Demon Possession (27 page)

There was no fear in her, there was only excitement. “That was amazing, it was like flying.”

“You’reamazing.” Sebastian brought his lips within an inch of hers. Water droplets clung there, and al he wanted to do was lick them off.

Anya’s breath became erratic.

“Do you stil trust me?”

Slowly she nodded.

He moved his lips, barely touching hers but the touch was electrifying. “How about now?” His voice had gone low and husky. Stil she nodded,causing her lips to rub against his.

Sebastian pushed his body into hers, loving the feel of her in his arms, so soft and warm andhis. A surge of possessiveness rushed through him. He trailed his lips along her jaw, down to the soft curve of her neck. He could feel his fangs elongating, the urge to bite, to mark her as his was almost overwhelming. Opening his mouth he rested his teeth there, she gasped with … excitement? Fear?

He pul ed away, appal ed at what he was about to do, what he stil wanted to do. Then her eyes widened as she caught sight of his fangs.

Anya should have been horrified. Should have screamed and fought to get away from Sebastian. He looked animalistic, intense. His fangs had grown just as they had when he’d been about to take off Xandar’s head. She should have been cowering at the sight, but she wasn’t. As it was, she was wildly aroused. More aroused than she knew was possible. It was obvious Bastian had been about to bite her. Maybe he would have even drawn blood. She shivered. Why did the idea appeal to her?It was almost like she wascraving it.

As if she weighed nothing,Sebastianlifted her out of the pool and seated her on the ledge. “It is getting late. Get dressed and I wil walk youbackto your room.” Sebastian was backing away from her again. Closing himself off.Awal had been put up between them.

From the pool Bastian watched her with intensity as she stood and walked across the hard floor to the dressing room, like a predator ready to pounce.

Only this predator was tryingnotto pounce.

Did she want him to?

Inside the dressing room she steadied herself by placing a hand on the wal .

She did want him to.

She wanted him to pounce her up and down this wal . “My gods, what is the matter with me?” She whispered. Bastian made her want things she had never wanted before.

The dressing room was smal , afewprivate enclosures, a plush chair, and a countertop with a mirror above. After she dressed she checked her reflection, pleased to see she was gaining some of her weight back, though she stil looked half starved. Her golden hair was stil damp and fel in waves down her back and shoulders. Then she studied her womanly parts, wondering how Bastian saw her. Her mind wandered back to his intimate kisses. She shivered and her body grew hot with need once more. Would he always affect her like this?

“Anya?”

She jumped at his voice coming from outside. Before, Bastian had mentioned that he could scent her desire. “Coming!” she cal ed. She was stil flush with desire and wondered if he knew it. When she left the dressing room her fears were confirmed. His body was rigid, eyes on her in a steady unwavering gaze, gleaming with dark thoughts.

He too had changed out of his swimming shorts. Donning a slightly damp black shirt that displayed arms sculpted like a work of art, arms that had been tenderly wrapped around her only moments ago were now rigid and crossed over his chest. He wore a thick silver chain around his neck that he’d been wearing in the pool.In fact, she hadn’t seen him without it.

When Anya reached him she stopped just two feet away and looked up at his beautiful y chiseled face. She expected him to embrace her—by his energy she could tel he wanted to—but he turned without a word and led her out of the room.

The walk was once again silent. She could only wonder what was going on with him. He was hot one minute and cold the next. Was this a normal male trait,or exclusive to demons? She would be sure to ask Sonya about it.

Anya entered her room expecting Bastian to fol ow her inside but he didn’t. He stood silently in the hal way, a mix of emotions stormed across his features before he checked himself.

“Good night Anya.” He said in a steady low voice, a control ed voice.

“You’re not staying?”Did she real y just ask him that?The words had poured out of her like liquid from a fal en glass. There was no recanting them.

“It’s best if I don’t.”

Anya gave a curt nod and the door slid closed. Turning to her empty room she suddenly felt as though it were too dark, too quiet, and too empty. Before long she had every light turned on, il uminating every tenebrous corner. Sweeping through the room Anya searched in a frenzy for any light she might have missed.

