CHAPTER 13
I hastily moved my feet over the side of the pillow, "I told you I didn't want to stay."
He leaned over the counter top and folded his arms, "You're not staying, at least not in the way you might imagine. You overlook my generosity."
My face contorted in disbelief, "Generosity?!"
"Yes, I'm not this generous to others who dare traverse my Darkness. Very few get an offer to stay or leave and none have ever been in my sanctuary."
I choked a little on my next words, debating their wisdom. Instead, I stood and walked towards him, my socks making no noise on his floors.
Changing the course of our conversation I asked instead, "May I have some more water?"
"Of course." He turned on the sink and refilled the glass. I mused that the sound of water splashing out sounded like any other I'd hear from a faucet.
When I reached the other side of the island I smiled hesitantly in thanks and gratefully drank more. When I set it down, I skimmed his face. "You seem extremely calm."
"I'm always sated after a decadent offering. You can be assured that I won't be the one to tell Ila how you ruined her plans for punishing Oldavai. It would be fair comeuppance since she's been non-stop badgering me about blaming him for this new underground hunter movement."
"Hmm." My thoughts couldn't get past that I was the offering that sated him, it made me uncomfortable. Just like any demon who was sated from something off me.
He propped his hand on his chin, "Come now, Dove. Where's all that bravery that made you literally jump directly into my arms?"
I blinked myself into awareness, "Why do you need an offering to close the darkness?"
His facial expression opened, as if pleased that I asked, the emotion a faint waft of a lazy breeze through me. "I am part Darkness, but not all. It is a multitude of my kind. We are born with it inside and us inside of it. Understand that it is alive because we exist yet still separate as its own entity. It will not close without offerings because it will consume any devouring portal that opens to fill the ravenous hunger for all of us if any one is not sated. If there is no voluntary offering, then it will be forced. I will force it."
I stuttered, "Oh"
He studied me. Finally, I asked the question I needed to know, "Can you come out of any mirror?"
"When I'm made aware of it."
"Oh."
More silence between us.
"Will more of your kind come through my mirror now?" I asked wearily.
"No. Your mirror has belonged to me since the first time Ezra called me from it. He knew and actively wanted my awareness of it." I could feel my blood rush out of my face at his words. He leaned in closer towards me across the empty surface and whispered dramatically, "Don't tell Oldavai, but ravenous or not, the Darkness does not allow us to overstep each other's boundaries. We are polite and only the Darkness is allowed to go unhindered. Also, Ila and I feed it enough that it allows us to police our little slice of land. Mainly, the United States."
I cocked my head in surprise, "Ila..." I trailed off.
Shorn answered my questions without me asking, "She is the one who opened the devouring portal. I know she thought I'd forcefully take Oldavai. Her anger frequently gets the best of her and this time she forgot to consider one thing...," he gave me a meaningful look, "who he's living with. I have no doubt she would come storming into my office to make sure I didn't take her unwanted savior of demons. We're just fortunate Oldavai hasn't come raging into the office with his demands that I give you back. That would tip her off." He continued looking at me, his emotions blocked off, waiting for my reaction.
"He hasn't? Wait! How long have I been here?"
"Long enough. He values his life too much to question me. Unless I keep you here much longer, then he'll value his possession of you more. I don't need to see him to know he's having a fit of jealousy." His throat gave quick short bursts of crunching glass and his jaw moved as if he was grinding his teeth.
I frowned for so many reasons, backing up slightly, "Why doesn't Ila take the difficult warrants if she can do this?"
He leaned back to his side of the counter top island and raised an eyebrow, "Iloum... Oldavai..." His head bent down farther and his face a wave of movement inside it that caused me to cringe. The smell of brimstone intensified briefly while he continued, "My own irritant, Ratha?"
"Yeah."
He gave me a short-lived sardonic smile, "She's not going to catch the old ones unaware. They already know. They'll run as soon as they get a whisper of her name."
Hunh. I guess that made sense. I looked around the spacious room with barely anything in it. It was so dry in his home, "May I have some more water?"
His smile came back slow and genuine, the outside corners of his eyes creasing with the movement. It took me aback at how close to approachable it made him seem, close, not entirely.
"Absolutely." He procured another glass and kept his hand around the smooth surface as I reached for it, "Aren't you going to ask?"
I licked my lips, my fingertips tracing the condensation on the glass. Yeah. I was going to ask. "Are you two bonded?"
His smile stayed fixed, "No, but I did give her a little bit of Darkness in a whistle of wind that she keeps inside her magic. She can open a devouring portal off any mirror." His hand let go of the glass and he gave it a push into my own.
My hand curved around the coolness, "How is that even possible?"
He shrugged, "Many things are possible, and she was desperate enough when she lost her eye to take my bargain. Little did either of us know how close we would be working together in the future."
I drank down my third glass of water, relishing the mineral taste. "Now what?"
"Now I take you to your home." He walked around the counter, his hand outstretched in a gesture to take mine. I hesitantly placed my palm in his and let him guide it to his cheek again. I felt the movement of his cracking jaw as he murmured, "For someone so submissive you do cause a lot of trouble."
I snorted a noise of annoyance, "I'm compassionate, Shorn, not submissive."
His other arm slowly encircled my waist, "Guileless, then." He paused and stared at me before speaking again, "Do you think I need compassion?"
"Perhaps," I said distractedly as anxiety flooded me with his gentle pull to bring me closer into his personal space. It felt like he was trying his best not to scare me by being so languid and calm. I looked directly into his eyes and forced my courage to ask that exact question, sure I was wrong in my presumptions.
