Valentino’s warm hand lands on my shoulder before sliding down to my lower back. “Do you want to sit?”
I nod, overly aware of the prickling heat between us. His touch is like a branding iron, and all of hell, I wish it was, leaving me marked and claimed and—What the fuck?
“Something wrong?” Tino asks with an arched eyebrow.
“No. Why?”
“Your scent spiked.” He clears his throat, but I don’t miss the dragon stealing a peek at me before Tino blinks it back.
“There’s just a lot of energy in the room. It affects me.”
“Right.” He leads me to the couch and sits on the opposite end from Draydon and Arson.
The urge to sit on his lap and wrap myself around him, to lap up the intensity of emotion pouring off him is strong, but I force myself to sit alone, daintily crossing my ankles and placingmy hands in my lap to hide my swelling cock. This house is an incubus’s dream of delicious energy.
Dahlia, the dark beauty whose aura is purple today, remains standing next to Lord. Her pleasant expression slips as she gazes around the room.
“Where’s Mac?”
“In his room still,” Lord says. “I wasn’t sure he needed to hear this.”
“Oh, he needs to hear it, Lord.”
Lord frowns with a curt nod. “Very well.” Pulling his phone from his trouser pocket, he shoots off a text.
Seconds later, the youngest Drake appears, shuffling like a teenager in trouble. I guess that’s exactly what he is, at least in dragon years.
He leans against the fireplace. “How bad is it?”
“Bad,” Dahlia says. “Thanks to Dempsey’s research and my underground contacts, we’ve discovered why Maggard has his panties in a bunch.”
I fight back a ripple of laughter, knowing it’s not the right time, but damn, the witch is funny.
“Here’s what we know,” Dahlia says. “Demps?”
Dempsey sits up a little straighter, pulling a small notebook from his pocket. “Centuries ago, actually, millennia ago, there lived a demon hunter called Pasrood the Savage. He made it his mission to hunt demons and hoard their artifacts and treasures for himself.”
“I’ve heard stories about him.”
Everyone turns to me.
“We all know the lore. Maggard was the only demon who was strong enough to defeat him. It’s why he has such high standing in our realm.”
“But do you know how he was able to defeat Pasrood?” Dahlia asks.
“Er… well, no actually. The story is he hunted the hunter and pierced his heart. It’s been said he fears no one and nothing as a result.”
Dahlia nods, but there’s a knowing smirk on her lips that intrigues me. “Maggard isn’t any more powerful than any other demon is, but he had a trick up his sleeve. He’s crafty, and he made a deal with a witch that if she could help him seduce the demon hunter, she could have her very own demon.”
My brow creases. “He… That’s against the demon code. He enslaved one of his own to a witch?”
“He did,” Dahlia says. “Don’t worry though. He betrayed the witch soon enough and killed her, releasing the demon.”
“Gods,” Arson murmurs. “That’s hardcore shit.”
“He’s not to be trusted,” I say. “Everyone knows that.”
“Do you want to know what happened when he seduced Pasrood?” the witch asks.
