Page 32 of Demon Demands

Stone studied me intently, making me bristle under his unnerving scrutiny. “How much did you drink?”

I rubbed the back of my neck as I thought hard about his question, the sand on my hand gritty against my skin. “All of it...”

“Fuck,” Stone stuttered. “You’re going to have a hell of a ride to the palace.”

I hummed under my breath in agreement. Riding Helios had been fun. Way better than riding horses or unicorns. I really liked the fiery hellhound. I hoped he wouldn’t chew my shoes up like he’d done Sloane and Jack’s. I wondered if he’d like a big popsicle. I could make one for him.

“Why are you still talking about popsicles, Vaughn?” Sloane asked me as she kneeled in front of me. Yes. I was so ecstatic that she was close. I wanted to touch her hair.

“Don’t.” She swatted my hand away. “Your hands are covered in sand.”

Godsdamnit. I just needed to feel the silk combined with the grit. The dual sensations would be everything. I wanted to groan at the imaginary feeling. It wasn’t as good as the real thing would be, I just knew it.

Sloane pulled her head back, pivoting her body in the sand enough to see both Stone and me. “What is wrong with him? Did one of the scorpions sting him?”

Stone threw his arms out, and I tried to catch the extra hands that followed his hands. “He drank the beer.”

Sloane grimaced, split between amusement and exhaustion. “Great. That’s fucking lovely. We’ll have to keep an eye on him. And that motherfucking scorpion ripped a hole in my fishnets, so I need to find a new pair. The tear cancels out the spell on them. And Hannibal got away. He fled on the back of one of them when they all showed up. We won’t catch him now. We’ll have to hunt him later, when Vaughn sobers up.”

“Or wait for him to find us,” York countered. “When we ransacked the bunker before coming outside, we found one of the angelic tomes that he’d stolen. It’s missing pages, though.”

“Yeah, if we have that spell book then he’ll definitely seek us out.” Stone rolled his head in a circle, and I copied him, feeling a rush of dizziness.

Sloane gestured to the scorpions I’d killed. “Who killed them?”

I pointed to myself with both thumbs. “I killed those two all by myself.”

“Hey,” Novak complained, “I helped with one.”

“No.” I shook my head at him quickly, feeling my brain rattle around in my skull. “You turned my new friend into an enemy. So then I had to kill him. We don’t need any more enemies.”

“Right,” Sloane drawled. “It took me, Palmer, and Dolyn to kill one, and the hellhounds helped with the second after they took down their own target.”

“You guys are missing the real important shit here.” Novak waved his hand around, tracers following to create an intricate pattern in the air. “Vaughn has a trident?”

Briggs chuckled, the sound vibrating through his body. I could feel the noise, even from several feet away. “You're like an icy Aqua Man.”

“Ha. Ha.” I laughed with zero amusement, but it was kind of hilarious to picture. My suit would be blue and white to match my eyes, and it would be slick and stretchy. “You’re so funny.”

“Male Elsa?” Palmer inquired, and I liked that idea just as much, except I wouldn’t look as pretty in a dress. But I did want to make a snowman.

Palmer rolled his eyes at me, the clouds in his irises moving just like the clouds in the hellish red and gray daytime sky of the Underworld. I missed the darkness of the night. The plants and animals would be so amazing right now, all glowy and shit.

“Ya know yer talkin’ out loud again, right? The dress and the snowman, my eyes… all of that nonsense that ya think yer thinking about is just spewing from yer lips.”

“Uhm, can I blow this place up or what?” Dolyn asked. His voice sounded chocolatey. Not M&Ms but… like dark chocolate. Smooth and sort of bitter, dark and good with wine.

“What the fuck, Vaughn?” Novak cackled. “You’ve got to chill out. Let’s find Helios, okay? Maybe he can keep you busy.”

“Oh, I bet he feels hairless, all soft and rough and-”

“Vaughn.” Novak leaned his head back, glancing at the sky. “You can touch my hair if it’ll make you shut the fuck up.”

“I don’t want to touch your hair. I want to touch Palmer’s face. Do you think his little bit of a beard is silky like Sloane’s hair or prickly?” I chortled. “Prickly. That’s a funny word.”

Novak smirked deviously, his hands on my shoulders as he turned my body around. “Let’s find out, shall we?”

“Do not,” the mage started to admonish me, but I surged forward, placing my hand on his cheek. “If ya don’t remove yer hand from my face, I’ll remove it from yer body.”