by Lexi C. Foss
But that wasn’t in the cards for us.
I had a betrothed waiting for me back in the Underworld, a female I despised but had been promised to at birth.
That was my future.
Not the beautiful demon seductress at the bar.
So why did I follow her here? Why did I care so much about keeping her safe?
Because I was clearly a fan of self-punishment. I wanted something—someone—I could never have.
She deserved better anyway.
And as long as I kept telling myself that, we’d be just fine.
I placed the frosted glass containing my half-empty mojito down on the counter in front of me and checked out my appearance in the mirrors surrounding the ostentatious bar.
Short blue hair.
Flushed cheeks.
Bedazzling hazel eyes that were green today under the dull lighting.
And a mouth painted blue to match my new locks.
The male beside me seemed to approve. A good thing, considering he was the reason I’d walked into this drab establishment. Ugh, it was one of those bars humans frequented with the false expectation of finding true love.
Gross.
Most of these poor beings would regret it tomorrow when they woke up next to a man or woman who resembled a brimstone demon—ugly little creatures with warts and rotten teeth. Perhaps that was an exaggeration, but it seemed like a fair comparison to me.
Fortunately, that wouldn’t be me. I’d wake up fresh off a kill. Because the guy beside me? Yeah, he was my mark. Malevolence oozed from him. Not that the poor humans could see that. My enhanced abilities allowed me to see right through his aura of politeness to the black soul beneath.
The new talent was a consequence of a horrifying experience—one I chose to ignore now while I focused on my prey.
I tucked a stray strand of my newly short blue hair behind my ear and pretended to hang on Paul’s every word. Was that even his name? Something with a P sound. Phillip? Rupert? Prick?
Whatever.
He wouldn’t care if I forgot his name. He’d soon be too busy choking on a blade to concern himself with such trivial matters.
I laughed at the right moments and flirted with subtle movements meant to display my body to him. A trace of my lips with my finger to take a stray drink from them here. A brush of my chest when he made an interesting point there. It was all part of my act. I ceased to be a sexual person a long time ago when a group of men just like him had stolen my virtue and left me for dead.
A lethal fire blossomed within me, stirred to life by a potent mix of my renewed blood.
Grigory’s blood.
The Noxia prince who’d saved me that night.
His royal essence had awoken something within me that craved destruction. Or maybe that was the result of my experience. Either way, I’d been reborn into a creature of violence—a femme fatale. And I’d had enough of this flirtatious foreplay.
Time to act.
“I’m bored,” I said, picking up my drink and finishing it in one long mouthful. I hoped I wouldn’t regret the decision to do so, my stomach already churning at being this close to the monster.
“This place is pretty dull,” he agreed. Because of course he would. He had more exciting things for us planned at his place. Too bad I didn’t intend to play along with those plans. “I have better vodka at home, if you’re interested.”
Such a smooth line, I thought with a mental eye roll.
I pretended to muse over the offer. I didn’t want to appear too easy. Again I moved my fingers to my lips and dipped one inside like I was deep in thought. His coal-colored eyes widened and his pupils darkened, reminding me of the former skies of Caluçon.
I shivered at the thought.
Valora had brightened Caluçon with her stars—literally, because apparently she could do that now. Then she renamed the demon realm, calling it Nova Kingdom. But the nightmares of my past still lurked in my mind, from the days when I was a maid in a vile court led by an evil king.
Lucifer torture his soul, I thought.
I had only returned to the fourth kingdom in the Underworld twice since I was attacked. Once for Valora and Adrik’s wedding, the other for the birth of their daughter.
I missed my friend, but I couldn’t stay there. Not while monsters like this jackass were still at large. I preferred to stay hidden in Grigory’s kingdom, where the sun never rose, the black heavens akin to the thoughts in my mind.
“I like the sound of that,” I finally replied after enough time had passed. “The night is young and vodka’s my favorite.”
“Let’s get out of here, then, babe.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and threw some cash on the bar. No tip for the bartender. Typical.
My skin crawled with his touch as if a thousand ants were marching over it. I wanted to shove him away and kill him now in front of everyone, and not waste another minute of my time on him, but I couldn’t. I had to bide my time until human eyes and ears were out of the way.
Several knowing glances were tossed our way as we left, my date’s eagerness palpable. It probably should have concerned me that they saw us together. His death might make the news depending on how bloody I made the scene.
With my short stature and slender appearance, they’d consider me too weak to commit such a brutal act.
Looks can be deceiving, I thought at them all while I played the part of a tipsy female being dragged off by a strong, handsome man. Another glamour that deceived, because beneath his charm and reasonable exterior was a hideous man who didn’t deserve to breathe.
I knew exactly what was going on in his mind right now—a sequence of vile acts that involved perpetual violence toward me. He’d tie me up. Gag me. And hurt me for his own personal enjoyment.
There would be no consent.
A man like this one preferred a fight.
He enjoyed tears.
Just like those men who raped me over a year ago.
Never again. Valora had destroyed the majority of the monsters who’d fucked me that night, including the one who orchestrated it all—King Necros himself.
