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  Dax took my hand and led me outside.

  Once we were outside, I turned to Dax. "What's the matter?"

  He kept walking, but his pace was slow enough that I wouldn't fall behind. "Please don't worry. I simply want to get to the mansion before we begin to discuss details." His beautiful French lilt was hypnotizing, and in spite of myself, I began to calm down.

  He had parked his shiny black Mercedes behind my car. I pulled out my car keys from my pockets. "Should I follow you, then?"

  Pursing his lips, Dax looked toward the fire station. "Would your...friend mind if you left your car here for now?"

  "James?" I looked toward the fire station too, as if he could hear us. "No, I don't think so."

  "Okay. Because I'd much rather you rode with me."

  "All right." I followed him to his car, and he opened my passenger door for me like he always did. When I was safely ensconced inside, he went to the driver's side and got in.

  When we were on the road, I glanced at his brooding, dark expression and cleared my throat delicately. "Can you at least give me a hint of what this is about?" My palms began to get clammy and I forced down any pessimistic thoughts my imagination wanted to fling at me. "Please?"

  "Actually, I myself don't know the whole story." He gave me a tight-lipped smile. "As soon as Oscar said he had more information on Marion's clan and that you might be in danger"—his lip curled, revealing his sharp canines—"I came to find you. I was frantic when I saw you weren't home."

  So that explained his overreaction at the fire station. My stomach felt like it was filled with chunks of ice; my blood slowed and turned to slush. "What do you mean I might be in danger?"

  "I don't know. As I said, I left to come find you." He put his blazing hand on my leg. "Please, Cara. Don't worry. Nothing will happen to you."

  But I couldn't help the shivers that wracked my frame. I took deep breaths in through my nose and forced them out through my mouth in an attempt to calm the vice grip around my chest. Dax would keep me safe for now, until I could take matters into my own hands. He would.

  "Can we talk about something else?" I barely got the words out without my voice trembling. "I need to be distracted right now."

  He looked at me, his brow knitted. "Of course, my love. What would you like to talk about?"

  I shook my head, thinking, grasping for anything not life and death. "James," I said finally.

  "What about the mortal?" One corner of Dax's mouth turned slightly upward, but that was the only indication of his distaste for James. If I didn’t know him and his expressions so well, I would’ve missed it.

  "He's my friend. And you were pretty harsh with him." Even as I spoke, my thoughts returned to Oscar and what he had to tell us about me being in danger. Oh god. Sick to my stomach, I wrestled my mind back to James.

  "I thought you were in danger," Dax said simply. "Besides, I did say I'd pay for the damages. I fully intend to."

  "That's not the point. The point is he's my friend. And he...you should've just been nicer to him." I sighed, frustrated.

  "Why?" Dax's tone was genuinely full of bafflement.

  "Because he sort of...he has a thing for me. A crush. And he's a really nice guy, so I want to be his friend since I can't give him any more. But if you scare him off that's not going to happen. And I don't want to hurt him." I put my hand on Dax's, letting the heat seep into me. "I'm sorry you were scared for me. But James wouldn't hurt me. He's a really nice person, Dax. Besides, he's going to teach me Kendo."

  Dax's eyebrow arched. "Kendo?"

  "It's a Japanese martial art—"

  "Yes, I know what it is. But why do you want to learn it?"

  "I'm going to have someone make me a cold-forged iron sword. To give me at least some kind of a weapon against demons. Especially now, if you think Marion's clan might be after me or..." I shrugged. "I can't just sit around and be helpless."

  Dax stared at me. We were driving up the hill now, the Mercedes navigating the rough terrain without much issue. "You are not helpless. You have me."

  I shook my head, running my fingers absently over his skin. "It's not the same. I have to do this for me. It'll make me feel safer." I looked at him. "And you need to be nice to James."

  He took a deep breath. "If the friendship is important to you, then I'll make an effort. I'm sorry I was harsh with him today."

  "Thank you." I laid my head on his arm as he pulled into his enormous garage. "I love you."

