Page 5 of Midnight with the Devil

“Soul.” He opened his palm, holding it flat as though waiting for her to take his hand.

“What do you mean, my soul?”

“I’ll show you.” He extended his hand closer to hers. She reached out, hesitating, but then finally placed her hand in his. The second his fingers curled around hers she was swallowed by darkness.

Fluttering sounds like the rush of a raven’s wings in the night made her shiver, and she clung to his hand, which still grasped hers. All around her was nothingness, and she couldn’t seem to get any air into her lungs for a long second. Then finally she was able to speak.

“What is this?” she whispered, fear choking her.

“The end of everything you know and love.”

“Hell,” she breathed. Where were the fires and the evil souls?

“Hell is different for everyone. It’s not all fire and brimstone.” His chuckle curled around her, hot and seductive.

“I see only darkness,” she gasped.

“Because your hell is one ofnothingness.”

Suddenly they were back in the chapel, and Diana fell to her knees, shaking violently. He stood above her, hands tucked in his trouser pockets, waiting patiently.

“You agree to make a deal with me, and I will give you something in return.”

She put a hand to her chest as she looked up at him.

“You can…save my dad?” Part of her wondered if she was dreaming. She had to be. There was no way she was talking to the devil about making a deal to save her father’s life.

“I can.”

“But you said you don’t save lives.”

The man—no, the devil—slowly smiled. “I said I don’tlooklike I save lives, and as a general rule I do not.”

“Then why help me?” Diana got to her feet but sat down on the nearest pew. The devil strode to the stained-glass window, tilting his face up, the light playing upon his skin.

“Because you are a pure soul and I hunger for corruption. I need tocorruptyou.”

“Corrupt me?” She shuddered at the dark word. When she thought of corruption, she thought of stealing, of hurting people, of unlawful things she’d never do.

The devil turned to face her again, and the shadows pooled around him, his eyes suddenly glowing with a soft ruby-red gleam.

“I want to own your body, your soul, to show you the pleasures of the dark side. I want you to tell me every wicked fantasy, the worst ones, and I want you to let me act them out with you. When I claim a pure soul through pleasure and bring it to the darkness, that soul then belongs to me in every way.”

Her darkest fantasies? She struggled to think, but she didn’t have any fantasies.

“Everyonehas fantasies, Diana. Even pure souls like you.”

“You…you said you make deals, right? What would our deal be?” She couldn’t believe she was considering this, but if it meant saving her father, how could she not listen to what the devil offered? He would own her soul. Was her father’s life worth letting him drag her down into eternal darkness?

“You will come to me every Friday night at midnight. I can do with you as I please until dawn, then you can leave.”

“For how long?” She tried not to think about what the devil would do with her.

“Three months. It will be a delightful gift to myself to celebrate the anniversary of my fall from grace. When you die, whenever that may be, your soul will be fully mine, trapped forever in that nothingness I showed you.”

Twelve Fridays? She could survive whatever the devil wanted for her father’s sake. She wouldn’t think about what would happen when she died someday and how she’d be trapped—in hell—with him. “How…how do I know you won’t let him die after you’re through with me?”

The devil’s grin was scary, not becausehewas scary but because that sexy grin promised all sorts of sins, ones she didn’t think she could handle. “I may be the devil, but I’m not a liar. I get what I, and I promise on my black heart you’ll get what you want.”

---