An Eternity of Eclipse (22 page)

I smirked at him, never in my life feeling more like an open book.

“It must be nice,” I commented after a stretch of silence. I refused to allow his observations to affect my composure. The time to reflect on his observations would be done in the privacy of my own home. For now, my emotional wall was going to remain intact. I spent more than twenty years keeping myself at a distance from the world around me. I wasn’t going to allow a Demon to know how much his words impacted me. “It must be so nice for a Demon such as yourself to make observations about a little human girl when she knows absolutely nothing about you.”

Eclipse caught me off guard when he nodded in concurrence. It may have been too forward of me, but at that moment, I could swear that Eclipse felt slightly bad for putting me on the spot. He easily relinquished the tension around us by saying, “All you have to do is ask, Teacup.”

I gaped at him, stunned.

I couldn’t believe his words.

Since popping into my life, Eclipse, being as outspoken and exhausting as he was with his Alpha-Demon personality, had surprisingly been very good at being secretive. In the past, when I tried to learn more about him, he would always cleverly brush me off or be evasive with cryptic answers that I couldn’t figure out. The fact that he was opening the door for me to ask questions was a completely new development. It was an opportunity that I did not plan to squander.

“How old are you?” I immediately asked, feeling excitement stream through my body. Even though I hated having Eclipse in my life, the bitterness I felt for him couldn’t be overshadowed by the cool fact that I was interacting with a
Demon
of all things. Suddenly, I no longer felt apprehensiveness around him, only excitement and immense curiosity.

“A few thousand years old,” he answered, as if it was normal to outlive lifetimes.

“A few thousands?” I repeated slowly, gazing at him with intrigue.

“I know that may sound like a lot,” he responded coolly, “but in my world, I’m actually one of the youngest ones. ‘A few thousands’ Demon years is the equivalent to being in your mid-twenties.”

I should have felt disturbed that he was so much older than me. On the contrary, the fact that he had lived past the lifetimes and had seen the world pass him by made him all the more alluring and attractive to me. One of the reasons I didn’t have a boyfriend was because I had a tendency to get bored of guys too easily. The main trait I looked for in a guy was for them to be worldlier than me, so they could help pull me out of my shell and help me discover more about the world around me. Needless to say, I was shocked that Eclipse was fitting the bill more and more in terms of being my ideal guy.

I cleared my throat when I realized that I was treading in dangerous waters. I shook the intrigue for him from my face and covered it with feigned snobbery.

“Don’t you think you’re a bit too old to be hitting on a twenty-year-old girl?”

His lips curved into a slow and sexy smile. His sultry gaze challenged my spoken words.

“You don’t like older men?” was all he had to say to leave me feeling hot all over again.

I started to panic. Oh no, he was using his charms again.

“I draw the line at four years,” I snapped, trying to dig out of the hole I was getting myself into. I couldn’t afford to be distracted by Eclipse’s charms when I was being given the rare opportunity to learn more about him.

“In human form I’m twenty-four-years-old,” he provided with an irresistible smile.

“You know that doesn’t count.”

“Perhaps you’d like to inspect my body to make sure I’m up for the task of turning you from a twenty-year-old girl into a twenty-year-old-woman?” The smoke sensually curled away from his decadent lips. “I think you might be impressed with what you’d find.”

I swallowed past my dry throat, refusing to let that enticing imagery cloud my mind. “Will you always be twenty-four-years-old?”

He chuckled lightly, impressed with my efforts to ignore his sexual innuendos. He followed my lead and returned to the original topic. “No. In human form I still age, just not on an annual basis like humans.”

“Why do you disappear so often?” I inquired, venturing off to another topic entirely. I was anxious. I feared that if I didn’t ask my questions fast enough, he’d stop answering them soon. “Where do you go?”

“My responsibilities as a Royal Demon do not stop because I’ve chosen an extracurricular activity in Seoul,” he answered loftily. “I disappear often because I go home, back to my Kingdom. I’m a busy entity. I have Arch-Demons to give commands to, a divided monarchy to help watch over, and my own section of the Kingdom to govern. The fact that I’m here with you right now . . . eating noodles at a food stand in the middle of the rain means something, Gracie.”

“Why do you want to turn me into a Demon so badly?” I couldn’t help but ask. It was astonishing that a being as powerful as him was sitting here and eating noodles with me. “Why are you so adamant on taking my soul when there are millions of other girls ready to give you their souls?”

“Because I want you in my bed without fearing that you’d die after your first orgasm,” he replied briskly.

I could already sense it. Eclipse was closing up. He was going right back to being the charming, outspoken, yet secretive and closed off Demon.

“There’s more to why you want me so badly,” I hastened to add, afraid that he would stop answering my questions soon. “I just know it.”

The certainty in my voice caught his attention. He appraised me curiously. “What do you
think
you know, Teacup?”

“I know that you’re sexually attracted to me and that you’ve taken quite a liking to me. I also know that you’re a very cunning and ambitious Demon. I doubt the Demon of Lust would be this persistent and waste time going after a human girl’s soul simply because he wanted to have sex with her and because she’s famous.” My unblinking eyes fixed on his. “There’s a reason why you’re so persistent. There’s a reason why you want my soul and why you’re not going after anyone else's.”

Laughter poured from him before he inhaled another round of smoke. “Perhaps you should put yourself in my shoes and feel the lust I have for you, Teacup.” He placed his arms on the table and stared deeply into my eyes. “That nosebleed of yours means something. It means that I want you
really
badly. When I first met you, you didn’t get any nosebleeds because even though I wanted you, it wasn’t to the degree that I want you now.” His lips lifted into a doting smile. “Perhaps it’s because you’ve become my forbidden fruit. My desire for you grows with every passing day. That alone is reason enough for me to still be here, pursuing you as opposed to going after some other human girl. I only want you, Gracie.”

