“You’re no longer my teacher, Keon.”

“No,” he says. “But I am better than you, Azazel. If you fight me, you will lose.”

I smile, cold and deadly. “It’s been a long time since we went head to head. You have no idea what moves I’ve picked up.”

He rolls his shoulders. “How about you show me, pup.”

I drop my weapons belt on the ground and charge.

Keon

He needs this and I deserve it, so I’ll let him have it. Fee can’t be mine. I know this, but I’ll be damned if I admit it to a boy I practically raised. He may have been born first, but in daemon years, I’m the older brother.

Brother.

This is my brother.

I deliberately take a split second too long to move and allow Azazel’s blow to find its mark. It knocks me off my feet.

That’s my boy. He always had a powerful right hook.

I hit the ground, roll and come up easy. “Is that all you’ve got?”

“Oh, Keon,” he says. “I haven’t even started yet.”

I can’t help the flare of pride that blooms in my chest for the man who would fight to protect the woman I… No, I won’t go there. I can’t.

Instead I’ll focus on taking a beating, of knocking her out of my system and moving on.

But if this is going to work, it’ll have to look real, which means… I lash out with my tail and knock his legs out from under him.

Azazel bellows with rage, but he’s back on his feet faster than expected. Yes, he definitely has improved since we trained together.

“Is that all you’ve got?” he asks.

I shrug. “Why don’t you come closer and find out.”

His silver eyes darken like a thunderstorm and then he attacks.

This is going to hurt.

And it’s just what I need.

Fee

I could hear the thuds and grunts from way down the hall. My heart leapt into my throat as I blur-moved into the room and came to a halt, head spinning, to find Keon on the ground and Azazel standing over him ready to deliver another blow.

Keon just lay there, waiting. I opened my mouth to yell at Azazel to stop. But there was no need.

Azazel lowered his fists and then slowly, deliberately, uncurled them.

He stood, looking down at Keon for a long beat before turning away.

I tried to catch his eye as he strode past me, but he studiously avoided my gaze and my stomach turned.

“What the fuck, man?” Mal said from behind me.

“Patch him up,” Azazel growled and then he was gone.

I was torn between wanting to go after my soulmate and helping Keon, who hadn’t even tried to pull himself off the floor. There was blood all over the mats and his beautiful face was a swollen, bruised mess.

“Help him,” Mal said. “Azazel needs some cool off time. I’ll speak to him.”

Honestly, I was glad to have the decision made for me. In all my time with Azazel I’d never seen him act like this.

Keon groaned and sat up. “I’m fine,” he bit out. “Go.” He looked at me through his unswollen eye and my heart contracted painfully in my chest.

“Like hell.” I bridged the distance between us and offered him my hand.

He looked at it like it was a venomous snake. “Fuck, you’re annoying.” He took it, allowing me to haul him up. “I’m fine,” he said again.

But he swayed on his feet. The blows to his head must have done some damage.

“No, you’re not.” I hooked and arm around his waist to take his weight. “Let’s get you cleaned up.”

Mal

I find Az pacing the library while Conah watches him warily. My Dominus brethren reminds me of a caged panther, powerful and dangerous and totally out of order.

I wait for him to stop pacing and look at me then I throw up my hands. “What the fuck, Az?”

“Close the door,” he says.

I kick it shut. “You didn’t have to beat him.”

“Yes, I did,” Azazel says. “He needs to know he can’t fuck with Fee. He can’t be with her. He needs to fucking know that.”

“Yeah, he does, but beating the crap out of him isn’t the way. Did you see the way Fee looked at you?”

He closes his eyes. “I didn’t want to see it.”

“Yeah, well I did. She looked like she was going to be sick. What the fuck…” I still can’t believe he went this far. “One punch, maybe two, would have sufficed, but you ruined his face.”

“He’ll heal.”

I look to Conah, but his sapphire gaze is fixed on Azazel.

I guess this is up to me. “That’s not the point.”

Azazel stands hands on hips, head bowed. “No, it isn’t. The point is, he wasn’t fighting back. Not properly. I was so fucking pissed, I didn’t notice it at first, not until you busted into the room.” He looks up at me. “He let me win, Mal.”

Huh? “Why would he do that?”

“I don’t know.”

