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His tender kisses brought her back from the comfortable fog she was shrouded in, her body sated and her entire being filled with contentment. She stirred, lifting her head and opening her eyes to gaze into his, their golden depths gleaming like warm honey in firelight. The words came out without her even realizing she was going to speak as her heart gave voice to her feelings. “I love you.” Her soft confession hung in the air between them.
“I love you too.” With the utmost care, he lifted her off of him, cradling her against his chest as he settled them both into the cushions of the couch and drew a blanket around them both.
She nestled against him, feeling warm and cherished as he held her, his words still echoing in her ears and in her heart. “Tell me the rest of it Mal, I want to know everything.”
“Everything?” Satisfaction filled his voice, and she knew without a doubt this was the most relaxed and content she had ever seen him. “That might take years.”
“Is there somewhere else you need to be anytime soon?”
He considered for a moment and an expression of surprise crossed his face. “No, I’m staying with you.”
“Good.” The feeling of warmth inside her expanded until she felt like she was the one glowing. “So what do you feed on? And does this mean I don’t have to cook for you anymore?” She prompted.
“I like food very much, but I don’t need it to survive the same way you do. We do eat, though, and drink, and enjoy all the pleasures of living. As for what I feed on? It’s love, in all its forms. Compassion, affection, passionate, familial, even the love a certain woman can have for the animals in her care. Those are what sustain me and keep me strong.”
“You’ve fed off me?” She tensed slightly, the whole idea suddenly disturbing.
“Aye, little bird. I found your sanctuary the second day I was here, your compassion was so strong I could sense it, and I followed it here. I can become incorporeal, hovering near people without them ever knowing I was there. Each daemon type feeds a little differently. I do not need the emotions I feed on to be focused on me, I just need to be present.”
“That’s a little creepy Mal, lurking around, invisible and feeding off of someone else’s feelings. And it must be terribly lonely for you.” She laid a hand over his heart.
He sighed. “I never considered it creepy, at least not until you pointed it out. But it is a lonely way to live, which is why I was considering ending things.”
“You what?” Her heart nearly stopped beating at the idea of this amazing man contemplating ending his life. “You’re an angel, daemon, whatever, and you’re thousands of years old. How could you even die? And why would you want to?”
“We’re basically immortal, but we can die. Violence can end our lives, but usually, it is a choice. If we do not have the will to continue, we simply...don’t. I was alone, and my life was empty. I couldn’t see a reason to continue, Raven. Not until I met you.” He feathered his fingers through her hair and held her close. “Your love is the most amazing, beautiful thing I have ever experienced.”
“I’m glad you aren’t going to end it Mal. That would be a terrible loss for the world...worlds.” She amended and then asked, “So you love me, but you’ll need to feed off of others to live?”
“I’m sorry lover, I haven’t explained this very well. Your love will sustain me, more so than ever before. My kind can feed off love focused on them, I just made a choice a very long time ago I wouldn’t do so. I loved someone once, and I thought she loved me. Then I sensed her love fading, and it was the most painful experience of my life. Every day, I knew she loved me less. I could measure the difference; to me, it was a tangible thing. Hoping to keep her, I offered her a permanent mating, a bond that would last until our deaths. She refused me. She wanted children, and we couldn’t achieve that, so she left me.” Malyk’s voice was shadowed with remembered pain, but his arms held her close, and she knew that’s all it was, a memory, an echo.
“So you have been alone since? Malyk no one should live their life entirely alone. No wonder you were so unhappy.” Her voice was muffled against his skin as she pressed several gentle kisses to his chest.
“So I’ve been told,” he admitted. “It’s amazing how many times you can be nagged about such things when you’ve been around for as long as I have. But until I came here, that’s all it was, nagging. I wasn’t ready to see the truth.”
Raven smiled at that, her head lifting to gaze up at him. “So, you’re staying? Really staying? Can you do that? This isn’t your world, and I’m not even the same species as you.” She winced. “I’m going to grow old and die, and you won’t even age.”
