Several minutes passed as Maria debated going to find the crow. A light tap sounded against her new door. Maria jumped and squeaked, despite lingering nearby.

"Maria, I'm going to come in unless you object." Mark's voice came from next to her, not outside the barrier.

"Why would I Ob..." Of course, Maria didn't finish her response before he flit through the space between Otherworld and towered over her. Forget fear-her heart skipped a beat because she finally got him close to her again. He cupped her cheek as he leaned in.

The problem was that's where he stayed as he sifted through her thoughts and memories. It was just shy of touching-enticing but not intending intimacy. That is not fair.

Marie put her arms around his neck and pulled him in for what should have been a gentle kiss, but he tasted like honey, whiskey, mixed with an exotic bitter that would tempt any young drinker. He even stung the lips like alcohol would. Maria wanted to be drunk on him-couldn't drink the real thing but this was stronger. Lips shouldn't be this sinful.

Let him rummage through my day. She got her use of Mark by pressing him against the faux hallway, half climbing it and him for a deeper taste. Eventually, he quit searching and braced her so she could move against him more securely. It wasn't long before she was grinding against what had been denied her because she had hesitated.

Maria didn't stop until she realized that there was too much clothing between them.

"Damn, I knew you were going to be far more aggressive than me." Mark's words caressed her neck while his mouth did not.

She squirmed against him in frustration. "Well, if you're not going to wait and ask permission to get inside my head, I'll take advantage of you every single time. I'm not going to be your victim, Mark."

The world shifted and they landed on her bed where this once intimidating man pulled back and became far more delicate than expected. "I needed to know exactly what you confessed to those two-can't even ask you to summarize. I needed the exact words."

"Why?" If this was a human, close to her age, this excuse wouldn't work at all. She had no idea how old he was, how alone and alienated the crow had been in all his years serving Lugh. As it was, she still didn't like this explanation.

"They think the demons are a campus-infiltrating gang, and I must work for their rival. It's close to the truth and safer than reality, so I don't try to fix it, much-just maintain their ignorance as best I can."

Maria shook her head and lightly traced Mark's lower lip. "They were more concerned that there's been accusations against you with no evidence of you doing anything."

Mark tilted his head, pursing his lips. "I walk through walls and dream walk your sex life. There's no such thing as evidence that would be accusation-proof."

"So, do you use force?"

"No, but comp..."

"Ah, you can't help what you are, any more than I knew I could burn you. Enough worrying about it. I had a hell of a day and want to get laid." It wasn't full trust, but knowing that the Fey could persuade anyone to want them by merely existing tempered any idea that a woman would tell them no in the first place. Regrets after a choice is natural, but choosing to have sex wouldn't make a man at fault.

"You know you're free of compulsion, right?"

She had enough of his hesitation-for all the right reasons, certainly, but damn. "Mark, it's just sex."

"Even if we remove the human elements like love and commitment, it can never be just sex." Mark objected but gave in anyway to kiss her again.

Forget the taste, Maria could get drunk on the way he kissed. She would have expected aggression and dominance from his first impression. Instead, she earned a slow, teasing madness that would start by coaxing her to follow his lead, then slowly pull back until she was left alone to try to reel him back in. The third time he did this, she nipped his lip.

Mark broke off to chuckle while he caressed her back. "You don't like me pulling away, do you?"

"No." Maria didn't even know she was pouting in that moment, but something about it caused him to twitch where she could feel him-which surprised her.

"Thrones don't tend to like partners that are stronger than themselves." Mark shrugged.

"You've been with a Throne?" Maria sighed in frustration. Not because he had a past, but because she knew so little about him and it kept interrupting her getting laid.

"It was centuries ago, and closer to a full-blood. A pure Throne doesn't have a sex-their natural form is eyes on rings. She was likely a first-generation-half Throne, half human, perhaps 2nd? I have an eternal bruise on my right shoulder from things not going her way."

Maria sighed and started sitting up to get out of her bed. "You're more interested in stuffing my head full of nonsense, aren't you? Come on, let's go talk at the table."

