over me in a rush. I pulled away from him quick enough this time and ran toward my gloves lying on the floor, slipping them on when we heard the roar. The mansion quaked even more with the sound it made. Was this what I peeked at earlier outside the mansion?
It’s okay. Remember. The darkness killed everything.
Strangely, that didn’t help.
“I think the big guy you saw is coming to welcome us into his home.” Sebastian was radiating with energy and when he turned around and smirked, my stomach heated without him touching me.
That wasn’t good.
And neither was whatever was coming.
“Can you sense what it is?” I asked him, scooting up behind him.
He nodded with a know-it-all grimace. “Oh, yeah. It’s Cerberus.”
“How is that possible? I thought he guarded the entrance to Hell,” I said in shock. My time spent with Julius taught me one thing. To fear where evil went when evil died… I left before he turned me into a monster like him, but only because I was able to wake from the trance he had over me. Memories told me I did things that were immoral before that happened. I feared where my soul would go once I passed.
“He guards the only entrance for most demons, but not us.” Sebastian eyed the far end of the mansion and waited. “My family is probably one of the few who can reach Hell without going through that entrance other than angels, but even then, most would never be able to find it no matter how hard they tried.”
“Then… this is the gate?”
“No.” He shook his head with a tight scowl. “This isn’t the real Cerberus. He’s him, but he’s not… I can’t explain it. It’s almost like he’s a copycat of some sort.”
I swallowed the bile in my throat and blinked and blinked once more, then shook my head but the memories resurfaced.
The creature whimpered… So tiny and helpless. Julius crept up behind me and slid his hand up my abdomen as he bit into my neck. I hated when he touched me, the darkness made it so that I couldn’t function or think when he did. He always made me feel good. It was when he wasn’t touching me that I realized how twisted my relationship with him was.
