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It didn’t take long.
A demon with a red face and black facial hair and horns that curled over its head saw us, nudged the demon next to him, who used his pointy tail to tap another demon on the shoulder. And on and on until awareness rippled across the bridge. My father glanced over his shoulder and slowly lowered his arms.
All the shuddering and shivering and shaking ceased.
I blew out a breath. Okay, now I just had to convince him that I wasn’t going to return to the academy so that he wouldn’t decide to go back to attacking it and then prove my words right by hightailing it the hell out of here.
Apparently, with Asmoday on my heels.
Was it wrong that I liked the idea? It would be nice to have a partner, someone to bounce ideas off. Someone to help me stay a couple of steps ahead of the devil at all times.
Someone to keep me warm at night.
Someone to do other things with me at night. Or the middle of the day. Or anytime, really.
“Hi, Dad.” I waved. “Over here.”
He shoved the nearest demon out of the way. The guy bellyflopped into the moat.
The rest of them scurried to part like the Red Sea.
He strode through the gap, his unwavering gaze latched onto me like he was trying to hold me in place. If I were anyone else, it would have worked. Luckily—in this context, anyway—I was his daughter so therefore immune to his powers of persuasion. A fact that really, really irritated him on the regular.
“Daruka, how lovely to see you again,” he said pleasantly enough, like he hadn’t been unsuccessfully chasing me down for four freaking years now. “How’s your mother?”
“Dead.” I managed not to wince as I said it. Points to me.
His face fell. “Oh, how terrible. She was such a delightful woman. In mermaid and human form. Especially in her human form. Those legs. So long. The way they wrapped around my waist…” He closed his eyes and lifted his face, like he was reliving a particularly fond memory.
Not a memory I wanted him to expound on. “Can we focus on the here and now?” I suggested.
His eyes popped open, and the moment was gone. He nodded at Asmoday. “You’re keeping company with a fellow demon. How absolutely fascinating.”
“It isn’t what you think,” I said.
“You aren’t having sex with him? He’s a lust demon. What else would you do with him?”
I wrinkled my nose while my face heated. “Okay, it is what you think. But it’s more than that. He’s…” What was he to me?
Was this something I was ready to admit to myself, let alone the devil?
“Um, I think we might be, maybe, sort of dating.”
“No maybe or sort of about it, sir,” Asmoday clarified. “I hope that meets with your approval. Sir.”
Asmoday was acting like we were teenagers and he was nervous to ask my dad if he could take me out on a date. Yeesh.
“Um, news flash. I don’t really care if he approves.”
“That’s my girl.” Satan sounded delighted.
I sighed dramatically. “Look, Dad, do you think we can come to some sort of agreement? A compromise?”
He sniffed. “The devil does not compromise.”
Of course he doesn’t.
“But an agreement, well… What do you have in mind?”
