Page 28 of Taken By the Twins

Jared frowns, glancing over there. “Maybe that was a bird before, but what the hell was that? You bring a dog with you when you decided to break into my place tonight?”

Shit. “A dog? What? No.”

Jared shrugs. “Doesn’t matter anyway. You’re here. You’re a month late to answer my texts, but since you went to the trouble to figure out what condo I rented now that I’m back in New York again, I forgive you. Let’s fuck.”

Amonth? Time must run differently in the demon world or something because, at my count, it hasn’t even been a full week since New Year’s Eve.

Whatever. That’s something to deal with later. For now?—

Before Damien can growl again, I shut Jared down. “I’m not here to sleep with you.”

“Why not?”

Maybe because my legs were still quivering from the orgasm Lucian gave me as I walked into this room?

I don’t tell him that. Instead, I say, “Because I’m too good for you.”

It’s true. It was always true. He used my own insecurities against me, then proceeded to wield them for the next twelveyears. Whenever I was weak—at twenty-one, at twenty-four, atthirty—he was there, to fuck me and use me and discard me.

You know who won’t do that?

My demons.

I scoff, then turn away from Jared. “I was always too good for you. It just took me to right this second to see it. But I see, Jared. I see a lot know.”

And I have the doppelseers to thank for that.

Am I psychic too now? Those dreams of mine… maybe they are visions. Or maybe it’s wishful thinking that has me imagining Jared getting old and wrinkled, still making moves on women half his age, never finding true love… while I spend the rest of eternity with my demons.

I see it. A glimpse of the future, a flash of the happily ever after I always wanted… I see it, and, suddenly, all I want to do is go back to Sombra, curl up with Lucian, and get to know Damien better.

That’s my fate. It might not have been the new year I planned, but my future will be better because Iseeit and I cling to that promise of forever with Damien and Lucian as I start to walk away from Jared.

But my ex? He doesn’t have magic, like my mates do. He can’t see the future, not like I’m beginning to suspect that I can; and wouldn’tthathave been much handier when I was younger and would’ve known better than to keep my distance from Jared.

He also seems to have forgotten all about the shadows that were terrorizing him and the growl that unnerved him because if he hadn’t? He might’ve thought better than to lunge for me, grabbing my arm in a bruisingly tight grip.

“Hey. Where do you think you’re going?”

I shake my arm. “Let me go!”

“No. You’re here. I’m horny. We’re going to fuck. You know you want to. You know you want me.”

I donot.

“Jared, get off!”

The air shifts. It’s charged with something I can’t quite explain, only that I’m suddenly far calmer than I was two seconds ago.

“Release the female,” booms a familiar voice.

My head whips around. So does Jared’s.

It’s Damien. He’s not even in his shadows. Fully manifested in his seven-foot-tall demonic form, horns arching, eyes blazing… he glowers down at Jared.

Jared lets go of me even as he says, “What the fu?—”

“Now, Damien,” orders Lucian from somewhere behind me.

---