Heart of the Demon

chapter Ten



Three days later, Keira agonized over how she felt. She was falling in love with Finn and couldn’t stop her developing feelings, especially since they had been spending more time together. The biggest reason she’d tried to slow things down after they’d had sex that one time was because everything had moved too fast. The sex had been mind blowing. So much so that she’d been afraid she wouldn’t ask the hard questions about him, wouldn’t look too closely at the type of man he really was.

And slowing things down had been the right thing to do. The desire was there, churning below the surface, but they’d actually shared things about themselves. She’d thought she understood what made him tick. She’d been so sure he’d turned a corner in his life. But it seemed like for every two steps she and Finn moved forward together, they got shoved three steps back. Now she found herself changing her mind about him again. Yes, she was attracted to him and believed he could be much more than what he was if he would let himself. But now, knowing he hadn’t been bothered at all by being assigned a hit, that he seemed ready to kill in order to prove himself worthy of being part of Stefan’s insanity, she wasn’t as certain of Finn’s capability for goodness. For decency. To conduct himself with honor.

She also had serious doubts about her own judgment. How could she have been so taken by a man who could kill someone he knew as part of an assignment? Regardless that he’d killed before, this was Tobias Caine they were talking about. And from the word that had spread throughout the preternatural community over the last few days, Tobias was dead. Someone had staked him through the heart and removed his fangs. For trophies, some said.

She knew it was for proof. And she knew who’d done it.

She needed to talk to Finn about it. To get him to help her wrap her head around how he could do such a thing.

She set her cup of tea on the table in her small breakfast nook and grabbed her cell phone from where it rested on the counter. Without giving herself time to pause and reflect, she dialed him up. Finn answered on the first ring, his voice rough as if she’d woken him up. She’d been awake and showered since before dawn. The sun had risen hours ago. She hadn’t even thought he might still be sleeping. But then he did a lot of his work later at night. She didn’t want to think about what he’d been doing last night. “It’s Keira,” she said. “I’m sorry, did I wake you?”

“Yeah, but it’s okay. What’s wrong?”

She heard a slight rasping sound and pictured him rubbing his hand against his whiskered jaw. She pushed back the longing that action brought forward. She had to get things straight between them before anything intimate happened again.

“Nothing’s wrong. I need to talk to you. About the group. Can you come over?” She held her breath.

“Sure.” There was a slight pause, and a rustle of sheets. She closed her eyes against the image of his long, lean body stretched out on a bed, muscles taut with sexual tension, face hard and dark with passion. Had he been alone? Her eyes flew open and she pressed her lips together. It was none of her business. They’d never claimed exclusivity. For all their flirting and petting, they’d only had sex the one time.

“I’ll be there in about forty-five minutes.”

“Okay. See you then.” Keira hung up and cupped her hands around her mug, letting the warmth of the liquid inside seep into her palms. She was still sitting there, sifting through her thoughts, through the argument she wanted to present him, when the doorbell rang. She stood and smoothed her hands down the sides of her jeans, and padded barefoot to the door.

Finn sauntered in as soon as the door opened. “I hear you were successful with your assignment the other night,” he said with a smile playing about his lips. “I guess congratulations are in order. You’re in. Part of the group. A bona fide rogue.”

She crossed her arms and stared at him. So many emotions coursed through her, she had a hard time identifying how she was feeling. Mad, certainly. Frightened. Not of Finn, but of the situation she was in. Betrayed, definitely by Finn. Ignoring his snark, she drew in a deep breath and said, “I heard you completed your task as well. Though I can’t offer up any congratulations.”

His lips turned down in an exaggerated frown. “Why not?”

“You. Killed. Tobias.” She stared at him, her eyes burning. This flippant attitude of his was going to get him in trouble someday, and that day might be today. Right now, as a matter of fact. “How could you revert to your old ways like that?”

“Revert to my old…” He folded his arms across his chest and met her glare with one of his own. “I never pretended to be anything but what I am, your feyness. I kill for a living; that’s what I do as Lucifer’s enforcer.”

“But that’s not what you want to do,” she said, also ignoring his sarcasm. “You told me yourself that you want out. Yet what you did only dug you in deeper.” She put one hand on her hip. “What did Lucifer have to say about all this?”

He gave that one shouldered shrug that usually seemed sexy but now just made her want to smack him into tomorrow. “You know how demons feel about vampires,” he said. “The only good vamp is a dead vamp.”

“You’re telling me he was okay with it? And you don’t think vampires will retaliate against demons?” What was wrong with him? He didn’t seem worried at all that he might have started a blood feud. “Tobias wasn’t any vamp. He was a well-liked and well-respected councilor.”

“We don’t concern ourselves overmuch about the council, either.” He shoved his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “Anyway, since when do you care about what happens between demons and vampires?”