  He put the car in park and turned in his seat, taking my face in his big, scorching hands. "And I love you. More than anything." His kiss was light but full of heat, and I felt that familiar stirring. Except with Dax it wasn't a stirring; it was more like a full-on tsunami out of nowhere.

  I pulled back and struggled to breathe. "Let's go find Oscar."

  Once we were inside the house heading toward Dax's study, my stomach began churning again, my skin got cold and clammy. This all felt so surreal. I'd only just found out that Dax was a demon—hell, that demons were even an actual entity in our world—and now I might be in danger from a clan of them?

  When we entered, Oscar was by the wall-to-wall windows in the back of the study. He faced us with a small, serene smile on his face. Victorine lounged on the formal couch, all dolled up in a beautiful blue dress, examining her nails as if she was bored.

  "I hope we haven't interrupted anything important by asking you to come here, Cara." Oscar smiled and went to take a seat in an armchair. "Please sit."

  I sank down on a small loveseat and Dax sat next to me, holding my hand. The atmosphere in the room was tense in spite of Victorine's seeming nonchalance and Oscar's mild smile.

  "No, not at all. I was just hanging out with a friend."

  Oscar nodded and glanced at Dax before speaking again. "I'm afraid I have some bad news on the matter of Marion's clan. I phoned some of my contacts in Louisiana to ask if they'd heard of what was going on. They were able to tell me a little more than the halfling did this morning. It seems the clan is much more powerful than we'd feared. It’s composed of Tzitzimime demons."

  Dax stiffened beside me.

  "What does that mean?" I looked from Oscar to Dax, my heart racing.

  "Tzitzimime demons want, more than anything, to destroy the human world and take over. They want to clean the slate of any rules, to start afresh with demons being able to openly hunt humans. This is nothing new; they're known for their tempestuous natures. What makes Marion's clan especially dangerous, to us, is the way they intend to do this." Oscar stopped to give me a moment to take it all in.

  I nodded when I was ready for him to go on.

  "They've lit upon the idea of betrothal." At Oscar's words, Dax's hand tightened around mine. Pain bloomed, but I barely noticed. "When a demon mates with his betrothed and absorbs her soul, he is nourished for many centuries afterward. There's something about his betrothed that is especially powerful. It's a common belief that this is because of the special connection they share.

  “There is a small sect of demons that prey on other demons' betrotheds because they believe the betrothed are special in some way, that their souls have something extra that makes them suitable to be a betrothed in the first place. Not every human can be a demon’s betrothed." Oscar waited to see if I was following. I nodded. "Marion's clan wants to take this theory one step further. They hypothesize that a Beleth demon's betrothed, one he's actually in love with, as Dax is with you, must have an even more power-laden or ‘special’ soul. Therefore, their plan is—"

  "To kill Beleth demons' betrotheds and take their souls. So they can take over the world." My voice was barely a tremble. Dax pulled me close to him and wrapped an arm around me.

  "Yes." Oscar's tone was grim. "They will kill any betrothed, but they're especially on the lookout for those with whom Beleth demon—such as Dax—have fallen in love."

  When Dax spoke, his words were like shards of glass, smooth and hard. "Do they know yet, what I've done? That Marion is
dead?"

  "Not that I could ascertain. I'm sure they know he went looking for his hound, so we can't have too much longer. From what I understood, though I wasn’t able to be too direct as I didn't want to give too much away, Marion was held in fairly good esteem. Which means revenge will come, and it will be sought without caution. Especially if—" He looked at me, his pale eyes full of sympathy.

  "If they find out I'm Dax's betrothed. And that we're in love." I was exactly the kind of human they wanted. My soul was their ultimate feast. I shuddered and then another thought slammed into me. "Afton." Blood drained from my face. I turned to stare at Dax. "Do you think he'd tell them? That I was with you? He knew I was human. They might figure out like Marion did that I'm your betrothed."

  "No." Oscar and Dax spoke the word together, and then Dax continued, his hands cupping my face. "The money we paid Afton was to keep him quiet. Halflings are desperate enough for it that they can be bought quite easily. Don't worry, Cara." I lost count of how many times Dax had said that to me in the past day. "I won't let anything happen to you."

