Page 34 of Taken By the Twins

“Do you love me?” I demand.

“With everything I am,” he vows.

I pat his chest. “Good. What about Damien? Don’t you want him back with us?”

Lucian’s chest is heaving under my palms. It’s taking him everything he has not to toss me inside—or to go after Damien himself. “He is my twin. You are our mate. The gods decreed that we three were fated to be tougher.”

I hold up my hands as I take a step away from him. “Hey. Can’t go against the gods, right?”

“Tandy, please. Just wait a moment?—”

I can’t. “He won’t hurt me.” I believe that. Lucian… I can tell he wants to—and there’s only one way he will. “See the future, Lucian.”

“I see red,” he whispers. “Always red with you, dear one.”

Red like my hair.

Red like human blood.

I shake my head. “Know what? I don’t give a shit what you promised Damien. I don’t give a shit what you saw, either. I’m Tandy. I’ll always do what I think is right at the time. Sometimes that ends up with me in the backseat of a cop car, but oh well.” I wave my hand. “I’m good now. And I’m getting Damien back. Will you stop me?”

Lucian’s eyes—the right one purple, the left one white as though he’s taking some of Damien’s demonic side into him, keeping his twin with us—blaze into the shadows. “I will give youuntil the black moon rises,” he grates out. “Then I’m coming for you, Tandy.”

Fair enough. He promised his twin he wouldn’t chase him. But he won’t be going after Damien. He’ll go after me.

I blow him a kiss. “I’ll be right back.”

And I’m bringing Damien home with me.

I know he’s here.Iknowit. It’s harder to pick him out of the shadows surrounding me since, everywhere I look, I see blinding white eyes staring back at me, but Ifeelhim. In my chest, in myheart,I know that Damien is here.

I don’t want to believe he’s watching me without letting me know where exactly he is. That would be cruel, especially when any of the monsters in the shadows could attack me.

If he lets them eat me, I guess I’ll know where we stand once and for all, huh? And maybe that’s my panic talking, the overwhelming anxiety that the demon I’ve known for little more than a week could disappear out of my life as quickly as he entered it, andshatterit.

And I do mean shatter. When Jared broke my heart, I pieced it back together. Same with every other love I’ve had before or since. I moved on. I showed the world that, no matter what, they’ll never break Tandy Lewis. Even when it was my fault, and then when it wasn’t, I always come back swinging.

But if we lose Damien… is there coming back from that? I thought the guilt I suffered for betraying Sierra was bad. It took me twelve years to get to the point where she actually attempted to reach out and mend our old friendship. But if I came between a pair of bonded demon twins who’ve been codependent forthree thousand years?

No. There’s no coming back from that.

So I just have to make sure that I do what I said I would and bring Damien back home with me.

If he cares… if he really cares… there’s only one way I can think to reach him. If he ignores me, I won’t give up, but if he answers?

Then I’ll know my protective demon mate is still in there somewhere.

Cupping my mouth, I call out, “Damien? Ineedyou.”

No response. I spin around, trying to find him in the darkness, and open my mouth.

Before I can shout again, the air shifts. There is no such thing as wind in Sombe; at least, not in the part of the shadows where we hide. So when my hair flutters around my face, my shadow dress wafting in the unnatural breeze, I’m hoping that the mass of shadows that just whipped around me is Damien and not one of the completely soulless demons who live out here.

Through the shadows, firm flesh finds me. Hands lands on my upper arms, shadow claws tickling me even as I feel the heat from the demon at my back. He’s careful, though, very careful when he lifts me a couple of inches off the ash before turning me to face him.

It’s dark as fuck in here. The only light comes from the white eyes gazing down at me, but it’s enough. I’d recognize his inky black features and infamous scowl anywhere.

“You shouldn’t have come,” Damien says, voice as soft and lyrical as ever. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

---