“I care because of you, you great ignorant stump of a man.” Her voice came out more shrilly than she would have liked. In exasperation she walked forward and poked her finger against his chest. His firm, muscular chest covered by the softest shirt she’d ever felt. She curled her fingers into her palm and dropped her hand to her side. “I just don’t understand how you could do this. Tobias isn’t the only victim here, you know. There’s also Nix, and by extension her mother. And your father.”

“Don’t talk to me about victims,” he said, his voice deep and hoarse. His eyes were as hard as she’d ever seen them. “You have victims, too. You may not have killed them physically, but many of them, maybe most of them, were broken financially and emotionally. Their families didn’t feel any less victimized because their loved one was left alive.” As his ire rose, yellow sparks floated in his irises. “I at least put people out of their misery.”

“Oh, so you’re saying Tobias was miserable, then? Is that what you’re telling me?” Keira crossed her arms again and shot him a glare. “That’s some crystal ball you must have, to be able to know when someone’s so miserable they’re pining for death.” He opened his mouth to respond, but she forestalled him with a sharp slash of one hand through the air. “I’m not finished,” she spat. “How dare you compare what I did to what you did? People recover financially; there’s no coming back from the dead, boyo.”

He took a step closer, looming over her. “There’s not, I agree. But the ruin you’ve left in your wake, how can you defend that? Despite what you say, I’m sure there are plenty of people who were never the same after you finished with them. How many people committed suicide after you wiped them out financially?” He didn’t wait for her shocked response before he said, “At the very least, they didn’t trust people quite like they used to.”

“And that’s a good thing,” she snarled. “Because people hurt you if you let them. They let you down, they use you—” She broke off as tears threatened.

She’d thought she had left that old life behind her, but she’d taken to it again like a kid to candy. Maybe she hadn’t been as adept at change as she’d thought.

She took a few breaths to regain some control, and said more quietly, “The first chance someone got, they used my past against me. The past I’d left behind, the one I’d wanted to forget. To escape. Yet here I am. Again.” She raised her gaze to his. “And you. You wanted a different future than what your father has mapped out for you. Yet here you are, trapped in the present, doing what you’ve always done.” Pain tore her insides to shreds. She gave an abrupt laugh, the sound as brittle as broken glass. “Aren’t we the pair?”

“We’re a pair of something, that’s for sure.”

They stood in silence a few minutes. Finally she sighed and raked a hand through her hair. “Look, I got you out of bed, the least I can do is feed you.” She glanced at the digital display on the cable box. “It’s almost lunchtime. Let me fix you a sandwich or something.”

Finn stared at her a moment, then reached out and cupped her face. “I did what needed to be done, Keira. Someday I think you’ll understand. And I’m not particularly hungry…for food that is.” The yellow in his eyes intensified, obliterating the blue completely. He bent his head and pressed his mouth to hers in a kiss that wasn’t nearly as gentle as his hands. “Open your mouth for me,” he muttered, his voice harsh. Urgent. “I need to taste you.” He angled his hips against hers.

She felt his need, and her lips parted on a gasp. He took her mouth with his again, hard, his tongue stroking inside to tease her. Tempt her.

Keira was tired of fighting her feelings for him. At this moment in time, right here, right now, it was just the two of them and their passion. That was all that existed. She’d deal with reality and regrets later.



Finn tilted Keira’s head. God, she tasted better than anything he could remember. Sweet and spicy at the same time. He licked across her lips and dove back in.

Her tongue twisted around his, surging into his mouth when he retreated only to tempt him back to her when she withdrew. He forged forward. She suckled his tongue, drawing him deeper, making him groan as his cock hardened.

Her fresh heather scent made him crazy with need and her touch, soft and hungry and searching, made him ravenous. Leaving her mouth, he worked his way down her throat, stopping at the pulse pounding beneath her silken skin. He rested his lips there for a moment before touching the tip of his tongue to the spot.

He had to get her under him. Now. He pulled away. “Bedroom,” was all he could manage through a throat gone tight with lust. There was something else there, too, something he didn’t want to look too closely at. Something far more tender, but tenderness just got in the way.

“Yes.” Keira’s eyes held a gentle blue glow that threatened to enthrall him even without her using any fey glamour on him.

Finn swept her into his arms and carried her to her bedroom, where he set her on her feet next to the queen-size bed. He placed a kiss on the corner of her lips and eased off her clothing, his eyes narrowing at the sultry picture she made. Pink-tipped breasts billowed above a narrow waist and generous hips. He reached up and gently removed pins from her hair, letting it cascade over her shoulders and down her back in fiery waves. A rough groan left him. With economical movements he took off his clothes and then urged her onto the bed. He kissed her, his tongue sweeping between her lips to mate with hers.

