Chapter 10

ChapterTen

The absolute gall of this woman. She thought she could order him around? He couldn’t have an ounce of her blood without permission, yes that was the deal he’d given his brothers. But the fact that she thought he would want her deal more than she wanted his?

How strange.

Every woman who came to this place knew what they wanted from him. Mostly it was money. Sometimes it was power. Most of the times, it was the same situation over and over again. They were poor. They wanted more out of their lives. He could give it to them and all they had to do was open a vein.

Gluttony had prepared himself after he had been so disgusted with the last woman who wandered up to his castle. First, his new rule was to taste the blood and see if it was even worth the cost. He already knew Katherine’s blood would be delightful and addictive, but he wanted to make sure it wasn’t some oddity of her scent. Second, he refused to drink out of their necks any longer. The intimacy of the position was enough to drive any man to madness, and he wanted to keep this as cold of a deal as possible.

But Katherine wasn’t like the others. She stood there, radiating confidence and disdain as she stared him down. And for the first time in his very long life, he felt a spark of intrigue in being looked at like that.

Normally, he would bristle with anger. How dare she glare at him? He was a demon king, far superior to her in every way. She had no right to think ill of him when he could so easily rip out her throat.

Strangely enough, he enjoyed her glare. He liked it that she saw flaws in him. She poked at them, prodded them, made him realize he was being an ass.

Not that he intended to stop being an ass. In fact, he rather enjoyed the little angry blush that spread across her face.

Katherine huffed, her feet shifting on the floor as she tried to control her anger. “Well?” she asked. “Don’t you have anything to say?”

Not really. He was enjoying watching her, seeing the blush spread up her chest, neck, and into her cheeks. Even the very tips of her ears turned red, like her hair.

But he supposed he should be at least some semblance of a gentleman. “I’m thinking.”

“About what?” she scoffed. “I haven’t told you my deal yet.”

“Do you realize you’re rather entitled?” Gluttony sat on top of his desk and watched her struggle to find the words to respond.

She clearly didn’t think of herself as entitled. None of the humans did, but they all were in some way. They came here. They thought he couldn’t turn down their offer, and that he had to give them what he wanted.

A few times, he’d accused the women of entitlement just as he had her. And they would all splutter, grow angry, threaten to take away their blood, when he could take it whenever he wished.

But this one… she surprised him. Instead of growing even more angry, Katherine stopped for a moment and actually thought about what he had said.

Finally, she tilted her head to the side and asked, “How so?”

“You walked into my home with a plan. A plan that involved offering me something that I already can have whenever I wish. You think that wandering into my castle and offering your blood is a deal I cannot turn down? But I can live without blood. It’s not a necessity. I am not a vampire. I enjoy the taste, but I do not require it to live.” He could feel his eyes flashing, but passion had always made them glow. “I’ll admit, I long to feel it dripping down my throat, and to have my lips wrapped around the heady thud of your vein. I love to listen to your heart rate speed up, and then slow down as you realize you might actually enjoy what I’m doing to you. But more than anything else, I enjoy consuming what makes you human. It is sublime.”

“Why?” she asked, her eyes narrowing on him.

“Why what?”

“Why is it sublime?” His brave little pet wandered all the way to his desk and sat down in a chair right in front of him. She eyed him as though he were a specimen underneath a jar. “I wish to understand. If you do not need blood to survive, you certainly pay an awful lot for it. And as you so willingly suggested, you could take it if you wished.”

“Ah, but then I would be a murderer.”

“We already think you’re a murderer. Taking it when it’s not freely offered does not change anyone’s opinion of you. Why not just do it?”

He couldn’t stop himself. Gluttony leaned forward and caught one of her curls again. It bounced against his palm, already warmed by her overheated skin. “I have accepted long ago that I am a monster for my desires. I enjoy blood and pain and everything that makes you human. Feasting upon the flesh of my subjects does not give any comfort to my brothers.”

“So you hold yourself accountable for the opinions of other courts?” She arched a brow. “I’m afraid I don’t believe that.”

