People forgot that the devil could blend in. He knew about humanity, about what drove human desires, and he had some of his own. Just like Andre, he was more. But where Andre had 700 years to become the way he was, the devil had infinitely longer.
“Where are we?” I asked, thinking that the surroundings seemed of this world. We’d traveled to different locations, but I couldn’t tell if we’d traveled to different worlds.
“You keep asking that. We’re at my home.”
I didn’t know why I bothered with the questions. I wouldn’t believe the devil if he were to give me a straight answer anyway.
Gargoyles perched along the roofline, and the faces of horned beasts had been carved in between stone archways.
“See those windows?” he asked, pointing to the diamond-shaped panes of glass set into the stone of the house. “Those were hand-blown by the Menace of Cerlina. And the door, hand carved by a cannibal.”
Oh goody, his house had cursed history. He went on to tell me that the stone had been quarried from Elizabeth Bathory’s house, the wrought iron knockers were taken from the palace of an Ottoman sultan.
But the inside of the castle was so much worse.
***
“Do you like it?” he asked.
I gurgled out a nonresponse.
I was going to die tonight; I was going to lose my soul. Forget that I thought the devil was complicated. There was nothing complicated about what I was seeing.
Maps made of skin lined the walls. Portraits of infamous rulers and renderings of the devil hung beside them. The dining room table, held up by bloodied, wooden posts, looked like it was once used to draw and quarter someone. Everything in the house must’ve had some dark history to it.
Being in the house made my last encounter with death seem like child’s play. When I’d faced off Theodore, I was terrified. But this, the unnatural horror that clung to each cursed item, the horror that surrounded the devil and seemed to embrace me, made me realize that fear paled in comparison to the dread that now seeped to my bones.
I shivered.
“Are you cold?”
“No!” I said, a little too quickly. I’d freeze to death before I warmed myself with a coat or blanket provided by the devil.
The man in the suit led me through his house until we came to a stop in a living room. A fire burned in the hearth, but no warmth emanated from it.
“Gabrielle.” My gaze left the fire and met the devil’s. I suppressed another shiver. He was corporeal at the moment, his hands warm and solid when he touched me, yet he wasn’t human. The face that stared back at me seemed to be animated by something else.
“Why are you being nice to me?” I asked him.
“So many, many questions.” He sighed a long-suffering sigh. “Since when have I ever been cruel to you?”
“How about when you had me believing I was insane because only I could see you?”
“Need I remind you of the man you date? Hundreds of vampires gone in an instant, all thanks to that anger of his. I believe I’ve been quite nice in comparison.”
Hundreds gone. Damned. That number made me feel sick to my stomach. My soulmate had massacred his own people that night at Bishopcourt. But even so, there was still a huge, huge difference between him and the being in front of me.
“You’ve managed to scare me every single time you’ve visited,” I said. Why was I even continuing to discuss this subject?
He shrugged. “That I cannot help. I am not of your world. You find the way I communicate across worlds frightening.”
I forced myself to take another look around his house. His being nice was a ruse. I knew that with almost absolute certainty. The proof surrounded me. He was known as a deceiver, and what better way to get what he wanted than to appeal to my humanity.
“I brought you here tonight to extend you an offer,” he continued. My heart sped up at his words. “You give me your soul willingly and you will receive the highest honor I can bestow upon anyone.”
Chapter 23
My entire body tingled at his words, or maybe it was being in that house and in his presence for so long. Whatever it was, it felt as though it was killing me slowly.
It took effort to focus on his offer. It was vague, which meant that it was probably exceedingly unfair.
I cocked my head to the side. “Why do you want my soul so badly?” I asked the man in the suit. I narrowed my eyes on him. Not that I expected to receive an honest answer. Out of everything I’d learned about him, the only thing that I knew for sure was his own treachery. “Once I become a vampire, you’ll get my soul then.”
“You misunderstand me Gabrielle. I am offering you a place by my side.”
I laughed at that, and I swear I saw hellfire burn within his eyes.
“You scorn my offer?” His tone was so casual that I almost thought he’d shrug and move on to some other subject. But something about the set of his face alerted me that I’d entered very dangerous waters.