Chapter 7

"How, exactly, are you going to do that, incubus?" Dante asked with a threatening lethality to his tone. He didn't raise his voice. He simply spoke quietly, making us strain to hear him.

That meant he was furious.

"By reassembling my bond with her," Asher said, and that earned a growl from Dante. "It never went away, not even when she died, because she's a goddess. It protected me during the memory wipe shock wave because she's still in there, somewhere. She can't actually die in the literal sense. At least, her soul can't. She can only change." He tilted his head. "She can only sleep. And I intend to wake her up." He dug his fingers into my hip as if to keep me from running.

Not that I had anywhere to run. It had been my bright idea to seal the door.

The sounds from outside had quieted, making me wonder if Dante had somehow communicated that he had a handle on this.

Just because I couldn't telepathically speak to my bonded Virtues didn't mean they didn't have that ability.

"Before you try to kill him," I said quietly, resting my hand on Dante's back, "can you tell me why I don't hear anyone yelling?"

Dante grunted. "First of all, if I wanted to kill him, he'd already be dead. And second, the reason he's not dead is because I actually believe some of what he's saying, which must make me a moron or a fool, but I do. I told Hendrik I'm handling this, for now." He tapped his temple. "And I assure you, there's yelling. Your Dark Mage is in here making threats if I fuck this up. He's a creative psycho, so I'm not going to repeat it."

My eyes widened, because that meant Dante and Hendrik had bonded on an emotional level for them to be able to talk like that.

What the fuck had happened in Hell's Heart between those two?

That would be a question for later because Asher's eyes held me captive, making something stir inside of me that wanted out.

"I think he's right, Dante," I said, not sure how I felt about that. "I… I know him, somehow."

Every inch of my body seemed to know his touch. The longer Asher branded me with his fingertips, the more I seemed to remember him.

Asher pressed against Dante's chest as if he could use him as a safety barrier to touch me without harming me. Dante held still like an iron wall, not moving when Asher held on to the Hunter's arm and pressed his forehead against his shoulder. He took a steadying breath. "You should both know that my incubus has been making up for lost time. I can't stop feeding from Lily or anyone she's connected to. Only now… it's dangerous to feed from her. I need a deterrent."

"Happy to oblige, asshole," Dante growled. Although, I didn't think Asher meant what Dante did as far as deterrents went.

But if he'd been feeding already…

My eyes widened again as the last week started to make a lot more sense. "That was you?" I asked. "But what about Hell and the Netherworld draining me dry?" I knew that had been the case because I'd felt it. Every time I'd generated magic through Logan's or Kaito's help, it had gotten sucked away.

"I intercepted some of that," Asher admitted into Dante's neck, sending my heart stuttering. He ran his tongue over Dante's pulse, making the Hunter stiffen as he realized what Asher was asking of him. "I was trying not to take too much, but fuck. You all taste like dessert."

If Dante wasn't going to kill the incubus before, I imagined he might now. I kept my hand pressed against my Hunter's back, feeling frozen like prey caught in a trap. Asher massaged my hip, then guided my hand to Dante's front. He quickly undid the zipper for me, then led the way. "I need to feed on someone's lust, and it can't be hers," he explained. "Not until I can control it better."

Not until he isn't so hungry, he means.

I couldn't even stop him when he wrapped my fingers around my Hunter's pulsing length. I'd missed him so much. But I didn't want to make Dante do anything he didn't want to do. Asher was clearly testing his boundaries.

Then again, if Dante doesn't like this… why is he so hard?

"Put the crystal down on the bed," Asher instructed me, continuing to guide my hand to stroke my mate. "The Hunter is going to hurt me soon, and it'll get what it needs. But not before I'm finished satisfying my incubus."

"I'm debating which bone to break first," Dante said, the rumble in his words quietly terrifying. "I suppose it doesn't matter, because I'm going to break every fucking one."

Despite his threats, he'd stopped bleeding. The tiny droplets seemed to disappear as the crystal hummed in contentment, taking what pain had been offered. It seemed patient now, as if it knew more was to come.

Asher licked his pulse again, smiling when Dante turned from him and snarled. I knew how difficult it was for him to resist me when my succubus wanted to play. Whatever Asher was directing at him so I didn't feel it, the effects had to be powerful.

Asher was half-incubus and he said he'd starved for years. I didn't even want to know how long it had been.

Long enough to make even Dante fold.

Because he cursed, then turned back and grabbed Asher by the neck before slamming his mouth over his, shocking me as I froze.

