Chapter 12

ChapterTwelve

Gluttony had spent far too long getting everything ready. But he didn’t need to sleep like the mortals did, and he’d forgotten how long a few days actually were. He had spent the first entire day picking out her bedroom. There were plenty in his castle, but very few that were good enough.

In fact, he would still argue that none of them were good enough for her, and that was entirely why it had taken him so long to choose. Some of them had views of the garden, and in its day, those would have been the best. After all, that garden had once flourished and been the only color for miles on end that wasn’t some shade of green.

Except, now the garden was dead, and it was a rather morbid sight indeed.

So he obviously couldn’t put her there.

The opposite side of the castle had a beautiful view of the moors, but it was infinitely closer to him. Which he worried about because... well. It was rather obvious. If she was so close to him, how long would it take for him to succumb to the desires that still raged through his chest? He wanted her, and no one else, and he would have her if he could.

So he couldn’t give her the best view, in his opinion. But every other room he looked at was wrong. All of it. The colors, the floor, the age of the items within it. The view. Nothing pleased him so much as the room with the best view of the kingdom.

Somehow, he’d ended up back in that room. Standing in the center of it, feeling the rightness in his chest.

And he’d known there was no other option. He had to make this room the one she stayed in. And though his mind didn’t know why, his soul did. The rest of the evening, and well into the next day, he’d spent cleaning. Making sure everything was absolutely perfect for her.

The room had once been opulent, but everything in his castle had been. Now, he feared it wasn’t up to her standards. He’d had to remove the lovely curtains that hung around the bed. They’d once been a shade of pale pink, gold leaf woven through it as though the gold itself was thread. Unfortunately, age had made the actual fabric threads hang limp and moth-eaten, while the gold had chipped away.

And the fireplace had once worked, but he had to spend hours clearing out multiple birds’ nests within the chimney so she didn’t set herself on fire while she was staying with him.

He’d been covered in soot and grime, and tracked it all across the warm carpets by the time he’d finished. Lighting a fire for himself, he had then carried all the rugs out of the room and threw them into another bedroom he wasn’t using. Then the canopy for the bed. Then the chair that was broken in the corner.

When he returned, the room suddenly appeared very barren. There was only the bed, still covered in dust and mold. A single dresser with a broken leg that leaned to the side, and none of that would do.

So he then spent the next day dragging all the furniture out and replacing it with his own.

Was it a waste of time? Probably. He didn’t even know if she was even going to stay. She might want to return to her town and her own bed. He’d likely follow her there, and she had no way of knowing that, but he would. Gluttony could already feel the obsession getting worse, and he had only scented her blood on that contract.

A contract he’d placed within reach, so whenever the madness clung a little too tightly, he could inhale the scent and ease the torment in his soul.

He was a mad villain, but he was quickly becoming hers.

And when the room was finished, he started on the front hall. All the while, logic battered in his skull. He had a job. Figure out what the substance was that threatened him and his brothers. If he didn’t think he could do that, then he needed to let Envy know.

But his brother would win then, and Gluttony didn’t want his brother to win. He wanted to be the one to figure it out after he had this young woman in his grasp.

Some other voice told him that once he drank from her, he’d be able to think again. He just needed a taste. Then he’d be back to himself and he could start to work again.

But right now? He could think of nothing else but that lovely swan-like neck, the way his heart throbbed when she wasn’t here, and how much he wanted to be by her side.

All the time. It was madness. He knew this obsession could only end in heartbreak. She’d either leave, or she would die. And he would be stuck here, yet again, alone.

But she’d come to him of her own volition and for the first time, he’d not felt like the monster he had certainly become in the past few hundred years. Gluttony had given himself permission to enjoy that feeling, even if he knew it would only end in destruction.

Finally, he had everything ready for her. The castle, the room, and food because he had remembered at the last moment that humans ate food much more often than he did. And that was enough.

He settled himself down in front of the door, just on the inside so she wouldn’t think he was such a sad sap, and waited. He had no idea how long it took. There were no windows in the great hall. They’d all broken years ago so he’d boarded them shut in case anyone tried to sneak inside without his knowledge. So he sat in the darkness until he heard a soft knock.

