Darkyn's Mate (#3, Rhyn Eternal) (5 page)

Darkyn’s hands were clasped behind his back.
He approached her, eyes on her lips. Deidre didn’t move, afraid of
provoking him.

He reached out to take the hourglass,
grazing her skin in the act. Her breath caught at the cool
electricity that ran through her. She flushed. His gaze flickered
to hers. He was coldly amused. He held up the hourglass in the
space between them.

“Let’s talk, shall we?” he asked.

“I don’t think I want to,” she replied. She
felt too fragile to deal with him.

“Assume you win your bet. Do you really
think you’ll become Gabriel’s mate?” he started, ignoring her. “The
chances are slim it will work. Both of you bear the mating marks
now. She had none before her death. She’d have to be dead-dead
which could happen next week or in a millennium.”

Deidre swallowed hard. She recalled the
other thing she hated about interacting with him: he always knew
how to read her deepest fears. He was good at throwing them back at
her, too, like he was doing now.

“So? What if I can … um, expedite that?” she
asked.

“Love, you couldn’t kill me. You can’t kill
her.”

Deidre met his gaze. To emphasize his words,
he lifted her hand and placed it over his heart. Her chin trembled
at the steady pulse of his heartbeat beneath her fingertips. She’d
felt it last night, too, before … before the fever dream about them
having sex.

It had to be a dream, except that she
remembered the heat of the skin beneath his shirt and tracing the
scars she knew covered his body.

“What do you want from me, Darkyn?” she
asked, afraid to admit how right he was.

“For you to accept that this is where you
belong.” He tossed the hourglass onto a chair. Her eyes followed
it. It was her one hope out of this place.

She shook her head. Deidre’s heart was
flying at his nearness. His magic crept up her arm and into her
body. She dropped her hand from his chest, needing to think.

“Very well. The chances are slim that what
you want will happen. I prefer the alternative of them being
non-existent,” he said. “There are three bonds that are older than
time. The mating bond is one, used by Immortals and deities. A
blood bond is another, practiced between demons in place of the
mating bond. There’s only one entity in the universe that can
transform a human into a new form that can be blood bound to a
demon.”

She didn’t have to ask which entity that
was. She touched her mouth and felt the canines at the mention of
transforming her. She suspected he was one step ahead, but she
wasn’t expecting him to reveal his plan.

“We will be blood bound. Think of it as
…insurance. That slim chance you leave here becomes no chance.”

“I won’t do it.”

“You are mine already,” he said in a quiet
voice. “If the blood bond takes, there is nothing that can break a
double-bond. No deal, no manipulation by Fate, no breaking of the
laws from the time-before-time.”

Deidre’s quick breathing was loud in her
ears.

“I don’t lose,” he added. “Ever.” He touched
her face. “The bond is voluntary. You’ve already got the
teeth.”

She shuddered and quickly lifted her
chin.

“I won’t,” she said, unable to stomach the
idea that he turned her demon or that there was no chance she ever
left Hell. “Nothing you do will convince me.”

“No?” He touched her arm.

Deidre backed away. If his touch was hard to
resist last night, it was crippling today. Anger and panic bubbled
within her. She fell into his trance last night; she needed to keep
her head clear to deal with him this time. Except she was suddenly
hungry again, the faint, sweet scent winding through her
senses.

Darkyn pursued calmly, eyes glowing. He
touched her again. She moved away. He was amused at whatever game
he played as he closed the distance between them once more. It fed
her fury. He took her arm, and she yanked away from him.

“Don’t touch me!” she hissed.

He reached for her once more, and she
slapped his hand away.

“If there
is
a way out, I will
find it!” she snapped. “Fate said …” she stopped, recalling the
blond deity’s warning about not revealing he had
visited.

“You trust Fate over me?” Darkyn mused.
“Interesting. What did he tell you? Obey me, and you’d leave?” He
continued to move closer.

“Yes.” Her senses addled, Deidre was forced
to retreat.

“What
exactly
did he say? That you’d
leave?”

“That I’d be …”
relatively okay.
Fate
hadn’t said anything about leaving. She shook her head to clear the
memory. “I mean, he didn’t say leave … he …” A sick sense of
betrayal sank into her stomach. “Survive. He said I’d
survive.”

