Page 2 of Vampires Don't Give Hickeys
“There are dark things coming, darker than you’ve ever faced, and itwillkill you. If you marry His Majesty, you won’t have to fight anymore.”
Well, that didn’t sound ominous at all. “You mean I won’t have to be the slayer anymore?”
He nodded. “Besides...” He stepped closer, pinning me under his gaze. “You kind of owe him.”
A burst of heat flared out to my clenched fists. “I don’t owe anyone anything,” I said, my voice edged in steel.
The demon shrugged. “Well, His Majestyisthe one who’s been sending you monthly checks since you were nine.”
My jaw dropped. “That’s him?”
Since the golden letter had arrived informing me of my elevated slayer status, I’d been receiving checks on the first of the month signed Luc Morningstar. My stranger danger alarm had triggered because I didn’t know a Luc Morningstar, so I’d never cashed the checks, even though Mom and I could have used the money. We’d been broke but not desperate, and no amount of money could have saved her anyway. Her cancer didn’t care how much we did or didn’t have in the bank.
“I believe he felt sorry for you for being chosen as the slayer at such a young age and wanted to help,” the demon said.
I heaved a sigh, suddenly exhausted. “I’m not for sale. Tell him thanks but no thanks, but I’m not interested.”
“He’s offering you a new life, Belle Harrison.”
“Yeah, I heard you the first time, and the answer’s still the same. And can you just call me Belle?”
His mouth twisted into a frown. “I’ll come back for you on Halloween, the night of your twentieth birthday.”
Did this guy not know the meaning of the word no? “Dude. I’m not marrying your boss.”
He arched an eyebrow. In a blur of smoke, he vanished into the hellfire pit, and it sewed itself back up behind him.
I shook my head at where he’d disappeared. The nerve of him, thinking I would just drop everything to go marry a devil I’d never met. My world didn’t work like that. I had a duty, and as much as I sucked at it and resented it, I didn’t plan on giving up.
Still, I had to wonder what he meant by dark things were coming. As in darker than a demon with the devil’s marriage proposal?
He’d said he’d be back on my birthday, but how many other ways could I say no? Not with a stake through the heart, that was for sure. This whole situation sank an uneasy feeling into my gut that I wasn’t even offered a choice.
“No,” I muttered. “It literally means one thing.”
A tingle licked up my spine, and I shivered, a reminder that I probably wasn’t alone in the cemetery and that I was talking to myself like a crazy person.
I turned, in no mood for another battle. “Look, can you just fall on my stake and...”
It was them. Two vampires standing like male beauty pageant contestants. Except in my version, they were both winners. Tall, broad shoulders, flawless skin, and three pairs of amber eyes trained on me. Three, because there was a third vampire hovering in the fog near the gate. I could just make out his faint outline if I squinted. I’d seen the three of them before the last few months, but never this close and never as a threat.
“Belle Harrison.” The one on the right said it with an undertone of a purr that trembled up my thighs. He wore a simple black T-shirt and jeans that hugged every curve of his impressive form. His eyes glinted in the moonlight and were outlined by lashes as dark as his short hair.
The one on the left wore black-rimmed glasses with a button-up white shirt, its sleeves rolled to the elbows. His blond hair spiked in all directions as if he’d just speared his fingers through it. When he caught me looking, he prowled away a short distance and then back again, a wild animal caught in a cage.
“Please.” I held up a hand to ward off the combined power of their hotness. “If I ever hear my full name again...well, I suppose it will be from that demon when he comes back on Halloween.”
“Vampires and demons don’t mix, but...we could sense him,” Black T-shirt purred.
“What do you mean you don’t mix?” I asked.
The wild animal vamp stopped his pacing, gazing at me sideways through his tumble of blond hair. “They’ve erected demonic magic so we can’t go anywhere near them, because we’re beneath demons on the supernatural totem pole.”
“Ah.” I was learning all kinds of things tonight.
“If you don’t mind my asking, what did he want?” Black T-shirt asked.
It wasn’t his business, but since I still needed to sort it out in my head, I figured there wasn’t any harm telling them. “Apparently the devil needs a bride, and I’ve been summoned for the job.” Honestly, I was getting tired of never being able to choose my own career path.
