special?”
“You mean a mate?” He blinked, surprised at her question. “No, I hadn’t taken a mate. I was still too young to have really considered it. If I hadn’t been trapped here, I may have by now but there was no woman I had found to capture my attention that way. And incubi do not mate with succubi; it’s an almost impossible pairing.”
Keri’s brow furrowed. “Impossible? I would think it would be ideal. Both of you need the same thing to survive. Why doesn’t it work?”
“If I were to bed a succubus, she would be feeding off of my pleasure while I fed off hers, but the longer it went on, the more we would drain from each other. It tends to end in two very exhausted daemons who have expended more energy than they gained.” Alistair grinned at her. “When we are first learning to control our powers such pairings are actually encouraged, mostly because they keep young sex daemons too tired to molest the rest of the population. Such pairings are also always sterile, so if we wish to have children, we need to find mates outside our own daemon type.”
“So one of your parents wasn’t...what you are?”
“My father is an incubus, as I am. My mother is what you would call an angel. She feeds on feelings of love.”
“Your mother is an angel ? How does that even work?”
He laughed at her puzzled expression, burying his hand in her hair and tugging her head back for a kiss before answering her question. “Remember I told you, demons and angels are not the way you think of them. We are all daemons, a single race with many types. The world doesn’t end if what you call a demon and an angel share a bed, though I will confess there were those in both their Houses who were less than pleased about it.
My parents have been together for many centuries, but there are still those who do not approve of their mating. They have fights that could set the sky afire sometimes, but they have always found a way to cope with their differences.
I have half siblings on both sides from previous pairings, brothers and sisters far older than I am. Near immortality makes a lifelong commitment a far greater challenge than for you mortals, so there are few among my kind who makes the choice to bind their souls to each other in a permanent mating. My parents chose to do so before I was born. They will be bound until death finds them, or time ends.”
“They bound their souls? What does that mean?”
He answered by lifting her small hand and threading their fingers together, closing his hand around hers to lock them together. “It is more than a temporary pairing; it means that their two souls are linked together so tightly that nothing can part them. They can share everything they are with each other. There can be no secrets, no lies. And if one of them should be killed, the other will follow them into death, they cannot exist without each other.”
Her fingers tightened around his and she sighed softly. “It sounds amazing, and terrifying at the same time. Do you think you’d want to be bound that way? Or will you go back to the way it was before you were caught?”
“It is very rare for my daemon type to bind their soul to another. Temporary matings do happen, but they usually last only a century or two. I admire what my parents have, but I’ve never thought about it for myself. If my father is to be believed though, the sex is so amazing it makes up for the lack of variety.”
Keri’s eyes widened and she blushed bright pink. “Your father actually said that?”
“He did. He’s a very outspoken fellow; it comes with his age and power. There are few who would argue with him, save for my mother. She is completely unimpressed by his power or his temper. Watching them together is a joy.”
“I wish I had such memories of my family. I never knew my mother, and my father I don’t really remember at all. He died in a car accident when I was young.
His mother, my Gran raised me here in this house. I was
“You mean a mate?” He blinked, surprised at her question. “No, I hadn’t taken a mate. I was still too young to have really considered it. If I hadn’t been trapped here, I may have by now but there was no woman I had found to capture my attention that way. And incubi do not mate with succubi; it’s an almost impossible pairing.”
Keri’s brow furrowed. “Impossible? I would think it would be ideal. Both of you need the same thing to survive. Why doesn’t it work?”
“If I were to bed a succubus, she would be feeding off of my pleasure while I fed off hers, but the longer it went on, the more we would drain from each other. It tends to end in two very exhausted daemons who have expended more energy than they gained.” Alistair grinned at her. “When we are first learning to control our powers such pairings are actually encouraged, mostly because they keep young sex daemons too tired to molest the rest of the population. Such pairings are also always sterile, so if we wish to have children, we need to find mates outside our own daemon type.”
“So one of your parents wasn’t...what you are?”
“My father is an incubus, as I am. My mother is what you would call an angel. She feeds on feelings of love.”
“Your mother is an angel ? How does that even work?”
He laughed at her puzzled expression, burying his hand in her hair and tugging her head back for a kiss before answering her question. “Remember I told you, demons and angels are not the way you think of them. We are all daemons, a single race with many types. The world doesn’t end if what you call a demon and an angel share a bed, though I will confess there were those in both their Houses who were less than pleased about it.
My parents have been together for many centuries, but there are still those who do not approve of their mating. They have fights that could set the sky afire sometimes, but they have always found a way to cope with their differences.
I have half siblings on both sides from previous pairings, brothers and sisters far older than I am. Near immortality makes a lifelong commitment a far greater challenge than for you mortals, so there are few among my kind who makes the choice to bind their souls to each other in a permanent mating. My parents chose to do so before I was born. They will be bound until death finds them, or time ends.”
“They bound their souls? What does that mean?”
He answered by lifting her small hand and threading their fingers together, closing his hand around hers to lock them together. “It is more than a temporary pairing; it means that their two souls are linked together so tightly that nothing can part them. They can share everything they are with each other. There can be no secrets, no lies. And if one of them should be killed, the other will follow them into death, they cannot exist without each other.”
Her fingers tightened around his and she sighed softly. “It sounds amazing, and terrifying at the same time. Do you think you’d want to be bound that way? Or will you go back to the way it was before you were caught?”
“It is very rare for my daemon type to bind their soul to another. Temporary matings do happen, but they usually last only a century or two. I admire what my parents have, but I’ve never thought about it for myself. If my father is to be believed though, the sex is so amazing it makes up for the lack of variety.”
Keri’s eyes widened and she blushed bright pink. “Your father actually said that?”
“He did. He’s a very outspoken fellow; it comes with his age and power. There are few who would argue with him, save for my mother. She is completely unimpressed by his power or his temper. Watching them together is a joy.”
“I wish I had such memories of my family. I never knew my mother, and my father I don’t really remember at all. He died in a car accident when I was young.
His mother, my Gran raised me here in this house. I was
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