Page 66 of Judge of Saints and Sinners

This group, however strange it was, was too organized and too calm. They did not fear us as we needed them to. A smile slowly spread across my face.

“Guard,” I shouted. “Give me a towel.”

“Shut the fuck up, monster,” he responded as I expected. Suppressing the desire to roll my eyes, I tried again.

“Fine. I guess I will greet your boss with bits of your friend in my teeth, then.”

He flinched, and I knew I’d won. Smiling smugly, I waited against the bars until he stepped back in, holding two towels. I took them, the bars pressing against my chest as my claws closed over them. One was damp, the other soft and dry. I curled my arm, bringing them inside with me.

“Do you need to wash up?” I asked Justine as she crawled up on the bed.

She eyed me warily. “Not as much as you do.” She paused for a moment. “Do you really have Gregor in your teeth?”

“No, I don’t eat garbage.”

“Cute,” she said, nose wrinkled.

I began to wash my skin, getting as much of the blood off my chin and chest as I did. She watched me, her breathing slowly picking up speed. My wings ruffled and my cock twitched.

“Do you like me like this?”

“I—uh—don’t dislike it. You still look like Nephesh to me, just a bit more…”

“Monstrous.”

“Maybe, but not in a bad way. In a badass, powerful way.”

I sprawled across the cell, turning my back to the guards. Justien’s eyes widened, and she leaned back a little when my palms pressed into the thin mattress, caging her in place. “You don’t know much about demons and their mates, little thief, but know that the imminent threat on your life is the only thing keeping me from claiming you again.” I ran my nose up the side of her face. “And again.” My lips brushed her ear. “And again.”

Her breath shuddered out between us. “Nephesh…”

I smiled there, at the perfect smell of her and the pulsing warmth that pounded in my chest. We were so close to our mate. My monster crowed with pleasure as I took the moment to breathe her in, soak her into my flesh.

“You don’t know yet.”

“But I will?” she answered, her heart rate a scattered mess.

I pulled back, meeting her gaze head on. “First survive. Then I will show you everything there is to know about being a mate to the Prince of Hell.”

“I’m holding you to it.”

***

That night we feasted on what could only be known as slop, and while I could go many weeks without consuming sustenance, I ate it anyway. I wanted to share even this with her. The lack of her rejection of my revelation was a constant in my mind, the reality that I might not have to live without her pressure in my chest.

I needed to get us out of here. But this time, I wouldn’t run. And as we sat on the floor, the strange globby pasta between us, sharing a fork, I told her about my brothers.

“So the River Styx is a real river, with water and rocks and fish.”

“Kharon would not appreciate his magical river road being dumbed down to that extent…” I considered it then grinned at her. “But yes, unless you count its inhabitants, then it’s quite ordinary.”

“I cannot believe that. So much that people got wrong.”

“Stories are always evolving. It is the reason we are able to exist as we can. The only souls who truly know us are the ones who have already passed.”

“And you judge them?”

“I do.”