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A pleased chuckle escaped the prince. He didn’t budge an inch when I insisted on leaning back down just to run my tongue along the open wound. The noise quickly shifted into a hiss. It didn’t take very long to evolve into a groan that flooded me with excited chills. “I told you…that it was simple.”
I didn’t think anything of it until I had licked most of the blood away. As soon as the faint black ink underneath was exposed, I froze. There’s no way in hell it worked. I was a bastard child, a hybrid that had no clue how to embrace the demonic side. Yet the longer I stared at the healing wound, the more the tattoo darkened before my very eyes. I rested my chin on his chest, watching the lines become clear until a tribal jackal gazed right back at me. “I-I did it,” I breathed.
“I knew you could, pet.”
I wrinkled my nose and locked gazes with him. “Don’t get me wrong. I was really doubtful that it was as easy as that, but I do appreciate you being such a firm believer.” I shifted my weight and started tracing the tattoo. “Are you going to tell me what had you so riled up earlier?”
I could tell by the way Asher flinched that he had been hoping I would have forgotten about his initial behavior. He released a slow sigh and shifted his gaze up toward the ceiling. “The country used to belong to the angels. The more territory they have to hand over to cover their debts, the more they’ve started to resist. Which led to one of my gun shipments going missing.”
“Hence why you threw on the extra requests with their prince.”
“Yes.” Asher returned his gaze toward me. He started brushing his fingers along my jaw, using my touch to keep his emotions grounded. “I attempted to keep an eye on his location through my demon lords, but it seems…he won’t stop at the same boundaries as I would to ensure he could slip out.”
“Boundaries like what?” I managed through clenched teeth. My grip tightened on him as a strong shiver ripped down my spine.
The prince reached out to tug the other end of the sheets loose and fling it over my body. “I might be a demon, pet, and there are many behaviors that are like second nature for me. Violent spurts and appeasing to the temptation of others are not something I would reject. But…” He winced, his words catching in his throat. Raw agony leaked into those eyes with so much strength that I could almost feel the emotion tearing through my own veins.
“Asher…” I eased up slightly. “What did Marcillo do?”
He closed his eyes. “He slit the throat of a child to consume his essence.”
As soon as those words hit the air, all of the warmth escaped my body. The chill that haunted me left me with so many emotions that I wasn’t ready to acknowledge. “He…He killed a child?”
Asher nodded slowly. “That’s one line that I won’t cross, Quinn. Mature mortals are another story, but a child…Their soul is innocent. Pure. It’s a burst of magic that an angel like Marcillo desperately needed to get out of my grasp.”
“I’m so sorry.” I relaxed against him, tucking my head underneath his chin.
He surprised me by uttering a bitter laugh that was borderline empty. “Don’t act like I’ve not disappointed you with that admission, pet. Not every demon would agree with that boundary. There are some that will walk right across it without any regret. It’s an unnecessary weakness.”
“Then I’m an unnecessary weakness.”
His golden eyes flew open. “Like hell.” The words were almost a primal snarl. If it had been the first day, I would have recoiled from the sudden change of tone.
Tonight, I merely glared right back at him. “If I’m not a weakness to you, then neither is upholding the belief that a child’s soul is pure and should be left alone. That just goes to show you aren’t a wild animal, Asher. You know right from wrong, even if humanity might disagree with a lot of it. Most people would expect an angel not to cross that line. The fact that Marcillo did… It’s disgusting. I can’t blame you at all for how furious you were.”
I was stunned to see how much my words seemed to comfort him. All the agony that had built up within that piercing gaze was quickly tamed and he relaxed. “You really are something else, pet,” he murmured.
I turned my head into his hand so that he cupped my face. “So are you.”
Asher pressed his lips against my hair. “Even after all I’ve done to you…it’s enough for you to despise me with every ounce of my being. Not only have you accepted me for who I am, but you’ve embraced your own bloodline with open arms. It’s not…quite what I expected when I got the news about who you were the daughter of.”
“It helps when you accepted me for who I was, even before that news was revealed,” I mused. “I was an outcast my entire life. From my own mother taking it out on me in every way that she could to the other organization members trying to shut me out.”
He responded with an agitated noise. “If they treated you that poorly, why did you stay?”
“Where else would I go?” I fired back softly.
A weary sigh escaped him. “Valid point, I suppose…” He tightened his arms around me, eager to chase away the chill that had started to seep into my bones.
I poked his chest with a soft giggle. “Face it, Asher…You bought me and now you’re just flat out stuck with me.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way, pet.”
We fell into a comfortable silence. While I was clinging to consciousness with Sandman nipping at my heels, the prince seemed to relax with every passing moment. We were both on the verge of falling asleep when pounding on his front door echoed throughout the apartment.
Asher immediately tensed. “Fuck,” he rasped.
A painful knot started to form in my stomach. “Who is it? Nico?”