“Eclipse,” I said through gritted teeth. My patience with him was wearing thin. His explanation of his desire for me may have been true, but I also knew that there was more that he was keeping from me. “Stop treating me like I’m some stupid human girl. Just fucking tell me the truth.”

The stubbornness in his demeanor faded upon hearing my hostile words. I don’t think I had ever cursed at him. The simple fact that I did unnerved him.

Finally stowing his inflexibility away, he said, “There is a cost to wanting you, pursuing you, and endeavoring to make you mine, Gracie.”

My eyes broadened while my heartbeat thumped in harmony with the rain. My curiosity was undeniably piqued. “And that is?”

Eclipse didn’t say anything for a long time. He merely took interest in numbly staring at the rain falling around us. He may have been resigned to telling me the truth, but that did not mean it was easy for him.

“What is your cost for pursuing me?” I asked again. This time my voice was soft and melodic.

My serene voice successfully lulled his attention back to me.

He studied me for a long second before finally revealing, “If I fail to turn you into a Demon, then I will become human and die.”

The world around me came to an earthshattering stop. I blinked uncomprehendingly, feeling a shock of paralysis stunning my body. I couldn’t believe my ears. “Wh–what?”

“If I don’t claim your soul and turn you into a Demon, then I will not have fulfilled my end of the deal,” he elaborated clearly, holding my eyes with every word. “For that, I will pay the price—which is to become human and ultimately die.”

I was flabbergasted. For the longest time, I remained speechless. It was only when a whiff of freezing wind sped through us did I finally find the words in my confounded state.

“Why would you make such a deal for yourself?” I gaped at him with enlarged eyes. I recalled him telling me that his fate was sealed with mine. I thought he was being overdramatic, but it was clear now that he had lost his marbles. “Are you nuts? What Demon would make this type of deal?”

He grinned faintly at my questions. It was obvious that he expected me to react like this, to not understand why he was willing to make such a deal.

Perhaps it was because we were in the corner of a busy street stand, where music and noise drowned out our conversation to those around us. Perhaps it was because we were outside in the middle of the rain where we felt safe and secure, but at that moment, something monumental happened: Eclipse spoke without filter. I listened and the world quieted down, fading out behind us as if to encourage the dialogue that was taking place.

“In all the millennia of my existence,” he began quietly, his voice holding every ounce of my unwavering attention, “I have never once toyed with the idea of converting a human into a Demon. I had other interests that vied for my time. I had never once cared about coming up to your world to deal with this extracurricular activity. However, when word of what you did came floating down to me, I knew I had to have you. I wanted the soul of the one who murdered her entire family. I wanted the soul of the one who had become a precious commodity to my world, and most simply, I want you because you are a very interesting human being to me. You fascinate me to every degree, and no human girl—or any other entity for that matter—has ever held that type of spell over me. I knew that you’d be an interesting human to be around, but I couldn’t have imagined how refreshing being in your presence would actually be.” A muscle in his jaw suddenly leapt. “But the fucked up thing about the venture to turn you into a Demon is that a veil was placed over you to prevent any powerful entities from finding you.”

“A veil?” I spurted out.

He nodded. “After what happened with your family, you became famous. Too famous.” His ominous voice sent chills crawling up my spine. “Being famous in Hell isn’t a thing to take pride in, especially when it is the attention of Demons you’ve garnered. Every Demon was after you and wanted your soul that night. It got so bad that pandemonium broke out because Demons were going to war for you. To bring an end to this chaos, the Elder Demons came to an agreement that a veil must be placed over you in order to stop Demons from seeking you out—from going to war with one another to claim you. The veil was supposed to stay over you until you reached the Age of Enlightenment.”

“Age of Enlightenment?”

“The age where you’re supposed to know better, to have enough sensibility to make your own decision, and the age where the veil will lift and whatever is looking for you will find you.”

“Why put a veil over me if Demons can find me when I turn twenty-one anyway? Won’t that start the war again?”

He nodded at my concerns and addressed them right away.

“It is hopeful on the Elder Demons’ part that because of your Enlightenment Age, you will be smart enough to know that you are not invincible and that you are close to death. It is hopeful on their part that you will be afraid enough of death to give up your soul to the first Demon who comes after you, and thereby avoid any war that could take place.” Upon seeing my comprehension, he went on with his explanation. “In order to find you before the veil is lifted, I had to strike a deal with the Elders of my world. The full potency of my power was stripped and my own existence was placed on the line. The deal was to succeed in turning you into a Demon before the expiration date comes or I vanish into thin air.”

“So, if you don’t turn me into a Demon, then you’re going to become human. Like full on human?”

His eyes blinked in frustrated confirmation. “Yes.”

Two of his words flashed like neon lights in my mind.

“Expiration date?” I asked swiftly, perturbed by how absolute and foreboding those two words sounded. “What is the expiration date?”

“That,” Eclipse prompted, gazing dimly at me, “is the question, isn’t it?”

“You don’t know?”

He shook his head. “That’s why I’m trying to hurry this up.”

I shifted uneasily. I was positively spooked to learn that there were Demons out there, sitting around and waiting for the “veil” to lift so that they could find me and force me to give my soul to them. Granted, I wasn’t certain that I trusted everything Eclipse was telling me—he was a Demon after all, and it would only work to his benefit to scare me into giving up my soul right away—I still took everything under consideration.

“What’s so special about my soul that makes every Demon want me?” I asked moments later, nervously playing with an empty bottle of soju. My gold bangles hit the surface of the table, choiring after my movements with the glass bottle. Whether there were truly other Demons coming after me or not, the fact that I currently had one with me was enough to have an impact on me.