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My eyes hurt in the morning as a crisp breeze wafts over my face, even though the rest of my body is comfortably waddled in warm sheets. I reach out for Micah’s side of the bed, but he’s not there. I sit up to realize the window to the fire escape is open, a faint trace of smoke in the air.
Gathering the sheets around me, I follow the trail to discover Micah sitting on the steps, wearing nothing but his jeans and boots. In the winter sun, the devil on his back looks scarier, the head of a goat, creepily combined with the features of a human. I lower myself down slowly next to him, and trail the tattoo with my fingers. It’s incredible how he doesn’t even get the goosebumps from the crisp winter air, but his skin reacts to my touch.
His beautiful face doesn’t betray his emotions as he stares lost over the quiet street and into the forests that stretch out beyond it, to where the university turrets are visible in the distance.
“The face of this demon,” I say quietly, tracing the eyes that seemed to come alive that night with Santi. “Is it yours?”
“Why, you see a resemblance?” He takes another drag of his cigarette, eyes still fixed in the distance. I repress a shiver. There’s something in them that’s never been there before. A strange melancholy.
“No, not really. But I didn’t want to begin our conversation with how poor of a job your tattoo artist did.”
A little smile lifts the corner of his mouth, but that’s all my feeble attempt at lightening the mood does for us.
“It’s the demon that’s haunting me,” he offers, his voice a ripple of bitter chocolate. “All my life, it’s been there. Dependable. Ever-present. As close as Sade. Or even closer, since it’s under my skin.”
He takes another drag of his cigarette and, even though I want to snatch it out of his mouth every time I see him inhale that poison, I refrain.
“Then why tattoo it on the outside of your body if it’s already ravaging you from the inside?” I inquire softly, now touching him with both hands, and splaying my fingers over his back, caressing my way toward his arms. He leans into me, even if the move is barely perceptible.
“It was an outlet. A way to channel it out. To release the energy before it tore me apart.”
I remember the beast coming alive when he flexed. Sneering, showing me that it’s got Micah in its claws and that there’s nothing I can do about it. That it would end up claiming him completely, devouring him.
But not on my watch.
“What do you think it wants ultimately?” I whisper. “How can it be satisfied?”
“You could, for example, finally tell me what’s up between you and Romano.”
It’s my turn to let out a small chuckle, being reminded of my own demons. “If I could, I would have done it a long time ago, Micah. You know that.”
He nods, the tip of his cigarette sizzling as he drags from it. “Yeah. It would have saved you a lot of nasty fucking.”
I clasp his cigarette between my fingers and retrieve it from between his perfect lips. He’s right. If it hadn’t been for all of this, he and I would never have come together. And I don’t even want to imagine a world in which I never tasted him. Never felt his body on mine, his thick, pierced dick inside me. The twisted part of me whispers in my ear that Micah Royales was made for me. His luxurious lips, his body, his cock, all of him, they were specifically tailored to unlock my inhibited sensuality.
I wrap my lips around the cigarette, but Micah grabs it in his fist. The tip sears into his skin, but not even a muscle moves on his face.
“What the fuck are you doing?” he growls.
“If you can put death in you with this thing, then so can I.”
“Like hell you can.”
“I have demons too, Micah.”
“Then let me fucking annihilate them.”
I scoff. “You can’t fight my demons any more than I can fight yours.”
He throws the cigarette over the railing, angles his body to mine and pulls me into him. My lips part in awe at how warm he is despite the winter chill.
“Eva.” I sigh at the sound of my name coming from his mouth. There’s something in the way he says it that turns me into putty. “What the fuck does Romano have on you that’s got you so terrified? You must know by now that, whatever it is, I can take care of it. Fuck, I’ll take care of him if he so much as tries to touch you.” That deranged darkness takes over his eyes and I immerse myself in it. To think that only a few weeks ago, it scared me to death. Now it soothes me like nothing else. I could live bathing in that darkness. Letting it hurt me, letting it possess me.
“That would put you in serious trouble with the Elders.”
“I don’t give a fuck.”
I smile up at him, gently touching his jaw. “But I do.”
