Page 5 of Sweet Vengeance

“And your name?”

“You may call me Malachi. It is not my True Name, but it will suffice.”

True Name. Aunty Paloma had mentioned something about it, about the power it held and how it was a double-edged sword; saying their True Name could give a demon untold power, but a human could also use it to bind them forever. The thought of using his True Name to keep him trapped and forced to do her bidding, whether he liked it or not, made her shiver with revulsion. She didn’t want a slave.

“That’s a nice name.” The compliment was out before she could stop it.

Malachi’s expression didn’t change, but his wings fluttered, betraying his pleasure. Joy’s stomach swooped.

“Thank you,” he replied. “I thought so, too. Thatis why I picked it.”

He sounded so proud of himself. Joy turned away quickly, finding herself blushing for some weird ass reason. She hadn’t expected the demon to be so—sohuman. She’d been expecting,she didn’t know—a sentient being that had no emotions at all. What even the fuck was going on right now. She resisted the urge to violently slap herself in the face.

“How do your powers work?” she asked, flipping through her wardrobe and taking out a black garment cover. “If I rip someone apart, bit by bit, can you put them back together and make it look like they’d died in their sleep instead?”

There was a pause. The demon’s voice sounded darker, rougher when he responded, “Yes.”

Joy refused to look at him. It should have disgusted her—if a fucking demon was gettingarousedat the thought of her vengeance, it should have filled her with pure, moral uprightness—it should have made her realise what she was doing wasn’t fucking normal by any stretch of the imagination.

Instead, it made her lower belly swoop tellingly, making her clench her eyes shut. She was fucked up.He’dfucked her up, irreparably, and this was the proof. Not only did she want to relish seeing the life leave his eyes, but the fact that a freakingdemonobviously approved of her plan had her almost swelling with pride. She was so fucking fucked up.

She unzipped the garment bag, revealing a blood red Ankara top and skirtdecorated withsmall, white patterns in the shape of unfurling flowers. The flowers were unadorned—no lines or leaves—which made it seem like the starched, plain white material had been dipped in blood, but had missed a few spots. There was a slit on the right side of the skirt that went all the way up to mid-thigh.

Excitement made her pulse flutter. The knife in her sacrificial circle gleamed in the corner of her eye, but no, shewas usingan actual dagger for the occasion. It had been her father’s, one of the few things he’d possessed that she’d managed to snag before his family had come swooping in like a kettle of vultures.She’d thought of using a gun, but it would have been downright impossible to acquire one in this country, and besides, she didn’t want this to be over too quickly.

No, she wanted him to suffer, long and hard and slow. She wanted to watch the blood pour out of him until the life did, too, leaving his eyes blank and dull.

But one thing at a time.

She turned around. The demon—Malachi—was standing where she’d left him, outside the summoning rune, closer to the window. He was staring at her, like he didn’t want to take his eyes off her for another single moment.

God, why was his gaze so—sopenetrating?

She resisted the urge to cross her arms over her chest, even though her nipples were tingling. Her inner thighs still felt embarrassingly slick from earlier. Perhaps the “incident” had rewired her brain more awfully than she thought, because what even the fuck was happening.

“How long does the contract last?” She cleared her throat when her voice came out slightly breathless. She couldn’t have him disappearing on her when she had so much planned to enact her revenge to her satisfaction.

“It lasts until we fulfil all the terms agreed,” he replied.

So, until she killedhim.

“Delicious.” She grinned, knowing it looked slightly feral. “Do you have to leave? Do you sleep?”

His lips twitched. “I don’t need it, but I can sleep if it is required. And I can leave if you wish it.”

“Where would you go?” she asked curiously.

This time, it was his eyebrow that twitched. “My house?”

Joy blushed. “Demons havehouses?”

“Yes. What did you think?”

“I don’t know.” Joy shrugged, still blushing. She turned away, reaching into her wardrobe for her makeup bag to hide the fact that she was hiding her hot face. Why did nothing about this, yet at the same timeeverythingabout this, feel so fucking normal? “I thought you just … disappeared. Or went back to hell or whatever. I don’t know.”

““Disappearing” takes up a lot of magic. Contracts provide us with it, but not nearly enough for us to stay in the aether for that long. And while hell does have “houses”,not all demons reside in hell.”

That last sentence made her shiver; wasn’tthatthe fucking truth.

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