by
I belong to a Demon Lord. His name is Roman. He’s tall, strong, has dark hair, a deep sexy voice and, let me tell you, absolutely f-ing gorgeous. Yep. I even wear his ring. Third finger, left hand.
Except – its’s not a wedding band. Far from it, actually. It simply means I’m his submissive.
Well – it doesn’t really mean that either, although I wish it did.
No. The ring’s function is only to give me “sight”. Being human, once I had it on, I could suddenly see Roman’s stupid lost legions; very nasty scary things that would as soon kill me as look at me. And because I wear the ring, guess what? It’s now my job to recapture all those creatures for him. Yay me, right?
At least I get to be close to Roman… sometimes.
But, to tell you the truth, I was tricked into putting this damn ring on by Cathy, some random woman I met at a park, who unfortunately likes Roman, too. A whole lot. She brazenly flirts with the demon every chance she gets and right in front of me, too. Crap, it pisses me off. In fact, she brags she was the one who found me, got the ring on me and then offered me up to Roman like I was a T-bone steak or something.
Well – honestly – that part’s okay.
However, there’s something else going on. Something big. Because there’s another gorgeous Demon Lord in our little earth realm and he will stop at nothing to capture Roman’s loose legions for himself. Not only that, seems he’s out to capture me, as well. Not exactly sure why...
Anyway. My name is Micah and things just got... weird.
- 1 To Be Read list
Publisher: Painted Hearts Press
Cover Artists:
Genres:
Pairings: M-M
Heat Level: 4
Romantic Content: 5
Ending: Click here to reveal
Character Identities: Gay
Protagonist 1 Age: 36-45
Protagonist 2 Age: 36-45
Protagonist 3 Age: 36-45
Tropes: Alpha Character, Antihero, Big Character / Little Character, Enemies to Lovers, Hurt / Comfort, Love Triangle
Word Count: 79,000
Setting: city
Languages Available: English
Roman shifted in his chair as if he were uncomfortable. They had moved back to his “office” because there was a place for all three of them to sit. Roman sat behind his disgusting desk and Cathy sat next to Micah in very dirty, dusty chairs. It wasn’t that Micah saw they were all that filthy and he did brush them off as best he could; it was just the knowledge of all of the spider webs in the room and odd skittering sounds he kept hearing and the strange smell…
Roman brought Micah’s attention back to him. “Children are always filled with emotion. You know that. This Scouter felt most comfortable with them.”
Micah huffed. “That doesn’t make sense. I get what you’re saying about emotion, kids drive me crazy too, but why was it hanging out here? Why not take off to parts unknown if they wanted to escape you so badly? Kids are everywhere. That’s the piece I don’t get.”
“First of all, they don’t want to escape me.
I mean, I guess some of them would be brave and strong enough to venture farther out, but they do need me. It’s because the energy they draw from emotional humans is delicious, and they love it. It’s new, different. But energy coming from me is much more powerful.” Once again, Roman made a face of confusion. “I’m still not sure what happened with this last Scouter you brought back. But something did…” He sighed. “Anyway, some are just not as intense or smart as others, as well. You’ll have that going for you.”
“Yeah, you said that before, that the ones the old man got were not as smart. Okay. I guess that makes sense. You said they won’t band together. Why? Why wouldn’t the so-called smarter ones make them band together?”
“I told you. They don’t have that kind of loyalty to each other. It’s hard to explain. They don’t – well – think like we do. You don’t need to worry about that.”
Micah rose from his chair. Moving around was going to have to help him think. Something just wasn’t adding up. Roman was hiding something from him, he could feel it.
“I’m not.”
“What?”
“Hiding something.”
“Yeah, like I would believe a demon.”
“I want us to be able to work together.”
“I know that. So, tell me the truth. Tell me everything.”
Roman shifted again but remained silent.
Micah sighed. “Fine.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “They feed on fear and anger and all that, right? Cathy, where can you find humans who have fear and anger? Maybe the freeway at rush hour?” he laughed. “Actually, in front of my house. Traffic has to be backed up pretty good by now, I bet. Plenty of pissed off angry people right there.”
She cocked her head and her eyes glazed over for a moment. “Maybe… but how about a hospital?”
Micah sighed and shrugged. “Yeah. Good. A hospital. I agree. People are always crying and shit at a hospital. How about Regions on Fifth downtown. It’s huge. That could hold a number of legions.”
“Sure, except…” Cathy appeared to be thinking. “Why… don’t we start at Saint Joes down the street?” She bit her bottom lip as if she were nervous.
“Oh,” Micah blinked. “It’s a lot smaller so… Don’t you think we should go for the bigger one?”
Roman cocked his head as he gazed at Cathy. “Why a small hospital, Cathy?”
Cathy beamed at Roman. “Because of what you told us. Your legions like your energy best. So they stay close. It might be a small hospital but it’s right down the street.”
Roman nodded slowly staring at Cathy. Clearly, he was thinking something. Maybe being impressed.
She showed him up, damn it.
One thing was for sure. He wanted to pull Roman’s attention from her.
“That’s the decision?” he chimed, trying to be cheery. “We just go to that small hospital and… what? What do we do then?” He smiled at Roman then turned to Cathy since she seemed to have all the fucking answers this morning.
At first, she glared at him, then, realizing the question was aimed at her, her eyes went wide. “How should I know? You’re the ring bearer.”
Roman chuckled as he raised an eyebrow at Micah.
What? I’m trying to get some answers.
I didn’t say anything.
Exactly. Jerk.
Chuckle.
“Micah?” Cathy challenged. “Are you… getting instructions?”
“No. But don’t worry about it,” Micah muttered, sticking out his tongue at the big man. “We’ll figure it out when we get there. What do you say?” He held out his hand to Cathy as he continued to glare at Roman. When she didn’t take his hand, he glanced back at Cathy. She was gazing down at his outstretched ring hand. He glanced at the ring, too, realizing it seemed to be glowing with its darkness. Weird. Taking it back, he extended his right hand. Only then did she put her own very tentative hand in his. He gripped it and pulled her to her feet. “Let’s go wrangle some legions.”