Her hands came around him, fingers flexing into his back. She moved her legs and he slid between them, his cock stiff against her belly. He kissed his way down her throat, closing his eyes at the silkiness of her skin. Scattering kisses across her chest, he tongued each nipple to stiffness before kissing his way down her flat stomach.

His hands parted her thighs just a little wider, his fingers stroking a long caress in the folds between her legs. She jumped when he touched her, jerked against his hand, a sharp cry of pleasure escaping her.

He pushed a finger slowly inside her tight, hot sheath. At once her muscles clenched around him, velvet soft yet firm and moist. His own body throbbed and swelled in response.

Her hips pressed forward. Finn thrust another finger into her, stretching her, preparing her. More than anything, her pleasure mattered to him. Her velvet folds pulsed for him, wanting, demanding, and he fed that hunger, pushing deep, retreating, thrusting again so that her hips followed his lead.

“That’s it,” he breathed against her stomach. “Just like that. I want you ready for me.”

“I am ready for you,” she panted, her slender hands grasping his hair, trying to pull his face up to hers.

“No, you’re not. Not yet.” His mouth found the triangle of damp curls at the juncture of her thighs. Her breath hissed out as his tongue tasted her, his name a whispered plea. He lifted his head to look at her. “Open your legs wider. Let me have you.”

To his surprise, she clamped her thighs together. Her grip on his hair tightened. “I don’t want you playing nice, Finn. I want you inside me. Now.”

Who was he to argue? He reared up and braced himself with his palms against the mattress on either side of her arms. “Condoms?”

“It’s not like either of us can get STDs,” she murmured. “And it’s the wrong time of the month for me to get pregnant.” She stroked one finger down the middle of his chest, circling around his navel.

His eyes widened as sensation jumped straight to his straining cock. He groaned when her hand curled around his erection.

“I want you inside me,” she said. “Now. Naked. Skin on skin with nothing between us.”

Her thumb swept over the tip of his cock, spreading the silky wetness over the fat head. With a gasp, he pulled her hand away and knelt between her legs to guide his throbbing shaft to the entrance of her body. She was unbelievably wet. Any worry he’d had that he would hurt her if she was unprepared went away.

He punched his hips forward, saw the ruddy tip of his cock slide past the slick folds of her sex and felt her, tight and hot, close around him. The sensation shook his control even further.

“Keira!” Her name burst from between his clenched teeth. He grabbed her firm ass and lifted her as he slid in another inch. “Tell me you’re all right.”

“I’m fine. I’d be better if you’d hurry it up,” Keira gasped, her eyes bright, her hands sliding around him to clutch at his back.

Finn laughed, a short, sharp burst of sound from a throat tight with need. With a hard flex of his hips, he buried his cock deeper. It had been like this the first time they’d come together. Their joining brought him pure ecstasy. It was all he could do to keep from ravaging her. Lowering his head, he flicked his tongue against the taut peaks of her breasts. The action tightened her body around him even more.

“I feel full, like you’re part of me,” she whispered. “But I want more, Finn. I want all of you.” She slid her hands from his back down to grasp his buttocks.

“Me, too,” he gritted his teeth and surged forward. Her sheath was slick, hot, velvet-soft, and so tight it was about to kill him. He buried himself deep, withdrew, thrust again with slow, easy strokes. He watched her face. When he saw passion glazing her eyes, heard her soft pants, carnal pride filled him with satisfaction. He loved seeing that look on her face, loved knowing he was the one putting it there.

Finn pumped his hips faster, gliding in and out of her, deeper with each stroke. God, she felt so good. So tight and hot and wet. He tilted her so he could thrust even deeper, wanting her to accept every last inch of him, as if by her body accepting his she could look past the facade he presented to the world and see him.

He buried himself to the hilt and moved his hand to her swollen *. In seconds he felt the spasms of her climax beginning. “I’ve never felt like this.” He needed her to know how he was feeling, what she meant to him. “Ever since I had you that first time, I’ve thought about only you.”

Her dark blue gaze snagged his. Desire and something deeper flared in her eyes. “I need you, Finn.” Her fingers dug into his buttocks as her hips rose to meet his. Soft gasps escaped her as his hips surged forward, his rhythm faster. Harder.

With her silky wetness wrapped around him, he was beyond any pretense of control. He moved his hand against her * again, and Keira cried out. Her body bowed, heels digging into the mattress, fingers digging into his flesh. Finn felt the strength of her inner muscles gripping him in the intensity of her orgasm. He pumped into her frantically, the explosion ripping from his balls through the top of his head.

When he could make his mind work rationally again, he eased out of her, groaning as her inner muscles clung to his sated cock. He tucked her against his side and blew out a sigh. Finally he had her where he wanted her—in his arms, limp and sated.

“Can you stay?” Keira’s voice, soft and sleepy, held hesitancy.

