As he walks toward me, I try to dislodge the metal by gripping the rod and pulling it out of me—but I scream again when I realize there's a massive fuckingbarbinside of me. If I rip this thing out, it's going to take out a chunk so big that if I survive, regenerating the hole in my body would take hours.
Trying not to writhe from the pain, I look up at the asshole, noting that one of the bollards around the pump is now missing.
"You're a metal elemental," I choke, putting two and two together.
He crouches beside me to smirk down with dark gray eyes. When he speaks, the flash of a tongue piercing catches the dim lighting over the gas pumps.
"And you're about to be the dumbest fucking vamp I've ever killed.Khaîle,asshole.”
He flicks his hand, and the metal spike inside me starts to move.
"Wait—please, wait," I hold up a bloodied hand, desperate enough to beg because there's absolutely no way fucking way that I'm leaving this earth until I see Heidi again.
When the elemental grins, I see that a couple of his teeth are pointed. Almost like fangs.
Or…no, more like the even slighter points of demon teeth.
"Tell you what, vamp, I'll let you live in exchange for an infernal pledge," he offers.
I hiss as my body tries again to fix the damage with the metal still inside me. Siphons like me—vampires, sirens, incubi, and so on—have the ability to regenerate and heal faster than any of the other Houses, but sometimes that can be used against us like this, to prolong pain.
"A what?" I grimace. "Is that like a blood oath or something?"
"Nah, it's just a thing some demons do. Can't trust each other worth shit, so these come in handy."
I let my head drop to the cold asphalt so my neck can rest, my fangs aching as crippling hunger plagues me even now, bleeding out in front of this gas station.
My breaths are getting raspy. I'm pretty sure he nicked a few organs, and feeling those trying to grow back around the metal fuckinghurts."Wild guess here, but areyoua demon?"
"Half-demon, yeah."
"Just my luck," I rasp, in too much pain and thirst to think clearly. "Look, I won't attack you, okay? Just get this fucking thing out of me, and we can part ways."
He snorts. "What, all peacefully? Nah, it's either a swift death here or a pledge. I promise I'm not gonna ask for your soul or some shit—I wouldn't even know what to do with a slimy vampire soul. Now, repeat after me.Per nomen to.”
"Is this demonology?" I grit out.
"Fuck around and find out. Come on, what've you got to lose, anyway? Do you wanna live, or don't you?"
Damn it, I really need to live. All I can think about is how fucking pathetic it would be to die here like this, after everything I've been through—without getting to see Heidi or her smile again.
Adjusting my position on the cold asphalt to make the metal in my stomach hurt a bit less, I glare at the half-demon elemental. “Per nomen to.”
He whistles. "What awful pronunciation."
"Just keep going, hell-spawn," I scowl.
"Ad thamas quiem."
"Ad thamas quiem."
"Agapáte,"he says before motioning at himself. “Seit Mezzakhiel.”
I finish repeating after him. On the last word, a harsh chill rolls over my body for a second before fading. I'm starting to black out a little from the pain of this thing jutting into my stomach and out of my back, but the half-demon looks satisfied and makes a motion with his hand.
The air whooshes painfully from me as I feel the metal inside me contort again, smoothing and slipping until it drops to the asphalt, freed from my stomach.
I swear with relief, one hand going to the place where I was just run through. Since I've been feeding so fucking much, it doesn't take my body long to repair the damage left behind.
