I tried again when skin bumped against my lips. Without thinking, I latched on to his wrist with my hands and mouth, sucking like my life depended on it. Just like last time I’d taken his blood, power surged through me, adding to what was already there. His heartbeat pounded in my ears. His skin against mine felt like velvet.

I moaned, both from our friction and the taste of him. The feel of his blood as it boosted my magic. My life force sang inside me, lifting me up. My hair felt like it was standing on end, and my stomach filled with butterflies.

I felt the tap but didn’t want to stop. The climaxes had started again, and I was riding them all the way to Happy Town.

A harder tap hit my thigh.

I need to stop.

But my body wouldn’t listen. The taste curled my toes. The feel of him, all of him, put me into a state of euphoria that I never wanted to let go.

I was flying through the air before I knew what had happened. I had time to blink twice before I hit the wall and fell to the ground. My head bounced off the floor.

“Ouch.” I lay there for a moment, because I was still shivering in climax. Still. After being thrown across the room. “That’s a good time.”

My legs wobbled as I picked myself up and went back to the bed. Darius pulled the blanket over him and turned onto his side, holding it up for me to slip into the hollow of his body.

“Now we sleep, then we wake up and do it again?” I asked as I crawled in next to him.

“Yes. The sensations are supposed to get more intense as the days go by, which is why the sixth day is to recover and let the bond finish taking root.”

“The sensations will get stronger?” I looked at the dent in the wall. “Let’s hope my urge to kill you doesn’t.”

Chapter Eleven

I lay like a zombie, staring up at the ceiling. Darius lay next to me, also not moving.

It was day seven and I hadn’t spoken for thirty-six hours. I’d lost my voice during day five from all the screaming and had no idea if it had come back yet. Darius was in the same condition. Guy code might’ve said they didn’t scream, but bonding code held no such reservations.

Part of me never wanted to do that again; another part wanted to do it at least once a year. I thought I’d die from pleasure if it happened more than once per day. Actually die. It was that intense.

We should get up, Darius thought. He hadn’t spoken out loud, other than the ululations of lovemaking, since day three. My power hadn’t receded, so I could hear him just fine. It is time to get going.

I felt his heart beating deep down, like a slow, comforting clock keeping time. I felt connected to him in a way that couldn’t be explained. Like our souls were holding hands. I didn’t feel his emotions, like I had thought I would, just the ease of knowing we were together. I felt responsible for him, deeply in love with him, and a pure light originating from inside because of him.

He’d been right. It had just strengthened what we already had. We might physically be apart in the future, but we would never be separated, something that would totally suck if our relationship went south.

Call me Mrs. Glass-half-empty. Or practical; take your pick.

“Yeah.” My voice had returned to hoarse and scratchy, like on day three, but at least it worked. “I might walk bowlegged. Don’t make fun of me. It’s your fault.”

I have heard that bonding is intense and enjoyable, but that seemed excessive.

I laughed and thought about rolling toward the edge of the bed.

Come, we need to go. He didn’t move.

“Who are you trying to convince, me or you?”

My body does not want to obey my head’s commands.

“Are you sure it’s supposed to be six days instead of seven? Because it certainly doesn’t feel like we should be running around at this point. I’m still exhausted.”

His body wiggled a little. I can do this. Finally he rolled to his side before swinging his feet over the edge.

I followed suit, hating every minute of it. I wanted to lose the entire month to him, lying in bed and reveling in his perfect body. He’d ruined my sense of reason. Absolutely destroyed it. I was not thinking rationally anymore. Callie would kill me.

A shot of adrenaline had me surging to my feet. “Callie and Dizzy!” My legs gave out and I fell to the ground. “Dang it, my legs are not obeying.” I crawled to the wall and climbed to my feet. A bit dramatic, but man, I was sore and tired. “Oh my God, how could I have forgotten to leave them a note? They’ll think I disappeared off the face of the earth.”

I pulled on my clothes and weapons and scooped my pouch off the ground. I dug out my phone. It had probably long since died, so I looked around frantically for a charger. The least I could do was text them.

“Moss will have seen to that,” Darius said, coming around the bed and placing a comforting hand on my shoulder. “I gave him instructions to pick up a letter from you and deliver it to them. I had thought we’d spend some time getting you comfortable with the next steps before initiating the bonding. There were a few things I wanted to do. As usual, of course, you unraveled my plans. He will have seen to it in our absence.”

“I hope he didn’t try to sign my name to it, because there is no way he could mimic me. They’ll know something is up.”

Darius went still for a moment. “You can send another before we leave.”

I took a deep breath. “Do you have a charger?”

He glanced at my phone. “For that relic? No. We’ll get you a new phone.”

“Just because I bonded you—” I had to stop myself for a moment. A rush of butterflies and inner girlie squealing blotted out all thought. I tried again. “Just because I—” I gritted my teeth, because this was getting ridiculous. “—doesn’t mean I want you to buy me a bunch of stuff. This phone is fine. I just need a charger.”

Two backpacks, a satchel, and a new, larger pouch awaited us downstairs, along with a new set of clothes and a handwritten note. Darius took up the note as I riffled through the backpacks. Each contained a scaly sort of suit made out of stressed leather and patches of hard material, rope, a Swiss Army knife, and other survival tools. Darius’s pack, the one with the larger suit, contained a lighter. Mine did not.

Moss was nothing if not thorough.

Within my new pouch was a color-coded array of spells, and a piece of paper identifying what they all were.

Extremely thorough.

I dropped my hand with the paper in it so I could see how much of the information stuck. “Oh crap.”

“What is it?” Darius asked, now looking through the backpacks.

I felt my eyes widen as I lifted the paper again. “I read the paper, looked away, and I remembered every detail. Holy crap.” I smiled. “That is awesome! Totally cheating at life with humans, but awesome.”

“You’re welcome.” His lips tweaked into a grin.

“Well, you’ll get to walk around the depths of hell with a bunch of horribly ugly creatures that want to do you harm. So you’re welcome.” I strapped the pouch around my waist as my stomach growled. My brow crumpled. “I haven’t eaten since we started the bonding. Is that normal?”

“For humans, no. For you? Who’s to say? That raises a good question, though. Do you need to eat? Demons do not, so I don’t assume there will be any restaurants down there.”

“If I didn’t need to eat for the last week, then…”

He nodded like he thought that was the case. “It will probably be extremely uncomfortable for you for the first few days. You will probably feel hunger again now that the bonding is no longer distracting you. There will be other physical discomforts. You’ll want to breathe, but there will be no air in places. Your thirst will go unquenched. To top it off, you’ll miss the sun.”

I huffed out a laugh. “Of all the things you listed, I can handle no sun.”

“For a while, yes. But mark my words, you’ll notice its absence.”

I nodded, since he would know, and thought about raiding the kitchen for one last meal. Instead, since I should probably start the torture now so I could get used to it faster, I looked around for paper and a pen.