And after Sunny had left his baby abomination floating face-up in a pool of toxins, she knew he’d find Daphne and her family and try again. And again. And more people would die, and next time, Sunny might not be there to save Will or Rusty or Jake or Baby Jeannie…
Sunny started signing her name. With him only an arm’s-length away, she heard the devaputra’s breath catch. She hesitated, glancing at him. His eyes flickered to hers, and there was…desperation there?
“You’re tense,” she noted. “Is there something on here I should know about?”
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you, when the time comes,” he breathed.
Sunny narrowed her eyes. She glanced back at the half-signed document.
Fuck it. She put her pen back to paper and signed the rest. She felt the tension as he waited through every scribble, every etch of the metal nib against the paper.
The moment she finished her name, the devaputra gasped and there was a strange rush between them, like a surge of heat that hit her at once in the chest, head, and groin. In front of her, the devaputra was groaning, holding himself against the tree, a green-violet luminescence flowing out of him. The heat in her body increased to a near sizzle that spread throughout her entire being. As she watched, the devaputra fell to one knee. She felt the rush of energy that flooded outward, like a dam breaking.
When it was over, the devaputra collapsed forward against the tree that held him, panting. Sunny, for her part, felt like she’d gotten laid.
“Wow.”
Strangely, that was not the first word Sunny had expected to come from a maybe-demon’s lips after making a potentially soul-binding agreement. Indeed, Khaz looked unable to hold himself upright.
“Wow,” he said again, his face open in wonder. “That was better than I…” He hesitated, meeting her eyes. Strangely, he seemed to stifle his next response and tensed, that openness gone. He cleared his throat, instead. “It is done.”
“Great!” Sunny said, shoving the scroll back at him.
He squinted down at it, then at her. “You don’t even want to know what it says?”
Sunny shrugged. “You said you could use one word to mean something else, and that I’d be better off not reading it.”
“…until after you signed it,” he corrected.
“I’d rather just not read it,” Sunny said.
He laughed. “Not reading it doesn’t negate its potency. You signed it—you’ll still be bound by the terms.”
Damn.
“Besides,” he said, offering the document back to her gently, “it’s better that you know what you got yourself into.”
Sunny was pretty sure it wasn’t better. Stress could kill people, and she’d rather just blissfully use the demon to kill the monster, then figure out—and anxietate over—what she owed later. “Just help me kill this tentacle monster and you get to extract some horrific form of payment, like my youth or my firstborn child. That’s the deal, right?”
Khaz skewered her with his scowl until Sunny fidgeted. He shoved the scroll against her chest. “Read it.”
Reluctantly, Sunny took the scroll from him and unfurled it. Seeing the date and the lettering on a brief scan, she blurted, “It’s in English?” She would have bet money that English was not used as the Universal Language of the Arcane. Then she blinked at how short it was. “This took you several hours?!” She gestured at the five succinct lines.
“You’re procrastinating.”
She was, too. Some deep part of her wallowed in dread, knowing how utterly screwed she could be. She forced herself to look at the words.
There weren’t many. In total, the scroll read:
As it is Witnessed this May 18 th , 2018;
We, Bukkhazariah Basuchandra and Sunny Day, as lucid and consenting adults, hereby agree to the following terms:
Sunny will take it upon herself to keep Bukkhazariah satiated throughout his stay in the mortal realm. In return, for every boon granted to him, Bukkhazariah will return in kind.
So agreed, so it shall be.
Signed this 18 th of May, 2018, Bukkhazariah Basuchandra and Sunny Day
“That’s it?” she blurted.
“I’m glad you like it,” Khaz said, seeming pleased.
Sunny had to read it again. “You didn’t say anything about my soul.”
He gave her an irritated look. “Your soul was not in the offing.”
Sunny squinted at him for some time. Then she squinted back at the contract. “This is all you needed to do? Just a few words jotted in English?” Somehow, she had expected glowing letters and vials of baby’s blood or something.