Standing quickly, his body creaking with the effort, he ran his hand down his vest and clean cut clothing. He made sure everything was in place before he strode up to the door and threw it open.

The light blasted his eyes, and he almost couldn’t see at all for a few moments until he finally focused on her.

“Katherine,” he said, his voice a little breathy.

But how could he not let emotion get the better of him? She stood there, her wild red curls framing her face that was covered with so many freckles he just knew they were a challenge to count. She’d pulled it back with a tie, but those curls had a mind of their own. A soft, cream-colored dress covered her body, tied around the waist with a small brown corset. With a basket held in her hands, she was a dream he had when he first took this mortal form.

He’d always wanted a soft afternoon with a woman who looked at him with a quiet gaze that said she recognized him. Knew him for who he was and not who everyone thought he might be.

Her gaze flicked to the side, clearly looking around him before she frowned.

Frowned? Why? Why did she wear that expression when she was the one who had come here? He must have done something wrong. Obviously, he had cleaned something in a way she did not like and he was the foolish one who was standing here thinking she would actually appreciate or like what he had done.

But he froze as she leaned forward and plucked a rather impressive cobweb out of his hair.

“What have you been up to?” she asked, shaking the cobweb off her fingers. “Obviously, you’ve been quite busy.”

“I have.” And already he was shaking with the need to taste her. What would it be like? The first time he drank out of her neck would be rather intimate. He told himself he would drink from her wrist this time, but even that made him shift on his feet. His pants were rather tight, weren’t they? He should do something about that.

“Gluttony.” She arched a brow, and for a moment he thought he’d been caught. But all she said after that was, “Are you going to invite me in?”

“I have no need to do so.” He immediately stepped aside, gesturing for her to enter. “What is mine is yours.”

She gave him another odd look before walking through the door. “It seems... cleaner in here than before.”

“It is.”

Why did she keep twisting her face up like that? She had rather beautiful features, but they were less so when she made that expression.

“What?” he finally asked. “Do you not like it?”

“I—” Katherine paused in the middle of his entrance hall, that frown on her face as she glanced around. “Did you do this for me?”

Yes. Of course he had. Because he’d suffered for days without her, incapable of thinking about anything other than her. He’d had to entertain himself somehow.

Instead of saying all that, he tucked his hands behind his back and lied. “It hadn’t been done in quite a while. I wouldn’t say it was entirely for you, but merely the recognition that frequent visitors often requires more cleanliness than I am used to.”

“Huh.”

Now what was that noise supposed to mean?

He glanced around, uncertain that he’d done it right. And he knew it wasn’t much. The meager light flowing in from the outside revealed a building that hadn’t been a home in a very long time.

There were boards over the windows. His floor had once gleamed with polish and now it looked more like a regular, scuffed oak floor. He’d swept up all the shattered pottery, but that left no decorations at all. He didn’t know where to find more, and hadn’t spent enough time in this area to get them all set up for her.

It wasn’t very welcoming. That much he could see.

And now he had a guest who was looking at everything with a rather critical eye, and he didn’t know what to do with her. Did he make excuses for why his house looked like this? Was he supposed to bring her a refreshment?

But oh, his fangs ached because she was supposed to be the refreshment. He’d mistaken her reasoning for being here. They weren’t friends. She wasn’t some young woman coming to his home for a date where they would talk and find out more about the other before she wilted into his arms.

This was a transaction. He could pretend it was all the other things in the world, but she wasn’t here for him. Not really.

He stepped closer to her, perhaps a little too quickly, because she took an answering step back before nervously thrusting her basket out to him. “Here.”

“What is it?” Gluttony had no option other than to grab what she threw at him, although he had no idea what was in the basket. Food? She had to know he wasn’t all that interested in eating.

He had eaten when he’d first taken this body. Enjoyed all the food as well, because there was so much of it for him to eat. But none of it really satisfied him after the first bite. Tasting something new was always enjoyable, but it never lasted. Nothing ever did.

