Page 2 of Contract Marked (Interdimensional Beings #1)

Chapter Two

Erin

“T his is a prank,” I said, tearing my gaze away from the talking shadow to Megan. “Tell me this is a prank.”

But Megan hadn’t moved, wasn’t speaking. Just stared at the humanoid-shaped shadow with rounded eyes.

The shadow looked around the room with a bored expression—or so I assumed, as it was hard to make out the finer expressions of a shadow. A freaking talking shadow. This had to be a joke. This absolutely couldn’t be real. My brain whirred through possible logical explanations as the shadow tested the constraints of the salt circle. Dark digits splayed against an invisible wall, all that was separating the dark entity from Megan and me.

“Well?” The shadow spoke again, its tone surprisingly deep and smooth for a being without visible vocal cords. “What will it be? Riches, fame … love?”

Megan finally woke from her stupor. She fumbled around before pulling out her phone, the whites of her eyes visible in the backlight. “You’re not from Earth, right?” It looked as if she was taking notes or trying to take a picture—I couldn’t be sure.

The shadow cocked its head. “Knowledge is what you seek?”

I squinted at it, trying to make sense of the situation, but things were moving too fast. “Wait. I don’t …” My jaw felt tight. “I don’t think we should engage with it yet. Is there something in the book explaining this? Like how to get it to leave?” The shadow swung its dark head toward me, and I swore every hair on my body rose.

Megan shot me an incredulous look. “Something amazing is finally happening, and you want to just, what? Tell it to go home?” She shook her head, turning back to the shadow. “My name is Megan, and this is—”

“Stop it,” I hissed. “Don’t tell it our names!”

The shadow ignored me and bowed, creasing at the hip like a folded piece of paper. “Some call me Dezmandaro. You may call me Dez.”

“Dez,” Megan said, with an awed smile on her face. I don’t know how she wasn’t completely freaking out. I was freaking out, searching for some kind of logical explanation. A gas leak? Were we experiencing some bizarre, shared hallucination? Perhaps the food we had tonight went bad?

“Where did you come from?” she asked.

“I came from The Higher Realms,” he said as if we knew where the hell that was.

Megan’s breath stuttered and her fingers were flying at her phone. “You … you’re not human, right?”

“I’ve been called many things. God, alien, demon, angel, fae, monster, take your pick. However, human has not been one of them.”

That wasn’t helpful at all.

“Do you know—”

“You summoned some demon to interview it?” I interrupted, staring at my friend. Was this really happening? Was there seriously some strange monster—whatever the hell this thing was—standing in my small living room in the middle of some flimsy salt circle?

Megan scowled at me before pulling something up on her phone, showing Dez whose shadowy head tilted at. How was she acting so normal? I thought about turning on the overhead light, but would that send the entity away? Is that what I want? The fortune teller’s warning hovered at the forefront of my thoughts.

In a panic, I flipped the switch closest to where I sat, still semi-crouching on the floor. The room flooded with light, and Megan gasped. I hoped the shadow was gone, dissipating in the light, and this whole crazy fiasco was over and done with.

One of the most handsome men I’ve ever seen stood in the middle of the salt circle where the shadow had once been. He was tall, taller than even what was tall for a human, brushing the height of my ceiling, wearing a navy suit that fit his broad shoulders and lean build perfectly. His dirty blonde hair was slicked back, and a pair of piercing blue eyes peered between the two of them but mainly focused on my friend, who was staring up at him in shock as much as I was.

Dez hit every one of Megan’s checkboxes, and I could see the blatant attraction in her gaze, tinged with wariness. A scary thought popped into my mind: Is this its real form? Wasn’t there some fairy tale or folklore about creatures luring people away by disguising themselves as beautiful people?

“What do you want?” The question slipped out of me before I could help it.

“That depends,” the not-so-much shadow answered as if nothing had happened, but the smirk he—it—wore spoke otherwise. “You summoned me, so tell me, what do you wish for?” His gaze leisurely assessed both of us before settling on Megan.

