At her hesitant caress, Nik’s mind blurred, as if the world stopped on its axis, and the endless darkness and relentless thrashing of the vile souls within diminished. Desire, long dead, resurged with a vengeance as he kissed her. Her fingers dug into his nape as he claimed her mouth, seeking more, seeking it all…
“No—” She suddenly pushed at him. “Let me up!”
Hell. He didn’t want it to end, and tamping down his growing lust was fucking hard, but he did. He moved off her and sat with his back to the wall, resting an arm on his raised knee.
She sprung to her feet, chest heaving. “I hate you—”
“A wasted emotion, Starshine. This is all about needs. Not matters of the heart. Just so you know, I don’t possess one, but the former I can do. So, whenever you’re ready.”
If glares could kill, he’d be a pile of ash by now.
She stormed across the grimy floor, grabbed a change of clothes from the dented metal drawers, and marched into the makeshift bathroom, slamming the door behind her.
Aargh. Shadow tossed her clothes in the chipped, faded-white basin and sagged against the wooden door, squeezing her eyes shut. What was she thinking, attacking him?
Clearly, she wasn’t.
One minute she’d been ready to kill him, and the next, she was locking lips with him. She pressed her fingers to her swollen mouth and bit back a moan. God. She grabbed fistfuls of her hair and tugged as if the pain would diminish the heated imprint of Nik’s mouth on hers. Hard…yet soft, and tormentingly sensual. And that tongue piercing she didn’t know he had hiked her arousal further.
How could such a cold, hard man cause this inferno in her?
She’d never had such a profound reaction with any guy until him. As furious as she’d been, she only sought to taunt him, but he’d turned the tables on her. Now she wanted to dash back there, crawl up on him, and seek out whatever warmth he possessed until the emptiness in her faded.
How could he make her feel this way?
She didn’t even like the impossible immortal.
Because he made you feel alive.
Ugh, she shut out the thought and dragged off the black ribbed top she wore, her body still too jittery. Whether from their fight or the broken kiss, she had no idea. She only knew she had to stay away from him, stop provoking him. Or it wouldn’t end well, not for her.
Exhaling roughly, Shadow gently stroked the slight bumps of the three small nodes on her sore chest. Against her pale skin, they lined her sternum like dull ruby stones, but nothing could hide their otherworldliness when they glowed.
Sometimes she wished Nate had let her die instead of turning her into this aberrant.
She dropped her hands and clenched the basin. Nik had no clue as to why she’d sought out demons. He thought it was for sex. She would have laughed if it wasn’t so painful. As if she could ever reveal the truth.
Drawn as she was to the maddening man, he would certainly hurry on the Grim Reaper’s visit by keeping her a prisoner. That vile entity no doubt waited for her soul since she’d cheated him once.
Inhaling wearily, she managed to pull the rasping pain from her terminated feeding deep into her psyche. The life-sustaining energy she’d consumed from the demon should hold her for a few days. She hoped.
She removed the rest of her clothes, changed into a loose sweatshirt and faded navy sweats, then hung her clothes on a nail in the wall. Then she straightened her spine and stalked out of the minuscule bathroom in socks-clad feet. Nik sat on a wooden crate now and leaned against the wall, reading something on his cell.
He looked up as she headed for her bed, and her mind tumbled straight into their kiss.
Gah. It was as if she’d never been kissed before. No matter her lost memories, she must have locked lips with someone, somewhere in her past.
Totally ignoring him, Shadow got out the sheet and a thin comforter Eddi had provided from the steel drawers, dressed her makeshift bed, and dropped down on the mattress. Not wanting to stare at her nemesis’ annoyingly handsome face, she faced the pitted wall.
One more day, she consoled herself as she shut her eyes, and he would be gone.
Pissed, Nik watched Shadow curl up under her covers. Hell, he was a godsdamn Guardian, his control legendary. But this mere slip of a female had destroyed that record in a second.
He rubbed his unshaven jaw, his cock an aching throb against the unforgivable fly of his jeans, resisting the urge to go over and say…what? Sorry?
He wasn’t sorry about kissing her. If he were honest, he wanted her mouth on his again, even if just for a moment, so he could feel that transient bit of warmth in a life that had been endlessly cold and dead. Something she’d given him, as fleeting as it was.
However, nothing lasted forever as life had shown him. He’d learned the lesson the hard way when he was still a babe.
His mother, Maya Devi, a legendary beauty and the moon goddess from the Indian pantheon, had broken her vows of chastity, succumbing to the Greek god of love. Even though Eros was one of the primordial deities, her peers still shunned her. And Nik became her constant reminder of her fall from grace.
He’d just turned five winters when she’d summoned him. Memories slipped free…
His mātā turned to him as the servant left him in her chambers.
“Nikkos,” she murmured in greeting, giving her pet cobra coiled around her neck one more slow caress before she removed the reptile and let it slither onto a boulder in the indoor rockery in the corner.
Nikkos rubbed his neck and the serpent imprint that had formed there, and his mother frowned. “The naga will protect you, my child.”
She always said that.
“You’re going to your sire, Nikkos.”
He lowered his hand, his heart thrashing against his ribs. “Mama?”
“I cannot keep you, mera beta. Not if I want my life to be what it should.”
“No. I want to stay with you!” He ran to her and grasped her hand, tears burning his eyes. “Don’t send me away!”
“I must.” She gently pried his fingers free. “I do this for your own good, beta.”
Her gaze drifted over his face, and he dashed his teary eyes with his knuckles, tried to be brave.
“You are so like him.” She tenderly touched his cheek. “No female should be broken because of what you are…” Her mouth tightened. “You should never, ever have a mate…” Warmth seeped through him, then darkness towed him under.
He awakened in a strange room, panic stealing his breath. “Mama!”
“Stop wailing, Nikkos. Your mother isn’t here,” a weary voice said. “I’m your sire, Eros.”
Terror squeezing his chest, he blinked at the tall stranger with the short golden-brown hair.
The male rubbed his jaw and shut his light green eyes briefly. “I think it would be better that you reside with a friend of mine. There are young there.”
Nikkos sat on the bed, pressed his lips together, struggling not to cry. Please, Mama, come take me back.
She didn’t.
A day later, a glowing figure appeared like a column of sunlight in his room.
Cool blue eyes watched him. “Your sire requests you squire with me. Come along, young. I am Zeus.”
In the Greek pantheon, the younger boys sought him out, and he’d finally made friends, until a fight broke out between him and another boy over a ball game he won.