Chapter 33

ChapterThirty-Three

Katherine couldn’t think. She couldn’t breathe. She couldn’t do anything but stare up at the ceiling in shock because he’d ripped all her sense out from between her legs and suddenly there was nothing but the feeling of that long, black tongue writhing inside her.

He was...

What was he? She forgot the words. Just that he had made her feel so incredible for such a long time and no one had ever done that before.

She hadn’t even done that to herself. Katherine hadn’t realized an orgasm could go on that long. Or had it been two? Had he somehow tied orgasms together into a long knot that refused to uncoil until he touched it like he’d massaged the rest of her body?

Finally, she looked down where he still crouched between her legs. And the sight was obscene. He looked like an animal hunting its prey, those red eyes glowing and casting shadows all around him. His long tongue coiled around his lips the moment he caught her gaze, as it licked at the shimmering remains of her pleasure.

But above all else, her eyes widened as she realized he had changed in between her legs. Reaching down, she gently touched the tip of her finger to the horns that had sprouted out of his forehead. Long and coiling, they looked like an antelope’s horns. Twisting just slightly around themselves, and sharp at the tips.

“What are these?” she asked, her voice a little raspy from all the screaming. “They’re new.”

“Envy said they might happen. The closer we get to madness, the more our battle forms come to light.” Gluttony closed his eyes for a moment, wearing an expression of pain, before he looked back at her. “If they frighten you, please tell me. I will do my best to prevent them from...”

He didn’t seem capable of finishing the sentence and she didn’t think she wanted him to. “I like them well enough.” She stroked a finger down one again, watching as he shuddered at her touch. “Nothing about you scares me, Gluttony. No matter what happens to you.”

“You should fear me, at least a little. I am a demon, after all.”

“Oh,” she whispered, grasping his horn firmly and yanking him up to her. “But you are my demon. And I couldn’t possibly fear you.”

She kissed him, coiling their tongues together as she tasted herself on his lips. The earthy, musky taste made her want to touch him. To feel him. To know what it would be like if he sank deep between her folds. She wanted so much from him that it should frighten her and yet, it didn’t.

Katherine couldn’t be frightened of anything that came with this man. No matter how strange or otherworldly he seemed, he was still hers.

And hers alone.

Gluttony groaned deep in his throat, his fingers coming up to yank at her hair. He tilted her until he could skate his lips down her throat, and the twin tips of his fangs dragged down the long length.

She let out a little moan and moved to give him even more access. It was depraved how much she wanted him to bite her again, but she wanted it.

It didn’t matter in the slightest that she’d just been taken to his brother’s kingdom to heal from their little enjoyments. She didn’t care that she’d nearly died because he could have drained her dry. Right now, there was a clenching between her thighs at the mere thought of him dragging her closer and sinking his fangs into her neck.

She wanted to know that a part of herself was in him. And maybe that was wrong or strange or beyond anyone else’s understanding, but she had come to crave... this. Whatever this was between them.

“I shouldn’t,” he murmured against her throat. “I could hurt you so easily.”

“Or you could enjoy yourself and stop when you know you have to.” She pressed her palm to the back of his head, holding him against her. The silhouette of his horns filled her gaze and oh, she was being devoured by a demon and she didn’t even care. “I trust you.”

“I don’t.” The broken whisper fanned across her neck before he pressed a closed mouth kiss to her pulse. “I don’t trust myself at all, Kat.”

It broke her heart to know that things had changed so much between them. He didn’t want to risk her health, but that meant... that meant...

He rose from the bed, standing right at eye level and all her thoughts scattered. She could see how hard he was. Impossibly long, and thick, and she’d forgotten that her immediate thought the first time she’d seen him was, how am I going to fit that all inside me?

But she’d taken him into her mouth and she’d be damned if she wouldn’t try to fit him into other places.

“If you don’t want to feed—” She let her words trail off meaningfully as she stared at what she really wanted. She wanted to taste him, to tongue him, to slide him deep inside her, where she wouldn’t know where he started and where she ended.

Her eyes widened as he reached down and fisted his length through his pants. “Is this what you want, pet?”

