THIRTY FOUR

Azeroth

I'm ending the one call I had to make before I sweep Elodie off on a romantic mini-break where I will somehow convince her beyond any doubt that I am definitely the demon for her. The room swirls around me and I feel magic pull me somewhere else. Holy hell! What now?

I throw magic at the invisible bonds hauling me out of my office, but they're too strong and too tight. I end up in a tangled heap of my own limbs and tail on the hot sulfuric soil of a disgustingly familiar reality.

I scramble to my feet, my nose scrunching up my nose at the smell. It's worse than I remember. I haven't been back to the demonic realms for decades. Deliberately.

I brush the yellowish dirt from my expensive suit and huff with annoyance. "The answer is no, Mordicus."

I spin, trying to locate my enemy in the sickly orange light. All I see around me are the cast stones rising like leafless trees everywhere I look, dotted between bubbling mud pools.

Pebbles skitter down an incline somewhere behind me. I whirl around, but he's disappeared again. Hiding from me.

No doubt this is a game designed to intimidate. All it's doing is pissing me off.

I don't have time to waste. Elodie is likely already at my apartment or on her way, ready for my explanation.

"You think you don't need me, is that it?" Mordicus's voice echoes around the cavern.

"I don't. I never did."

Finally he steps from behind a large boulder and I'm filled with a new wave of hatred to see his sneering face, gray lips pulled back to reveal yellowing teeth and black gums. His red eyes glint with the glimmer of malicious delight at my expected downfall. I don't know what he's planning, but if he's gone to this much trouble, it's not good.

"What is your problem?" I snap. "Why the fuck do you care one way or the other about me?"

He pouts. "Don't you see? Of course, you don't. I've been trying to help you for decades, and you never do. You can't become one of them. It's pathetic that you'd even try. You are more than they'll ever be. I hate seeing you debase yourself like this. Debase all of us."

"Fuck that. You think this is better than a human life? This?" I gesture around me at the oozing pits of muck. The hazy air. The dark emptiness. Whatever this realm used to be, we so thoroughly destroyed it eons ago it is now barely more than a wasteland.

Hence why most of us made our way to the human world. At first to raid and plunder, then increasingly to live.

"Not this. You! You think their worthless lives matter? You think their souls matter?"

"What does then?" I shout. I'm tired of this game. I want him to tell me what he wants, so I can turn him down once and for all. As soon as I get this confession off my chest, he will have no power over me anymore. None of this will. "What matters? What is it you want?"

Mordicus throws back his head and laughs. "You want to know what matters? The only thing that ever matters. Power. Soul gems. You have something I want."

My skin goes cold. A violent shiver runs down my spine, even in the dank human air. If he thinks I'm letting him get his hands on any more of Elodie's soul, he's mistaken.

"Name your terms and let's get this over with." I fold my arms across my chest and wonder if I can quickly transport myself away and back to Elodie. Even if I could escape him, he'll be after me. What can I do to get him to finally leave us the fuck alone?

I know the answer already: the ward. The thing that will separate me from Elodie just as effectively as it will keep this bastard away from her.

"Ah, not so fast. First, there's something I think you need to see."

No." I scoff. "There. It's that simple."

"Oh, well if you don't care whether she sees that ex of hers, that's fine with me."

The spikes raise on my shoulders and I stiffen. "What?"

Mordicus sniffs. "I've been watching her. Your little human pet. Once I realized what she means to you, I had to. You should know he's there with her right now."

Despite myself I step forward. "Who is?"

"The other one. The human she summoned you to seek vengeance against."

Fuck! "Show me."

I've lost. I know it already. I'm always going to fall for his trap whenever it involves Elodie. I can't bring myself not to care. I tried.

Didn't work.

Moridcus strides toward the closest pool and snaps his fingers. Immediately, the molten mud smooths into a flat surface. On the shiny scum, an image appears. It's discolored. The stench of the gas from the pool turns my stomach and, though the yellow mist wafts into my face, I can still make out Elodie standing in her kitchen, handing a cup of tea to that piece of shit, Dustin.

What the fuck? She doesn't want him back. I've seen that.

I'm still pierced with a sudden hot stab of hatred. "Lies."

It's not, though. The pools don't show desire or manipulation. They only show reality.

Mordicus laughs again. "Oooh, jealous?"

"No. She'll kick him out any moment." She will won't she?

"Not when I wipe her memory of the last two months."

I stare at him. I have been so wrapped up in Elodie, I never anticipated a move like this. How the fuck has this bastard gotten so far under my skin he's seen the one thing that might make me do a deal with him?

Fuck's sake!

If Elodie forgets Dustin cheating on her and all the beautiful things she's learned about standing up for herself in the last two months, she'll run straight back to that asswipe and fawn over him until the next time he breaks her heart.

And I can guarantee there'll be a next time.

I grit my teeth. "That's still not worth another piece of her soul, so you'd better have something else in mind," I tell Mordicus.

