Zari would have found it touching if it hadn’t hurt a bit more. “What’s that for now?”
“For lying to me.”
“Lying to you?”
“You said you were fine!” The elevator doors parted open, and manners prevented Alexandru from continuing. He carried her out of the elevator, his hard embrace telling her it was far from over.
Entering his suite, he kicked the door shut and, in a blink of an eye, they were on his bed, Zari flat on her back and Alexandru looming over her with a scowl on his handsome face.
“You were bleeding all over,” he hissed. “Here. Here. Here.” He touched her eyes, her ears, her lips. “You were dying!” Just remembering it made his hand shake.
The raw fear in Alexandru’s gaze had Zari placing her hand against his cheek. “But I’m alive now.”
“By the fucking skin of your teeth,” he bit out.
Since she couldn’t argue that, she just said, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I terrified you. I didn’t mean to. Lady Katarina had it under control.”
He shook his head. “What she fucking did was a wild guess,” he said tightly, “and you were just damn lucky it paid off!”
She tried to find something positive to say and only ended up with a cliché. “But Master, all’s well that—”
Alexandru snarled, “You won’t want what I’ll do to you if you dare finish that thought.”
“—ends well?”
Both of them froze.
“Zari.” A growl and a groan at the same time.
She threw her arms around him before he could punish her. “Master.” She tightened her hold and pushed her breasts against his chest.
He choked back a laugh. “Are you trying to seduce me out of getting pissed?”
Hiding her face in the crook of his neck, she nodded. She also rubbed her body against him.
His cock became fully erect and he gritted out, “I have to say…it’s working, pet.”
“Master?” She closed her eyes. “Lady Katarina said…” She felt him stiffen, but she knew she had to ask. “She said you chose me.”
Silence.
“I did.”
She couldn’t breathe. “Why?”
Because you own my heart now, and it will always be yours. The words came out of nowhere. He hadn’t planned to fucking say it, but now that he did, he knew he wouldn’t take it back. It was a fucking relief that it was all out now, a fucking relief that everything was finally clear to him.
Katarina was the past. Zari, his pet, was his eternity.
When she didn’t say anything, his jaw clenched. Zari?
Yes, Master?
You want me to strangle the words out of you?
Not a good joke—
Stop fucking with me—
Zari suddenly pushed his chest, and when he fell on his back, she climbed over him, bracing her hands beside him. Their eyes met, and he sucked in his breath at what he saw in her gaze.
He had his answer, and she knew it.
Even so, she gave him a tremulous smile as she said, “In case you need to hear it…” She wiped her tears. “I love you, Master. Alexandru. I love you.”
She bent down, and their lips touched.
But they didn’t kiss.
Because she started to see.
~~~~
“You sure you want to do this?” Erou asked as, at his nod, his enforcers cut the yellow tape that barricaded the room where the demon’s host had been found and killed this afternoon.
Zari nodded.
Stepping aside, he warned, “We’ve cleaned it to escape human detection, but there are sure to be remnants that you’ll notice.”
When Alexandru opened the door, Zari was immediately hit by a rotten smell that wafted out of the room. She shook her head in dismay. It was such a bad odor, she couldn’t believe most humans wouldn’t be able to smell it.
Alexandru and Katarina stepped inside first. There was no jealousy in her heart as she watched the two working together, checking all parts of the room before Alexandru came back for her. “It’s clear.”
Accepting his hand, she followed him inside and found the smell even worse, making her feel like throwing up. Nothing looked untoward about the room at all, the enforcers having done a good job at cleaning. The host’s possessions remained in their place, and those were what she was most interested in.
“Do you think she’s been its host from the start?” Zari asked shakily.
“Most likely,” Alexandru answered grimly. “If you check the shower, you’ll see dozens of bottles of hair dye. Hosting a demon will take its toll on a body, even a vampire’s, and this one had to dye the hair black constantly to avoid unnecessary questions.”
Her gaze strayed towards the host’s ID, and she recited a quick prayer for the soul of the vampire whose life the demon had stolen. It had been the professor assigned to her class’ bus, and she had been the reason why the demon had been able to sink its claws into Zari. It only needed one touch, and the host had managed that when she took the consent form from Zari’s hands.