She licked her lips, unsure if she could respond to that. What would another, more wanton woman say in this situation? “Yes.”

“How do you want it?”

“Whatever way you will give it to me.” And it was so wicked of her to admit the truth, but she wanted him inside her in whatever way she could have.

His hand moved languidly up and down, outlining the impressive appendage that would surely wreck her. “You have to earn it, then. You have to show me you are well and healthy. Prove you’re taking care of yourself first. You hear me, pet?”

She nodded frantically, but she would have agreed to anything he said. “I am well and healthy. I’ve had a week’s worth of potions poured into me for too many days. I am healthy enough for this, Gluttony.”

His hand paused at the head of his cock, squeezing hard once before he released it. “That has yet to be seen.”

“What?” she squawked as he walked away from her.

Was he... denying her? Again? He’d done this a few times now, and she was starting to think there was something wrong with her. Did he worry about her hip? She could move it to the side a little more, perhaps. She could figure out a position that would allow both of them to enjoy the moment, because she wasn’t broken, she wasn’t...

His hand slid underneath her back, easing her into an upright position. Gluttony left his arm behind her, holding her upright as he slowly slid a buttoned down shirt onto her body. One of his.

It still smelled like him, all warm, like he’d just taken it off. “How...”

“It’s been warming by the fire,” he said with a soft smile on his face. He was obviously still so uncomfortable and yet here he was, taking care of her. Making sure that he didn’t put even cold clothing on her. Warm and cherished, she allowed him to wrap the shirt around her and then slowly button it. His fingers skimmed her oversensitive skin and goosebumps broke out all down her arms.

His smile never budged, not even when he saw those. He even ghosted his fingers over the slight bumps that had risen before he tugged the sleeves firmly down. “Comfortable?”

“As much as I can be when you have denied me even a hint of the pleasure I seek.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “I’m going to start taking this personally. You realize I’m not some fragile, broken thing. Yes?”

“Yes.” Gluttony leaned down and touched their foreheads together. He breathed her in, slow and steady, before he let all the air out. “I almost lost you, Kat. I was the fool who allowed you to skate too close to death, and I refuse to let that happen again. You are, without a doubt, a shimmering star in the night sky of my life. I will not make the same mistake again. Not with you.”

“Envy gave me potions to take. He said they would help replenish the blood faster for when we—”

Gluttony placed his hand over her mouth, silencing her. “I don’t want to hear it right now, pet. I only want to know that you are here, and alive, and that nothing has changed between us. It was a gift to me that you even allowed me to touch you.”

“Gluttony, you know that I enjoy it when you touch me! It’s not a gift if I’m getting just as much pleasure as you.”

He didn’t seem to hear her, or to listen to her argument. Instead, he just pulled her out of the room and down the hall again. “I know you haven’t been gone for very long, but clearly I have been working in your absence.”

“Yes, I can see that.” Although, she wanted to continue with their conversation.

“Well, the castle is much cleaner than it was before. And of course, we have been focusing on creating more space and more jobs for people in the town. I’ll need your help to ensure there are trusted individuals here and not the newcomers who apparently want to make people think I’m still murdering.” He paused in the hallway for a moment, a dumbstruck expression on his face before he tugged her back into movement. “I’ll also have to address the fact that people think I’m still killing.”

“Are you going to start again?”

He cast her an angry glance over his shoulder. “Do I look like I’m going to start a murderous rampage?”

“Well, you apparently don’t wish to feed from me anymore.” As soon as she said the words, her stomach churned. It was a horrible thing to even think, but if he wasn’t feeding from her, then their contract was null and void. He could do what he wanted and she...

Gluttony tugged her closer and wrapped an arm around her shoulder as they continued, although he did at least slow down his pace. “I am not interested in feeding from anyone else. But I am afraid that I will harm you. So no, Katherine. I have no intention of backing out of our deal. Not while you are alive. But I will not feed from you as much as before, either.”

“Why is that?”

