Total pages in book: 55
Estimated words: 51407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51407 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 257(@200wpm)___ 206(@250wpm)___ 171(@300wpm)
Except it doesn’t work with Azazel. He just blinks those deep-brown eyes like I’ve shocked him, and a flash of crimson shines from their depths. The crimson is too unnatural for him to be anything other than the demon he claims. “Excuse me?”
“I’m willing. I understand the cost. You have no reason to turn me down. Please hand me the contract.” I do my best to appear nonthreatening and wait for him to decide. He seems to have forgotten that he approached me initially with his offer.
To hear my church tell of it, demons are waiting on every corner to tempt the unwary onto a path of sin. I had convinced myself they don’t exist, and yet here one is. It’s strange. I should probably be falling to my knees and calling for God to save me, but . . . this isn’t some merciless beast ready to drag me to hell. He looks stressed at the very idea that I may take this deal.
Which honestly just reinforces my growing belief that if there’s a god out there, They aren’t the one worshipped by my family and church. If they were wrong about demons, surely they’re wrong about God too.
This deal might all be some extravagant set-up by Pastor John, but I don’t think it is. Surely Azazel would be more gleeful to have caught me in his trap, more prone to reinforcing all the ugly beliefs that have been drilled into my head all my life—would have done something to scare me back to the welcome arms of the church. Instead, he’s trying to talk me out of it.
It likely says something unflattering that this demon has more morals than I do, but I’m not willing to examine this strange experience too closely.
Finally he seems to nod to himself, and he passes the contract over. “So be it. Sign here, and we’ll go immediately.”
The dread I keep expecting is nowhere in evidence. Understanding that is a strange sort of relief. My signature is more sprawling than usual, but it will do. Azazel still doesn’t look happy as he holds out his hand and waits for me to slide mine into his. I do so without hesitation.
Just like that, the diner disappears. My stomach experiences a strange whoosh, and then we’re standing in an unfamiliar room. Dizziness makes my head spin. I blink and blink again, trying to take in the massive creature holding my hand.
Where once a handsome white man stood, now there’s a seven-foot-tall crimson demon. The Devil. This is accurate enough to the monsters of my youth that I can’t stop myself from jerking my hand out of his and stumbling back. “Oh, God.”
“Belladonna, breathe.”
The voice is the same as Azazel’s, deep and soothing enough that I can’t help but obey. My brain stops buzzing long enough to register that while he looks like a demon straight out of one of Pastor John’s sermons, his deep-brown eyes are the same as he waits for me to calm down. Kind. Empathetic. “Okay. Of course you look like a demon now. That makes sense.”
“My glamor only works in your realm.”
“Sure.” I let that bounce right off me and turn to study the room. It’s a bedroom larger than any I’ve seen in person; there’s even a sitting room sectioned off from the giant bed that looks like something out of a fairy tale.
I can’t help myself—curiosity has always been my downfall—so I walk over, wondering at how thick the rug feels beneath my worn shoes, and press my hand to the mattress. “I thought you said your name was Azazel,” I whisper without looking at him. “Surely you must be Lucifer.”
He snorts, sounding so like himself that my fear recedes even farther. He may look the part now, but he’s hardly what I would expect of a demon—or devil. “He’s a myth. I’m not.”
Lucifer, a myth? My mother would go cold and scary if I dared utter such a thing. My father would rage at my disrespect and tell me how God would punish me for my lack of belief. And Ruth? She would hold my hand and tell me how worried she is about me, how she loves me but wishes I wouldn’t upset our parents.
I swallow hard. “Then . . .” No, no, I just need to think instead of reacting. There’s a reason my parents cast me out, after all. The only thing worse than someone who hasn’t heard the Gospel is someone who has and still turns away. The very last thing my mother said to me was that I’d burn in hell. Maybe she was right.
“I’m a bargainer demon.” Azazel speaks slowly and calmly. “My realm touched yours in millennia past, before an apocalyptic event thrust them apart, and even now my people can come and go. Humans have seen us and decided to conflate us with this ‘hell’ many of you are so terrified of.” He shakes his head. “Regardless, you’re not going to burn or anything similar.”