Page 15 of Hellfire & Bowties
“I can stick you on hellbeast cleanup if you’d prefer that?” Luc said.
“You can clean us up instead,” Tarik said, smoothing a hand over Zorun’s stomach.
“Yes, we’re very, very dirty,” Azoth said, crowding closer.
“I’m gone. See, look, I’m already leaving.” Zorun held his hands up, taking long strides backward away from all threats and grasping fingers.
Oren rushed to keep up with him, Beast hot on his heels, murmuring something Luc couldn’t fully hear. Probably what things he would like. Luc tried not to watch him go, but it was hard. It was like his eyes were magnetized.
When he turned back to the room, he found many eyes trained on him instead, and not just the ones from Kassel. Azoth and Tarik were sharing a conspiratorial look now their plaything was gone, their tails twisting up together and snaking around excitedly behind them.
Luc didn’t want the double headache of that, so he quickly drew himself up to his full height. “That’s all for today. You can head back to your usual duties unless you have something you need to see me about. Then stay behind.”
“Isn’t there anything else you want to tell us?” Tarik asked with a smirk full of tiny, pointed teeth.
“Anything at all?” Azoth blinked gleaming red eyes at him.
“Actually, now that you mention it, I haven’t gone over the roster in a while. I guess we could talk about making some switches,” Luc said casually, pursing his lips.
Azoth and Tarik yelped, clutching each other closer, wrapping their twined tails around both of them. “Forget we said anything. The roster is fine.”
They hightailed it away from him, and Luc smirked. One hint of splitting them up and they fell right back into line. He glanced at the rest of his demons and found them trying to look busy so his wrath didn’t fall on them next.
Sometimes it was good to be the big bad boss.
“Hey, Luc, could I maybe finish that tour now?” Oren asked, appearing at his side. “We can walk Beasty at the same time. Oh! And I had some ideas about the torture storage room that I need to talk to you about.”
Luc balked. “What torture storage room?”
Oren blinked up at him innocently. “The one Zorun said I shouldn’t go into. But he told me thatafterI was already in there, so I don’t think it counts.”
“Right.” Luc felt himself starting to lose his grip on some of the control he’d just gained over the room.
“Anyway,” Oren rambled on carelessly, wrapping his arm around Luc’s. “It’s a mess, and it’s very hard to find anything in there. I think if you arranged the system by century, then subcategorized it by body part, it would be both efficient and educational!”
“Of course,” Luc replied, his head spinning from the whirlwind that was Oren.
He wanted him. He wanted to indulge him.
He rolled his eyes at himself.
So much for the big bad boss.
4
Oren
“Give me a sec to answer some questions, and then we’ll go,” Luc said, unlinking their arms and walking into the throng of demons who had stuck around to talk to him.
Oren nodded, crossing the hands still holding the makeshift lead in front of him and rocking on his heels. He hummed to himself to pass the time, feeling Beast settle by his feet to lie down with a grumble and a hiss of fire.
Demons of all shapes and sizes stared at him unabashedly as they exited, muttering among themselves in languages Oren had no hope of placing. He wondered if there was some kind of book that could help him learn. Did they even have a library here?
He settled for waving at them as they walked out for the time being, but he was jostled from behind, his glasses nearly jostled straight off his face.
He turned to see that a huge, squat creature with a massive skull the size of a rhino’s had just headbutted him. It was kind of humanoid in shape other than the head—arms and legs accounted for, at least—but its eyes were narrowed slits of burning orange and its skin was mottled purple. What really stood out about the thing though, were the thousands of teeth it had on display—three inches long and with no lips to cover them. Teeth it was picking casually with a carved bone that looked like it had once been a human femur.
Hardly hygienic.
