Page 51 of Devils Don’t Deal

The demon shook his head, large horns black to contrast with his red skin. “No. How long did you spend in the infernal realm?”

“Long enough,” my devil said with a shivery smile. That is, I shivered. “I’m here with company.”

The demon actually looked at me then I shivered all the way to my soul. He inhaled then grinned widely. White teeth against red skin was such a stunning contrast. “Such a sweet virgin. And a goblin-fairy? Such rare blood could open a portal to any realm.”

“Her blood is mine.” My devil kept his voice light, but the other demon stepped away, raising his hands slowly.

“I mean no offense. Of course she’s yours, including blood and every other drop of sweetness.” He gave me one last speculative glance before he melted away into the crowd.

I inhaled a shaky breath. “You have scary friends.”

“Not at all. I have no friends.”

I frowned at him. “Right. Just objects. I almost forgot.”

His eyes glittered with banked anger, like the other demon had lit a fuse in him. “Would you like to be my friend, Miss Charles?”

“Of course not. Objects can’t be friends with their owners.”

“And if they could?”

“It would be highly advantageous for anyone to have a devil for a true friend, if a devil could be one of those.”

He raised a brow and ran a finger around the rim of my glass, leaving a swirl of sparkles in its wake. “Would it?”

“Of course. Devils are terribly clever.”

“Getting thrown into the infernal realm is not terribly clever.”

“But getting back is.”

He smiled then, with a slight hardening of his gaze, wrapped his tail around my leg so the barb was lying flat against my ankle. “Does it bother you?”

“That you could accidentally flinch and take off my foot with your tail? Not at all. I’m not thinking about the possibility in graphic detail whatsoever.”

He smiled and clinked his glass against mine. “How scarred I am. Does it bother you? And aren’t you going to ask how I ended up in the infernal realm and how I got back?”

“Oh.” I sipped my drink and considered. “I suppose you ended up there after a deal went south.”

“I definitely made a deal with the wrong person. The one who left me with half a soul.”

“Oh. Her.” The one he’d loved. I hesitated then said slowly, “She took your heart then got you thrown into the infernal realm? Why? How?”

He shrugged and his smile became sharper as he leaned toward me, his fingers spreading, securing me to him more thoroughly. “My heart only had power over me as long as it also had love. Once the love was gone, so was her power, so she sold me before I could destroy her.” He shook his head. “There was a charming cult that filed off my horns, cut off my wings, and chopped off my tail. Then they created a portal out of my own virgin blood and threw me into the infernal realm. I’m still not sure what they were trying to accomplish by opening a portal, but I’ve never been interested in the motives of the mindless.”

I reached down and touched the tail wrapped around my leg, barely a brush, but he flexed, squeezing my ankle tighter for a moment before it relaxed.

“And everything grew back, except for the wings?” I asked, looking up at his horns.

He raised a brow. “Not at all. I made deals to get other creature’s appendages, including the wings. I have them glamoured away. It’s one of the rules in my club, no large wings, otherwise we’d have no room for dancing.”

“Oh. Should I glamour away my wings?”

He hesitated then ran his elegant fingers over the ridges between the tips of each silver-glazed section. It felt dangerous, because my wings were the most delicate part of me, but also safe because my devil would always heal my wings, my stomach, my exhaustion, and never do anything to hurt me.

I held very still while my heart beat faster and his touch sent shivers through me. How could I trust him not to hurt me when he was made for hurting?

“No,” he murmured, warm breath near my ear, making me shiver hard. “You’re the exception to the rule. To all the rules.”