Neither did he. But he was surprised she picked up on it so quickly.

He hesitated before responding, “You may believe what you wish. I am the monster who haunts the nightmares of so many of my people. I have accepted that fate, and find there is no need to change it.”

“And if you could?”

He released her curl, a bitter smile stretching across his face before he could catch it. “Ah, pet, you seek an impossible fate.”

“If you knew me, then you would know I do not take any task that I will fail at.” Her spine somehow straightened even more. So much determination radiated out of her body that he almost believed her. “This is why I came to you. I believe that I can be more help to you than anyone else you have ever drank from.”

She would be his greatest addiction, she meant. Was this woman aware of how much he wanted her blood? Certainly she’d gotten the hint of it, considering he’d shown up at her doorstep night after night, just to watch her.

What would she ask of him if she was aware of how deeply his desire went?

Shifting on the desk, he tried to get ahold of himself and the situation. “What deal would you make, then? You clearly are aware I want your blood, and that I am willing to pay a high price for it.”

That made her restless. He watched her shoulders shift back, ever so slightly. As if the idea of giving him her blood was disgusting, but she didn’t know how to tell him no.

“Right,” she replied, looking down at her lap and twisting her hands together. “Perhaps you can help me understand why you are so interested in blood?”

“Make your deal, Katherine.”

“If I could understand it, then it would be much easier to seek out an explanation for why you are suddenly having these cravings. Or how I intend to help you. In fact, I do believe it would be best if we considered all the options. After all, a craving for blood could be caused by many maladies.”

Was she trying to diagnose him? As though his need to drink blood was somehow a strange illness that had come upon him?

Amused, he watched her try to argue herself into an explanation.

“You see, I’ve spent a good amount of time in the almshouse and I know how to tell when someone is ill. There are plenty of potential realities that would make you crave something like blood. Perhaps a lack of iron in your own, for example. Have you had anyone look at your gums? You can tell a considerable amount about someone based on the health of their gums.”

“No one has looked at my gums.”

“So you see, there could be a reasonable explanation for all of this, and you have no need to continue feasting upon anyone’s flesh.”

“Katherine,” he stopped her and leaned over her chair. Bracing himself on either arm, he loomed over her as he stared into her eyes. “I do not have a malady that you can fix. I am not ill or unwell. I desire blood because I am a demon, and that need will never go away, no matter how much you try to fix me. Although I am flattered by your dedication to the healing arts, it is not necessary for you to diagnose me. I know what my problem is.”

“And that is?”

He flashed her a dark grin. “I like the way you taste.”

She immediately looked down, and he knew it was too much to say. He shouldn’t have been quite so forthcoming with his desires. He shouldn’t have laid it all out in front of her, admitting that he was a terrible monster who wanted nothing more than to eat and devour. And yet, that was who he was. He consumed. At first it had just been food, or adventure, then it was objects, and eventually it became people.

The ultimate delicacy.

“I see,” she whispered.

“Do you?” He leaned down, dragging his nose up the long line of her neck just because he could. And because he wanted to prove a point. “If I let myself truly indulge in all my desires, I would already have my fangs deep in this lovely neck. I would drink deeply of you until you coated every inch of my body. Until I could smell nothing but your honeyed blood, tasted nothing but your courage and foolish bravery, and heard nothing but the sound of your gasps in my ears.”

And there it was. The gasp, just like he’d thought he would hear. She let out a little sound along with it, not quite a moan, but closer than any other noise she might make.

He hardened so quickly that the zipper of his pants became painful. He wanted her. Oh, he wanted a thousand things with her, and he feared he would never get his fill.

But he would. He always did. Gluttony had never been this obsessed with a mortal, but he had suffered through such an obsession before. She would soon find that he was not the man she thought he was. Because someday, he wasn’t certain when, another woman would walk by with a unique sent as well. Another woman who maybe smelled like wildflowers rather than honey, and it would be enough to draw his attention away.

