Page 31 of Demon Daddy

Up in the dark, Kenny hooks himself back onto the ceiling, folds his wings, chirps three times, and closes his eyes.

Job done.

Chapter 14

It’s been a week since I broke a curse older than Vermont and let a demon do fabulous, unspeakable things to my body.

We’re nesting now.

That’s what he calls it.

His temple-turned-lair is transforming day by day, reshaped not by magic, but by his desire to please me. He won’t let me lift a finger.

Apparently, Daddy does the heavy lifting, and I just have to enjoy being pampered. Today I’m dressed in a short floaty skirt and a tank top, sitting by the fireplace, coloring Halloween scenes at a table that looks suspiciously like the dining table from the Manfreds’ house where I was sequestered while awaiting my sacrificial fate.

I’m leaning against the edge of the hard wooden table, but it’s soft under my touch, because he’s padded every sharp corner in the temple with moss.

Every one. It’s a temple. It is mostly corners.

He brings me things he thinks I’ll like. A giant teddy bear as big as myself. Dolly Parton everything. I mean everything. Mugs, coasters, dolls, t-shirts, slippers, candles. I had to tell him to stop after the sixth Dolly Parton Halloween costume.

There’s a fridge stocked with cherry soda and deli pickles, because I said I liked the crunch. And of course, a dozen Dolly Parton magnets stuck to the door.

And a turntable and a milk crate of thrift-store records, every one of them Dolly, of course. He brought a solar rechargeable battery pack to provide power, with a cord long enough so the panels are topside gathering sunshine in a clearing he made by ripping the trees down with his bare hands.

I cried through the whole first side of Jolene.

He didn’t ask why. He just sat down on the floor, pulled me into his lap, and held on until the needle ran into the label.

Today, he arrives cradling a plastic tub of chocolate frosting.

“I stole this from the community center in the village,” he says solemnly as I turn toward him, coloring forgotten for a moment. “The grocery store only had vanilla.”

I screw up my face. “Eww. Good choice.” I told him I didn’t like vanilla the first day, when he brought me back a box of ice cream sandwiches. “Someone’s going to notice you coming and going with all this stuff, you know.”

He nods. “They are getting used to it. The ones who still have their teeth, anyway.”

I snort and dip a finger in the frosting. “And what would you have me do with this, oh mighty demon?”

He watches me suck the icing off my finger.

“I would have you coat your nipples with it and let me feed on you until the tub is empty.”

I choke on a laugh. “You’re insatiable.”

“I’m devoted.”

He kneels beside my chair, tail coiling around my ankle, drawing lazy circles. Then it slides up, lifting the edge of my skirt. His eyes darken when he sees there’s nothing underneath.

“You should rest,” he grumbles, voice turning rough as his palm slides over the curve of my belly and covers all of it. “You’ve been glowing since I filled you. Your body is working. Building. I can smell the change in your blood.”

I arch a brow. “You’re saying I’m pregnant? Demon-sniffed it out?”

“Yes.”

“Oh.” I pull my shoulders to my ears with a little excited chirp.

He blinks. “That pleases you?”