Page 84 of Demonic Cage
“Why do you care?”
“I collect souvenirs.”
“Are you planning to leave or something?”
“I met with your father in the afterlife. He said that next time I should bring a dagger with your severed head. I thought I’d start with just one.”
Darya smirks challengingly, my performance having not fazed him at all. I hate how he smiles. Still… something stirs in me. He stares thoughtfully for a while, then changes to a more serious tone.
“So, is your devilish plan to kill yourself again?”
“It depends. Can you bring me back with your blood?”
Darya looks surprised.
“If you’re so eager to drink it, you can have it anytime,” he says, rolling up the sleeve of his black leather vest.
I think about the taste of his blood, and saliva pools in my mouth. Jumbled memories flood back of Darya holding me in his lap for several nights, whispering soothing words in my ear, feeding me his blood. I swallow hard to suppress the urge, because I really do want to taste it again. Quickly, I change the subject.
“No need. I’m not going to kill myself, at least not for now. I hate constantly passing out and waking up in someone else’s bed. That’s all my days consist of. Besides, it’s painful.”
“And my blood soothes the pain,” he says, so deeply that I shiver. The demon gets up and comes to the bed to sit next to me. “Maybe death did change you, after all. The fire in your eyes is unquenchable. Tell me, Lotte, what did you see in your dream?”
He smiles mysteriously. He addresses me by my name. He’s toying with me. He can’t know. He can’t know that I met Lavian.
“The gods allowed me to kill you in as many ways as I like.”
Darya laughs freely, in a manner I haven’t seen before. He shakes his head. I hope I’ve dispelled his suspicions.
“I have an idea…”
“Not interested.”
“But you haven’t even heard it yet! Your training will be different from now on. I’ll be with you all the time, teaching you close combat. If you defeat me, you can kill me. I won’t object.”
He smiles in such a way that it’s almost offensive, as if I stand no chance against him. I contemplate his offer, looking for loopholes. Obviously, he’s lying.
“Either you won’t teach me properly,” I begin, “or it’s simply impossible for me to defeat the world’s strongest demon.”
I regret my words when I see Darya’s suggestive look. I’m such an idiot: I’m flattering him.
“It’s an honor to have the title. Indeed I am. However, once again, you don’t trust yourself. You’ve never fought a monster before, yet you almost defeated one. A little practice with the world’s most handsome demon—”
“Strongest.”
“And you don’t think you’d be stronger than him?”
Darya’s too close, and he’s smiling too widely. I want to hit him. I want to kill him. I want to do it almost as much as I want to feel his hand on my skin.
“What do you gain from this?” I ask, as he begins to stroke my thigh through the blanket. I shiver, but I don’t pull away.
“There will be a lot of close combat…” That’s his answer. Then he looks at me with a wicked smile.
So, the whole point is he wants to grope me all over? I try to calm down, while possibilities of how he’d touch me flash before my mind’s eye. Learning to keep away from him isn’t such a bad idea.
“Fine,” I say through gritted teeth. “When do we start?”
“It depends on whether you still want to drink my blood.”
