“I’m bored,” I said, picking up my drink and finishing it in one long mouthful. I hoped I wouldn’t regret the decision to do so, my stomach already churning at being this close to the monster.
“This place is pretty dull,” he agreed. Because of course he would. He had more exciting things for us planned at his place. Too bad I didn’t intend to play along with those plans. “I have better vodka at home, if you’re interested.”
Such a smooth line, I thought with a mental eye roll.
I pretended to muse over the offer. I didn’t want to appear too easy. Again I moved my fingers to my lips and dipped one inside like I was deep in thought. His coal-colored eyes widened and his pupils darkened, reminding me of the former skies of Caluçon.
I shivered at the thought.
Valora had brightened Caluçon with her stars—literally, because apparently she could do that now. Then she renamed the demon realm, calling it Nova Kingdom. But the nightmares of my past still lurked in my mind, from the days when I was a maid in a vile court led by an evil king.
Lucifer torture his soul, I thought.
I had only returned to the fourth kingdom in the Underworld twice since I was attacked. Once for Valora and Adrik’s wedding, the other for the birth of their daughter.
I missed my friend, but I couldn’t stay there. Not while monsters like this jackass were still at large. I preferred to stay hidden in Grigory’s kingdom, where the sun never rose, the black heavens akin to the thoughts in my mind.
“I like the sound of that,” I finally replied after enough time had passed. “The night is young and vodka’s my favorite.”
“Let’s get out of here, then, babe.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and threw some cash on the bar. No tip for the bartender. Typical.
My skin crawled with his touch as if a thousand ants were marching over it. I wanted to shove him away and kill him now in front of everyone, and not waste another minute of my time on him, but I couldn’t. I had to bide my time until human eyes and ears were out of the way.
Several knowing glances were tossed our way as we left, my date’s eagerness palpable. It probably should have concerned me that they saw us together. His death might make the news depending on how bloody I made the scene.
With my short stature and slender appearance, they’d consider me too weak to commit such a brutal act.
Looks can be deceiving, I thought at them all while I played the part of a tipsy female being dragged off by a strong, handsome man. Another glamour that deceived, because beneath his charm and reasonable exterior was a hideous man who didn’t deserve to breathe.
I knew exactly what was going on in his mind right now—a sequence of vile acts that involved perpetual violence toward me. He’d tie me up. Gag me. And hurt me for his own personal enjoyment.
There would be no consent.
A man like this one preferred a fight.
He enjoyed tears.
Just like those men who raped me over a year ago.
Never again. Valora had destroyed the majority of the monsters who’d fucked me that night, including the one who orchestrated it all—King Necros himself.
However, not all of them were dead.
I had a list.
This male wasn’t on it. Not directly, anyway. But he was known to hang out with Braun—one of the demons who was on my list. The duo enjoyed sharing unwilling mortal women and had killed at least two that I knew about.
Awareness prickled my skin, the inkling one I’d developed over the last year with Grigory’s help. He trained me with a brutal focus, saying it would help me heal. In some ways he was right. I felt renewed and empowered. Except he didn’t think I was ready to play in the real world yet.
I disagreed. And I would prove to him tonight that he was wrong.
When Paul and I reached the parking lot, I pretended to grow even more impatient with my thirst for adventure and lust.
Really, it was a thirst for blood.
“How far is the drive?” I asked as he led me toward his car.
“Ten minutes or so, babe.”