Devilish - A Demon Stepbrother Romance Read online

  I closed my eyes. Yes, I was ready. I didn’t want to be here any longer.

  Fuck you. Whoever sent you, fuck you.

  Chapter Two

  My skin felt as if it was burning slowly. Agony raged across my body and I wanted to scream but couldn’t seem to breathe in any air. There was no oxygen. There was no air. Only fire.

  And pain.

  Oh god, so much pain.

  I didn’t know if I was dead or alive. I didn’t know if I was standing or sitting. I didn’t know if I was human or not.

  Where was I?

  “Such anger….” a voice hissed around me.

  My eyes flew open but all I saw was darkness. Darkness with tears of glowing red flames, like embers burning all around me. I couldn’t feel my body as I stood…floated…in the space.

  “Such pain….” the voice hissed again. The words echoed around me in this fathomless space.

  “Who are you?” I asked. I nearly choked at the sound of my voice. It didn’t seem to come from my mouth. I seemed to be speaking with my entire body somehow, the words verbalized from my very thoughts.

  The pain of my body was still there but detached, as if I was observing the pain from a distance. I tried to move my arms but could only feel the vague sensation of something distant moving.

  “Where am I?” I asked, again feeling the words form without the use of my voice.

  “It is rare to see such anger in one so young,” the voice said. It was a deep voice that rolled through me like an earthquake. It was raspy with ancient darkness that I recognized even without being familiar with it.

  “Where am I?” I asked with greater emphasis. This was no place on Earth, that was for sure. From the detachment of my body, the airless space, the burning embers that surrounded me like distant galaxies, I knew I was in some kind of limbo state.

  I closed my eyes. Or I felt like I had closed my eyes.

  What was the point of asking where I was anyway? I was dead. I was clearly dead. The attackers, whoever they were, had won.

  I remembered seeing dad hunched over his desk at his home office, looking over proposals for a beautification project Madewell Ltd would be sponsoring. I asked him if it was a little contradictory to be so interested in beautification when he was the head of a mining company.

  “People will always need raw minerals,” dad had said, sitting down with a bit of a grimace, having stood on his bad leg for too long. He smiled at me once seated. “That’s a necessary evil in this world right now. But that doesn’t mean I can’t try to minimize the damage I do by rebuilding what I can.”

  He picked up another thick proposal package, determined to find the right one.

  I remembered mom standing in the kitchen, stirring a pot of soup while on the phone with Liam. Liam was already twenty when my mom married dad. He was grown and wasn’t really in need of a mother figure. But mom was not to be deterred. She had opened her arms and heart to him and had loved him. I thought about the love that had flown in that house between all of us.

  Dad had never treated me differently as a stepdaughter. I had never been less than to him. And although Liam had already left the house by the time I had moved in, he had always been the cool older brother who took care of me and made my sorority sisters green with envy when they saw him at my college graduation.

  But now they were all gone.

  Mom.

  Dad.

  Liam.

  All brutally murdered.

  “But what if you could avenge them?” the voice suddenly said, its deepness penetrating through my bones.

  “Avenge?” I asked, feeling so lost and confused. “Where am I?”

  “You are en route,” the voice finally answered.

  “En route?” I asked, confused. “To where.”

  There was a low, rumbling chuckle. “Ah, well. There a lot of names but I suppose you’d be most familiar with heaven.”

  I thought about the burning embers that glowed in this dark airless space. I thought about the suffocation I was feeling even though I wasn’t breathing. “This is heaven?” I asked skeptically.

  “No, not this,” the voice corrected. “You are on hold right now. You have a choice.”

  “A choice?”

  A warmth seemed to drape over my body. “I can give you a chance at something that nobody ever gets,” the voice said slowly. “The chance to fulfill your heart’s desire after death.”

  “My heart’s desire?” I thought about my parents. Liam. To see them again? To save them?

  The voice snorted. “Don’t lie to yourself in this space. You are a step away from eternal separation of your body and soul. This is the place for truth only. And I would never stop a soul en route because of such sentimental drivel as wanting to see their mother again.”

  Angry, I demanded, “Then what? What do you think is my heart’s desire?”

  “Revenge,” the voice rasped immediately. “I can give you a chance at revenge, child.”

  My heart thumped. Revenge. How sweet that word sounded.

  “How?” I asked.

  “I could bring you back, back into the world of the living. You’ll have your chance at finding the men who killed you and your family. You can make them pay.”

  “Will…Will my family be back as well?” My heart ached with need at the thought.

  “No.”

  “Why not?” I demand almost petulantly.

  “Because I don’t want them,” the voice said evenly, anger simmering below his words. “Do you understand the rare opportunity you are being given? A chance to come back to life to exact your heart’s desire? And the only reason why you are being given it is the absolute rage you died with in your heart. It’s delicious. It called to me.”

