Page 63 of In Between Death and the Devil

“Do you need to do this skin to skin?” I asked, my mouth dry.

“No.”

His answer gave me no relief. He was still going to have to touch me.

“You need to let me in.” He nodded at my head.

Right. The room in my mind I’d created for him when we bonded. I closed my eyes and checked to make sure it was sealed. “Okay,” I said, once I knew it was secure.

Keeping my eyes closed, I braced for an assault, but he slipped in smoothly, filling the space gradually. My lips parted. Far from feeling like an intrusion, it was like being warmed from the inside. His presence was solid and comforting, even with the tension running through him. Connected like this, his emotions were crystal clear—anger at the fact that I didn’t trust him, determination to prove to me that I could, and trepidation about what he was about to do.

“Now comes the hard part,” he said. “You need to let me in further. Create an opening for me so I can send my power to where the mark needs to be.”

My jaw tensed. Part of me wanted to argue with him, but there was no point. I’d agreed to this. It was what was needed to get me into the Library. So I did as he said. I imagined a small window for him to slip a tendril of power through.

He didn’t waste any time. His power slid through me like a vine from my head, down the side of my neck, over my collarbone, until it settled underneath the skin of my breast.

My breath hitched. It felt like warm molasses, igniting sparks everywhere it touched. Desire bloomed in my veins, though whether it was mine or his I couldn’t tell.

“I’m going to touch you now.” His voice had gone husky. Maybe the desire belonged to both of us.

The thought sent a frisson through me. “Okay.” My cheeks heated at the breathiness in my voice, but I was too enthralled to pretend I wasn’t affected.

His hand pressed gently against the fabric of my tunic. I felt the heat of him through my clothing like a brand. The power that had pooled there shifted, arranging itself into a shape I couldn’t decipher.

It felt like an intimate caress. Tingles spread over the whole of my breast and my nipple hardened. I bit my lip to hold in a moan. My sexual experience here was limited. Colt had never spent much time on my breasts, preferring a quick grope before he moved lower. Apparently, I was more sensitive there than I thought.

Not that this was sexual. It wasn’t, but my body disagreed. I had to bite back a plea for more when the Devil removed his hand.

“There. We’re all set.” He sounded unaffected, but when I opened my eyes his pupils were huge and there was a slight flush on his cheeks. “Let me check that the coast is clear.” He disappeared through the shadow portal.

I let out a quiet breath and willed my heart to stop pounding. The mark he’d given me was still warm and my skin tingled pleasantly, but his presence was far more intense than the way I felt it through our Death Chord. Even though he’d left the room, I felt him everywhere. More embarrassingly, an ache had started between my thighs. There was something wrong with me. I wasn’t sure that I could trust him yet. I had no business lusting after him.

It was a good thing the mark was temporary. I just had to get through viewing the Soul Record, and then he would remove it, and everything I was feeling would be a distant memory.

The Devil walked back through the portal, startling me. “It’s clear. You can come through now.”

“Great.” I cleared my throat. “Lead the way.”

His gaze lingered on me for a beat before he turned and walked back through the portal.

I allowed myself one moment before I followed. Like last time, I held my breath waiting to see if his mark would allow me in. The familiar sensation of walking through velvet-coated air passed over me, though this one was a little rougher than the first. It was more like the soft edges of the pages of a book. I wondered if that was because of where it led or if there was another reason.

When I was through, I stopped and listened. Nothing. No alarm or voices or anything proclaiming I wasn’t supposed to be there. It had worked.

He gave me a small smile and started walking again.

I followed him down a corridor lined with shelves. Floor to ceiling, they were filled with books, so many there was almost no empty space. The top of the books almost met the bottom of the shelf above them so that nearly every square inch was covered. Every so often, a curtained alcove occupied the space where a shelf should be. One we passed had the curtain drawn to the side, and I saw a desk and stool against one wall. A place for Judges or Tempters to examine Soul Records from the nearby shelves, I assumed. Balls of light hovered above us, giving everything a warm glow.

“Are these all Soul Records?” I asked in a low voice.

“Yes. One for every soul still living or waiting to be reborn. There are more down there.” He pointed to four hallways that branched off from the one we traversed. Then he glanced over his shoulder. “Let’s hope Colt’s is easy to locate.”

When I looked closer, I saw names on each spine. Every so often, one would flicker and change, a new name appearing in place of an old one. Souls being reborn into a new life, I realized. It happened far less than I expected, given the sheer number of books.

At the end of the corridor ahead was a large, bright room. The Devil kept me behind him as we approached it until he was sure there was no one there.

I stopped at the entrance to marvel at the scale of it. At least three stories tall, the shelves stretched all the way to the ceiling. In the middle of the floor were a set of tables with large, open books covering them. My mouth fell open as I craned my neck to take in the sight above me.