Is this thing some kind of genie, then? Do we get three wishes? I snorted. Those blue eyes bounced to mine again and narrowed a fraction, making me swallow. Even if it did grant wishes, what was the cost? I wasn’t going to lie; riches sounded mighty tempting. I could do all the things I’ve always wanted to do without the financial ball and chain to hold me back. I could travel the country, stay in fancy hotels, and have those nice, classy meals. Open that bookstore in a small rural town somewhere beautiful, or maybe just start with enough money to buy a decent set of furniture for my barren apartment.

It sounded too good to be true. “What do you get out of this?”

Dez’s grin showed a perfect set of straight, white teeth. “Tell me what it is you wish for, and I’ll let you know my price.”

Again, that wasn’t helpful.

Megan looked at me, and I recognized the look. It was the same look she gave me before she asked me to go to a stranger’s dinner party with her, the same look she used tonight when she asked me to bleed on my floor and make salt circles.

“Megan, don’t—”

“We can wish for anything?” she asked anyway.

I wanted to protest; there was no we in this situation, but we both knew whatever happened, I wouldn’t let Megan get hurt. While she focused on Dez, I scooted closer to her, my eyes slipping to the book still resting on the coffee table between us, skimming the pages for anything helpful.

I noticed a footnote, something about the Laws of the Higher Realms. Maybe that meant there were rules, some sort of instructions on how to navigate this.

Or better yet, maybe I’ll wake up, and this will all be one wild dream.

Out of my peripheral, I swore I felt Dez’s gaze shift to me again as he said, “Within reason. We can easily manipulate your realm more than you can, but like all realms, there are limitations.”

Such as? I thought, but he didn’t continue. I wonder if it was because he didn’t want to admit to any limitations on his own power.

“We should read further before agreeing to anything,” I said, hoping Megan would just wait a damn minute while my brain caught up. “I don’t want to burn in some kind of eternal hell in exchange for like twenty bucks.” I forced out a laugh.

Dez looked at an invisible watch. “As much as I’d love to stay in this … interesting abode, time is of the essence. Speak now, or I shall take my leave.”

“No, wait, just give us one moment.” Megan smiled, and Dez’s smile mirrored hers almost immediately.

I scowled at Dez. He was rushing her on purpose.

“We don’t know what it is or what it wants,” I whispered when she gathered close to me, our heads almost touching.

Megan, thankfully, nodded. “So, we settle on a wish and ask his price.” She looked way too excited and not nearly frightened enough.

“Do we have to?”

“Yes! To wish for anything? Are you crazy? I’m not letting this chance slip by.” She wriggled her brows. “And he’s freaking gorgeous.”

I rolled my eyes, almost grateful to have some normalcy in all of this. “What would you even wish for? You’re beautiful, you have what’s-his-face, and an awesome modeling career. You have everything. What more could you want?” I couldn’t believe we were actually having this conversation. This has, hands down, been the strangest day of my entire life.

“Maybe something’s still missing,” she whispered, and suddenly, I felt a distance between us. It was as if Megan had been hiding things from me for some time now.

“The clock is ticking,” said Dez, and panic struck Megan’s features.

I hate this person—thing—whatever. He was playing her.

“I want to go back to your world with you,” my friend blurted.

“What? No!”

She ignored me and cleared her throat. “Let me rephrase: I want to visit your world for a day, then be given the choice to stay or return to this apartment, safe and unharmed.” She flashed me a reassuring smile, but I was far from reassured.

“Megan, don’t do this.”

