My jaw drops. I glance toward my sister, who looks as shocked as I feel. Tristan moves his head from side to side, gaze ping-ponging between us in confusion. Apollo shuffles and gets to his feet, turning toward us.
“Fuck that, Donatello,” he says, lifting his lip. “You don’t think he—”
“Yeah,” Donnie starts, a heartbreaking chuckle spilling past his lips. “Pretty sure Kayn left me blind.”
CHAPTER30
CASSANDRA
After Zaki fixes the dress with some magic, I tug it back over my head. I glance at Zaki, wondering if this was the right decision. He studies the wound to his side, the gash almost completely healed. At least he wasn’t lying when he said sex could heal him.
That’s a fucked-up power.
I don’t know what I feel for him, but I definitely feel something. Will that put me at odds with my mates? Will Zaki drop me at the first chance? I don’t know. There’s so much to deal with now that this is low on the list.
“How are you feeling?” I ask him, offering a hand for him to get to his feet.
Zaki accepts the hand, but he doesn’t put weight on me as he rises to his full stature. A smile crosses his face, those yellow eyes of his glistening. “Are you kidding? I’ve never been better.”
It was fantastic sex, but his ego is already too inflated. He doesn’t need to hear that. “Do demons have STDs?” I ask, arching an eyebrow. “Asking for a friend.”
Zaki cackles. “Tell yourfriendshe doesn’t need to worry. Of course, sex demons don’t have STDs. It would be a fucked-up eternity if we did. We can’t catch them, and we can’t spread them.”
“What about, you know, pregnancies?” He did make a point of coming inside me. I was so out of my mind with pleasure I didn’t think twice about it.
Zaki’s smile turns into that all-knowing smirk. “Oh, little moth. You don’t have a body. You’re a ghost.”
“Yeah, I get that part, but what about out there?”
His eyes burn brighter, like a fire has started inside his head. It’s almost unsettling to see them do this. I wonder if I’ll ever get used to it. “So, you want to repeat that out there?”
The jerk got me there. We’ve been dancing around this matter ever since we met, and the connection is undeniable. I lick the corner of my mouth, gaping at him. “I told you I was asking for a friend.”
Zaki’s smirk doesn’t falter. “Demons don’t do human pregnancy. Rest assured,” he says, stepping closer. His smell floats in a cloud around me, warming me from the inside out. The power he has over me without even using his incubus mojo is ridiculous. “I’ll keep filling you to the brim, and you won’t ever have to worry about horned babies.”
He wants seconds? I thought he didn’t go there, but I’d rather not bring it up. The thought of a horned baby coming out my vagina dampens the mood, anyway. I shiver and step away. “Gods, that’s an image.”
Zaki chuckles, then folds his fingers around the nape of my neck. “Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”
We step out of the cave, our humor sobering up. Zaki studies the horizon, down the mountain, and to both sides. The wind blows no sounds in our direction. If there are demons out there, they’re very well hidden. My heart speeds in my chest, knowing we’re back to my routine of running away.
Zaki’s hand slides down my neck, my arm, until his fingers intertwine with mine. I gape at our joined hands. Even if we just fucked, it’s still weird to see a sex demon being so gentle. He doesn’t look in my direction as he offers me a knife, keeping the second one tight in his hand. “The portal into the human realm is close by. I hope they have given up on chasing us, thinking we might have already crossed.”
I squeeze his fingers. “And what happens then? Won’t your father know where you are?”
“He will, but since we have a deal, it’s within the rules. He might send someone after me, but I’ll deal with that when the time comes.” And he shoots me one of those dazzling smiles of his.
The nickname he’s given me makes profound sense, then. Zaki burns so bright it’s like he has a fire inside his chest. It comes out in those beaming smiles and in how his yellow eyes shine. And this attraction between us? It is like I’m a moth, impossibly taken by him, unable to escape this magnetism.
It’s also funny because moths are creatures of the dark, like me.
“Ready?” he asks softly, bringing my hand up to his chest. There’s a second of doubt there, as if he would stay if I wanted to stay, or he would do whatever I wanted if I changed my mind.
I swallow hard, pushing these feelings down. “Ready.” And we take off together.
Zaki’s hand is a huge help sliding down the side of the mountain. He keeps my balance, catches me when I trip. We run, bent at the waist, keeping to the shadows of the path. When we hit an open field, he lets go of my fingers. It’s a blessing, really. Running is already hard enough as it is, I don’t want to make it more difficult. We kick small rocks, dart between the meager fallen trees, and take a turn into the beaten path.
Maybe because of the shimmering barrier between the Underworld and the Abyss, I expected a black curtain to rise in front of me when Zaki skids to a halt. Instead, the path takes us into the mouth of a cave.