I smiled in a noncommittal fashion, which had her eyeing me with even greater suspicion.
“Why in your home only tonight?” Eleni asked, the Inquisitor in her rearing its head.
“When I drained you from the poison, I injected you with some of my venom,” I explained. “It influences your thought process and makes you more willing to submit.”
“And?” she asked.
“And I don’t want you to be under any external influence when you yield to me,” I deadpanned.
She burst out laughing and stared at me with an incredulous expression.
“Someone is overly confident. You assume I will yield to you,” she countered.
With a will of their own, my feet carried me the short distance between us. I invaded her personal space. Although she didn’t attempt to back away, she rested her palms at the edge of the table and leaned against it while facing me.
“I do not assume, little Inquisitor. Iknowyou will,” I replied in a low voice, which could be interpreted as either menacing or seductive.
She didn’t respond but held my gaze unwaveringly as I slowly leaned forward, giving her every opportunity to push me away. But Eleni remained still, her face slightly tilting up towards mine as I claimed her mouth.
A bolt of lust exploded in the pit of my stomach even as blood rushed to my groin. My cock felt instantly hard and throbbing. I wanted to lift her up, slam her on top of the table, and fuck her senseless. To hell with preliminaries.
But I forced myself to break the kiss immediately, despite my burning urge to deepen it first.
“I’m going to enjoy wrecking you,” I whispered in a tone full of promise, my mouth a hair’s breadth from hers.
On instinct, I allowed my fangs to descend and nipped her bottom lip with the sharp tip of one of my canines. I licked the drop of blood that beaded at the puncture wound, and my cock became even harder with an insane wave of desire. That single drop of blood had revealed just how badly she also wanted me to do all kinds of unspeakable things to her.
A malicious and smug grin settled on my lips as I straightened.
“And you will enjoy it as much as I will,” I added in a rumbling voice.
I caressed her lips with the back of two fingers then walked away without looking back.
Chapter 6
Lyall
Iemerged from the portal back into the Mortal Realm just as the sun was beginning to set on the horizon. Although knowing this endeavor to be pointless, I made a swift detour by the graveyard to pick up the Autumn Peony flowers my mother requested. By rights, I shouldn’t set foot back into that wretched place so close to nightfall. But like with the Haunted Woods of Wolfmoon Mountains, I didn’t fear whatever creatures lurked here.
They fearedme.
My mystifying abilities—which people often confused for mind control—made me essentially all-powerful against pretty much any enemy. Only certain other demigods could block my illusion abilities. And obviously, the Gods and Ancients like my mother would chew me up and spit me out without breaking a sweat. The only thing that actually presented a potential threat to me was the growing steam and clockwork powered technology the humans had been developing over the past decade.
You couldn’t control something that wasn’t sentient.
Sure enough, as soon as I landed near the crematorium, all kinds of ghouls and abominations started creeping out of their lairs, looking for some foolish prey to terrorize or feed off of. Despite their nearly mindless states, they wisely opted to steer clear of me. Not only was I not in the mood to play with inferior beings, I also didn’t stand to gain anything from their deaths. Anyway, I didn’t feed on decaying or cursed flesh.
That task accomplished, I took flight in my Gharlakan form, the flowers safely tucked into my right hand. Normally, it would have taken me a little less than thirty minutes to fly to my mother’s domain. However, I made a large detour around the nearby forests and swamps in search of the glowing plants I had seen multiple times in the Onis’ memories as I ate their hearts.
It still annoyed me to no end that they had so little knowledge about what Elliot was up to. Moreover, I no longer believed him to be the mastermind behind whatever was truly happening here. Eleni was not a random thirteenth bride. Both demons had clearly been instructed to specifically secure her above any other. They didn’t know why, nor did they question whoever gave them that order. They were merely agents from an underworld organization that could be hired by powerful arcanists for specific missions.
Trying to get to the root of it all would be nearly impossible. Even had they still been alive, their order was so successful because they kept their agents on an extremely strict information diet to make sure their clients would never be exposed should things go haywire like they did in this instance.
My only hope was to locate that area near a swamp with unusual flowers. From their memories, it contained a portal to the location they were to take all of Elliot’s brides, including Eleni.
An indescribable emotion attempted to rear its head at the mere thought of the Inquisitor. I clamped down on it, refusing toexplore what she stirred in me until I had a better sense of the situation. My mother owed me quite a few answers.
Frustrated after more than an hour of flying around without finding the slightest hint of the glowing flowers from the vision, I turned towards my mother’s house and flapped my wings as hard as I could, zipping through the sky at outstanding speeds.
