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  “More,” I moaned in a voice I didn’t recognize.

  I burrowed my nose into his hair and drew in the woodsy aroma that was uniquely Kristof. I rubbed my cheek against the top of his head, needing to combine our scents, marking him as mine.

  He paused his attention on my nipple to stretch up and nuzzle and kiss behind my ear. All the while, he whispered words in his native tongue, telling me how precious and rare I was to him. His teeth grazed my neck and finally, his fingertips dipped lower, brushing my damp seam. The gentle stroking caused jolts of pleasure to shoot through me and I parted my legs, begging for more.

  My eyes drifted shut as his caresses became the center of my universe. Everywhere he touched me, my skin tingled. Colors swirled behind my eyelids: yellow, orange, red, and green, a unique rainbow of pulsing light. The dancing orbs made me feel connected to him like we were two halves of a whole.

  I tugged at the sheet around his waist, forcing it to come loose.

  “Please, I want to see all of you too.”

  I stared down the hard length of his body as he discarded the sheet quicker than any human. The movement reminded me of the coiled strength and power he contained. So deadly, but he embraced me like I was made of the finest china as he peppered my face with whispered kisses.

  His body pressed down to blanket me as he nibbled my earlobe, then he grazed his teeth along the column of my throat. He growled and pressed hard enough for me to wonder if there’d be a mark later.

  “Oh god,” he groaned, “I want to mark you mine.”

  I didn’t have time to ask if he’d mispronounced his words, because the next moment, his mouth covered mine in a soul-reaching kiss filled with a slow burning passion that threatened to consume me in its wake. A rainbow of colors danced in the air around me, and I realized I’d been holding my breath.

  His fingers were hot, no longer cold from the shower, causing his hand to scorch a path between us as it traveled down the curve of my belly to stroke me at my core. I throbbed as his finger brushed inside, a tease, never entering me fully.

  “You’re so wet,” he moaned between kisses.

  My hands explored the hard length of his back as he continued to dip his finger in and out, spreading my juices.

  “Please.” I lifted my hips, telling him what I wanted.

  “Are you sure, Emma? We can wait … ”

  “Stop asking. Please … I need you.”

  I was hungry for more, I needed him inside. He shifted slightly so he could rub the tip of his cock back and forth against me. The teasing torture drew a moan from me I couldn’t control. He trembled as he aligned himself with my entrance, then hesitated for a moment. But then I grasped his hips and urged him forward. He was strong enough to resist, but neither of us wanted that.

  He filled me completely and I cried out in shock at the slight discomfort of his entry.

  He froze. “Are you okay?”

  “Yes, just wait a moment.”

  I closed my eyes and breathed through the feeling of fullness. There was no pain, it was just that he filled me with strange and wonderful feelings that overwhelmed me. I’d never imagined I could feel so close to someone.

  The colored lights swirled and pulsed in my mind, brighter than before. I opened my eyes and I could still see them dancing around us. I breathed in deep.

  I rocked my hips, encouraging Kristof to move.

  His eyes never left mine as he started a slow, sensual rhythm. The tenderness in his gaze tore at my heart. No one had ever made me feel so cherished. So loved.

  The colors throbbed in unison with the movement of his hips. With each withdrawal and re-entry, they grew brighter.

  “Do you see that?” I whispered in wonder.

  “I see only you.”

  Our eyes locked and he captured me in the depths of his sapphire gaze. His intense stare held me while the rhythm built, hurtling me toward a point of no return.

  I cried out as we came apart together. A glowing blue hue surrounded us, drowning out the other colors. Then it contracted and faded into us as our breaths returned to normal.

  Kristof held me close as he placed a slow tender kiss on my lips, then he carefully withdrew from my body. He pulled me into his arms and covered us with the sheet.

  I nestled back into him as he wrapped his arms around me. His body encased me in a warmth that penetrated my soul. He was a shelter to huddle in against the storm ahead. I pressed back against him, craving more contact. I’d never been the little spoon before. I’d never been any spoon before. I wanted more.

  “Are you okay?”

  Was I okay? No. Not really. Kristof had just shattered my reality and shown me more affection than I’d ever had in my whole life. With just one moment of shared ecstasy, he’d made me want a future I couldn’t have. One where I could just be with him and not worry about losing myself to the darkness within. One where I didn’t have to fight to have control over my decisions. I didn’t want to spoil this moment. I just wanted to enjoy the feel of his body around me.

  “Yes. I’m okay.” I paused and added. “Thank you, that was nice.”

  “Nice?” He chuckled. “For future reference, when a man makes love to a woman, he likes to hear words like amazing, or earthshattering, or life-changing.”

  “I’ll remember that for next time.” I pulled his arms tighter around me, closed my eyes, and let sleep take me.

  Chapter 12

  Kristof

  * * *

  I was addicted. It was probably a post-coitus high, but still I couldn’t stop grinning like a fool. Emma was my mate, and our bond was growing stronger with each moment we spent together. The blue thread that intertwined into our soul connection during our love making confirmed the fact.

  There was no denying Emma was going to be a part of my future. She needed to meet the pack. I needed to call Aric and tell him I had a mate. For now, I’d let Emma nap in my arms.

