“Okay,” I breathed out. “Not surewhatto say. We’ve been gravitating around each other for so long there are lots of good and bad memories.”
“We’ve only seen you defending or saving him. I’m sure he must have done it too in the past, hasn’t he?” Aymeric asked.
I smiled. “Oh, that he did.”
On many occasions, actually. I was pretty sure he savedmemore often than I did him. Or at least, his saves seemed more important. So, I started with the most life-changing one.
“1620. I’d been tied to a lousy Archdemon in London for a few years, and most of his tie group was made of Succubi and a few Incubi…which was why he created a brothel. He only had a couple of other demons that served as bouncers and memory wipers for customers who had…peculiar tastes.
“We were barely allowed to leave, and depraved customers kept coming back. After all, we could takeanyappearance. The Archdemon used to question the customers on their tastes before stashing them in rooms and coming to get us, instructing us on the changes we needed to make to please them.
“The things I’d witnessed and been forced to do there…I mean, I’m a Succubus, and it still makes me nauseous to this day.
“But there was this…particularly cruel man that kept coming. I’d say three to four times a week, always asking for the same thing. He liked his women to be not quite women yet. And the Arch was too happy to provide.”
I paused to take a sip of my coffee, my throat turning a little too dry at the memories.
“Other Succubus were weaker than I was, and struggled to keep such a small appearance for enough time for him to do his business. As repulsive and old as he was, that priest had stamina. So that task was forced onme.
“I’ll spare you the details of all the things he wanted and kept coming for. Of my fellow Succubi’s disgust and fear every time he steppedinside the building. But when he was done, no matter how many times I puked and washed myself, I still felt dirty and hollow inside.”
I turned to Marcus, whose face was stone cold.
“You know we can’t really do anything against our tied Archdemon’s orders. That, even demons can have a fucking conscience. It killed me from the inside to do that. Being a whore has always been inconvenient, but…that?It was sick. Itmade mesick.
“One day, that priest went too far. He asked the Archdemon to buy me. So he wouldn’t have to go there anymore, and to keep me for himself. He didn’t like the idea of other men tainting me, unaware that he was the only man asking for that particular form. That it was not my real one.
“Foolish of me to think that the Arch would refuse. That selling me would mean he’d lose one of his most precious assets. But I didn’t fully grasp the extent of that Arch’s greed.
“The priest offered a price no one should have been able to pay. And the fact that he could use me whenever he wanted would taint his black soul even more, granting the Arch enormous power when he would inevitably pass away.
“So he worked around it a little, but agreed. He would not sell me, butleaseme. For the price the priest offered, he was allowed to take me away, but return me after three years. After all, three years later, I was supposed to look…older.Not to his taste anymore.”
“For fuck’s sakes…” Marcus muttered. “That’s not ahappystory, that’s a fucking—”
“Will you let me finish?” I interrupted, annoyed. “It startsreally bad, but I’m getting to the point.”
He snorted, stuffing another full pastry into his mouth while Aymeric stared at me, pity in his eyes.
“The sick fuck took me away then, after I was ordered by my Arch to comply and do as I was told, to only come back in three years. I was stashed into a cage, withothers. Others Iknewwere humans and not grown up Succubi only pretending to be younger.
“So I made sure he always picked me. I didn’t know what they'd been through before I got there, and I didn’t want them to suffer any longer. I’d been there for a week when I felt Dimitri getting closer. I knew that, if I felt him, he was feeling me too. That he could sense my fear. My pain.
“It took him two hours to find the cave. Ten minutes, waiting in the shadows until the priest came back for his daily abuse. Three seconds to make his head burst from the inside out, leaving him a headless, bloody mess on the floor. He got all of us out and into safety before taking me away. Walking right past the brothel and making it crumble with everyone inside it.
“He knew it wouldn’t kill the Arch or the other members of my tie, but it was the only thing stopping him from barging in and making a carnage. And it would take time for the Arch to find another place and set up another brothel.”
“What happened after?” Aymeric asked.
“Yeah, you weretiedto the Arch. Were you not forced to go back?”
I shrugged. “He did order me to come back after three years, and the man I had to ‘listen’ to was dead.”
Marcus stared at me, unblinking. “So what, you just left? Because of aloophole?”
“I’ve never been as fortunate again after that. My next Archdemons always made sure to weigh their words.”
“So the news of your escape and temporary freedom spread?” Marcus asked. “Must have been a fun three years, however short it was.”
