Chapter Fifty-Two

Adrik

Watching Stephen finally connect with his demon was somewhat different for me. As more time lapsed, the differences in everyone’s demons were becoming clearer to me. Everyone shared certain attributes with their demons. Misha’s liked the fuckery, Stephen’s was cold, calculated. Ivan’s was deadly and just barely contained chaos. I suspected Andrei’s would be calm but lethal, just like how Sephie had described his anger.

It was easier to tell the difference between Sephie and her demon. Her demon was just as opinionated as she was, but thankfully, they agreed on almost everything. While I was somewhat curious to see what that disagreement would look like, I was sure it was easier for her demon to just go along with Sephie’s opinion.

Mine was proving to be quite helpful. He’s what figured out Stephen was starting to sense other demons, much like I could. I think Stephen was right; we all felt something off about Sal, which is why we needed to talk to Dario. When I asked Stephen about his new level and he confirmed it, my demon was extremely proud of himself. It was hard not to laugh at his exuberance. Little guy is really taking to this using his powers for good thing …

“Misha, you said there are multiple ways that everything plays out. What are they?” Sephie asked.

“One scenario, they come here. The other scenario, we take the fight to them. I don’t know specifics about either. I was just shown those two scenarios, but Dario helps us in both,” he said.

“I think we need to have another conversation with Battista, as well as explore both those scenarios. I wouldn’t mind taking the fight to them if it means sparing the city. There’s going to be some bloodshed here. I don’t think all of the underbosses are going to go along with the change in management, but I’d like to keep it to a minimum,” I said.

Misha was checking through scenarios again. He said, “We’re going to have to go to Martin. That’s the only option for him.”

“Not surprising,” I said.

“How do you think Battista is finding out about the deals that Ricardo and Martin made? He must not know about Sal’s deal yet,” Andrei asked.

“I was wondering that too. I’d be curious to know how he found out about the others,” Stephen said.

“I’ll find out where he is tomorrow and schedule a meeting for the next time he’s in town if he’s not already,” Viktor said.

Misha quickly looked for Battista. “No need. He’s still here. I think he likes being close to the action,” he said. He was obviously having fun with using his demon to look for anything and everything. I might’ve just created a monster.

Viktor laughed. “You’re handy to have around now, kid. You make my job much faster.”

It did make me happy to see Viktor so relaxed with all of us once again. Since Stephen had helped him deal with his time in Syria, he was finally himself again. He barely had any fear toward our demons, which helped the rest of us be more comfortable around him. It was clear that he was happy with the choice he’d made, and as long as that stayed true, I would be happy for him.

After everyone had gone back to their apartments for the evening, Sephie and I were like two teenagers, unable to keep our hands off each other. The door to the penthouse had barely closed and she literally jumped in my arms, wrapping herself around me as she giggled. I set her on the counter, pulling her clothes off as she feverishly worked to get mine off as well.

“I’ve been waiting for this all day long,” she said breathlessly. My lips barely gave her the chance to say anything. My arms were holding her as close to me as possible. It felt like my need for her was growing the longer we were together. Instead of falling into comfortable routines, getting somewhat bored with each other, we were still at the dating stage where we couldn’t get enough of each other. I could feel her need matched mine. She’d spent much of the evening pushing her warmth to me any time she caught me looking at her. She caught me looking quite a few times …

“What is wrong with us,” I said, smiling against her lips.

She pressed her forehead to mine, looking at me with her deep blue eyes. “I’m not sure, but I hope this one never stops,” she said, her gorgeous smile threatening to stop my heart.

I put my hands on either side of her face, my thumbs rubbing her cheeks gently, and pressed my lips to hers. I felt her completely melt in my arms as I kissed her sweetly. There was still something so sweet and innocent about her loving my gentle kisses so much. In her own way, she was still challenging my levels of control as feeling her melt just made me want to completely devour her each time.

She wrapped her arms around my neck, moaning quietly. Her hips pressed into mine as she wrapped her legs tighter around me. I enjoyed teasing her maybe more than I should, so I made her wait before I slid inside her. I loved it when she reached the point of demanding me to fuck her.

I kissed my way down her neck, softly biting all her favorite spots. I could feel everything I was doing to her which only served to turn me on even more which made it more difficult to control myself. It made it that much sweeter when I finally gave in.