“You have reminded me that gluttony is so much more than just food.” His eyes flashed bright red. “Gluttony is living in a way that is lavish and overdone. I wish to live like that again, as I have forgotten so much of that enjoyment in the later years of my life.”

That... didn’t settle well.

Katherine said nothing as he steered her down the now gleaming halls. Her mind churned over what he had said, and none of it seemed healthy. He would deny himself a taste of her blood—which was the reason why he had faltered in the first place—only to change his indulgences to yet another problem? This wasn’t the right way to fix anything.

And he wanted her to find villagers he could trust? There were no such people. Even she hadn’t trusted him until living with him for quite a significant amount of time.

Now, she wasn’t certain what to think. This didn’t seem like the Gluttony she knew or the man who had wanted so desperately to change. But she refused to leave him alone in this. Maybe he was trying out a new way to live, and perhaps this would be better for everyone involved. She had no idea. He was a good man, a kind man, and he had it in him to be better. She had to believe that.

They strode by an empty room, or so she thought, until she saw the pale gray mist that hid underneath the bed. The poor little spirit was rather melancholy in appearance, but a deep glow burned inside of it as she strode past. She saw it roll after them, sluggish and slow but reaching out for her to touch.

She would have picked it up if Gluttony hadn’t thrown open the doors to his lab and brought her inside of it. “Here, I am so close I can taste it. But I wanted you to do the honors.”

“The honors of what?”

“Discovering the final piece.” He drew her to his personal table where there were only a few wisps of the black smoke left in a vial and two others remaining beside it. “There are only two possible alchemical substances it could be, and I want you to be the person to choose. Pick one.”

She lifted one of the vials to her nose and had to control her own sneeze. “Bee’s pollen?”

“Seemed unlikely at first, but...” Gluttony shrugged.

The other she lifted and peered into the glass. It took a few moments for her to recognize the ground herb, but it wasn’t one that regularly grew in this area of the kingdoms. But then she noticed the pale yellow remains of a petal with a black center, and she knew exactly what she held.

“Henbane?” she asked, her brows furrowing. “This would make more sense than I wish to admit.”

“Why’s that?” Gluttony took a step closer to her, his front pressed to her back. “I have never heard of it before. Nor had I met anyone else who knew what it was.”

“My mother used to grow it in a pot by the window. She said never to touch it, because it’s very poisonous.” Katherine tilted the vial a little, marveling at how well he’d ground it. “She said her people used to eat it in small doses. It will put a mortal into a trance so they can speak with the divine powers of the realm.”

“Ah,” he breathed. “So that is how they are using it to control us. What happens when one of the divine is given their own herbs of power?”

Katherine shrugged. “I don’t know the answer to that.”

“Indeed.” He took the vial from her, a small frown wrinkling his handsome brow. “Shall we, then?”

It was rather daunting to watch him pour the remaining black smoke into the henbane. If she was wrong, then they would have wasted the last specimen. She’d seen him use that smoke time and time again. Watched it change color a thousand times, or sometimes shattered the black jar in his hands. Gluttony would leap back, swearing whenever that happened and grumbling about meddling mortals.

But this time, nothing happened at all. The black smoke remained black. If anything, it darkened even further. It changed into a substance that made her heart feel bitter and cold.

There was something deeply wrong with that smoke. Something that made the hairs on her arms stand on end.

“There it is,” he breathed, gently setting the vial down. “Henbane. So that’s what they’re using to attack us.”

“Attack you?”

“A group of mortals has been using this to incapacitate demons like me. They throw this smoke at us, and if we inhale it, we pass out. Gone. Asleep. For hours on end and we cannot stop it.” He eyed her with no small amount of appreciation. “You might have saved us all, Katherine.”

“I did nothing at all.” Wringing her hands, she stepped closer to him. As though her next words needed to be kept a secret. “Gluttony, henbane is a sacred herb of the dead. It can even poison the soul, so the legends say. It transcends life and death itself.”

His expression turned troubled. “I need to speak with my brothers about this.”

“Perhaps you should.”

And then she froze when he looked at her again, his eyes flicking up and down her body before he nodded firmly. “And so will you.”

She would what?