Chapter 1

1 Ashley had spent five years in prison. On the day of her release, two men came to pick her up. One was her ex-fiancé, Ethan, whose perjury had sealed her fate. The other was her childhood sweetheart, Noah, a lawyer whose first case had, ironically, been Ashley's prosecution. They stood together, expressions complex, gazing at her frail figure.

"Ashley, it's over now. You've paid the price…"

A sardonic smile played on my lips. They didn't know Ashley was gone. She had died two days before her release, offering her soul to me in exchange for vengeance. I am a demon, a wanderer of realms, drawn to the souls of the wicked. I revel in malice, not kindness.

......

"Ashley, you've lost weight." Ethan leaned against his Porsche, glancing at me with indifference. Five years hadn't changed him much in Ashley's memories. He was still the golden boy of Redwood City, the one everyone fawned over. No one seemed to remember how the Parker family fortune had crumbled, how Ashley's grandfather, out of loyalty, hadn't broken off their engagement, how Ethan, leveraging the Miller family's influence to rebuild his empire, had sent Ashley, the Miller heiress, to prison. Ashley's parents had died in a car accident years ago, leaving her the sole pride of the Miller family. After her imprisonment, her grandfather died of a heart attack, and the Millers vanished from Redwood City.

Beside Ethan, Noah's lips trembled, a flicker of what seemed like pity in his eyes. He reached out, as if to touch my wrist. "Ash, how did you get so thin?"

I lifted my chin, avoiding his touch. "Where's Olivia?" I asked, scanning the area. "I did five years for her. Shouldn't she be here to celebrate my release?"

Olivia was Ethan's current fiancée. Five years ago, she had hit a pedestrian with her car. It was Ethan who had shifted the blame onto Ashley. Now, Olivia was a famous actress.

Ethan's pupils contracted. "Ashley, don't talk like that. You served your time. Let the past be the past." He'd always believed Ashley was hopelessly in love with him, just as she'd been oblivious to his machinations, believing his lies until the moment she saw him on the witness stand. No one knew the depths of her despair in that moment. Even if she'd denied the charges, Ethan had already tampered with the evidence. She had no escape.

"The past?" I looked at him, amusement dancing in my eyes. "I merely spent five years in prison, while she's your precious darling, isn't she?" This charade was amusing. Their souls, so delectable, were trapped in these putrid shells, their stench almost unbearable. I had to wait for their deaths to devour their complete essence.

"Ungrateful scum," I continued, "Birds of a feather flock together, don't they?"

Ignoring Noah's pale face and Ethan's darkening expression, I turned to leave. Having taken one soul, I couldn't simply avenge Ashley and be done. Her soul wasn't enough to satisfy me. I needed more.

Noah was the first to follow. "Ash, where are you going?" The Miller empire was gone, everything in Ethan's hands. Ashley was penniless, fresh out of prison, with nowhere to go.

"Stay away from me," I frowned, my disgust unconcealed. "You reek." Such a delectable soul, yet cloaked in such a repulsive human form. I fought the urge to snap his neck. To savor the final feast, patience was essential.

Noah recoiled, disbelief etched on his face. "Ash, do you hate me that much? Ethan tricked me. I didn't know… I couldn't betray the oath I took when I studied law!" Faced with the evidence, all explanations were futile. Noah believed only in evidence.

I scoffed. "You never believed me, not even for a second. We grew up together, yet you wouldn't even listen to my explanation. But it doesn't matter anymore. It's over." My words sent a chill down his spine. He stared, stunned, at the fragile woman before him, so thin a strong wind could break her. It wasn't hard to imagine the hell she'd endured. He hadn't visited her once, unable to face her.

I wrinkled my nose, waving away the stench. "Don't follow me. You really stink." This lingering odor was more nauseating than Ethan's outright foulness.

Noah trembled, his pain a source of perverse pleasure. Ah, Ashley's soul, not yet fully consumed, her will still present. Noah's suffering brought her solace. The little girl was finally starting to embrace her wicked side.