I could hear her soft moans turning more into whimpers as she was getting more impatient. She changed tactics, trying to turn me on so much I wouldn’t be able to deny her any longer. She grabbed one of my hands, guiding it between her legs. She knew as soon as I felt how wet she was, I wouldn’t be able to hold back much longer. I chuckled, loving the effect I was having on her.

She looked at me, her eyes swirling between blue and green. “I both love you and hate you so much right now,” she said as she worked her hips against my hand. I finally gave her some relief, sliding two fingers inside her. She moaned, closing her eyes. I could feel the warmth from her spread through my body.

I exhaled loudly, knowing I was losing my own battle with my control. “Please,” she whispered in my ear. That was all it took for me to officially lose the battle. I slid inside her slowly as I watched her reaction to me. She moaned loudly, getting lost in the feeling every single time. Her body was nothing but pleasure, which meant my body was nothing but pleasure as she shared everything with me. We were both immediately consumed with the feeling of each other.

I adored watching her eyes swirl through every color as her body surrendered to me. Maintaining eye contact with her had been quite intense for me, as well as her, in the beginning, but now we both loved it. My soul was hers anyway. There wasn’t a piece of it that she hadn’t already seen.

She moaned loudly as I pushed even farther into her. Her hips met mine with each thrust, amplifying the pleasure we were both feeling. She was beginning to get over her shyness at the guards outside the door being able to hear her, so she wasn’t holding back as much as she used to. It was music to my ears every time I heard her moan.

Sephie leaned back on her arms, giving me a full view of her breasts as they bounced with each thrust. She leaned her head back, nearing the point of orgasm. Just as she was about to crash over the edge, she picked her head up and looked me in the eyes once more. Her eyes never failed to impress me, but this time, instead of swirling, they had landed on red.

It was enough to drive both me and my demon insane. I saw the look of lust on her face; I knew my eyes had turned black. Hers stayed red, however. I increased the intensity, thrusting into her harder each time. She exploded into an orgasm, every inch of her body tingling. Her loud moans were surely being heard by the guards outside.

Her arms finally gave way and she leaned all the way back on the counter, keeping her legs wrapped tightly around my waist. It was enough of a change that I hit new spots inside her, causing another new wave of pleasure to course through her. I kept a tight hold of her hips, pulling her back to me each time I thrust into her, trying to keep her orgasm going as long as possible.

She pushed everything she was feeling to me, making it next to impossible to last very much longer. My body was exploding in pleasure, along with her. Every inch of my body felt like it was on fire, in the best way possible. I finally couldn’t take anymore and found my release just as she was coming down from another orgasm. She sat up, wrapping her arms around me.

Her lips found mine as we both worked to catch our breath. She kissed me just as sweetly as I had kissed her at the beginning of this. It was exactly what I needed. I opened my eyes to see her eyes had landed on deep blue once again. She smiled when she saw my look of satisfaction.

We stood there, still completely tangled and connected in the kitchen, in silence for a few moments. I was completely lost in how much I loved her. How everything in my life was better because she was in it. How the world looked even brighter with her by my side. I loved her completely.

Eternally.

I enlisted Andrei’s help the next day. I wanted to keep Sephie distracted, but I also wanted her to have time alone with Andrei. We’d talked about it before falling asleep the night before and she had a feeling that Andrei would connect with his demon faster if he did it in private.

“I know he’s nervous about losing control in front of everyone, so I think if I can get him on his own and somewhat control the conditions, it’ll happen faster,” she had said the night before.

It worked out perfectly, as I wanted her to not be around while I talked to everyone else about what to do with the families of the bosses. Dario’s statement about Sal’s kids had brought up an issue I hadn’t thought about in a while: what to do with their families.

“I mean, I hate to just say let’s get rid of all of them, but that would definitely be the easiest route,” Ivan said, once they were all in my office, while Sephie and Andrei were upstairs.

“Are they all still in the city?” Stephen asked.

“They all live here, but they’re in and out. Sal’s kids, anyway. Massimo’s kids are elsewhere. Same for Armando’s kids. They all moved away from the city,” Viktor said.

“If they’re in the city, it’ll be easy to find them and approve them,” Misha said. “But I think we might be able to do the same for all of them, as long as I know what they look like. We should be able to find out if they’re following in dearest Dad’s footsteps.”

