Chapter 7

SERA

One minute I was sure a bullet was about to go through my brain and the next, Damian De Demon was breaking bones and reminding me how much of a liability I was.

"You are a liability I cannot afford to lose right now. Remember that the next time you think your life is something you get to gamble with.”

Those words almost brought tears out of my eyes, but the look he gave me took them back. Like he was irritated by me, but most especially my tears.

The lady looked at me immediately as he left. Leaving us standing at the same spot where we were almost killed while he walked back inside to finish up whatever he had started.

“He's not always like this,” she assured but I knew she was lying. The demon was always like that, or even worse, but I nodded regardless. She had tried to defend me earlier and even though she was ignored, that simple gesture meant a lot.

“Thank you,” I whispered and she smiled. She was clearly still in pain. “What do we do about your wound?”

“We?” She asked with a raised brow and I shrugged.

“I guess we are in this together now, aren't we?” I asked and she chuckled before hissing in pain.

“Sorry,” I whispered.

“It's fine Sera,” she said softly and I nodded.

“Can you stay here for a few minutes?” She asked and my eyes widened immediately. “I promise I'll be back, I just need to get something inside real quick,” she assured but it didn't help.

“What if someone shoots me?” I asked and she smiled.

“Trust me, no one would dare to try that again.”

I swallowed then. “A few minutes?”

“Fewer than you can imagine,” she assured before walking inside, leaving me with my heart almost in my hands.

I had waited for just two minutes before I decided to follow her, it was better than standing alone where you almost got shot and that way, I’d be sure she was okay.

I knew I had lost her immediately when I entered the building. The hallways inside the building branched and turned in ways that made no sense, every door closed, every corridor identical to the last. I should have turned back, I told myself that even as I kept walking, drawn forward by something I couldn't name — dread, maybe, or the same reckless curiosity that had pulled me out of the car in the first place.

I heard the sound then. A scream that I knew immediately was a human, I should have turned back then, but I didn't.

I walked towards the sound and paused in front of the door. It was cracked open just enough to see what was inside and before I could decide whether to look or not, my body moved before suddenly freezing. The room was bright, too bright for what was going on inside it. A man, barely recognizable as one anymore, sat slumped in a chair, blood pooling beneath him in a way that didn't seem real. His face filled with pain and revenge, but the demon didn't care. He simply stood over him, calm, and unbothered with a blade in his hand. He said something before reaching for the saw, ready to cut him up and that was when a gasp left me before I could stop it. Every head turned towards the door. I wanted to run, wanted to escape the demon but my legs betrayed me.

"I can see you have a problem with obedience, Moretti," he said then, flat and unaffected, like my presence in that doorway was simply another minor inconvenience in his evening.

I didn't answer, I simply looked at him, then at his hands that were covered in the poor man's blood.

“Take her to the car,” he said casually and someone suddenly held me, pulling me away from the door gently. Away from the blood and the smell and the calm, terrible voice that belonged to my husband.

************************************************

I didn't remember walking to the car. All that was in my head was the blood and how casual killing was to my husband. I sat in the dark car while my hands shook in my lap, suddenly unable to stop.

Damian joined me several minutes later, I didn't look at him and he didn't speak to me either.

“Move,” he ordered and I shifted just as the car moved. The car was filled with silence then, a different one from silence on the way here. I slowly turned back and saw the other cars following us and I suddenly remembered Christy, was she in one of those cars? I turned back and pressed my forehead against my palm, my mind dwelling on the bloody man who was obviously dead by now and how the killer was in the car with me, taking me home as his wife.

The estate gate opened ahead of us, and this time the sight of them actually registered for what it meant. It was not a building I was passing through on my way to somewhere else, it was my home now. A place I'd share with him, a killer.

I had barely had time to process the thought before our car drove inside, and stopped in front of a mansion. It was beautiful, but in a cold way that made my belly twist in fear. A figure opened the door from outside and Damian stepped out, I opened the other side quietly and got down. I saw Christy then, she smiled when she saw me, as though she had been looking for me. She looked a little cleaned up, and for the first time since that gruesome sight, my chest warmed a little. One of his men led her inside, leaving me with the demon and one of his men. The fear returned again. He looked at me for a few seconds, before turning to his man. “Take her to her room,” he said and turned to me. “Lock it.”

I blinked then, the words landing slowly, like they needed extra time to mean what I thought they meant.

"Lock it? Why—"

But he was already walking away and before I knew what was going on, I was inside a room that was about to be locked.

“It’s not what you think,” the man said and locked the door, confirming that it was exactly what I thought. I stood up then and crossed the room, quickly trying the handle and hoping that I had misheard. It didn't move, not even when the useless part of me thought that knocking would make them open the door. The tears fell then, this time, uncontrollably. The truth finally dawned on me.

I had married a monster.