The Demon's Song

CHAPTER Nine


Phenex didn’t move a muscle.

Sofia stepped carefully around so that she faced him. He looked lost, she thought. Lost, and very distant. She wanted desperately to know the missing pieces of Gadreel’s story, but asking would gain her nothing right now. Instead, she filed away what she’d learned and tried to pull him back to the here and now. For reasons Sofia didn’t care to examine too closely, she seemed to want his company this morning. And though his serious expression didn’t detract at all from his looks, she preferred his smile.

“So...your friend is kind of an a*shole,” Sofia said.

His laugh, a soft huff of breath, was less than she’d hoped for. But it was a start.

“Yeah, he really is, most of the time. But for future reference,” Phenex replied without meeting her eyes, “the one thing you don’t want to give a fallen angel a hard time about is his lack of a soul. It’s kind of a sore subject.”

Sofia’s stomach sank.

“You really don’t have a soul? That was just a shot in the dark.” She didn’t care about having offended Gadreel, but Phenex hadn’t done anything to deserve it. His voice was cool when he answered her, his gaze still directed away.

“No. Angels weren’t given them. And demons haven’t figured out a way to steal them. So…either way we’re pretty much screwed.”

She couldn’t imagine. Just as she couldn’t imagine Phenex, with his overwhelming presence, simply ceasing to exist one day. Unsettled by the thought, she tried to defend herself. “He treated me like…well, like a talking monkey that could double as a sex toy. It pissed me off.”

Phenex’s lips twitched as his eyes finally shifted to meet hers again. “You’d be surprised at how many women go for it.”

She wrinkled her nose, relieved at the humor in his voice. “Not really. He’s so beautiful that they probably don’t hear a word he says.”

“You did.”

“Only because I find men who look like they spend more time on their hair than I do off-putting.”

Now he did laugh, a warm, rich sound that flowed over Sofia in a rush. It was a beautiful surprise. Even knowing him for so short a time, she got the impression that most of his amusement was of the cynical, jaded variety.

“It’s true. He preens. And he hogs the bathroom. You get used to it,” Phenex said.

Sofia smiled, though it faltered a little as she asked the question she couldn’t get out of her head. “So I know you told me you were a fallen angel last night, but...you were really in Hell? As in, an actual place full of flames and demons and”—she gestured, looking for the right words—“you know. Eternal punishment. Evil. And even demons wanted to kill you?”

Phenex sighed, shoved a hand through his hair, looked at the ceiling, and then finally back at her. “Yes, it’s a real place. And Gadreel was telling the truth, for once. Each of us was marked for death. We Fallen had gotten...complacent, I guess you could say. Eternity is a long time. The underworld never changes. Fight to tip the Balance, run herd on the tormented souls of the damned, be seen at the right parties, whatever. Some of us got tired of playing. Lucifer and the Council decided they needed to make a statement, shake things up, and for various reasons, I ended up on their list.” He rolled his shoulders uncomfortably. “We got lucky, I guess. All this new effort from Hell to tip the Balance into darkness has thrown the white wings for a loop. They needed extra help dealing with these massive outbreaks of low demons—you’d never want to run into one, I promise—and they were willing to pay, so...”

Sofia shook her head, amazed. “You’re mercenaries. Angelic mercenaries.” She’d always been willing to accept that there were more things in the universe than she could imagine or comprehend, but still, being hit over the head with all of this was an experience she’d never expected to have.

“Uh, we’re not angelic. You might have noticed.” Phenex pressed his lips together and exhaled loudly. “Look, it doesn’t matter. Here’s the deal. We have wings, we have to be on a side, at least nominally. In Hell, we were about to get tossed into a flaming river for entertainment. Up here, we work for the good guys and stay alive. So we slay demons and keep the Balance in shape, and deal with some extra things for the vamps so we have a protected place to stay. We get paid well, because it pisses off the white wings when we steal, and, best of all, we get to keep breathing. It’s weird, but I guess it works.”

Sofia raised an eyebrow. “So you still need protection.”

“Sure. No one in Hell knew what they meant to do to us except the Council, which is very small. To everyone else, we look like a bunch of traitors. Any one of the other Fallen would be happy to end us. And as for the Council...they don’t like to lose. We count as unfinished business. They already tried for my brother Raum.”

“What happened?”