“The words are transcribed accurately in the arcane underneath them.”
Sunny didn’t see any words transcribed underneath the English. “I don’t see any—”
“It’s written in another dimension.”
Oh. “Which version’s binding?”
Khaz gave her a flat look. “The one written in the arcane.”
Duh. Her heart stuttered. She slapped the document. “But that means nothing written here holds any weight, and you could’ve written anything at all you wanted underneath.”
Khaz said. “The translation must be accurate or the contract cannot be completed.”
Her chest, head, and crotch still felt like they were on fire. She wondered how long that was going to last.
“It’s part of the contract,” he said. “I linked our major chakras, which, as I must be sustained on the energy of others, facilitates your ability to satiate me. The sensation will fade over time.” He cocked his head. “Or so I’m told.”
He read my mind, she realized, taking a startled step away from him. “I thought you weren’t allowed to read minds.”
He grinned a slow smile. “Like I said. I linked our chakras.”
“For how long?” she demanded, glancing hastily back at the contract. “There’s no end date.”
“Of course there is,” Khaz said.
Sunny squinted, trying to find it. “No, it says…” She hesitated, her eyes catching a section she hadn’t paid much attention to before. …throughout his stay in the mortal realm…
Her eyes widened. “How long do you plan to stay here?”
His answer was a smile.
Then something else occurred to her, and with it, a rush of goosebumps. “How long do you live ?”
Almost sheepishly, he reached up and scratched the back of his head, but didn’t try to answer.
I just signed a contract with a demon, a terrified part of her mind chittered as she automatically took a step back. Mother would—
“No,” he interrupted, dropping his hand with irritation, “not a demon.”
There was enough passion behind his words that Sunny found she had actually started to believe it. “Then what are you?” she managed.
“We have many names,” Khaz said. “The spirit world is not as cut-and-dried as humanity would like to believe. Not all are good or evil. And there are shades of gray.”
“So you’re not a demon…but you could be.”
His jaw muscles stood out as he forced a smile. “If I chose to run around doing evil things, I suppose you could call me that.”
“Great.” Sunny glanced again at the contract. “All right. How do I…” The next word caught in her throat like a hairball, “…satiate …you?”
“There are many ways.” He got the Vague Answers Award for the year.
“Like what you did to me, back when I was trying to tell you I didn’t know anything and you were eating me anyway?” she insisted. “I take it those interns were being delivered so you could drain their life or something?”
He actually appeared slightly ashamed at that. “You saw them?”
“I’m shit poor and didn’t have a ride. Of course I saw them.”
He gave her a long, considering look. “I could make you not poor.” It was definitely an offer.
Here we go… “No,” Sunny blurted. “No way.” She shoved the doc
ument back at him. “Take that and stuff it up your ass. I’m not satiating you.”
“You have to,” Khaz said, not taking it. “I added in the fine print that I can no longer gain sustenance from anyone else.” He chuckled to himself. “Erik is gonna shit himself when he finds out he lost his hold on me.”
“Fine print ?!” Sunny snapped. “There’s no fine print. And who the fuck is Erik?”
“The fine print is the arcane translation,” Khaz said. “It is about forty pages long, roughly. Erik Vandyke is the asshole in the BPI that summoned me to help him solve the giant bats case.”
Sunny peered at Khaz for some time before she determined he was serious. “Demons are summoned,” she said.
“So are spirits, demigods, and just about any smarter, more powerful otherworld entities that egotistical, small-minded dumbasses with an internet connection decide they want to correspond with,” Khaz said. “What’s your point?”
“I could unsummon you,” Sunny said.
Khaz laughed. “No you couldn’t. Erik figured that out the hard way, back when he tried to banish me like a housekeeper with a bottle of Febreeze. What the dipshit is refusing to let people see is that the bats, the ‘bear,’ Dortez… They’re not isolated incidents. There’s a bigger picture at play, here, and things are going to get worse if people don’t stop using bankstone.”
Sunny frowned at that. “Why?”
