Page 47 of Want Me, Take Me, Haunt Me, Make Me

“It’s a nice trick, though,” she said, after sliding her hand between her legs for a brief confirmation of the spell’s effects. The sight made Ligat stir again, though he didn’t indulge himself further. Anotherround with Hazel, and he wasn’t sure he’d have the energy to get back to his lodgings.

He tucked his cock away and carefully buckled his robe again. “It’s been useful on other occasions. Fights,” he clarified. A remnant of honor surfaced. “I…don’t make a habit of seducing ladies. Particularly not those in your situation.”

Hazel had started to pull on her jeans, but she paused and glanced up at him, curious. “How many people have youknownin my situation?”

“Well. None.”

“Ah.” She went back to her jeans. “I appreciate the disclaimer, all the same.”

Ligat, unsure of what to say in response, chose the less frightening path and peered out around the doorframe. The street was empty. He couldn’t hear hoofbeats any longer. “I believe our pursuit has left.”

“Oh. Good.”

“I’d advise against following me in the future,” he added, even though he now found the prospect extremely interesting. “The places I travel are hardly safe.”

He turned to find Hazel giving him a level look, her eyes deep blue in the shadows. “Do you think I’m going to die peacefully at eighty if I stay away from you?”

“No,” he said as curtly as when he’d told her he didn’t get attached to the doomed.

Ligat knew what her fate was most likely to be. He could picture it quite vividly in his head. To the best of his knowledge, there was very little she could do to change that, and even less that he could.

She was Perthrux’s gateway. He was the demon’s servant. Their roles were fixed.

Still, when he met her eyes, he wanted to give her a different answer.

“Thanks for the consideration, though,” said Hazel dryly, and this time she was the one to turn away. “And since I’d expect youroverlord to batten down the hatches when you tell it about this, or set a trap—”

“I have no intention of telling it,” Ligat interrupted almost before he’d even thought the words. The idea revolted him, and Hazel’s skeptical expression stung, though it was entirely justified. He would have told Perthrux not very long ago, and his revulsion wouldn’t have mattered. It hadn’t for years.

Now he could conceal the truth. He’d had every intention of doing so from the moment he’d caught Hazel following him, and their liaison had only cemented it. He just hadn’t intended to let her know as much.

Hazel studied him, her arms folded across her chest and her gaze as sharp as it had been in her yard. “Why not?”

“It’s not part of my duty. You following me doesn’t weigh on my master’s goals one way or another. It already knew you could move into the ethereal world.”

“And having sex with me is irrelevant too?”

“What would it gain from knowing that?” Ligat shook his head. “You know who I am and who I serve. You’re hardly the sort to let me cloud your judgment through pleasure, and it wouldn’t much matter if you did.”

The corners of Hazel’s full lips twitched. “Thank you, I think.”

“It’s an unusual quality, in my experience,” he said, and didn’t stop the bitterness from leaking into his voice. He took in their surroundings: faded walls with chipped mosaics, a long table he hadn’t even considered in the midst of his lust because it looked likely to collapse at any moment, stairs he wouldn’t go up for love or money.

A living city, once? A memory? He couldn’t tell. It didn’t really matter. Now it was empty save for the two of them—if they were lucky.

“We’d best be going,” said Ligat.

* * *

Hazel hadn’t taken many walks of shame—general introversion had kept her out of most parties and bars—but she would have puttrek through an abandoned ethereal cityup against anybody else’s winner for most uncomfortable. Trekking through an abandoned ethereal city while the man she’d slept with was along for the trip put it into a different league entirely.

Also, she didn’t know if he was really a man.

Alsoalso—

—she told her brain to shut up. There’d be plenty of time to go over all that.

I will think about it tomorrow, for tomorrow is another day.