Page 22 of My Demon Assistant

Eshim had told me he was my mate. Someone picked by fate to be a perfect match for me.

I'd seen how quickly Archer and Lux had grown close. Kat and Fressia had been the same. Did that mean Eshim and I were headed in the same direction? But he was my employee. I blinked. Wait. If he was a demon, and he knew all my friends…why was he working for me?

Eshim

"That went well," Fressia commented as she returned to the living room with two plates of food. She held one out to me, and I took it glumly. I was hungry as fuck after all that bleeding and healing, but I didn't feel like eating.

"That was awful. This wasn't how I wanted to tell him. Why did you bring me when you knew Jerry was here?" I asked Fressia, and she made a face.

"Well, forgive me for not thinking straight when I was worried you were seconds away from moving on. I was running on instinct."

If I'd 'died' before Reece arrived, I'd have moved on straight to Afterworld. It was where all souls ended up, sooner or later, before they decided to reincarnate. Once I was in Afterworld, I'd have returned to my original human form—not the one I had now, but the one I'd had before I was transformed into a demon—and I wouldn't have been able to come back to the human realm. I'd have had to wait until Jerry died and came to Afterworld to see him again.

"Thanks, Fressia. For saving me," I said, and she waved me off as she chewed her food.

"Was it really Mammon?" Lux asked, and I nodded, sadness filling me as I thought about Mammon. Like Korrigan, Mammon had also turned into a bit of a hermit in his last few 'normal' decades, and I couldn't help wondering if even then he'd had some darkness clinging to him and we just hadn't noticed.

The longer a demon spent torturing dark souls, the darker their own soul got. Of all the demons who hadn't moved on to Afterworld yet, Kor, Star, and Mammon were the oldest. All the other demons had spent longer in retirement than in active duty, which was why we weren't in danger of going dark.

"Yeah," I said when I remembered Lux had asked me something. "He wasn't the one who hurt me, though. That was a dark soul. Mammon kept me from using my magic."

"Fudge, I hate this," Lux grumbled, and Gunner patted his cheek consolingly, making his frown instantly turn into a smile.

"You should sleep here tonight," Kat said just as I was about to say I should leave too, and I blinked.

"Huh?"

"You're tired, and I know you're all healed up, but it doesn't hurt to be careful. You can sleep in the guest bedroom and then go home tomorrow to change and stuff. Will you go to work tomorrow?"

"Of course." Jerry needed me, and there was no way I was staying away, especially after everything we'd talked about tonight.

"All right, then. Off to bed you go," Kat said, and I huffed, wondering if she realized just how much older than her I was.

I borrowed some clothes from Kat—who'd 'borrowed' them from her best friends—before grabbing a quick shower and cleaning up all the blood clinging to my skin. The clothes I'd been wearing went straight into the trash, and I put on the ones Kat had given me before climbing into bed.

Hella popped in just as I was getting comfortable, and I invited her onto the bed. "Thanks, Hella. You saved my life today."

She licked my face, the flames on the tip of her ears burning merrily. Azazel had put a glamor spell on her so humans couldn't see the blaze, which made it easier for her to move around.

I was glad I'd taken her with me, because if I hadn't, I'd be in Afterworld now.

Fressia had told me Mammon and the dark soul were gone when she returned with some of the Otherworld soldiers, but the search of the area had revealed a few more dead supes, this time shifters. They were still playing with dark magic, and I didn't like it, especially because now they had the assistance of an old-as-fuck demon. There wasn't a lot Mammon couldn't do with his magic, and I was worried we wouldn't be able to stop them in time when they finally started putting their plan into action.

Sighing, I wrapped my arms and legs around Hella's big, warm body, and buried my face in her fur. She smelled like the demon realm, like home, and I breathed her in.

How was Jerry? He'd seemed...not-okay when he left, and I didn't know what part of everything I'd told him he was struggling with the most. Was it the demon part? Or the fated mates part?

I supposed I'd get some clues at work tomorrow. Jerry wasn't as good at hiding his feelings as he thought he was.

I didn't know how revealing everything so early would affect our budding connection, but I wasn't going to let this hurdle stop me from swimming forward. I would win his heart, sooner or later, and until then, I was going to do my best to make him happy.

Sleep was nowhere to be found as my mind whirled in a hundred different directions, which was just great when this was the one night Iactually neededsleep to replenish my energy.

Exhaling loudly, I pushed all thoughts to the back of my head and focused solely on Hella's soft snores. It took some time, but I finally relaxed, and sleep started tugging at me.

With an image of a smiling Jerry etched firmly in my mind, I let myself fall asleep.

Nine

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