I can tell that bothers him. On this shit, he’s like Conah, but whereas Conah likes to catalog information, Azazel needs to catalog people’s motivations. It drives him crazy when he can’t.

“Keon isn’t the kind of daemon to deliberately lose a fight.” Azazel says. “Not unless there’s something in if for him, which in this case there isn’t.”

Not that I can see, so why… Unless… No.

“What?” Azazel says. “You’ve thought of something.”

“Maybe he thinks he deserves it.”

Azazel makes a fuck off face.

“No, think about it. If he has genuine feelings for Fee, he must also know how bad that is, how he can’t possibly go there being Lilith’s bitch. So this, letting you beat him, is his way of forcing himself to remember that.”

I can see Azazel’s having trouble grasping this.

“Keon’s species of daemon mate for life,” Conah says. “They find their mates based on pheromonal attraction. If Keon has developed an attraction for Fee, then it’s out of his control, and it could be causing him distress.”

“Fuck,” Azazel runs a hand over his face.

“Hence him allowing you to beat the shit out of him,” Conah adds. “Mal’s theory is sound.”

“Then we keep them apart,” Azazel says. “As much as possible.” He frowns. “Where is Fee?”

Oh shit. “Um… Taking care of Keon.”

Azazel gives me a lethal look as Conah pushes back his chair and smooths down his shirt. “Let me handle this.”

Fee

There’s so much blood, but the swelling is already going down. Keon sits super still while I work on him. He’s barely breathing as I lean in to wipe blood from his brow, swiping the washcloths gently down his cheek.

“I’m sorry.” My gut is in knots. “If I’d suspected this would happen, I wouldn’t have told him.”

“What did you tell him?” Keon’s voice is so low it’s barely audible.

I dunk the washcloth in the bowl of warm water and wring it out, giving myself a moment to gather my thoughts.

“I told him I have feelings for you.”

His breath hitches and then he looks at me for the first time since I started working on him, and my throat pinches because there is a longing in that look, a desperate need that pierces me and becomes my own.

“Don’t,” he says finally. “You can’t. I can’t.”

My eyes are hot as tears blur my vision. “I know.” I blink them back and dunk the washcloth again. “I know about Lilith and her hold on you.” An idea, a hope, grips me. “But the curse is gone, and I’m Samael’s daughter, his actual daughter. She won’t hurt me.”

“You’re also Eve’s daughter and Lilith has a hatred for Eve that’s eternal. You cannot trust me. Once Lilith returns, you must not be alone with me.”

My pulse sped up. “Keon…” I didn’t know what to say. There was nothing to say. He belonged to her. “I’m sorry.”

He smiled, flashing his fangs. “I’m not. At least I got to know you. At least I found a mate even if I can’t have her.”

I couldn’t help but be drawn to him. The air between us buzzed with anticipation. He was so close all I needed to do was duck my head and claim his mouth. My gaze dropped to his lips, and my stomach fluttered with the need to taste him again.

“Fee…” It was a warning and a plea.

I squeezed the cloth in my hand then gently traced his mouth with the edge of it. His lips parted and his chest began to heave.

This was bad. I shouldn’t be doing this, but I needed to touch him just one more time. I ran the cloth down the column of his neck and down to the tops of his pecs and farther south, his muscles contracted beneath my touch and a feral purring filled the air. I was almost as his waistband, and I wanted to go farther.

His hand whipped up to grab my wrist and then I was hauled into his arms and his mouth crashed into mine. The kiss was a sting of fangs and the taste of copper. It was devouring, hungry, desperate need. A stolen moment that couldn’t last but felt like it needed to be eternal.

“Ahem!”

Keon tore his mouth from mine and growled low and threatening at the intruder.

I stood with my back to the door and took several deep breaths to compose myself. Fuck, if that was Azazel…

“Fee, I think Keon’s clean enough now, don’t you?’ Conah said.

My shoulders sagged in relief as I backed away from the daemon.

His eyes glittered like topaz, filled with the heat of the moment, then he blinked, and the heat was gone.

Conah held open the door. “Shall we?” His expression was neutral. No indication that he’d just walked in on my eating Keon’s face.

I looked back as I got to the door, but Keon’s gaze was on the floor. He looked vulnerable and alone, and my heart ached to go to hold him. To press his face to my bosom and smooth his hair.