Khaz sighed. “You’ll have to ask Erik Vandyke about that. I’ve been bound not to talk about it.” The way he said it, Sunny took that literally.
“So Erik’s a…sorcerer…or something?”
“One of the best,” Khaz said. “Got his fingers in a lot of pies, and he loses money if the little people start to figure out what’s going on right under their noses. It’s the Colonial Era all over again, and all the big cheeses like Erik are trying to stake as big a claim as they can before the rest of the world catches on.”
“So why can’t he unsummon you?”
“Once summoned, if we don’t want to go back, we don’t go back.”
“Why don’t you want to go back?” Sunny demanded.
He seemed amused by that. “Already trying to figure out how to get rid of me?”
She flushed, because it hit home. “Just trying to understand.”
He looked her over, then shrugged. “It’s a status thing. Like owning a house on the ocean. Most of my kind aren’t given the opportunity.” He fiddled with that leaf again, then tilted his head to look up at the canopy, a small smile on his face. “It’s…nice …here. Like an energy bath.”
“Eventually, people have gotta get out of the bath or they get wrinkly and drown,” Sunny said.
He gave her a pointed look. “I just bought a snorkel.” She had the distinct feeling he was talking about her .
Fuck. Me.
“If you want.” His lips twitched slyly.
That…was so not cool. Sunny stepped backwards several paces into Eklutna Lake, until a shock of cold dragged her attention from the creature she had just bound herself to and down to the icy water overflowing her boots. It didn’t hold it for long, however. His hazel eyes were dancing with amusement, and for the first time, she realized she was well and truly screwed.
“I want to cancel the contract,” Sunny blurted.
“There is no cancellation clause,” he informed her. “The contract ends when I leave the mortal realm.”
Sunny immediately put ‘Banish a Demon’ on her lists of things to learn how to do, right up there with ‘Take Language Classes’ and ‘Learn to Tango’.
“I could teach you to tango.” It was definitely another offer.
“No, screw you,” Sunny said. “Take me back to the Domes.”
He seemed to consider, then leaned against the tree beside him, instead. “The way I see it, we won’t have much privacy later, so you might as well learn how to satiate me now so you don’t have to do it later.”
Sunny’s heart started to pound. “Maybe later.”
He took a step towards her, following her out into the water. “Why not now?”
She felt her fingers tighten on the contract, and she had the strong urge to tear it in half.
Khaz reached out and took it from her gently. “It’s something you’ll need to get used to if this is going to work. I swear I won’t hurt you.” He tucked the scroll into its runed case and slid it into a pocket in his vest.
Her heart was a runaway rail car, now. “Are you going to…” She swallowed hard, meeting his eyes. “…shift?” Remembering that inky black skin, the rainbow-flecked ebony horns, that weird sense of vulnerability, the teeth … All alone, with no chance of anyone witnessing whatever happened between them, Sunny felt herself starting to hyperventilate.
“Not unless you want me to.” He took another step, closing the distance.
Her giggle of relief was too loud, and it echoed over the water hollowly. She was so nervous her hands were shaking. Adrenaline was making her knees tremble, and she couldn’t back up any farther without falling in the lake.
The devaputra seemed to notice that, because he gave her some space to get out of the water. Once she had gingerly moved closer to shore, he reached for her hand. “Let me show you something.”
Sunny yanked her hand away from him on reflex.
“I never cancelled the oath,” he said softly. “I won’t hurt you. On the honor of my mother.” He held his tawny hand out, palm up, waiting.
Sunny looked up into his eyes. He means it, she realized. Reluctantly, she reached out and put her hand into his. The touch made her head, chest, and groin all start to burn again, like they contained an inner fire.
It was mollifying, however, to realize that Khaz felt it, too—or at least something like it. He closed his eyes and shuddered. “Okay,” he whispered, opening his eyes again after a moment, “there are small chakras in the palms,” he said, twisting her hand palm-up. “See?”
