Page 13 of Drawn to the Demon Duke
Glaine might not have hadan answer for me, or any of the other guards that come to tend to the human in the dungeon. Now, that might be because the head of Haures’s tipped them off not to be too chummy with the human because I can’t get a word out of any of them. I even thought the magic wore off and they couldn’t understand me anymore, but whenever it’s Glaine who comes down to patrol the empty dungeon, he’ll at least talk to me even if it’s just to snap orders at me. Plus, there was another green-eyed demon who must’ve felt some pity for me, becausewhen I called after him that I’d like to at least have a book to read, he brings me one.
So, no, they didn’t know how long I’d be stuck down here without really knowing when that would change, but on the third day I get my answer when I wake up out of a slight doze, sit up on the cot, and find Haures watching me sleep from the hall.
I don’t know how long he was there. I don’t have any idea what time it is. I lost all track of it, and only wish I’d remember to put my Swatch watch back on after I finished washing dishes the day I was nabbed by the demon duke.
That was only a nap, though, so I still consider it the third ‘day’. I also don’t know what took so long for Haures to check up on his human prisoner, but I’m not too keen on the way my heart jumps giddily to find him standing within arms reach.
Darn it. I’d done everything I could over the last three days to pretend that I imagined that initial pull toward him, then the jolt when he touched my skin after having the purple-eyed demon. I thought it worked—and then our eyes meet and I feel zapped awake.
Like our connection is electric in a world that doesn’t have electricity, though it ismagic.
So, it seems to me, is Haures.
There’s something about him. You’d think that, after making me his prisoner, I’d never want to see his face again. If only.
I can’t deny there’s something pulling me toward him. The way he’s staring at me now… I almost want to pinch myself to make sure Iamawake.
It wouldn’t be the first time I thought I saw him there in the gloom. Not even when I was conscious, either.
You see, I dream about him. And I know it’s Haures because I don’t change his features at all. It’s like my subconscious has no problem with his monstrous appearance. And, really, is he that much of a monster; looks-wise, I mean. So he has horns.Claws. Tusks. Take them away and he could be any bodybuilder on Venice Beach, just without the golden tan.
Crud. I’m attracted to him. He locked me in a dunger, and as though he’s the villain that the ingenue heroine can’t help but want, I had to fist my hand to keep from reaching through the bars and see if his skin is as warm as something tells me it would be.
I clear my throat. It’s thick with something. Sleep, maybe, or an irrational lust that has me squeezing my thighs together as I stay seated on the cot.
“It’s you,” I say, pretending like I haven’t spent the last three days hoping to see him for a third time. “Are you finally going to send me home again?”
A pang in my chest has me struggling to cover up my wince.
I ignore it.
Over the last three days, I’ve had plenty of pangs like that. There’s this strange, unsettling feeling, deep in my chest, that seems to be connecting me to Haures. I don’t understand it, and thought I don’tnotlike it, it’s grown annoying when there isn’t a darn thing I can do about it.
I can go. I never got the chance to read the ‘promise’ part of theverus amorspell. I stopped at ‘manifest’, and it’s pretty obvious that part worked. If I promised myself to him, I don’t think Icouldleave Haures, but since Ididn’t…
We can chalk this up to a silly little girl playing around with forces she didn’t understand, despite all the years of research and correspondence she had that made her believe otherwise.
Sound good?
To me, maybe, but not Haures.
At first, he shakes his head. So that’s a no, I’m not going home. But then he crooks his finger, gesturing at his bulk with his claw.
“Come with me, mortal.”
CHAPTER 6
DINE WITH ME
SUSANNA
Ialmost want to tell him to take a long walk off a short pier or something even more snotty.
Like, really?
Come with you, Haures?
Three days after he stole me from my house, leaving me down in the dungeon, claiming I broke some demon law thatI’ve never heard of… three days of suffering with thisthingin my chest, tugging me toward him, drawing me closer, wishing he’d throw me a bone and explain what the hell he meant when he said I was his… three days after he gave me every reason to stop believing in true love for the first time in my life andnowhe wants to summon me this time, telling me to go with him?
