Page 24 of Demon's Obsession

“Your demon is one of the good ones, too.” Dougal laid some twigs in a mound in his pit. “Just remember, nothing in the past can ever be changed. What’s done is done, no matter how much it might change a person. We can only move on.”

“I know.” Silas heard the break in his voice, and broke into a run, the need to touch the bark of his tree overpowering him. As he ran, the blocks he’d tried to put up to stop his energies from upsetting Wanda came crashing down, and the pain he’d felt before increased tenfold.

Dakata’s hurt!Silas screamed through his bond, desperate for his oak to give him guidance. He couldn’t go back to that realm—not because he didn’t want to, but because, without a demon, it wasn’t possible.You can feel him, can’t you? How can we help him?

Panting, because between the pain, and his emotions, Silas could finally allow himself to feel his truth, he rested his hand on his beloved oak. “I killed a demon,” he sobbed against the bark. “I took a life.”

You took more than one, and you saved your sister. You will come to terms with that in your own time. For now, you must save Dakata.

“I can’t get to him.” Silas straightened and brushed his tears from his eyes. The dead he’d grieve when the living were safe. “What can I do?”

The man who took Wanda is already dead. Dakata is lost on a rampage. He’s injured, hurt beyond measure, and he’s not listening to those around him.

“Do you know the way to their realm?”

We don’t need to go there. His soul—last night, his seed sinking into my trunk, touching you—he gave it to you and to me to keep.

“He did…” Silas still didn’t understand.

Find his soul in your heart, where you placed it for safekeeping. Look inside and find it…

Closing his eyes, Silas did as his tree instructed. The spark of Dakata’s soul shone brightly in his mind’s eye. “I found it,” he whispered.

I knew you would. Now take it in your hands, wrap your spirit around it, and yank with all your strength.

Questions. Silas had a dozen of them, but the turmoil in his bond with Dakata was increasing—the demon was badly hurt. So he imagined it—cradling Dakata’s soul in his hands and then he thought about pulling it towards himself, like a giant rope.It’s time to come home,he whispered through their bond.Come back to me.

Now!

Chapter Sixteen

Dakata

Black rage dulling the pain from his wounds, Dakata wanted vengeance. He wanted to find a way to bring back those fuckers who had dared to make his blissful one’s soul bleed and kill them all over again. Everything Silas felt, Dakata’s demon felt. Deep in bone and blood, their connection stole his sanity, and someone had wanted to sever that bond. Take what was most precious to them—Silas.

He roared, the destruction around him unseen.

“Fuck, Daks, come on, you need to—”

Lights flashed around him. Merihem’s voice faded away as he got torn from his realm. The violence of the act stunned his demon into silence. He couldn’t fight it.

A part of him already knew who was summoning him—calling to his soul to return to them.

Of his altered senses, his nose was the first to identify where they were. The tree’s scent was uniquely Silas.

I’m here bonded one, come to me.

His enormous body shuddered at the anger releasing its ugly hold on him as branches stroked over his bloody torso.We have you. Let my oak heal you, as will I.

The whispered words, the offer so pure, made the center of his being pulse. His eyesight flickered, the tree in front of him appeared like a vision from the mist. It formed into the mighty beauty it was. Then the stroking branches cradled him, bringing him effortlessly into the tree. To Silas.

That’s it, settle my bonded one. Feel the earth’s natural healing energy. My tree’s energy. Let it become a part of you.

His soothing voice was nothing to the picture Silas made laying inside the center of the tree on a leafy bed, naked, his arms lifted in welcome. “Let Dakata out, he will be safe here,” he murmured, his fingers wiggling enticingly.

Dakata’s demon side wasn’t ready to listen, not yet. He wanted to check their blissful one was indeed whole and safe. The branches released them, and the tree as sturdy as the ground held his massive weight as he kneeled next to Silas.

“I will, first I need to touch,” his demon stated gruffly.