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"Well, remember how I said all of us demons were created centuries ago, back when Underworld still existed?"
"Yeah. You said you were made to punish dark souls until the whole system was changed with the creation of the Burning Chasm," Dakota replied, and Ryk grinned like a proud teacher.
"Exactly. Well, most of the demons who are still, well, demons today were the last batch of us. When they realized that dark souls were corrupting us demons the longer we stayed with them, they stopped creating us. After that, most of the older demons were too far gone to be considered 'good' anymore, and they ended up in the Chasm with the rest of the dark souls."
Twenty-Five
Ryk
"Wait, so you're saying the people responsible for punishing the dark souls ended up becoming dark themselves?" Dakota demanded, completely focused on my words. It was amazing how well he listened whenever I talked. Even Star sometimes just acted like he was listening to me—though that was more because of his laziness than him finding me boring—but Dakota always gave me his hundred percent focus.
"Exactly. All but three of them ended up in the Chasm when Underworld went out of commission. Star is one of the three who made it," I explained. From the other two who'd made it out, Mammon fell to the dark side recently when he helped the dark souls escape, while Korrigan was a bit of a hermit who lived in New York now, if I remembered right.
"So Star is older than you two," Dakota said, and I nodded.
"It takes him more energy to do basically everything because he's so much older and continuously burning magic to keep up," I explained, repeating the words Star had once used to explain his laziness to me. As much as I teased him about it, I was actually quite proud of him. He'd managed to keep himself from getting affected by the darkness of the souls he'd had to torture, and he'd made it out of that where so many others hadn't. If I had been in his place, I wasn't sure I would've made it. The first few decades of my life as a demon—when I'd had to torture souls—were the most depressing time of my second life, and I didn't think I could've survived that way for as long as Star did.
"I guess I shouldn't tease him, then," Dakota said, and I chuckled.
"I think he's used to it now, and he doesn't really mind," I said, then glanced down at the sleeping Star.
"Oh, looks like Nico's asleep too," Dakota said, and I followed his gaze to a curled-up Nico on his other side. I was still happily lying on top of Star, but Nico had slid off Dakota a while ago.
"We should probably sleep too," I relented, and Dakota smiled at me before leaning over to turn off the lamp. In the dark, I reached out and took his hand in mine, squeezing softly as I closed my eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep.
The next morning, I woke up to find half of the bed empty, with just Star and I curled up around each other, and smiled when I realized this would be my new normal. Nico would wake up early to make breakfast—and because he'd never been able to sleep in—while Dakota did it for work, while Star and I could be as lazy as we wanted.
I still wanted to see Dakota off, though, so I decided to get up in a few minutes. Since it didn't feel like I was gonna fall asleep again, I leaned up on my elbows to gaze at Star.
His dark hair was a mess, and I smiled as I pushed a few strands away from his eyes. His eyelashes brushed against my fingers, and I bit my lip as I touched them again, loving how long and soft they were.
From his eyelashes, I moved on to his cheekbone and trailed my fingers all the way down to his chin and then up to his lips, his pink, pouty lips that looked so very soft and kissable.
I gasped when he suddenly bit down on my fingers, my eyes sliding to his now-open ones.
"Star!" I exclaimed, tugging futilely at my fingers as his eyes twinkled happily.
Finally, he opened his mouth, and I jerked my hand away.
"Good morning, Ryk." Star greeted me like he hadn't just tried to use my fingers like a chew toy.
"You bit me," I complained, making him chuckle.
"I was trying to be sexy," he said, and I rolled my eyes.
"Well, biting isn't sexy to me."
"Noted. I won't do it again, I promise. You can bite me whenever you want, though," he said, and I raised a brow at him.
"Oh, is that so?" I asked, throwing a leg over him and straddling him.
"Ryk, Star, get down here and have some breakfast," Nico said from downstairs, stopping me in my tracks.
"Five minutes," Star shot back, then raised a brow at me as if challenging me to continue. I obviously couldn't back down now, so I leaned over him and pressed a kiss on his chin, then down his throat. Running my tongue down his collarbone, I found a good, meaty part of his neck to bite. But before I did that, I dropped a bunch of kisses there, leaving tiny little nips and licks along with the kisses.
"Fuck, okay, okay, stop," Star gasped, grabbing my shoulders and pushing me back and away from his neck.
"So, did you like it?" I asked with a grin, then shimmied my hips a little to assure him that I could feel exactly how much he liked it.