His smirk grows wider. "Now Azeroth. Why even bother to lie? I can smell it on you. You've taken more. I want it."

My mouth drops open.

I'm about to draw breath to tell him he's lurking in the wrong alley, when I pause. I didn't touch her. I would never. I promised myself after she gave the last piece for me I'd do whatever it took to protect her from ever losing more.

But there is another reason why Mordicus might smell soul gem on me.

I have to concentrate. It's hard to see your own soul. Much easier for someone else to see. And it's tiny. No wonder I didn't realize until now.

I have no idea how long ago it germinated. What possible good deed I did to spark the growth of such a miracle. How could I have been so stupid?

Of course, I have soul. It wouldn't be possible for me to love her the way I do without it. Now that I've put two and two together, it seems obvious.

"What's it gonna be? Your soul, or I wipe her memory, and you watch while she lets him crawl back to her."

In the mud pool, the human figures seem frozen in time, moving so slowly they appear not to move at all.

I swallow down a lump of bitter disappointment.

I'm finally worthy of her. Finally capable of giving her what she deserves. When Mordicus is done with me, I won't be, though.

But I can't see any way out of this. Somehow, Mordicus has harvested an enormous amount of magic. I felt it the moment he transported me. As sated as I am from feeding off Elodie the last few weeks, he's stronger.

I wouldn't be able to fight him. I dread to think of what he did to harvest it.

I can't let her succumb to that asshole again only to be hurt by him. And if he wipes her memory, it will wipe her memory of me, too.

Could Elodie really hang on to whatever feelings she has for me when her memory of every single moment we've spent together intimately is wiped?

Not a chance. I don't even really understand how an angel like her ever agreed to spend time with me after the summoning was done. That couldn't possibly happen a second time.

I clench my fists. I don't want to do this, but Elodie has come so far. I can't bear to see her go back to Dustin.

"Fine. But if we do this deal, that's the last you have to do with her, you got it? No watching her, no harvesting her. No making deals with other demons to get to her. She's off limits. Forever." I fold my arms across my chest.

It doesn't matter that I'll have to let down my defenses to Mordicus. No doubt, he'll try something. He can't kill me, but he can lock me up, torture me.

None of it matters without my soul. If I forget how to love Elodie and if she forgets me, then I don't want to go back to the human realm. I'd rather stay here. Without Elodie nothing matters.

Mordicus rolls his eyes. "Sure. If it's that important to you. Did I mention you're pathetic." He spits in the dust.

With a wave of his hand, the vision in the pool disappears. That doesn't make me feel any better. I just imagine Dustin somehow convincing Elodie to let him stay. To talk to him. To pity him enough that he wears down her defenses.

But, no. I know her better than that. With her memories intact, there's no way she'll fall for that. I need to hang onto that thought and focus on what has to be done.

"Do it." I face Mordicus and steel myself. "You'll have to harvest it yourself, though."

Mordicus's eyes widen when he realizes just what I mean. Another cruel laugh echoes around the cavern. "Oh, even better. Do you have that much?" He raises his clawed hand and grips my head. "Let's find out."

He's waiting for my agreement. To strike the bargain. "Three soul shards and you leave her the fuck alone."

He barks a laugh. "You have yourself a deal."

The green flash and sulfuric smell of a binding contract assails my senses just as I feel the soul starts draining from me.

Maybe if I just try hard enough, some tiny part of what I'm feeling now will remain when Mordicus is done with me. Enough to keep the memory of what it feels like to love, even when the love itself is gone. It will come back with time. I can just pretend for a while. Until it comes back. For her, I could.

As the reaping takes its toll, an awful numb settles into my bones. I've never felt cold before. Now my body shivers, and my fingers and toes grow sore. When I try to think of Elodie and picture her face, none of the warmth and bliss of the new feelings I've developed remain. Only icy, clinical appraisal of a human rich in soul gems and ripe for harvesting.

It's my worst fear and I'm living it. I can remember the time we spent together, but it no longer means anything.

An awful dragging from within pulls the air from my lungs, leaving them burning. Pain splits my skull and I stumble, falling to the ground, trying to break Mordicus's hold on me. His claws dig into my scalp and the burning, dragging pain goes on and on. In the distance, his laughter is wild and uncontrolled. Except it's not the distance, is it? He's right in front of me.

It's not even a struggle when Mordicus conjures the cuffs to bind my hands and feet. I don't even fight back. I can't.

I can't summon the energy to do anything except watch as if from a distance. My body feels oddly out of my control. Detatched.

Mordicus holds up his hand, palm glowing with ruby red soul gems. "I wonder what I'll be able to get for this. I'm not sure I've ever seen something like it. You're a fucking fool for giving it up for the sake of that human. But you always were a fool."

He disappears within a thunderous crack, leaving me strung up with magical chains, unable to leave.

That's OK. I have nothing to leave for now.