Immortals After Dark 10 - Demon From the Dark

she still couldn't have sex with him. Aside from the fact that she could get pregnant by a vemon, she didn't need to be intimate with him--it would make her mission that much more complicated. She shook her head. "No sex."
    He flicked his hands out in that impatient What gives? gesture.
    Okay, so he wanted to know why . Hmm, how to mime betrayal ? She didn't see that answer forthcoming, so she knelt on the ground, wiping flat an area of sand. With a finger, she drew a profile of the three peaks of his mountain. Beside that she drew a doorway. The last picture was of a house. " Minde home," she said.
    Curt nod from the demon.
    She pointed at him, then herself, then walked her fingers from the mountain, through the door, to the house.
    He gave another nod of understanding, but he was quick to point to himself and then her, interlacing his fingers and clasping his hands.
    "Together? Yes, we'll go together ." He would follow her through. There went the first hurdle. Now for the next. "No sex till then."
    Scowling demon.
    She pointed at the drawing of her house. " There . Sex."
    She wanted him to leave this plane with her, to go through the portal to her home.
    Malkom knew there were other planes, some rumored to be heavenly. When young, he'd heard tales of one with blue skies, of all things. Food was said to sprout straight from the ground, there for the taking. No catching or hunting necessary.
    Precious water was said to fall from the sky, riches given to all.
    But as he'd grown older, he'd realized that all who came through the portal told different tales. Some said the fields were golden, some said green. Some said the "oceans" were blue, some said gray.
    Of one thing he was certain. No plane could possibly be worse than this one. Would he go with her? Absolutely. She might have parents, siblings, or friends there. He had no one.
    In the sand, she drew the symbols he'd used for a day, then held up five fingers.
    She was telling him that he wasn't to claim her until then? The better part of a week? He held up five fingers in blatant disbelief, and her lips curled the smallest bit. "Yes, demon."
    He recognized the word and liked it when she called him that. He did not like her conditions.
    When he asked her in Demonish why he'd only have her there, she merely shrugged, and again he was struck by how little he knew about her. He didn't even know what she was, much less what her customs would be.
    Perhaps she needed a binding ceremony to make him her husband. Perhaps marrying within her culture wasn't as easy as within his. With a few words spoken...
    At the end of those five days, would she be as anxious as he? Eagerly leading him by the hand to her home, to her bed?
    Would she introduce him to her family? Hardened warriors weren't oft valued in a soft world. Yet maybe her people would appreciate the fact that he'd saved her life.
    Dreams of the future, Slaine? He knew better. No longer could he dream without dreading. The two were forever intertwined for him. Every time he'd dared to anticipate a change in his fortunes--even from the earliest age--he'd had his hopes crushed.
    When his mother had sold him into slavery, he'd stupidly believed he was going to be adopted into a new family. And as much as he'd hated what the master had done to him, Malkom had felt betrayed when that vampire had turned him out in the streets.
    But Malkom had made both of them pay, along with the guards who'd delivered him to the Viceroy and eventually the vampire leader himself. All were dead. Except for Ronath.
    Reminded of this, Malkom realized he couldn't depart Oblivion when she wanted. Unless Ronath attacked before then, Malkom would be leaving him unscathed, though he'd always meted retribution.
    That bastard had cost him his best friend in Kallen. Malkom didn't blame Kallen for what had happened in that cell. Malkom blamed the conniving armorer for the loss.
    Nearly as much as I blame myself .
    Could he forgo vengeance on Ronath? After awaiting it for so long?
    Malkom gazed at Carrow. Hadn't he been awaiting her for just as long, even if he hadn't realized it?
    She was no distant dream. She was here, real and tangible, a fantasy made flesh. He feared after one night inside her body, he would surrender his vengeance without a second thought.
    One way to find out. ...
    The wheels were turning again. What was the demon deciding?
    When Carrow stood, again intending to unroll the second sleeping bag, he scowled.
    "No sex," he said in