I was suddenly staring at the living room at home suddenly. The nice thrift store couch that was sagging in some places, the table with coffee rings, the ugly curtains my step mother insisted the room needed for fung shui.
And on the couch was stacks upon stacks of cash. Bundled and scattered around the room. My father sat in the middle of it laughing triumphantly.
"I still can't believe that idiot really paid us this much in cash!" My father laughed happily. "He can't take it back either! A deal is a deal,"
My stomach twisted.
"What kind of man would pay this much money for one girl? You really think he won't come back for us?" My stepmom asked.
"Does it matter honey? That stupid girl is his problem now."
"She's your daughter."
"This was the least she could do. I've spent years raising her alone since her mother died and it's cost me nothing but time and money and freedom. The brat was nothing more than the burden her mother left behind." Dad scoffed. Burden? "Besides why do you think I've been extra friendly lately and let you kick her out while I was at work! This is called getting a return on your investment! She finally had a use!"
Return on investment?
"Would you ever sell our baby?" My stepmom rubbed her stomach. She was pregnant? Since when?
"Of course not. Unlike Melody, having a little boy is actually exiting and worth something," dad assured her. "I'd never sell out my wife and son."
"Aren't you a little afraid that you swindled a devil into taking your daughter instead of your soul as promised?" My stepmom asked nervously. "What if she dies?"
"Well it's the demons fault for not being smart enough and not checking who I put as collateral. Better her than me," dad shrugged.
My heart shattered in that moment then and there. I always suspected that my dad didn't like me but recently I convinced myself I was imagining that because he's been making the effort, he was just hurt because I look so much like my mother... but he was just lowering my defenses to make room for that bitchy stepmom and her kid after sacrificing me.
My chest was aching like crazy and I couldn't help but start crying. Why am I so dumb? Why didn't I notice earlier that my family doesn't have hope in me? Why am I such a leftover thought?
I want to just break down and curl up into a ball... but I was too angry to feel that way.
How dare he trample on me like this?
Just because he could?
Why did everyone trample on me so much.
The strangers voice came from behind me suddenly. "Humans are seriously viscous creatures aren't they?"
The vision dissolved completely and I was back in the room just staring at the shitty glass ball.
"This isn't possible," I tried denying it one last time, but I didn't believe it at all myself.
"It's very possible. You know what a contract is, don't you? Well he put up a lot of conditions himself one being that if he defaulted on his payments to me, he would become collateral." The strangers voice came said in an irritated manner. "Ha, but he tricked me and gave me your dna to mark, making you the collateral for his debt instead of his own soul for servitude. Now the creditor is collecting."
"A demon creditor?" I scoffed.
"We have to make a living among the humans too," the stranger said. "You're worth quite a lot Melody Grace."
That doesn't make me feel better at all.
My life was forfeit.
There's gotta be something I could do! I got from the bed quickly and stood firmly. "Prove that you're actually a demon like you said! You seem more human than anything!"
"If you want to test me I can make you submit then."
the air around us changed suddenly.
Sweet and warm and addictive. It rolled over my tongue, sank into my lungs, curled inside my veins. My head swam. My legs weakened and my body betrayed me almost immediately. My frantic pulse began to slow. My eyelids grew heavy. Terror still screamed in the back of my mind, but it sounded farther away.
My legs gave out without warning. I caught myself on the edge of a nearby chair. My breathing turned shallow and rapid, trying to filter the air through my mouth instead of my nose, desperate to keep whatever this was.
It was useless.
I'd never felt anything like this before.
Not ever.
My head swam. The room tilted gently, firelight smearing into soft gold sparks across my vision. My knees trembled even though i was already leaning on the chair for support.
A strange, syrupy warmth pooled low in my belly. Unwanted, unasked for. My cheeks flushed with shame at the way my body responded. I hated it. I hated how my eyelids grew heavy, how the frantic terror in my mind began to feel so unimportant.
What was happening to me?
Was it the smell he knocked me out with? Magic? Some demonic trick? It didn't burn like poison would. It didn't hurt. It was seductive. It made my traitorous body want to obey even as my thoughts screamed no, no, no.
The strangers voice drifted through the haze, low and amused. "Shh. Don't fight the pull, Melody. It'll only make it sweeter when you finally give in. Though I must admit you're doing a fantastic job fighting it."
I tried to run but couldn't. The scent had rendered my limbs numb.
His hand settled at the small of my back, steady, warm, inescapable.
"Easy," he murmured against my temple. "Let it take you. You're mine, don't be afraid."
I didn't want to give in.
Fuck that!
But the scent kept pouring over me, thick and relentless, and my body was already sinking, terror fading into pleasurable calm.
He steered me toward the bed. My feet dragged. My body felt like it belonged to someone else. When the backs of my knees hit the mattress he pressed gently, and i folded. The silk sheets were cool against my overheated skin. I curled immediately onto my side, knees drawn up, arms wrapped tight around myself like armor.
He said nothing and covered me up before climbing back into bed himself.
To my surprise, He gave me space, barely a foot of silk between my trembling body and his relaxed one, but it felt like something terrible was going to happen. I could feel him there. Breathing. Watching.
For what I had no idea.
The smell kept pouring into the air. My thoughts grew sluggish. My eyelids fluttered.
The last thing i felt before darkness swallowed me whole was a slow, satisfied exhale against the nape of my neck and the quiet, possessive whisper on his lips.
"Melody. If you can resist the pheromones tonight, I won't take you right now."
I couldn't even react.
Then nothing.