Once she was satisfied she’d found them al , she resolved herself to wash up. After her showershe sat on the couch, thoughts of her earlier attack sweeping over her.

Since the attack, this was the first time she’d been left alone and she was feeling more than antsy. Sporadical y a whisper of unease would surge,fol owed by a flood of panic and Anya would occupy her mind by searching for more lights to turn on.

Only when she yawned repeatedly, eyes growing heavy, body slumping in fatigue did she al ow herself to settle in for the night. Decidedly she created her nest of blankets and pil ows in the corner—she would never be comfortable in the bed, and the couch wasn’t appealing either—Anya curled up under the mass of blankets with her back against two wal s and every light in the room on, she closed her eyes.

Sebastian welcomed the blissful mindlessness as he released into his own hand, wishing it was Anya’s soft body that eased him instead. The warm spray of the shower washed over his neck and back.

He had been so close to claiming her as his mate, so close to marking her as his forever—trapping them both in an unbreakable bond.

How would she have felt about it?

He knew how she would feel, going from the slave of one man to the possession of another, for that’s what she would be. She would belong only to him and him to her.

Would she hate him for it?

Of course she would. Just when she had gained freedom for herself, Sebastian was al too ready to take it away. She would yel and scream and flee from him as if he were her new jailer.

And Sebastian would be forced to keep her any way that he could.

When a demon took a mate it was a lifelong bond. No woman, no matter how beautiful could tempt that demon to stray. He would want only his mate for the rest of his life. Seek only her touch.

With Anya’s soft body against his, her warmth, her scent, he had been so close to driving his fangs into her, and drawing greedily.

Would she have accepted him? Melted in his arms as a true mate would?

Why was he even considering this? It’s a moot point. Thankful y Sebastian had regained his senses before he did anything irreversible.

Stepping out of the shower the water instantly ceased flowing. He dressed in a pair of loose pants and relaxed into his large empty bed. The look she gave him when he had left her nagged at him. It was almost as if she was hurt by him leaving, when in reality she would be grateful if she knew the danger she was in. Stil , her eyes had been stark.

No doubt at this moment she would be curled up on the couch. The attack probably caused al her fears to return. Was she afraid now without him there?

Before his mind realized what his body was doing, he was already halfway to her room.

Just as he suspected she had rejected the bed, but in lieu of the couch she was once more on the floor. Sebastian frowned. The room was more brightly lit than if it harbored its own sun. At his entrance she’d shot straight up, but instantly relaxed when she saw it was him, then merely shrugged at his questioning look. She carried no hint of drowsiness, was in no way close to fal ing asleep, and probably wouldn’t as long as she stayed like that, in her defensive position on the floor.

Cursing, Sebastian fought the urge to scoop her up and take her to the bed himself. “If I stay here tonight,on the couch,” He amended. “Wil you try to sleep in the bed?”

Biting her bottom lip—which made Sebastian instantly hard as steel—she nodded. But instead of making her way to the bed she remained where she was, studying him. He was shirtless with only a pair loose fitting pants to cover his lower half. The material was doing nothing to hide his bulge. Her slow gaze traveled his chest and arms then moving even lower. Sebastian did nothing to bar her from looking. She could look al she wanted. If she asked him to strip right now, he gladly would. When her gaze dipped to his bulge she licked her lips.

Stifling a groan, “Anya you’re kil ing me.”

Her eyes snapped to his face. “How am I doing that?”

“Just get into bed before I put you there myself.” His tone had sounded huskier than he meant it to. To his surprise she looked as though she were considering the latter and amusement lit her features. His cock became impossibly hard.

As if mental y shaking herself, she stood and carted her hefty load of blankets and pil ows to the bed. She was wearing a silky long,light bluesleeping gown, the image lingered long after she was under the covers. He realized Anya seemed to favor the silks when sleeping, oppose to the thicker, warmer materials. He imagined her in some of the more racy stuff he could buy for her. Nowheneeded to mental y shake himself.

Sebastian moved through the apartment,switching off more lights than he knew existed in this room. When the room was final y dark he became painful y aware of her scent again. Settling into the couch he prepared for another long night of unsatisfied need.

“Sebastian?” She cal ed through the dark.

