Free Demon Angel by Meljean Brook

hairline. No lump remained, only silky red skin edged by soft curls.
    His voice was low, rough. "Is this your true form?"
    He met her gaze for a breathless moment before she slapped his hand away. "Nay," she said flatly. She stood and took a step back, crossing her arms over her chest. "Your truth: Why did you enter into this bargain?"
    He clenched his fingers, welcomed the stinging pain. "Because I cannot be near you without forgetting my intentions and transforming into an imbecile."
    "You cannot blame a demon for that." Her lips pursed. "I daresay you must have always been an imbecile."
    "Aye," he agreed. "I must be, else I would have followed my first instinct upon discovering your nature."
    "To slay me?"
    "Aye." He eyed her warily, wishing her countenance revealed her thoughts, but her posture was a study of indifference.
    "You would have found that difficult. If you wish to test my sword, however—"
    "Nay," he said. "I have no inclination to fight a woman who possesses the speed of the wind itself."
    "You fear defeat?"
    He considered her wording. "I don't see the wisdom of entering into a fight in which victory is impossible."
    "So you think to engage a different sort of battle? To outwit me with this bargain?"
    "Surely a mere man cannot use a demon's bargain to his own ends. In the years you've lived, your wit must have been honed to perfection."
    She gave a reluctant laugh. "You seek to flatter me."
    He did. "Do you fear flattery, my lady?"
    "Am I too weak to resist the compliment to my vanity, and thereby incur Lucifer's wrath?" She smiled, as if delighted he would try such a tactic. "I think not. Your pretty words are naught to me, and the risk is only yours."
    "Mine?" He shook his head. " 'Tis flattery, but is also truth. I don't admire your intentions, or your methods—there is little risk that I would use them. I could never be as you are."
    "Nay," she said, her eyes flaring red. "You risk engaging my vanity so strongly that I would cleave myself to you for the remainder of your life, begging for bits of kindness from your lips, tormenting you when you do not offer them."
    The censure in her voice made him flush, reminding him that he had been the one to follow her from the hall. True, he had some effect on her, but she had not sought his company as he had hers. Had not Michael told him that she'd said she was done with him?
    "I want to know my role in this," he said suddenly. "That is why I made this bargain."
    Her lids lowered. "What conceit convinces you that you are involved at all?"
    "Though he must have known what you were, Michael encouraged me into those ruins," Hugh said. "Of my feelings for the lady, you make something of nothing. I have been included—of my own will at times—but also unwittingly. Included by a demon, which should not surprise me; if I were to commit evil I would use any tool available. But Michael, who is an instrument of Heaven—"
    He broke off, realizing that his voice had risen and anger coursed through him like fire. Struggling to contain it, he abandoned the seat, striding across the small room to the opposite' window and throwing open the shutters. The cool air did not ease his sudden choleric temper.
    " Formans lucem et creans tenebras ." Did his voice shake? He rested his elbows on the stone sill and lowered his head into his hands. "There must be something good in what you do, even if it is only to try men's hearts, to make them earn their place with God. There must be a reason that I'm drawn to you, even if it is only so that I resist. But I no longer know what is truth, or what to believe."
    "There can be no light without darkness," he heard her say quietly, as if to herself.
    He laughed shortly, bitterly. "And that you say something similar makes me doubt it the more."
    From beside him came a flash of moonlight against steel, the clang of metal against stone. He spun around, tensed for her attack, but she'd only slammed his knife onto the sill. "You think Michael led