  The urge to claim Emma had ridden me like a jockey in a horse race. I’d had to fight my wolf for control, instinct driving me to clamp my teeth down on the pale white skin of her neck. I needed to mark her as mine, a need so deep it burned, but not until she agreed. Control and independence were essential to Emma. I’d do everything in my power to respect that. Though it was hard—the need to claim and protect had my wolf snarling like a dog on a short leash.

  Emma’s voice broke me out of my thoughts. “You mentioned earlier that you’re a Soul Guardian. What does that mean?”

  “I thought you were asleep?”

  “You were thinking too loud. So, tell me, please?”

  “Hmm, well. It’s a long and complicated history. But our purpose is basic. We were created by the archangels to protect the balance of free will.”

  “I don’t understand, how does that fit in with killing Blood Demons?”

  “God gave humans the gift of free will, the choice between good and evil, but for the gift to be pure, it has to be free from influence, a balanced choice. Lucifer didn’t like that, so he created Blood Demons. They use the seven deadly sins to corrupt free will by persuading humans to sell their souls in exchange for something they desire. Soul Guardians hunt and kill Blood Demons to restore the balance. We don’t interfere with the decisions humans make.”

  “Seven deadly sins?” She stiffened beside me.

  “Yes … Are you okay?”

  She flushed and waved her hand as she sat up to face me. “Yes … So where does the medallion fit in?”

  Ferdie’s face hovered in my mind, but I pushed the flash of grief aside. It was easier now that Emma had taken away my anger.

  “The medallion increases a Blood Demon’s power. That’s why there are so many Blood Sworn in the world today.”

  “Blood Sworn?”

  “Yes, that’s what we call someone who has sold their soul. It takes three blood exchanges with the Blood Demon; it’s a contract made in blood. There is no coming back from it once the third exchange is made. It’s wrong that Blood D
emons have the power to influence someone’s choices so easily.”

  “Free will and choice are important to you.”

  “Yes, it’s everything I stand for. Humankind must have a choice that isn’t corrupted by evil, but we’re losing the war.” I dropped my gazed and murmured, “I have to get that medallion back, Emma, for the balance of free will. I have to.”

  Emma stared into the fire. Her face was pale and her hands shook as she twisted the sheet around her fingers.

  “Kristof,” she whispered. If I’d been human, I wouldn’t have heard her speak my name. I almost didn’t hear her next words. “I think I might be connected to the Blood Demon somehow.”

  I smelled the spike of fear that permeated the air when she confessed her thoughts.

  “I know, Emma. I figured that out before I kissed you.”

  She looked around the room like it held secrets she was trying to find.

  “No.” She drew in a deep breath. “I think I might be a Blood Demon.” She frowned. “Or at least part Blood Demon.”

  Ice shards traveled through my veins. It was one thing to suspect something. It was another to hear it confirmed by another. Although, if I were honest with myself, I’d come to the same conclusion; her smell, the way she’d entranced the woman on the street, the way she couldn’t enter the house without being invited in, and then, when she’d captured me in her gaze—I would have sold my soul for revenge in that moment.

  She’d entranced a Soul Guardian, something no Blood Demon had ever been able to do. All the clues were there. She was a new type of Blood Demon, one that didn’t have a medallion embedded in their chest. But she had a human soul. How was that even possible?

  My mouth was dry, and I wasn’t sure how to proceed with the conversation. Her fear and sorrow stung my nostrils. She was my mate. But also, my enemy.

  “Emma, we agreed to work this out together. It’s going to be okay.” Emotion vibrated along our soul connection. “You can tell me what’s going on in your head. I want to help. Please tell me what has you so afraid?”

  She tightened her jaw and emptiness swamped me. I could feel nothing through our bond. Her shields were up.

  “I spoke with my father while you were out hunting.”

  I frowned. “What? Did he call you? Did you call him?”

  “Not exactly …”

  My wolf became alert, sensing a potential threat to our mate. I reached out and took Emma’s hand and gave it a slight squeeze.

  “Tell me, how exactly?” I growled.

  “Through the mirror, I … I think I used Blood Demon power to see him through the mirror. My eyes, they … they glowed, and then the mirror did weird shit, and suddenly it was like I was in the mirror, looking at my Father in his office, and he was talking to me. How is that even bloody possible?”

  “Blood Demons use liminal space to send out their shadow into the depths of mirrors, or any dark surface that will reflect a shadow. That’s how they whisper their corrupt promises, from the shadows of reflections. Once invited in, they materialize in physical form before the human selling their soul and seal the deal with a blood exchange.”

  Emma gasped.

  “They can use mirrors to travel from one place to another?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then talking to Father wasn’t the first time I’ve used a mirror. I wasn’t sure, I was so terrified, and at the time I thought I was crazy, but it makes sense now. When you found me on the street, the second time, I was running away from Blood Demons, but I got away by using a mirror. I traveled through a mirror in Father’s house and fell out of a shop window down the street.”

  “Blood Demons need permission to materialize. They can’t just travel around anywhere, popping in and out of reflections.”

