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“You tell me, little wolf.” I waved my hand. “Tell me your heart’s desire, and I can make it happen.”
She narrowed her eyes, silent for a moment. Then, “I want to destroy the Libiri.”
Ah. Well. I hadn’t quite expected...that. “Destroy…right. You mean kill Kent Hadleigh?”
“I want to kill Kent. I want to kill Jeremiah, Victoria, and Meredith. I want their family wiped off the face of the Earth, and then, I want the same for their followers. I want their most loyal slaughtered. I want anyone who has ever supported them to spend the rest of their miserable lives shaking in fear that I might find them.” She leaned back, folding her arms. “And I want to do it myself, with my own hands. I just need back-up.”
“That’s...extensive.” And time consuming.Verytime consuming. Time that I could be spending starting my next hunt.
She plastered a cocky smirk on her face. “Are you saying you can’t do it?”
“I’msayingthat what you want is going to be a lot of trouble. Destroying the Libiri would mean eradicating half the town of Abelaum.”
She shrugged. “I don’t have a problem with that. I’ll make it simple: we’ll just drop a nuke on the whole place. Easy.”
I laughed. “While I admire that your idea of simplicity is me giving you access to nuclear bombs, I’m afraid there are in fact limitations on what I can do for you. In this day and age, I can’t simply wipe a town off the face of the Earth. Hell’s Council would have a fit if I took a deal like that. Wouldn’t you rather have a fresh start? A house somewhere far away, money for whatever your heart desires...a new life?”
“There is nonew lifefor me. They killed my brother.” She nodded slowly, and although she rapidly blinked them away, tears welled up in her eyes. “There’s no fresh start from this. If you don’t dig out the rot, it will only keep spreading. The only thing my heart desires is revenge.” Her hands were clenched into fists on the tabletop. Her voice lowered. “I don’t care what you want from me. My soul, my suffering…I don’t care what it takes. You say your deals hurt. Well, so do mine. And I’m not afraid. Are you?”
This woman. This goddamnwoman.
“Oh, Juniper.” I shook my head. “You don’t know what you’re asking for.”
The rain was pouring, tapping heavily on the bar’s old roof. It was late, and the only ones who remained in the bar was the bartender herself, a few drunks, and us. Juniper closed her eyes a moment, her lips pressed into a thin, hard line. She wanted a hard deal, so she’d get one. If I was going to be responsible for helping her enact her revenge, I was going to require more than her soul.
I tapped my fingers on the table, and when she opened her eyes to look at me again, her expression betrayed no fear.
“I don’t care what you want,” she said again. “I’ll give you my soul. I’ll damn myself for this. Torture me. Fuck me. Hurt me. It doesn’t matter. I want them all dead.”
Thoughts of doing all three to her made it goddamn hard to maintain my human disguise. I shifted in my seat, readjusting my rigid cock in my jeans. “Your soul is merely the down payment. It's a heavy price for a heavy task.”
She had a good poker face, this one. Any emotion was so rapidly buried, it was as if it had never even been there to begin with. “Try me. What’s your price?”
I sipped my beer, slowly, savoring it for a moment. Human alcohol did nothing for my kind, but the taste was pleasant enough. “Your soul is the start,” I said. “Your body will also be mine. Your pleasure, your pain — and your submission.Mine. In exchange, I’ll help carry out this revenge you seek.”
It felt like an adequate price for the task. After all, if I was to be tethered to her to get her wishes carried out, I was going to make sure I enjoyed myself. She was silent for a moment, her mind turning. I was good at reading humans, discerning their emotions, determining if I was pushing too hard or not enough. But she was tricky. She hid everything so carefully.
Finally, she said softly, “I won’t submit.”
“Then I’m afraid we don’t have a deal.”
Thunder boomed outside, rattling the bottles of liquor behind the bar. Juniper hissed, turning her face away in fury. But she didn’t get up. She didn’t storm away. With her eyes fixated on the rain streaming down the bar’s front windows, she said softly, “I can’t. Ican’t.”
“Can’tis a little different thanwon’t, isn’t it?” I grinned.
“All I know is how to fight.” She looked up, and behind the anger in her eyes, there was desperation. How funny to find that one little word was her sticking point. But I wasn’t that picky.
“Then fight me,” I said. “Fight to your heart’s content, and know that you’ll lose, every single time. Know that no matter how hard you fight, you’re mine in the end.” Her eyes flickered across my face, searching for a trap. “And if you can’t bear it, beg for mercy. We demons may be cruel, but even we understand the concept of necessary mercies.”
She scoffed, her desperation vanishing and pride taking its place. “I don’tbeg.”
“Under my claws, you will,” I said. “If you everdoask for mercy, I’ll grant it. If you can agree to my terms, you’ll have what you want. We’ll kill the Hadleighs. We’ll destroy the Libiri. Anything they attempt to accomplish, we’ll destroy.” I gulped down the last of my beer. “I haven’t had a deal like that since the Middle Ages. I used to get bargains for wars and assassinating kings. This is honestly a little nostalgic.”
She clenched her jaw so hard I could see the pale blue swell of a vein down the side of her face. She didn’t like my fond reminiscing, but I didn’t care. Gaining access to play with her as I pleased was well worth the time it would take to complete this deal.
“It’s a big decision,” I said, as she glared in thought. “Your body and soul for revenge. I want itall, Juniper. Make no mistake, for a deal like this, I will own you in every possible way. You say you’re not afraid of pain...” I leaned closer, and watched her entire form clench up again, her body getting ready to fight. “But I think you’ve forgotten how to feel it.”
I reached out, brushing my finger lightly against the barely-visible line of a scar peeking from beneath the neckline of her shirt. Her skin was so soft for such a hard woman. She held my gaze without flinching.
