Page 9 of Craving Demons

Still, that name was just a little too on point to be a complete coincidence.

I pulled the cork from the top of the bottle and took a long swig, the burning liquid warming me.

“You got the hots for her?” Maria asked, conversationally.

I smiled and breathed a laugh. Trust Maria to poke a daemon lord like that. She really didn’t have a clue about our ranks and such, so she was equally as nice or indifferent to all of us. She knew I was a big spender and a lady’s man, but probably not much more than that.

“You could say that,” I said, then took another long swig. Once that was downed, I sighed, starting to feel a bit more myself again.

“Not that I’m interested,” Maria said, clearly leading up to a question, “but it sounds like you’re looking to screw another of our servers. I think you’ve been with almost all of them… but not me. Do you only do Empyreans?” She didn’t sound upset, only curious.

I gave another laugh. “Something like that, yeah.” She wasn’t wrong. One of the other ways I liked to let out my chaos was in bed, letting my passion burn. But normal humans were too fragile for my more forceful attentions. Also… they generally didn’t get me excited. Their aspects were barely there.

Still, I liked Maria. She was attractive enough, in a human sort of way.

“It’s not that I don’t think you’re beautiful,” I said and winked at her. “But you humans lack a little… something in your auras. You’re… bland.” She quirked her head at that, raising a brow, and I felt compelled to explain. “Like a curry that looks really delicious but has no heat to it.”

“So… I’m a beautiful but bland curry, got it.” She shook her head again. “Yup, you Empyreans are strange.” Then she left to help another customer.

After a couple more swigs of that Norse Whiskey I was just starting to forget about that woman, Anais, except…

Damn.

Who was she?

Her aspect clearly indicated she was a sex daemon of some sort. It was possible she was a goddess, but… they usually felt different. Love goddesses radiated love, not lust. Although if she was a fertility goddess then… maybe? That might explain why her aspect was so powerful.

Except how could she not know what she was?

She’d said something about being adopted.

Even so, her aspect should have been raging — unveiled as it was — for most of her life, at least since puberty. Other gods and daemons should have noticed her long before I had, but I seemed to have been the first to tell her what she was. It made no sense. Nothing about her made sense, to my mind at least. Everything about her made sense to my body and soul.

If she was going to be working here, I’d have to watch out, at least until Harmonia had gotten her under control. For that matter, every daemon would have to watch out.

That poor woman had a long, hard road ahead of her, fending off daemons left and right.

Though…

I might be able to help her with that.

I smiled to myself as a plan began forming in my head. I’d have to talk to Harmonia before I left.

This could be fun.

GREY

I let outa long sigh and leaned back in my high-backed chair, swiveling to look at my view over the park. I’d been doing a lot of this lately, looking out there instead of concentrating on business.

And I had a lot of businesses to concentrate on. Zagreus Holdings International managed hundreds of businesses from this bar to several banks, shipping companies, real estate, and more. I had more wealth than I knew what to do with, but none of it brought me joy anymore.

I was over five thousand years old, and I’d been hunting and conquering since I was a boy. Except lately I’d been feeling more and more empty.

I’d left Hades when I was still young and begun hunting every known creature on this earth. Some were easy to capture, others much harder, but I’d caught them all at least once. Then, I released them back into the wild. Killing held no thrill for me, only the hunt, the capture.

As centuries passed, I turned to other endeavors, other ways to hunt. I’d been a merchant since the eighth century, hunting the best deals, the wares which were hardest to acquire. More recently, that meant building and buying businesses. Yet, of all my many holdings, the only ones that brought me joy, were the ones that made no money at all: my animal shelters where I loved to visit the wonderful creatures we cared for.

In truth, most of the day-to-day business of my many companies was run by others. There were only a few I took the lead in, Elysium was one, the shelters were another. Otherwise, I was on the lookout for the next acquisition, or I had been. There were no more companies out there that I wanted.

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