“Maybe he wanted to ensure I didn’t kill you
before we were bound.” Darkyn pretended to consider.

“You made a deal for me. Why would you kill
me?”

“If I don’t like what I find, I’m not
obligated to keep you alive before the bonds form,” he said
pointedly. “You interpreted what he told you in a way that gave you
hope.”

She knocked away his next attempt to reach
her, fully aware he was distracting her physically while whittling
down her resistance mentally.

“Of all the Immortals and deities fucking
with you, I have no need to lie. Yet you trust him over me.”

“I don’t trust any of you! From the first
minute I was dragged into this fucked up world, I’ve been lied to
and used. Past-Death claims to – stop! Don’t touch me!” she said
with a shudder at the fire his fingers sent through her arm.
“Past-Death almost killed me and you trick me into coming here. Now
you want to make sure I never leave!”

“I saved your life. By law, you are mine
twice over even without the blood bond.”

Her back hit the wall. He stopped close
enough for their bodies to touch if she breathed in too deeply.

“I’m the only one who hasn’t lied to you.
Even Gabriel has,” Darkyn said.

“No,” she said flatly. “You won’t turn me
against him.”

“Why? Because you felt the
mating bond with him first? The same one you feel with me? He did
nothing but hide the truth from you. Your illness, Wynn,
Past-Death. He was in love with a ghost and unwilling to take a
chance on
you
.
Did he tell you who he was before he fucked you?”

“Stop!” she grated. His words struck her as
true; they were the same doubts she’d had about Gabriel since she
met him. Feeling claustrophobic, she broke the plane between them
and shoved him. Darkyn caught her hands and pushed them down to her
side. His magic shot through her. His nearness was driving her
crazy. She smelled something faint, familiar. Entrancing. It was
calling to her. She felt as if she hadn’t just eaten a large
breakfast. She was starving.

“You know the Immortal mating bond is what
made you connect with him,” Darkyn continued.

“No,” she insisted. “You can never
understand.” She stared hard at his chest as she struggled with her
anger and need. They were spinning out of control, fed by the
direct contact with him and the elusive scent that was making her
mouth water. Her whole body was burning up with something she
never, ever expected to feel for a demon: need.

“So you feel nothing now,” he stated. “Say
it. Lie to me and tell me you aren’t about to throw yourself at my
feet and beg me to fuck you.”

His mocking tone infuriated her. She
wrenched free of his hold and pushed him hard enough to slide out
from between him and the wall.

“I wonder what your Gabriel will think when
he finds out. Fucking the Dark One. Blood bound to the Dark One.
And only the Dark One.”

“It won’t happen.”

Breathing raggedly, she tried hard to rein
in the emotions that were close to landing her in trouble. She
hated his rules, but she wasn’t fighting him. She was trying hard
not to run. She wasn’t going to give him an excuse to attack her.
It struck her that he was baiting her, perhaps for that reason.

“I am sick of this shit,” she said. “I’m
sick of deities and Immortals tricking and lying to me. What do you
want? Or are you just tormenting me for the fun of it?”

“Does it matter?”

She faced him again. “You wouldn’t be here
if it didn’t. You won’t convince me what I felt towards Gabriel
wasn’t real, and there is nothing you can do to make me do this
blood bond.”

“You already know the Immortal mating is
what made you feel that way towards Gabriel. If you thought
otherwise, you wouldn’t have fucked me last night,” he said,
meeting her gaze.

“What? I …” she gaped at him. “It was a
dream!”

“It was the final stage of your transition
into a demon. It might have felt like a dream, but I can assure you
it was not,” he said, smiling.

“I refuse to believe you,” she cried. “Tell
me what you want or just leave me alone!

“I did. I want you to accept that you belong
here, and I want to hear the words.”

“What words?”

“The ones where you tell me you’re
mine.”

She shook her head.

“You’ve started to admit the truth to
yourself,” he added. “I want to hear it out loud.”

“If I say the words you want, are you
manipulating me into this bond, the same way you did to get me into
Hell?” she demanded.

