Dinner was really good. I hadn’t known
what to expect. I had never had a demon cook for me before. Was their demon
cuisine? I couldn’t really imagine what it could be. Maybe the still beating
heart of the innocent? A freshly plucked soul boiled in the tears of the
tortured damned? SPAM? I had no clue, and I really didn’t know how to ask.
When Pasta Puttanesca was placed on the
table, with a side of golden brown garlic break I was pleasantly
surprised.
“This looks amazing.” My mouth was
watering. “Where’d you learn to cook Italian?”
Dante smiled, taking the seat across
from me. “I once hunted the soul of an Italian chef. Hunting souls requires a
lot of recon work, and while I was watching him, I picked up on a few of his
recipes.”
“Do you…” I paused, just a tad bit
uncomfortable. “Did you end up getting his soul?”
Dante shook his head. “We may hunt the
souls, but in the end, they have to give them to us willingly. I couldn’t
corrupt him, not enough. So, he ended up getting away.”
“I’m sorry… I guess.”
“I didn’t feel bad, and I still don’t.”
Dante didn’t even flinch. “Demons don’t have a high success rate. While there
is plenty of evil in the world, and we are responsible for plenty of it, there
is also a lot of good. More good, actually. I know I’m a demon, and I’m not
supposed to say this, but… I kind of like it that way.”
“Well, I don’t know your sister all
that well, but she seems more mischievous than outright evil.” I took a
tentative bite of the pasta, and my mouth seemed to explode with delicious
flavor. “You… well, you could be playing me completely, and you probably are,
but I have to admit, you seem pretty nice.”
“Nice?” He cocked an eyebrow.
“You don’t understand boundaries, but
you seem nice enough.” I gave him a half mile. “I just don’t know if I can
trust you. How do I know you aren’t hunting my soul?”
“You don’t know,” he said. “I’m not,
but I know that trust is not the first reaction you have when dealing with a
demon.”
“So,” I cleared my throat, wanting to
change the subject, “why did you decide to follow your sister here?”
“Boredom.” Dante shrugged. “I haven’t
had a project in a while, and I thought I could tag along, see if I could get
into any trouble while she worked.”
“I’m your trouble?”
“You could be.” Dante leaned forward.
“You could be a lot of different things. All of that is up to you, though.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that. I
didn’t really know what I wanted from Dante, or how I wanted the night to go.
He confused me. He made my head spin, and he made me question every move he
made. Part of that was because he was a demon, but the other part was because
he made me feel something I haven’t felt in a long time. He made me feel that
flutter in my stomach. He excited me.
It wasn’t just the way he looked, but
the way he held himself. Every word out of his mouth seemed to tease me, and it
was starting to drive me nuts. In a good way. At least, it felt like it was good.
Maybe it was all wrong, and I was still messing around with a demon here. I
could end up with my soul sucked out of me, and cast into the fiery pits of
hell, but… what if he really wanted me?
I hated admitting how much I wanted him
to want me. To really want me. It felt so desperate.
“Where’d you go?” Dante put his hand on
mine.
“Nowhere.” I shook my head. “You’re a
really good cook.”
“You said that.” He smiled, and I could
feel his fingertips gently caressing the top of my hand.
He was turning out to be my trouble.
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