Page 5 of Knotted
This was very, very bad.
Chapter
Five
There were lights on in my house. Light blazed from half of the windows in my little two-story cottage. The demon was still there.
I briefly wondered if I could get someone to perform an exorcism, but the interactions I’d had with the church discussing demons had not been very positive. So, I would not hold my breath if any of them would be able, or willing, to help me.
I climbed out of my car and walked the short path up to my door. I stood outside, trying to drop my shoulders and unclench my jaw. Going in fighting wouldn’t be productive, and I wanted this demon gone.
As calm as I could be, I unlocked and opened my front door. Immediately my calm left me. There were strangers in my house. Not only strangers, but strange-looking creatures. They seemed to be everywhere.
I was used to seeing Candy, Phin, and Jax in their demon forms. They were beautiful in an oddly terrifying way. But very humanoid. These creatures seemed to be made of little more than shadows and had more limbs thana being should have. Multi-tentacled legs met torsos with too many arms. There were at least three of them in my space.
They didn’t react to me as I slammed my door and stormed through the house to the dining room, where I found Asmodeus still in werewolf form sprawled out at my table. The small rectangular table was covered in papers, two laptops, and a tablet. Standing beside him was a distinctly female demon. She was a dark purple with long lavender hair and her tiny black dress was more strategically placed fabric, than an actual garment. She leaned over the table with her boobs nearly in Asmodeus’ face as she asked him to sign something. She was the first to look up when I came in, and the smile she gave me was downright evil. It was the kind of smile I’d take offense to, if I had or wanted any claim on the man in question.
“Your toy is here.” She said in a smoky, sexy voice. She placed a
hand on Asmodeus’ shoulder as she said it. The possessive move actually made me want to laugh.
“Violet, so glad you’re back.” Completely ignoring the demon, he shoved his chair back and rounded the table to greet me. A concerningly large, petty part of me wanted to give the demon a smug look at her total dismissal. But I really didn’t want to give the impression I was interested in the beast.
A beast who now towered over me. His dark eyes glowed with an inner light as he stared down at me.
“It’s my house.” I said, propping my hands on my hips. I refused to
let him think he was intimidating me. Even though a part of me kind of expected him to end whatever game, this was and rip my soul from my body.
I wondered if it hurt? Like, does your soul still feel pain after it’s left the skin suit, where all the pain receptors are? It’d have to, right? Otherwise, what was the point of punishment in Hell?
“Yes. It’s very quaint.” He looked around without any real interest before looking back at me. “I assure you, you’ll find our palace comfortable.”
Our palace? OUR PALACE?
Nope.
I was not going to take that one on.
I spun away from him and headed into the kitchen to throw a bag of frozen veggies and pasta in the microwave for dinner. I was hungry. I was tired. I was not dealing with a delusional demon and his petty secretary, girlfriend, desk pet.
“Assuming, pushy, invasive asshole.” I muttered to myself as I pulled the bag of pasta out of the freezer and started pulling the end open to create a vent.
“Invading assholes wasn’t on my list of things to do today, but I could be persuaded.” A voice growled from behind me.
I screamed and jumped, ripping the end of the bag wide open and sending my dinner flying into the air and watching in horror as it landed on my clean counters and floors. I whirled around to glare at the demon behind me.
“Why won’t you just leave me alone?” I yelled at him.
“I have no desire to.” He was leaning against the door frame, his arms crossed against his broad, black chest.
“Do you have a desire to get stabbed? Because you’re very close to getting stabbed.” The knife block was on the other side of the kitchen. There was no way I’d get to it in time before he stopped me. But it was a nice fantasy, for a moment.
“Possibly. It’s not my kink, but I’m down for trying anything once.” His long pink tongue swept out along his sharp teeth, his eyes banked flames. The psycho was actually getting turned on by this.
I scoffed. “As if.”
It was an admittedly lame response, but I had nothing in the face of being told I could stab someone and they might like it. I mean, where do you even go from there?
