Page 35 of Prince of Wrath

There was a shuddering grunt from Ben. His hands twitched, then he rolled his head from one side to the other.

Seere withdrew from me and got to his feet. He tugged his pants up around his waist and pulled a blade from some unseen place. He walked around Ben’s body, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck, then held the sharp instrument to Ben’s throat.

Ben’s grotesque, bloodshot eyes flitted open.

Seere’s gaze locked with mine. “Are you done with him?”

Words flooded my brain, but what spoke the loudest was Seere’s promise: “. . . the moment you tire of watching him dangle on the hook, I would rip him apart . . .”

I swallowed. The painful pull of muscles there reminded me of what Ben would have done if I hadn’t fought like Hell.

I was always the one fighting for redemption. Always having to prove that I was worthy of success, worthy of the life I’d built with my two hands.

I might have wished for Ben to suffer, but I’d climbed out of my grief to the top of my field.

“You should have killed me, Sloane. You should have known that letting me live would come back to bite you in the ass.”

I let my chin fall. Just once.

Seere sliced through flesh, cartilage, and bone.

My prince of carnage.

My constant demon.

My Seere.

Chapter 14

Seere

I sent Sloane to shower while I cleaned Ben from her carpets. Aside from the blood on her cheeks and hips, she was relatively unscathed, but she didn’t need to see the process. It was better that I took Ben’s body to Hell and used magic to hide the rest of the evidence.

When I was done, I stripped my clothes off, sent them through the void, and entered her bathroom. Steam filled the room, fogging the mirror and glass shower walls, but I could still make out her silhouette.

She was already through washing herself when I stepped inside. The clean, fruity scent of her shampoo surrounded me as I moved into her. I looked at the finger-shaped bruises forming around her neck. The outline of where Ben had not only touched what was mine but had attempted to take her from me brought fire to my chest.

Pounding my fists into his face and slicing his throat had been too quick. I should have dragged it out. Chained him to a cold slab in my basement and tortured him for days. Sliced into his flesh, burned him with a red-hot iron, let his wounds fester until he begged for death. Only then would I have bled him dry while he watched me fuck Sloane in every hole that I owned.

It was too late for that. But the next human to cross her would bear that fate.

She moved out of the stream of water and pushed me into it. Her gaze followed the rust-colored river that ran from my body, over the floor, and finally down the drain. I poured soap into my hand and washed away the only remains of Ben on this plane. He’d be considered a missing person until a few of the demons we’d placed on the police force got word of the real story. His case would run cold within a week. I’d make sure of that.

I scrubbed the suds of shampoo out of my hair. Sloane was somber. If she was upset or regretful, it didn’t show. We could have broken the tension with words, but instead, I smoothed my hands over the soft skin of her forearms then picked up her wrists and pinned them over her head to the wall behind her.

Her lips pursed then parted. But her eyes passed from mine to my lips then back again. The soft blush of her cheeks sent blood pulsing to my cock. Every other thought died away to reveal a single motivation: my sole purpose was to be buried in this woman for as many hours a day as I could be. I would lay siege to the world just to ensure that she had no other duty but to fuck me. If I couldn’t be inside of her this instant, what use was there to breathe or exist?

I lowered my lips to hers and waited for permission. Waited to see if I’d finally earned the prize behind the years of her rejection. Would maiming and murdering in her name be proof enough that I was wholly her monster to command?

She drew in a long breath, closed her eyes, and dived into the metaphoric deep end. This was no brazen, feverish kiss, but a lascivious, sweltering one that drove into the far reaches of my putrid soul. A moan of relief passed from her throat to mine as our tongues languidly coiled together. I let her hands free so her fingers could weave into my hair and mine could cup her cheeks.

I rolled my hips, and my excitement coated her slick belly. One of her hands came to wrap around my shaft. The first pumps were slow and deliberate. Down to my base then up to the tip. Again and again.

She smiled against my lips when I groaned my impatience.

“Do you love me, Seere?” Her sultry voice pulled me farther under the spell she was casting.

Bending low to plant a kiss to the sensitive spot at her hip that always made her squirm, I pulled her body up the wall. Her legs wrapped around my waist, and I looked into her eyes so I knew she would not just hear my words, but see the truth in them.