"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."

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"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.




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