Chapter 13: Idiot

I paced back and forth in the hallway of my residence, deep in thought. Rachel is proving to be everything I expected, but I still can’t allow myself to accept it fully. I’ve been disappointed too many times before.

I stop in front of the portrait of my beautiful and cruel Estella and frown at it. She wasn’t everything I’d hoped for. Not by a long shot.

I resume pacing, eventually halting in front of a massive painting of a beast that many would call terrifying. Eyes like flames, twisted, elongated horns, large hands with fierce claws, and a forked tongue.

“Is it her, Father?” I asked the portrait calmly. “She saw one of the Devil's forms during our bond; that must mean something. It has to mean she’s stronger than the others. Do you know? If you do, tell me.”

As expected, everything remains silent. My father no longer belongs to this realm; he lost his ability to communicate long ago. Good riddance. I don’t even know why I bother with him.

“Sir.” The raspy voice of Tobias interrupted my thoughts.

I turned to look at my guard, studying him for a moment. He is as fearsome as he appears, with a large square head and two sets of thick horns protruding front to back on each side. His teeth are arranged in three rows, razor-sharp, and his dark gray skin is as hard as armor.

“What is it?” I asked.

“The woman upstairs needs handling,” Tobias replies, clearly lacking patience for the so-called “woman.”

I laugh. “Is she getting bold?” I ask, chuckling even more as Tobias gives a slow nod. The female I’d chosen last night to please me while I watched Rachel clearly decided she prefers the upper floors of the residence to the pits. “I’ll handle it. Right after, I tend to myself.”

Tobias lets out a quiet grunt, his version of a raspy laugh, as he watches me climb the stairs two at a time to be with her one last time before she ends up back in the pit, and I attempt celibacy out of respect for my Bound Demon. I snorted with amusement. Respect. She’d better be worth it.

This might very well destroy me, but those feelings I have for her—ones I’ve tried to push away—are moving in from unfamiliar territory. I desire her above all others, but there’s something more. I don’t recognize it, and I don’t like it.

I growled, clenching my teeth as I opened the door to the room. I find the woman lying in bed where I left her while checking on Rachel.

Seeing her there grates on my nerves. I want to dismiss her, but instead, I force myself to approach wanted. I need this to get Rachel out of my head for a moment. I can’t allow myself to be consumed by thoughts of her. But I yearn for her so much that my insides are churning—and there’s something else. She makes me laugh. She has such a fierce attitude that it captivates me. Never, in all my ages, have I felt this way before. I don’t know how to handle it; all I know is that I need to keep an eye on her to make sure she’s still breathing.

After Luc disappears from my dirty office, I start feeling bored. It's a very slow day, and I'm hoping Evan will stop by so we can talk. I haven't seen him all day, and that's unusual.

"I must be desperate," I mutter as I tap my pen on the desk. "And now I'm going crazy, too," I add, and sigh with relief when the light turns on.

I opened the door with a dazzling smile and find Evan on the other side.

"Hey," I said cheerfully, extending my hand to take his scroll.

"Hey," he says back harshly, then freezes. His hand grips the edge of the scroll, while the other holds my new fashion accessory.

"Ouch." I complain as he holds it so tightly that his fingers dig into my skin. "Let go, you idiot."

Evan doesn’t let go; in fact, he holds even tighter. "Where did you get this?" he asks in a tone that borders on threatening. The soul next to him whimpers, but we both ignore it.

"None of your business," I told him haughtily, taking his hand in mine and using all my newly acquired strength to pry his hand away. I'm amazed to find it was as easy as brushing off an annoying fly, but I disguise my surprise, so Evan doesn't notice.

"Nerina," Evan says softly, and it catches me completely off guard. I'm so used to his roughness and rudeness, not this gentle tone. It makes me extremely uncomfortable, so I ruin the moment by snapping, "I said it's none of your business."

Evan’s face closes off.

"Fine," he says in a monotone. "Just don’t come crying to me when you end up like a crazed, worn-out prostitute, or worse, dead because of him." Evan storms off before I can even stamp the scroll, leaving the female soul behind, looking at me with fear.

"Great," I murmur as Evan doesn’t come back to fetch his collected soul. "What the hell am I supposed to do with you now?" I ask the soul.

All I get in return is more whimpering, and it's getting on my nerves. "A word of advice, sweetheart—you might want to grow a spine. The meek don’t survive here," I warn.

