When Indigo finally left the bathing room, a full hour and a half had elapsed and she was just as gorgeous as she usually was. If you ignored the healing scratches on her cheek and arms. Other than those minor disturbances to the smoothness of her flesh, she was in every way a masterful porcelain doll again. Her dark hair had been swept up away loosely from her face in a golden clasp that left curls tumbling down her narrow back in perfect coils. The gown she had chosen to replace her torn one was the deep green of the forest floor and made of watered silk. The neckline was modest but the gown was unadorned by embroidery or even sleeves. The flaring, ankle length skirt only added to her allure. She had returned to being the sex goddess of the night.

Her departure from the bathroom found Indigo still curled in the corner, presumably sleeping, and me relaxing against the pillows on my bed, deep in thought.

Indigo stopped beside my bed and said in all seriousness, “May I kill him now, Violet?”

Aubrey flinched and lifted his head to stare at her in horror. Guess he wasn’t as asleep as I’d thought. His eyes kept jumping between me and my roommate, a silent plead for my aide in their depths. Why should I? He’d manipulated me to no end and now he wanted me to save him from my blood-thirsty sister? Then again, he was my servant now and I guess it was kind of my duty now to protect him. I wonder how far I needed to protect him? Certainly from death, yes, but I was by no means familiar with demon folklore enough to know the intricacies of a contract with a demon.

I shrugged and held out my hand towards her. “No need, Vi. He’ll behave.”

Her glowing eyes narrowed on my face. She was blatantly not happy with my call on this. How could she be? Indigo was as protective of me as a momma bear for its cup. Aubrey even touching me was forbidden in her eyes. That he’d attacked me was unthinkable.

I wiggled my fingers and put on my best smile, one that I knew she’d read as innocent and trusting. Never mind that I was a paranoid bastard of a vampire and two words such as “innocent” and “trusting” should never even thought of in my vicinity. “Calm the fuck down and take a seat. He won’t even growl without my say-so now so don’t worry.”

/I’m not a dog, you know./ I could feel his disgust in his tone and his glare on the back of my head.

The vampiress hesitated for a second more before taking my offered hand and joining me on my very comfortable king-sized bed. Let Indigo have her settee. Only the best for good ol’ Amethyst. Besides, I kick in my sleep.

“Why the change in heart, Vi?” Her gaze was quizzical but her hands kept running over my arms, my chest, my legs. To make sure I was as whole as I claimed, I think. She probably would have checked my head for missing parts if I hadn’t of bared my fangs at her fingers. She settled for running her nails through my frizzy hair. Considering how many snarls she came up against, I should probably brush it. I didn’t really feel like it though. Besides, who was I out to impress?

“Did you make a contract with him?”

I stole a glance at the demon in the corner, who was had gone back to playing possum. That was alright. Let him continue to play. He wasn’t hurting anyone. For now. “It would be more accurate to say that he made a contract with me but close enough.”

“Did you sell your soul to him?” There was an odd note of panic in her voice that made me look at her sharply. For fuck’s sake. When had she become so superstitious?

“We don’t have souls, Violet.”

She returned my incredulous look with one of her own. It was very good. I’d have to ask where she’d learn to quirk her eyebrows like that. “You don’t believe we have souls. I happen to believe we do.”

/That’s absurd. Selling your soul to a demon, I mean./ Aubrey piped in on the tail of Indigo’s sentence. /What would we do with it? It is not like we have anywhere to put them. I’m fairly certain a soul would not fit in my pocket./ He sounded as incredulous as the rest of us looked at the moment. If he hadn’t had his head hidden in the crook of his arm, I’d be able to see the expression on his face. What kind of thing did Aubrey do for “incredulous?”

“He says I can’t sell my soul to him.” I informed my sister with glee. “But if it will make you happier to hear it, I didn’t sell my soul to a demon. He made a blood contract with me instead and now he’s my servant. He’d be nice to show off at a gathering or two, yeah?”

Indigo was giving me a funny look. One that made me think she and Aubrey had been sharing secrets on enigmatic looks behind my back. Or maybe it was something that all socially active peoples learned and I had missed out on by being a heathen. “A blood demon?”

“Can we keep him? I’ll make sure he’s potty trained and well behaved. He won’t bite the mailman unless I want him to. How’s that?”

/Not a dog./ Was the sleepy grumble from my new demon. Seemed he had given up playing at sleep and had decided for the real thing. Despite his protest, he did look very much like a sleeping canine curled up as he was on the pile of discarded pillows. I could imagine that if he had a tail, it would be tucked securely against his body. Actually, there was something very dragonesque about that posture too.

“He-“ Indigo stopped herself and studied my face again. What she was looking for, I don’t know. A sign of insanity? A promise to be responsible and make sure he didn’t chew on her shoes or, considering that he was part dragon, steal her sparkling jewelry? I didn’t know what to give her and settled on staring right on back at her.

“He did bring wolves to our door and you killed a bunch of them but, let’s face it. You enjoyed that. You were only mad because some of them got away.”

“He attacked you.”

“Yes and he promised very sincerely that he won’t do that again. I mean, he can be very irritating when he wants to but think of how entertaining having a demon could be! I bet he knows all sorts of tricks already.”

The corner of her lips twitched a little though I could tell she refused to give in to the laugh she most definitely felt inside. When I wanted to, I could be quite the charming devil. She knew that. I knew that. Why was she bothering to argue against me?

She seemed to have reached that same conclusion and simply sighed and patted me on the head like one would do a small child. “Alright. But make sure he knows the rules of this house. I want no undue trouble.”

It would be useless to point out to her that demons thrived on trouble now. Besides, that would be against my case. “Okay.” I agreed, hugging her shoulders with one arm.

A thought hit me then and I couldn’t help but voice it. “Does that mean we can take him hunting with us?” I mused, throwing a sly grin towards my sleeping demon. We could make this work, weird as it was. All I had to do was ignore Indigo’s sighs and all would be ...well, nice was a bad word for it but the word “interesting” would work all right.