Chapter 175: Does He Live in the Walls?

Daemus was sitting on the front steps of Dormitory G.

He had his elbows on his knees and his phone in both hands. Tinny crowd noise came out of it, then a buzzer. His ears were out. They turned toward her footsteps before he looked up.

Then he looked up, and stood.

He came down the steps two at a time and stopped in front of her. His eyes went over her once, from her hair to her shoes, and stopped on her left hand.

"Which one of them did that?"

"Jasper."

"Okay." He breathed out through his nose. "Where’s Jack? He was supposed to bring you back."

"He did. Kind of." Blair tucked her hands into her coat sleeves. "Killian brought me back first."

Daemus stared at her.

"The snake was there?"

"He came up uninvited."

"Why is he everywhere?" Daemus turned in a half circle, as if Killian might be standing behind the hedge. "Does he live in the walls or something?"

A window lit up on the second floor. Blair grabbed his sleeve.

"Daemus."

"I’m whispering." He wasn’t. But he let her pull him up the steps.

At the top he stopped and took her other hand out of her sleeve. He turned it over under the porch light. The ink on her wrist was a gray smear. You could just about make out the C.

"It’s smudged," he said.

"I came home, though."

He looked at the smear a moment longer. Then he lifted her wrist and pressed his mouth to it, right where the words had been.

* * *

In the room, she told him the rest. She sat on the edge of her bed with her coat still on, and he sat on Heather’s, his knees almost touching hers, because there wasn’t room for them not to.

Daemus listened without interrupting once. His ears had gone flat halfway through and stayed there.

"Every Friday," he said.

"Yes."

"He bites you every Friday, and in exchange he tells you a story."

"He tells me what I did."

"You don’t know he’ll tell you the truth."

"No," Blair said. "But I don’t know anything else either."

He rubbed his face with both hands. When he took them away he was looking at her carefully, the way he looked at an algebra problem he had a bad feeling about.

"What else?"

She thought for a moment, then...

"There’s something I can’t tell you," she said. "It isn’t mine to tell."

Daemus didn’t say anything.

"It’s not about me. If it were, I’d tell you."

"Is it going to get you hurt?"

"I don’t think so."

He looked at her for a long moment. Then he nodded once, slowly.

"Then keep it."

He let out a breath. Then his jaw set.

"But you’re not going back Friday."

"Daemus—"

"No. He bit you. Who the fuck bites their guest?" He was on his feet. The room was too small to pace in. "Next time it’s your neck. I’ll tell Jack it’s off. If the fish wants to talk, he can talk to me."

"He won’t tell me anything if you go."

"Then he doesn’t tell you. I don’t care what happened in some lobby. I care that you come back alive and healthy."

He turned again.

Blair stopped arguing.

She looked down at her hands. She let her shoulders curl in. When she spoke again, her voice came out small.

"I was so scared tonight."

Daemus stopped.

"I just wanted to come home." She pressed her thumb to her bitten finger, where he could see. "Can we not fight? Please. Not tonight."

His ears were already lifting.

"Hey. Hey, no." He was on his knees in front of her before she’d finished, his big hands closing around hers, careful of the finger. "I’m not fighting. I’m not mad at you, Bunny."

She didn’t look up right away.

Then she lifted her eyes to his, and the fight went out of his face.

"Your hands are freezing," she said.

"Four hours on the steps."

"You waited the whole time?"

"Yes."

She slid her hands out of his and laid them on either side of his face. Then she leaned down and kissed him.

He made a low sound against her mouth. Whatever he’d been about to say about Friday, he didn’t say it. His hands came up to her waist, under the coat, over the dress, and he kissed her back slowly at first, as if he was still deciding something. His mouth opened under hers. His tongue slid against hers, warm and unhurried, and he pulled her forward off the edge of the bed until she was in his lap on the floor, her knees on either side of his thighs.

The coat slid off her shoulders. Daemus pushed it the rest of the way to the floor without breaking the kiss.

Then his hands found the dress, and he stopped.

"I hate this thing," he said against her mouth. "Can I take it off you?"

"Yes."

He found the zipper and drew it down, his knuckles following it along her spine. The silk slid off her shoulders and pooled at her waist. He leaned back to look at her, and his ears came up.

"There they are," Blair said before she could stop herself. Her face went hot.

Daemus grinned. "Don’t make fun of my ears when you’re half naked."

He kissed the side of her neck, then lower. His mouth closed over her breast, warm and greedy, and he took his time. His tongue circled. His teeth tugged, gently, and his hand at her back held her there while she arched into him. Her fingers went into his hair, and his ear twitched against her palm. She felt him laugh against her skin.

She tugged at his shirt. He pulled it over his head one-handed and threw it somewhere behind him. She ran her hands down his chest, and his stomach tightened under her palms. When her fingers reached his belt, his breath caught.

"Bunny." His voice had gone rough. He caught her wrist, gently. "Look at me."

She looked at him.

"Yeah?" he said.

"Yes," she responded. "I want you."