Page 34 of The Demon's Due
Morgan wiped ichor from the blade, his hands still shaking. “If they’d bitten us-” He broke off, throat tight.
Ashmedai’s golden eyes flickered faintly from the shadows of his mind.“I said run. You ran. YOU take instructions well for a mortal.”
Morgan glared up at the stars, still panting. “Next time, mayberememberto warn us before you drop us into a nest of flesh eating undead.”
Ashmedai’s chuckle was low and unapologetic.“Oops.”
Chapter 15
Night pressed down over Paris, the city alive with neon and headlights, the Seine glimmering like a vein of black glass.
Morgan shifted the burlap duffel higher on his shoulder, Freyr’s sword hidden beneath ragged fabric. The hilt jutted against his ribs, the gem set within it glimmering faintly even through the weave. Emerald green, luminous in the dark.
“The colour of my beloved’s eyes,” Ashmedai murmured, a smile in his voice. “Fitting.”
Síofra glanced up at Morgan, but he was already scowling. His wolf rumbled low in his chest. “Demons with memory issues,” he muttered, teeth gritted. “You almost got us killed back there. Wendigos. You forgot about bloody wendigos.”
Ashmedai’s laugh was jagged and unapologetic. “In fairness, there were many curses unleashed in those tunnels. A few slipped my mind.”
“Convenient,” Morgan snapped.
His stomach growled loud enough for Síofra to hear. She gave him a sidelong look. “You’re starving.”
“Damn right I am,” he growled, wolf and demon snarling inside him. “I’m eating for three now, apparently.”
They found a McDonald’s still open, its garish yellow arches glowing against the night. Inside, the warmth and fry oil smell was almost a comfort.
Morgan ordered six burgers, three large fries, and two milkshakes without blinking. Síofra stared at the tray when it arrived, piled high like a feast. “That can’t be healthy.”
“Wolf metabolism,” Morgan said through a mouthful, already halfway through his first burger.
Ashmedai’s voice purred smug in his mind. “Told you. Low blood sugar. You’re sluggish when you starve. You must feed properly. Especially if we intend to keep up with her.”
Morgan nearly choked on his shake. “That is true.”
Síofra sipped her own strawberry shake, trying not to smile as she watched him demolish his fourth burger in record time.
The sword’s gem still glowed faintly in the bag at their feet, and Ashmedai’s golden eyes kept drifting towards it from time to time.
The Eurostar rattled through the tunnel, rain streaking the windows.They all decided that maybe trains were safer than another disaster on an aeroplane. Morgan slouched in the seat beside Síofra, one hand covering his face. “I’m going to be brokeafter this,” he muttered. “Eurostar, rental car, food for three-” He jabbed his chest with a thumb. “-and none of you even pay rent.”
Síofra smirked knowing that he was as rich as Midas, but the words caught in her throat when she saw the shadows behind his eyes.
That night, after they’d rented yet another car and driven north, they made the climb towards the final pit stop-the druid’s circle. The air was cold, the stars hard pinpricks in a black velvet sky.
For once, Ashmedai was quiet and introspective. Almost unnervingly so.
Morgan spread a bedroll on the grass before pulling her close. He kissed her forehead and whispered against her skin. “You’re my heart, Síofra. Whatever happens… remember that.”
There was no one around. No walls, no watchers. Just the stone circle just ahead, the night stretching vast and endless. When he reached for the buttons of her shirt, she did not resist. His lips met hers in a tentative exploration before his tongue met hers. His hands gently squeezed her breast before moving to the soft skin of her sides. They made slow, reverent love under the stars, their breath misting in the cold, every touch an anchor against the storm to come. When the head of his cock notched into her moist opening and pressed in, she looked up at the stars over his shoulder before the sensation of him moving inside her wrenched all rational thought from her. Afterwards, he wrapped her in his arms, and they fell asleep tangled together, naked in the bedroll, the constellations watching.
Near midnight, Ashmedai’s voice stirred. “Wake. It is time.”
Her stomach dropped. “Already?”
She had been feeling uneasy about what would happen once everything fell in place. Would Ash leave? What would happen to Morgan?
The air grew colder as they climbed toward the Druid’s Circle, stones black against the silver wash of moonlight. Síofra shivered as Morgan laced their fingers together, his wolf restless under his skin. Ashmedai was quiet, his silence heavy.
