Chapter 6

Zagan

THE TASTE OF HER SWEET release was still on my tongue, making my insides warm and my appetite peak. Pleasure from oral was always like the basket of bread you get at a restaurant—appeases your hunger but doesn’t nearly come close to filling you up. I needed more from this quivering, breathless human.

Much more.

I grabbed the underside of her thighs and hoisted her into my arms. She wrapped her legs around my waist and held onto me as I gripped her ass cheeks tightly and pressed my mouth into the hollow of her throat. I scraped my teeth over her skin, wishing it could be my fangs dragging across her flesh. But I knew better than to bring those out. She shivered against me and made a soft sound in the back of her throat as I kissed and nipped at her neck.

We finally reached the bed, and I quickly tossed her back onto it. A grin pulled my lips up as her eyes widened in surprise. Her breasts bounced as she landed, and she squeezed her pretty thighs together while staring up at me with those innocent brown eyes.

I bit my lip and sucked one of my piercings into my mouth as I unbuttoned my pants. My eyes trailed over her exposed body, and my cock ached to sink into her.

Releasing my lip, I ordered, “Open up. Let me see that pretty pussy.”

She sucked in a sharp breath, and her face and chest flushed a nice pink color. Slowly, she spread her legs so that she rested on her elbows and stared at me from between her parted knees. Moisture dripped in the folds of her center, and it had me famished .

I shoved my pants and boxers down, letting my dick bounce free. Her attention zeroed in on it, and if I thought they were large before, they were fucking saucers now.

“Oh my God,” she gasped on a breathy exhale.

I chuckled and grabbed her ankles, yanking her to the edge of the bed. “Not quite, baby. He doesn’t come into my room.”

I gripped my cock and pumped it once as I lined up at her entrance. My entire body thrummed with heat as my head brushed against her opening. Her eyes rounded, and her hands latched onto my biceps.

“W-Wait—”

It was too late. The sound of her voice came right as I thrust, shoving in hard and fast.

It was that exact moment that everything went to shit, and even though it happened in a matter of seconds, it seemed to play out in slow motion.

I was met with brief resistance that suddenly eased—a sensation I hadn’t felt in a long ass time—just as she threw her head back on a scream. And it wasn’t a scream I usually got, one full of blissful rapture. No, this was the sound people made when they hurt . In the same moment, a black mark that was only two fingers thick appeared and wrapped around her slender throat like a collar stitching itself together.

I gasped and leapt back. My dick left her body with a wet pop, and I couldn’t even be bothered with the blood now mixing with her damp arousal. I clawed at my neck as I felt the familiar burn of a new bond, and if Iyla looked at me instead of rolling onto her side with tear-filled eyes, she’d see the same black band forming around my throat that now wrapped hers.

The physical manifestation that happened when a new bond formed.

An Incubus demonic bond.

One with a clear master and an obvious subordinate.

She finally looked at me, and betrayal burned through my insides like a wildfire eating through a field of flowers. Tricked yet again by another human seeking a demon to control.

Hatred flooded my veins, and suddenly, I was seeing red . My human guise dropped. My horns appeared between the waves of my hair, my black-and-red eyes ate away the blue, my fingernails turned black and sharpened, and my canines lengthened into fangs.

Her face paled as she watched me transform, and she quickly crawled away, falling off the other side of the bed, taking the blanket with her.

“W-What are you?” she cried.

Ignoring her question, I roared, “You were a virgin?”

Her head appeared over the edge of the bed, and even without seeing her body, I could tell she was trembling.

Good , I thought with a bitter snarl. I’m going to make you regret lying to me.

“Fucking virgin,” I hissed and shoved the lamp off the nightstand. The loud crash of the glass vase exploding against the floor made Iyla jump, but not even that appeased the outrage coursing inside me.

“I never said I wasn’t a virgin,” she whimpered. She scooted back away from me, holding the gray comforter to her chest. “What’s going on? What are you?”

“I’m fucking irritated, is what I am.” I swiped a clawed hand down my face.

Somewhere in the back of mind, I knew she’d technically never confirmed that she’d slept with someone. But she also never denied it when I implied her sexual experiences. She misled me, which led us here.

It had been so long since I’d gotten bound to a virgin. Well over a century, at least. Those stupid ass stories about demons leering over virgin women and pining after their “innocence?” Bullshit . Virgins were the bane of my existence for this exact reason. Contracts. Forced loyalty. No control over my life and my food.

It was a lot more common to get bound back in the day when people were stricter about sex. One could easily fuck a virgin by mistake, and, consequently, get bound to them in servitude. That feature was an unfortunate part of being an Incubus or Succubus—the balance system put in place so that we couldn’t run amok, seducing every person we saw. There had to be ancient demonic rules to keep us careful.