He looked smug. “The Infernal Council has one less member.”

Sofia widened her eyes, blinked, and looked away, shaking her head in wonder. “Good to know.” He was trouble any way you sliced it, an ex-demon mercenary on the run from Hell. And for some reason, he was here with her.

The words came before she could think better of them.

“Phenex, why are you doing this? Gadreel said you volunteered to watch me. Why? You’re a warrior, not a nanny. I’m not even going to pretend that I live an exciting life. That vampire you grabbed last night was so out of his league it was ridiculous, and I doubt this vampire king needed to waste one of his big guns here. So why?”

His face was impassive, though his eyes told another story. There were emotions roiling beneath the surface in him that Sofia couldn’t begin to guess at. Likely it was safer not to. Such an ancient creature would have some fairly extreme baggage. Just another reason not to get too close.

Except she’d already taken a couple of steps toward him before she realized it and stopped herself. The magnetic pull he seemed to exert on her was going to be a big problem if she didn’t watch it. It was like having a force of nature show up in her life for an unexpected and extended visit. She was too busy flailing to even try to nail down what came next. Understanding him, even a little, was something she needed. Maybe then she could figure the rest of this out.

Phenex moved forward, closing the distance between them with just a few steps, until there were only inches separating them. Sofia didn’t move a muscle. She could actually feel the heat radiating from him, as though he really did nurse a fire deep within him, just like the mythical bird he shared a name with. Even his eyes seemed to burn as he looked down at her. His focus was so singular, so intense, that her every nerve ending sizzled, waiting for the slightest touch. When he lifted his hand to her cheek, lightly brushing a lock of hair away from her face and tucking it behind her ear, Sofia heard her own sharp intake of breath and blushed. Her inability to hide her reactions to Phenex embarrassed her. And still, she couldn’t move away, hungry for another brush of his hand.

She knew next to nothing about him, and it didn’t seem to matter. This was attraction at a level she hadn’t thought existed outside of fantasy.

“Sofia,” Phenex said, and he made her name sound like a fragment of some exquisite song. “I’m here for a very simple reason. Eternity is boring. You’re not.”

She turned her cheek into his touch as he stroked his fingers down her jaw, making her shiver. The heat from his fingertips rippled through her, shimmering over her skin, turning her breaths shallow. Sofia’s lips parted when Phenex ran his thumb gently over them. Her eyes slipped halfway shut. She couldn’t seem to think, every possible protest of her better judgment scattering in the face of pure desire. She lifted her chin, asking without words for his mouth, for more. She caught a fleeting glimpse of Phenex’s beautiful face through her lowered lashes and saw an expression that bespoke a hunger so deep that it ought to have terrified her. Instead, it found its match in her own, rearing its head with shocking force.

His hands clamped on her hips. Her hands fisted in his shirt. Then his mouth was on hers, and Sofia gave a soft, broken cry an instant before his tongue swept in to taste her. Her hands flattened against the hard planes of his chest, then slid upward, over the place where she could feel the rapid beat of his heart, over the broad contours of his shoulders, into the silken softness of his hair, where she tangled her fingers. Phenex’s lips were warm and soft, a startling contrast to the hardness of the man. Sofia felt any control she might have had deserting her as his tongue rubbed against hers in a rhythm that matched the aching throb between her legs—legs that threatened to give out on her as he licked and nipped, teased and then plundered. She arched, pressing her breasts into his chest, the thin material of her shirt abrading nipples that were hard and tight, sending tiny shock waves spiraling deep inside her.

One of Phenex’s hands slipped around to cup her backside, holding her up, while the other slid higher to press against the center of her back. Sofia melted into him, sighing into his mouth while he swirled his tongue against hers again. The hand on her ass tightened, firm but not painful, guiding her hips against his so that she could feel the thick, hard ridge of his cock against her lower belly. Even through their clothes she could feel the heat pulsing off of him, and Sofia rolled her hips, wanting the friction, wanting to be closer.

At her movement, Phenex made a sound deep in his throat, a low, purring vibration that was the singularly most erotic sound Sofia had ever heard. As he made it, he pressed back against her, meeting each searching motion of her hips with his own until they were caught together in an erotic dance. The hand at Sofia’s back moved down again, and Sofia pulled her fingers from Phenex’s hair to wrap her arms around him.

