“Good grief.” I had no choice but to slow, moving in step with the gatekeeper.

It ran its hand through the air, indicating the goings-on. “Care to participate? You can stay in your current form to do so. As you see.”

I felt Darius’s hand low on my hip. A backward glance revealed he was also feeling the effect, and if he scooted up, the effect would poke me in the back.

“We’re good. Let’s move on.” I meant to slap off Darius’s hand, but the weight of it felt good. Tingles spread across my skin and my lady bits tightened up, craving him.

Not the time, mon ange, Darius thought, the words dripping with sensuality. Let us get out of the Dark Kingdom and I will devote as much time to you as you’d like.

I grimaced and, with effort, removed my hands from his sensitive areas, not sure when I’d turned and plastered myself to him.

The gatekeeper wore a huge smile. “It feels good to give in. Almost as good as it does to fight the urge. Stay a while. You will find what you seek.”

“A wild ride, you mean?” I gestured at it to keep moving. “I live in New Orleans. There’s a wild ride around every corner if you just open your eyes.”

Speaking of eyes, they followed us, many painted with lust and desire. The gazes that surveyed my body felt like a physical touch. Darius’s hand remained firmly on my hip, low and heavy. If I turned just a little, it would…

Almost there, love. A little longer.

I stopped stroking and uncurled my fingers from around his manhood. Like last time, I didn’t remember relenting to desire. “My bad.”

“It is easy to get caught up—”

“I got it,” I said to the gatekeeper. “You don’t have to keep pointing out the obvious.”

A drumbeat sounded somewhere above us, and when I looked up, I saw faces peering down from the ledges—some laughing, some desirous. Many of the demons had taken the shapes of magical species that couldn’t get into the underworld at all, let alone this far in. Most of the shapes were wrong in some way, like a wolf head on a lion’s body, or a human head and limbs with an ape’s body—actually, come to think of it, maybe that last guy was making fun of humans…

I shook my head and clasped my hands in front of me so I didn’t inadvertently grab Darius again. “How is it you are keeping the hand on my hip from wandering?” I asked him.

I deal in passion as a trade. I inspire lust as a normal course of my existence. These demons are similar to vampires in that way. The feel in this sect is welcoming.

Welcoming. That was one word for it.

I re-clasped my hands. They’d tried to go wandering again. At least they were only headed for Darius. That was a plus.

The catacombs twisted and turned, a new offshoot around every corner. Demons wandered or idled, always interested in the newcomers unless already entertained. My demon guide didn’t seem to notice the palpable feeling of sex in the air, and Darius didn’t bend, even a little. It was just me, constantly having my hands removed from Darius’s person—without realizing how they’d gotten there in the first place—until I was walking with both wrists clasped in one of his large hands.

The gatekeeper thought that was hilarious.

“It is a pity you couldn’t stay.” The gatekeeper stopped at a gated archway leading out into the darkness speckled with twinkling red lights. No waterfall tumbled over this gateway. “But it seems you must run.”

“Yes. Thank you for letting us through. And don’t worry”—I hooked a thumb over my shoulder at Darius—“I’ll jump him at the first available opportunity.”

The gatekeeper’s smile spread. “You belong here. You should return. I think it will do you good.”

“I belong everywhere, and nowhere.” I hadn’t planned to say that, but it seemed to fit. To stop any other random things from popping out of my mouth, I gave a salute and started forward. “Thanks again.”

“Beware the dragons. They are tenacious.” The gatekeeper laughed and drifted back into the sect.

“A bit strange, that one,” I muttered. “And not at all curious. That’s a plus.”

“Only a fool would want to get involved with someone being chased by a dragon,” my grumpy guide said.

“And guess who gave me a map to the underworld?” I turned back and pointed a finger. “You wanted me to meet you here, so that makes you a…”

It glowered at me.

Darius put a hand on my shoulder and stopped me beside the exit. Like the entryway, the ledge looked out over a pit surrounded by cliffs. An overhang protected us from the sky, but that wouldn’t last long.

Without warning, he moved in, holding my head in his strong grip and bending to my neck. I barely kept from flinging him out over the drop in surprise. A moment later, I couldn’t help a low moan. Already feverish with longing from the trip through the lustful sect, I sank into the feeling of him. Grabbed various parts of him. Tried to get him into my body with an abandon that would horribly embarrass me later.

The demon is right beside us.

And that was why.

I whimpered as his serum spread bliss through me, pulling him closer, as close as I could. His hardness rubbed in all the right place. But he wouldn’t let me go whole hog. I’d thank him later, I was sure, but was cursing him at the moment.

He finished and pulled back, and for the first time I felt pleasure burning through him. Not only that, but the deep ache of love that mirrored my own.

“We are wasting time,” the demon guide growled.

Body burning and warmth running through me from all that was Darius, I didn’t want to hurry anymore. I didn’t want to run. I wanted to go back into the lust sect and take some me time. Well, us time, really. I was tired of all this drama.

Almost there, mon chere, Darius thought, probably feeling my listlessness through the bond. He rubbed a thumb softly against my cheek. We are almost out of this. Just a little longer.

Now that we had air again, I sighed. It really buoyed my mood.

I nodded and pushed forward. “Let’s go fast.”

The demon led the way as we ran along the ledge and down the slope. Darius and I had a map in our head, sure, but it didn’t have the fine details that the demon guide seemed to know. For example, at the bottom of a steep set of stone steps, a nearly hidden tunnel offered us some respite from the skies. We sprinted through it, as fast as the demon could go (which wasn’t as fast as us). At the other side, the demon stopped abruptly and looked up.

“We are too late,” it said.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I pushed it to the side and took its place, looking into the dark sky. A multicolored dragon drifted by with a demon on its back.

A demon dressed like a clown.

“Holy blue balls, why hasn’t it given up already?”

“That dragon belongs to a vicious sect that offers others the chance to fight the beast to prove their skill,” the demon guide said.

“I know. I bested it, and that clown has been trying to find us ever since. We’d thought we’d given it the slip, but clearly not.” I chewed my lip and gazed across the wide open space at the next sect, which seemed open and not as laden with defenses as many of the others.

“A few best it, and they go on their way, so I’ve heard.” The demon rubbed at the mark on its palm.

“I hate doing things the normal way.” I hunted for any other signs of an aerial presence and didn’t see any. Not yet. The dragons from the other side of the lustful sect could have no idea we’d gone through it, not if the sect usually turned people away during the change in the stars. Eventually, though, they’d expand their search, and if we hung out here waiting for the determined clown to get lost, we’d give them time to catch up.

“Okay, how’s this for a plan?” I ran out into the open, dragging the guide demon with me. Darius caught up a moment later, and while he didn’t say it, I was pretty sure he was thinking, Are you crazy?

The stony ground turned quickly to lush, unevenly trimmed grass, spongy to run on. It stretched all around us with a few tufts and a couple lone flowers dotting the flatness.

“We can go around this sect easily,” the demon shouted behind us. It had to be thankful for the change in terrain.