I’d been hunting souls for over five centuries.
It was lucrative work, and had a way of becoming easier the longer you’ve done it. Bring one soul back to Hell, and you gain power. Bring two souls back to Hell, your power doubles. And so on.
Collect enough souls, and Hell begins to afford you certain luxuries: human money, specifically. It became far easier to convince humans to trust me when I could impress them with expensive things.
But the best hunts weren’t easy. I didn’t want them to be; I welcomed the thrill of a challenge. Perhaps that was why I’d become so drawn to the oddities, the weirdos, the murderous little freaks. Perhaps that was why I longed for their souls most of all.
Dear fucking Lucifer, I did love a killer.
Human or demon, it didn’t matter: a being with blood on their hands and a smile on their face just did it for me. Vicious little mortals were rarely a threat to me; but damn they were cute, and their souls had a unique weight to them that I adored.
I liked cute things. I liked to crush them and break them and see what would become of all the jagged little pieces. Perhaps my definition of “cute” was just a little different.
Juniper Kynes, for example. Adorable. Murderous. Vicious. And bound to be mine.
I’d been hunting her for four years now. I wouldn’t call myself obsessed — that sounded messy. Intrigued was more accurate. Determined, perhaps. After all, there came a point in every hunt where it was up to the prey to make their move. I couldn’t simply take her soul; she had to give it willingly.
I’d waited years for my little wolf to stop running. I knew she would. She couldn’t resist forever.
A wolf needs a pack. A wolf can’t hunt alone.
All she had to do was text me four simple words: I want to talk.
I smiled when I saw the message pop up on my cell.
Business or pleasure? I’m a busy demon, no time for small talk.
Fuck you. I laughed aloud, and waited. She wouldn’t make a second of this easy, and that’s what I liked: a challenge. I wanted to fight for it.
Then, I want to make a deal.
It was a good thing I was alone, because my human disguise instantly slipped. I couldn’t hide my claws when I was so eager to get them into her. Name the time and place.
Joanie’s Bar, in Blackhook, near the coast. Come late.
I suppose she felt safe in the tiny town she chose. It was miles from Abelaum, hugging the cold coast, a few streets of houses and several old businesses, half of the buildings abandoned. Fishing boats lined the small marina, and Joanie’s Bar was perched above that.
I was too eager, and I got there before she did. It was a tiny place, the walls lined with photos of fishermen with their catches. I took a table in the back corner, where I could survey the room, watching as the humans mingled at the bar and quietly sipped pints in their booths. They’d given me a few odd looks, but no trouble. Instinct told them to keep their distance.
Blackhook was nearly two hours from Abelaum, but it still wasn’t exempt from the God’s influence. The Deep One’s tainted essence could still be felt here, pungent in the air, like an ever-present odor of mold and rotten fish. Those who lived here likely didn’t even notice. But Abelaum’s rot had spread, as rot always does.
Especially now that Kent and his Libiri had succeeded in offering their first sacrifice.
All of Abelaum was talking about it: the sad fate of Juniper’s brother. I could assume his murder was what brought her back here, but I was curious what she’d want. A new life, perhaps, somewhere far from Abelaum. Maybe she’d want money. Maybe she’d want Kent Hadleigh killed, which I certainly wouldn’t mind doing, although it would prove tricky. There was a reason Leon hadn’t already killed him.
The best hunts were difficult, but the best deals were simple. After all, once a deal was done, the idea was to quickly move on to the next. I had places to be and souls to collect, humans to fuck, pleasure to be had. Although I couldn’t help but wonder what it would be like to linger with her for a while, to squeeze a few extra benefits out of the deal for myself.
She was a damn good fuck. Beautiful and dangerous. An anomaly born of blood and pain, terror and sacrifice. A human who, against all odds, flouted God and destiny, and emerged, bloodied and broken, to be made into something new.
My own little wolf, a beast in human form. A fragmented piece of destiny.
I sensed her long before she reached the doors. Her smell was absolutely irresistible. Like honeysuckle blooming in the morning, like earth after the rain, like pine needles crushed underfoot. Wild and invigorating, once it got inside your nose, there was no shaking it. When she entered the bar, it was like watching a storm pass over the mountains.
She wore ripped jeans, hiking boots so worn the laces were fraying, and a black hoodie with Thrasher emblazoned across the front. Her long, wild brown hair was pulled into a ponytail, revealing the shaved undercut on the side of her head. And her face…fuck. The heart of the storm was in those dark eyes and dripped to her full, liquor-tinted lips. Her skin was browned by the sun, and a slim pale scar — like the slice of a knife’s blade — ran along her jaw.