"Come here." Mark didn't even wait for a second to revert to his true nature. The urge to lay down next to him was an itch that promised far more than a climax. She was beginning to suspect Fey magic lied a little.

Fuck it, let it lie--the relief when she stretched out next to him. Mark slowly moved his lips to waste time on talk, his fangs filled his mouth, proving he was in no state to stall.

There was still a small part of Maria that feared those teeth, but she kissed him, nibbling at the edge of his lower lip, her own grazing the points. The image of the crow sinking his fangs into her neck as he abruptly pushed inside her in wild abandon immediately filled her head.

Mark hissed as he pulled back-a similar expression to when she burned him. "Don't test me, human!"

Maria pouted all over again, "But you just called me a Throne?"

"I have lived my life half-starved and you're like honey." For the first time, Mark pushed her back into the bed as he carefully placed himself above her, shedding their clothing in his manner. She could feel him resting against her and instinctively moved to test the length of him.

"Put it in already." Maria had not forgotten how disappointed she had been when he left her just yesterday. That won't happen again. "Weren't you ordered to do this for me?"

"Fucking hell, woman!" Mark guided himself inside her, slowly, his jaw clenched tight and as far away from her as he could manage. "You're human enough to die if I don't behave."

A wild idea crossed Maria's mind, remembering Lugh's responsiveness. Perhaps all men were as sensitive? She reached up and braced her palms at angles on his chest and practiced flitting her thumbs over his nipples.

That threw Mark off his rhythm-stopping midst stroke to pant. His fangs were longer-a second set had popped out on both top and bottom. He blinked as his eyes dilated, leaving nothing but a faint red ring in a sea of black. He snarled at her like the monster he was. "No way in hell I'm going first."

It felt like he took the catalog of orgasms out and browsed through them until he found the one he wanted and then forcefully slammed that memory open midst climax. Maria couldn't remember much else about this one because he was controlling the point where that final thrust did it for her, rewinding and repeating it until her body started to respond to the memory, clenching down for a high she wasn't having on his still not moving hardness.

"Move, damn you!" He was still too far away from Maria for her to do much else, but pinching him did finally get him to do as she asked.

He timed it, each mental crash to a thrust. Neither one of them let up on each other, but she was on the other side of a climax where it was too intense to easily get off. Mark was unrelenting and steady, keeping the pace consistently intense.

It should work! Why isn't it?!

"Ha!" He panted out his release while she was on edge.

That's what Maria had been waiting for, to be ready herself. Perhaps I'm as stubborn as that other Throne.

Thankfully the man didn't stop for his own pleasure but continued his aim for hers, still remembering his chosen image and staying with it. Having won made it easier for Maria to relax into that high as she toppled over the edge of the world. The fall was perfection.

Until stabbing pain filled her shoulder.

Maria came out of the haze of her climax thrashing around as Mark bit deeper into her shoulder. If anything, it made him twice as hard as before. She hit him for that. "Stop it!"

He pulled his teeth out of her shoulder, eyes rolling back into place as he tried to focus on the damage he caused. His eyes watered. "Son of a bitch."

Mark wiped the tears from his eyes the rubbed them into her wound-a cooling sensation spread as her shoulder blessedly went numb. Through everything, he hadn't pulled out. His voice sounded tired, almost bored. "Are we done, now?"

This man was confusing. She could tell he was still interested in more, but how the hell was she supposed to be turned on enough to try again after his attitude? "Yeah, I don't think I can get back into it after that."

"I did tell you to not push me." He pulled gently out of her, settling their clothing back into place. He pulled her into his arms and rocked her like he was the one traumatized, and perhaps he was. "I don't like losing my humanity like that. Demons have none and the Fey barely have any compassion. I don't know how I managed to go for your shoulder. Even if I didn't want you, I'd be killing two people who mean more than this world does. I'd take my life after yours, in the manner of my people."

Maria didn't know what to think. Ritual suicide? Was that what took out Nico? "What do you mean?"

"Maria, you were the reason I was created. I fail my life's mission if you and that child die."