His eyes narrowed, sharp. “So your sister knows how deadly you are. She’d know you’d have to be drained of power in order to be defeated by her.”
Raini stilled, sensing what he was hinting at. “She didn’t send the astral projector after me. She wouldn’t do that.” Or so Raini told herself. Her demon didn’t have such faith in Demi.
“Just because someone is family doesn’t mean they’re loyal. Take Euan, for example. He’s my cousin, but he’d like nothing more than to usurp me. He’s tried a few underhanded methods in order to do so.”
Her entity’s upper lip quivered in distaste. “I knew he was an asshole. My demon branded him as weak the moment he first opened his mouth.”
“He is weak. Too weak to even see that the high opinion he has of himself is a fantasy.”
Raini played her fingers through his short hair, lightly kneading his scalp. “Do you have any other family members in your lair?”
He shook his head. “I used to. But then our lair once went head-to-head with another—and much larger—lair of descendants. Many died, including my parents.”
Her fingers stilled in his hair. “I’m sorry to hear that,” she said, her chest tightening. “What caused the battle?”
“The attack on us wasn’t personal. The other lair simply wanted more power, wanted to increase their numbers.”
She felt her face harden. “So they went around challenging lairs, killing some members, taking others.” Fucking assholes.
“Yes. It’s a practice as old as time for demons.”
Sadly, he wasn’t wrong. “Are any of the shitheads alive now?”
“Not since I became Prime.”
“You killed them all? Good.”
“I didn’t do it alone.” He dipped his head and licked at the vein in her throat. “Every one of my demons participated in avenging those we lost. They’re not all fighters by nature, but not a single one of them was prepared to hang back. They all wanted blood.”
“Quite a few lairs targeted ours in the past. They generally don’t bother so much nowadays.”
“Because Jolene has enough plants in various places to know when a lair might think to attack her own. If she hears such a thing, she launches a pre-emptive strike, and she’s never subtle about it.”
Raini nodded, smiling. “Nor does she stop at just that one move. She makes them pay in many ways for a very long time— none of those ways can be traced back to her. Other Primes seem to believe it’s not worth pissing her off. I think even Knox would hesitate to mess with her. It’s not about her level of power, it’s about her level of crazy. I adore her.” She blushed as her stomach rumbled.
His mouth quirked. “Hungry?”
“Kind of.”
He draped his body over hers. “So am I.” He fucked her hard and fast to her utter goddamn delight, making her come so hard she’d swear she felt it in her gums.
A short time later, they were striding into the massive hall of the monastery that featured long-ass tables on which many descendants sat, eating breakfast. A hush fell over the large space as they entered, and some stiffened at the sight of her. Others merely went back to their food, paying her no mind.
Maddox guided her to the table around which his sentinels, Gunther, and Celia were gathered. Too hungry to care about looking polite, Raini didn’t hesitate to help herself to the various foods that were piled on platters in the center of the table. She let the mindless chatter go on around her, concentrating on enjoying her breakfast. Until Hector spoke to her.
“So, Raini, is it true that some succubae can kill with sex? I’ve always wanted to know.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s a myth,” she said before sticking a forkful of food into her mouth.
“What about the whole kiss-enslavement thing? Are there really succubae who can make a person subservient to them just by kissing them?”
Raini pursed her lips. “Some say there are. Some say there aren’t.”
“I wouldn’t have thought a succubus could wield psychic hellfire. I was under the impression that their powers are always sex-based.”
“Most make that mistake. We’re often dismissed as real threats.”
He set down his cutlery. “Can you only strike one person at a time with the psychic hellfire?”
She took a swig of her coffee. “The truth?”
“Yeah,” he replied.
Voices quietened again, and she knew people would be having a good eavesdrop on this conversation. All right, maybe it would be better to let them know how sharp her claws were. It would be the best way to ensure anyone thought twice about targeting her.
She shrugged one shoulder and spoke matter-of-factly. “I could send out a blast of it that would liquefy and consume every brain in this room aside from my own. Your skulls would cave in, which is a dead giveaway that the cause of death is psychic hellfire, so I’d have to burn every corpse to get rid of the evidence. It really wouldn’t take long, though. Then I’d go home, shower, dispose of my clothes. People would eventually find your ashes, but your deaths would never be traced back to me—I’d be very careful not to leave anything of myself behind.” She frowned. “Why does that make you smile?”