I do not own Supernatural or related creations made by the SP Crew.

I was in pain, bleeding, and on the ground when my brain registered that I may actually survive to see tomorrow. "Can I clean myself up first?"

Crowley nodded once, "Of course, don't take too long." He pointed towards a door that I assumed to be a bathroom, then he left me to figure out how to drag my aching body off the floor.

I washed my face and exited the bathroom to find a table set up with a steak dinner all set up. The King motioned for me to sit, "Eat, then we shall discuss the terms of your employment."

I got a quarter of the way through my meal before I got uncomfortable, "Can we talk about something? Eating while you stare silently at my poor manners is a little unnerving."

He didn't say anything so I took a drink of water. He chose that moment to say, "Are you a prostitute?"

Water came out of my nose as I choked on it, "Excuse the fuck out of me?!" A coughing fit allowed me a moment to get control of my temper, "What gave you that idea?"

He chuckled, "You were quite flirtatious at the bar, perhaps you would like to continue the conversation we were having before business interrupted." He leaned forward, taking one of my hands and winking.

I took my hand back, "I think you want me uncomfortable and off balance before attempting to get me to sign my soul away."

Crowley suddenly frowned, "Attempt? I only deal in souls."

I raised an eyebrow, "Ah, yes I forgot. Swanky places like this take Visa, Mastercard, and souls."

Crowley leaned back, "You want money?! I make deals for souls." He was studying me as I took a drink of water.

I pushed away my half finished dinner, "I want more than money, I want a steady paycheck. I understand that seems small to you, I imagine that many people ask for fame, fortune, health. I just want to live. If we don't come to an agreement, you will kill me. If I do manage to become employed by you, I would like to be fairly compensated." I stopped talking for a moment before adding, "Dental would be nice too."

He began to roar with laughter, his demonic minions joining him.

He stopped laughing abruptly leaving his underlings struggling to keep up with the change. "What would be in it for me?"

I was hoping my nervousness wasn't showing. I had honestly never imagined I would get this far. My soul was still something I did not want to part with but I had a terrible idea.

"Loyalty, In addition to any abilities and skills that may be useful." I braced for more laughter but was surprised to hear a tone of curiosity.

"Loyalty is a strange thing to offer the King of Hell." He became stone faced as he continued, "Your soul may be simpler for you to deliver on."

I gulped, I couldn't help it. As much as he was a gracious host, this being was dangerous. He noticed, then smiled, "Good, you are afraid, I was worried you were a moron."

I nodded a bit too quickly, "Of course I am afraid, you can kill me whenever you like. I am not equipped in any way to be on the run from the King of Hell and frankly that sounds like way too much work anyway."

Crowley leaned forward, setting his arms on his knees, and resting his head on his chin. "Employing you does not mean I won't decide to kill you. How do you propose to stay alive should you become useless? I imagine you already have terms you want me to agree to."

I nodded in a more controlled manner this time, "Yes...I wrote them down." I reached into my pocket and unfolded a paper with numbered points written on it in my messy scrawl.

1) Employment will be compensated by fair and steady livable pay, fair benefits, and anything else deemed reasonable.

2) The employer will ensure the physical health and well being of the employee for the duration of employment.

3) The employee will not work against the interest of the employer or their soul is forfeit.

4) The employer cannot use employment to force relinquishment of the employee's soul.

5) Terms of employment end only when the employee is fired or quits.

6) Employee retains soul as long as term # 3 is honored.

I should have known something was off when he smiled, it was the type of smile that sends a chill down your spine. He was apparently feeling the need to show off as the paper burst into flame and almost melted into a scroll.

He handed it to me and I unfurled it to find that my terms were hardly altered at all.

1: Employee will receive a weekly deposit into the account of their choice of $2000.00 USD

2: The employee shall receive private medical and dental insurance of the highest quality provided by the employer.

3: The employee shall have housing, travel, and dining expenses provided by the employer.

4: The employer shall see to it that the employee is not murdered and is in good health at the end of every week.

5: The employer shall not use their authority to force the employee to relinquish their soul.

6: The employee shall not betray the employer or their soul is forfeit.

a: The employee's soul will only become the property of the employer if the above is violated.

7: The terms of the contract end when the employee is terminated from employment or resigns.

There were a couple of demons behind me who caught sight of the rather simple contract and began to whisper to each other before Crowley glared at them.

The terms he had added more detail to were generous, very generous. This was so unexpected that I almost forgot to read further past the pay. I raised an eyebrow at point 4, "Why ensure my good health at the end of every week?"

