Chapter 6

Six

RAZBUNARE

" H ey…" Dela says, raising her head from the position she has assumed, draped over my body. Holding herself up, she looks around the single room of my dwelling. "There's no kitchen."

"Vengeance demons do not require sustenance."

Her eyes open wide as she meets my gaze. "You don't eat?"

"I can consume food and drinks, but both are unnecessary. I have rarely partaken."

"So… all those coffees you've ordered, you didn't actually drink them?"

"I ingested small amounts while I lingered in your workplace for what seemed an acceptable amount of time."

Her Cupid's bow lips form a beautiful smile. "You really liked me."

"Like is an insufficient word."

"Oh?" A rich pink rises on her lovely face.

Though I know the feeling to be true, I cannot lay claim to love yet. She would not believe me capable of that emotion so soon. "I have wanted to be in your presence, and nowhere else, since the first moment, my sunshine."

Sighing, she leans in to my touch as I cup her soft cheek. "I want to say we could've been together if you'd asked me out back then, but I would've said no, even though I was attracted to you. I wasn't ready then."

"I would have waited. Even if you never returned my affection, I would have waited."

She pulls her plump bottom lip between her teeth. Much is going through her mind; I can see it all in her eyes. But she does not share her thoughts. Just smiles and kisses me, taking another look around my dwelling before resuming her place on my chest. "Is this bed the only furniture you have?"

"Yes. For the first year I lived in this cabin, I had nothing. Vengeance demons do not require comfort, as other creatures do."

"You just…sat on the floor? Slept on the floor?" Her nose scrunches up and her eyebrows pinch together. "And what did you do while you were awake? Lie on the hard floor and stare at the ceiling?"

"Vengeance demons do not require sleep. Our purpose is to fulfill human wishes for revenge and supply our liege with souls. That is what we should be doing at all times."

She shakes her head, her soft hair eliciting a pleasurable sensation as it grazes my skin. "So, you're the literal embodiment of ‘all work and no play.'"

"We are permitted respite in the hell domains, should we choose." The comment causes her lips to turn down. "I have rarely done so," I add, to direct her thoughts from our earlier conversation about my previous sexual activities with other demons. "And not for many decades."

"Then what have you done? Has your entire life just been revenge after revenge after revenge?"

"That is why I exist."

"Not anymore." Her smile returns, then she lays her cheek on my chest and one small, soft hand on my face.

"Not anymore," I say, stroking her silky hair all the way to its ends, near the tempting swell of her soft backside. My cock hardens at the thought of pulling her on top of me and sliding into her warm, welcoming body again. It is too soon. My endless craving will wait until she recovers from taking the full length of my shaft. In all my eons, I have never felt such pleasure.

Her fingers play across my lips, the line of my jaw, the outer shell of my ear. "What made you decide to get a bed?"

"I cannot give you a factual answer."

Shifting position, she rests her chin on my chest and looks up at me, a playful smile lighting up her face. "Excuse me? Vengeance demons always have a factual answer."

For the second time today, I feel the spontaneous, light vibration in my chest.

"I love that you're laughing," she says, pushing up enough to kiss me.

Love. Humans use the word in varying degrees, toward many things. This is the first time I have heard Dela use it, and it pleases me to hear her say it about me, when she has reserved its use.

"I had the bed built after I saw you for the first time."

Her eyes open wide.

"I did not expect you to share the bed with me. I only knew that I wanted to experience your world in ways you do. To be closer to you, even though I would not ever truly be close to you."

"You're pretty close to me now." She wiggles her delicate eyebrows at me. "You were extremely close to me a few minutes ago."

The need to get that close to her now roars inside me, louder than any voices ever have. The voices have remained silent since I returned from the hell realm and found Dela waiting. If only they would stay silent for the rest of her lifetime, so I could enjoy every minute with her.

"You look serious. Not in your normal serious way. Kind of…far away. Like outside the bakery yesterday. Do you have to go again?"

"The wishes for vengeance will return. When they do, I can only delay my duty for a short time, then I must fulfill a wish, so that a soul is designated for my liege's dominion."

"It sounds horrible, committing someone's soul to hell. How do you choose?" she asks quietly. "Has it become difficult to mete out revenge since you started feeling things?"

"It is not a vengeance demon's place to judge what is right or wrong. We are not built to experience compassion, guilt, or any other emotion. They are a hindrance to our purpose, one I must continue to fulfill, or I will be recalled to the hell realm. Perhaps to be remade. Or destroyed."

Any remnant of a smile vanishes. "Then you have to do whatever you have to do. If you're gone one day and don't come back—" Her mouth closes and she swallows hard, blinking rapidly over glassy-sheened eyes. "I don't want to lose you that way."

"You will not lose me any way," I say, wrapping my arms around her. "I will continue to consign souls to hell, enough to satisfy my liege, while also being selective about those whose wishes I fulfil—as I have been for some time." I loosen the embrace so I can look into her eyes. "I will cause no physical harm for the duration of my life with you."

"And there'll be enough non-violent revenge wishes for you to do that for, oh…" Beautiful red roses bloom on high on her cheeks. "Say, the next fifty years?"

"Or more. Fifty years will not be enough time with you, my sunshine."