A Demon's Debt Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Prologue

  A Demon’s Debt

  The Desdemona Chronicles

  Cece Rose

  Contents

  A Demon’s Debt

  Acknowledgments

  Quotation

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Epilogue

  Coming Soon…ish!

  About Cece Rose

  Other Titles by Cece Rose

  Fractured Fate

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Vengeance

  Prologue

  A Demon’s Debt

  Copyright © 2017 Cece Rose

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient.

  Formatting by Gina Wynn: http://alwayswrite.club/for-authors-2/formatting/

  Acknowledgments

  Firstly, I’d like to thank my amazing beta team for your belief in me, even when I doubt myself, you guys always spur me to continue. Extra big thanks to Meagan West who was a serious lifesaver for me during this book’s last stages.

  Secondly, thank you to Gem Bailey, Christina Bridges, Yumo Wilson, Caitlin Stunich, Tate James, Tamara White, Lucy Smoke, & the rest of my author crew for always being there. You all make being a writer not feel like such a lonely job.

  Finally, I need to thank BL Brunnemer. The words of support and advice you gave me on some of my darker days when I was writing this book, were the only thing that stopped me from throwing in the towel & calling it a lost cause. Thank you for pushing me to do it.

  For all the people who said I couldn’t follow my dreams, thanks for making me try harder to prove you wrong. For those who want to do something, but think you can’t, believe in yourself. Even if nobody else does, I’ll believe with you.

  There is no beauty without some strangeness.

  Edgar Allan Poe.

  Chapter 1

  I’m standing up in the bathtub, favouring use of the overhead shower, when I find myself singing along to the soft music I’ve left playing as I wash the last remnants of shampoo from my hair. A bittersweet feeling rises up in my heart, the song reminding me of Luna. Water cascading down my face from the shower masks any tears that fall.

  The slower song drifts off and is replaced by a faster beat, one with a rocky tune. “The darkness I dance with, it’s become a part of me. Defenceless, I guess yes, that’s what you see. But, I’ll fight back, I’ll attack, this ain’t the end of me,” I sing along, completely out of tune and make up little dance moves to go along with the song; the water still spraying down over my head. By the time the song hits the chorus, I’m thankful the guys aren’t home, and that there’s a lot of space surrounding the house, meaning no neighbours to make noise complaints. Screaming out the chorus, I make a kicking motion with my leg. Suddenly, I find myself losing balance and falling. I grab for the shower curtain I’d left opened, missing it by a hair’s breadth.

  The words of the chorus catch in my throat as I’m slipping back. I brace myself for the impact of the floor, shutting my eyes tight and hoping for the best. This is going to hurt. I fall back into something soft. A person; someone has just caught me. My eyes fly open, and I stare up at the face.

  Note to self-you should never sing in the shower. Singing leads to dancing, and dancing will inevitably lead to slipping, thus making an ass out of yourself, and inadvertently hurting said ass. Of course, that would never normally matter; who is going to be there to witness your embarrassment? But, in my mess of a life, apparently, demons think it’s fine to interrupt me in the shower. Go figure.

  “Adam!” I screech, immediately pulling away and covering myself with my hands. He smiles sinfully at me. Then very slowly and very deliberately he casts his eyes across me. I feel the burn staining my cheeks as I stare daggers at him. He chuckles and averts his eyes, rolling them dramatically. He reaches for the towel to the left of him and holds it out toward me. I snatch at it and quickly wrap it around myself.

  “Why, if I knew you needed a devilishly-handsome knight in shining armour to save you, I would have put on another kind of suit.” He looks down at himself, now covered in wet blotches, with a grimace. He grabs another towel and attempts in vain to dry his once pristine suit.

  “Seriously? You come into my bathroom while I’m showering, where I am naked, and I almost fall to my death–” he looks up arching his dark eyebrow at me. “Okay, maybe not to my death, but still. What I’m trying to say is, what are you doing here? And, get the FUCK out!” I screech at him.

  “Calm down, kitten, and stop the melodramatics. Is that any way to say thank you to your saviour?” He sighs, giving up on drying his suit and throws the towel to the floor. “And, believe me, love, you have a good enough body, but nothing I haven’t seen before. Just before I got here, actually, I made a pitstop to one of my favourite Russian supermodels. The legs on that–”

  “Get. Out. Now!” I grind out.

  Adam huffs in indignation. “Fine. I’ll be waiting in your bedroom, we have things to discuss and to plan out. Do hurry, I don’t have all bloody night, woman.” His eyes roam over me one last time before stepping out of the bathroom, closing the door quietly with a click.

