Chapter 10

ChapterTen

ASMODEUS

She’s a scared doe, frightened into stillness, and I’m the hunter ready to have her lying beneath me at my mercy. I expect her to retreat with every step I descend from the altar, to run screaming for her life, but she doesn’t.

She stands with her shoulders back, her legs steady, ready for a fight. My steps falter as I walk toward her, suddenly unsure of my actions because there’s a familiarity about this girl. A whisper of the past, an anchor to the boy I was. It’s the color of her eyes, a warm, dark brown that comforts with their timeless beauty. Combine that warmth with her defiant stance, and all I want to do is bend her over and fuck her until we forget who and where we are.

Desperate to erase the moment of weakness she’s caused, I lick the blood from my thumb, letting the flavor sit on my tongue. It reminds me of who I am and who I need to be to survive. “Did you get lost in the woods, Doe?”

I focus on her giant tits, highlighted by the glow of the moon filtering through the windows. The girl thinks she has the higher hand here.

She flashes me a smug smile, but her fists clench tightly until her knuckles turn a stark white. She isn’t angry; the girl is scared and doesn’t want me to see the visible tremor of her body. “Just saw this church and wanted to see inside.”

My lips twitch. I find her amusing. Perhaps I’ll keep her as a fun little toy to play with. I gesture toward the decapitated body hanging from the ceiling. “Well, how do you like the view?”

“I’ve seen worse,” she whispers.

I step toward her, mesmerized by her stillness. A foreign sensation surges within me. I don’t like it. This girl does something to me, scrambling my brain, and I can’t make sense of it.

Anger replaces insecurity. I want her frightened, to worry it will be her body hanging and her blood I’ll be gorging on.

My hand circles her delicate neck, and I lift her head, forcing her to look at the half-corpse. “He also had a smart, smart mouth and lacked the sense to be scared.”

She struggles under my grip, jerking her head. “You’re not interested in killing me, so cut the shit. You and I know I’d already be dead if that’s what you wanted.”

I burst out laughing. The little doe has made me happier in the short time I’ve been with her than my entire adult life. “Maybe I like to play with my food first.”

My thumb brushes her carotid artery, and my dick hardens as her pulse jumps. A vision of her running as fear courses through her veins. “That’s the fun of the hunt, isn’t it? The chase? The fiercer the prey, the better the taste when you pin them under you, and they beg for their life.”

“Is that what you want?” she croaks. “For me to beg for my life? Because I hate to tell you, that’ll never happen. I’ve seen worse than you, and if they couldn’t make me beg, you sure as fuck won’t be able to.”

“Oh, sweetheart. I’m going to make you beg, but not for your life.”

“What do you want?”

I hold her still as I trail my bloody finger from her ruby-red lips to the top of her cleavage. “A lot of things.”

“What do you want from me?”

“I’d like to chase you, Pet. Then I’d like to fuck you with my brothers until you can’t see straight.”

“So you want to rape me?”

The girl is pressing my buttons. Annoyance simmers under the surface, and my anger’s about to burst through. “Who said anything about rape?”

“That’s the only way I’d fuck you or those two other freaks.”

“Let’s make a deal, sweetheart. You go into the woods with the three of us. If you get away, you’re free to live your life any way you choose. If we catch you, we do whatever we want, and for your troubles, I’ll make sure you get what you broke in here for.”

She turns her head, her dark eyes once again piercing parts of me that I believed dead. Why this girl? I’ve been around many women, and I’ve craved none of them until this moment.

“And I’ll be able to walk away without being harmed?”

“Sure, baby. If you survive the fucking, you can go on your merry way.”

“What will you do to me if you catch me?”

“Whatever we want, short of killing you.”

I wait for her answer, unsure if I’ll take her “no” if she utters it.

“If I say no, what will happen to me?”

I dip my hand into the baptismal bath full of blood before bringing it to my mouth and licking it clean. “I’ll still have some sort of fun.”

“Why aren’t you taking what you want right now?”

“Because I’m many things, but I’m not a rapist. I want to hurt you during sex, make it hurt, but I want you to agree. There’s no power in force. I want you on your knees gazing up at me like an apostle looking up at Jesus. Like a religious zealot. I want you to sleep, dream, and ponder ways to please me. The devotion I seek must be achieved willingly, not through force.”

“So this is some fucked-up cult, and you want me to be your newest member?”

“I wouldn’t object to calling you my latest disciple, but I’d rather shove my cock down your throat and call you my dirty little slut.”