Page 11 of The Devil's Bargain
“Edging?” Calix questioned, glancing between the two of them.
“He cuffed my ankles and wrists and left me in the bathtub, blindfolded and with headphones on that kept blasting the same classical bullshit song on a never-ending loop.” Aodhan hated beiska music with a passion. Too sad and mopey for his tastes. “I had nipple clamps, a cock cage, and a vibrating, thrusting dildo big enough to rival our First’s dick shoved so far up my ass I struggled to breathe.”
“You’re making it sound so horrible,” Mercy drawled. “As I recall, you kept me awake all night with your moans. Are you asking for a refresher?”
“Nope.” Why would Aodhan want to be locked in a room alone when they now had a Third to play with? “I’ve been good, haven’t I?”
He’d let Mercy kill that other suitor, after all, even though he’d wanted to slice the man’s throat and yank out his esophagus. He’d drowned the other one in a rush of uncontrollable fury, the kill done and over with too soon. If they’d been anywhere else, he would have played around a bit with the man’s insides, so he could at least get something out of it, but they’d been on a schedule.
Calix shuddered, catching Aodhan’s attention.
“Oh.” He’d been fantasizing about his favorite pastime—after sex, of course. Disembowelment. “Sorry.”
“His bloodlust is insatiable,” Mercy sighed. “You’ll have to forgive him. He doesn’t have a lot of control in that department.”
“Excuse you,” he disagreed. “If that were the case, I would have gotten caught ages ago.”
“Fair.”
“How often do you have to…” Calix cleared his throat and twirled a finger in the air, “You know?”
“Murder?” Aodhan hummed and thought it over. “Not often, really. Not since Mercy. He’s able to steady those urges within me.”
“He does it because he likes it,” their First tsked. “I can’t get him to stop. You won’t be able to either, Azi, don’t even try.”
Aodhan bristled. “If you’re hoping you can change me—”
“I’m not,” Calix cut him off. “Why would I?”
“…Because killing is wrong?”
“Well, sure.” He shrugged a single shoulder like it really wasn’t a big deal to him. “But when has the universe ever treated people kindly?”
“He gave us you, didn’t he?” Mercy pointed out.
“Gross.” Cal reached for one of the bottles of water on the table between them and sipped lightly. “I’m just saying, clearly I’m not a great judge of character. Why should I lose sleep over someone else’s actions? I can’t control my own monstrous self, what gives me the right to preach to either of you about good and evil?”
“You think I’m evil?” Aodhan grinned. “Thanks, babe.”
“Shut up.”
“Calix just wants to use you for his own gains,” Mercy stated. “He’s after revenge, but he’s not capable of killing someone in cold blood on his own.”
“Whenever I had to take a life during a case, it was surprisingly easy,” Cal told them plainly. “But you’re correct.That’s never something I’ve actively wanted to do, and there’s always been a level of separation between me and whoever I was shooting. This is different.”
“That’s why you wanted me to take care of Sister Grace for you,” Aodhan said. “You knew you didn’t have the stomach to kill her yourself.”
Calix met his gaze, his expression turning solemn. “Even if I had done it, I knew it would haunt me. She deserved it, don’t get me wrong, but…I guess there’s a level of hypocrisy involved I’m not willing to shake. I’m still clinging to this notion that so long as you’re the one pulling the trigger, it doesn’t really matter if I help aim the gun.”
“But,” he felt through the connection, shifting through Cal’s true emotions, “you don’t actually believe that.”
“I like the lie.” He smiled wistfully. “It’s prettier than the harsh reality.”
“Which is?”
“That there’s something wrong with me?”
“You’re perfect.”
