Page 15 of The Devil of London

“No fight left in you, pretty brat?” His hand loosened as his tongue licked my lips, and I sucked in air greedily. I coughed violently as he watched me, smiling when he saw the terror in my eyes. “Maybe that’ll jog some memories of who the fuck I am when those lips of yours move.”

“Get off me,” I whispered through the humiliation that stung my cheeks.

“Pissy because that cunt of yours almost came while I choked you out?” he mused with laughter dancing in his bottomless depths.

“I need to get home to feed Satan,” I croaked, uncaring if he knew that I’d named my familiar after him.

“Satan? You got a kitty and named him after me?”

“No, I got a big ass dog that is obnoxiously smug when he pisses all over things. Things that he’s deemed his property. It reminded me of you. Why does everyone assume a witch familiar is a cat? It’s a stereotype that needs to die a horrid death.” His eyebrows shot up while a smile twitched his enticing lips.

“Why didn’t I think of that in the last two hundred and ninety-nine years? I only need to piss on your leg to claim you?” I shoved against his chest with all the strength I had left, but Khaos was immovable. “Stop being stubborn, Aderyn. You are making this much harder on yourself.”

“You need to let me go, Khaos,” I blurted as hurt and betrayal knifed through me, cutting me to the quick. Tears pricked my eyes as he snorted while pulling away from me.

“Never going to happen. Shall we revisit the contract?” he asked, rising from the couch. I followed him up, hoping to place distance between us. That was always his way of reminding me I had little autonomy. “Nothing sassy to say?”

“Why can’t you even entertain it? You have barely even noticed I’ve been gone from your life for the past fifty years!”

“You left us,” he said in a soft, lethal whir of words. “We did not leave or abandon you. You left us. You are the one who wanted to be on your own. Do not throw that shit in my face.”

“And why was it that I wanted to be left alone? Oh, yeah, because you fucking buried me in a swamp and abandoned me! Then, because digging myself out of a grave was not enough, I ended up in a sanatorium where rape was the daily menu! Breakfast, lunch and dinner was filled with being shocked while fucked until I begged for death. Creatures fucking fed from me like I was a never-ending blood bag.”

“I didn’t know you had survived!” he snarled as he turned, marching toward me. I backed up until I collided with the wall. I squeezed my eyes closed against the horror-filled memories. Hands slid around my back before he jerked me into the heat of his body, brushing a kiss against my temples. “I didn’t know you lived, Aderyn. I’d have never left you behind if I’d known.”

“It doesn’t matter what you did or didn’t intend! What matters is what happened. You left me to be tortured by monsters. Every time you leave me, I suffer because of it, Khaos.” I’d left him in the seventies after spending years chained in his cellar.

Bitterness at his denial slithered through me as he, once again, denied the truth. Tears swam in my eyes as I considered what he’d said once more, from another perspective. If Khaos had buried me alive, he would enjoy reminding me of it because he was just that kind of monster. So, why was he still clinging to the lie? Unless it wasn’t a lie. Unless he hadn’t known I’d still lived when he’d left me in the swamp.

Khaos exhaled softly as he kissed my forehead once more, and I raised my hands as if to push him away. The moment my palms landed on his chest a zing of magic burned through my veins.

My breath caught in my lungs as my hands pulled away, shocked at the connection. It was the same as it had been on the docks of London. His touch sent everything within me into a dark, bottomless abyss that felt like home. The moment we touched, the world stopped spinning and only we existed within it for a time. Khaos’s hands slid up my spine as his feverish breath fanned against my neck as he kissed his way to my ear.

“Why do you feel like home?” I whispered without thinking.

Khaos jerked away as if I’d slapped him. Shoving his tattooed fingers through his hair, he spun on his heel, heading toward the wall. I mentally kicked myself for ruining the moment. I excelled at ruining things. Walking away from him in an attempt to think coherently, I noted the portrait on the farthest wall.

It was a large mural of Saffron Manor, and the artist had captured every vivid detail of it, creating a perfect image with the strokes of their brush. The lofty manor had been deemed the largest bawdy bitch establishment within London. The monarchy had forced most bawdy houses to remain on the east side of London, or the red-light district, but that didn’t stop royalty and lords from visiting.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Nasir whispered in my ear. My breathing stopped as his fingers brushed against mine before he chuckled. “Laney painted it for me.”

“Nude?” I muttered before leaving him at the painting. “Can we get this over with? I need to be home and away from you. I’d say we should do this again, but I don’t enjoy lying. So, let’s agree to not meet again for another fifty years.” Sitting on the plush, chesterfield couch, I scooted to the arm and as far away from him as I could get.

“No, actually. She wasn’t nude,” he surprised me by admitting. “You almost sound jealous?”

“Hardly,” I fibbed. “It’s not like I have a claim on you, now do I?” I fidgeted with my hands, forcing my attention to remain fixed on the painting of me. I was in a flapper dress, smiling, and my eyes were full of love.

I could still smell the cigar smoke from the lounge we’d been drinking in. Khaos and I had settled into the roles I’d always dreamed of us in. It had been the happiest time of my life that had ended when I had caught him leaving one of the girl’s rooms with his cock barely tucked in his trousers.

“Do you remember when that was taken?” he asked. Turning to look at him, I let the pain flood my eyes to be certain he got the message. “Right. That is why you ended up with young Paris, after all. You undoubtedly couldn’t wait to make me feel what I’d caused you to feel that night.

“No,” I stated through clenched teeth. “I actually cared for Paris. You wanted to remind me I was unworthy of your cock. We’re not the same, Khaos.” Closing my emotions off, I spoke in an uncaring, indifferent tone. “Get on with it. Satan needs his dinner. If he doesn’t get it on time, he’ll wake the neighbors.”

Nasir snorted before he rolled out the ancient leather parchment of our contract. I’d been a naïve child when I’d fist signed it, and even now, I couldn’t believe my own stupidity.

“Every weekend you’ll report to my manor. Let’s say Friday at five? Then you’ll be free to return to your house Monday morning,” he stated offhandedly, not bothering to ask if it was okay.

“Not happening. I have a business to run. I’ve built a life outside of your world, which means I can’t just disappear every weekend so you can treat me like an object.” I leaned back and crossed my arms, studying him from beneath my lashes.

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