Page 17 of Demon Demands

“Pain has a face, allow me to show it to you,” Hyland whispered ominously from behind us, cackling when she made several of us jump. Grim and York grinned at her. They had to have known she was lurking and chose not to warn us.

Bastards.

Novak spun around to face the little succubus, furrowing his brows at her. “Why would she say that? It’s a Hellraiser quote.”

Hyland shrugged. “Because it’s true. The True Devil doesn’t make promises that she doesn’t intend to keep. And I don’t know who Hellraiser is.”

“Hellraiser,” Novak repeated slowly, as if Hyland hadn’t heard him. “You know… like Pinhead?”

“I have no clue what you’re talking about.” She rolled her honeyed amber eyes at Novak. “I just came back to tell you guys that Lo and I picked out some gear for you lazy fucks. Thought you might need the help since you’re just going to stand around with your thumbs in each other’s asses.”

“Ouch.” Novak sucked in a dramatic breath, clutching his chest. “You wound my heart, little succubus. Take me to my mate so she can heal the fractures you’ve left behind.”

Hyland’s shocked gaze landed on Grim as she leaned closer to him. “How has she not killed him yet?”

“Because she lo-” Novak cleared his throat. “Because she really likes me.”

“Yeah. Okay,” she sarcastically replied, nodding her head. “So if you guys are done giving each other prostate exams, I’ll take you to where Lo left your carts.”

Hyland turned on her heel, striding away and not giving a fuck if we followed or not. We did, with some fucking pep in our steps.

I was excited about seeing the weapons and kind of kicking myself in the ass for standing around for so long. I was more of a gun guy, but I had taken a liking to carrying the obsidian switchblade that Barbie had given me in my pocket.

I wondered what kind of shopping she’d done while the guys and I gossiped like old ladies in a hair salon.

* * *

Stone stepped out from between two shelves as I wandered around, exposing an entrance to a small room tucked neatly away from unsuspecting visitors. His lips twitched with mirth as he loudly proclaimed, “Palmer found something interesting.”

“For fuck’s sake,” the mage mumbled. Sloane, York, and I squeezed into the doorway, and she immediately covered her mouth with her hand.

“Someone please tell me this isn’t what I think it is.” Palmer had his hand wrapped around the base of a… a giant dildo.

Barbie’s grin was so wide that it made my own cheeks hurt. “You’ll have to ask Jack about that.”

Palmer swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the motion, as he shook his head. “It’s not his…”

“Uh-huh,” Barbie agreed, smirking at the mage’s disgusted face.

Palmer freaked out, shoving the dildo on the shelf closest to him. The giant horse dick. Because, yeah. That’s what it was. Like a larger-than-life Clone-A-Willy of Jack’s hellsteed cock.

“What the fuck?” Vaughn whispered, his eyes landing on a mass of multicolored dildos. You didn’t need to be a rocket scientist to know that they were all Jack’s.

Dolyn cleared his throat, something he seemed to do when he was uncomfortable. “You’d be surprised by how many times Jack has sold his, uhm, likeness. I keep telling him he can’t store that shit here, but he sneaks those monsters in every chance he gets.”

In unison, we all turned to Grim. Sloane threw her head back, cackling like she’d lost her fucking mind. Grim put his hands on his hips, turning shrewd eyes on my mate, before he realized what we were all thinking.

“Oh, no.” Grim shook his head vehemently. “Don’t look at me like that. He has a very human dick attached to his very human body. I’m into a lot of strange shit, but animals are not one of my kinks.”

“He’s not an animal, he’s a demon.” Barbie rolled her eyes at Grim.

Under the false lighting of the warehouse all I could see was the glowing red ring around her irises. Hardly any green or gold could be spotted.

She was herself, but the hellish fire in her eyes promised her demon was only a breath away.

Grim groaned, rubbing his forehead. “Semantics.”

“What is this room?” York ambled around the space, running his hands over items on the shelves.