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Loki sticks out his chin. “Yes.”
For some strange reason, the other demon’s golden gaze dips to Loki’s bare chest. Ever since I mentioned that, while I like his cock very much, I wouldn’t mind if he kept it covered when we weren’t mating, Loki wears shadows around his lower half. He’s not as fully covered as Apollyon, but he’s decent.
“Then she is clan as well. Welcome,” he says. “Now, come. I will lead you to your home. It waits for you.”
Home. Sombra isn’t my home, not really, but it will be.
I bump Loki’s side. “I can’t wait.”
* * *
Our first fewdays in the village went by quickly mainly because there’s so much to do.
The house that Loki brings me to is larger than his shack in the shadows. Four rooms instead of two, it has things much closer to what I was used to on Earth. Take the bathroom area. Instead of just a hole in the ground and a single water tube, he has an elaborate basin that can hold water in it, and a black glass covering the hole that reminds me of an actual toilet.
There’s also afreakingtub. Since Sombra is a hellish realm—literally—all of the water in the bathroom is the perfect temperature to soak. Plus, it’s big enough to fit both Loki in his demon form and me comfortably.
In the designated bedroom, he has a bed similar to the one in the shadows. More light, too, and windows. Above, there are circles built into the ceiling.
He looks surprised when I point them out. That happens a lot when I ask about something that he thinks of as normal. Part of the essence exchange is making it so that mates know each other so intimately, there’s no doubt they’re made for each other. With his thoughts and memories passed over to me, I should know what they mean.
I don’t, mainly because I try not to rely on Loki’s essence. Something happened to him. Something that splintered this male, creating so many facets that he can be the seductive lover, the devoted mate, the fierce hunter, the intelligent mage, and the possessive beast all at the same time. Digging into his memories only gives me a headache. It’s like there’s a dark shadow covering almost everything he’s ever known or experienced, and if I peek under it, we’ll both hurt for it.
Besides, I’m human. Getting to know my lover—my mate—on my own is part of the fun. I’ll take the download of his demon language gladly so that I can communicate with him. Everything else? If I want to know, I’ll ask. Even if he thinks I should know, he answers anyway.
It works for us, and that’s how I discover that Loki isn’t just inhumanly fast. Those circles in the ceiling? Loki can turn to freaking mist, so faded he’s nearly invisible, before compressing and shooting right through that hole.
He can freakingfly.
It’s shadow travel, he explains, and while it’s not as quick as using a portal, it’s common for Sombra demons to flit around like eddies of wind.
He’s right. Every time I peek out of the window, I see at least one slightly dark shadow soaring overhead.
Every time I peek out of the window, I see another demon watching our house with interest.
I don’t know who the bigger draw is: me or Loki. I’m a human. I highly doubt that any of the residents on this demon plane has ever met someone like me before. I finally got the chance to ask Loki about the skull that scared the crap out of me when we first appeared in his old shack. I’m glad to hear that he found it just like it was, polished and clear and thrown among of piles of skull in an old arkoda den. Something about it called to him, so he grabbed it and took it home with him.
In his own sweet way, he must have always known he was meant to mate a human woman. But the skull itself tells me that I probably wasn’t the first human to visit this part of Sombra.
From the attention the villagers give me, you never would’ve known.
They think I look funny. I couldn’t even blame to demon child—spawn, Loki told me, because the demons fitting call their kidsspawn—for the way it blurted out, “Mama, what isthat?” when it first saw me. Even if he didn’t, I’ve caught a glimpse of what Loki though when he first saw me.
Colorless. No horns. No protective ridges. My ears are round instead of pointed, and my eyes are dim. To Loki, I was puny, my hair strangely soft, and yet… in a heartbeat, he decided that I was different, but I was his, and he learned to appreciate our differences.
Just like I did.
But if they think I’m weird, they’re all interested in Loki. From what I understand, there was a reason the only creatures we found in the shadows were more like animals than people. It’s rare to survive in there, and while I get a headache whenever I search Loki’s essence to see why he existed so long in the dark, the villagers are as amazed as Apollyon that Loki returned to Nuit.
A hundred years. He spenta hundred yearsin that shack. That shouldn’t shock me as much as it does. His essence tells me that he’s closer to four hundred, but to other demons, he’s still young.
Apollyon is overa thousand.
The clan leader is careful to warn the other villagers away while we’re settling in.
And when they don’t listen to him? They listen to the clanmother.
Now, I’ve never been shy. While it might seem like I’m avoiding being gawked out by the other demons, I decide to spend my first few days in the house because it needs dusting, airing out, and as much decorating as Loki’s conjuring skills can give me. Now that he has more control over his magic, there isn’t anything he can’t create for me with the proper instruction… and motivation.
