Page 62 of Hellfire & Tinsel
“And you never will!” they growled, the image disappearing in a puff of smoke as they rounded on him with the fires of Hell in their eyes. He found himself pressed back into the sofa. “He’s ours!”
Beau nodded frantically. “I don’t want him! I promise! He’s not the demon I like. All I want is to talk to Kassel!”
They eased off in a snap, smiles replacing sneers like they had never been there at all. They giggled in unison, one smoothing down his sweater and adjusting the wrinkles in the fabric, while the other petted his hair gently. “We might be able to help you with that.”
Beau gasped, heart lurching. “You can?”
“This human has nicer hair than the other one,” the one petting his head said.
Beau was startled by the compliment and the physical touches. It wasn’t anything like the rush when Kassel touched him, but he still craved the affection, especially after the dark vacuum he’d been living in. “T-thank you.”
“Your soul hurts my eyes to look at though.”
“Oh…”
“Do you want to do some evil deeds together to tarnish your soul?” they asked. “It’s fun. We promise.”
“Maybe not now? I’m a little tired,” Beau said, not wanting to refuse the invitation outright. He was being invited out for the first time. “But later? After I speak to Kassel?”
“I’m Azoth, by the way,” the one on the left introduced himself suddenly.
“And I’m Tarik.”
“I’m Beau,” he said, trying to follow the conversation, which seemed to fly around like a paper plane in a storm.
“We know,” they drawled, bored eye rolls following.
They got back up off the sofa like they couldn’t stay still for that long and began picking over his room some more like a pair of magpies. Beau sprang to his feet and followed them, uncaring about what they were touching, too invested in the offer they’d made.
“Can you really help me?”
“We can,” they said.
Azoth grasped a snow globe in his palm, glass end first, fingers and nails curling all the way around to the base. He brought it to his face upside down, looking at the insides. Tarik was pilfering the star from the top of his tree, tail batting at the ornaments below. A few clattered to the floor.
“You can take whatever you want, I just need to talk to him,” Beau said, impatience making him shift on his feet.
“Relaaax,” Azoth drawled, throwing the globe aside carelessly.
It smashed in the background.
“You don’t have to do any more of that gross leaking,” Tarik said, cheering when he snatched the star. He placed it on the end of his tail to hold.
“Crying?” Beau asked.
The twins shuddered. “Yeah, that.”
“I miss him,” Beau whispered, patting his puffy, red face and blotting self-consciously under his running nose.
The twins exchanged a look Beau couldn’t decipher, before they turned on him, approaching slowly. “How much, squishy? How much do you miss Mr. Hell?” Tarik asked.
“More than anything in the world,” he admitted truthfully, his whole heart on his soaked sleeve.
“You care for him?”
Beau blushed. “Y-yes.”
“Love him?”
