Page 4 of The Dame & the Devil

But the one whose hand tightens on mine isn’t the one I want. The squeeze of his grip is a plea.

I’m not here to save them

I’m not here to save anyone….

Not even myself.

Swapped partner after swapped partner, my nerves wind tight, until….

The fingers that find my hip are hot, the ones that take my hand practically scald.

I inhale deeply enough to fill my lungs with that burning brimstone smell.

It’s him.

It has to be.

His black goat head has two pairs of horns, one that sweeps up and back, one that curves under his ears. And his torso is all grey skin, down to his arms that end in wicked black claws. Unlike so many others, his feet don’t end in hooves, but long iridescently scaled claws, like lizards’ feet.

His black wings are tucked close. Their darkness seems to eat the light from behind him… but some eerie light reflects my hair off of his skin, his black and fathomless eyes.

He feels wrong and right all at once.

But it’s his eyes that truly convince me.

They’re not the dull dark void I’ve seen in so many other devils’ faces… the one constant with all the false devils.

They, too, are completely black, but I’m close enough I can see the tiniest detail….

Those eyes are their own sort of nightmare and I lean close, studying them, wanting to memorise every tiny line. There are dozens of pupils crowded so close, there’s no space between them.

Like caviar, or blackberry drupelets.

This is the dark lord I’ve been searching for.

I have the Devil in my arms.

Now, I just have to claim him.

But I hesitate.

I’ve been wrong too many times before.

I let the music play us up and down the dance floor. Let others disappear and diminish our numbers….

He never once tries to entice me to kiss him. He watches me with a smile, knowing and wicked all at once.

I make my decision when his hand slides lower on my hip, the heat burning through me the same way desire has so many times before.

Pulling my hand from his grasp, I reach up to spear my fingers through the coarse hair on his neck.

It only takes the barest tug to pull the Devil’s lips down to mine and I take what I’ve been searching for for years.

And now, you’re mine.

The Devil in the Details

The taste of dark chocolate and sharp spice floods my mouth as the scales fall from my eyes as the shiver of icy magic washes over me.

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