“A baby,” he said as if he was asking for a tissue.
“What makes you think I’m giving you my child?”
“Because you don’t want it. You’ve been on the pill for how long now? Fifteen years? You certainly haven’t been planning on having a child when you had the brothers in that delightful ménage-à-trois. Or that little escapade with the vampire. It’s an accidental pregnancy.”
“That doesn’t mean I give it to the devil.”
“You won’t be giving it for free. I have an offer for you I know you can’t resist.”
“I’m not listening to you. Get out of my head.”
“If you’re really that assertive about keeping that baby for yourself, then it won’t hurt if you just listen and refuse.”
“I am. I’m not giving you my child. I’d rather abort it.”
He smirked. “Every day you prove to me I was right about my choice. When I told you to come back to town, I didn’t want you to just take my seat here. Here’s my offer to you, my sweet prodigy. If you give me your baby, the underworld will be yours to rule.”
Before I could tell him he was crazy, he continued. “Would you rather be a single mother to a baby monster whose father can’t take care of something as simple as keeping a house clean, let alone taking care of a child he never wanted, or…the ruler of an entire kingdom where you can do and have anything?
“Picture this. No consequences. No shame. No guilt. No one cheats on you ever again or leaves you at the altar. You can have all the men you want without someone calling you a patch whore. Everything will be under feet, Vixen. You can have another baby if you want. With whomever you choose. And they will want it because who doesn’t want to have a child with the queen of the underworld?”
Frozen and dazzled, my mind lost the ability to form coherent words.
“Like I told you earlier, your acceptance of the dark side is amazing. Have you ever thought why?”
“Why?” I murmured.
“Because of your own dark side, darling.” He made a sound as if he was eating something delicious. “It’s so big and beautiful. I mean, sleeping with your students, ruining your ex’s life taking the job of his dreams, and let me assure you, your little exposé in front of his fiancé would definitely break them up later.
“And look at what you’ve done to the Blood Demons? Steel brothers, nothing to tear them apart until you came. Less than two months and they were killing each other because of you.”
I grimaced. “Russell got what he deserved.”
“I know.”
“I didn’t mean to tear the boys apart. Everything I did with any of them was real.”
“Still, it was wrong.”
My scowl deepened. “Are you saying that I’m evil? Is that why you think I’ll fit as the new devil? Is that why you want to raise my spawn?”
“Yes.”
“Oh my God.”
“No,” he scolded. “He has no room in this conversation.”
“Get out of my head, Damien. You can tell your fucking Isabella to back off. I’m not giving her my baby. She put you up to this?”
“No. She doesn’t know anything about it. It’s a surprise gift.” His face suddenly blazed, and his eyes were bloodshot. “But insult her again, and you and I will have a completely different conversation.”
He vanished. A blur of light replaced the darkness.
“Vixen…can you hear me?” Malcolm’s voice came as if from under water. “Vixen?”
I opened my eyes for real this time. “I’m not evil, and I’m not scared of you. You can go to hell.”
My brother frowned. “What?”