  “I didn’t ask permission. I just did it.”

  Schieße. Emma had the potential to be the most powerful Blood Demon we’d ever encountered. My wolf whined; our mate was not evil.

  “He said he created me,” she whispered.

  The anguish on her face was unbearable; it threatened to tear me in two.

  “Created you?”

  “Yes.”

  “How?”

  “I don’t bloody know.” Tears welled in her eyes. “It doesn’t change the fact that I’m a monster. Kristof, I … I don’t want to be a monster. I don’t want to be one of those horrible creatures.”

  She let go of my hand and angrily swiped at the tears. I reached for her hand again, but she backed away from my touch. My wolf and I would not allow her to retreat from us.

  “Emma.” I pulled her into my lap and wrapped my arms around her so she couldn’t escape. “There is a darkness in you, yes, but you’re not a monster.”

  I grasped her chin and forced her to face me, but she closed her eyes and refused to look at me. I waited for her to open her eyes—she needed to see the truth of my words.

  “How do you know?” she whispered.

  “You have a soul, and that means you have the gift of free will, the choice between good and evil. The darkness can only have control if you permit it. No matter what your father did to create you, he can’t break that basic law. And you’ve already proven to yourself that you can choose a path of light, because, at the moment when we were both consumed by Wrath, you chose not to take my soul. You helped me. Remember?”

  “But what if it happens again? And I do steal your soul?”

  “Emmalein, you can’t steal something that already belongs to you. You’re my fated soul mate.”

  Emma pulled out of my embrace and frowned at me.

  “Fated mate?”

  “It means you and I share a soul connection—we’re fated to be together. Once you agree to let me claim you, our souls will bond permanently.”

  “What the hell does that mean? Claim me?” She pushed her way out of my lap and glared at me. “Like bloody hell, I’m not lost property waiting to be claimed.”

  “Of course not. It’s a gift, and like any gift you have a choice to accept it or not. But why wouldn’t you accept it? It’s a rare and beautiful gift. Every Soul Guardian dreams of having a fated mate.”

  Emma shook her head. “I’m sorry, Kristof, it’s too much right now. Yes, I feel the connection between us, but there is so much else going on. I don’t know what’s good and what’s bad. I need to be free from my father. Please don’t ask me to commit to a future. Not when I don’t even know if I’ll have one.”

  “I see.”

  My wolf wanted to howl at her rejection; pain lanced through me.

  “Kristof, please, I don’t want to hurt you. I’m not saying no, I’m saying not yet.”

  I nodded and ground my teeth. I was a patient hunter. I could wait until she was ready, and then she would be mine.

  “Can we just talk about something else?” She waved the topic away with her hand. “Tell me about this medallion, what does it look like?”

  I reminded myself that Emma wasn’t rejecting me, she just needed time. I wasn’t going to lose her. She had a lot to deal with, and she was right, it was too much to expect her to understand the importance of finding a fated mate. After all, she’d only just learned there was such a thing. I’d grown up with the concept. If time was what she needed, time was what I’d give her. As my mate, I could do nothing else but give her what she needed.

  I took her hand back, turned it over, and traced the tattooed circles on her palm.

  “It has a similar layout to this design, except on both sides. One side has the demon name in the middle.” I pointed to a sigil on her hand. “This one. The other side has a stone in the center.”

  I traced the outer section of her design, where all the demon names were branded. With each scarred bump, my need to protect Emma from any further harm built, along with simmering anger. The man that branded her would want to get her back. I would not allow it. I was going to kill him. She was mine now. I swallowed the growl in my throat and forced down my wolf’s need to find the man and rip his throa
t out.

  Her hand twitched, and she went rigid. “What color is it?”

  “Bronze, and the stone in the center is red. Why?”

  Emma frowned and looked up to her left. She was deep in thought and I wondered where her mind was now.

  “Emma?”

  She jumped up, grabbed the 70s shirt, and started to dress.

  “What are you doing?”

  “I think I know where the medallion is,” she said as she buttoned the shirt.

  “What? Okay, then we should go back to my pack and they can help us.”

  “No, I’ll have to enter my father’s office to get it. It’s too dangerous. Besides, he’s not going to give me the answers I need if you’re there.”

  Emma shoved on her dirty wool pants, followed by shoes, then she grabbed my leather jacket and threw it on over the shirt. It hung out from the bottom like a dress, and with her hair sticking up at odd angles, she looked nothing like the prim, well-dressed lady I’d first met. She was a wild woman on a mission.

  “You are not going alone.”

  “Yes, I am. I need answers, Kristof, and I’m never going to move forward in my life if I don’t get them. Once I know more about myself and can control this darkness in me, then we can see where this fated mate thing might lead.”

  She was heading for the bathroom, toward the mirror.

  “Stop!” I jumped up to follow her. “You are my mate and I will not allow you to risk your safety, not for anything, not even getting that medallion back.”

  I grabbed her wrist and she stopped, turning her head to look at me.

  “I’m sorry, Kristof, I have to do this alone.” She twisted her wrist from my grasp.

  Her eyes glowed golden as she opened the cabinet. I reached out to grab her, but I was too late. She disappeared.