Page 6 of The Demon's Vow
Jess’s whisper cut through the chaos, her voice laced with a horror and awe. “Holy shit...it worked. We summoned it.”
Darcy’s response, in contrast, came out flat, defeated—the kind of calm that only comes from absolute certainty. “And we won’t live to tell anyone.”
Dust rained down around us as the figure rose to its full height—and kept rising.It stood a breath-taking eight feet tall, a living, breathing statue made of black marble come to life. My gaze traced the rippling muscles beneath its strange skin. The ceiling forced it to hunch, but even bent, its presence swallowed the room whole. It wasn’t just its size—it was the sheer gravity of its presence, a pressure that stole the air and demanded every ounce of my attention.
Moonlight glinted off the elegant curve of its horns like polished onyx. Long, inky black hair fell in thick waves around a face that shouldn’t have been beautiful.
My breath caught.
High cheekbones, dark full lips, a powerful jawline sharp enough to cut glass—this was a monster.A beautiful monster.
The eyes...black sclera with golden irises and slitted pupils reminded me of a cat. Large, leathery wings folded behind him, and his body was draped in dark robes and jewels. I was reminded of those fantasy RPG games I used to play in high school, where you can create and play beautiful, otherworldly characters.
Unnatural. Inhuman. A demon.
Yet utterly captivating.
A hot flush spread through my body. I had no control over this sudden reaction. This was wrong, so wrong—a useless mantra against the wave of confusion that filled me. He took a step closer. I was prepared to be assaulted by the scent of sulfur and smoke…or whatever the hell it was made from.Nope, instead an earthy scent filled my lungs, both dizzying and intoxicating.
“Who...” His voice reverberated through me. I felt it deep in my chest.How?It was all velvety yet sharp as knives. “...dared call me with their blood?”
A whimper tore from Jess’s throat, the kind a caught animal makes when a predator’s shadow falls over it. Beside me, Darcy stood stock-still, his fingers locked around my forearm, his nails biting deep into my arms. Terror turned my own limbs to lead. I could hear my own pulse hammering violently in my ear. I was literally seconds away from either vomiting or blacking out.
Yet beneath the fear, something hotter and far more dangerous uncoiled—a traitorous pull low in my belly, magnetic and inevitable, as those inhuman eyes pinned me in place.
The demon’s lips curved. A smile? No, that’s not right. Definitely not a smile. More like arevelation. Razor-sharp teeth, black as a moonless night, glinted in the dim light.
“Ah.”
The word crawled down my spine, spreading like warm liquid,intimate,curling around my ribs like a possession…a claiming.
“There you are, my mate.”
What the fuck? Mate?
“How touching.” His voice purred, deep and smooth as aged whiskey, a sound that shouldn’t belong to something that looked like him. “Loyal companions are so rare among your kind. Most would have attempted to flee and left the others to be captured and devoured. Yet here you all are…cowering together. It’s almost admirable.”
His long arm moved with a controlled, deadly grace as it stretched toward us. I flinched back, but there was nowhere to go. A claw-tipped finger gently brushed a strand of my dirty blond hair from my sweaty forehead. My eyes screwed shut. I wanted to scream, but my voice tangled in my throat. If only this were a nightmare so I could disappear from this moment. I prepared myself for searing hot pain or to be shredded like some flimsy tissue.Fuck me, what a way to die.
But…his touch wasn’t harsh. Instead, a trail of heat and electricity danced over my skin and sucked the air from my lungs.
“But they are unnecessary. I desire only one of you. Begone.”
A sudden gust of wind howled through the cell. The door beside us exploded inward with a splintering crack.
“Lukas—!”
Jess’s scream was filled with pure terror. I spun, my heart a frantic drum bashing against my ribs, just in time to see Darcy’s hand clawing at the empty air between us, his brown eyes wide as an invisible force snatched them both from the ground. They tumbled backward into the dark hallway like dolls, dragged out as if they were attached to a fishing line, their screams echoing from the hallway in the dark.
The door slammed shut. The silence left behind carried a finality that left me paralyzed.
I was going to die.
Hi, I am Lukas, aged 22. Barely lived life, and I’m going to be killed by a monster I helped bring into our world on Halloween like some B-tier thriller. My friends are probably dead, and I’ll be joining them soon.
Chapter 4
OROBAS
