Total pages in book: 57
Estimated words: 54848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54848 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
“I’ll do it,” I offered.
My reasons for volunteering were two-fold.
One, I genuinely did want to find out where Daemon was, what was going on with him, if he was alright.
But, two, I figured Arick would be the one to ask if there was anything I could do about this Claiming. Or, at least, dull the pain of it.
Even as I thought that, I noticed my hand was rubbing across my chest, like there was any way to ease the ache deep inside.
“You just got back from one job,” Ace said. “When did you become such a go-getter?”
“I could use the distraction. And he’s my brother,” I reasoned.
“I sense ulterior motivations,” Ace said. “But I can’t bring myself to give a fuck. After you’re done drowning in that bottle, it would be good for all of us to know what you learned from the professor. Assuming you actually did any research between the fucking,” he said as he made his way out of the room.
“That was actually very easy going for him,” Minos said, nodding at our leader’s retreating form. “He lost his shit on some of us about the Claiming. I guess since you’re the fourth one of us to have it happen, he’s gotten a little jaded.”
“What did you do to cope with this?” I asked, wishing that the liquor could make me forget like it did for the humans. Or, if not forget, dull the pain for just a little while.
“I don’t know,” Minos admitted, eyes going dark. “Especially those first few days, I don’t fucking know. I don’t think I got out of bed. I swear I spent all that time trying to figure out if there was a way for us to off ourselves after all, because I’d have done it in a heartbeat if it meant that the pain would stop.”
It was hardly a pep talk, but I appreciated his honesty.
“I figure keeping busy might be a good method, though,” he said, shrugging. “It just wasn’t my path,” he added.
With that, he was gone, leaving me to my misery as I realized I was the only one of us who was doomed to this agony forever.
Lycus, Ace, Drex, and Minos all had women who, eventually, accepted them, loved them, embraced an unconventional future with them that included becoming just a little bit demonic themselves.
I had no delusions about my situation.
Not after I saw the shock and horror on Charlotte’s perfect fucking face when she’d gotten a peek at the real me.
There was no happily ever after for me.
The best I could hope for was that Arick could help me. Short of that, maybe I could get back to my old life, my old job, find some purpose, some way to distract myself.
Even just thinking of leaving, though, made that tugging sensation in my heart intensify to the point that I got up and grabbed another bottle of liquor, and started to chug that down.
The rest of that day and half of the next was a pain-soaked blur. I tried to sleep, but found myself plagued with images of her. Not dreams. No. It was more than that. It was that connection between us. It was making me actually see through her eyes, feel her feelings.
She was on her laptop, searching through articles about the natural disasters, and I felt the unease building inside of her.
Then she paced and drank too much coffee.
Eventually, she went into work where I sensed she didn’t have any of the energy she needed to get through the day. Which she confirmed when she called her class early to retreat back to her office.
It was then that I felt something. A spark of deep understanding.
Then I saw her.
An actual fucking goddess.
The connection snapped right then, though, as I jolted fully awake, finding myself aching and pining for her at the same time.
Not even a long shower and taking the matter into my own hands seemed to do anything to ease it.
“You don’t look great,” Aram greeted me when I finally emerged from my room a couple days later as we both moved out into the hall at the same time.
“Thanks. I feel worse,” I admitted since it was the truth. And I figured the word had already gotten around about the Claiming.
“You’ll get better at handling it,” he assured me, then moved back into his room before I could question him about that.
Aram hadn’t Claimed anyone, as far as I knew.
He had been almost obsessively determined to find Red, though. Day and night for months, even when there were no signs of her.
Had he Claimed her?
Could we even Claim other demons?
I feel like if that was a possibility, it would be something that was more widely known back home.
But it was the only explanation, right? Since demons didn’t just… love. Not like humans did. Or, at least, that was what I’d always been taught.