“You’re mine either way.”

“No, I’m not. I’m Gabriel’s,” she
retorted.

Darkyn gave a slow smile. “How certain are
you?”

“I’ll never say those fucking words, and
I’ll never be blood bound!”

“My bet is that you will do both before the
hourglass runs out.”

“I’m not about to be tricked into another
bond or whatever it is you’re trying to trick me into,” she
replied.

“No tricks,” he said. “How about this. A
private deal, just between us. If we become blood bound, you say
the words.”

“If we don’t?”

“You don’t,” he said with a shrug.

“What about the unwritten terms?”

“None. Simple deal.”

She studied him. She’d never let him blood
bind her, but he wasn’t someone who took no for an answer, even if
it was allegedly voluntary. Double-bound, though, meant she was
fucked as far as Gabriel.

“I’m not playing your game,” she said and
turned away again. Her body was trembling. She didn’t know why,
couldn’t get control of either her emotions or the hunger in her
blood. They left her beyond confused, terrified and certain she
didn’t want anything to do with Darkyn right now.

“You know I’m right. You know Past-Death
will stop at nothing to get what she wants,” Darkyn said. “I
foresee you winning your deal. I also foresee Gabriel refusing to
kill her. He cannot. She’s his mate by Immortal laws, and we both
know how seriously he takes his duty. He will protect her, as is
his obligation. No one will challenge Death to kill her. Which
leaves you here. With me. For eternity. My informal deal is one
week. At the end of it, if you’ve not bound yourself to me, then
the deal expires. We can spend eternity together and you never say
the words.”

Darkyn was right. She knew Gabriel. He’d
sworn to protect her, even while pushing her away. He followed the
laws. She found no flaws in Darkyn’s logic, which only made her
despair soar.

“Are the words part of the blood binding
rite?” she asked. She was almost ready to say whatever he wanted to
get rid of him. Her world was crushing her; she needed to be
alone.

“No.”

“It must be voluntary?”

“On both our parts.”

“Why are the words so important? Me being
your mate isn’t enough?” she guessed. “You want complete
surrender.”

“You did that last night, no matter what you
choose to remember.” The husky laugh made her stomach flutter.
“Mentally, you are holding out. I spent my life at battle. There is
no such thing as half a victory. I won’t let you think there’s a
chance this isn’t real or permanent.”

“So, that’s it?” she asked.

“That’s it. Private deal. One week.”

The idea that it bothered him enough to
provoke a deal made her brow furrow. All she had to do was make it
a week without agreeing to the blood binding. There had to be a
catch with Darkyn’s deal. She didn’t see it, though, unless he
intended to force her to do it, in which case, she was fucked
anyway. The words would mean nothing to her at that point.

“Fine,” she said, at the end of her rope
with him. “Will you leave me alone now? Please.”

“Not quite. I came to feed as well.”

Deidre heard him approach from behind. She
tensed, waiting for the flip to switch and him to grab her. He
touched her, trailing his hands down her arms. Her body responded
to him in a way that made her angrier. He nudged her head to the
side to reach her neck, and she pushed back, refusing.

His hands on her arms made her body betray
her again. It was harder to resist him than it was Gabriel, which
made her want to weep. She didn’t understand it. It wasn’t possible
she was meant for Darkyn. He nudged her head once more. She refused
him.

“Rules,” he reminded her.

“Fuck your rules,” she said. “And fuck you
if you think I’ll ever volunteer to be bound to you.”

“That’s why I have insurance.”

He pulled her into his body, and the
intensity of the strange hunger within her expanded. She focused on
what he said to keep herself distracted from the yearning growing
in her body. She felt his arousal against her backside, while his
other hand rested on the bare skin of her hip. Hot nips started
down the side of her neck. Overwhelmed, she instinctively tilted
her head in submission, exposing her neck to him.

“I don’t lose deals, Deidre,” he repeated.
“You were bound last night.”

The images he placed in her mind were of her
arching beneath him, crying out his name, while he drank from her.
She recalled biting him and the taste of his blood. It was thick in
her mouth, slightly sweet, and made her ravenous. It was her fever
dream without the heaviness of illness to blur it.