However, not all of them were dead.
I had a list.
This male wasn’t on it. Not directly, anyway. But he was known to hang out with Braun—one of the demons who was on my list. The duo enjoyed sharing unwilling mortal women and had killed at least two that I knew about.
Awareness prickled my skin, the inkling one I’d developed over the last year with Grigory’s help. He trained me with a brutal focus, saying it would help me heal. In some ways he was right. I felt renewed and empowered. Except he didn’t think I was ready to play in the real world yet.
I disagreed. And I would prove to him tonight that he was wrong.
When Paul and I reached the parking lot, I pretended to grow even more impatient with my thirst for adventure and lust.
Really, it was a thirst for blood.
“How far is the drive?” I asked as he led me toward his car.
“Ten minutes or so, babe.”
“Ten minutes,” I moaned woefully. “I’m not sure I can last that long, handsome.” I pressed into him, batting my eyes. “I’m so hot for you. I need you right now. Let’s go around the back of the building and fuck up against the wall.” I uttered the words breathlessly while I stroked his sturdy chest with my palms.
“Fuck, baby. What sort of man would I be to deny an offer like that?”
A breathing one, I thought, smiling demurely.
He took my hand and pulled me around the back of the club. I continued my seductive act the entire way while keeping an eye out for anyone who might see us.
That was lesson number one from Grigory—kills needed to be anonymous, even in the mortal world.
Paul pulled me close to him when we reached the dark alleyway behind the club. I felt the heat coming off his body, and I hoped the anticipation in mine provided enough to convince him I was ready for him. He pressed his lips hard against min
e, his hand snaking around my throat to give it a preliminary squeeze.
Not wasting a single moment, it seemed.
What did he plan to do? Strangle me right here within earshot of others? Maybe that got him off, the extra excitement of potentially being caught mid-fuck.
“Such a pretty girl,” he growled into my mouth. “I bet you fuck so good. Are you ready for me, babe? I’m going to leave your pussy broken for all men in the future.”
“Stop with the talking and start with the showing,” I said, needing to be sure I’d chosen the right male to kill. His soul was as black as the river flowing through Noxia, but I had to be sure.
His hand tightened around my neck, and for a moment, a memory of being held down sliced through my thoughts. Pain shivered down my spine, followed by shame and adrenaline-spiked fear.
There’d been so many men.
So many spectators.
I trembled, just for a moment, hating myself for allowing the terror to grip me even for a second.
I’m no longer that woman.
Grigory had awoken something in me. A newfound strength and a lust for revenge. I focused on that need and cleared the memory from my mind.
“I’m really going to enjoy this,” Paul growled, something sharp pressing into my side.
There, I thought. There’s my proof.
“I hope you’re into knife play, baby,” he murmured, drawing the dagger up my side.
Oh, you have no idea, I thought back at him. “I-I… no, not really,” I said, feigning uncertainty.
“Aw, really?” He didn’t stop moving the weapon, not until it hit my throat and pressed in enough to draw a hint of blood.
My eyes widened as I tried to jerk away from him, but his opposite hand gripped my hip, forcing me to remain in place. “Not so fast.”
“I’ll scream,” I threatened.
“I hope you do,” he replied, sounding amused. “I hope you beg me to stop, too.” He pressed his hard cock into my lower belly. “Now lift your skirt for me.”
“I… I think this was a mistake.” I attempted to push him away once more.
He responded by pressing the sharp edge into my throat. “Don’t be a fucking tease, bitch. Lift your skirt.”
“Wow, what a gentleman you’ve turned out to be,” I shot back, unable to hold the words inside. “Release me.”
He just laughed. “I didn’t spend the last two hours flattering you to go home with blue balls. Lift. Your. Fucking. Skirt.”
I nodded, licking my lips. “All right. But you asked for this.”
He rolled his eyes. “Stop with the talking and start with the showing,” he replied, throwing my earlier statement back at me.
“Clever,” I muttered, lifting my skirt to retrieve the knife against my thigh.
“Give me your panties,” he demanded.
“I’ll need to be able to bend,” I pointed out. “Which means you need to remove the knife from my throat.”
He grunted and moved his blade down to my hips, his intent to slice through my underwear clear.
Only, I wasn’t wearing any.
Something that distracted him long enough for me to angle my weapon into his groin and slice right through his manhood.
Shock colored his features, followed by a howl of pain as his knees buckled. “Fuck!”
“Yeah, you won’t be doing that again,” I replied flatly. “You’re welcome.”
“You fucking bitch!”
“Oh, is this the name-calling phase of our relationship?” I asked. “In that case, fuck you, you fucking rapist.”
He tried to lunge at me, his form atrocious. Probably because of the pain. Or maybe he just didn’t know how to handle a female fighting back. When he tried to hit me again, I blocked him, then kicked upward. My heel grazed his cheek, the steel tip sharpened for exactly this purpose, leaving a gash across his face. “You’re going to need stitches for that.”
Except, what was I saying?
He wouldn’t be alive long enough to get stitches.
I didn’t want this scum to walk the earth and find more women to torment and rape.