Crowley let out an exasperated sigh, "Working for me won't be all roses. You will likely be hurt from time to time."

I nodded, agreeing that good health all the time was difficult to manage. I did have another problem with point 4. "I have an issue with the word murdered. Doesn't that mean someone actually has to harm me with the intent to kill?"

Crowley rolled his eyes, "I suppose you want me to ensure you do not die in general."

I squinted at him, "I have long ago given up on miracles and I don't expect them now. If I get cancer, I wouldn't ask you to save me from that. I just want to live my life in as much peace as I can get."

I sighed, "That being said I also don't want to die because of work I am doing for you."

Crowley opened his mouth to say something when one of his minions roughly yanked me up and around by my shirt. "How dare you spit in the face of the King's generous offer."

This demon stopped there, he was staring just past me towards said King. I am not sure what exactly was happening but I realized very suddenly that his Majesty had decided to simply observe the situation for the moment.

This was confirmed for me when the demon spoke again, eyeing me with a smirk, "You need to be taught respect, ingrate."

This was not the first time someone had tried to teach me a lesson in respect, I had lost count of that ages ago.

Those lessons were never effective and always ended up being repeated due to a truly unfortunate character flaw in my personality: The inability to shut up.

I stamped down the urge to try to struggle out of the demon's grip, "Can I request a lesson in respect from a demon who did not rudely interrupt a contract negotiation?"

The demon took his free hand and reached for my throat before Crowley's voice made him pause, "She does raise a valid point, release her."

The demon very much looked like he would rather kill me, but he obeyed. I did my best to turn back and sit in the chair I previously occupied without looking like I wanted to pee myself.

Crowley, on the other hand, looked very satisfied with the exchange. Like he had learned something important somehow, I felt more like prey then I had since meeting the King of Hell.

He smiled in a way that I was certain he meant to be charming. "Where were we?"

I didn't hesitate, "We were rephrasing point number 4."

His smile faltered for an instant and unfurled the scroll. "That is fine." He pulled a pen from nothing and began to scribble.

I decided to address what I saw as the biggest problem next, "I want to change point 6, the use of the word 'betray' is very subjective. You could decide calling you an asshole is a betrayal, then I lose my soul for nothing."

He set the pen down, giving me his full attention, "Do you think I would be that petty?" The smirk on his lips let me know he was enjoying this.

I smirked back, "Yes, yes I do. Now stop flirting and let's get back to work." Suddenly I realized I was getting entirely too comfortable and wiped the smirk from my face before continuing.

"I prefer 'employee will not work against the interests of employer.' It offers me flexibility." I watched his face carefully as the dread began to sink heavy in my stomach, something was off here.

He looked like he was thoughtfully weighing the pros and cons before sighing, "Yes, I suppose that is fair."

What was gnawing at me, something was wrong, but he was agreeing to everything. He seemed to sense my hesitation because he stood up and walked over to the demon who had grabbed me.

"Tell her why this offer is generous." It was very clearly an order. The demon still looked very much like he was afraid of answering.

He did obey, "There is no fine print."

Immediately, I knew that this was the thing bothering me. "Why would you not try to add fine print? Why agree to my terms so easily?"

The somewhat easy going manner that he had been displaying was gone in an instant, suddenly he very much had the manner of a dangerous killer. "Your terms will result in me getting a soul. I see very little need to change them. This should be fun."

It occurred to me that this was not a contract for him, this was a wager. I was shocked but managed to stutter out, "You can not possibly be that bored?"

Crowley grinned like he was telling a great joke, "I am a very busy demon, but everyone needs hobbies. You have to take time for the little things. I could always just kill you."

I hated that he was right. Killing me would be exceedingly easy for him, I was being offered a choice between playing a game with my soul or losing my life.

It wasn't a choice at all. "Where do I sign?" I think Crowley enjoyed "signing" the contract with me much more than I wanted him to.

It wasn't a surprise when I was told that I was to spend the foreseeable future as an experiment, especially when Crowley gleefully pointed out that I forgot to specify what I was being employed to do. Crowley wanted to know exactly how I was suppressing demons with apparent ease. He wanted to see how quickly I could do it.

It took 2 weeks before I was able to seize control of my body and fade into my mental library within minutes. Apparently the strength and will of the demon did affect how fast I could do this.

After that, he wanted to know what enabled demons to take over again, even temporarily. Would pain work? Was I more durable when housing a demon?

I felt he was looking for a reason to torture me. He insisted it was for the sake of gaining knowledge. I didn't believe it as he enjoyed the work way too much.

