Page 23 of Hellfire & Tinsel
Kassel squinted at him, checking to make sure he hadn’t been replaced with a changeling demon. “You. Of all people.”
Oren smacked Kassel’s bicep. “Yes, me, of all people. I love being productive, but not at the expense of making memories. Beau wants little things. You can make those little things huge.”
Kassel frowned at the screen just as the main character leaned close to pick something out of the other character’s hair. They lingered. And then, as if pulled together by magnets, they kissed against the kitchen counter, surrounded by the mess they’d created.
Was that what Beau wanted too?
He’d picked up hints of lust here and there emanating from Beau. It was tinged with his innocence, like his thoughts were feeling along the edges of desires he didn’t know how to express.
It tasted sweet on the back of his tongue, the type of thing that created a yearning tolick.
Kassel wondered if Beau’s skin would have the same flavor. If the frosting of desire and innocence would explode in his mouth…
The creak of the pipes and sudden absence of water falling signaled the end of Beau’s shower, interrupting Kassel’s heated thoughts.
“That’s our cue to leave.” Oren sighed, flicking the TV off. “Luc said we weren’t allowed to interact directly with Beau.”
“And you listened?”
“Not even the offer, or threat, of sex would change his mind this time,” Zorun said, then made an expansive, sarcastic gesture. “Personal growth.”
“I’ll up my game, don’t worry,” Oren promised sunnily, his grin masking a wealth of deviousness.
Kassel had never been more certain G had made the right choice in sending Oren to Hell.
He was not sad to see them go though.
In fact, he was starting to feel territorial as the minutes grew longer, like a switch had been flipped inside him and broken in the ON position.
Beau was unknowing and vulnerable in the other room. Naked.
The bubbling primordial ooze coursing through his body got hotter.
“Goodbye,” he said flatly.
“Don’t sound too enthused to see the back of us,” Zorun said with a roll of his eyes. “One express trip back to Hell leaving right… Where are Double and Trouble?”
They all glanced around the suspiciously empty room.
“Uriel’s balls,” Zorun swore. “Azoth!Tarik!”
“They couldn’t have gone far,” Oren chirped optimistically. “The house is tiny and adorable. What trouble could they possibly be—”
A terrible scream of untold horror echoing from outside rang through the house.
“Oh dear.”
Zorun rushed in that direction, footsteps thundering and shaking the whole house. He barely fit his horns through the doorway, his wings nearly upending the Christmas tree on the way out the door.
Oren caught it before it fell, arms wrapped around the whole perimeter and baubles hitting him in the eyes. “It’ll befiiine.”
“Kassel?” Beau’s voice echoed down the hallway. “What’s happening? I think I hear Mrs. Knolly from next door screaming.”
“She’s fighting demons,” Kassel called back.
Oren hissed at him like an angry cat. “He’s not supposed to know!”
Which caused a problem.
