Page 24

It clicked, then.

Fear.

Melchom’s threat had drowned him in fear. That was their deal. He was letting the demon use him to feed off him, off his fear and the emotions that scared him.

“Does that taste nice?” he dared to ask, even though he felt his voice shaking. He hadn’t moved, but he held the demon’s gaze from his position in the bed.

“You’d like to know?” The demon smirked.

“I aim to please.” He didn’t even stutter, this time shuffling closer to Melchom while keeping the duvet on himself. “Is that the best you can do, though?”

To be fair, Dave didn’t quite know what took over him, only that he was running on adrenaline, and a stupid part of him had made the executive decision to stay on it.

“You don’t want to see the best I can do, tiny human.” Melchom touched him as he spoke, his big hand sliding down his hair to the side of his body, nails leaving the faintest of scratches behind.

Dave’s body leaned forward, unable to stop the shiver that coursed down his spine. It had nothing to do with the—rising—temperature in the room or fear. It was all lust, and it threatened to drown Dave in shame later when he could think straight.

“Are you sure?”

“I am,” Melchom laughed. “I have to say, I like the fire in your eyes. It’s a good look for someone so… fragile.”

“Assuming I’m fragile is your first mistake.”

The demon seemed to take the words in, pausing for a second before his hold on Dave’s waist tightened, nails digging deeper. “Is it now?”

“Yeah.”

Melchom kept smirking at him. It was hard to remember why, or keep up with their banter—did it count as dirty talk?

“Put on the clothes I got you, human.”

A part of Dave wanted to refuse again. He didn’t, even though he felt… emboldened. The demon was probably laughing about how petty Dave was, but he didn’t care.

Of course, it would’ve looked prettier if it didn’t take him a couple of minutes to figure out where all the straps went. It would’ve also helped if he’d magically known how to adjust everything without asking for help.

He did it, though.

Would he be able to ask Melchom for a mirror?

It felt almost criminal to finally wear the kind of getup he’d only dreamed about and not be able to twirl around and see.

“Such a gorgeous little thing,” Melchom hummed, reminding Dave he was right there. Dave’s breath hitched as he looked back in his direction. “You look better than I thought, too.”

“How is that meant to scare me?”

“It’s not.” The demon winked, though, and that couldn’t mean anything good. “I thought you’d noticed by now, part of the game is not letting you know when to expect anything.”

He had noticed. It paralyzed him with pure terror if he stopped to think too hard about it, though, which was why he didn’t do it. At least, that was the reason he’d give if asked—not that he got distracted by a million other things every time he tried to sit down and really analyze every word they’d exchanged.

A sigh left his lungs. It sucked to accept, but maybe he would be the cliché gay guy in the horror movie one way or another.

“You keep thinking about bad movies,” Melchom mused out loud, head cocked to the side.

The light from that high window reflected on his horns more when he did that. They looked shiny, like an onyx. Dave’s arm was lifting to touch them before his survival instincts could kick in.

“What are you doing, tiny human?”

Dave didn’t answer. There was no way he could utter fully-fledged sentences that were going to make sense. When Melchom took a step back, though… That made things interesting. It gave him the last boost he needed to stand up in the bed, to cut the distance between his reaching fingers and the horns.