demon lover

chapter 17

My mother took this moment to have a conversation inside my head. She said that she could not smell Dante on Jo, only me. Even though I did not mark her, or fuck her. MY mother said that I should just mate her? I hardly knew her! My mother thought this was amusing. I let no one in, and this woman should be no different. Did not matter how I was drawn to her, or how I felt a burning desire to protect her. My mother must have fallen and hit her head. Mate her, mark her, drink from her? Ridiculous. 

I needed to speak to Billy. Throw my ideas off of him.Tell him everything that my mother had told me, during our silent conversation. Right now though, I not comfortable leaving her anywhere that I could not see her.

"Come on."

I grabbed her by her arm and dragged her out of the room pretty much. I was so angry and frustrated, but the need help this girl over shadowed everything else. 

When I arrived in front of  Billy's door I nearly broke the damn thing down. I was so frustrated that I was going to start destroying things.

He came the door with a smirk while checking out Joelle. Unreal, what was everyone thinking around here?

I pushed past him and dragged her with me, slamming the door behind us.

"We need to talk."

"Well, go on then. Hi Joelle..."

She smiled at him, and he was blushing. What was happening right now?

"Really Billy? for Christ sake!!! I need to talk to you!"

"So go ahead and talk, what is the problem?"

"She cant hear."

"Then send her to your room."

"Dante is here, looking for her. He will kill her if he finds her alone, or take her far away from here ."

"So, you want to talk in private, but you can't leave her side and you don't want her to hear?" 

I let her go and started pacing.  "Yes , I was thinking. maybe we can give her your headphones for a little while."

"Of course. You don't mind do you sweetie?  This oaf of a man wants to talk to me about you while you are still in the room, and then make it so that you can not hear what he is saying?"

"Look, I'm afraid to be left alone, so I will do whatever you guys want me to do so that we can get on with this. Give me the headphones."

Billy put them on her, and handed her an i-pod.

"Just let the music play through on high volume.  Lay down on the bed, and face the other way.. okay sweetie?"

"Stop calling her that!"

"Why? What's your problem!!??"

"I don't like it!"

"Sweetie. I think you should do that right now, seems this may get heated!"

I watched her turn around, and waited until I heard the music, then I exploded! I nailed him to the wall by his fucking  throat letting the demon out a bit.

 "Don't test me!"

"I cant believe this girl is melted your stoned heart. Anyway, can you let me down, and tell me what it is that you came here to tell me."

I let him go, and started pacing again. I would stop every few minutes to look at her, not believing that I was in this mess.

"My mother decided that after all of this, she was going to have a silent conversation with me. She thought it... amusing. She said that Joelle was indeed not his mate, and that she didn't smell him on her, she smelled me."

I watched as confusion crossed over Billy's face. Unknowing. 

"Did you sleep with her, mark her?"

"Of course not you idiot. I don't know why she smells of me. It is quite odd. Anyway my mother said that I would need to make love to her or mark her to keep her safe. that I had to pick one or the other. 

"Oh shit."

Now he was getting where I was coming from. We both stopped talking to glance over at Jo.

"Yea, and then she said if I did both, that I should then drink from her and allow her to drink from me. To seal the deal. What I don't get is that deals like that have not been made in centuries!!! My mother has gone mad!!"

"Jesus Christ."

"Then, and only then, she believes that Dante will realize the tie that I have with her, and leave her alone."

"No, he wont."

"If he decides to go after her after that, there are laws to protect her. Right now, she is a free agent. Apparently Dante has already been in to see the King and Queen prior, to get their permission to hunt his mate down. Telling them that she was taken away or some shit, I don't know."

"Fuck.. he has all rights to her right now doesn't he? What will the laws do if they find out that you marked and mated the mate that he got permission from the King and Queen to hunt and mate with.? He has put a claim on her already."

"I don't fucking know. What happened when he killed my mate.?"

"She left willingly, she was having an affair with Dante!"

For a moment the room stopped spinning. As each day passed, I was seeing that situation in a new bright light. Clear as well. Up until then, part of me still believed that he took her. Was I being naive? Stupid? Maybe, just maybe I was believing what I needed to. I needed to blame someone else. Perhaps she just left me because she didn't love me and was never my mate. I had made myself believe things out of blind love. Now look at where we were.

"You are right."

"What?"

"I said you are right."

"You have never said that. You have never agreed to that, you have always said that he took her from you, that he stole her away from you and killed her. Are you telling me now, that the blinders have finally come off my friend?"

"I am. However, he still killed her. Killing her, and doing everything that he did was out of pure spite. He hates me, always has and always will."

"Indeed. In this case however, he did find Jo before you. He had some sort of relationship with her."

"No, in fact it looks the other way around. I'm not like that, I don't play that game. I met her by chance, she came to me.  I had no idea she was involved with my brother in any way, and I don't think anyone else did either. She confided in me after nights of being terrified. She would wake up screaming. We made a pact, to tell each other stories of ourselves. It was a way for me to get her to trust me, so that when she went thought the change, she would be comfortable with me helping her. She told me that he was abusive, and rough with her. I tried to ease her and help her without knowing who the man was that hurt her. All this being said, for right now I need to protect her. The feeling I have to protect her is so great, I can't contain in. What the fuck do I do now?"