Mal hushed her with a finger to her lips. “I am staying my beloved, for as long as you will have me. I can travel between worlds in less time than it takes for you to cross a room, if I need to go back to Daemos, I won’t be gone long. As for aging, my people have been falling in love with mortal races for as long as we have been in existence, it’s apparently a weakness of ours. There are ways to extend your life, or tie our lives together so that we will leave this life at the same time. Let’s not worry about all that yet, there’s time enough to decide that later.” He grinned and winked at her. “I’m from a race of immortal beings, remember? Trust me, we’ll not be the first couple to face this problem.”
“My mother always thought I’d end up with an older man.” Raven laughed and nipped at his finger. “She said it would take a mature, confident man to deal with me. She just had no idea how much older he’d end up being!”
“Mothers,” Mal groaned. “I suppose this means we’ll have to meet each other’s parents.”
Raven smiled. “You’ll like my mom, she’s very easy going, and so busy she has no time to interfere in her daughter’s life, or her love life.”
“The same cannot be said for mine, little bird. She’s going to want to meet you, and learn every detail of your life. Then she is going to share with you every detail of mine.” Mal groaned again. “She doesn’t knock, and pops by without a word of warning. She’s going to love you, and that means we’re going to be seeing a lot of her.”
“Does she have horns? Fangs? Is my future mother-in-law an actual demon?” Raven asked and then paled as she realized what she’d said. “That didn’t come out right. I just meant— that is I know we’re not—.”
“It’s alright Raven.” He grinned at her. “I’m not sure what we are just yet either, but mother-in-law works is as good a title as any. And no, she doesn’t have horns or fangs. She’s the same daemon type as I am. Now my step-father, he’s got horns.”
“No way.”
“Horns, really. He’s an incubus, just like Alistair. They can hide them of course, just like I can negate the aura. But they have horns. And Finn has horns, fangs, and claws too. My bet is you’ll be meeting them all soon, so best you start getting used to the idea.”
“Who is Finn? And if you and your mother are angels, where are your wings?” Raven asked and made a fluttering gesture with her hands.”
Malyk groaned in mock horror. “And there are those stereotypes again. I don’t have wings. I think that detail got added in by artists as a way to explain our incorporeal form. When we come back into view, we tend to look like we’re hovering. Add in the glowing halo and somehow we were described as having wings.” He tugged a lock of her hair. “Don’t believe everything you’ve read little bird, not all of it is even close to the truth.”
“Oh sure, horns are normal but wings are not? I’m going to need to start taking notes, aren’t I?” Raven laughed and shook her head. Now, who is Finn?”
“You see? I got so distracted with your sexy self I forgot to tell you a few things.” Mal lifted her off his lap and stood, apparently entirely unconcerned about his nudity. “I left something in my jacket I need to go get, be right back.”
“The answer to who Finn is, is in your pocket?” Raven muttered as she watched him leave the room. While he was gone, she went to put her clothes back on and shook her head as she realized she was now short a pair of jeans, and a pair of panties. The realization helped her come to grips with the fact that her life had taken a strange turn, and nothing was ever going to be quite the same, ever again. Magic was real, and the stories of her childhood suddenly seemed far more possible. It was hard to consider anything was impossible when a sexy hunk of angel was currently wandering around her house without a stitch of clothing on.
* * * *
Mal plucked the box out of his jacket pocket and stared at it, an idea growing in his mind as he pondered everything that had just happened. She had given him his heart and managed to accept the truth of his existence with minimal resistance. Raven was his, to protect and love for as long as they had together. Somehow, he was going to make this work.
When he came back into the living room she was curled up under the quilt again, and her t-shirt was back, on he noted with disappointment. “If you keep getting dressed when I leave the room, I’m going to make all your clothes disappear,” he threatened as he reclaimed his spot on the couch and drew her back into his lap. “Now, where were we?”
“You were going to tell me who Finn was,” she prompted. “And you are not allowed to make all my clothes vanish; I need them to leave the house!”
“Finn is another half-brother, and he’s dying to meet you. He spends most of his time on this plane actually, so he’ll likely be the most “normal” member of my family, at least to you.”