  “But I can’t do it alone,” I said simply, suddenly feeling very exhausted. “I’ll need help.”

  “Yes, you will,” the voice concurred. “I will give you the help.” The voice made a rumbling noise of anticipation. “Do you wish it? Do you wish to fulfill your heart’s desire?”

  I stared dreamily at the black space surrounding me, the glowing embers burning steadily in streaks.

  “What’s the price?” I asked. This couldn’t be free.

  The voice chuckled. “Clever child,” he murmured. “The price is high.”

  “How high? What is it?”

  “The price is the cost of your soul.”

  I was confused. I had never been very religious growing up. I never thought about having a soul and before I died, I wouldn’t have even thought such things were real.

  “My soul?” I echoed. “Why would you want my soul?”

  “Souls are what I feast on,” the voice answered. “But it is a rare soul that can make me salivate like yours has. Your death must have been quite terrible. The anger, the pain, the hatred in your soul. It’s beautiful. And I want it.”

  “What will happen to me then? After you eat my soul?”

  “That’s it. You will be gone. You will never be en route again. You will never make it to heaven or hell. You will disappear for all eternity, having been consumed by me.”

  “That doesn’t sound too—”

  “You will never see your family again.”

  I nearly choke on his words. “See my family?”

  “They could very well be en route to heaven. Who knows? Souls could reunite there. But not yours. Not if you accept my bargain. You will never be with them again.”

  I closed my eyes. I was so very tired. I wanted nothing more than to feel my mother’s touch or to hear my father’s laugh. I only wanted to see….

  No. That was a lie. I did want something more than my mother’s touch or my father’s laugh. I remembered mom screaming as she was raped over and over again. I remembered the crack of bones as the men beat her mercilessly. I remember my dad coughing up more blood as he tried to fight against the men, before he was shot in the head, neatly ending his life.

  And god only knew how much Liam had suffered.

&
nbsp; No, she wanted something more than the warm, resigned cuddles of her family.

  She wanted revenge. And she wanted it bad.

  “Fine,” she said. “I accept.”

  “You accept my terms—revenge for the price of your soul?”

  “You will give me help?”

  “I will do everything to help you achieve your revenge. Your soul will not be eaten without revenge being exacted.”

  I paused. “Are you the devil?”

  Another small chuckle. “No. But I certainly am closer to him than to the man above.” A moment of silence. “Do you accept?”

  Last images of mom, dad, and Liam passed through my mind. This was it. Never would I see them again. I was giving that all up for a chance at avenging what had been done to us. Was it worth it? Was it worth the price?

  I swallowed. My heart had no doubts. “I accept.”

  Heat exploded around me. The space got blacker, if that was possible. The embers grew brighter, burned with more intensity. Slowly, I turned my head to the left.

  A dark figure, barely distinguishable from the darkness of the space, began to walk forward. A pair of emerald green eyes glowed through the blackness. An echoing laugh surrounded my body.

  “So be it.” And everything went black.

  Chapter Three

  I groaned as I stretched slowly in bed. I breathed in deeply, the scent of my clean cotton duvet waking me with the usual comforting ease.

  I wondered how late I had slept in. I could tell it was well past morning even without opening my eyes. I knew as soon as I went downstairs, Ethel, our cook and sometimes maid, would shake her head and call me “Miss Lazybones.”

  I grinned at the thought.

  Miss Lazybones.

  Bones….

  The sudden snap of my arm breaking. The crack as my cheekbone shattered.

  The quickness of being shot.

  I jerked up.

  My room. I was back in my room.

  I looked down at myself. No broken bones, no blood, no bullet holes. I was completely whole and clean. I was even wearing my pajamas. “What the hell….”

  Was this real? Had that all just been a dream?

  But it couldn’t have been a dream. The pain had been all too real. Even now, I was too scared to put a hand down between my legs, afraid I’d feel the blood and semen of the men who had tortured me.

  Raking a hand through my hair, I tried to think back on that horrific night. I had been shot. I had been killed. And I had died. And then what?

  Blackness. All consuming, airless blackness that had surrounded me. I remembered the glowing embers. And I remembered a voice….

  A shiver ran down my spine as I remembered the voice. That raspy, harrowing voice that had promised me something dark and tempting. My heart’s desire.

  Was that what had happened? Was I sitting in my bed, whole and healthy, because the voice had followed through on our bargain?

  It seemed so crazy now. Now that I was in my room, daylight shining through my windows, all of it seemed absurd. What? I made a deal with the devil and now I was back in my old room?

  Whatever had happened, that was impossible. No devil. No deal. And just as I was about to get out of bed, ready to hear Ethel call me Miss Lazybones, the doorknob turned.

