“My dad died when I was young and I don’t think she ever got over it. He was the love of her life. So she took a pill to numb the pain and then she took another.” Darcy closed her eyes, remembering watching her mother crush the little white pills on the kitchen counter. “Oxy was her drug of choice—in the beginning, at least. By the end she didn’t care how she got her fix.”
“How did you survive?”
“Blake.”
“Your stepfather.”
“Yeah. He started dating my mom, and unfortunately for him, she turned out to be the love of his life.” How did she tell him the years her stepfather had spent chasing after her flighty, vivacious mother? Blake was the only stable constant in her young life. When he’d swept into her life she thought he was a knight in shining armor like she’d read about in fairytales. She’d loved him instantly. He was the only reason she’d had any childhood to speak of. Whenever her mom had been too strung out to remember she had a child to care for, Blake came to the rescue. He’d raised her far more than her mother had ever cared to.
“Was your mother a hunter too?”
Darcy shook her head. “I never knew hunters existed until after she died. I was a teen by then, and an orphan. But Blake really stepped up. He didn’t leave me, though honestly I don’t think the option ever occurred to him. I was his and no matter what, he was going to take care of me. He took me home with him and raised me as best he could.” She paused, drawing invisible symbols on his chest with a fingertip. “I think he had stopped hunting all those years he lived with us. But with mom gone, he had no one to hold him back from his calling anymore. I caught him cleaning his weapons once, and that’s when I learned the truth.” Darcy rolled her gaze back up to his. “I asked him to train me and the rest is history.”
He drew a finger down her cheek in a comforting touch. “Thank you.”
She smiled in reply. It hadn’t been as hard as she’d expected to tell him. She’d wanted to confide and allow him to know her. Not an impulse she felt often. But this once, she didn’t regret it. Maybe there was something to this trust thing after all.
“You’re having trouble keeping your eyes open,” he told her, amusement in his voice. “Sleep, Darcy. I’ll be here.”
She snuggled in closer as exhaustion caught up with her, and she drifted off to sleep with a smile on her face. She’d never felt as safe as she did in her demon lover’s arms.
Chapter Nine
The barren winter landscape flew past Jaral’s window as they traveled down the empty country road. One things humans did well was invent, he’d give them that much. They’d done a remarkable job creating ways of making their lives easier without magic.
Jaral glanced at the mortal by his side. She’d been twitchy all morning, no doubt unsure how to handle him now that he no longer fit into a convenient little box marked Evil Demon.
He should be rejoicing. Winning her trust would give him far more options. If he did follow his father’s orders, her trust might be key to keeping her in the dark long enough to end her world.
Except he had meant every word he’d spoken to her last night. He wanted to know her. Wanted to gain her trust in a way that had nothing to do with his desire to control her. Liam would laugh his head off if he could see how this one girl was messing with Jaral’s mind.
It should be an easy decision to help his father. He’d use Darcy to get the blood and pass it on to Abaddon. The king could do as he pleased. But that outcome would no doubt cost his lover her life and for the first time in centuries, he had someone he wanted to protect.
He cared about her. How bloody stupid of him.
Mate. The word whispered through his mind once more. Had any other demon in history rejected the bond? He had no idea if it was even possible. The more time he spent with her, however, the less being tied to a human bothered him. The sight of her coming apart in his arms last night was seared into his memory.
His cock hardened at the direction of his thoughts. He wanted nothing more than to sink into her warmth, mission be damned. No woman had ever consumed him in such a way. He was on shaky ground.
“Do you want to stop for lunch?” she asked, breaking him from his thoughts. “It would be faster to skip it and keep going. I want to get to Sarah’s tonight. But if you need a break we can stop.”
It was the most words she’d spoken to him all morning.
He thought of claiming a hunger he didn’t feel in order to get Darcy to stop and rest but the hunter was correct. Time was of the essence. If she could continue on without stopping, it would be wise to let her. “I’m fine,” he replied.