Veyn.
I twist the name over in my mind and imagine how it would sound on my tongue.
“What are you?”
I feel the whisper of satin, and someone drapes me with the sheets.
“Demon.”
His blatant honesty amuses me, but I remain still.
“What do you want?”
At the back of my mind, I want to tell them to take their conversation somewhere else — I’m trying to sleep — but part of me is curious.
“What do you want?”
The challenge hangs in the air.
Marcus answers with a curt, “Her.”
“Then we seem to want the same thing.”
I don’t need to see Marcus’s face to feel his brewing irritation.
“I won’t let you hurt her. She’s been through enough.”
Veyn snorts.“What do you think you can do to stop me if I choose to devour her as I was meant to?”
“Why haven’t you?” Marcus counters.
“I have made a promise. I will fulfill her wishes. Once I have, her soul will belong to me.”
I do consider the fact that I should be terrified by the confession, but it’s nothing he hasn’t said before. I went into our agreement understanding that — ultimately — he would kill me.
“That’s not going to happen. And before you ask, I will find a way to stop you. You will not have her.”
I think I hear Veyn exhale in a sigh.“That is a matter you will have to take up with her. I have made my terms very clear.”
“You’re a parasite who feeds off the suffering of those in pain. You don’t care what happens to her.”
“I don’t,”he agrees.“She is no more than an offering.”
The honesty stings just enough to remind me he isn’t human and getting attached would only end badly … for me. I appreciate the honesty even while I don’t.
“Why do you feel different?” Marcus’s abrupt change of topic surprises even me. “Even your smell is off.”
I focus on Veyn, on his familiar scent of rust and ozone, and the feel of his presence brushing along my back.
He seems the same to me.
But Veyn makes a low sound of contemplation.“You’re thinking of my siblings.”
My eyelids nearly spring open at the confession.
There were more of him?
“Siblings?” Marcus says. “There are more of you?”
