Michael is left with no clue where Dez has gone. She just split. No words of explanation. No consolatory goodbyes. She just vanished into a puff of smoke. A few months have passed, and Michael can feel the weight of loneliness crushing him. Learning to embrace his exhaustion, he decides to spend New Year's Eve curled up in the comfort of his bed. He expected to find the sweet relief of slumber. Instead, he found only more suffering. Previously released in bestselling urban fantasy anthology The Stroke of Midnight, Suffering is a short story in the Demon Legacy series. The story takes place between the events of The Devil You Know (Demon Legacy #1) and Speak of the Devil (Demon Legacy #2).