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“He’ll be back,” the demon waved, dismissively, the sleeves of his robe fluttering.

Before another nasty retort could escape Evan’s mouth, the demon covered the distance between them in a split second. Swiftly and effortlessly.

Upon the sudden breach of his personal space, Evan’s limbs froze in place. The demon came dangerously close, dropping his face to Evan’s level.

“Your core.”

Evan blinked, then clenched his jaws. “What about it?”

He tucked a warm finger under Evan’s chin, lifting his face up. “Close it. Unless you’d willingly choose to be vulnerable before me.”

His tone was...different. So was his speaking style. He sounded less ancient, like talking to an upgraded version of the old demon.

What had he been doing while he was gone all this time? Surfing Duolingo?

“Close it,” the demon said.

Evan’s frown dropped.

The demon was right.Fuck, he was right.

But wasn’t this a favorable situation for him? With Evan’s core of energy exposed, the demon could easily suck all his spiritual energy out of his body within an instant. That was usually the case when creatures of the dark encountered vulnerable humans with naturally abundant spiritual energy who had no idea how to control it.

But why was this demon asking Evan toclosehis core of energy? Was he senile?

Evan’s eyes narrowed at the towering face, “If you’re trying to get my guard down—”

“Your guard is weaker than a wall of paper.”

“Excuse me?”

Moving impossibly close, the demon shoved his face into Evan’s. “Close it.”

The proximity made Evan hold his breath. He forced himself to concentrate.Onlybecause his core of energy was the last thing that could protect him. And if he died with his channel closed, the demon would never be able to absorb his spiritual energy. How satisfying that would be.

A few seconds later, Evan’s eyes opened, and the glow slowly faded from his skin.

“Good,” the demon brushed his lips against Evan’s jaws, making Evan jump away from him. As clumsy as ever, he tripped against his own slippers before falling flat on his ass.

A curse broke out of him. Ignoring the sting in his backside, Evan scraped his jaws where the demon had kissed him, face scrunched. “You creep, I will fucki—”

The demon crouched near Evan, expression part amusement, part disapproval. “Why do you keep hurting yourself?”

“Why do you keep popping uninvited into my house, fucker?”

The scarlet eyes, which had dimmed, started blazing again as the demon’s brows furrowed slightly. His voice dropped an octave. “You’ve got quite a mouth on you.”

“Oh, you have no ide—”

“Stop talking.”

Evan’s lips clamped shut on their own, leaving him blinking. From this angle of the demon—all dark and incorrigibly mysterious—the suppressed fear crawled back onto the surface of Evan’s conscience.

What am I doing, arguing with a demon?If he wasn’t careful, he would be joining his dog soon.

But for something unhuman and from the depths of hell, this particular demon wasn’t really all that different from humans. Not like Evan had any previous demonic encounters to compare it to, but he was definitely different from what Evan had imagined a demon would look like.

If he looked human, maybe he could also be manipulated as one too. With a deep inhale, Evan shifted the gears in his head, then calmly said, “Look, I freed you—”