10. Cash

Whatever it isthat Rune has done to me, I don’t want to fight it anymore. He’s the best sex I’ve ever had, and I have no desire to give that up. He walks back into the room, his usual careless swagger still there, but his face paint is gone. It shocks me to see his bare face. I had never thought about what he might look like without it, but it isn’t disappointing.

Rune has ghostly white eyebrows to match his hair, and without the black around his eyes, they look a bit more blue. His cheekbones and jaw are sharp, giving a natural hollow look to his cheeks. His lips are pale pink and full as he chews on them with those sharpened teeth.

I take the last drag from my cigarette before snuffing it out in the little bowl Rune gave me for an ashtray.

“How is no one else absolutely terrified of your freaky demon teeth?” I ask him from where I’m lying propped up on the few pillows he has. It’s one giant tent but sectioned off by jewel-toned drapes and seventies-style beaded curtains. There’s a washroom, as Rune calls it, but it isn’t hooked up to any type of plumbing, so everything has to be brought in with buckets and heated with fire if you want it hot. It’s like stepping back into the fucking sixteenth century.

“I can control what people see,” he says, waving his hand in front of his face, making his teeth disappear before they pop back out. He crawls onto the bed next to me and lies on his back, his head in his hands. His white hair is wet from washing the paint out of it, making it almost translucent.

His abs jump and flex as he gets comfortable. His inky snake moves around the skin of his torso, like she’s trying to get comfortable as well. It’s bizarre to watch.

“Her name is Kali,” he tells me when he finds me looking. I glance up at him and then back to her as she settles in place across his stomach, her tail flicking every so often across his ribs.

“So, you just travel the country as a touring carnival, collecting humans to feed off of so that you don’t get dragged back to Hell. You’re a demon—isn’t Hell your home?”

“Hell may be my home, but it isn’t homey,” he answers. “And we don’t collect humans. We feed off of them and then let them go. They don’t even remember it.”He waves his hand in dismissal. “We only keep the ones that are ours,” he says as he rolls over on top of me, running his nose up my throat as he inhales.

“And how do you know who is yours? How do you know who is a Fated?”

“You smell different,” he murmurs, his breath hot against my skin. “And you certainly taste different.” He licks from the base of my shoulder to my jaw, biting at my ear before his hands begin to wander across my chest.

“My turn,” he says, trailing his fingertip down my arm. “What is this?” he asks as he grabs my wrist and pulls it in front of his face. His thumb traces the scars there that the tattoos fail to hide completely.

“Past trauma,” I tell him, pulling my wrist free of his grasp as he flops over on his back. “I saw some other…demons, I guess? Are you all demons?”

He nods.

“On my way back here, when I was trying to find you after the maze. I couldn’t get my head on straight, and I couldn’t remember where your tent was or even what you were here. So I stumbled into the first tent I saw, and there were two demons with black eyes like yours and blood covering their mouths. They were feeding on a girl that was strung up like a cow at slaughter. Is that what’s going to happen to me? Is that what you do?”

He shrugs noncommittedly.

“Have I done it before? Yes. I’m thousands of years old, and I’m a demon. I’m not some romanticized version. I’ve killed people, and will probably kill many in the future. I’ve tortured, and will torture.” He pauses and tickles Kali, who moves under his touch. “Your taste is like nothing I’ve ever experienced,” he says, meeting my eyes. “Who’s to say I won’t tie you up and keep you as my enslaved pet if you ever decide you want to leave me?”

My stomach begins to churn with anxiety at the thought of being tied up like an animal, carted around from one city to the next, never being allowed to walk around freely again. All because he’s claiming I’m some sort of mate for him.

“But for now?” He shakes his head. “I know you want to stay with me. You’re drawn to me just as much as I’m drawn to you. So it won’t be an issue.”

“Does anyone else have a Fated human?” I ask him, swiftly changing the subject because I’m afraid if I think about that for too long, I’ll try to run. And I don’t think that’s the best course of action. I also want to stay right now. I don’t want to give up the great sex or the orgasmic blood-sucking thing he does.

Christ, that shit is good.

“Nemo does,” he answers. “He’s the ringleader, the one that was leading the main show when you first got here. He has a woman he keeps tucked away in his tent. I think they’ve been together for about fifty years or so now.”

“Rune.” I sit up, my stomach in knots all over again. “Does feeding off of me make me live forever? Have I just signed on for thousands of years of this?”

“Stop being so dramatic, Johnny,” he says with a smile. “It can if you want it to.” He wags his eyebrows at me before he pulls me back onto the bed. I land on top of him, Kali scurrying off of his stomach and hiding somewhere on his back. “I didn’t think the universe would send me such a worrywart. Shut the fuck up and make out with me,” he pouts. “My dick is hard again.”

He grabs my hand and rubs it against his dick, which is, in fact, already hard again. He leans up and takes one of my lip rings in between his teeth, making me groan and roll into him. His lips are so soft, and he tastes too fucking good. I can’t say no to him.

“What about my friends?” I ask between kisses.

“Taken care of,” he says as he sucks the tender flesh of my throat into his mouth.

“As in dead?” I ask him. I should be more worried, but we aren’t even that close. I keep them out of necessity to not become a full-fledged hermit. And with the way his dick keeps rubbing against mine, I’d probably let him kill them if he just lets me come again.

“As in they won’t remember you,” he says nonchalantly, flipping us over so that he’s on top, and then his mouth is back on mine, hot and all-consuming. I can barely breathe when he’s on top of me, sucking my damn soul out of my body through my lips.

He reaches between us, freeing both of our dicks and gripping them together as he continues to abuse my mouth. He rubs over our heads, collecting the precum and using it to lubricate our cocks as they move together. They slip and move against each other as he pumps them in his fist.

“I’m going to come,” I tell him, the sight of us together like that pushing me to a quick release.

“Come, baby,” he tells me, stroking his hand harder and faster. “I’m right behind you.” His eyes go black as he watches me fall over the edge.

“Fuck,” I growl, throwing my head back onto the pillow as I empty my load onto my stomach. He follows soon after, mixing my release with his on my abs. He runs his finger through the sticky liquid and brings it to his mouth. I watch him through heavy-lidded eyes, exhausted from the night.

“You were right,” he hums, the black in his eyes slowly fading back to his normal silver. “We do taste fucking delicious.”