“I don't want to tell you,” she said in a small voice. She hadn't told a soul. Not even Rosa.

His arms tightened around her making her feel warm and safe. “You can tell me, Lily. After all we've been through together how bad can it be?”

She laughed a little. When compared to seeing her mother in that demon prison and barely escaping death at his office he had a point. In a small voice she told him about the special “juice”.

“You make it yourself?” he asked.

She nodded against his shoulder. “It makes me feel...good, free, and happy. Like nothing can go wrong, nothing can stop me.”

“How long have you been taking it?”

She shook her head. She didn't want to spill the details. His arms tightened around her. “It's okay, you can tell me. Maybe I can help.”

She took a deep breath. “A year. Since Papa died.”

“Why did you start taking it?”

This was the question she didn't want to answer. The one she dreaded the most. “I don't want to talk about it, Telal.”

He pulled back and kissed her hard on the mouth. His eyes bore into hers. “Tell me.” His voice left no room for argument she soon found the words falling from her lips.

“I was so sad. With the will, with worry over summoning that demon that was all my fault. Papa had just died. I couldn't stand it. So I made it and it helped me to get out of bed and feel strong again. I'm so sorry.” She buried her face in her hands and wept. Her words felt so inadequate at explaining what she'd felt. How miserable and sad she'd been. How some days she really did just stay in bed and stare out the window. She could have died then and been the better for it.

Telal pulled her against his chest and stroked smoothing circles across her back. “You have nothing to be sorry for. But if I'm going to be your Protector then I must lay down the law. No more of this, Lily.”

She jerked back, eyes wide. “What?”

“You heard me. I want to be around you as you're meant to be not how some herbs make you feel. I like being around you,” he said gruffly a faint blush creeping up on his cheeks.

“No, I meant what did you mean about being my Protector.” Her hands latched onto his shoulders, squeezing tight.

A corner of his mouth lifted. “Well I am, aren't I? Besides, I don't think I could let you go.” He sounded as if he'd just made this realization and didn't know how to feel about it.

A big smile split across her face. “Really?”

His eyes darkened with heat. “Really. I crave you, lilit.” She might have swooned but instead his lips crossed hers and gave her the kiss of a life time. All swirling tongues, meshing lips, and ragged breaths sawing together. She pulled him closer between the vee of her legs and his cock, hard and thick, pressed against her pussy. She moaned and tore at his pants with frantic hands.

He was just as hungry. His own hands pulling open her jeans and working them down to her ankles then dragging the underwear she'd washed by hand in the shower down with them. She tried to kick the material off her feet but they got stuck around her ankles. Telal growled, his mouth fusing against hers again and then he slid forward, his cock brushing against her sex.

She panted, anticipation filling her blood like something hot and wicked. His strong body covered hers, pressing her back into the mattress, his hands burying into her hair, and then he thrust inside. His shaft spread her muscles wide, the nerve endings sparking like fireworks.

She held onto the damp tendrils of his long hair as their tongues mated and his hips created a rocking rhythm that pushed him in and out. “Telal,” she moaned. Her heart felt near to bursting along with her body. She wanted to tell him. God, she wanted to tell him so badly how she felt, but she bit on his lip to keep from doing so.

He made love to her with slow, passionate strokes that built her climax up steadily. When she came, she screamed, clutching him to her and he groaned coming right with her in a burst of wet heat inside her.

His head jerked up, his expression tight with concentration.

Suddenly she felt the need to whisper as her skin prickled worry. “What is it?”

“Put your clothes on.” She was right to whisper because he did. They both stood and righted their clothing, then the sound of the front door being kicked in sounded as loud as a gunshot. Telal grabbed her hand and rushed into the bathroom shutting and locking the door behind him. He peered out the small window that was high and meant more for ventilation than using, then opened it.

“Get out now.”

She froze. “You're coming too?”

“Of course,” he said urgently.

He lifted her waist and she barely managed to squeeze through. The window frame squeezed her hips and shoulders that surely would cause bruising, and then she floated through the air for a few seconds and landed in the leaves below the window.

Lily waited, staring up at the window, glancing all around her, and chewing her nails into jagged pieces as she waited for him. Her stomach clenched when she heard a thump inside. Her hands flattened against the cabin as if trying to reach out and help him. She wanted to call out to him but didn't know whether that would hinder him or not.

After a minute, Telal strode around from the back of the house at a brisk pace. He had blood splattered on his hands and arms. “Come on.” He grabbed her hand then started running into the woods—fast.

He didn't stop until her breaths came in haggard whines. Her throat felt tight like she'd been choked and her lungs and chest burned from the inside. He let her rest against a tree.

“We have to keep moving. Come on, walk.”

Through uneven breaths she said, “Port us.”

He shook his head. “I'll try.” He grabbed her hand but nothing happened. “Fuck, come on. If there's one then there's more of them.”

He settled them into brisk walking pace, which allowed her lungs to recoup but made her legs burn from the work. She made mental note that if she lived she'd purchase a Treadmill and start running.

“Same demons that attacked at headquarters?” He nodded, pulling her under thick branches and helping her over larger stumps. “How did they track us?”

“That's what I've been trying to figure out.”

“What are we going to do?”

“Keep moving.”

A feeling came over her that everything was useless. Nothing they could do could help. Unless they managed to kill all of the demon assassins or something. They couldn't port anywhere. The only safe place may be Tyrian en Kulev's castle, but that was in Norway.

They walked on for hours through the dense forest without passing a single road or human being. Past the point of pain, her body drove straight into exhaustion. Surprisingly, she didn't feel thirst or even hunger. With the new moon coming, her body had already started to change, to require a different sustenance to live. In a way it was good, she supposed, but Telal still needed to eat.

“We have to keep quiet out here, okay?”

She nodded mutely. And when he stopped them for the night near a thin stream, she fell to the ground and wished him a goodnight. She'd never fallen asleep so fast in her life.

CHAPTER 36

Lily awoke with the moon blazing high in the sky. She trembled not with cold or fear but with an array of arousal that left her palming her own breasts and panting. Her pussy was wet already and she hadn't even touched it, had just woken. She searched the makeshift camp they had and didn't see Telal around. Worry gripped her but she forced herself to relax. He just went to get food, surely. Though when Telal returned from searching for food...

A moan hit her and she squeezed her lips shut to keep it from passing. He told her to keep quiet and stay put, but that had been before the new moon settled high in the sky and she began her journey into full-succubus. No food for her, but she'd take his mouth, his fingers.