Chapter 82 Chapter 82
Valerie couldn’t hold back the pink that spread over her cheeks and to her ears. She hugged her knees and avoided Hope’s knowing smirk, glancing at the coffee table instead.
“I don’t know if a demon can… like a human,” she mumbled quietly.
“Why do you think bonds exist?” Hope said exasperatedly. “Of course they can. The whole idea behind a bond is to prolong the life of the human so they can be together.”
Valerie fell silent and mulled over her words in her head. She had a point, but…
“But he hates humans, he’s told me so many times.” she said, unsurely. “Why would he like me?”
“Maybe he doesn’t hate all humans, and maybe you’re his favorite,” Hope grinned.
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Maxwell came back two hours later when Valerie was more than tired and ready to go to sleep. He unexpectedly jumped through a portal and appeared in her kitchen, surprising her. She almost let go of the glass she had in her hand and flinched.
“Can you not randomly appear out of thin air?” she grumbled, putting it on the counter.
“Is your friend finally gone?” was his only answer. Valerie thought he looked a little less annoyed than before he left, but the slight crease on his brow revealed to her that he still wasn’t completely over it. Had he really been jealous, though? Or was he just annoyed because of Hope?
“She went home a while ago. Why did you leave?” she asked, causing his eyes to narrow.
“Do you expect me to listen to your ridiculous rambling?” he huffed, and in Valerie’s opinion, the twitch of his lips paired with the pissed-off scowl made him look sulky. She grinned, seeing an opportunity to tease him.
“You were not interested in Jackson?” she asked innocently.
“Why are you suddenly so into him, huh?”
“Because he’s the nicest man I know,” she retorted, making him falter.
“I can be nice too.” he shouted angrily, leaning closer to her.
“Yeah, I can see that,” she said sarcastically. “You’re yelling, though.”
“I’m not yelling.” he yelled.
Valerie cracked. She couldn’t hold in her laughter any longer and nearly cried. He was so easy to tease; it was a bit sad on his part. She knew how to push his buttons, and he always fell for it. “Oh, Maxwell,” she giggled. “You’re something else.”
He stared at her, flustering her with his intense gaze. “So you admit that I’m special,” he said haughtily.
She smiled. “I do.”
Now he looked surprised, but didn’t need long to curl his lips into a smirk. “That’s good,” he said before he let out a soft sigh. “There’s something you need to know,” Maxwell continued. “I saw Liam earlier in hell, and he’s obsessed with meeting you, so he asked if you were up for it.”
“Who is he?”
“One of my friends.”
“You have friends?”
“Of course I do. What’s wrong with that?”
“Nothing, I was just kidding. I know that you have friends,” she replied sheepishly. “You just never mention them. I usually get to know them by coincidence, like that one time when Xander and the others visited us. In fact, you hardly talk about yourself, Maxwell. I don’t know all that much about you, if I’m honest, and it’s a bit frustrating.”
“You could always ask,” he said and crossed his arms, leaning his back against the wall as he watched her.
“Do you have… a family?” she asked reluctantly, unsure whether it was too personal, but he didn’t seem to mind the question.
“Sure, but I’m not close to them. Haven’t seen my parents in over a century, they could be dead for all I know,” he shrugged, giving her the sense that demons did not value their family the same way humans did.
“So you have a mother and a father?” she asked, her eyes wide. She didn’t know why it astounded her so much, but she had a hard time imagining that.
He smirked mischievously, amused by her innocent questions and the wonder in her gaze. “How do you think I came into existence? Don’t you know how babies are made?” he said, and his smirk widened when she flushed. “Maybe you want me to show you?”
She coughed, avoiding his piercing eyes. “That’s not necessary,” she stuttered embarrassedly, regretting her stupid question. “I just thought… demons are born in… uh… hellfire?”
He laughed, shaking his head. “No, that’s ridiculous. You’ve watched too many movies, sugar.”
“Do you have a home in hell?” she asked, trying to change the topic before it became too awkward for her, and to her relief, he didn’t seem to mind.
“I do, it’s a villa that is so much bigger than your flat. Each room is spacious and lavishly furnished,” he said arrogantly, prompting her to groan at his smugness. “It offers a magnificent view of the flames of purgatory.”
“I want to see it,” she said, her curiosity sparked even though she was annoyed that he acted so haughty again.
His smirk slipped, and his eyes narrowed. “No,” he said seriously.
“But why not? Do you not like visitors?” she pouted. “Is your house messy?”
He looked dead serious now, eyes dying red, surprising her with the intensity of his stare. Her breath hitched when he leaned down so their noses almost touched. “You can’t ever go to hell, do you understand, Valerie? A human would not survive there for long. Hell is a place for the dead, not the living. It’s hazardous, and it wouldn’t take a day for you to lose your life,” he said gravely.
She gulped. “As much as I want to show you my home, we can’t risk this.” Behind the irritation on his face, she saw worry. “Promise me you’ll never go there.”
“I promise.”
“Good,” he said, and playfully ruffled her hair, losing the tension that had suddenly been in his posture. “And now back to what I wanted to tell you before you started with your weird questions. Liam invited us to meet him and my other friends. Are you coming?”
“Uhm, sure? What exactly are we going to do?” she wanted to know.