Still he kept to the terms of the contract, he would order the demon within me to heal my body. I didn't realize that demons were capable of doing that.

I also got the impression he was really hoping the torture would make me quit.

Unfortunately for both of us, We learned that I could funnel my sense of pain to the demon inside me. Turns out that pain is the body's way of warning you that you could die and it shouldn't be ignored. I almost died twice before either of us noticed it was a problem

After 24 hours of straight torturing I thought I would go insane from the pain, I wanted to feel nothing with every fiber of my being.

Then suddenly, I didn't. It was like I had been dipped in lidocaine. I was not sure who was more surprised, me or Crowley.

Turns out it was the demon that I had houses within at the time.

Crowley had first chosen demons that were as loyal as demons could be to help with these experiments. They weren't fans, it had become a game of sorts among them to discover who could successfully possess me.

The King thought it was pretty funny. He was particularly interested in my ability to pull information from demons. He decided to keep it simple, he would tell them a code word and I was to retrieve it from the demon.

It was discovered very early on that this process for reasons neither of us understood, took a terrible toll on my body. Nose bleeds, coughing up blood, more disturbingly, tears of blood.

Crowley declared one day that I was only to use this ability when he ordered me to. I was pretty on board with not regularly bleeding from my head, so I agreed.

The most startling discovery happened around 5 months after all this began. Crowley had told me he had a new job for me. He never really got through the rest because the doors to his penthouse flew open.

A very angry demon stormed in. Crowley seemed unsurprised, "Zane, how nice to see you."

I raised an eyebrow at the demon. His new body was a very tan short but stout man. He looked very different than he had in my mind's eye. I knew the moment he recognized me.

It was a shame that my reflexes sucked. I could barely blink before he slammed me against a wall holding me by my throat. It was as if everything were moving in slow motion.

I could feel him tightening his hand around my throat almost gradually. Out of the corner of my eye I could see Crowley beginning to raise his hand.

I felt dizzy, I couldn't get any air into my lungs, I wanted to panic. I thought I would be consumed by the fear creeping in as the black edged along my vision.

Instead, I felt it shift to rage. I had always been an angry person, a lifetime of terrible people and situations created a well of that emotion in me. I was told for the majority of my life to never react in anger, so I buried it. The consequences of my anger made me afraid to express that emotion at all.

As I felt myself starting to lose consciousness, I just felt the rage inside me. Rage at the unfairness of my life, at loss, at demons in general, but mostly rage at the asshole currently strangling me. I wanted him to suffer.

I felt an odd sensation of power as I held my desire to harm this demon in my mind. I decided to fight and did my best to throw a punch.

I didn't really question it when Zane immediately dropped me, I was too busy breathing for the first time in what seemed like minutes.

Suddenly, I was being yanked to my feet, a hand reached out to turn my face, and I found myself staring into the eyes of Crowley.

He held my chin in place, muttering to himself, "Interesting." I must have looked confused because he let go of my chin and pointed to a place across the room that had a crumpled form on the ground. It took me a moment to realize it was Zane.

It took me a few tries to respond, speaking hurt, "I appreciate the quick reaction time." Crowley raised an eyebrow before grabbing my arm and teleporting me to a room with a mirror.

I noticed immediately that my typically light brown irises were now totally black, as if I were wearing a set of those Halloween contacts. I looked at Crowley confused, "I don't understand…"

Crowley rolled his eyes, "You can use demonic abilities."

My breath caught in my throat and I turned back to the mirror once more leaning in to look at my eyes more closely.

Slowly I watched as the black drained back into my pupils and suddenly I felt dizzy. I managed to utter a single curse before I blacked out.

I was apparently unconscious for close to 24 hours. As soon as I opened my eyes, one of Crowley's minions jumped up and walked from the room, door slamming behind him.

I tried to sit up but my body wouldn't cooperate at all. Everything hurt, so I closed my eyes for a bit.

A few minutes later, I heard the door open again. I opened my eyes to see Crowley walk into the room followed by a dark haired man in a tan trench coat. Crowley waved his hand in my general direction, "Fix her."

The dark haired man glared at Crowley, "You pulled me away from a war to heal a demon?"

I wanted to roll my eyes but couldn't make my body comply. Instead I tried to force out words, "Not demon. Human."

I didn't expect the words to take so long to get out, sound so weak, or to be such a labor to get out.

I barely even noticed when I began to lose consciousness. I was fascinated by the man in a trench coat, who appeared to be yelling at my boss.