“Yeah?”

“Why did you come to space?”

He thought it was an odd time for this conversation, and suspected she was stil a bit uneasy. “There was a devastating war. We were barely able to escape, Sonya, Cale, and I, before our planet was destroyed completely.”

Anya was quiet for a long moment. Sebastian thought maybe she had fal en asleep. “I thinkmyplanet was attacked. I think I was sent away during the battle.” She snorted with bitterness. “They meant for me to be safe.”

Sebastiangroundhis teeth. Whoever hadplannedher safe escape would die along with whoever else had hurt her.

There was another moment of silence before, “What if my home planet has been destroyed too? I think I may have had a family. Sisters maybe.”

“We’l find out everything we can about your … people. As wel as where you come from.”

“There you go making promises again. I think I’l let you though. I like the way they sound.”

She stil thought Sebastian planned to leave her. She had no idea he was contemplating keeping her forever.

“Did you fight in your war?”

Sebastian stiffened. He hadn’t spoken about this to anyone but Sonya, Cale, and Marik. Even then,they hadn’t brought it up in years. “I never got a chance to.” Her silence urged him on. “I, that is, we were betrayed at the start of the battle, by some of our own. Cale and I, even Sonya had been eager to jump into battle and defend our planet. However, Cale’s mate and our mother drugged us, betrayed us to the invaders. They were promised safety for their loyalty. We didn’t know it at the time but many of our kind had been lured to do the same. The war had real y begun years before any blood had been shed.” Anya had remained quiet through his speech. “Anya? Are you asleep?”

“No.” Her voice was a little shaky.

“What’s wrong?”

“Your own family betrayed you?”

“Yes.”

More silence. “What if … what if my family …”

“No.” He cut her off. “Never think that.” He hated that she jumped to that conclusion and hated how her voice shook with emotion. Although she could be right, someone in her family could have betrayed her, same as him.

“Did you … did you kil them, the ones who betrayed you?”

“No. At the time al I was thinking was how to escape, but I won’t lie, sometimes I wish I had. I’ve … we have al had a hard time trusting people since then.

Especial y Cale.”

“Is that why you’re at such odds with me?”

Sebastian couldn’t help but chuckle. “So you’ve noticed.” His natural night vision was adjusting and he could see her clearly now. She had the slightest smile.

“Kind of hard not to.”

Sebastian didn’t answer her question. Instead he asked one of his own. “Do you have a gift Anya?” Like a bul et she sat straight up, jaw dropped, eyes widened in shock. “What?”

Touchy subject?

Sebastian pushed himself to his elbows to get a better look at her. “You seem to read people very wel . Is that some kind of gift?”

She let out a harsh breath before easing herself back onto the pil ow. “I … um … yeah,I guess.”

Her reaction was intriguing. He was now sure that there was more to it than he’d guessed. “What kinds of things can you read from people?”

Obviously she was weighing her answer, perhaps being a little too careful about her response. “I can sometimes tel when someone’s mood changes.

Like from happy to sad, or angry.”

“You sensed when I changed then?”

“Yes.”

“What was that like?”

“Daunting. It was like you had changed into something else entirely. You were happy one moment and pure rage the next. I’ve never felt anything like it.”

“I’m sorry you were frightened. It’s hard to control.”

“It’s okay. You made it up to me later.” She was smiling again. The image she invoked had him wanting her once more. Her taste was exquisite, addictive.

There would definitely be no sleep for him tonight. His shaft was relentless. At this rate, when she fel asleep, he would be sneaking into the bathroom to relieve himself for the second time tonight.

In the dark, faces began to appear.

Blurred faces.

Unreadable expressions.

The sound of chains scraped against cold hard floors. The faces laughed, moving to surround Analia. She was suddenly being held down by massive heavy chains, tightening around her wrists, legs, and throat. She tried to scream but the chain was too tight, cutting off her air.

As the faces hovered over her they merged into one and began to clear, though she knew what she would see beforehand. Xandar’s evil grin loomed over her. His hands grabbing at her, making her skin crawl. Then he morphed his face molding into something else. She tried to look away but even as she closed her eyes she could see.