She stood just inside the doorway, swaying slightly, not bothering to wipe the mist of rain from her face.
She was drunk. I couldn’t blame her.
She spotted me as her eyes swept the room, and lightning flashed in her storm. There was a moment of fear, of indecision, but she didn’t turn back. She didn’t come up to me right away either. Instead she went up to the bar, where she embraced the older woman serving drinks, and companionably grasped the shoulders of a few grizzled fishermen hunched over their drinks.
She was surrounded by friends here, and wanted me to know it.
I leaned back, grinning in my chair. How cute! She thought a bar full of humans would actually have a chance of stopping me. She was lucky I didn’t want to hurt her; at least not in ways her dark, twisted heart didn’t desire.
After a brief conversation with the bartender, she made her way over to me. Her eyes were wary but her walk was confident, and she settled in the chair across from me.
“You remembered what I look like this time,” I said. “I feel so special.”
“Don’t,” she said flatly. Her voice was deep and a little husky. But I knew how it sounded when it softened with pleasure, when it heightened with pain. “I always try to remember useful things. Hopefully, I’m not wrong in assuming you’re going to be useful.”
“Hopefully, I’m not wrong in assuming the same of you.” I nodded toward the bartender, who was watching us like a fucking hawk, and held up two fingers for drinks. She glared at me as she began to pour.
“That’s Joanie,” Juniper said. She’d folded her arms, her shoulders rigid. “She and her wife have owned this place for twenty years. Most of the people in here wouldn’t hesitate to shoot you if you try anything.”
I smirked. “I know. You came here when you first left Abelaum. Joanie gave you a job and a place to stay for a little while. You stayed until the Eld tracked you out here.” My smirk widened as her jaw tightened with anger. “When they started swarming around this place every night, you decided to leave.”
She swallowed hard, her eyes locked on me. “Why the fuck have you followed me all this time? What makes me so goddamn special to you?”
“A good hunter tracks his prey,” I said, “and waits for just the right moment to take his prize.” I smiled as Joanie brought over two beers, slamming mine down a little harder than need be. As she walked away, I said, “What the hell did you tell her anyway? Am I an awful cheating ex, an unpleasant cousin?”
“My business is my business,” she said. “They don’t care about who you are. All they care about is that I leave here alive.”
“And you will. What a waste if I were to just kill you after all these years. I guess you could say I’ve gotten attached.” I leaned forward over the table, not missing the way she tensed as I got closer. “But you came here to discuss a deal, so let me tell you the first thing about deals: they hurt. They’re supposed to. But deals with me? They hurt even more.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“Because I want them to. I happen to enjoy making humans suffer for what they want. And by the time a human is ready to make a deal with me, it is very much what they want.”
She snorted. “Try working in a BDSM dungeon. Sounds like what you’re looking for.”
“Oh, I already did. They found my methods a bit too…extreme. But I only cater to what the masochists want. Who am I to tell someone, no, I won’t sew your mouth shut and make you scream, after I’ve been begged to do exactly that?”
Her expression didn’t change. “You talk too much. Sorry to burst your bubble, but pain doesn’t scare me.”
“You shouldn’t tell me things like that, Juniper.” I kept my smile reserved, but I was all tingly. There was nothing more exciting than a challenging human, nothing sweeter than a mortal who pretended they weren’t afraid. “It sounds an awful lot like a challenge.”
“I’m not interested in your games. I want to make a deal, Zane. What are your terms?”
“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. Very time 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’m saying that 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 no new life for 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 goddamn woman.
“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. I can’t.”
“Can’t is a little different than won’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’t beg.”
“Under my claws, you will,” I said. “If you ever do ask 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 it all, 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.
“They hurt you once,” I said softly. “So you decided you would never feel pain again, didn’t you? If you can’t feel it, then you won’t fear it.”
She smiled slowly. “Almost. But not quite. They hurt me once, so I decided pain can’t hurt me anymore. I decided pain feels really damn good. Pain keeps me going. Sometimes pain is the only thing that reminds me I’m alive.”
“Then I think we’ll get along just fine, Juniper Kynes.” I stood up, and she flinched at the scrape of my chair against the wooden floor. “Go home. Sleep off your liquor and think about it. If you want the deal, go into the forest tomorrow night, as deep as you can. I’ll find you.”
She looked at me with wide eyes, which quickly narrowed in suspicion. “The forest…why?”
I grinned. “Because out there, no one can hear you scream.”
