Malevolent

Chapter 27

"You need to punish evil people." Amra said aloud in realization.

"Punishing them is just a consequence of losing control when I feed my demon. It's already such a feat to remain in control when it catches a whiff of sin, but being around someone so full of sin and tasting that sin...it often causes me to go off the deep end and it takes over."

The people Dante had pushed her to hurt, when he had captured her in the beginning, had all been sinners. Amra had witnessed just how violent Dante could get when he felt the need to punish. If he hadn't fed, did that mean he hadn't killed?

"How long has it been since you...uh, fed?"

Dante knew she wasn't simply referring to the act of feeding off of a person's sins, she was referring to him hurting those he deemed sinful. The truth was, it had been a while and that is what he told her.

"When Camiel took you, I fed in order to have the strength to take you back...but, I did not kill, angel" Dante recoiled at how painful it had been not to kill the people he fed on. The demon had thrashed within his mind, roared and clawed each time. But each time Dante felt on the cusp of losing control, he would imagine Amra back in his arms, and he was able to pull away before his blind rage caused their lives.

"B-but Camiel said you were on a rampage killing people."

"You really believe everything he says just because he's an angel?"

"So... he lied?"

Dante sat up straighter. "Maybe, or maybe he orchestrated it." He said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"N-no, he...he wouldn't."

Amra wasn't sure if he was telling the truth, but that could explain why Dante had been having a harder time healing, but no, there was no way Camiel would lie... or could he?

"You'd be surprised at the lengths people go to to get what they want."

"What about Andrew and Sophia? You showed me Sofia's heart, I saw Andrew get stabbed!"

"You all saw what I wanted you to see." He smirked.

"I don't understand, Dante?"

"You know how I'm able to get into your head and hear your thoughts?"

Amra nodded her head. Besides everything that had happened between her and her supposed friends, the idea that Dante had possibly not killed them changed everything.

"Well, when I am strong enough, I can also make you see things, just like when I made you see the memory that had been blocked off in your head. I did break into your place and maybe I hurt Sophia a bit," He smiled like a boy that had been caught stealing cookies. "but I did not pull out her heart. Just made her and you think I had. And I did the same with you and Andrew. Everything that happened was real, minus the stabbing and blood." He said as if he had wished it were real.

"Dante," Amra was still awe-struck, stunned by this confession. "Are you saying they are alive?"

With a devilish smirk, Dante smiled and took her chin and kissed it. "If you call it living."

"What do you mean?"

"Just because I let them live doesn't mean I didn't punish them."

"What did you do?"

"Not everyone handles meeting a demon as well as you. Especially one that makes you experience death over and over."

Amra couldn't believe that Dante had admitted to not killing them. Punishing them had not been any better, but at the same time, she couldn't come to feel any pity for the people that were prepared to cause her so much pain. Amra wasn't sure she would have survived their betrayal when she had been at such a fragile and low point in her life.

"What are you thinking, angel?" Dante pulled her into a hug and dropped his face to her forehead, enjoying the sweet scent of her skin and the musk of their sex in the air. 

Her gray eyes were wide, and she looked so pensive he wasn't sure what she was thinking about, he could invade her thoughts, but he had to conserve his energy for the journey they were about to make. So instead, he was left to wonder what she thought about what he had said. What he had done to her supposed friends.

True be told, what he had done to them was a mercy. It had taken everything in his power to control the demon from killing them. Making them relive their deaths and admit their faults had been the only punishment he could render without killing them and he wouldn't admit it to Amra, but he felt joy at how they had broken down. 

"Are you upset with me?" He asked, unable to take her silence any longer.

Amra suddenly showered him with a warm smile and wrapped her arms around his neck. It seemed the revelation was enough to make her forget about her earlier troubles.

"No...I...I'm relieved." She said, "And I can't believe I am asking this, but why didn't you kill them, Dante? Why haven't you killed?" 

Since she had known him, Dante hadn't blinked twice about hurting or killing anyone he deemed unworthy, so why the sudden change? Why did he suddenly care to even ask if it upset her?

"Because someone once said that killing would only make you an equal to those monsters."

Although it seemed like ages ago now, Amra remembered what night he was referring to. It was the night he had brought a girl home, a woman who hated her child and took it out on him. 

Dante had wanted Amra to kill her, but she had refused, telling him that killing her would only make her an equal to her. Amra had doubted her morality that night, because the truth was, she had wanted to kill that woman for what she had done to her child, and it appeared she wasn't the only one facing morality issues that day.

"I'm proud of you, Dante." She said softly, but suddenly she found her back against the bed with Dante's imposing frame between her legs.

"Dante, I thought—"

"I know..." His eyes flickered dangerously, "but I fucking need you right now, and then after, we will go."

"Bu—mmm..." The words eluded her the second he swooped between her legs and tasted her with his tongue.

He pinned her hands to keep her from jolting and he continued, savoring her with his long black tongue. It wasn't long before she began writhing in his grasp.

Though he hadn't killed, as he watched her cry out for him, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that he would kill for her.

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