I didn’t realize I was shaking until I saw black blood trickling from her neck. I shoved her and straightened, taking three steps back from her poisonous body. Mary sat up and pushed off the desk, her hips swaying as she came toward me.
“We could be partners, you and I,” she said. “Imagine the fun we could have together. Chasing demons and horrible people. We could toy with them, fuck over their dead bodies once we’ve rid the world of their terror.”
“Unleashing you upon the world would be terror enough,” I countered.
“I’ll behave,” she said, a smile lifting her dark lips. She paused just before me and lifted her chin smugly. “Break the glass, Damon,” she said as she looked to her left.
I followed her gaze to the mirror, and Mary moved behind me, her head poking around my shoulder, her arms curling around my chest. Shadowed hands draped over me. I couldn’t turn away from our reflections—the power and devastation in us together, both covered in scars left behind from pasts we’d run from.
We were the same, she and I.
And I was devastated for her.
For her tease, her taste, her curves. Fire reflected off her poison red hair as she stepped past the circle’s line and toward her mirror. Something tugged at my gut. Something that told me not to let her go. Probably just my cock being greedy for the feel of her again, but…
“What did you do to me, demon?” I snapped.
Mary stood up on her toes and bit the lobe of my ear. “Shown you your darkest desire,” came her venomous whisper. “What will it be, my love?”
I didn’t answer.
My silence chilled the room. The candles flickered like a breeze had washed over them. I had only a few minutes to make that decision. Keep her, control her with the necklace I had, with the threat of death, and hope to hell that she didn’t kill me. Or force her back in that mirror for another idiot to come along and set her free—one that might not know how to handle her, one that might be ignorant to her games.
Mary kissed my cheek and stepped in front of me. An almost sadness filled her gaze as she wrapped her hands against my face and then gave me a kiss, one that burned my lips after she let me go.
“Will you summon me again?” she asked as she moved backward toward the mirror, apparently having given up that I would set her free.
I hesitated.
I could. I could summon her anytime I wished. I could take the mirror with me. She would be mine to control and wield, once a year, a few hours at a time.
Or…
“Maybe,” I answered.
Her lips quirked upward at the corner, but she just turned on her heel.
With one last glance at me through the reflection, she blew a kiss, then stepped one foot inside the mirror, the glass rippling like water over the surface.
“Until next time, Damon,” she said.
My heart dropped. Every muscle curled with anxiety as I watched her move in slow motion back into that prison. Sunlight dared to crack over the horizon. I couldn’t breathe.
And for whatever reason, I grabbed the fire poker beside the armchair.
“Bargain with me,” I said.
Mary paused. “What?”
“Swear you’ll never run away from me or disappear, that you’ll never kill me, and I’ll set you free,” I said.
She pulled her leg from inside the mirror, her eyes wide with surprise. “I swear.”
“Swear on this.“ I pulled the necklace out, and Mary swallowed.
Mary nodded. “I swear on whatever is left of my existence, on my necklace.”
The necklace glowed, and I knew the bargain had been made. I tossed the poker over in my hands and looked past her into the mirror again.
