Read Online Ties That Bind: A Muse Urban Fantasy (The Veil Series Book 5) by Pippa DaCosta - Free Book Online

quivered, and danced in their own intimacy. “I’d rather die than hurt you this way.”
    He captured my face in his hands and forced me back, so I had no choice but to look at him. And look I did. He shone, so perfect. His wings splayed behind him, glorious and surreal. The eternal glow from my veins rippled warm orange light over the crystal blue of his body. I touched his face, the way I had a dozen times before, but this time, I touched him as demon, felt the chaos in him, soaked his ethereal touch into me while I pushed inside him with mine.
    “Just enough to convince him . That’s all. We can survive this together. You have to be free of this place, Muse. You have to be one of them to beat them. You can. I know you can.”
    Damn him. Why did he have to be so right? Why couldn’t he be selfish like me? Why couldn’t we have this moment and make it about us? “I don’t know how,” I whispered, searching his brilliant eyes. But it was a lie. There was something in me: a wild hunger. I’d touched it briefly only a few times. Once, as a naïve half-blood girl half in love with the Prince of Greed, I’d used it to seduce Akil and test him for lies—so long ago the memory felt like it belonged to someone else. I had it in me to summon lust. Lust was in my blood.
    “Be demon.” Stefan’s sorry smile chilled my firestone heart.
    I gave a tiny shake of my head, but he held my face too tightly and kissed me hard. He was helping me do what had to be done. He wanted me, demon to demon. Would it be so bad if I poured gasoline on the spark and torched his soul with an inferno of lust? I can’t. I can’t. I CAN’T.
    He skipped his fingers up my wing and a gasp tore from my lips. Every frozen touch, every ice-fragile kiss, every fluttering whisper…he knew how he burned me.
    I spread my hands on his chest and pushed him down. “I’m sorry.” So goddamned sorry.
    He lay back on the cool stone floor, wings unfurled. “I know,” he said, crooked wise-ass smile so typically Stefan.
    He was ready. Demon urges demanded I take him. All I needed to do was shift my straddling position, and I’d have him inside me. I swallowed and leaned over him, my wing arched high. I settled a hot kiss on his chest and swirled my tongue around his nipple. A tight gasp and the twitch of his hips was my reward. “I love you,” I whispered, so quietly that he might not have heard me, but he’d have felt the heat of my words against his skin. Now. It was time.
    I reared back, lifted my head, splayed my hands on his chest, and opened my mind to the madness. A hungry wash of jagged needles tore from inside, broke free of the mental chains, and poured down my arms, through my hands, and into Stefan.
    He bucked, back arched, head thrown back. Raging lust spilled into him. His bright eyes clouded. Teeth gritted, he fought, even now, but he wouldn’t win. Lust was madness, and he’d already been skirting its fringes. He twitched and jerked, and I felt every spasm through my thighs and arms. I poured the poison into him and watched how his brilliance dulled, how his smooth ice faded to a dirty gray. His wings wilted, ice-feathers curling inward.
    A sob broke from my lips. I plucked my hands free, and there, on his chest, were two perfect handprints burned into his tarnished demon skin. “Oh, I’m so sorry… So sorry…”
    He shoved upright, using his blackened wings for leverage, and clamped a hand around my neck. I jerked back and tried to twist off him, but he clamped his free hand on my thigh and sunk his ice-claws in, holding me pinned against him. “Stefan,” I hissed, tugging on his grip. He tightened his fingers around my throat and peered at me. His eyes! They smoldered gray, like ash. Breath sawed through his teeth. “Stefan, let me go.” I dug my claws under his hands and pulled. His hand around my neck released, but my triumph was short lived when he clamped it on my thigh. “Stefan…” I shoved at his chest, avoiding