Page 68 of When I Accidentally Summoned a Demon

“We can compare fantasies sometime. Mine involve papier-mache and a voodoo doll.” Her thumb brushes over one of my claws.

Warm curiosity blooms inside me

“I spent a lot of my life being told what belonged to everyone else,” she says. “My time belonged to the church. My marriage belonged to God. My body belonged to Rick and apparently my money. Even my shop was selfish if it took too much of my attention.” She touches the ring in her nose. “Sometime after Rick cheated on me the third time, I decided I was done asking permission to own my own life. I credit Harold for some of that.”

“Demons do not belong to ourselves either,” I say, breathing in her hair. “We belong to Lucifer. Our bodies. Our service. Our choices, until he decides otherwise.”

Vesper lifts her head and studies me. “Huh.” She squeezes my hand. “Two peas in a pod.”

I consider this carefully. “I do not particularly wish to be a pea.”

She laughs. “It means we have more in common than we thought, Big Guy.”

“Ah.” I tighten my fingers around hers. “Then I approve of the peas.”

She kisses my cheek. “Good.”

A small sound carries from Bethie’s room. Vesper glances toward the hallway. “And speaking of the best decision I ever made…”

She slips down the hall and returns in short order with the little beastie on her hip. Bethie rubs her eyes, her hair doing something chaotic as she holds her stuffed elephant. No teddy bear in sight.

Vesper bounces her once and smiles. “What do we think about pizza tonight, Bethie? Daddy finally sent us a check.”

Bethie stares up at her. “Da Da,” she says.

Vesper purses her lips. “Well…that’s a new one for her. Yeah, baby. Da Da sent us some money.”

Bethie’s gaze moves across the room. It finds me. She extends her arms. “Da Da,” she says.

The word echoes like a church bell ringing something sacred. Vesper goes still. I go still.

Bethie strains forward, both arms reaching, with the complete authority of a princess who has named a thing and expects the universe to cooperate.

“Pwecious. Da Da.”

I am seventeen centuries old. I have existed across geological epochs. I have navigated the infernal hierarchy of hell, and I have survived things that would unmake most beings. I have faced Lucifer himself.

I have never, in seventeen centuries, been entirely unable to speak.

Vesper and I share a gaze. Tears shimmer in her vision like star drops. But a soft smile curves her lips. “I believe there’s a permanent opening, if you want the job, Valefar.”

Bethie strains again. “Da Da.” Vesper surrenders her.

I take the toddler, careful with something so small and so significant, and Bethie settles against my chest with the wholeness of a child who has found home.

Head rising, she blows a raspberry. Satisfied with herself. I press my lips to her forehead.

Something enormous moves through me, through the mold of what I was but everything I have become in the space of nearly five months in this house. And I have no words, no category, no name for what it is.

I hold Bethie tighter. “It would be an honor. My little beastie,” I say.

She pats my cheek, then kisses it.

Vesper orders the pizza.

23

Vesper