Demon Huntress

"Nothing," he muttered. "But . . . what if those bastards start thinking the same thing?"

She rolled to face him. "You mean, they might take one of your species? And what, keep him chained?

Jerk him off a few times a day?"

Scowling, he pushed up on one arm. "You still don't care, do you?"

"That's not what I meant." She covered his hand with hers, was glad when he didn't pull away.

"Based on how they seem to get off on torture, I doubt gathering s.e.m.e.n would be pleasant. Most likely they'd insert a draining tube and take it as it's produced."

She shuddered. The thought of their doing something like that to Ming jie . . .

He reached over his head and pulled a blanket off the couch to cover her. "Shu lan? Why do you have s.e.x if you don't enjoy it?"

Talk about a mood-killer. She sat up and pulled the blanket around her. "Why the sudden interest in my s.e.x life?" Or lack thereof.

Ming jie remained stretched out on the floor, but he propped his head up on one fist. "I'm wondering what makes you tick."

"There's not much to tell."

"Then tell me how it began."

The concern in his voice was enough to remind her that she was messed up in the s.e.x arena, and man, did she hate reminders. "Tell you what, Hellboy. You tell me first."

"Fair enough." He c.o.c.ked one leg up, drawing her eyes to the place between, where his s.e.x, glistening from her juices, lay heavy and semierect on one t.h.i.g.h. "I was twenty when the urges started."

"Twenty? That seems sort of late."

"When you live to be seven hundred years old, twenty is a drop in the bedpan," he drawled. "When the urges start, s.e.x is required to complete the maturation process."

"How much s.e.x?"

He shrugged. "Pretty much constant for a few days. It can be hard on a lot of us, but my parents bought me an orgesu." At her blank stare, he elaborated. "A female to have on hand."

"A s.e.x slave? Your parents got you a s.e.x slave? To have s.e.x in their house?"

"It was the logical thing to do. They couldn't let me die. And they didn't want me out prowling and raping as a lot of my kind are driven to do during that phase." He yawned, as if it were all normal.

"Besides, they paid to have her released from slavery afterward."

She couldn't even come close to imagining how he'd grown up if he could be so casual about the s.e.x slave thing. "Where did you grow up? Do your parents look human?"

His fingers brushed her cheek in a feather-light c.a.r.e.s.s. "They are humanoid, but their green skin and antlers keeps them in Sheoul. It's where I grew up, though I slipped away to come topside now and then." He winked. "I was the rebel of the family."

Shu lan laughed at that. He definitely didn't strike her as the trouble-making kind. "When did you join us up here in the sunlight?"

"After my first transition." He rolled one big shoulder. "Now, enough about me. Your turn."

"You mean, when did I lose my v.i.r.g.i.n.i.t.y?"

"Yeah."

Well, shit. Her experience with s.e.x seemed so vanilla now. "I was fourteen."

He slipped his hand down, trailed a finger over the skin of her hip that peeked through the blanket.

"That's young for a human."

"Yeah, well, I was a wild child. My mom was an addict and my grandparents were in a nursing home, so I was living in foster care with people who couldn't control me. I did what I wanted, when I wanted, and I did it with my boyfriend after we got drunk at a party." She slid a glance at him, but he didn't judge, merely watched her curiously. "It kinda hurt. Was over in about three seconds. Earth didn't move. So I wasn't in a hurry to do it again. Right after that, my mom got clean and got custody of me, and I was so busy for two years that I sort of forgot about boys."

"Then what?"

It went against her nature to talk about this stuff, but his touch soothed her, coaxed her, lulled her into a place that felt foreign . . . but somehow right. The way he touched her cut right through all her defenses and left marks on her that couldn't be seen but were there nevertheless. Why he would waste his time with her, an enemy who had clawed her way out of the gutter only because Daquan had rescued her from the life of a rodent, was beyond her, but for now, she wouldn't question his motives.

"My mom was killed," she said quietly. "I went to yet another foster home, and one night, my foster dad came into my room." Ming jie's hand that had been stroking her hip stilled, and a low-level rumble came from deep in his throat. "We fought. I took off. Later, he was found dead, and a warrant was issued for my arrest."

"I'm glad you killed the bastard."

"I didn't. He was beat up, but alive when I left him. I think one of the other kids he molested killed him while he was incapacitated." She shrugged, and his hand went back to stroking her.

"What did you do after that?"

"I lived on the streets. I did what I had to in order to survive. It wasn't pretty."

Silence stretched between them. Maybe she shouldn't have told him the truth. Maybe he was disgusted. Yeah, a demon who once kept a s.e.x slave, disgusted. Please.