Dez’s grin grew wider, if that was even possible, making him look less like he walked off a movie set and more like the demon he probably was. “Interesting. In exchange, I want—”

“Twenty-four hours,” I added quickly, glancing at Megan. “Twenty-four hours of our time here. On Earth.” Who knew how different time went wherever Dez came from? Megan nodded eagerly, repeating the line to Dez. I can’t believe she was doing this, but like hell, if I was going to let Megan get swindled. The only issue was I wasn’t good at thinking on my feet. I wasn’t witty or clever when it came to dangerous situations like Megan thought. I was just lucky, with time and an overthinking brain on my side, but right now, things were moving too fast and too far out of my element.

Dez frowned but continued, “In exchange, I want that book.” He pointed at the one in front of me, which I was skimming and flipping through in a last-ditch effort to find a clear-cut instruction manual.

That’s it? I didn’t dare say it out loud, but judging by Megan’s expression she was thinking it too. “What’s so important in that book?” Megan echoed my thoughts.

Dez flicked an imaginary speck of dust off his shoulder. “Take it or leave it, sweetheart.”

I turned back to the book in question. In the back was an index referencing names, objects, and rituals. Further in, there was another section. I didn’t understand most of it, being in the same odd language, but there were notes written in English, and I caught on that this was a section of rules—laws that hopefully something like Dez would have to abide by.

“Wait, before you agree to anything, there’s a section here for rules and regulations.” My finger skimmed the page, and Megan leaned over me.

To my horror, Dez started to count down.

Megan’s eyes widened, and before I could de-escalate the situation, she agreed to the terms. Dez’s smile returned, his eyes focused only on Megan with an expression I couldn’t read. My heart was racing, my eyes scanning the page, but no magical right or wrong was jumping out at me. Megan was agreeing too fast, for me to fully think anything through.

“Repeat after me,” Dez said, blood oozing from his palm where he had withdrew a knife and cut himself. He uttered a phrase in another language.

“Wait, please just wait ,” I begged, trying to think of ways to buy more time or save Megan from herself.

Megan took the knife from outside the salt circle and cut herself in a similar fashion. She repeated the phrase, albeit not nearly as eloquent, her hand oozing blood.

“Now, bring the book and come here.” Dez beckoned with his hand.

No, no, no… this couldn’t be the end. Megan wasn’t really doing this, was she? Maybe this was just one crazy dream. Just a crazy, insanely realistic dream.

“I’ll be okay,” Megan said, holding out her hand for the book in front of me. I almost wanted to grip it harder, refusing when the lights began to flicker, the candle flame bending back and forth from an unseen wind.

“The contract is sealed, the terms will need to be met, or else your life will be forfeited to me entirely,” Dez said, telling this important detail after the fact.

“If you do anything to her, I’ll … I’ll kill you!” I summoned as much hate and anger as I could into my glare directed at the being. Dez ignored me entirely, focused solely on Megan and the book.

The book, something was in here he didn’t want us to know.

Smoke filled the room. A candle had fallen over, catching the curtain on fire.

Still clenching the book, the only thing keeping Dez and Megan here, I leaped toward the flame, trying to stomp it out.

“The book, now .” Dez’s calm facade broke slightly, his eyes darkening, teeth bared at Megan.

Megan swallowed and reached for the giant tome. I knew I couldn’t keep her here; it was too late, and soon, my apartment would be in flames.

“Please, Erin, before this whole place catches fire!”

“Don’t go!” I shouted as she yanked the book from my clutches and walked toward Dez. “Don’t go! Please !” I yelled again, and this time, something broke in my chest. Megan was my only friend, my only family. If she left, I had no one.

Megan looked at me as she crossed the salt circle, Dez’s arm snaking around her waist in an instant.

“I’m sorry,” she said before they both disappeared into thin air.

The fire vanished alongside their departure. Not even a black stain was left behind, and a part of me wondered if it had even been real. If Dez had somehow created an illusion to rush Megan into possibly the worst decision of her life.

“If you’re not back in twenty-four hours, I will bring you back here, no matter the cost,” I whispered to the empty room, glancing down at the wad of paper in my hand. Pages I had ripped out of the book before Megan took it with her.