Devil's Gift

Chapter 1

I woke to the sound of foot steps. Light and measured.

"Hello? Are you awake?" A voice called, not five feet from my bed.

I don't move a muscle but kept my breathing even to mimic sleep. More foot steps that signaled that the voice was in arms length of my back.

"Lucy?" I opened my eyes to darkness at the sound of my name, but continued to breathe evenly, not knowing who the mysterious voice belonged to.

The voice was male and familiar but the name and face would not come to mind.

"Lucy, I KNOW YOU ARE AWAKE." I jerked at the sudden volume and slowly, ever so slowly, turned to face him. But the darkness kept his face hidden and the lamp was on my desk on the far side if the room. "Long time no see. What has it been, three years? Four?" He asked mockingly.

"Who are you?" I asked, keeping my voice as hard as I could. "And how did you get in here?" I'm sure I locked the door and our security is top of the game and where is that blasted dog. I felt the bed next to me but did not feel the fur or warmth of my husky. "Where is he?" I ask, putting as much venom in my voice I possibly could.

"Who?" He said sarcastically. "Oh, him. I put him in the other room. No harm done, just wanted some, privacy." He pulled on his words that made them sound annoying in every way possible.

"You only answered one of my questions." I noted how he answered the question that would put me most at ease and that he had not moved from the spot he stood.

"You know who I am and how I got in, just put the pieces together, Lu." The nickname sparked a memory, my ex called my that when it was late at night and he had gotten off of work and I gotten out of practice, and right before he died. But he didn't die, someone brought him back. "Finally understand?"

"Yeah." I lay back on my pillows. This person owns my soul, this person owns me. "So, what do you want from me?"

"Where's lover boy?" I heard the sound of wheels and realized he was sitting on desk chair.

"You know where."

"Well aren't you just a ball of sunshine."

I felt no resentment, like normal people do. I didn't feel anything. I haven't been able to feel emotions since he had taken my soul. For the last four year I haven't felt happiness or sadness or anger or fear or anything.

"What do you want?" I asked again, putting an edge to my voice.

"To give you this." He held up something blue and shifting, like fire but calmer. It shifted, growing larger and became solid, with scales and a tail. A dragon. It was about the size of a teenage boy but it seemed to take up the whole room. Still no fear, not even surprise that there is a dragon staring me down in my own room.

"Why?" I asked, sitting up again. The dragon followed my motions as I got out of bed and stood. It came to about my height and it's breath warmed my skin. It looked deep in my eyes, but seemed to find nothing, no soul. It huffed and stepped back, wanting me to step forward. I couldn't tell how, but we seemed to be communicating. As I stepped forward, fire came from the dragon's mouth and enveloped me.

But it didn't burn. It felt like velvet and warm, but it didn't hurt. Emotions spilled into me.

Anger.

Fear.

Sadness.

Grief.

Happiness.

Excitement.

Love.

All of them flowed into me and for a moment, I was human, I was normal. The moment was gone but the emotions stayed. The first thing I felt was confusion. Why didn't the flames hurt? Who was this dragon? Where was the man from before?

"Better?" Surprise ran through me. He had moved behind me and I spun around to face him.

"Why?" I breathed.

"Because I want a favor from you." He made his words sound sweet and it gave me goosebumps along my arms.

"What could a demon want from a human other than their soul? You could have made me do anything you wanted, say anything, promise anything, so why? What on earth could you want from me?" I blabbered, cursing myself for not being able to control my own tongue. "You could've gotten anything from me. Anything you wanted and I would have had no power to stop you. Why give me back the only power you had over me?"

"What I want is something that you could not obtain if you didn't have your soul." He gestured to the dragon. "This is your soul when it take a solid form. Quite interesting to have dragon as a soul. Not very common in my experience."

"The dragon is my soul?" I looked to the creature with awe. My soul was a dragon. A dragon! Not something timid and terrified of its own shadow, not some adorable thing that had no strength but a dragon! Something feared and powerful. Something that could have killed thousands and still do more. Something amazing.

"Yes and now, back to the favor." I crossed my arms in defiance, ready to refuse him.

"What is it?" I grumbled.

"I want you to fall in love with me, for I have already fallen for you."