Asher didn't miss a beat. He dropped his hand and guided me again, making me give the Hunter long, fast strokes as he took his brutal kiss.

I knew why Asher was putting his focus on Dante rather than me. He wanted to reconnect with me, but I was still technically human.

Feeding on me, even by accident, could prove fatal if he was not in control. I knew what it was like. My succubus rarely listened to me and I had to keep a tight leash on her with some of my Virtues. That had taken practice.

And I'd used the same tactic, opting for my more powerful mates to take the edge off when I was particularly hungry.

But when, exactly, had he fed during the past week?

He'd been nowhere near me when I'd been active with Logan or Kaito. But that didn't mean he didn't have anything to do with the overactive state of my libido or the swift speed of my drain.

Or the fact that my Virtues had been just as hungry as I'd been.

I rolled the memories over in my mind, blushing when I recalled Kaito stroking himself to an erotic recording of him and Azra just shortly after I had woken up.

I suppose that does explain a few things.

As I watched, transfixed, I almost didn't notice when Asher's hand went to my hip again.

It was gone in a second, followed by a muffled scream. I blinked as I lost contact with both males, stunned as I tried to process the wrong angle that one of Asher's fingers was pointing.

Dante had sunk his teeth into Asher's lip after having broken his finger. "Touch her again and see what happens," he hissed as blood dripped down his chin. His hard erection still stood proudly between them and he rolled his hips, shamelessly rubbing against the incubus he'd just hurt.

"Dante," I began, but the incubus quieted me with a devious look as he pulled away.

He was… grinning?

Please don't tell me he's as psychotic as Hendrik.

He released a deep, throaty laugh that immediately had me squeezing my thighs together. "I've figured you out, Hunter." He slid his gaze to me as he hummed a pleased, sensual sound that made my insides flip. He rubbed his hand, bending the finger back where it belonged with a sickening click. "Take his dagger from him, love. That little crystal isn't the only thing that likes pain. And a few more shots of whatever that was, and I might just get the amount of lust I need to take the edge off." His eyes glittered with promise. Because once he tempered his incubus's need, he could properly touch me.

He could try to fix a bond that had been broken and awaken the power of my soul.

"You want me to hurt you?" I asked, wide-eyed.

I didn't like the direction this had taken. Even if it could help awaken my goddess side, I wasn't Hendrik.

Or Dante.

Perhaps he'd been spending too much time with the sadistic Dark Mage. Dante didn't magically feed on pain, but, apparently, it aroused him.

A lot.

That better explained his relationship with Hendrik, though, if I thought about it.

Dante offered me the dagger, which still had blood on it. "I want you to hurt him," he said. His bright orange eyes glittered with magic and lust.

Asher was having a heavy effect on him, but the whispers started up in my head again, drawing me back to the crystal lying innocently on the bed.

"What if that thing is making you want to hurt him?" I asked, knowing magic could influence a lot of creatures, including the Hunter.

"It's probably amplifying it," Dante agreed, shoving the dagger into my hands. My stomach churned as it slid in my palm, sticky with blood that had dripped down the hilt. "But the innate desire was already there. And as you well know, we're locked in here until that thing is fed. And hurting him turns me on," he admitted with a wry grin that rubbed me the wrong way. "That lets him feed and keeps you safe. Win-win, if you ask me."

Irritation made my skin prickle. I threw the dagger as hard as I could, making it ping into the wall, landing perfectly in one of the wainscoting moldings. It vibrated from the hard throw as both males twisted to stare at it.

"I know different ways to hurt someone I care about," I said confidently, earning raised brows from the incubus and my Hunter.

I had spent some time with Purgatory's best tormentors.

I'd learned ways to draw out pain from a body, but in a much nicer way than breaking bones or cutting flesh.

Thank you, Azrael.

Thank you, Samael.

The twins had given me more than enough tricks up my sleeve to make this work.

"I'm going to give you a choice, Dante. One of us is going to draw out pain from the incubus. Sexual pain. It can be you, or it can be me. Make your choice."

I fully expected Dante to volunteer, given that he'd just broken Asher's finger for touching me.

"You," he said, grinning at my blatant shock. "As long as I get to fuck you while you do it, torment him all you like, babe."

I blinked at the Hunter, then found my confidence tucked somewhere underneath one of the trembling places in my heart.

Strolling up to Asher, I hooked my fingers into the hem of his pants, then pulled down.