The kiss began to change subtly, becoming harder, more insistent. Phenex’s breathing grew harsh, and those impossibly sexy sounds he was making became more akin to growls. Sofia could feel the scrape of his teeth against her lower lip, gasping at the bright shock of pain when one of his fangs drew blood.

“Phenex,” Sofia whispered, clinging to him for dear life. She was brutally aroused, her body screaming at her to take him, to find a way to have him pounding inside of her. Her nails dug into his shoulders, dragging down his back. Her breath caught in her throat when he wound a hand in her hair, then pulled her head back to expose her throat. His fangs flashed when he bared them, and there was something wild, something completely inhuman in his eyes.

Demon. The word flashed fever-bright through her mind, and for the first time, the word and the man seemed to match.

Sofia went rigid in his arms, every doubt and fear returning with a vengeance in one horrible moment. She didn’t know him, no matter how much she wanted him. And, God, how she wanted him…the need to have Phenex was so overwhelming she was shaking. It scared the hell out of her.

It took every ounce of willpower she could muster to brace her hands against his chest and try to push him away. It was like trying to move a boulder. He dragged his mouth down her throat, beginning to suckle at the sensitive skin. She writhed against him, eyes rolling back from the pleasure, even as she continued to push at him. Her sanity, now that it had returned, refused to allow Sofia to lose herself again.

“Phenex,” she said, her voice ragged and barely audible. “We can’t. I can’t. Stop.”

He said nothing, and she felt those dagger-sharp incisors scrape against her throat. Her immediate instinct was to grab his head and press it to her neck, inviting his bite, his teeth in her skin, a joining as intimate as any she could have imagined.

Sense won out over instinct, though just barely.

“Phenex,” she said more sharply, finding her voice. She began to struggle against him, fear beginning to trickle down her spine like ice because of how badly she still wanted this and how fragile her control seemed to be even now. It was too much, too soon. She needed to think this through before she made some kind of huge mistake.

“Phenex, stop!”

He shuddered violently, and then Sofia was stumbling backward as Phenex shoved her away. The abrupt loss of him against her, of his heat, was almost painful. Sofia sucked in a breath as she wrapped her arms around herself, confused and aroused and barely able to stand. Phenex had staggered back, slightly hunched over, head down with his hands dug into his hair. His harsh breathing sounded more animal than man.

When he finally lifted his eyes to hers, they glowed like blue flames. In that instant, she could see him exactly as he was. Phenex was beautiful, and terrible—and even as a fresh wave of desire swamped her, Sofia knew that he was as dangerous to her as any vampire. More dangerous. Phenex would be able to hurt her in ways that would leave her body intact and her much-vaunted soul in tatters. Standing here, her body aching for him, Sofia was as sure of this as she’d ever been of anything.

She had to get a handle on it. Now, before she lost herself in a beautiful immortal who would never belong to anyone. Especially not to some inconsequential human.

Slowly, and with what appeared to be great effort, Phenex straightened and pulled himself together, though his eyes still burned and his breathing remained uneven. It was all Sofia could do not to close the distance between them and wrap herself back around him. Instead, she held back, her own breathing shallow, hoping her knees wouldn’t give out on her. She could still feel his mouth, his hands on her skin.

“Phenex,” she said, her voice uneven. She felt that she ought to try to explain why she’d stopped him. “I—”

“Get dressed.”

Sofia blinked, taken aback by the steel in his voice. “What?”

“Get dressed. I need a minute,” he said, and she realized that his control was only marginally better than her own at this moment. Slowly, Sofia nodded, and managed to get her feet moving without falling on her face, though it was a close call at first. Just before she vanished into her bedroom, though, he said her name in a way that made every hair on the back of her neck stand up.

“Sofia.”

She turned to see him watching her with raw desire, looking like some debauched god. For an instant, all of her synapses fried, refusing to work properly. Why was she walking away, again? And then the dark music of his voice reminded her, soft as silk, sexy as sin.

“Next time you touch me, you’d better be sure.”

The promise in those words had heat curling through her, and she could feel her cheeks flushing. Sofia nodded, afraid to speak in case the truth came out. She’d never known want like this, had never been wanted like this. She just didn’t know if she could get entangled without risking more than she was willing to lose. And until she did, they both needed to keep their hands to themselves.

Unsteady on her feet but determined, Sofia walked into her bedroom and shut the door.