Page 8 of Demon Demands

The attempted bonds between a master and hellhound were, more often than not, volatile things. Hellhounds were wild beasts, always sought after for the wrong reasons. I enjoyed their companionship, not the power trip others looked for.

Atlas leaned his head down, using the tip of his nose to bump my shoulder, silently asking for my attention. As I stroked between his eyes and around his ears with both of my hands, I noticed Helios. He was stretched out across the ground while Vaughn rubbed his belly with frosted fingers.

Weird, but oddly cute. Helios had taken up quickly with Vaughn and Novak since they’d been here.

“Sloane,” Papi called harshly, breaking me out of my thoughts as he placed his hand against Cronus’ chest. My hound refueled his empty power stores without any hesitation or need for a command, sensing Papi’s low magical reserves. “The portal is done. It’s time to go.”

Novak

Monday Early Afternoon

Stepping through my first portal was not what I’d call a fun experience. It wasn’t as fast as moving through the frosty temperatures of the Void, and it was much worse than trekking through the Kentucky woods in the middle of the night.

Sloane had warned us before she stepped through with her hounds hot on her heels. But really? “Don’t think about the spinning,” wasn’t much of a fucking warning.

She definitely should have compared it to being too drunk while lying on your back and trying to focus on the ceiling fan. Multiplied by twenty.

That was the only sensation that I’d felt. There was no sound. It didn’t have any sort of breeze; it wasn’t hot or cold. I couldn’t even be sure that I was physically moving, but my head was fucking spinning so hard that I couldn’t see.

Three seconds or three hours could have passed me by, I had no idea.

Eventually, the damn thing spat me out on the other side, in a heap of tangled limbs, and right on top of a snarling Briggs.

I climbed off the shifter just in time for Palmer to land on top of him too. Turning my head, I tried to smother my laughter as Briggs shoved the mage off his chest, muttering obscenities at us both.

York and Vaughn stepped through the portal as if they were walking through a regular ass door, and that irked my nerves to no end.

When Stone, Grim, and Sam followed after them, also not tumbling into a pile of fucking bones on the floor, I was seriously ready to pout.

Sam faced the portal, waving his hand from the bottom outer edge on the right all the way around the top and down to the bottom left, closing it off with whatever black blood magic demons used.

I eyed the rest of the room we were in suspiciously since it was no longer hidden behind a spinning death trap used for some sick form of travel.

It was too quiet for my liking, and Trouble was nowhere to be seen in the cavernous room. There were several doors on each wall, though none were marked.

Clearly. Why would the demon mark doors in his own home?

The door on the far side of the room opened. A burly male popped his head through the crack before stepping out completely and closing it with a soft click.

“Grim, she wants you to join her.”

Fuck. His voice sounded like silk, wrapping around my mind and my cock simultaneously. Whatever that feeling was… it was a big fucking nope.

Not today, Sa—err, Sloane.

My mate was about to become the Third Devil after all, and we knew Satan wasn’t shit from what she’d told us. So, not today, Sloane. I snorted at myself.

“He’s part incubus,” Stone whispered to us. Briggs growled low and gravelly, the sound resonating from his chest.

The male in front of us cleared his throat. “Sorry about that. I was in the middle of…”

He glanced at us all, choosing his words carefully. “I was in the middle of using my powers to get some answers when Lo walked in. We can watch the interrogation from the other room, though.” He jerked his thumb to another door a few feet away and then sent Grim a pointed look.

“Oh.” Grim shook his head. “Right. Does she want me to watch or scare? Did she say?”

“Nope, but she keeps telling the poor idiot what they can do together after he answers her questions, so I’m guessing that she just wants a witness. Charlie and Lucy are already waiting in the other room, watching through the mirrored glass.”

I glanced at the guys before sending them the tail end of my rambling thoughts. “What the fuck did he mean by ‘what they can do together’?”