you too, since you’re the other party to the agreement and all. What’s the punishment for you? Will you be tortured as well?”
He narrowed his eyes.
“Maybe you’ll be demoted?” I continued, my anger about being ignored fueling my probably suicidal poking of Mr. Tall, Dark, and smokingly Handsome. “Will they make you scrub demon toilets for the next thousand years? Or maybe they’ll strip you of your powers and take your wings?”
The heat emanating from him flared up like a bonfire liberally sprinkled with gasoline.
Bingo. I smiled. “That’s it, huh? No more convenient demon magic and flaming wings for you. So,” I said, idly regarding my nails, “if I were petty—because, say, a certain groom-to-be has been a dismissive jerk with no respect for my opinion—I could totally decide to break the covenant and make you suffer along with me.”
The demon bared his teeth. “You wouldn’t.”
“You underestimate my level of petty,” I snapped. “If I’m going to be miserable in Hell either way, I might as well share my pain with His Demonic Haughtiness.”
“Stop being dramatic,” he growled. “You cannot seriously compare being married to me with being tortured as a damned soul.”
“Why not? You’re doing a bang-up job of making me see the similarities.”
His wings vibrated. The thrumming power in the air increased, pressing onto every inch of my skin. I had trouble breathing against the thickness of his energy, like I’d just walked into a hot house with enough humidity to constrict my airways.
The priest whimpered.
Gritting my teeth, I steeled my fluttering nerves. “Tone. It. Down.”
The demon snarled at me. Not the kind of figurative snarl of humans when they’re cranky, no. The sound coming from his throat was that of a canine warning you not to be stupid. It was the bone-chilling, rumbling growl that humans had instinctively learned to fear—and heed. The hairs on my arms and neck stood up, and I had the insistent urge to back away slowly.
Fuck. That.
I would marry this ass because I truly didn’t have a choice, but I would rather burn in Hell than enter this marriage cowering in fear. So he would either have to start playing nice or I would throw all reason to the wind and break this fucking covenant.
“If you want me to agree to this wedding,” I said, surprised my voice came out steady past the lump of dread in my throat, “then you need to adjust your attitude. You’ve been condescending, scornful, and dismissive. I asked you not to force the priest to witness, and you ignored me. Let him go, treat me with respect, and I’ll consent to the marriage.”
“Respect,” he gritted out, “goes both ways. You attacked me with pepper spray—” he held up one finger “—you lied to me—” he held up a second finger “—and you ran away from me trying to sneak out of a contract you initiated.” He added a third finger. “Don’t lecture me on respect when you’ve been untruthful, evasive, and insulting all night.”
Oh, that self-righteous bastard.
“Excuse me for freaking out that a real-life demon showed up unannounced in my living room!”
“It wouldn’t have been unannounced if you hadn’t forgotten you summoned me!”
Gah, we already sounded like an old married couple.
“Fine, so we both made mistakes!” I threw my hands up. “But if you think I’m bluffing and will cave and marry you anyway, you’ve got another think coming. You want something from me, and you’re going to be nice about it or you’ll end up without your powers. And we both know you can’t force me to marry you.”
Granted, I was gambling. I didn’t know that for sure, but I had a hunch the contract—the pertinent parts of which still eluded me—might have a provision like that. Just like it probably had one that specified he couldn’t kill me to get out of it—because if it didn’t, I was certain I’d be dead already.
His eye twitched.
Right on the mark. I made a mental fist pump. “You can’t use force or coercion, which means you will actually have to be nice to me if you want to keep your demon powers. I’m asking you to let the priest go and find someone else—without using your infernal powers of intimidation. We just need a witness, right? So let’s go grab a semi-drunk from a bar and tell them to listen to our vows. They’ll probably think it’s cute. Boom, done! No one got forced or traumatized.”
The demon stared at me for such a long moment, I had