Page 18 of Her Demon Mate

I pause, and my hand tightens around my glass of amerinth as I glance over at Elia again.

I realize then that I have been glancing over at her all night.

When did you start thinking this little human is beautiful?

The thought that I find Elia beautiful should be abhorrent to me, but the thought just settles inside me as if it is a truth that I have always known. It is clear that the human girl is uncomfortable here, although she looks like she has relaxed slightly as the night has passed.

She can certainly hold her liquor,I think to myself as Elia steadily drains the glass of amerinth in front of her.

She isn’t gulping the drink down quickly by any means, but amerinth is the kind of substance that would knock most humans off their feet. I glance over at Elia again. At this point, her delicate beauty has been burned into my brain, but I feel starved of her.

Now, when I look at her, instead of looking just uncomfortable, Elia looks terrified.

She hasn’t noticed me staring at her. In fact, she looks completely preoccupied as she stares out of the window of the bar we are in.

Vylco, who has been sitting between us, hasn’t noticed that anything has changed with Elia.

What do you expect from a gorgon? He’s only always focused on the next drink,I say to myself, slightly annoyed. Part of me wants to get up and walk around Vylco to take Elia by the arm and ask her what is wrong.

Her face, already naturally pale, has gone even whiter from whatever shock she has experienced.

Her eyes are wide and her chest rises and falls quickly. I am quite sure that her breathing must be erratic and shallow.

And I can almost hear the unsteady pound and thud of her heartbeat underneath the noise of the bar.

Elia jumps then when a group of demons at the back of the bar bursts into raucous cheering and shouting.

She nearly falls off her chair, and Vylco turns to her then. It seems he has finally noticed that something is wrong with her.

Elia turns back to the window, still staring out of it and seemingly unaware of our existence. I twist around in my chair to follow her line of vision.

She seems like she has a good head on her shoulders. What could have possibly frightened her this much?

“Are you okay?” Vylco is asking Elia as she turns back to him. I cannot see anything outside the bar.

Whatever frightened Elia has vanished.

Or maybe she’s just crazy. She is a human after all. No matter how beautiful she is.

The voice in my head is small and sneaky and sly when it mentions Elia’s beauty.

“Elia?” Vylco has his hand on the small of her back and is looking down at her with soft concern on his face.

I lift my glass to my lips to stop myself from ripping him off her.

Again, the demons at the back of the bar burst into happy shouts.

“I’m sorry.” Elia gets up from her chair and pushes her glass away from her. “I’m so sorry. But I have to go.”

“No!” Vylco gets up unsteadily.

It looks like the amerinth has gone straight to his head,I think darkly as he starts protesting against Elia leaving.

“Stay!” Vylco cries. “The night is still young enough for us to get into a lot of trouble.” He tries winking at her, but he is too drunk so his eyelids just stay closed. “I thought you wanted excitement?”

I get up then, so suddenly that I didn’t even know what I was doing at first.

“Would you like me to walk you out?” My voice is lower and raspier than I intended. Elia looks up at me with those wide eyes.