My ability to form complete sentences vanished with these new details.
"How is any of this possible?" Orion translated.
I nodded vigorously, yeah that.
"These aren’t normal powers. They come from elsewhere."
"Where?"
"Hell," he said.
"Okay,” I muttered. “Guess I should have expected that."
Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer. Of course demonic powers came from the hell realm, the same place demons came from.
"Not the realm, Rob,” Orion continued. “The planet."
"Um, what?"
That I didnotexpect.
“Did I hit my head when I passed out?” That had to be the explanation. Was he really talking about other planets?
Orion’s dry sense of humor was subtle sometimes, but this was hardly the time for jokes. And he acted as serious as ever. Holy shit.
"None of us demons know the truth. My mother says my head has been in the stars since I was born, so she named me Orion. If only she knew.Alldemons come from the stars. But wethinkwe come from the same place as humans and as shifters, the same place as everything else for the same reasons.”
"Uh, right… where’s that and what are those reasons exactly?"
"Who the hell knows?" Oh. Duh. “It’s just one of life’s mysteries. But in the case of demons, we come from a planet that shares space with this one, though it exists in a different dimension. The planet is called Hell.”
Yeah, I got that. But it still helped for him to say it, for it to sink in. Hell was a planet? That brought up so many questions.
Orion was quick to inform me he had few answers.
"I’d fill you in if I could,” he said. “I barely know any of the details. Demons were here thousands and thousands of years ago and aren’t allowed to travel back here again. I think that sex demons on Earth and their counterparts on Hell have evolved and developed differently in their time apart. Earth has hidden the supernatural world and places limits on magic to prevent any one being from having too much power. Hell went in a different direction. There are no limits to skills or ambitions. I only received a small taste of the powers they have in Hell and it was too much.”
So, Orion learned sneaky forbidden knowledge and was capable of draining my magic from me. Once he tasted the magic he couldn’t stop. I remembered the guy from Bliss that Bill saw, all grey and wrinkly like someone sucked out his insides with a straw.
Orioncould do that too? Did Orion, did he do the same things? Oh God.
“I haven’t killed anyone,” Orion added urgently. Then his face twisted in disgust. “Though I can’t take credit for that. My teacher was around to stop me before.”
“And now?” I whispered.
“Now I try avoiding temptation entirely. This is why I didn’t want to sleep together, so I wouldn’t feed from you.” Orion looked pained as he gazed at me. “I only feed from humans. It’s too risky to feed on the supernatural and feel the power or the magic in them. I can’t trust myself not to go too far. If I can’t stop, then I can’t start.”
I filled in the blanks. “But then sex seemed like our only hope of connecting.”
"Yes, and Lex needs to be stopped.” He scowled. “I thought for a moment that I’d become stronger, that it would be different this time. That I’d be able to stop myself from going too far.” His hand clenched as he looked at me. “And if nothing else, I wouldn’t want to hurtyou. But I failed. I’m so sorry."
Orion insisted we shouldn’t sleep together when we met. Here I thought being a lowly mage with no skill and questionable morals held him back. I automatically decided he was against us sleeping together because ofmeand never considered the reverse. I thought the duck caller and using it for a safeword was just a standard precaution. Of course Orion insisted on it, he knew that it might be necessary if he lost control.
And now he seemed pretty guilty, blaming himself and thinking I hated him for not telling me.
Fortunately for him, I spent the better part of my 20s being a petty criminal and perpetually up to no good. I understood being ashamed of your past. I understood sparing the details and not wanting someone to see you the same way everyone else did, the same way you saw yourself.
"Hey, I’m okay," I promised him. Shaky but okay.