Ivan was quietly contemplating everything. He and I had already discussed this when we were talking to Dario the evening before. Neither one of us liked the idea of leaving their families alive to move against us in the future. “There is an alternative,” he said, looking at me. “Once they find out what really happens to Sal, they might never make a move against you. Or make a deal like Sal did. They might take care of themselves for us.”

“I don’t know how much of a chance I want to take. I would like to be done with this once Sal and Ricardo are taken care of. I prefer peace to war,” I said. “Get rid of entire families and nobody is willing to move against me for a very long time.”

“You’re not wrong there,” Ivan said. We all turned to Misha, wanting to see if he could confirm one scenario over the other one. His eyes went just as black as Sephie’s did as he used his demon’s power to help him run through scenarios. His eyebrows furrowed in frustration. He tried a second time, but eventually, his eyes switched back to normal.

He looked at me, “I can’t see anything on either of those scenarios. Like literally nothing. It’s all fuzzy. I think I might need Sephie on that one. Maybe Andrei too.”

“Has that ever happened before?” Stephen asked.

Misha shook his head no. “No, even before Sephie started helping me, I could always find an answer. It might’ve just been a snapshot, but it was always something. This time, I can’t see anything. It’s all blurry.”

“You’re thinking that means something?” I asked Stephen.

“Yeah. I just don’t know what,” he said.

I sighed. It was never easy. I looked to Viktor. “When can Battista meet again?”

“He’s got time tomorrow. So do you,” he said. “He even said he’d come here, to make it easier.”

“That’s new, but I’ll take it,” I said.

As we finished our conversation, Ivan looked to Stephen with his sly grin on his face. “How many times did you make your eyes go black after we all left the penthouse last night?”

Stephen laughed. “At least twenty. I stood in front of the mirror and watched it for like half an hour. I couldn’t help myself. It’s so disturbing and fascinating at the same time.” Stephen looked at me, adding, “I understand completely why you wanted to keep Sephie’s eyes changing from us initially. It’s such a unique phenomenon. I would’ve wanted to keep a lid on that as long as possible too.”

“I put in an order for contacts for you three. Andrei’s going to need them soon too,” Ivan said, chuckling.

“That’s partly why he’s upstairs with Sephie. She thinks she can get him to connect with his demon if it’s just the two of them,” I said.

“Anybody felt his anger yet?” Misha asked. We all shook our heads no. I’d felt nothing from either of them so far.

“He’s worried about losing complete control,” I said. “He’s probably going to fight getting angry enough for it to work.”

“Or she surprises all of us with a new ingenious way to get him to connect without him getting angry. That wouldn’t surprise me either,” Ivan said.

Viktor stood up. While he was definitely more comfortable around all of us, the demons still made him a little nervous from time to time. It didn’t surprise me that he used work to get out of this conversation. “I’m going to start looking for all the boss progeny,” he said, smirking as he left the office.

Once he had left, Stephen said, “He’s better than he’s ever been, but the demons still make him a little nervous. He still needs time to get completely comfortable. He’s also basically surrounded by them now. Especially if Andrei figures it out this afternoon.”

“It’s understandable. He’s handling it better than I thought he would,” I said.

As we were talking, we all felt a wave of anger from Sephie. It was very strong and very clear. We all looked at each other, smiling, knowing what was happening upstairs.

“This is almost the same level she had to get to when yours first changed,” Ivan said. “Apparently, Andrei had reason to be worried he’d be able to contain it.”

“Our little Andrei is growing up,” Misha said, laughing.

“You can easily tell the difference between our demons now, can’t you?” Stephen asked me.

“Yeah. I would think you’ll be able to do the same soon too. If you can sense other demons, it would make sense you’d be able to differentiate between ours,” I said. “But don’t hold me to that. I think at this point, nobody is quite sure of just what we’re capable of. Your latest level-up was never mentioned before. You might’ve surprised everyone with it.”

“I’m still working toward crushing demons at some point, not gonna lie,” he said, completely straight-faced.

“I think it’s time we have a conversation about just why it is you’re looking forward to seeing Vlad again. Feels like you have ulterior motives sometimes, Stephen,” Ivan said, running his hand over his goatee thoughtfully.

It caught Stephen off-guard, making him laugh loudly. “We buried that hatchet hundreds of years ago. Don’t worry,” he said, still laughing.