Yes, her bedroom. He struggled to clear his sight. Brought her face into focus, just inches from his. His heart was pounding, his mouth—no longer tasting quetzal—felt curiously dry.

He took a deep breath, the smell of her flooding through his senses. He held it, savored, and his body began to respond. Her eyes, so close to his, grew larger, filling his vision. The blood pounding through his veins sent a shiver through his muscles. A flood of bitter peppermint saliva burst onto his tongue.

Talina shook him, hard again. “Hey, back down! That’s not real. Demon’s playing with you. Using your attraction—”

Those lips, so close. He grabbed her by the back of the head, pressing her lips to his. Caught the shock as her eyes widened. His tongue was against her closed teeth, the flood of peppermint overpowering. And then she responded, was kissing him back, her tongue sliding along his. Her body began to melt into his, the hammering pulse . . .

She tore away, the power of it rocking him back in the bed.

“Piece of shit!” she cried, bolting to her feet to stomp around the confines of her room. “You do that to me again”—she knotted a fist, impotently pounding the air—“I’ll scrub you out of my body with a wire brush!”

Dek struggled to catch his breath, to slow his triphammer heart. “Sorry,” he said through a gasp. Glanced down, horrified, and clawed at the sheet to cover his arousal. Not that the thin sheet really disguised anything.

Talina barely paid it any attention, whipping around to point a hard finger. “He’s not using me like that!”

“Victory!” the voice inside Dek’s head crooned.

“Some victory, asshole,” Dek muttered, the overpowering peppermint clogging his nose and throat.

“What did he say?” Talina asked. “Victory? Is that what you heard?”

“Yeah.”

Talina paused, as if listening, and finally said, “We’re at the beginning of the fight. It’s the last thing he’d expect.” She dropped to the side of the bed, her gaze intense. “Two can play at that game. You with me?”

“Huh?” He tried to sort out the confusion in his muddled head.

She leaned forward, hand behind his head, and kissed him. Her lips conformed softly to his, her tongue teasing. Dek worked into her kiss, the flood of peppermint back, seeming to saturate his tongue, expanding into his nose, sinuses, into his very brain. It became the universe.

Identity faded into a pulsing desire. His heart, blood, bones, and nerves charged as he clasped her to him. And through it all, she kept her mouth on his, as if to devour his essence, and merge them into a high-pitched unity.