The Encounter
Episode 1
The first thing they don’t tell you about high-rank demon lords is that they smell entirely too good.
Not like sulfur or blood, but like crisp winter rain, cedarwood, and ridiculous amounts of money.
"You're standing on my cloak, wildcat,"
Aurelius drawled.
Evangeline paused, her hand frozen inches above the obsidian parchment resting on the temple pedestal.
She dragged her eyes up—past his gold-embroidered coat and broad shoulders—to a pair of striking, molten-gold eyes glowing in the dim light.
"Don't call me wildcat,"
Evangeline snapped, adjusting her leather utility thigh-rig.
"And your cloak is nine feet long, Lord Malakor.
If you didn't dress like a velvet curtain, people wouldn't step on you."
"It's a silk-drake weave,"
he corrected, leaning against a pillar with insufferable elegance.
As top retriever for the Antiquities Guild, Evangeline had survived dragon-fire and death traps.
She did not come to the Sunken Vault to have her outfit judged by a ridiculously handsome demon lord.
"I bypassed the stone hydra and picked the lock while you admired your reflection,"
she said with a venomous smile.
"I have squatter's rights."
"I was checking if my hair survived your terribly inefficient entrance,"
Aurelius murmured, closing the distance between them.
He stopped bare inches away.
The heat off his body hit her skin like a summer breeze.
He leaned down, his lips brushing her ear.
"Do you know how hard it is to get spore-slime out of dragon-hide leather?"
Evangeline’s heart gave a traitorous thud, but she forced a smile.
"I'm not losing, Lord Malakor. I'm distracting you."
She held up the glowing parchment she had just swiped off the pedestal.
Aurelius blinked, then chuckled—a low, breathless sound that vibrated straight through her chest.
"You sly little thie—"
RUUUUUUUMBLE.
The floor shuddered as a stone slab slammed over the exit.
An enchanted voice echoed above:
"The Heart-Bind Contract has been removed. This vault will remain sealed until the two thieves share a true kiss of devotion... or until the room fills with liquid soul-fire in ten minutes."
Aurelius looked down at her, a wicked, breathtaking smirk spreading across his face as purple fire dripped from the ceiling.
"Well, wildcat," he purred, his fingers lightly brushing a stray lock of hair from her cheek. "Looks like it's your lucky day."