The only other time they’d had sex, she’d been reluctant to have him stay, mumbling something to the effect that snuggling allowed emotions to creep in and ruin a good thing. Finn was a little shocked, but happy, that now she wanted him to linger. He wanted Keira like he’d wanted no other in all his years, even with the doubt this rogue business had thrown into the mix. They couldn’t go on ignoring it, and he knew they eventually needed to talk about it. But not now.

Now he was going to hold his woman. He rubbed his hand up and down her arm. “I’d like to stay,” he murmured. When she rubbed her cheek against his chest and then placed a kiss on his shoulder, he let out a sigh of contentment.

After a few moments of silence, she said, “This is nice.”

“Hmm.” He pressed his mouth to her temple.

She tipped her head back to meet his gaze. Slender fingers stroked his side in an absentminded caress. “I used to think if we spent time like this, cuddling after sex, it would complicate things.”

“And now?”

“Now I think cuddling after sex will definitely complicate things.” Her smile was tinged with sadness. “But I can’t help myself. I’m addicted to you, I guess.”

“You’re not alone in that.” Finn stroked his fingers through her hair before wrapping several thick strands around his hand. It was like holding silken fire in his palm.

He hadn’t been averse to their relationship growing more intense, no matter what he might have told himself. But he’d never really been certain how she felt about him. He wasn’t willing to risk his emotions only to have her reject him. He’d gotten enough rejection from his father over the years to know he didn’t want more of the same from a lover. Treading lightly was called for. “I care about you, Keira. You have to know that.”

She rested her face against his chest. “Sometimes I think you do, but then I’m not sure.” The warmth of her sigh drifted over his skin.

“Be sure.” He tightened his arms around her a moment. He wanted to ask her what she was doing in the rogue group, wanted to come clean about his own role.

He especially wanted to confess to her that he wasn’t capable of the cold-bloodedness she thought he was, but then he’d have to reveal that Caine was still alive. He’d also have to reveal the only reason he was part of the group was to stop Liuz at Caine and Lucifer’s behest. But he couldn’t take the chance. She had joined this group for a much different reason and he wouldn’t have his mission, and his chance at freedom, be ruined. Rising up on one elbow, he smiled as she grumbled at being dislodged from her comfortable position. He stared down into her lovely face. “We’re cut from the same cloth, you and I,” he said. “We both have, or have had, occupations that have us walking a fine line between right and wrong. Some of your empathic abilities mirror abilities I’ve honed over the years.” He wasn’t going to tell her he was a chameleon demon without consulting Lucifer. It wasn’t like he needed his father’s permission, but being demon was like being a member of a secretive sect, so he wanted to make sure he wasn’t divulging the wrong information. “I know that there are reasons we shouldn’t be together. But for now, don’t ask me to walk away from you, Keira.”

She cocked an eyebrow and the smile that curved her lips bounced in her eyes. “Didn’t I ask you to stay only a few minutes ago?”

Finn’s lips twitched and he settled back against the pillows. “That you did.” He sensed the good in her, the part that wanted to leave the old life behind. A goodness that he could use in his life. Her beauty—of face, body, and spirit—did for him what the paintings at the art gallery did. Gave him peace among the violence he was surrounded with every day. Above that, though, he was attracted to her for her sense of humor, her wry wit. Even her habit of poking fun at him held him enthralled. But for the sake of the mission, he had to remain silent.

“Look, why don’t we—” He broke off as his cell phone rang. He sent her an apologetic look and rolled out of bed to retrieve it from the back pocket of his jeans. A glance at the display showed him it was Nix. “Excuse me,” he said to Keira and moved a few feet away. With his back to her he connected the call and brought the phone to his ear.

“We need to see you,” the half demon, half vampire said in a no-nonsense voice. But he heard the underlying tension in her tones. “Now.”

That tone of voice was one he couldn’t argue with, but he did anyway. “Can’t it wait?”

“It can’t. Get here as soon as you can.”

“I’ll be right there.” He ended the call and turned to face Keira, meeting her questioning gaze. She’d moved to the edge of the bed, as unconcerned with her nudity as he was with his. “I have to go. It’s something to do with Lucifer.” He quickly dressed then came to stand in front of her and rested his hands on her slender shoulders. Then he bent and pressed his mouth to hers, once. Twice. Three times before he tore himself away. “God above, you’re addicting.” He lightly rubbed his thumb over her lips. “I’ll see you later.”

As he made his way to his motorcycle, he cursed the interruption even while he felt grateful for it. He was never one who’d been comfortable talking about his feelings, and it was even worse now that things were so mixed up.

The next week and a half could not go by fast enough, though he knew the danger would escalate. And when this was all over, and he’d been shown to be a fraud where the rogues were concerned, what would that mean for him and Keira?