  I grab another towel and try to rough dry my hair a little, before giving up and grabbing a hair band and shoving it up into a messy, wet bun. I catch my reflection in the mirror and sigh. The dark bags under my eyes stand out in contrast to my otherwise pale skin. I look ridiculous.

  I grab the clothes I’d left on the floor and quickly dress back into them before slipping back into the room to confront Adam.

  “What the hell do you want?” I ask as I walk into the room. I spot Adam rooting through my wardrobe. “Get out! Don’t be so nosey!” I snap.

  Adam raises his hand
s in surrender. “Fine, fine, woman, not much in here to see anyway.” He steps away looking around the rest of the room, before crossing the space to my bed. He jumps onto the bed, sprawling out spread eagle, shifting about as if to get comfortable. He grabs a cushion smells it, and then tucks it behind his head, propping himself up. He leans on his side with his head resting on his hand.

  “Are you done?” I ask sarcastically.

  “Your bed is bloody awful, I thought your merry band of men liked you? This bed is torture, I mean how do you have se—”

  “Why are you here?” I cut him off.

  “I’m here to collect on your debt, kitten. Well, not right now I’m not, I’m just here to make sure you’re ready for Saturday night,” he answers. He glances at my bedside table and reaches for the book that’s been left there. “Learning some more tricks?” he asks. I nod, and he places the basic spell book I borrowed from Callan back down.

  “Saturday night?” I question, ignoring his.

  “Yes, we will be attending a gathering of sorts.”

  “A gathering? A gathering of what?” I ask, hands on my hips as my brow furrows in confusion.

  “Demons, love. What else? And, it’ll be in the held in the demon realm, looks like you’re coming home after all, little one.”

  Demon realm? Nope. Is he freaking nuts? Not a chance, that does not count as a reasonable favour. No way, no how. I open my mouth to tell him just that, but he cuts me off with an eccentric flourish of his hand.

  “Now, now. I know where you’re going to go with this. Oh Adam, you hunk of a man you, we only agreed to a reasonable favour, this can’t possibly be reasonable,” his tone is mocking, a higher pitch than his normal voice. If he’s going to imitate me he could at least do it right. “But, love, you need to be more careful when making a deal. You didn’t even define what is reasonable, or who decides what is. It leaves the whole favour business wide open to interpretation,” he finishes. A self-satisfied grin takes over his face as he sees his words sinking in.

  “Fuck,” I mutter darkly. I have such a way with words sometimes. I rub at my temples with my fingers. “Surely, you don’t get to define reasonable, as you didn’t specify it either?” I question.

  “Ambiguity in a contract, love, it favours the one who didn’t write it.”

  “I didn’t write anything!” I snap.

  “And, whose fault was that, kitten? You were the one to vocalise the terms, ‘A reasonable favour. You can't ask me to do anything that goes against my morals, and no eternal servitude or anything stupid like that,’ I believe is what you said.” He makes air quotation marks with his fingers. “As the one to dictate the terms, you are in essence the drafter of our little agreement. Contra proferentem.”

  I jump back at the sound of the Latin. “Don’t try and use magic on me!” I screech. Adam gives me a ‘what?’ look and then some kind of understanding seems to dawn on him as he laughs.

  “Why are you laughing?” I ask. I cross my arms and frown at him. My anger begins to deflate as I’m not seeing any reaction from the magic he’s used.

  “Just because I’m speaking Latin, doesn’t make it a spell,” he answers, the smile spreading wider across his face. “You don’t understand a word of Latin, do you?” he questions.

  “It’s a dead language, why would I?” I ask, deadpan.

  “You might like to know what the words of spells you learn mean, you’d hate to use a mislabelled spell I assume? Accidentally blowing up a building when you meant to purify water, although fun, would be quite the incident to explain.” I frown. Not wanting to admit the red-eyed demon has a point. It can’t be a good thing when a demon is giving you sound advice.

  “What did you just say then?”

  “Contra proferentem?” he asks. I nod, and he continues. “It means ‘against offeror’. Perhaps you should look it up, kitten. It would be beneficial for you to start learning some more things. It’s always much easier to learn at a young age, once you reach a thousand or so, it just doesn’t seem to go in the same to most of those old dogs’ minds.”

  “Well, going to the demon realm goes against my morals, and I’m fairly sure, my going there would end in my eternal servitude, which also is one of my terms,” I counter, using the words of the agreement back against him. I can so learn to play this game too.

