Evan
The second her hand touched mine, I pulled her against me, holding her head to my chest even though there was no warmth in my body to offer her.
She didn’t seem to mind, burying her face in my chest as I held her tight.
“I will never judge you,” I whispered, pressing a kiss to her hair. “You will always be safe with me.”
It was an oath, one I felt deep in my bones. I didn’t have much of a soul to swear on anymore, but whatever I had left belonged to her. Intrinsically, I knew that.
But my eyes weren’t on her as she relaxed into my arms. My gaze was fixed on her painting, on the demon’s black eyes, devoid of soul but brimming with ugly, feral, want.
I’d looked into those eyes before, decades ago, when I was a mortal man. I saw them in the mirror, saw them in a man desperate to en
