“I said welcome home. You forgot to invite me inside,” I snarl like an untamed beast.
“Are you sacred, Jacob?”
Her father nods his head, eye bulging, body trembling as he stands holding the old axe Mercy and her mother use to chop wood for the fireplace.
“Drop the weapon, Jacob.” He does exactly as I say, and the axe clatters to the ground. “Now, be a good boy and sit.”
He slumps into a kitchen chair, unable to resist my command.
“Very good, Jacob,” I praise with a sinister tone. “Do you know who I am?” I drag the dagger across his neck, watching as the artery pulses beneath the blade.
“I know exactly who you are, circus scum,” he spits. “Where are they? What have you done with them?”
“It doesn’t matter,” I tsk, tossing the blade to my other hand. “They’re far safer under my protections than they ever were with you.”
I trail the dagger down his cheek, slicing lightly just enough to break the skin.
Mercy’s father hisses in pain, but he doesn’t move to stop me. Still a slave to my original command, he’s frozen in place—waiting, obedient, for my next instruction.
I laugh maniacally, reveling in the irony. “Soon I’ll be your master, Jacob. Do you know what I have in store for you?” My voice is menacing as I slice his shirt open and throw him from the chair.
“On your knees, you pathetic excuse for a man. Kneel to your new master,” I hiss, serpent-like, against his ear.
He obeys once again, scrabbling into a kneeling position in front of me.
“Please, let me go. I won’t tell anyone. I’ll leave town. Anything you want,” he blubbers.
“The problem with that is—I don’t want to.” I nick him with the blade, drawing blood. “You never had to use Mercy to pay your debts, and yet you did. Now you owe me a debt that can never be repaid.”
He whimpers. “She wanted it. She volunteered—“
My restraint slips. I stab him in the shoulder.
I stab him. Not in warning. Not in restraint. In judgment.
He howls in pain. “Don’t fucking lie,” I roar, shadows billowing behind me as my rage unfurls.
“There’s a special place for people like you in Hell. Tell the others I say hi.”
“Why are you doing this?” he gasps.
“Why am I doing this?” My eye twitches with agitation. “You don’t deserve an explanation. I’m doing this because they never deserved any of what you did to them. You should’ve left a long time ago. Mercy and her mother would’ve been better off without your abuse.”
He rolls his eyes and smiles. “You must feel so righteous—avenging all the wrongs I’ve done.”
“Hardly.” I scoff. “But in Hell, you’ll feel every bit of pain they’ve felt. Tenfold—and more.”
He sneers. “I regret nothing. They deserved it. Both of them. Those little whores. But like mother, like daughter. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. I should’ve known she sold herself off to you in hopes of escaping the life I built for her.”
I don’t have the restraint to listen to him speak like this. I shove the blade deep into his throat, watching the blood gush around the steel. He gasps and sputters, eyes wide and arms flailing. I pull the blade out, then slam it into his chest. Inky liquid begins to pool from the wound as he clings to life.
“What are you?” he gargles.
Leaning down by his ear, I whisper, “Only the creatures lurking in the dark know the answer to that.”
I can smell the bits of his soul leaking from his body. In front of him, I shift and change—removing my full glamour, stretching my inky-black wings wide, unhinging my jaw to reveal the rows of deadly, bloodstained teeth. My eyes are nothing but black shadow-filled voids. He tries to scream, but no sound comes out.
When he’s close to death, I clamp down around his head and bite it clean off. I don’t swallow. I spit it out—a consolation prize for Lucifer. Then I clamp down around his open neck and suck every last drop of his soul out, devouring him until there’s nothing left of his life force.
