“Feed from me, Asmia. Take what you need to build your strength.”
She stepped closer, his body tensing on instinct, preparing to fight her off should she turn feral.
But she didn’t.
Her hands slowly lowered. She began tugging his shirt from his slacks while he watched, waited. When she’d freed the tails, she lifted the designer silk, her palms resting flat on his stomach then inching higher.
Asmia’s eyes closed on a gasp. Perfidious’s muscles locked up tight as he held himself still. He could feel it. Through her touch, she was siphoning his energy, taking it into herself, using it to fill her reserves.
“Fuck,” he rumbled.
The sensation was mind-numbing, all-consuming. Though he could sense his energy waning, he was still powerful. Perhaps more so than ever before. If she could draw off him like this, he couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like during sex.
Asmia moaned softly as though she’d read his mind.
Before he did something stupid like lose his focus, Perfidious gripped her wrists and jerked her hands from him. He’d never had a Fae feed from him, and he had no idea what the side effects might be. For all he knew, she could be trying to kill him, draining the life right out of him.
When her eyes opened, Asmia’s irises glittered black, her cheeks once again rosy, the gray tinge gone as her strength returned.
“Who am I, Asmia?”
“My king, my mate.” The soft smile that tilted her lips sent a bolt of lust ripping through him. “The male I will serve forevermore.”
Oh, how he loved mind control.
Taayin lay in the darkened cell, hisarms too heavy to lift, legs too weak to move.
That had been the case since they brought him back here, forced him into this godforsaken hellhole.
But the good news was, his mind continued to float, drifting in and out of consciousness. He was never awake long enough for the pain to break through, which was both a blessing and a curse. His mind was clear enough—at times—to know what they were doing to him, to realize they were keeping him sedated so that the cold, painful longing didn’t make him do something stupid, like venture out into the sunlight.
Oh, he’d considered it. More times than not, in fact. With Asmia gone, Taayin had absolutely nothing to live for. She was hisamsouelot, he knew that now. Which made him a stupid asshole for turning his back on her when she’d needed him most. But he’d been hurt by her betrayal. The fact that Perfidious had slipped into her mind, manipulated her into wanting him… Taayin recoiled at the thought, though his body didn’t move with his brain’s direction.
The sane part of him knew it wasn’t her fault, but the irrational part of him, the portion that housed his heart, had blamed her somehow. And look where that had gotten him.
Now that his female was gone, he had nothing left. Nothing mattered anymore. She was out there somewhere, he could sense it. That connection they had … sometimes it was powerful enough to break through the drug fog, though not often. She was alive; that was all he was entirely sure of. Alive and with Perfidious.
The thought of her with that evil demon made his chest ache. Not even knowing she was still alive was enough to take the edge off the pain. She wouldn’t choose to live like that. The female was so full of life, of joy. To live out eternity with that demon…
“I need to get out of here,” he muttered, knowing Obsidian was there with him, leaning against the wall. The male visited him nightly, returning again and again to watch over him.
“You know I can’t do that,” Obsidian replied. “We can’t lose you, too.”
“It’s too late for that.” He was useless without Asmia. They both knew it. The least they could do was give him a chance to find her.
“We will find her,” Obsidian declared.
Had he said that out loud? Maybe his brain was more fried than he thought.
“We’ll find her and bring her home to you, Taayin.”
Promises, promises. Taayin no longer believed anything. He was completely defeated, ruined. Here he lay, void of feeling, mourning the love of his life and knowing there was no reason to forge ahead, because what was left? Though Perfidious wasn’t invincible, he was a demon. One with power at his disposal. It would be the work of a moment to turn Asmia against them, to have her offering her love and loyalty only to him. She wouldn’t be able to stop it, nor would anyone else.
The notion had bile inching up his throat, but he swallowed it down, the thought of retching worse than the idea of dying on the cold, hard floor of the cell he now called home.
“I need you, Taayin,” Obsidian growled. “Penelope needs you. Thisfamilyneeds you.”
Obsidian’s pain hit Taayin square in the chest. Up to this point, Taayin had never wavered in his loyalty, and he’d never questioned how much Obsidian cared for him. It was true, they were family. But that wasn’t enough to ease the ache of Asmia’s absence.
