Page 120 of Demon with Benefits
The demon growled. He didn’t like having the weak one’s voice in his head, but he didn’t know how to silence him. He couldn’t overpower him the way he used to.
Will you stop calling me that? I’m not weak, damn it.
The voice claimed not to be weak, but it belonged to a soft, fleshy human form—the one that had been incapacitated with a single syringe of angel blood.
If you could avoid bringing that up, that’d be great. I’m as embarrassed as you are.
The prey was still watching him with a wary gaze. She seemed to understand that he was waging a war in his head, and she waited patiently for it to reach its conclusion.
How about this, the weakling said.No, you can’t think of me as “the weakling” either. Jesus. I’m not that bad.
The demon growled.
Fine. The weakling has a suggestion. How about we don’t eat the witch, and you take her down to the castle. You protect her from harm—and don’t eat her—but youdoeat anyone you come across. You can eat every single demon in the lair if you want. You just can’t eat Iris. That sound fair?
The demon’s head tilted. He could eat anyone he came across, without exception?
Anyone and everyone except Iris.
This time his growl was one of accordance. The weakling gave a sigh of relief and retreated into silence—temporarily, the demon was sure, but he welcomed the reprieve.
He formed his wings and spread them, and the prey’s eyes widened. “Youdohave wings. I guess you must have flown us here with them, but obviously, I don’t remember that.”
Without attempting to respond, he reached out and snatched her into his arms. Then he hurtled them off the edge of the cliff, his wings snapping out to catch them as they fell.
She screamed the entire time.
He opened himself to feed a little. Hardly at all. She was already afraid, so what would it matter if he took a fraction off the top?
Pumping his wings and circling above the castle, he opened his jaw wide and emitted a piercing shriek, loud enough for any in the vicinity to hear.
The witch screamed some more and slapped her hands over her ears, but his cry had the desired effect. From within the lair, he felt the fear of its occupants spark to life. He shrieked again to stoke it higher.
He would stalk them, build their terror until they were mindless from it, and then he would swoop in and consume them all.
His female held tightly in his claws, he folded his wings and dove toward an open window in the tower.
Hungry.
Now, he would finally eat.
It was a massacre.
Iris had known it would be bad, but somehow, it was still ten times worse than she’d imagined. Meph had said he’d go on a killing spree if anything happened to her, but she was fine so far, and he was on a killing spree anyway.
He wasn’t just eating whoever crossed his path. Oh no, it was far worse than that.
This demon liked to play with his food.
First, he’d emitted bone-chilling shrieks that had reverberated through the castle and whipped Valefor’s minions into a frenzy of terror. Then, he’d begun stalking them through the halls—Iris hurrying along behind him, trying not to puke—and cornering them one by one. Once an underling was trapped, he’d unhinge his jaws like a snake and suck the life force out of them. Their screams of abject horror would slowly fade as they withered into desiccated husks before Iris’s eyes.
She tried to console herself with the knowledge that they would ultimately regenerate after this encounter, but it didn’t work. Considering what they were, she was pretty sure it would be better if theydiddie permanently.
She lost her battle against the urge to vomit when Meph ripped the legs off a demon who tried to run after he’d been cornered. Worse, she couldn’t just hide and wait for it to be over. She trusted Meph not to turn on her now, but she didn’t think he was aware enough not to get too caught up in the hunt and forget about her.
She wasn’t glowing again, but she firmly believed that if she needed the protection, it would come. She’d never had that kind of self-assurance before, but when she’d let go of her anger, it had sprouted inside her like a plant struggling for life that was finally exposed to the sun.
As for Valefor... she was still waiting for Meph to find him. He had to have been aware of what was happening by now. Was he gearing up to fight somehow? Planning a trap? Or was he running scared, trying to hide from Meph?
