I make a move like I might hit him and he gets to the point, making me groan when I realize the night with Kara is most likely coming to an untimely end.
Chapter 6
Kara
What the hell? No, really, what in the ever-loving hell is going on? I sit up, still half-dazed from the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me. The good feeling is almost washed away when I see Zorion pause working his zipper down, suddenly freezing in place as his eyes glow.
It’s not a flash that I can write off as a trick of the light, but an actual gleaming, golden glow. A blink later and they’re back to their normal honeyed hue, but the massive bulge in his pants seems to shrink a bit and he suddenly has a sour look on his face.
What the hell is going on? Here I am, about to tell him I’m a virgin so that he doesn’t split me in two, but now everything’s suddenly different. I begin to think I imagined the glow, even though I know I didn’t.
“I’m sorry, Kara, but I have to go,” he says.
He seems truly apologetic and definitely disappointed. I’m still naked from the waist down and he hands me my jeans, which I tug on. I can’t find any words to say. I certainly can’t just ask him what just happened. I’m stunned into silence as he kisses me briefly before racing off into the forest.
“What the hell?” I say out loud to myself, peering into the darkness as his big form disappears once again. I start to reluctantly head inside.
I’m incredibly lucky that Gramps is a sound sleeper, especially after a good meal, because I really let loose and howled when Zorion was down between my legs. I head to my room, dazed by how he made me feel, but confused about what I saw. More than anything, I’m disappointed, more than I probably should be, that I didn’t just lose my virginity on the picnic table in the backyard.
I sit down, patting my cheeks, which still feel hot, because holy cow, what he did to me was amazing.
“No, think rationally,” I tell myself, firing up my ancient laptop.
Now isn’t the time to get caught up in feelings, especially when they’re drawing me to Zorion like a moth to a flame. I need to concentrate on those glowing eyes and what that means. Nothing else. Especially not how disappointed I am that he ran off.
After his eyes glowed and he seemed to zone out for a second, like he was really somewhere else.
I start searching the internet, adding in everything I find odd about Zorion. His great size, his super strength, the tattoos that seemed to shift, and the glowing eyes. After ending up on a website that looks like it was forgotten twenty years ago, full of broken images and outdated links, I think I’ve got an answer.
It’s just not really the answer I want.
What I’m faced with is a website about demons.
Demons.
There’s a list of names, and the sins they supposedly represent, and while Zorion isn’t one of them, Beelzebub jumps out at me. I mean, he loves bees, right? The description fits, too. High status, gluttony— have to suppress a giggle when I think about how he went to town on me like I was an all-you-can-eat buffet. The glowing eyes might mean a form of communication with another demon if the kook who made this website is to be believed. And after seeing what I’ve seen, I can’t really call them a kook, because it all makes sense.
So I just let a demon …
I shake my head, trying to decide if I should be scared. Zorion’s given me no reason to be afraid of him. He helped me when I was hurt, bought up all of Gramps’s figurines, and he brought me to new heights of ecstasy.
“Demon,” I say aloud, shuddering.
According to the website, all they do is lie and deceive. Zorion must be dangerous and in the deception phase right now. Butwhy? Is he after our souls? Trying to corrupt me? Something even worse?
With tired eyes, I look at my phone to see it’s well past four in the morning. I have to try to sleep or be a wreck at work tomorrow. I’m a wreck now. I decide I’ll look for him in the woods and confront him after my shift ends.
I finally fall asleep after a lot of tossing and turning, hoping Zorion will laugh his head off at my questions and that there’ll be an explanation for all of it.
***
I wake up late after not hearing my alarm go off and race out of the house, still in a daze. None of what I learned last night can possibly be real, but I don’t have the luxury of missing work in order to find Zorion right away to clear things up.
I’m half an hour late to work and try to sneak in past Joe. I wonder if I can say I forgot to clock in, but before I can try, I see that he’s waiting at the registers with his arms crossed over his chest.
“I told you if you were late one more time you’d be fired,” he says.
Tears spring to my eyes as the assistant manager tries to defend me. I open my mouth to beg for one last chance, but Joe only shakes his head at me, pointing toward the exit. “Don’t bother asking for a reference, either,” he calls after me on my way out.