Page 6 of Taken to the Deadlands

It didn’t look our way as it set the plates down on the floor, nor when it turned to leave. The door shut behind it automatically.

“So… did you see it?”

I swallowed thickly and looked back to the other two.

“That wasn’t a ghost,” I murmured. “Whatever it was…” I shuddered, unable to finish my sentence.

“It’s angry and in pain,” Iris whispered. “Maybe another type of demon?”

Eve shook her head. “If that was the case, we would see it.”

I wanted to tell them that there was no way that was a ghost either because I couldn’tsee ghosts, but I kept my mouth shut.

I’m not sure what the demon wanted with us, but I knew that if I wanted a chance at surviving this, I needed to play my cards right.

Chapter 3

Aris

Iloathed the auctions.

I hated the smell of lingering fear and arousal. I hated having to interact with the demons that were invited. And most importantly, I hated seeing the demons tear apart humans without a second thought.

It had been almost a millennium since I stopped feasting on humans. Since the fear they exuded left a scar on my psyche. Since I had lost control.

Back then, I had been a young demon, looking to regain the power to protect what I cared about. But when that was taken from me, the pain of going through these auctions never seemed worth it.

“Aris, what the hell are you doing here?” a grating, yet familiar voice called.

I stiffened in my seat. I had made sure to get the one closest to the back and in the shadows somewhat, just so no one would come up to me.

Apparently, they didn’t get the message.

I gritted my teeth and looked at the intruder—orintruders.

Two twin girls stood off to the side. One stood tall, with her hands shoved in her suit pants. Her button-up was loose, and ontop of it she wore a suit jacket with an embroidered royal coat of arms.

Her twin looped her arm around her neck, her chin on her shoulder, and looked at me with a devilish smirk. Both had a messy type of mullet that was dyed a light reddish pink. Or at least I thought it was dyed, since no member of the royal family had that monstrosity of a hair color.

Maybe it’s bloodstained. That would be more on brand for them.

Small, delicately filed horns peeked from beneath their hair. Another sign of their heritage. Demons like myself and many others didn’t have the resources or even bothered to constantly file their horns. But for royalty, it was a must.

Everything about them had to be groomed for presentation to the inner courts—from their clothes to what they ate to even the women they fucked.

How they got away with half of what they did was beyond me.

Last I saw them, they were being taken in for punishment after poisoning the royal family’s food supply. Anyone else would have been beheaded for evenattemptingto kill a royal. These two, however, succeeded in killing three of their relatives before being caught.

But even as demons gathered from across the realms to see their punishment… They walked out to greet us without so much as a hair out of place.

Even I had found myself a little impressed with how they managed to pull that off.

Against my inner wants, I stood and bowed my head to them.

“Eros, Oros.”

“Oh, knock it off, Aris,” Eros said. She was the one in front and usually the one that did the talking. Oros, on the other hand… Let’s just say she liked to play more than she liked to talk. If Oros was talking, trouble was expected.

---