Page 89 of Dating the Dealing Demon

“In the kitchen.” Bree gives her attention to the tablet in her hand as though whatever’s on it is more important than her own sister. I want to rip it from her. “Don’t fuck this up for us, Val.” The woman heads up the stairs, brushing off the horrible revelations she just dealt Val.

“Can I killher?” I whisper.

“No.” Val doesn’t sound as certain as she did earlier.

“Gods, I hate how our sisters prioritize status over those who love them. At least I have Nic.Wehave Nic. You know my baby sister adores you.”

Val looks up at me. “Thank you. My found family of you, Nic, Monty, and Ora—you’re everything.” She lifts her chin. “And we’re keeping the hedgehog for as long as he wants to stay.”

Of course she would picknowto negotiate when there’s no way I would refuse her. Although I probably couldn’t have denied her anyway.

We step into the kitchen, and an old woman points her knobby fingers at us with such hatred and fear that I glance to make sure my glamour is intact.

“Cursed one,” she calls out with a hiss that would make any snake demon mother proud.

“Nonna,” Val answers.

“Holy shit.” I keep my voice low so only my mate can hear unless someone in this house is an actual monster with supernatural hearing instead of merely pretending. “Is this how she usually greets you?”

“Pretty much.”

“I can’t kill her?”

Val doesn’t hesitate. “No.”

“Can I at least maim her a little?”

That earns me an extreme side eye. “We’re here to warn them. Not to do Gilly’s job for her.”

A woman with a thousand-dollar haircut and enough Botox to freeze the melting Arctic joins us. “Val, I didn’t expect to see you here.”

My mate’s smile is as fake as this other woman’s lips and breasts and…well, everything. “I’m sure you didn’t, Mom.”

Ugh, a million plagues on my eyes for having noticed her mother’s inflated tits, however negligibly.

“Who’d you bring to visit us?” Her mother’s voice drops into a sultry nightmare.

Apparently, I’ll need to scour my ears as well.

“My demon lover,” Val answers, and I almost choke. “Of course, you’d expect that with the way you offered me up in exchange for a flower.”

“Not just any flower, my darling,” her mother says. “A Brimstone Bell. The very bloom that began our family’s fortune. And no one specifiedyouhad to be the cursed child offered up.”

“See any other cursed daughters running around?” Val asks.

“Don’t be so melodramatic,” her mother drawls, and here I thought my mother was diabolical. “You seem happy enough.”

“No thanks to you,” Val mutters.

“Evil.” Her Nonna shakes her horned hand at me.

“Pot, kettle, lady,” I tell her.

“I came to warn you of the problems in hell, and how one of the demon princesses has made you a target,” Val says.

“Because of you,” Nonna seethes.

“Because of you,” I counter. “Because of your family. Messing with magic you don’t understand, and attempting to summon someone you can’t control.” I don’t add it’s also because of me, because I couldn’t stay away from Val.

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