“Now you can sign,” he said, looking like he was about to take a nap.

“Were you sleeping out here before?”

“Yep,” he said.

“They make you sleep on the couch?” I asked and he popped one eye open.

“The more you talk, the more likely I am to change the contract again and out of your favor,” he added. I rolled my eyes and scooted to the edge of the couch, leaning over the document. He’d written one new line, signed it, and dated next to it.

I still got everything, effective immediately. However, he’d added that by signing the document I was agreeing to protect Dullahan, Lorcan, and Puca until the Council removed them from the hit list. I did this by allowing them to live with me and staying nearby when there were immediate threats.

“Live with the three of you? I live alone, Dully.”

“Then I guess we can go back to plan A,” he said, not moving.

“What was that again? Forced submission?” I asked deadpan. A smile cut into his face but he still didn’t open his eyes. And since he wasn’t looking I did it enough for the both of us, taking him in. I’d never seen someone as big as him and stretched out on such a pretty couch. He looked rough and wild, his hair in disarray, his scars betraying a past thick with danger. I eyed the scar that spanned the circumference of his neck and had the urge to reach out and touch the skin, feel its texture.

I’d seen the scars on his face come apart, did that mean the neck did too?

“Forced submission can be arranged and…you could also sign the fucking contract and get everything Puca took from Viktor.”

“Well, I do at least owe him that,” I said, picking up the pen and signing the document.

“Initial the line I wrote in too,” he said and I looked at him. He had one eye cracked open. I smiled widely at him.

“Oops, almost forgot,” I said smoothly. He grunted and closed his eyes again after I initialed where he wanted. I’d try to wiggle out of that clause anyway. The moment after everything transferred to my name that is.

“He already transferred everything to your name,” Dullahan said and I swiveled my head around, my mouth dropping open.

“When?” I gasped. Dullahan shrugged.

“Did you know what he planned to do to me? What he might still be trying to do?”

“No,” he said, his eyes opening and settling on me. “I should have.”

“You knew that he stalks people and then eats them?”

“I did but I’d never seen it myself. When Puca and I spent time together before, they were fighting against that compulsion. Considering I’m the one person Puca can’t become, I was a good companion to have. In the end though, Puca can’t fight their flaws.” I stayed silent. That sentiment hit too close to home and the way Dullahan’s eyes watched me, made me think he was thinking the same thing about me. That I too was a creature wrought from my own flaws and that my own successes and failures lay solely in my own imperfect personality. I was my own master and a shitty one at that. Guess Puca and I had a lot in common.