I couldn’t read his mind, but I could see his black aura.
I also knew he worked for Braun—the real reason I was here. I wanted the demon’s location. And I hoped this scumbag had one for me.
“Where can I find Braun?” I asked Paul now.
Braun was the demon I really wanted to kill—the dick who had punched me out of pure enjoyment before shoving his dick inside me and—
No.
I would not give the memory more power.
I twirled my knife instead, arching a brow at the pathetic excuse for a male on the ground. He was torn between cradling his destroyed junk and his disfigured cheek.
“Are you listening to me, Paul? I need to know where Braun is.”
“Fuck you, cunt.” He curled into a ball, causing me to heave a long-suffering sigh.
This was pointless. I’d already stayed too long in this realm. Time to finish this. I’d find Braun another way.
“At least you’ll never be able to hurt another woman again. Vile, disgusting thing.” I knelt and sliced my blade across his throat with a flourish, showing him how it was truly done. “You don’t just press the knife into the jugular. You slice it, moron. But I guess that lesson is lost on you now, isn’t it?”
I watched serenely as he gagged and choked out his last breaths. I expected some sort of cloud to be lifted, a hint of regaining a piece of myself that I lost, yet all I felt inside was hollow.
Maybe I’d feel better as I crossed off the real names on my list. However, there were only three. All the others had died beneath a wave of Valora’s crushing power last year when she took Nova Kingdom for herself.
The monster released a final choke, the last of his foul life leaving him a few moments later. I could leave him here.
Or I could ensure his forever torment in hell.
Hmm, a black soul like his didn’t deserve a second chance.
I ignited the charm around my neck to transport us both to the Underworld, right next to the River Styx.
“A fitting end,” I mused. “Your soul even matches the color, just as your hateful essence suits the purpose of this place.”
I tossed his body into the inky water. Beasts surfaced, their talons digging into the fresh meat and dragging the male deep under the dark ripples to feast upon the human’s flesh.
I glanced up at the three moons overhead, admiring their luminescent appeal.
The sun never rose here. I liked that about Noxia. Sunshine denoted happiness, an emotion I didn’t quite understand anymore.
Did I feel pleased at Paul’s death? Not really.
Did I feel fulfilled? No.
I didn’t even feel all that accomplished. Just… alone. Perpetually alone.
Even Grigory would leave me soon. Which was fine. He didn’t owe me anything and had done more than enough to save me. I honestly should have left Noxia months ago, but I didn’t know where to go. And a tiny part of me just wasn’t ready to leave him behind yet.
The slight dependence on my savior rankled a bit. It was a side effect of having his blood inside me. Just like the dreams.
At least, that was what I kept telling myself.
I studied the moons for longer than I should have, eventually glancing down to the calm black water of the River Styx once more.
Inky.
Dark.
Reminding me of the souls who’d tainted mine.
Vengeance clawed at my instincts, urging me to recall my renewed purpose. Grigory might not think I was ready, but I had to do something. I couldn’t just stay here and watch him marry—
“No,” I told myself, cutting off that thought. “He’s not yours.” And he never would be.
I couldn’t hold that against him. Even though I wanted to.
Just focus on the future, I thought. One day at a time.
I glanced down at my ruined outfit, noting the bl
ood soaking into my clothes. Apparently, I also needed some work with the neck-slicing bit.
I’d perfect it before I found Braun.
Using my necklace, I teleported back to the palace.
And found Grigory waiting for me in his favorite chair in the main hall, his long legs crossed at the ankles and a glass of blood mixed with wine in his sturdy hand. His black eyes watched me as I approached, his full lips remaining in a stern line of disapproval.
It wasn’t that he disagreed with my quest for revenge; he just didn’t feel I was ready.
But I wasn’t weak.
What happened to me changed me for the better, erasing the timid maid of my past and turning me into a demon fueled by the need for revenge.
“Enjoy your evening, little warrior?” he asked, his tone heavy with annoyance despite his version of an endearment tacked onto the end.
“Yes,” I muttered, accepting the drink he held out for me. I gulped it down in one long mouthful to quench my budding thirst. “You?” I returned, glancing at his disheveled hair. Grigory had a penchant for entertaining females through the long hours of the night, so I suspected he’d just risen recently after an evening of fucking.
“Not really,” he replied, his dark eyes narrowing. “Did killing that human make you feel better, Zay?” Disapproval underlined every word, even his chosen nickname for me.
I handed the glass back to Grigory with a quick shake to signify that I wanted more.
“It’s Zaya,” I reminded him for the millionth time. “And yes, I feel much better.”
I poured Zaya another glass from my decanter, then held it out for her.
She took it, guzzling the contents greedily.
Drinking blood had curled her nose at first, but she’d eventually learned to tolerate it. With my essence thriving through her veins, she required the mortal sustenance to survive. Something she’d not bothered to consider tonight when she killed a human male for sport.
Oh, he’d deserved his fate.
That wasn’t what angered me.
It was her poor execution that infuriated me.
I waited for her to return the glass, then I set it to the side and took in her bloody clothes. “You’re filthy,” I told her.