“Why does he want to meet me, and why does he live here?”
“He wants to meet you because he’s got our mother’s ravenous curiosity and I needed his help the other day, so he got to find out about you. Which leads me to something else I couldn’t tell you before. Dana isn’t actually named Dana, and she isn’t human.”
Raven just groaned and shut her eyes. “How many of you non-humans are there running around this little island? Is there a convention center here or something? So what is she? And is that why you two were acting so strange when you met?”
“I don’t know how many of us there are, and frankly, I was amazed to see her here. Avarice daemons usually stick to areas with a larger population. More targets to feed on. Nemara has attached herself to Carter, though, likely because he’s got enough greed in him to sustain an army of avarice daemons. I needed Finn to help me scare her into leaving you alone.”
“You know what, I don’t want to know the details. I just found out my boyfriend’s not human, and apparently, at least one of my employees was sporting horns. Next, you’ll be telling me Samantha’s one too. Oh, she says hi by the way. It turns out she’s your neighbour.”
“Samantha’s a cambion, not a daemon.” Malyk couldn’t stop the laughter from coming as he listened to Raven’s complaints. “I should have realized she was the one helping you. I’ve never met a woman more like my mother. She takes care of everyone around her and dishes out advice whether you want it or not.”
“That’s her to a ‘T,'” Raven sighed. “So what you’re telling me is I’m surrounded by your kind, whether I knew it or not. Jeez, and here I thought I was the only freak on the island.”
“Raven, look at me. You’re not a freak. Somewhere, way back in time, either your family were magic wielders, or one of your ancestors hooked up with someone who wasn’t human, it happens. That doesn’t make you a freak.”
“I think that’s a matter of perspective,” she grumbled, but there was no sign of upset in her dark eyes as she opened them to peek up at him.
“There’s one more thing, then we can eat. I have plans for you tonight, and they require that you be well fed and full of energy.” Malyk held up the box and offered it to Raven. “I want you to promise me you’ll wear this, always.”
Her eyes widened, and she reached to take it from his hand. As she lifted the lid, she gasped softly and looked up at him, her eyes a little wild around the edges. “I’ve never seen anything like it.” She lifted the ring out of the box and held it to the light, turning it this way and that as she stared at the flawless gem. The gem was a glittering orb of brilliant yellow set in a ring of gold sculpted to appear as though the stone was being held in the claw of an unknown beast.
“It’s a golden sapphire, very rare.” Malyk watched her as she stared at the stone, pleased with her reaction. “But its material worth is not why I want you to wear it.” He reached out and took it from her, then took her left hand and slid it over her ring finger.
“Mal.” Raven blushed as she lifted her gaze from the ring to his face. “I’m not sure what the custom is with your people, but when a human woman wears a ring on her left ring finger, it means, well, a lot.”
“It means you’re taken.” He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to her finger, just about her new ring. “Claimed, off limits, hands off, all mine.”
“Well, yes, apparently you do know what it means,” she said, blushing deeper. “So you want the world to know I’m off limits?”
“Yes!” His answer was almost a growl. “But it’s not the reason I chose that ring. That is the most powerful protection talisman I possess. I want you to have it and wear it always. It will help keep you safe and protect you from grave harm, both physical or magical. It’s not from this world, so I am not sure what its limits are, but I know it will help keep you safe, even if I cannot be there.”
Raven glanced down at the ring with amazement. “So not only are you protecting me from getting hit on by other men, but anything else the universe might through at me too.” She kissed him then, a slow, lingering kiss that was as tender and sweet as the love he could feel between them. “Let’s hope we never have to find out what its limits are.”
“By Styx, I hope that’s so.” He kissed her back, need spiking through him, jagged and hot.
“Dinner.” She muttered as she felt his cock stir and harden against her thighs. “You were going to feed me first, remember?”
“I changed my mind.” He lifted her and rolled so that she was pinned under him. “I need this Raven. I need you.” In answer she wriggled beneath him, wrapping her legs around his waist.
Dinner would wait.