So back then, we’d double, even triple check, that our partners weren’t virgins. Still, there would be times when they’d deceive us, just to get a demon under their control. The last time I was bound to a human, it was due to a trick that some cult organized so that I’d belong to them.

Over time, that worry of getting bound had dwindled. These days, people were much more open about sex and having those experiences. Not so anal about “saving yourself” or being shamed for enjoying something that was literally meant to be pleasurable. Coming across someone in their twenties who hadn’t indulged in sex— especially among our fanbase—was rare. So rare, in fact, that it had never happened.

Until fucking now.

Turning my fuming attention back on Iyla, I yanked my pants off the floor and pulled them back on.

“What are you?” she asked again. There was no missing the fear coating her words, and that, at least, gave me a little satisfaction.

“Gee, I don’t know. What do I look like?” I snapped, not bothering to disguise the acrimony in my voice.

She looked over my true form, the one I only let out in the demonic realm, in my alone time, or when I was on stage since our personas were demons.

She licked her lips and whispered, “A demon.”

I clapped my clawed hands. “Bra-fucking-vo.” I dropped my hands back to my sides and narrowed my eyes. “You humans never change. So you were playing tricks tonight, hmm? You were really just in it to form a contract with me, is that it?”

“Contract?” She shook her head, her brow scrunched up in confusion. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I didn’t—I wasn’t—”

I swiped a mirror off an end table that I hadn’t destroyed and tossed it to her. Pointing at my own neck, I explained, “Contract.” I gestured to myself. “Incubus.” I pointed a finger at her. “Human virgin. When one of my kind screws a virgin, we get bound to them.”

She looked at her reflection, and her fingertips came up to brush along the black mark curling around her throat. Her lip trembled like she wanted to cry more. “Bound?”

“Bound,” I repeated as my insides burned with renewed anger.

“I didn’t mean to,” she pleaded, still staring at her reflection and the inky mark decorating it. “I don’t even know what the hell is going on. Did you slip me drugs or something? Am I dreaming?”

“That would certainly make my life easier if you were. Regrettably, you are very much sober, and I am very much attached to you.”

Panic clouded her eyes. She tried wiping the black around her neck away, but it was no use. That was a magical demonic seal. It wasn’t going anywhere. For either of us. “Can’t you just undo it?”

I gave a humorless laugh. “If I could do that, demons wouldn’t have to serve humans who trap us into being their little pets.”

She shook her head, like the mere gesture alone could somehow wipe away the last five minutes. “Can’t I undo it?”

“Sure. Go jump off the fucking balcony for me, because the only way you can undo it is to die.” My breath was coming out hard and fast as the acrimony ate away my cool. “We both know you’re not really interested in breaking the bond, though, you goddamn liar. So what did you trap me for, hmm? You want endless wealth? Immortality? Fame? World domination?”

“No, no.” She held up her hands and shook them as if to dismiss the ideas, but in doing so, the blanket slid down her naked body. She fumbled to grab it and hold it against herself once more. “I don’t want anything. I didn’t know what you were. I-I didn’t even plan on sleeping with you until literally right before it happened.” She swallowed. “I don’t want anything, so let’s just pretend we’re not bound or whatever. We’ll go our separate ways and pretend this nightmare didn’t happen.”

Growling, I stalked around the bed toward her, watching as she tried backing away to no avail. “I wish it was that easy. Unfortunately, when an Incubus gets bound, they can only sleep with that one person. And that’s how we feed. Sex. Orgasms. Pleasure. Which I can only get from you now.”

Stupid motherfucking bond .

They were such an inconvenience. Controlling our food was a huge leverage to have over us, and bonds made that all too easy since we had to rely on them for our meals. To make matters worse, the bond protected the human—for the most part. We couldn’t force ourselves on them and simply take our meal. We couldn’t feed unless it was consensual on their end. Not that rape was my personal preference, anyway.

Her eyes narrowed, and for the first time, she seemed just as mad as me. “That sounds like a you problem. Why should I care?”

Venom dripped from my lips as I hissed, “Because we’ll both die if I don’t eat.”

Her momentary anger slipped away, replaced by a heavy dose of alarm. “What?” she asked. She inched back more. “Is that a threat? Are—Are you going to kill me?”

I sneered. “I’d love to. Nothing would give me greater joy than seeing the life leave your pretty little eyes right now, but the bond prevents us from killing the human we’re bound to. Otherwise, it would be too fucking easy to get out of it. All about balance, ya see? That being said, if I don’t eat, I die. And if I die, the bond kills you along with me.”

