Page 38 of The Demon's Pet

“No,” he said.

“What? But you said—”

“I don’t answer to anyone,” he said. “So do you accept my offer?”

“Can I say no?” I asked.

“Sure,” he said. “I’m a firm believer in personal freedom. If you’d prefer to die, my sword would be happy to feed on your energy…”

“It feeds on—”

“Or… you could come with me and see some new places and maybe learn some things about yourself.”

“I’m not going to be your sex slave,” I said. “You’d have to kill me first.”

He raised an eyebrow. “You’d be the first begging menotto fuck you, but sure. I told you. I hate rapists. You might change your mind—”

“I’m not fucking a celestial.”

His eyes got a wicked glint, as if he knew something I didn’t, but his lips simply curved up in the slightest of smiles. “Your answer?”

“What did he mean by leash?”

“A magical tether,” he said. “I can set the length. The magic of the gods works through will, and mine is incredibly strong. I will make sure you can’t escape me or go very far from my side.”

“How will I sleep? Pee?”

He folded his arms, flexing impressive biceps. “I think all you should be asking is whether you want to be dead or not.”

I sucked in a huge breath and let it out in a sigh. “You’re going to kill me at the end anyway. Why should I help you?”

He stepped closer to the bars of my cell, and I did as well. He reached up to brush my cheek with the back of his hand, then pulled back abruptly.

“I offer you only one thing, the same thing I’m searching for.”

“And that is?”

“Vengeance,” he said, standing so close I could smell the spicy scent of incense I’d noticed when I kissed him.

Even as I hated him for offering me only a leash, I couldn’t resist a certain inexorable pull toward him.

My body wanted him, even if my heart and mind knew better.

He said he wouldn’t rape me. Surely, he had options, but that didn’t stop most rapists.

But he was right. I did want revenge. I wanted redemption.

And maybe I could escape him, find somewhere I belonged, and not even get killed in the end.

Or maybe I could win him over… find his soft side.

I remembered his cruel mocking of Zane as Zane died horribly and quickly dropped any hope of this monster having a soft side at all.

In all likelihood, he was hiding something, and he was using me.

But what choice did I really have?

“I need time to think,” I said.

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