So that’s how we ended up at the kitchen counter, being served breakfast by two gorgeous demon girls. Not that Maddie saw them, of course. She also didn’t notice the huge cracks in the surface of the table we were eating on, which was good. She might have asked about it, and I wouldn’t have lied—I’d have told her about Mareth’s horns and how much she’d loved getting taken in such a rough way. After all, if I’d tried to lie, the succubus would’ve gloated over the truth.
We were halfway through our plates when Christina spoke up. “Are you going to keep your eyes closed around us forever?” the blonde demoness teased. “You know we’re not going to eat you, right? I mean, not in the bad way…”
“Soon,” she said, in a way that let me know her fear was now mostly just for show. “I want to hear what Luke has to say, first. I nodded off before he could explain it to me yesterday. Something about my future?”
Aw shit, I thought. Here we go.
Maddie’s future was indeed the topic of conversation. It hung in the balance, and while I could influence her in one direction or the other, it would be up to her whether she joined the team. I really, really hoped she did, though—she’d make one hell of an asset to our group.
“Alright,” I said, pushing my plate away. “You’ve had a couple of close calls already, Maddie. Clearly, you’ve figured out by now that when you climbed into my trunk, we weren’t heading to the Hundred Acre Wood. I won’t mince words with you—this is Hell. Christina and Mareth are demons, but they’re bound to me. I’m a potential candidate to replace Lucifer as Archlord.”
To her credit, Maddie took this news with more calmness than I expected. “The Lucifer?” she asked, her eyes going wide. “Like, the Devil?”
“It’s a long story,” I said with a sigh. “Suffice to say, we’ve got to do something about you, Maddie. I can’t have you walking around out in the Academy when every demon within a hundred yard radius looks at you like a delicious meal. So you’ve got a choice to make.”
A single tear trickled down Maddie’s cheek, but she smiled. “I don’t see that I do have a choice,” she said, laughing a bit. “You’re the only thing standing between me and those monsters, Luke. I’d be dead if it wasn’t for you…”
It was kind of your fault to begin with, I thought but didn’t say. I hadn’t asked Maddie to climb into my trunk and follow me to Hell, but here we were.
“If you want, I could...I could take you back to Earth,” I said, a catch in my voice. “I wouldn’t blame you—not after everything that’s happened. I know dealing with all this has been a total mindfuck. But I’m kind of thinking you don’t want that, do you, Maddie? After all, you’re a brave woman—you followed me down here, hiding in the trunk. I think you wanted an adventure.”
“I got one,” she said, her eyes still shut tight. “And you’re right, Luke. I don’t think I can go back to being a waitress after all this. So what’s the other option?”
One of my hands moved downward, massaging her lower back as we got to the difficult part. Reminding her I was there.
“Mareth was always...like the way she is,” I said, ignoring the way the succubus stuck out her tongue at the remark. “But Christina used to be a human, Maddie—just like you. She was frightened by demons, and freaked out by the whole Hell thing.” That was a lie, but a pretty white one in the grand scheme of things. She didn’t need to know Christina had been almost as excited by the Infernal Academy as I was. “Then I turned her into a demon. My demon. And all that fear—it just went away.”
Maddie nodded in my arms. “I remember—at first, when I saw you guys in the trunk, I thought you were all in costumes. But you weren’t, were you? That’s the way Christina looks now.”
“That’s right,” I said. “You can open your eyes and look at her if you want. She won’t hurt you.”
“Not unless you want me to,” Christina purred in a sultry tone.
Maddie snickered at that. “I’m okay like this for now,” she said. “I don’t need to freak out again. I kind of like just sitting here in your arms with my eyes closed, actually, Luke.”
“I like it, too,” I admitted. “Remember when you and I, uh, fooled around in subspace? And you wanted me to go all the way, but I held back?”
“How could I forget?” Maddie said, the corner of her mouth curling in a smile.
“That would’ve turned you into a demon,” I told her, holding her tighter. “If we go all the way now, you and me, you’ll transform just like Christina did. You’d be part of the team, and you wouldn’t be afraid anymore. You’d be able to fly—to do magic. We’d all love to have you join us…”
“Fuck yes,” Mareth said, giggling. “You’re so cute, Mads. You’d make the sexiest little demon…”
Maddie thought about it for a long time—so long, in fact, that I’d started to wonder if she’d gone to sleep in my arms when she spoke again.
“I don’t want to be weak anymore,” she said, her face pushed into my chest. “I don’t really want to be a demon, Luke—but if that’s what it takes to stop being so helpless, then that’s what I want to do.” She looked up at me, her eyes opening. She still refused to take in the rest of the room—those eyes were for me, only. “Take me,” she whispered. “Turn me, whatever you want to call it. Because I’m not leaving you, Luke. If I’ve