I roll my eyes as the soul cries into her misty hands, leaving me to look at her. Will she just disappear if I close the door on her?

I reached out to slap the crying face of the soul when Roberta appeared behind me with a loud shriek.

"Who's responsible for… this?" She gestures in the general direction of the soul.

I bit my lip. Evan will probably get in trouble for abandoning his collected soul at the entrance. Why that bothers me, I have no idea, but I keep my mouth shut as Roberta frowns at me.

"Do you have loyalty to anyone other than your master?" she sneers. "You barely deserve your new trinket." Roberta grabs the scroll before I can shove it into the chute and glances over it.

"Evan," she growls.

"Don't be too hard on him..." I started, but then stopped as Roberta looked at me and then at my bracelet. I cover it with my other hand.

"You should be careful, little girl," said Roberta.

I swallowed hard, desperate to improve Roberta’s mood. It'd already gotten quite dark, and I didn’t want to irritate her, so I gestured at the soul. "What should I do with this?"

Roberta accepted the change of subject with a little sniff. She leans forward, pinning me between her massive chest and the wall, and reaches for the soul. "I’ll take it," she says and shoves it through the small opening with a step back. The soul lets out a squeak, and Roberta glares at her. "For the devil's sake, could you shut up!" she yells at her. "That noise is getting on my nerves."

I stifle my chuckle as the soul lowers the volume of her whimpering a bit.

Roberta’s eyes meet mine, and I wipe the smile off my face. "Get back to work," she snaps, then disappears with the soul.

I looked around. There’s no work to do, or I would do it. A man is alive, but I wasn’t made to sit on my butt all day. I’ve always been where the action is, even causing it. This is…

This is my life now. I sighed heavily and closed the door.

**Evan**

I waited for Nerina to return to her apartment later that day. I saw her go in and wait a few minutes before knocking on the door.

She looks at me, blocking the doorway. "What do you want?" she asks rudely.

"I'm here to apologize," I mumbled softly. She makes me so nervous. My stomach was in knots. "Please let me in?" It was a whiny plea, and somehow that made her step back and invite me inside.

I rush in and quickly shut the door behind me. "I'm sorry," I say. "I was out of line, but..."

"But nothing, Evan," Nerina says with her arms crossed.

"Do you know what that thing does?" I asked anxiously, so anxiously that Nerina uncrosses her arms and nervously twists the bracelet.

"Yes," she lies.

"Do you?" I demanded. This thing terrifies me. I can’t let her go through with it. "This will hurt you, Nerina. You should never have done this..." I trailed off.

"Look, I appreciate you looking out for me, but it’s not necessary," says Nerina. "I know what I’m doing."

"Fair enough," I murmured, my mouth a tense, grim line. "I won’t stand in your way."

She’s so stubborn. She won’t listen to me. I need to rethink this idea and come back with something she’ll have to listen to. I turn to leave, but Nerina steps past me and blocks my way to the door.

"Why do you care about me?" she asks, tilting her head.

I have no idea what to say to that. She caught me off guard with her sincere question, though it shouldn’t surprise me. She seems to be the most straightforward of the demons.

Looking into her blue eyes, I was surprised to see a growing interest in them. She gives me a look that makes me blush and clear my throat awkwardly.

She catches her breath, and the moment gets so heated that she takes on a predatory air.

I watch her as I see the change in her demeanor, and I open my mouth to say something, but she’s on me instantly, pressing her mouth to mine and diving her tongue into my mouth.

I groan with desire as she gives me a kiss that ignites the desire I have for her and turns it into a raging fire.

"Oh yes," I groan into her mouth as I kissed her back with such fervor that she began tearing at my clothes.

She pushes me back to bed, taking full control of the situation, and I let her. My surprise at her fierce attack on me fades as she presses her body closer to mine, and my body responds with a painfully hard erection.

"Nerina," I breathe as she pulls her mouth away to give me a mischievous smile. I grab her face and turn turned it over so that I’m now in control, and push her back on the bed, so I can fall on top of her.

She reaches for my zipper and slides it down enticingly when, suddenly, she disappears from under me, making me fall face-first onto the bed in a clumsy sprawl that I’m glad she’s not here to see.

But it raises the question—where did she go? And more importantly, why on earth at this exact moment?

"Zachiel," I growled, getting off the bed with clenched fists. "You idiot!"