Free The Demon Duke and I by Marian Tee

better see the space between the door and the ground. It was partially blocked, which meant that someone was standing guard outside.
    Fuck, she thought. No way out there.
    She got back to her feet, this time surveying the room for anything she could use as a weapon.
    A sound trickled its way to her ears, making George tense. Someone had come and there was muffled conversation outside, followed by someone knocking on her door.
              Fuuuuuck.
     
    ****
     
              “She has not tried to come out?” Ilie asked the lupine guard, Colbert, as he stopped just before the door.
              “No, milord,” Colbert answered in a respectful tone even as he struggled to hide his shock. He had heard through the grapevine that the Duke of Brimstone had found his heartkeeper, however improbable that may be. Heartkeepers had always been an urban myth to their kind, and it had been said that the Duke of Brimstone had left the kingdom in search for that one woman to share her soul with him.
              Well, the Duke had come home – alone. One of the ceti who had been swimming near the waters of Brimstone had been able to confirm it. Also, if the human locked behind the door was the duke’s heartkeeper, Colbert could not imagine any sane man allowing someone like the Marquis of Lunare of all people to enter her bedroom.
              The marquis might not be an incubus like the duke, but his seductive powers were the stuff of legends, the kind that even the most experienced succubuswas known to fall prey to. 
              Ilie considered his next move. He and Colbert both knew that their human captive was awake. She might not have made any noise human ears could perceive, but they were not human, and the sounds of her anxious breathing and rapid heartbeat were easily discerned by their senses.
               Finally, he said, “I will take over from here.”
              Colbert bowed and left without a word, but already his mind was racing, his curiosity on fire. He must tell the other lads about this and ask them what they made of it. Was the human to be the marquis’ pet? He had heard of such arrangements being made by high-ranking nobles in their society, but it was his first time to encounter such a thing in reality.
              In no less than ten minutes, Your Grace, the news will spread like wildfire about your heartkeeper and me. Are you sure of this?
              My hands are tied, Ilie. The demon lords will not breathe a word about her because it would mean acknowledging the existence of heartkeeping, which they have long tried to bury. But they are not my only enemies and you know it. This is the only way to ensure her safety until our union is consummated.
              Well, if I am to stand in your stead, perhaps I should also---
              Do not finish the thought if you do not want me to kill you.
              Ilie chuckled. You must really want her.
              Silviu’s tone became as cold and dangerous as a well-sharpened blade in his mind. She is mine, Ilie. Do not ever forget that.
              Of course he would not. But if the human girl was the one who did the forgetting, well, that would not be Ilie’s fault and none of the Galeré would hesitate to kill her for it, not even if it meant Silviu would kill them all for the deed.
              They had vowed to protect Silviu Draghici, and so they would even if it meant dying to protect the Duke of Brimstone from himself.
     
    ****
     
              The knock on the door had George springing away, her body becoming taut as someone spoke from the other side in a dulcet voice. “Milady, I mean you no harm.”
              Yeah right.
              “I know you are not sleeping. May I come in?”
              Not on your life, buddy. She tiptoed to the window, testing the iron barricades. Was it possible to