Page 103 of Only Fangs

“I spoke to Ari.”

“You spoke to her? How is she?”

“She’s in Scotland with her dad.”

But that doesn’t tell me how she is, only where. “Hang on. How would she know?” I’m so confused right now, my head full of cotton wool and cream cheese frosting. Nothing is making sense but I’m sure I’m asking all the wrong questions.

“Victor told her. Her father summoned him. Anyway. Do you actually know what you’ve done? What you’ve agreed to? What will happen if you don’t pay him back, plus all the interest, on time.”

I feel stupid. But I’m not. I understand exactly what I’ve done. “Clara. I know what I did, OK? So spare me the lecture.”

Ivan comes in with the plates and a knife. Clara bends down to slice up my sofa cake, making sure she doesn’t take any of the section my fork has been gouging tracks into. I can see that she is seething, her rage rippling just below the surface of her skin.

“I bought you a year,” she says softly. “I bought you a whole fucking year to find a real solution to this mess and then you go and pull this stupid stunt with Victor and none of it matters anymore because in nine months you’ll be swapping places with Victor and anything you and Ari could have been will be done.”

Ivan takes a plate of cake from Clara and she proceeds to cut another slice. “For Matt,” she says passing that one to him as well. She cuts a final piece for herself. “You’ll be alright with the continued use of your fork, I suppose?” she asks me.

“Good cake,” Ivan says as he finishes swallowing his first mouthful. “Anyway, when I told you about Victor I didn’t tell you to make a deal.”

“You told him about demons?” Clara spins to ask him.

“No. Well yes. But not because I thought he’d actually do it. I mean, humans don’t make deals with demons. Everyone knows that.”

“You’re almost as much of an idiot as he is.” She shovels cake into her mouth.

“I warned him not to.”

“Well, you obviously didn’t do a very good job.” She turns back to face me. “So why did you do it?”

“For Ari.” It’s all so simple really. “I know she didn’t mean all those things she said. And so I’m going to make Only Fangs. I’m going to prove to the world that she is a genius. I’ll pay back the debt to Victor and then we’ll all be free.”

“You’re an idiot,” Clara tells me. “Now let me enlighten you on what will happen if you can’t repay Victor.” She cuts off another slice of cake and then settles into one of the armchairs, tucking her legs underneath her.

“You become the demon. Right. And I know you’re thinking that it can’t be all that bad, just mooching around giving people loans. But you would be working for him. For Satan himself. And he is not exactly a big believer in workers’ rights. So no days off, no sleep, no spare time, no privacy. Just on call, all the time. And always knowing that the people you’re making deals with are desperate. They have no other option but to call you and you will capitalise on that, prey on that. For ever and ever.” She pauses. “And ever,” she adds for good measure.

She eats another forkful of cake, but all the while her eyes are on me, as if she’s daring me to say something. “Oh,” she says after she swallows. “And did I mention the bit about burning in hell? Did you notice how sweaty Victor was, how grubby he looked? There’s a reason we talk about the pits of hell, it’s literally the last place in the universe you would want to spend any time. Let alone eternity.”

Another forkful of red velvet disappears into her mouth. “So,” she says, “now do you agree that you are a fucking idiot?”

I open my mouth to reject her judgement of me but swiftly close it again. Having heard what will happen in explicit detail I know she’s right.

Chapter 53

Ari

“Why would Brody do it?” I ask Dad as soon as Victor has left. “He doesn’t have a hope in hell of repaying the loan. And then…”

A human who loses to a demon becomes a demon. Brody will switch with Victor, destined to stalk hell for eternity, making deals to appease his boss. Trapped for ever.

“I think that you should tell me about this Brody,” Dad says softly.

And so I tell him.

“He always finds the positive in any situation; no matter how dire things seem he’s there with a smile and some kind of stupid comment about how it will all work out in the end. He always brings coffee, or bacon sandwiches, or cake; I don’t think he’s ever turned up on my doorstep empty handed, and it’s always exactly what I’m craving right in that moment as if he can read my mind. He loves his family; his sisters and his brother and his parents and his nan. And he’s such a brilliant friend to Matt. Matt is a vampire, he’s how come Brody applied for the job.”

“He sounds like a keeper,” Dad says.

“He’s human.”