  "None of us will," Oscar said. "Our plan is to seek a meeting with the Astaroth immediately and advise them of the clan's intentions, just as we were going to before. Only this time we have more details, and that should make them act even quicker. They'll put a stop to their activities immediately."

  Victorine sighed, the first sound she'd made since I got here. As she got up to leave she spoke just loud enough for me to hear. "I knew this was going to turn out to be a big mistake. All for one human."

  She sauntered out of the study. Dax held me close.

  "Don't worry," he said yet again. "You're safe. And you are entirely worth any effort we might have to make to keep you safe."

  Somehow, I was more inclined to agree with Victorine than Dax on the matter. I felt the pressure of an incoming storm, and I knew that I was standing in the eye.

  I had a dream, which was not all a dream.

  The bright sun was extinguished, and the stars

  Did wander darkling in the eternal space,

  Rayless, and pathless, and the icy earth

  Swung blind and blackening in the moonless air;

  Morn came and went—and came, and brought no day.

  - Darkness, Lord Byron

  Dax and I stood on a branch twenty feet off the ground in “our” giant oak tree. It was early, the pinks and golds of sunrise kissing the leaves and dappling his perfect, scorching skin. He would leave for northern Canada in just a few minutes.

  I stood with my back pressed into the enormous trunk, cold bark biting into my skin through my sweater. My flawless lover stood before me, only about an inch away, his hands braced on the tree trunk on either side of my face. The heat wafting off him was so intense I was sweating in spite of the chilly winter air. His copper eyes were molten as they held mine.

  “I won’t be gone long.” His sweet, smoky breath wafted over me. I blinked and tried to focus on his words. Unfortunately, my brain seemed to insist on wondering what he looked like under his blue button-down shirt and jeans. Though we’d been together weeks now, we’d done nothing more than kiss—and not for lack of trying on my part.

  “I wish you didn’t have to go.” My voice was barely a whisper, my throat tight with emotion. It was incredibly silly, considering Dax would be back in about twenty-four hours. But I couldn’t help it. It felt awful, him going away. It felt wrong in the deepest sense of the word.

  “Me too.” He pushed a strand of hair out of my face and planted a soft kiss where it had been. His full lips scorched my skin and I gasped.

  He stiffened at my response, breathing in and out slowly, steadily. I knew he was trying to get control of himself though I couldn’t see his face, which lingered by my neck.

  He loved to breathe me in as much as I loved to inhale his scent. It was something I didn’t understand since, in my opinion, I smelled like any average mortal. His fragrance, on the other hand…if they bottled his scent and sold it, women everywhere would completely succumb to guys wearing it. It was that powerful an aphrodisiac.

  When he was in control of himself, he pulled back to look at me. “I’m sorry I have to go.”

  It might’ve been an off the cuff remark, but from his tone I knew he sincerely felt that the need for this trip was his fault. I rested my head against the tree trunk and held his gaze. “It’s not your fault.” I cupped his blazing cheek. “You were protecting me. You saved my life.”

  He smirked, his expression hard as his copper eyes blazed. “I didn’t have to utterly destroy the hound. It might not have progressed to the level it has.” His rough, French-accented voice was like a song even though he was talking about killing—turning to dust—a demonic creature.

  “Why did you?” I asked, even though I knew the answer. He’d told me a hundred times, but it never got old, listening to him say it in his gorgeous accent.

  He ran his thumb over my lower lip, his touch light as a feather. I felt like my skin there had turned to fire. “Because you are my everything. My entire existence is meaningless without you. I wish you could see the simple, indelible truth behind my words. It’s why I lament that I’m not strong enough to leave you. I’m jeopardizing your life simply by being here, near you.”

  My hands tightened around his waist at the mention of him leaving. “I don’t want you to leave. I’m not in any danger.” I stood on my tiptoes on that broad branch and kissed him, my tongue darting out to taste his sweet skin. “You know, I can prove it to you.”

  He pulled back immediately, as he always did when I brought up the subject. His mouth set in a disapproving line, he said, “No.” His copper eyes were flat, unyielding.