“A gift.” She tilted her chin up, looking back at him defiantly.

Her expression made him nervous. He might not know her very well, but he had seen enough to be wary around her. She was a wily one, this mortal, and the last thing he needed was for her to trick him.

It wouldn’t kill him, of course, but he’d seen what other mortals were doing in the other kingdoms.

Hesitantly, he opened the wicker basket, only to jerk back as a shrieking spirit erupted in a mass of darkness. It spilled out of the basket, icy cold on his hands, as it burst into hysterical laughter.

“You,” he hissed at it.

“You should have seen your face! The great demon king, all wide-eyed and terrified.” The spirit snickered again before looking at Katherine. “Told you it would be worth it.”

“Not really,” Katherine muttered in reply, her voice shaking.

He narrowed his eyes upon them both, but focused on Katherine, who gripped her skirts a little too tightly. He inhaled deeply, scenting her fear in the air and the sweat on her palms. She was nervous. She’d known this would perhaps enrage him, and she’d still taken the risk. Why?

With another step closer to her, he inhaled again. Those large eyes watched him, a little too wary of him for all that he’d done. And still, he found this a rather curious situation.

“Why take the risk?” he muttered, reaching out a hand to coil one of her curls through his fingers. “You clearly were afraid that I would be angry.”

“I’m not afraid you’ll be angry about the spirit.” She tilted her chin up, eyeing him up and down. “But I am very wary of what you’ll think when it all hits you what that situation was.”

“What do you mean?” He could smell her now. That honey coated his throat and spun through his mind like a spell. He could think so little other than what she would taste like.

“It talked to me and I responded.”

And then he froze, because she was right. The spirit had spoken to her, and she to it. Like they’d had a conversation before arriving here, and they must have. There was a plan they both followed. Which meant...

He looked at the black mass before searching her gaze. “You can see it.”

Katherine nodded, biting that lip in such a way that made him want to do it as well. “And I can see you.”

Oh, but those words froze him to the bone. Bitter, icy, he remained locked in place as her words played across the ends of his nerves. “What do you mean, pet?”

“My mother could see spirits. The townspeople thought she was mad, and when she wandered off into the moors, it only made them more certain they were right. But I can see that spirit just fine.” She paused, licking her lips before continuing. “And I can see you.”

Gluttony wasn’t proud of the snarl that ripped out of his throat. “See me?”

“I thought there was something underneath your skin. Ever since I first saw you, there were flickers of something else. Something I didn’t understand until I spoke with this one, and now I realize why I have always been able to set you apart from that monstrous side other people see. You’re a spirit as well, Gluttony. And I can see it.”

This changed everything.

His brothers were going to murder him. Not only was he taking his sweet time in deciphering what the substance was that waited for him in his laboratory, but now he had a young woman who could identify that they weren’t demons at all.

He tried to fix this. “I’m a demon.”

“No, you aren’t.” She lifted a hand and placed it on his chest. Right over the spot where his heart thundered against his ribs. “You have a mortal body that your spirit has given powers, yes. But you are not a demon. You’re a spirit who has taken flesh.”

Staggering away from her, he waved the words away with a coarse laugh. “You have no idea how dangerous those words are, you foolish girl.”

“Why?”

He shook his head, denying this conversation had ever happened. He needed to think. This lovely, perfect woman who smelled like honey couldn’t know the danger she put herself in.

His brothers would kill her if they realized she existed. They’d come right out to his kingdom and slit her throat in her sleep. No one could know what they were. Where they came from. There were so many vulnerabilities that would be revealed if everyone knew the truth about the demon kings.

“Fuck,” he muttered, running a hand down his mouth. “Fuck. I need...”

She took a step away from him again, her eyes going even wider. “Did I do something wrong?”

“Yes,” he hissed before shaking his head and pointing down the hall. “There is a room I made ready for you. Go there while I... I have to figure this out.”

And he knew he was scaring her, but he needed time. Time to think. Time to plan how to keep her alive.