Page 5 of Monsters After Dark

The criminals I owed money to may not have been demons, but that wouldn’t stop them from mutilating my body before they killed me.

“Servitude,” I blurted. “I—I can trade servitude.”

Kurt cocked his head at me, eyebrows arched in contemplation. “You want to be my slave, darling?”

“Just… for a week, maybe,” I hastily interjected. “In exchange for the twenty thousand.”

The demon let out a laugh, deep and rumbly and surprisingly genuine. When he looked at me again, there was wicked amusement in his black eyes. “No, sweet thing. I will not be satisfied with a week of service.”

“What, then?” I asked, unable to keep the pleading note from my voice. “What else do you want?”

He gave me a long, calculating look. I suppressed a shudder as every cell in my body lit up with awareness under his predatory stare.

“One night,” he finally said. “You will serve me for one night out of every year, until the day you die. Unless, of course, you change your mind along the way and want to re-bargain that shiny little soul of yours.”

I hesitated. One night a year. That didn’t seem too bad. At least not in comparison to having my digits hacked off. But the way he smirked at me when he said “re-bargain” made me think there was a pretty good chance he would try to make that night as unpleasant as possible, until I cracked and offered him my soul instead.

But what choice did I have? He was right—I’d summoned a demon. There was going to be a price. No matter what he wanted from me during our time together, I could make it through one night.

“Okay,” I whispered. “One night a year.”

Kurt’s smile turned sharper. “Excellent.” He stepped past me, close enough that I felt the heat of his body, and pressed a finger against the contract. The scent of sulfur wafted from him, and the letters on the page rearranged themselves. “There. Sign.”

I forced myself to remain calm despite his continued closeness and let my eyes scan the contract. He had changed the wording to reflect our new agreement. And where it had previously specified my soul, it now said body.

My mouth went dry at the implication. “Is this… Are you going to…?”

“Fuck you?” The bluntness of his words heated my cheeks. “Yes.”

“Why?” I blurted.

Kurt arched an eyebrow at me.

“I mean—surely you don’t need to enslave someone for sex? You look…” I trailed off with a vague hand gesture toward his exceedingly handsome face. So long as he didn’t show a girl what lay beneath, Kurt should have had no problems in that department.

The demon chuckled and reached out a hand to nudge my chin. The warmth of his touch and that dark gleam in his eyes made me shiver.

“Sign the contract, darling,” was all he said. I read the warning in his voice loud and clear: his patience was wearing thin. And I did not want to know what happened once it ran out.

One night a year until the day I died. But at least this way, my soul wouldn’t be enslaved.

Before I could change my mind, I picked up the pen, pricked my fingertip, and scribbled my name on the contract.

Kurt looked at my signature and smiled. “A pleasure doing business with you, Emma.” He snapped his fingers, and the paper disappeared in a puff of black smoke.

There was something ominous about the way he’d said my name, as if reading it gave him intimate knowledge of me. Power.

I shuddered. “Now what?”

The demon gave me one of his slanted smiles. “Now you pay your first installment.”

“I… Did you…?”

“Uphold my end?” He huffed and snapped his fingers again. Another waft of sulfur hit my nostrils, but I didn’t see any magic this time. “Check your account. I’ll wait.”

Hesitantly, I reached for my phone and logged into my banking app. I drew in a sharp breath at the sight of my balance. Twenty thousand dollars.

When I looked back up from my phone, Kurt was watching me with only a hint of a smirk lingering on his soft lips. The rest of his face was a blank mask, though his eyes… Those black, soulless eyes watched me with hunger.

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