Page 4 of The Devil Takes

I still didn’t. Probably, anyway.

I wasn’t sure what this was.

And then I saw him.

It.

That.

The shadowy depths of the desolate bridge gave birth to a tall silhouette. Lean. Dressed in inky black shadow that sloughed off like water as he took step after step out of the darkness and into the silvery moonlight. The more he was illuminated, the clearer his figure became. Not because he was getting closer, but because the moon leeched the magic from him like bleach on blood.

From a distance, all I could see were bones. They decorated his shadowy silhouette in an illusion that made him look like he was nothing but a skeleton whenever he stepped into a puddle void of light.

He wore a mask in the shape of a human skull that lit up silver as his long legs led him out of the tree line. And as he stepped closer and a beam of moonlight hit his face, I realized if I squinted, I could see his eyes behind the hollows of the mask. The first thing I noticed should’ve been obvious. Even from a distance I could see that they weren’t human. Inverted colors. White where they should be dark, black where they should be light, his irises glowing softly.

Devilish, just as the stories had warned.

My cock throbbed and a whimper burst unbidden from my throat. The cold had now been chased away entirely by heat. My body thrummed with nervous energy, sweat beading across my temple as my knees trembled and I glanced down, for just a moment, only to spot the already dripping tip of my throbbing dick.

Fuck.

Precum leaked down my crown, slicking the pink surface, and I reached down without thinking, ready to squeeze till I eased the pulsing ache of desire. I stopped myself just in time, grabbing my thigh instead, my nails biting into the frozen-stiff muscle. I had company. I didn’t really want skeleton dude to see me jack off, no matter how badly I wanted to.

Consent was a thing.

It was bad enough I was already naked and needy.

Only a second had passed, but when I glanced up, the skeleton dude had crossed a surprising amount of the distance between us. He now strode across the rocks that edged the graveyard, though his steps were silent.

He was taller than I’d first guessed. And the closer he got to me, the more he began to make sense. He wore a uniform—not unlike a military uniform—though his was covered in silvery-white embroidery that took the shape of the bones I’d spotted even from a distance. Detailing on the fabric caught the light as his long, lean figure strode confidently across the grass. The skull shaped mask he wore cast shadows over his eyes as dry, dead leaves crunched beneath his tapered leather boots. I could hear his footsteps now.

Crunch, crunch, crunch.

Was this a trick?

It felt like a trick.

A Halloween prank gone wrong?

Or had the Devil come to take what he was owed?

I’d thought I didn’t have much to give, but as my cock jumped and my hole gave a needy twitch, I realized I’d been wrong. There was a buzzing in my ears, a fog in my head, a heat coursing through my body that I had only ever felt once before. A whine built up in the back of my throat unbidden. A primal sort of sound, a call for something I didn’t have the words to put a name to.

“Hush.” Ten steps away became nine, then eight. Long legs moved leisurely, muscular thighs flexing as the Devil came closer and closer. Distantly, I wondered if this was my fault. If I’d invited him here by calling a greeting into the darkness.

For a second, nothing felt real. The world was full of possibilities. My waking nightmare was forgotten as he stopped only a few feet away. He was so close I could count the silver beads etched across his uniform. But instead, I did something I’d never done before. I checked him out. Staring at his thighs made my dick twitch, my hole clenching as my gaze dragged upward. Though slim, there was no doubt that he was all man. His shoulders were broad, his jaw, where it poked out beneath the mask, square. With compact hips and thighs that should not be as supple as they were—I was lost.

I didn’t need to smell him to know that he was an alpha.

That didn’t stop me from trying. I inhaled greedily but his scent was as masked as mine. Though I doubted his was chemically stunted. It was more likely it had been swallowed by the same magic that had coated him with shadow. Which wasn’t to say that finding no trace of him in the air, even with my nose twitching and my toes curling, didn’t make my heart ache.

The lack of scent was jarring.

Wrong.

A needy feeling I didn’t recognize trembled like butterfly wings in my belly.

I wanted to plead, but he’d told me to hush.