Sunny didn’t see.
When he realized that, he grunted. “All right. We’ll work on it. Until then, just trust me. There are energy centers there.”
“Okay,” she managed. She was having trouble concentrating with the heat building within her. The groin, especially. It was like a really bad case of the hornies.
Either he didn’t feel it or he was valiantly ignoring it. Either way, Khaz had gotten incredibly matter-of-fact and goal-oriented in his conduct. “This is what you need to do to sustain me,” he said, spreading her hand open and holding it up to him. “Excess energy wells up here, in the palms, and I can drink it without hurting you.”
Sunny glanced down at where his tawny skin touched hers.
“What I do is essentially skim off the top,” he insisted. “Stuff you’re not using. Little sips here and there are plenty.”
“Those interns didn’t look like it was little sips,” Sunny retorted. “They looked like you drained half a year of their life away.”
“The arrangement I had with Erik was different. His contract made feeding…necessary . A way he used to control me—the spell he had me under was constantly draining me for his own purposes.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Meaning it’s not anymore?”
“No,” he laughed. “Thank you for that.” He flexed a wrist, then the other, and Sunny watched the brass shackles fall off. She swallowed.
“What purposes?”
Khaz shrugged as he plucked the broken brass bands from the water and stuffed them into his pocket. “Whatever he wanted.”
“So you’re, what, free to do whatever you want now, where you weren’t before?”
“Essentially.”
This just kept getting better and better. Not only had she bargained with a creature whose kin were called demons, but she had freed him, too. The paranormal do-gooders of the world were gonna be thrilled with her. She looked down at where their fingers touched. “So you don’t actually need to feed anymore?”
“No. But I want to.” A little smile curved the corner of his
lip. “And we know satiation is the satisfaction of want.”
Her heart started to hammer with a whole new wave of disturbing possibilities. If he had defined ‘satiate’ as ‘the satisfaction of want’, then it could technically apply to any form of want, not just letting him ‘drink’.
“Just feeding, for now,” he said. “Believe me, that will amuse me for quite some time.”
Amuse him. Like she was a toy . She twisted her palm over and started to pull away.
Quickly, he said, “I will take only what you offer me, and stop the moment you close your fist.” That desperation was back. “I’ll only take a sip, I swear.” Hell, he seemed terrified.
She looked up at him. “Tell me why.”
He met her gaze, and she saw his desire to lie or misrepresent the truth. Instead, he said plaintively, “In my culture, one’s status is determined by the bargains one has made, and with whom. The greater the prize, the more status. And there’s something…amazing…about your energy. The closer I get, the longer I am around it, the more I realize it’s like I was handed a priceless treasure wrapped in sweat and dirty leather.”
Now there was a way to woo a woman. “Thanks ,” Sunny laughed, despite herself.
“There’s so much of it,” he went on, heedless, “and it’s so…unique …” he said the word breathlessly, “…that being this close to you is like experiencing the sun for the first time.”
“You’re just feeling whatever that little girl did to me,” Sunny said, with bitterness.
He waved that off vehemently. “No. You . The girl did something to mask it. It’s not until I touch you that I can truly see its extent.”
Hearing those words, spoken so plainly, she tentatively met his eyes. They seemed to hold truth. Master manipulators, she had to remind herself. “So you just want a sip?” she asked reluctantly. “Like how often?”
“Whenever you allow it.”
That didn’t sound so bad.
Sunny took a breath, watching him for some sign he was lying, then let it out in a rush. “Fine. Show me.” She allowed her hand to relax in his once more.
“It’ll just be a sip,” he swore. “It might make you dizzy, but it shouldn’t hurt.” He raised her upturned palm to just under his chin. Then, watching her reaction, he lowered his face to her palm and inhaled, slow and deep, and she watched gold wisps pull up and out from her palm, like he was pulling colored steam into his body.
Sunny with a Chance of Monsters: An Urban Fantasy Action Adventure (Sunny Day, Paranormal Badass) Page 27