I glanced at a large ceramic statue in the corner, close to where she was crouched on the ground. A new idea popped into my head, and I smirked. “However, if you die, I don’t. One of the only good features of the contract, in my personal opinion.”

“But you just said you can’t kill me,” she said quickly as her hand tightened on the blanket around her.

“I can’t, no.” My smile widened. “Doesn’t mean an accident can’t happen.”

I zeroed in on the statue, and with a quick jerk of my chin and summoning of my powers, it tipped sideways, heading right for Iyla. She gasped and quickly scrambled out of the way, barely missing being crushed. The stone shattered in a cloud of white dust and debris. Iyla shot to her feet and inched away as I stalked toward her with evil intentions radiating off me.

She must’ve finally realized the predicament she was in—standing face to face with a murderous demon. She looked over her shoulders as she backed up, almost like she was looking for something to save her. Too little, too late, she realized that she’d backed herself right into the balcony doorway.

Perfect.

A fall from over the ledge onto the cement below should do the trick and handle this new little inconvenience for me.

Though, dealing with the potential aftermath of a human dying while partying with us would be a huge ordeal to clean up. Sinners Do It Better was my fucking career and life in the human world. I didn’t want to ruin the life I’d built just because I got tied to a human again. Thinking about that now had me slowing my steps. Just a hair.

“Wait,” she pleaded as she glanced over her shoulder again.

I didn’t stop moving forward, corralling her backward.

“Wait, wait!” She dropped to her knees right on the threshold of the door. Her teary eyes met mine as she held a hand up. As if that feeble gesture could keep me back. “What if I give you what you want? If I let you eat, you’ll spare me, right?”

I stopped and stared down at her. As much as I hated being bonded, now that it was done, it would be easier to fuck her until she either died of natural causes or until a legitamate and less sketchy “accident” occurred. Because that was the only time the contract was broken—when she died or the both of us did.

Her death was the only way to get my freedom back.

Sensing my hesitation, she scooted forward on the wings of hope to see another day. “We can sleep together. I’ll feed you all you want without issue.” She paused and seemed to be thinking hard before something akin to resolve flashed across her eyes. “But I want something in exchange.”

I blew out a sarcastic laugh. “Oh? Ready to make a deal with the devil now?”

She swallowed hard and wrung her hands in the blanket. “Can … Can you heal people?”

I tilted my head and looked her over with a bland stare. “You sick or something?”

Maybe I won’t be stuck with her for too long, afterall.

She shook her head. “Not me. It’s my sister. She’s eleven, and she’s been sick for a while now. Nothing the doctors do has helped.”

Damn. So close , I thought with a sigh.

My openness to a potential truce between us cracked. I furrowed my brow and held up two black-clawed fingers. “Two problems with that. One, I can only do a major change that affects someone’s life like that when I’m in a contract with them. For an Incubus, we form contracts by sleeping with people. Therein lies problem two. I can only have sex with you now, and even if that wasn’t the case, minors aren’t my thing. I may be a demon, but I have standards.”

Her face looked crestfallen. “So you can’t heal her? There’s no way you can do something ?”

I sighed and looked up at the ceiling. I was humoring her idea of going along with this accidental bond because it seemed easier than constantly trying to cause accidents that would kill her, but this was already becoming a headache. Still, I considered her question.

“There might be something, but I can’t promise it will heal her,” I finally answered.

The hint of hope lit up her face, and she scooted even closer. “What is it?”

“My blood,” I answered, swiping my hand over my forehead. This was so fucking annoying. “I don’t have to be under contract for her to take my blood. If she drinks small portions of it, it should slowly heal her. Too much at once would probably kill her, but giving her a little at a time should infuse my demonic essence into her, allowing her to heal.” I paused then shrugged. “Or it could kill her faster. Not sure. I’ve never personally done it. Only heard of others doing it.”

She pressed her lips together and stared at the space between us. I could practically feel her mind trying to decide what to do.

From the sound of it, her sister was bad off. Human life was such a fickle, fleeting thing. Here one minute and gone the next. Her sister would die eventually anyway, but if I knew anything about humans after centuries of living amongst them, I knew they were greedy for life. Giving it and taking it. So if there was a chance to keep a loved one alive, they’d usually always take it. Even if it was risky.

Iyla finally raised her eyes back to mine. “If there’s a chance I can save her, I have to try.”

Fucking knew it.

I closed the distance between us and dropped to my knees in front of her. “So then, do we have a deal? You let me eat when I want, and I’ll try to heal your sister?”

I watched her throat bob on a swallow, and despite the lingering swarm of frustration, I wanted to run my tongue over that neck. Afterall, I was still hungry.

Finally, she nodded. Her voice came out as barely a whisper. “Deal.”