Page 10 of Dating the Dealing Demon

“Right,” she drawls. “As soon as I find my friends, I’ll be taking whatever recordings have been made since we arrived. Now, get out of my way.”

“Your friends aren’t here.”

“I told you to cut the crap. Of course they’re here.”

“I’m not lying to you.” I lower my hands, keeping the movements slow and as harmless as a demon prince wearing the glamour of a human male can. “I brought you to this house today as part of a bigger plan.”

“You didn’t bring us here.” She backs away from me, still gripping the blade as if she’ll plunge it into the closest body part if I get too close.

“I did. Gods, will you argue with everything I say?”

“Until you tell me the truth, yes.”

If she doesn’t believe me so far, she’s really going to struggle with the next part. “Like I was saying, this is all part of a bigger plan.” I gesture toward the house beyond the doors. “I needed you and your friends to come because I’m a matchmaker for a very particular clientele.”

“Like a marriage broker?” She wrinkles her nose. “Okay. That’s a gimmick I don’t think we’ve had on the show before.”

“Not a gimmick and—again—this has nothing to do with your family’s show. Just hear me out?—”

“My friends?—”

“Need me to check on them, which I can’t do if I’m babysitting you through this tantrum you’re throwing. So stop interrupting.” I break down the command as if each word forms a separate sentence.

Her nostrils flare and she looks as though she’s assessing me to play the part of a pin cushion for her blade, but she stays silent. Good. It’s the first thing that has gone right all day.

“Today was supposed to be the straightforward execution of a well-laid plan. I found matches for your friends.” At my admission, she raises the letter opener higher, and I glare at her. “You wanted the truth, and now you’ll stab me for saying it?”

She scowls. “Go on with telling me yourplan.”

“You and your friends signed matchmaking bargains?—”

“You mean your ridiculous sex contracts?”

“Interruptions,” I snap. She flicks her gaze over my body, her earlier interest turning to hatred. If she doesn’t like me now with the glamour, how insufferable will she be when I drop it? “I only needed to bring each of you to your fated mate.”

I don’t add how I matched off Meg to a minotaur who needed his mate and the magic she could bring to save his realm. Rosemarie had obviously been fated for the gargoyles, and I’d made a second-to-best match for Ava since the kraken pirate king refused to consider a deal with me. I certainly don’t mention how someonestoleAva and dragged her out to the ocean.

“And?” Val demands. “When you supposedly took my friends to their…what was it you called them…matches?” She makes the word sound like a curse, and right now, I tend to agree with her if she’s who the fates picked for me.

“It should’ve been the simple matter of me waving your friendsbon voyageon each’s happily ever after.”

“Fairy tales?”

“Hardly. Today was more of a horror story.”

“Hey, those are my friends and their lives you’re talking about.” She gestures with the pointy end of the letter opener. “Get to the part where you tell me what happened to them.”

“Fine. What do you know about portals?”

She crosses her arms, pushing up those magnificent breasts of hers as if trying to distract me. Of course she doesn’t let go of the blade. Or the spray bottle. “Portals? Like sci-fi lore?” Narrowing her eyes, she adds, “Or gamer stuff? Come on. Did Meg put you up to this?”

“No, a true interdimensional portal. One that can only open with the blood sanction of a demon royal. Or that’s the way it has worked for thousands of years until the last few months when we’ve had portals opening on every continent without any demon royal’s authorization. Or at least none we know of. Someone opened one in this house.”

Val doesn’t look like she cares about the bigger picture of unsanctioned portals opening. Portals that allow monsters to come through. Monsters my spies tell me mean to either enslave or feed on humanity. They’ll wreck this world.

She wags the letter opener at me. “You’re telling me you matched my friends off in some kind of blood ritual? With a freaking demon?”

“Demons got a lot of bad press in the middle ages. We’re not evil. Well, not most of us anyway.”

---