  I gasped, unable to help myself, and whirled around towards my bedroom door. I watched as the door slowly swung open. Standing in the doorway was the impossible.

  Liam grinned as he stood casually with his hands in his pants pockets. “Hello, Soph,” he said, his usual greeting to me.

  My mind raced. It was Liam. Liam hadn’t been here the night of the attack. And from what her murderers had said, Liam had been murdered as well.

  But here he was. Alive and whole and gorgeous as usual. My heart always sped up when Liam was around. I couldn’t help it. I watched as my older stepbrother crossed the room and walked towards the end of my bed.

  He looked taller than I remembered. Standing easily over six feet, his body seemed harder and wider than usual. His arms were sculpted like they were made from marble and his broad shoulders seemed stronger. Everything about him screamed fierceness and power. He looked primed and ready for battle.

  But that wasn’t what Liam was like. Her fun loving, sweet, protective Liam. He wasn’t fierce or battle ready. He was kind and funny. He liked to tease her about her boyfriends or take her out to lunch. This man in front of her looked like he would cut a man down for looking at her the wrong way.

  “Liam,” I said, my voice unsure and unsteady.

  Liam smiled. His smile still just as devastating as ever. But the smile never reached his eyes. His dark, emerald green eyes.

  My breath stopped.

  Liam had brown eyes.

  The green eyes glowed, throwing the rest of his chiseled face in shadow. With a sudden start, I remembered those glowing green eyes. I remembered our bargain. I remembered him.

  “It’s you,” I breathed, unable to accept the truth.

  That voice…that thing…had come back with her. Except he had come back in the bodies of one of the most beloved people in her life—her stepbrother.

  Liam’s grin widened, his eyes glowing. “That’s right,” he said, his voice taking on a familiar rasp. “It’s me.”

  Chapter Four

  “It’s you,” I said again, unable to tear my eyes away from him. “You’re not Liam.”

  The demon that inhabited Liam’s body smiled wryly and lowered his head. “Well, I’d say I did a pretty fair job in copying him, don’t you think?” He ran his fingers through his dark brown hair, made darker still now thanks to his green eyes.

  “Why?” I demanded. “Why do you look like Liam? Where’s Liam?”

  The demon walked over to my side of the bed. I tried my best not to recoil in fear. Standing over me, he ran a hand down the side of my face. Warm. Nearly human.

  How many times had I wanted Liam to do this in real life? How many times had I wanted him to look at me the way he was right now—with that burning heat that made my pulse race and breath pant?

  “Why do you care, Sophia?” he asked softly. “Isn’t this something you’ve always dreamed about? Your darkest fantasies?” He leaned down, his breath brushing against my cheek. And goddamn it all, I could feel my body heat, my thighs clenching.

  His hand ran down my neck and down my chest till he was cupping my left breast intimately. I gasped as his touch seared across my body. “Your body doesn’t seem to have a problem with it. In fact,” he whispered, the smile clear in his voice, “it seems to ache for it.”

  My mind was swirling as I tried to grasp at the situation at hand. Demon. Dead. Bargain. Murder. Family.

  I gasped.

  Liam’s hand was cupped between my legs. “Really aching for it,” he whispered, his amusement clear in his voice now.

  I shoved him away.

  Liam laughed as he stumbled back. He straightened up as he continued chuckling to himself.

  “Where’s Liam?” I asked again.

  “Dead,” the demon said shortly. “Well dead and in heaven or hell, depending on how good of a boy he had been while alive.”

  I could hardly breathe. Hearing Liam’s death spoken so nonchalantly made my heart nearly stop. It brought back every harrowing detail of that terrible night. I could only imagine what Liam had suffered as well.

  “Did he…Did he die quickly?” I whispered. Please let it be so.

  Demon Liam looked at me, his eyes detached and curious. “No,” he finally said. “It was quite slow. And quite agonizing.”

  I closed my eyes. Hot tears scalded my cheeks. Everyone I loved had been brutally ripped from me. They had had their lives ended viciously and abruptly. My heart broke in two, only to harden and turn into a stone filled with a fury that I didn’t think I could contain.

  I opened my eyes, glaring at the man that stood before me. “Then why are you here as him? Why do you look like Liam if he is dead?”

  Liam look
ed at me as if he was speaking to a slow child. “You said you needed help to find your murderers. I promised I would help.” He made a sweeping gesture down his front. “And here I am—help.”

  I opened my mouth to say that that didn’t answer my question but he raised a finger at me, shushing me. “And I’m here as this boy because I assumed it would be the least suspicious figure to take. Enough eyebrows will be raised when they realize Sophia Madewell has come back from the dead. No need to raise more by being accompanied by a mysterious stranger while on your vendetta.”