Page 66 of Bond of Passion

“Gotcha.” Lore tapped the bag he’d brought. “Well, that’s why Eidolon sent me with the meds. He figured you’d rather deal with me than some doctor or medic.” He started unpacking the bag. “Plus, he assumed you’d want a Sem here. We get this shit.”

Eidolon thought of everything. The doctor’s attention to detail was as impressive as it was annoying at times.

Lore’s gaze narrowed on Tavin’s neck. “Dude. Your personal symbol. Wow.”

“What?” Tavin slapped his hand over the serpent. For the first time, it didn’t bite him. Hell, it didn’t even stir. He beelined for the guest bathroom and got nose to nose in the mirror. And…holy hell.

He stared, unable to comprehend what he was seeing.

Above the new ring encircling his neck that looked like a thin, Celtic-ish braid was his personal symbol. It had once been a worm and a skull, an embarrassment, but far better than what it had become a handful of years ago during a rescue mission in Hell. To this day, the angel who had accidentally cursed the symbol hadn’t been able to fix it. But now, the serpent that had been coiled around the cranium was swallowing its own tail in an endless ring around the skull.

And the snake wasn’t biting him. It wasn’t even moving. It just…sat there. Eating its tail.

Lore appeared in the mirror’s reflection behind Tavin. “You know what that symbolizes, right? The cycle of birth and death and rebirth.”

Yeah. Yeah, Lore got that. A Seminus demon’s personal symbol, bestowed upon them during their first transition into sexual maturity, sometimes changed. Not the kind of transformation Tavin’s had gone through five years ago—that was a one-off and a result of divine interference. Generally, if a Sem’s symbol was going to turn into something else, it happened when they mated—when they became a part of something different.

Lore punched him lightly in the shoulder. “Why did your bond with Deja turn it into this?”

“No idea.” He stroked the serpent’s head, almost taunting it to bite. At least then, he’d know for sure that all this was real. “Maybe because she brought me from the brink of death to life?”

Lore’s dark brows pulled down in a skeptical frown. “So, by not dying, you were reborn? It was a rebirth of some sort?”

“Fuck if I know.” The coffee maker beeped, and he shoved past Lore to get to the caffeine. Maybe there was an IV kit in the bag Lore brought. He could send the coffee straight into his veins. “Thanks for the meds and crap, but if that’s all you’re here for, I have shit to do.”

That was a lie. He just had too much going on in his head and needed a hot minute to sort it out.

“It’s not all I’m here for.”

Figured. Tavin took three coffee mugs from the cupboard. Did Deja like coffee? Probably. Everyone in medicine lived on the stuff.

“Does this have anything to do with why you look like you’re going to start a war?”

“Not start. Finish.” Lore’s voice was bleak, his expression bleaker. “You need to watch your back. This morning, Sin got jumped by an Orphmage she took out like, sixty years ago. And, apparently, there are demon-run companies out there whose entire businesses revolve around helping the Resurrected get revenge on those who caused their deaths.”

“You don’t say,” Tavin muttered.

“I just want you to be careful.”

Tavin splashed coffee into the mugs, not giving a shit that he spilled some on the counter. “The assholes who found me and arranged the Dar’grut are dead. Remember we talked about Mako? I killed the bastard again.” And, hilariously, since there was no place for Mako’s soul to go given Sheoul-gra’s destruction, he would wander, invisible to most beings and unable to fulfill any of his desires and hungers. That was a unique kind of torture. “I’m sure I’ll be fine.”

“Still, you should set up some defenses. If they were able to find you, others can too.”

Okay, yeah, that was solid advice. Tavin needed to get his shit together, and he definitely needed more than Harrowgate wards. He’d have to set up real defenses around his house, as well as build an escape route. A tunnel, maybe. He knew a lot of people who could help with that. The wards he used on the Harrowgate were about the extent of his magical abilities, but he could probably get one of his moms to help him out with a spell that would make his house invisible to all demons except those he approved.

Tavin slid a mug to Lore. “I’ll get on that.” At Lore’s skeptical expression, Tavin rolled his eyes. “I promise. I just have to wrap my brain around a few things.”

“Like your new Neebless mate?”

“Like that.”

Lore lifted his mug to his mouth. “She is hot.”

Tavin felt his body warm at the memory of exactly how hot she was in bed. She’d seemed to instinctively know exactly what he liked. How much pressure. Where he was the most sensitive.

“It’ll be fun to get to know her.” He frowned down at his coffee. “In a way, it feels like I already do.”

“Maybe you killed her once.” Lore’s voice dripped with amusement, but that shit wasn’t funny. It hit way too close to home.