Page 109 of Demon Food

I had to reorient myself around his sudden hostility.

“You still believe you’re so clever, Prince. You still believe you’re better than everyone else with your grand ideas. You think I don’t remember them? You think I don’t remember how you wanted to save the world one spared human at a time?”

My nostrils flared as I glowered.

“But we’re not children anymore, are we? And you can’t avoid who you are. You’re a goddamn vultus, Alek. No, not even. Your bloodline is more incubus than anyone in this kingdom, which means you feed on sex.”

I tried to step around him. “Fuck you, Neopal⁠—”

He shoved a finger into my chest, making me stumble backward. “You will kill a human, or you will die. There’s no way around it.”

“Touch me again, sweetheart,” I said, my eyes likely as red as his as I stepped so close our noses almost brushed. I was taller than him by a full foot, and he had to tilt his head back to hold my gaze. “You’re right. I do have incubus blood, and I can rip your body to shreds from the inside. So, go ahead. Touch me again.”

He stared up at me for a long time. So long, I wanted to snap each bone of his ribcage just to prove a point. Then he wisely stepped around me.

Without another look back, he was gone, his footsteps disappearing down the stairwell, and I couldn’t decipher what this strange feeling sinking in my stomach was as I stared into the darkness in his wake.

But Feloré was inside, which meant he was safe. For now.

I pushed open my door.

It was…dark. The fire had nearly burned out. Feloré’s chain lay scattered across the floor, like they’d forgotten to reattach it.

Something was unusual about my room. It smelled peculiar. It must’ve been the empty bowl of stew or whatever was on the desk.

“Feloré,” I said to the propped open door of the washroom. “Are you here?”

“I am,” answered the sexiest voice imaginable. “Come in.”

It was so sexy that it startled me. I stood frozen in time.

“Do you need a cigarette?” he asked. “I have them in here.”

I stepped closer to the door, rolling my lips. I was…hesitating. I didn’t know why; only that I was.

“Alek.” He switched to Vultaen as he said, “My prince. Come in. I want to show you something.”

I creaked the door open, questions roaming on my tongue, but my words dried up the second I saw him. He lounged on the chaise in the corner, smiling.

“Do you like what I’ve done?” he asked, motioning around him.

It barely registered that he’d probably lit half the candles in here. It must’ve taken him ages to do that manually, but that wasn’t the startling part. That would be his outfit.

The outline of his stomach was visible through the black gossamer shirt he wore. And the pants were so low on his hips that they directed one’s gaze downward toward the V-cut lines below his belly button.

“Why are you…?” I trailed off, digging into my pockets.

“Looking for a cigarette?” he asked, and something was so fucking different about him. It was his smile. “Come. I have one right here.”

Both my shoulders twitched, and he chuckled.

“Sorry, don’t mean to laugh,” he said and elegantly rose. “You just look so cute when you do it.”

I twitched harder when he started to walk toward me, struggling to clear my head. “Snow Fox. Wait, why are you dressed like that? And where are the cigarettes?”

“The cigarettes?” he asked, tapping a finger against his chin. “Hmm, let me think.”

My eyes wandered down his body, snagging on his muscular stomach as he continued to stroll toward me.