.

stop. Please don’t stop.”

      He could feel the power of her, wrapping around him, trying to drive his actions. He wasn’t sure if he could have disobeyed and he didn’t care. He wanted to devour her, possess her, and he did.

      Only when she came apart, screaming her pleasure, did he rise above her. He was proud and honored to have given her such ecstasy. But he was trembling now himself, his body on fire. Desperate. Aching. For her, only her.

      “Pain?”

      “Gone.”

      The fact that this bonding could save her might be the reason he’d dared broach the subject, but he had never been happier. She would be his. She would live.

      Her legs wound around him, and she cupped his cheeks, staring deep into his eyes. “Please don’t change your mind. I need more of you.”

      He had stilled, he realized, poised at her entrance. “Never change my mind. Must have you. Ready?”

      “Always.”

      He entered her an inch, one blessed inch. Stopped, gave her time to adjust. He’d go slowly if it killed him. And it might. Torture. The sweetest kind of torture. But he would make this good for her, the best.

      “Why do I not feel the need to master you?” she purred into his ear. She bit the lobe.

      Sweet fire. “That’s how it was, before?” Sweat beaded all over him and dripped onto her.

      She nodded, arching her hips to take more of him. Another inch.

      He had to cut off a groan. “Perhaps because my heart is so completely yours, there’s nothing left to master.”

      “Oh, Geryon. Please.” She stroked his horns, circling a fingertip over the hard points. “Take me all the way. Give me everything.”

      He could deny her nothing.

      Releasing his fierce grip on control, he pounded forward and she cried out. Not in pain, but in joy, he realized. Their souls—he had a soul, he truly had a soul—were dancing together, intertwining…joining. Yes. Yes. Over and over he filled her, giving her all of him. Their wills intermingled so completely, it was impossible to tell who wanted what. Pleasure was the only goal.

      His nails raked the floor beside her head, his teeth even nipped her, but she loved it all, urging him on, still begging for more. And when he spilled his seed inside her, her inner walls clutching him in her own surge of satisfaction, he shouted the words that had been building inside of him since the moment he’d met her. “I love you!”

      To his surprise, she gave a shout of her own. “Oh, Geryon. I love you, too.”

      They were mated.

      They were bound.

      

      THEY QUICKLY DRESSED. Kadence was still weak, but at least the pain had stopped.

      “Are they still at the gate?” Geryon asked. He was ready to end this. To take her away from this realm and cherish her always.

       What if she still could not leave?

      The thought drifted through his head but he ignored it. He would finally have a happy ending. Because they were together. Because they loved.

      “Oh, yes,” she said. “They’re working it feverishly.”

      He kissed her lips, and he reveled in another taste of this woman he loved. “We will hike there. The moment you spy them, lock them in place, and I will do the rest.”

      “I hope this works,” she said, “because I couldn’t bear the thought of being parted from you.”

      Neither could he. “It will. It has to.”

       CHAPTER NINETEEN

      THE HIKE TOOK AN HOUR, a slow torturous hour as well as a too-quick span, and then Geryon found himself standing a few yards from the wall. When he comprehended the carnage around him, he couldn’t quite believe his eyes. The demons had worked so fervently, they had bled all over the stones—stones that had been shredded, almost paper thin. A hole was imminent.

      Worse, the horde of Demon Lords was still there. They were huge, all of them at least seven foot, their bodies so broad that even Geryon, massive as he was, would not be able to stretch his arms wide enough to measure them. Skeletons were visible underneath the translucent skin. A few had wings, a few scales, and all were grotesque in their evil. Red eyes, horns like Geryon and fingers like knives.

      “Kadence,” he said.

      “I’m trying, Geryon, I swear I am.” Each word was softer, weaker. “But…”

      One of the…things spotted them. Laughed, a sound that raised every hair on his body.

      “Now,” he shouted to Kadence. Please.

      “Freeze, demons. I demand that you freeze.”

      They did not.

      “Try again.”

      “Am.” She glared over at them—nothing. Pointed her hands at them—nothing. Groaned with the force of her will—but still nothing happened. The Lords did not freeze in place. “I can’t,” she gasped out.

      “What’s wrong?” He glanced at her, even as he moved in front of her, repositioning his arm around her waist. She had paled, as she had while working in the bar, and her trembling had returned. Had his arm not been around her, he knew she would have fallen. Had the bonding not worked, then? “Talk to me, sweetheart.”

      He watched the demons as they rallied together, watching him. Laughing. Imagining how they would kill him?

      “I’m bound to you and the wall. I can feel your strength, its weakness, and it’s tearing me apart,” she cried. “I’m sorry. So sorry. All of this was for nothing, Geryon. Nothing! I’m doomed. I was doomed all along.”

      “Not nothing, never nothing. We have each other.” But for how long? “I won’t let you die.”

      “Nothing can be done.”

      Slowly the demons stalked forward, predators locked on prey. Eerie delight radiated from them. “I’ll kill them all. We’ll run. We’ll—”

      “You are the best thing that ever happened to me,” she said weakly, leaning her cheek against his back.

      “I forbade you to talk like that, Kadence.” To say goodbye. For that’s what she was doing, he knew it was.

      “Kill them and run, just as you planned. Live in peace and freedom, my love. Both are yours. You deserve them.”

      No. No! “You will not die.” But even as he said it, the wall, so badly damaged, began to crack, to crumble, the hole appearing. Widening. “Swear to me that you will not die.”

      Kadence’s knees finally gave out, and he turned, roaring, easing her to the ground. Her eyes were closed. “So…sorry. Love.”

      “No. You will live. Do you hear me? You will live!”

      Her head lolled to the side. Then, nothing.

      “Kadence.” He shook her. “Kadence!” No response. But there was a rising and falling of her chest. She lived still. Thank gods, thank gods, thank gods.

      “Tell me how to help you, Kadence. Please.”

      Again, nothing.

      “Please.” Tears burned his eyes. He had not cried for the wife that left him, had not cried for the life he’d lost, but he cried for this woman. I need you. She wanted him to stop the demons from leaving this realm, and then leave himself, but Geryon couldn’t bring himself to move from her side.

      Without her, he had no reason to go on.

      Something