Chapter 1
Alayna
My mom married a demon, and I sit on the bleachers across from the football field his son is practicing on, shoving my glasses up the bridge of my nose.
Sweat pours down Kaemon’s face, his muscled body moving fluidly through the drills his coach barks at him. Dark hair that’d escaped his top knot sticks to his skin, and I glance away, heat rushing to my cheeks.
Don’t stare, Alayna. He already thinks you’re weird.
Or a dork.
I’d say my stepbrother and I don’t have the best relationship but that’d require him to acknowledge my presence for longer than the thirty seconds it takes for him to demand I don’t be late to the parking lot so we could ride home together.
His dad, Ishmael, gifted him the car for graduation under the condition that he drives me to and from campus.
Yes, we have the unfortunate luck of attending the same university. I recall the sinking dread when our acceptance letters arrived together.
The silver lining is that he lives in a frat house and I stay with our parents. I don’t have to suffer his presence at home except for the handful of holidays our parents insist we celebrate as a family.
I hold back an eye roll, sweat trickling down my bag under my sweatshirt. Some of the guys on the field give me curious stares, but no one leaves to come talk to me.
Thank God.
I doubt I could form a coherent sentence trying to speak to these guys, their bulging muscles on full display.
They’re probably douches, anyway.
Stereotypes, Alayna. They could be really nice guys, complete opposites from the jerks who teased me in high school.
But our town was a small one, and it’s highly likely more than a couple of them attended the same school as me and Kaemon, although I don’t think any of them know what he is.
My mother fell in love with a demon, and the rest was history.
Sounds like fiction.
Sometimes I wish it was because then I wouldn’t have a stepbrother who hated me, who liked to pretend I was invisible. What I did to deserve it is anyone’s guess.
Kaemon broke from his comrades, long legs striding directly toward me. I rose, ignoring the rush of expectation and dread curdling in my stomach.
He jerked his head to indicate I should follow him.
Of course.
God forbid he actually speaks to me.
I sighed, hiking my book bag over my shoulder and dutifully trailed him.
###
Kaemon
My fingers tightened around the steering wheel, my clothes stiff from dried sweat. In the passenger seat, Alayna gazed out the window, her anxiety and fear perfuming the air, and my stomach cramped with hunger.
Nope.
Do not feed on your stepsister.
I repeated it the entire drive to the cul-de-sac our parents shared, only relaxing my grip after she exited the vehicle with an agitated huff. She didn’t say goodbye, and neither did I.
I was too busy holding myself back from launching myself across the center console at her.
Dad’s rules had been simple after we decided to stay in the mortal plane.
Avoid exposure by not drawing attention.
Never, never feed on family. Translation: stay the fuck away from my mate and your sister.
I did. But it hasn’t been easy, and I still can’t fathom why he insists on me chauffeuring her to and from campus. Perhaps to appease his wife, who seems to handle Alayna with kiddie gloves, even though she’s nineteen?
I gnash my teeth, hearing them click together.
Alayna caved to her mom nine times out of ten, refusing to stand up for herself and say, “No.”
She hated Gravehelm University. I tasted it every morning she clambered into my car, and each evening I dropped her off. Yeah, hatred for me was mingled in there, but most of it was reserved for the school.
My head thunks back into the seat, and I sit in my car for several long moments before driving off. I don’t make it far, pulling over onto a gravel shoulder.
I go incorporeal almost instantly, my physical form dissolving like smoke, leaving behind an amorphous cloud of shadows. Sinking through metal and glass, I phase out of the car, materializing directly inside Alayna’s bedroom. Darkness clings to me, bending light so that if she glances my way, she’d only see the shadows dancing along the walls.
I watch as she yanks her oversized sweatshirt over her head, the fabric momentarily catching on her thick, coily hair before she tosses it to the floor. Beneath it, her brown skin contrasted with the thin, pink tank top hugging the swells of her breasts and her soft stomach.
Shame should scorch me as I keep my gaze on her as I lean back against the wall, arms crossed over my chest. I trace the smooth lines of her body, never glancing away as she hooks her thumbs into the waistband of her baggy sweatpants.
Fuck.
She has the roundest, most perfectly formed ass and, like she senses me, struts into the adjoining bathroom without undressing any further, leaving my jaw nearly sagging to the floor, her coils bouncing with each step.
Goddamn.
If I weren’t a demon, I’d still be delivered straight to hell. The door clicks shut behind her, right as a familiar tug pulls at the center of my chest, like a magnet being drawn to another.
My father.
I phase through the walls, all smoke and shadow, landing back in my car before he can properly pinpoint the source of the intrusion he detected.
If he finds out how often I’ve done that—watch her while she’s unaware—or how much I hunger for a mere taste of her essence…he’d kill me.
If her mother doesn’t beat him to it.
Alayna is off-limits to me for a litany of reasons. I can list them the entire drive back to campus. But they’re not enough to soften the erection straining my pants by the time I’ve killed the engine outside my fraternity house.
All I can do, to spare us both, is stay the hell away from her.
