Luckily, the other knots came more easily. I was working on her left ankle when I felt Domingo’s spell fail.
A frisson of energy settled over me, like I’d stepped under one of those grocery store produce misters. Breathing became easier immediately as my nose stopped itching.#p#分页标题#e#
The magic was gone. The circle had broken.
And I was still in the basement of The Pit.
“Step back. Hands in the air.”
I settled back on my heels, mind racing through all of my favorite swear words, both real and invented for the situation. “You woke up fast,” I said, looking over my shoulder to see Eduardo on the stairs. He still had one gun. Guess I should have taken both of those from him.
He scrubbed a hand over his eyes. Took another two steps into the basement.
“I should be thanking you,” Eduardo said. “I thought that Erin was going to get the bounty. But you fixed that problem for me, didn’t you? Sounds like I’ll be the one to enjoy the payday now.”
Wait. Erin was going to get the bounty? What bounty?
Isobel was stirring behind me. Had to get her out of there—first priority. Questions could come later.
The door opened again.
“Don’t shoot him. He’s mine.”
My heart stopped beating at the sight of the second man that had stepped onto the stairs. His hair was choppily short and inky-black. His skin was pale, his eyes endless pits of darkness. And there was a tattoo encircling his neck—feathered wings that touched his chin with the tips.
It was the incubus that had tortured Ofelia.
My hatred was immediate, but brief. The incubus had brought raw sexual energy with him. His thrall crashed into me. Sucked my breath away.
All I could think of was naked bodies. Sweaty skin. Lips and fingers.
“Hey, I caught him first, Gregor,” Eduardo protested.
Gregor. The incubus was named Gregor.
“And I told you not to shoot him,” the demon said, cracking his knuckles. I stared at his fingers and thought about them wrapped around my hardening shaft. I couldn’t help it—couldn’t clear the image from my mind, no matter how hard I fought it.
I’d been able to resist the Needles in Helltown, but this guy was a thousand times more powerful than that. I was the tree bowed under the weight of the hurricane. I was nothing.
I needed him.
Eduardo was still talking, but I barely heard him. “If you think this means you don’t have to pay me the bounty—”
“I don’t,” Gregor said.
Fuck it, kill him. Kill him now before the thrall’s too much.
I moved in slow motion. Stood, turned, drawing my Desert Eagle.
My hands were clumsy on the metal. Didn’t want to be wrapped around a gun, didn’t want my finger curved around the trigger. My dick was hardening, straining against my fly. I wanted my clothes off. I wanted Gregor. I knew it was thrall, and it didn’t matter.
I aimed the gun at Gregor’s head but couldn’t pull the trigger. His black eyes were sucking me in. He extended a hand toward me and the tension between us grew to a fever pitch until I couldn’t tell that Eduardo was still in the room. Hell, even Isobel didn’t matter anymore—the woman I’d broken into The Pit to save. It was just the incubus and me.
The demon that had tortured my sister.
Shoot him. Now.
The Desert Eagle slipped out of my hand. Hit the ground.
My trigger finger tensed after the gun was already gone. Seconds too late. The only explosion I heard was my will self-destructing.
I tried to draw Eduardo’s Beretta, but then the incubus was on top of me, slamming me into the wall, punching me across the jaw. It felt good. Like pleasure erupting down my spine. I wanted him to do it again. I wanted him to rip my throat out and drink the blood and ride me down into darkness. I’d bleed for him, drain every fluid dry if Gregor asked.
Ofelia had turned this down for a week. A week.
Thirty seconds of it and I was ready to give in.
Gregor punched me again. “I’ve been waiting years,” he growled, punctuating each word with another strike. “You. Almost. Killed. Me.”
“More,” I said. The word came out unbidden. My balls were getting tight, on the verge of erupting. My hands were empty—I’d dropped the Beretta, too.
This is thrall, you have to shake it, you have to get free…
Knuckles met the bridge of my nose. Felt something snap. Tasted blood.
It was good. So damn good.
“You ruined my life!” Gregor said. “You made me look impotent in front of the Needles when you took that bitch away. And I had to cut a fucking deal with the union to get out of the detention center. Do you know what that did to my pride?”
Why was he so angry with me? I just wanted to please him—whatever it would take for him to keep pleasing me.