No blood had ever satisfied him. Not for very long.

She tore her gaze away from her twisting hands to meet his gaze. And oh, that bravery would be his undoing.

“I want to make you a deal, demon king,” she said. “I know you are interested in my blood, and I know it has become too tempting for you to deny. I wish for you to take my blood.”

“And in return?” he growled.

“I wish for you to drink only from me.” Her eyes narrowed, sharpened, that intelligence blaring through her gaze. “You will drink from no one else while you have my blood, and that is all.”

“You ask the impossible.” But oh, he wanted.

“It should not be impossible for me to ask you to have a little restraint.”

“You are not asking for me to have restraint, you are asking to be my only blood donor.” That was impossible. He’d kill her. Just the thought of having someone that was his alone, someone who would come to him whenever he wished to drink, for however long he wished?

He’d murder her the very first night. He wouldn’t be able to hold himself back, and that was too dangerous to risk.

But she tilted her head back, and he saw the flexing of her jaw. “I know how to heal people. So I know the ways to keep them alive. I will not put myself at risk for your thirst, but I know where it would be safe for you to drink from me, and how much blood I can lose.”

“You think you are good for this job because you are a healer?” he asked, incredulous. “That is asinine.”

“It’s intelligent,” she corrected. “You have killed more people than you know with your careless feeding habits. At the very least, I know how to keep myself alive, even if you do not.”

He’d killed more people... “Is that why you’re here?” he asked, suddenly realizing what this deal really was. “You think that by offering yourself, you’re saving all the other people in your village from the monster who wishes to drink from their throats?”

She swallowed hard, and Gluttony knew he’d caught her.

So that was the way of it then.

Here he had been, thinking that perhaps this brave little thing wanted him for the same reasons he wanted her. He thought she could feel the burning deep in her soul, and that she knew what it felt like to need another person so badly that it turned her inside out.

Instead, she hoped to become a hero. A martyr. Her people would see her as the woman who gave herself over to the monster who wanted to kill them all.

“So that is the real deal,” he snarled, already feeling that cold numbness taking him away. “You wish for your people to finally see you, is that it?”

“Excuse me?”

“You want them to look at you as someone other than a young woman in the boarding house who will never get out. You want to be the hero of the story, the person who saves the day even though no one asked you to save them? I can promise you, pet, no one is going to believe that you are anything but who you already are. The people in that village see others as they wish. No amount of sacrifice will change that.” Gluttony growled and then rounded his desk. Angrily, he tore a piece of paper out of the top drawer and wrote out a contract. Nothing too difficult, all too easy to write these days after years of it, and then thrust it out to her. “Sign your life away then, pet.”

She took the paper carefully, not crumpling the edge like he had. And then she took her time, reading over everything that he’d written down. She’d find no difference than what they’d already said in their conversation, and yet she still handed it over to him and pointed at a line. “I would like that to say for an undetermined amount of time.”

“Contracts are binding for only a certain amount of time.”

“I would like it to say an undetermined amount of time,” she repeated before flicking her eyes up to him and holding his gaze. “I don’t care what contracts usually say. I will save my people for as long as I possibly can.”

Gritting his teeth, he fixed the line before giving it back to her. “Satisfied?”

Once again, she took her time reading it over before nodding. “Do you have a quill?”

Again, he flashed his fangs at her. “Oh, no, pet. You’re making a deal with a demon. Don’t you know you have to sign in blood?”

She winced, but still held out her hand without fear. And when he took a needle from his desk, it took every ounce of his power to not fall upon her like an animal. One press and a delicate bead of blood bubbled up on her pointer finger. Gently, with shaking hands, he placed her fingerprint on the piece of paper and then let her draw her hand back.

“You’re mine now, pet,” he said quietly, watching the blood dry. “You have one week to return to me before I hunt you down. And the next time we see each other, I will feed.”

Gluttony listened to the pattering sound of her footsteps as she raced away from him. He stood frozen beside his desk, watching her blood until the front door slammed shut.