Page 9 of A Study of Blood and Ichor

Show no weakness. Give them nothing that can be used against you.

Vain let out a soft chuckle. “I’d kill for the pleasure of having you sitting bare on my lap.”

I narrowed my eyes at it, a snarl itching to form on my upper lip. “You are a foul and vile creature.”

White teeth glinted as the demon bared a devious smile. “And you are a delicious and wicked temptress. I find your eyes quite entrancing,” it mused. “They look like the sweetest honey.”

The demon’s gaze raked over my body from head to toe, and I fought the urge to squirm, disgust settling sourly in my stomach.

I reached out toward the wards of the demon trap, and when I found the thread of magic I needed, I clawed my hand into a fist and watched with pleasure as the demon choked against my hold tightening around its neck.

“No more pleasantries,” I said. “You will answer my questions. Clear?”

There was fire behind the demon’s eyes as it burned its gaze into mine, hate and desire pooling together in the pitch-black. It blinked once, and I released my hold on the wards. Vain swallowed hard.

“How long have you possessed Rory,” I asked.

“Years.” That already wasn’t good.

“How many?”

“I can’t recall an exact time and date if that’s what you’re looking for, witch.”

“An educated guess then,” I said, doing my best not to sound impatient.

The demon paused. “Seven years, give or take.”

I tried to not let the surprise show on my face. That many years for a possession was almost unheard of. How someone could survive that long with a demon latching onto their soul—it was unfathomable. The amount of torment Rory must have gone through…yet he hadn’t shown an ounce of it when Lena had brought him to the forefront yesterday.

“You’ve possessed others before him?”

“Many.”

I wondered how the demon’s other victims had fared in its wake.

“So, you’ve been in our realm for a while?”

“Yes.” The demon’s lips curled up into a soft smile. “I’m quite fond of it.”

“What rift did you crawl through to cross over from Gehenna?”

“So inquisitive…” the demon sang as it inspected the dirt underneath Rory’s fingernails. “It’s been too long. I don’t remember.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “You don’t remember a lot, do you?”

The demon peered at me through dark lashes, and my stomach lurched. I was grateful for the ward lines and magic that separated us. “Believe it or not, I don’t have many fond memories of the demon realm. It’s a time in my painfully long life I wish to forget.”

I had no doubts that the demon told the truth. From what little we knew of their realm, some horrors were best kept unknown. Yet, I decided to taunt Vain by saying, “It can’t be so bad for a creature like you. Or were you so intolerable that your own kind spat you out here?”

The demon laughed, low and dark. “Whatever your silly books have told you, I can promise Gehenna is worse than all of the stories combined.” It paused for a moment and then continued. “You demonologists like to study us and think you understand what makes us tick, but all the worthless scribblings of yours and those who came before you won’t tell you the truth.”

I raised an incredulous brow. “And what truth is that?”

Vain leaned forward, eyes glinting. “Come closer, mellilla, and I’ll show you.”

I recognized the Latin immediately. A term of endearment that roughly translated to little honey. Sweetheart.

I ignored the demon’s new pet name for me. I didn’t want to show that it bothered me. And given what I knew about their gift for tongues, I was sure Vain knew about a thousand other languages to call me whatever name pleased it, and it would no doubt exhaust all of them if I let it.

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