  Snaking my arms around him, I clasped my hands around his back and pushed myself up against his body. His arousal was clear, pressing into my stomach. I had to fight to keep my breathing steady; even so, I wasn’t entirely successful. “Please. Dax, I know you want to as badly as I do.”

  This was our daily struggle. I wanted to prove to him that us sleeping together didn’t mean that he’d impregnate me with a demonic child and then steal my soul before I died in childbirth. I knew that was what happened with demons and their betrothed usually, but I wanted to show him that it wouldn’t happen to us.

  For one, I was on the pill. Dax said that didn’t matter to his super-virile demon sperm, but I had trouble believing that. When was the last time the theory had been tested? No demons that Dax knew of had tried to make love to their betrothed while on twenty-first century birth control. I placed a lot of stock in science, but Dax resolutely refused to see my point.

  For two, Dax loved me. Because he was a demon, his love and devotion was infinitely more than what humans felt for their partners. I knew that even if I did somehow get pregnant, he wouldn’t be able to take my soul. We’d find a way for me to survive the pregnancy. Oscar knew more magic rituals than Dax even cared to keep track of. How could he not know a way to keep me strong? I hadn’t exactly broached the subject with him yet, but I had confidence in him.

  What it came down to was that while I was in no way ready for a family, I was even less ready to live a life of celibacy, abstaining from giving myself to the one man I truly loved—the only man I’d ever love the rest of my life.

  Dax sighed and pressed his forehead to mine. I could feel in that tense gesture how much he wanted to take me up on my offer. Just being near each other without being able to seek release, to provide pleasure, was pure torture. Our physical attraction was almost unbearable—what did you expect when we were supernaturally pre-destined to mate?—but Dax refused to risk my life in any way.

  His phone beeped, interrupting us. He pulled it from his pocket. “It’s Oscar. He’s here.”

  I nodded, biting my lip against the ridiculous tears I felt forming. He pulled me close, inhaling the scent off the top of my head. “I love you, my betrothed.”

  I pressed my face into his chest, smiling at the old-fashioned word. “I love yo
u, too. Hurry back.”

  “I will.”

  There was a whoosh of wind before I could speak again, and I found myself on my feet on the forest floor. Dax pulled me close for a long, deep kiss. When he let go, I was struggling to breathe, my head swimming with his scent and the need for his body.

  Chuckling softly, he tucked a lock of my hair behind one ear. Then he grabbed my hand and led me to my car, which I’d parked a few yards away. I saw Oscar’s black Range Rover waiting on the winding road past the forest, and I waved, though my eyesight wasn’t sharp enough to see if he waved back.

  Dax opened the driver’s door to my Volvo and waited patiently as I got inside and buckled up. I looked up at him, my throat still tight. “Text me when you get there.”

  He leaned down and planted a feather-light kiss on my lips. “I will. I love you more than you know.”

  I couldn’t speak anymore, so I just nodded. He waited until I’d turned on the car and begun to drive. When I looked into the rearview mirror a moment later, both he and the Range Rover were gone.

  I made a three-point turn and began to head for the hill on which Dax’s mansion sat. After the whole fiasco with Marion and with what the halfling, Afton, had told us about his clan, Dax had refused to leave me alone, even for twenty-four hours. He was afraid that the clan would come into town and kidnap me or that I’d fall into the clutches of some other demon. The chances of that happening were slim, since the clan didn’t even know that Marion was dead or that Dax had killed him. But that didn’t stop Dax from worrying or planning out my twenty-four hours without him.

  I knew he couldn’t help it—demons didn’t have any sense of propriety when it came to their betrothed. It wasn’t like he’d been reared to respect a woman’s independence or scale back his caveman instincts. Dax didn’t have caveman instincts. All he had were demonic instincts and supernatural leanings that told him that I was his mate. Now that we’d met, his entire reason for existence was to protect me, to ensure my survival and happiness and security. He’d told me several times over the past few weeks that he was sorry if he seemed to be smothering, but to him, this was the only way he knew how to be. Human social limits and rules baffled him.