Bind Me To You

Chapter Eleven

Avery awoke with a muffled scream, her fingers curled into claws and twisted into the fabric of her shirt. She didn't want to remember the horrible nightmare that had woken her in a pool of sweat and panic; the calloused hands that held her against icy metal and the press of restricting jeans against her thigh. She clenched her fists as she wound her arms around herself, trying to slow her shaking and the rolling of her stomach.

Avery slowly unclenched her jaw as her tremors ended, unwinding her arms and exhaling a long breath.

"Bad dream?" Azrael's voice murmurs from where he was perched at the end of her bed. Avery's attention snapped to him as she locked eyes with the demon, looking over his figure as he leant on his arm to look at her with a smile.

"W-What are you doing??" She yelped, her voice catching in her throat as her heart once again began to march in her chest. Azrael sighed as he leant backwards, turning his back to the blonde. "Well, after you passed out last night we didn't have time to talk about how this will work, therefore I wasn't aware that you didn't want to see my gorgeous face the moment that you woke up".

Avery simply stared at the narcissistic demon as she remembered the events of the previous night. The charming words, the sharp blade against her palm, the bright red glow of the seal and then the agonising burning. Slowly, Avery's eyes found their way to the hand and the cut that had sent searing pain lancing through her.

Her palm was now inked with a strange symbol. It vaguely held the shape of an old fashioned key, the bow of the key looked like a 'S' that connected to the pin with a straight line, then zig-zagging into what looked like the number '2'. It was an odd symbol, drawn in thick black ink.

"W-What is this?" Avery cried, scrubbing at the marking with her fingers, vainly attempting to remove the marking. Azrael couldn't help but laugh at the mortal's attempt to scrub his mark off her skin, "That is your 'demon mark'" Azrael explained, turning to the mortal with an amused expression, "Did you really think that I'd be the only one who has to live with these markings?".

"What?" Avery's tone was panicked and frightened, "You never told me about this! If my mum sees this she'll kill me!". Avery fell back onto the bed, bringing her hands up to cover her face as she imagined the verbal beating she would receive for having a tattoo.

"Relax" Azrael hummed, earning the attention of the blonde who laid lifelessly on the bed, "demon markings can't be seen by mortals". The news sent a flood of relief through Avery and for a moment she sat in silence, staring at the strange black marking.

With a sigh Azrael turned his body, swinging his legs onto the end of the bed and stretching out. Avery gave him a strange look for his overly familiar behaviour, moving back into a sitting position as she tucked her legs into her chest staring at him.

"So now we have some business to get down too" Azrael began, "The contract is more or less a consent form. You get to decide how you want to use me". The way Azrael's charming tone carried those words from his lips ignited a small flame in Avery's stomach which she promptly ignored.

"W-What do you mean by 'use' you?" Avery questioned, looking Azrael up and down. She couldn't help but notice that his shirt hugged his biceps and chest tightly. She couldn't help but study the markings that stained his arms, wondering whether the skulls and flowers were also a part of his seal.

Azrael glanced away from the blonde trying to think of a way to answer her question as simply as he could. "I'm a contract demon, you've practically gained yourself a slave with benefits. So you can take that however you want". Avery was taken aback by this statement, she hadn't considered that she would have full control over Azrael, over what he did and where he was. It wasn't a contract of friendship that she had signed, it was a contract of ownership. That made him more a servant than a friend.

"I-I don't know..." She mumbled in response. The thought of commanding Azrael around frightened her, he was much larger and far more intimidating. She couldn't fathom barking orders at him as though he was a slave.

Azrael let another sigh escape from his lips. He had assumed that this conversation would give him little results. When he had offered her the contract he knew that she wasn't sure what she wanted, what she would want him for. It wasn't going to be like others that instantly treated him as though he was their property.