Page 79 of Demon Food

I froze, clutching the cigarette in one hand and the knife in the other.

“I told you I didn’t want to hurt you, and I meant it.” He clenched his teeth as the muscles of his stomach tightened and rippled. “But you need to bring me that now. Now.”

“Okay,” I whispered, nodding as I started toward him, the floorboards creaking beneath my feet. “I am. See? I am.”

But it was hard to believe this tiny cigarette would fix anything, just like it was hard to believe how blind I’d been this whole time. I didn’t see it before. I didn’t fucking see it!

He gripped the bed tighter when I stepped close enough to reach him, holding my gaze as he said, “No matter what I do, put it between my lips.”

No matter what he did? My heartbeat was thrashing, sounding behind my breath as I leaned in closer, and closer.

Then his hand snapped out, snatching my wrist, yanking hard. I stumbled toward him.

“You’re doing fine,” he said, his voice deeper, darker as he squeezed my wrist. “Put it between my lips.”

But I couldn’t. He was preventing me from getting close. He was clenching my wrist where I held the cigarette hard enough to crush my bone, like something inside him didn’t want him to smoke it.

“I can’t,” I whispered, trying to force it closer.

“Yes, you can.”

“I can’t! You’re stronger than me.”

His body was starting to squirm, parts of it trembling like he was fighting with himself. Then he yanked me forward with a rough tug, and I lurched onto the bed.

“You’re going to have to smoke it.” He was nodding as he pulled me on top of him. “Smoke it and force it on me.”

I tried to push myself off him, but he’d grabbed my chain, dragging me down as I fought.

“You can do it,” he said, his voice shaking. “Come on, Snow Fox. Smoke it. And kiss me.”

Fuck! His fingernails were digging into my thighs. He was losing himself.

Kiss him. All I needed to do was kiss him.

I sprang forward, straddling his narrow waist with my knees. Then I sucked the cigarette as hard as I could, filling my lungs with fragrant smoke while he gripped my thighs, gaze falling down my body.

With smoke burning my lungs, I clenched his firm jaw in my fingers. Then I crushed our mouths together.

The moan that poured from him was so deliciously desperate, like he was trying to feed, trying to come alive with a single kiss.

But if he wanted the single kiss, then he’d have to take the fucking sedation.

I exhaled fully into his mouth, keeping our lips sealed so nothing could escape, and he had no choice but to breathe.

He wasn’t drinking from me. Maybe it was the smoke, or maybe he just didn’t know how, but he wasn’t taking anything, even as his spine arched and nails dug harder into my skin.

His body jolted in protest when I broke the kiss, but I pressed my palm firmly over his mouth to hold the smoke in. He whimpered, blinking up at me with his red eyes so longing. So full of want.

I held his striking gaze, sucking in another deep drag. Then I lifted my palm, kissing him once more, slowly that time, emptying my breath into him.

His hands were still rubbing my thighs, his eyes still red, but something about him had changed. I could sense it. Like a sentience had slipped back into his body.

I sucked in more smoke, blowing it in cool curls over his lips as I whispered, “Alek, is this you?”

His eyes rolled shut as he breathed it in, holding it in his lungs.

“Is this you?” I repeated. “Are you back?”