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 agonizing 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 an ‘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 behavior, 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.

“Can we just figure it out as we go…?” Avery asked, eyeing Azreal who sat comfortably in front of her. “B-But! Don’t just appear on my bed when I wake up… it’s weird...” she finished, glancing down at the bedsheets that she had gathered to her chest.

“Noted” Azreal gave a nod, “Now, about that ‘protection’ that I promised you”. Avery perked up at the shift in conversation, this was the reason she had agreed to sign the contract to begin with.

“There are two ways I can protect you. Both with their benefits and consequences” He starts, raising his finger in the air for emphasis, “The first is that I protect you using my power from afar. This would be good if you don't want people in your life to see me around you. This also means that in the unlikely event that someone with a demon shows up in this town they would be much less likely to recognize that you also have a contract. Obviously, demons can recognize other demons.”

“The consequences of this though is that... well, first you don’t get to hang out with me all the time” At this Avery scrunched her nose at him in exasperation. Azrael grinned at her reaction but continued, “but more importantly it requires the use of my demon powers, meaning that each time I have to protect you, you have to give up more of your time. How much we can agree upon if you choose this option”.

Azrael paused giving the mortal a moment to think. I would have to give up more time? Avery already knew that she didn’t want to give away any more time than she had to. She told Azrael that she didn’t want to use his powers and she meant that.

Azrael raised a second finger, “Option two” he exclaimed, pulling the blonde from her thoughts. “I protect you physically, or I guess by ‘mortal’ power. Of course, this means you would have to put up with me hanging around you every day, it would also mean that I would have to physically appear in front of you. Therefore anyone present would notice me. The benefit of this though is that I wouldn’t have to use my powers, and consequently, you won’t lose any more of your lifespan. You could say that it’s ‘free’ labour”.

Azrael was right, both options have their benefits and their consequences. The first option had by far the biggest consequence, and that was that Avery would lose more of her life each time she was protected by him. However, Azrael could then work from behind the scenes. Her school life would continue in peace without the bullying.

On the other hand, option two would essentially be free, she wouldn’t lose any more of her time. However, Azrael would then have to exist in her everyday life and she would have to come up with a story for his existence and actions. What would she even say? What story would Paige believe? What happens if he has to protect me in the middle of a crowd?

While she liked the idea of having someone who was always around, like a friend, she knew that if that person was Azrael it would cause a scene. Regardless of his demonic disposition, the pair of them looked polar opposite; he looked like a punk with tattoos and piercings, she looked like a boring book worm. Not to mention that Azrael was a good looking guy. She wanted the attention to move away from her rather than onto her.

Avery shook her head in exasperation, glancing at the demon who waited for her answer patiently. “Isn’t there a third option?” she pleaded, wanting an option that could give her the benefits of both while excluding the consequences against her life span.

Azrael shook his head, “Nope” he sighed, “What you’re really choosing between is using my demonic powers or settling with mortal interference, both of which would give you the same result”.

Avery let a long sigh as she leaned back against the backboard of her bed. She didn’t know that there would be all these small details after she signed the contract, she figured she would write her name and then suddenly her life would improve. That was clearly not the case.

What she did know was that she didn’t want to waste her life away on requests that could be fulfilled without it. She promised herself when she called Azrael to her room the previous night that she would stick by this rule. Happiness was precious, but so was life. With a deep sigh, she parted her lips to answer him.

Suddenly her bedroom door slammed open, “Ave!! What are you doing? The bus is supposed to be here in 5 minutes!!” Her mum yelled into the room, glaring at her daughter as she tucked her suit jacket over her arm. Avery’s eyes widened as she turned to the end of her bed where Azrael had been sitting only to find that he had vanished into thin air.

“Avery! Do you hear me!” Her mum continued as the blonde slowly turned her attention back to her mum with a confused and shocked expression. “I-I… I forgot to set my alarm...” Avery mumbled, feeling the guilt of her half-lie immediately as her mother shot her a disappointed scowl.

“I’ll call and tell them that you are skipping first period, I can’t drop you off so if you miss the bus you’ll have to walk there yourself” Susan exclaimed as she turned to leave. “Sorry, mum...” Avery mumbled as the business woman disappeared down the hall, her heels hastily creaking against the floorboards.

Avery breathed a big sigh as she jumped up from her bed, striding towards her closet. Avery was quick to pick out a pair of black jeans, a plain white shirt, and a cream coloured jacket to battle the frosty breeze of fall. She stalked across the room to the door, taking the handle in her hand before she turned back to look at the spot where the demon had comfortably sat on her bed. Wondering where he had gone and when he would be back.