  Instead of appearing upset, he smiles even more. “You’re learning. That’s good, you may just survive this mess yet, little one.” I huff at him and cross the room to my desk, perching there instead, seeing as Adam doesn’t seem to be moving from my bed. There is no way on this earth I’m sitting on my bed with a demon all cosy like. Never. Going. To. Happen.

  “Your concerns are eternal servitude and breeching your morals?”

  “Yes, that’s what I said didn’t I?” I snap.

  “So, if I could guarantee your safe return here after the gathering, and that I will not make you take part in any morally questionable situations, you’ll have no reason to refuse?”

  I splutter. He can’t be serious.

  “Your moral compass is broken, so what you think isn’t morally questionable could be in fact, you know, tripping an elderly person up on their way home from bingo with their own walking stick, or even locking a blind person in a circular room and calling out, ‘dinner’s in the corner’!” I huff, feeling pissed.

  “Well, now that does sound like fun.” He arches a brow, giving me a cheeky smile. “However, because I’m an altruistic gentleman–” I snort. “In this instance, I am willing to acquiesce to your demands. The morality we will stick to will be your own, so do not fret, love, you will not have to do anything ‘outside of your moral compass’ as you so eloquently said.”

  “Okay, so what the fuck are you saying?”

  “I’m saying, my little, fiery Firefly, you don’t have much of a choice, but I’m willing to bend my ways just for your delicate, little sensibilities.”

  I snort again. “No choice?”

  “Yes, the fine print that’s in all demon contracts.”

  “Fine print? How can there be fucking fine print? It was a verbal agreement, you red-eyed mongrel!”

  “Now, now, there’s no need for name calling, however, if you’d like to get technical, you’re the mongrel here. Now, it’s just a tiny, insignificant detail that is standard in all demon contracts. It’s just simply the fact, that if you cannot repay your debt, you just, well it’s no biggie . . . you pay with your soul.”

  “MY SOUL? No biggie? Are you FUCKING kidding me?” I scream at him. He gets up from the bed and walks over, standing in front of me.

  “If you don’t like it, then don’t play with demons, but as it is, you have no choice. I’ll be picking you up next Saturday. Oh, and don’t wear anything in that so-called wardrobe of yours, the clothing is hideous. I’d be a laughing stock walking in with you dressed like a homeless person.” Homeless person? Who the hell is he calling a homeless person? Wait, I am kind of homeless, but that’s beside the point! My clothes are awesome.

  I poke him in the chest on each word to emphasise my point, “Get. The. Fuck. Out. Now!”

  He narrows his eyes on me, grabbing my finger and squeezing hard. I try not to wince.

  “I’m going, you crazy woman, but don’t forget next Saturday. Oh, and don’t ever poke a demon in the chest again unless you want your finger ripped off, or have a death wish. I’m a handsome demon that’s for sure, and somewhat more forgiving than others, but even I have a limit.” He releases my finger. “Until then.” He gives me a mocking bow. The air starts to thicken, and pressure starts to build up in my head. Ugh, I hate this. And with a loud pop, he’s gone. A feather comes from nowhere floating softly down before landing on top of my head. I take it off and throw it angrily, only for it to land on my foot. Stupid, fucking thing, like its stupid, fucking owner. I start kicking it about, only to trip and fall over my own feet, landing on my hands and knees. I lift my head up to see the feather right in front of me. I glare at it. E
ven his damn feather mocks me.

  Chapter 2

  Today is a crappy day. The thought flies through my head as I squeeze my eyes shut tighter and pull the covers over my head to shield from the light outside. Having tossed and turned all night, both worrying about this damned demon gathering and the nightmares that consume me whenever I do sleep, I’m not exactly feeling rested and ready for the day.

  I hear a knock at the door and internally groan. Can’t they just let me lie here? I’m not ready to face the world yet. I burrow down into the covers and feign sleep.

  “Angel?” a voice calls out, and another knock hits the door. “We’re all having breakfast, you should come down and join us.”

  My stomach turns at the thought of food. I haven’t managed to eat much in the past few weeks. I’m already starting to notice my clothes are a little on the baggy side. I continue to lie in silence under my covers.

  “Mona?” the voice calls again. A moment passes and then I hear a soft click followed by the sound of my door being pushed open. Footsteps make their way across the room. “M, it’s time to get up,” Kaden says softly. I ignore him and stay hidden under the covers. He sighs deeply. “I know you’re awake. I heard your heartbeat pick up when I walked in.”

  Stupid freaking elf hearing.