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I press the cloth onto her, and she nods, breathing deeply. There is a hint of a smile on her lips, and they are beginning to redden again with life, which gives me great satisfaction, and I wipe her face clean.
“You are quite good at this,” Lana whispers.
“At what?”
“Taking care of me,” she says, a whisper of a smile teasing her mouth. “Are you sure you aren’t this realm’s healer?”
I smile at her broadly while my heart flutters in my chest once more. I have an idea of what is going on inside me, but it is beautifully tumultuous.
“I don’t know about that,” I say, holding onto the cloth still. “Let me know if there is indeed a job opening, though.”
Her smile is bright but exhausted. I take her by the hand and bring it up to her head, once again, instructing her to hold it for as long as she can before falling into slumber.
“Systorak?”
My name coming out her mouth is like a poem, one that I never knew I’d want to be written.
“Yes, Lana?” I say softly.
“Do you think you can stay here tonight?” she says, uncharacteristically shy. “I’m not going to sleep while I’m thinking another one of those things is after me.”
Her voice is low, oddly vulnerable, and a bit sensual. My loins throb, and
I nod quickly.
“No problem,” I try to say without emotion. “Let me see to the … issue in the hallway, and I’ll come right back in. I promise.”
She nods, then snuggles into the bed. I leave the room before I get a chance to lose myself in that face, that body, that essence I want to drown in.
“Fuck,” I mutter to myself.
I swiftly and effectively get rid of the demon’s body, stuffing it into an incinerator and setting it ablaze. Not that any of that will matter when it comes to the demon nobles. My head is as good as getting chopped off and placed on a spike for decoration.
Those thoughts all disappear the moment I walk back into the bedroom with Lana, laying there, dozing lightly. My body is too large to lay on the bed with her, so I lay down on the floor. Her breathing lulls me to sleep, dreaming of days that will never be.
ELEVEN
LANA
Fleeing from the monster has left me exhausted, drained, and utterly spent from the adrenaline surging through my body and the relief I felt from the sight of the magnificent Systorak. A lot of it felt like the movement of a dream sequence; slow and languid, surreal and inspiring.
The sight of him, his multiple arms crawling toward the beast, would have initially left me running for the hills. The metaphorical hills, of course, since there would be nowhere else to go in this tower than my chambers.
His rescue thrilled me in a way that a classic damsel in distress would be thrilled with. I have never considered myself in need of being saved, but when one faces down a massive, winged demon, help certainly is appreciated.
I was unquestionably a little fuzzy from the crash into the stone wall, but it wasn’t anything serious. I cannot think of another time in my life when I allowed a man to carry me to bed and to take care of me without any resistance.
Perhaps, the bonk on the head was much needed because his touch was gentle and had fulfilled something in me that had lain dormant in the basement of my body.
All eight of his eyes are adoring, considerate, and soft. It was a strict juxtaposition to his appearance and the startling way we had met. But our encounters were shifting, as was my willingness toward vulnerability. Something that once frightened me is starting to feel comforting, titillating, and freeing.
I let myself fall asleep once he left the room to clean up the mess of the wasp thing. My eyelids are heavy. There is no way I can resist closing my eyes or my hand holding the cloth to my head from falling limp.
I wake slowly, eyes fluttering open, not because morning has arrived but because I sense an energy nearby. I am still on my back after drifting off, and it is the dead of night, but there is something glowing, a bright red, in the corner of my eye.
Without fear or trepidation, I turn my head, and there in the dark are eight pinpricks of light, staring me down.
A flush of excitement moves through me like rain. My heart picks up its pace, my skin electric under the blanket, and my breath rises and falls like an eroding mountain.
