Page 12 of Demon Hunger
“Do what?”
I rolled my eyes in frustration, turned, and walked away. “We’ll talk later.”
Drevan stood in front of the windows, looking up at the morning sky, hands in his pockets. He had removed his black jacket and hung it from a hook. His sleeves were rolled up to his elbows and his tie was loose, the top button of his shirt undone. Before the class, there hadn’t been a hair out of place, but after his demonstration, a strand hung over his eyes.
“What do you want?” I asked, not one bit of sympathy in my voice.
He turned away from the window and faced me. His expression was plaintive, and I cursed inwardly. Immediately, I suspected that, once more, he wanted to talk about what happened between us the night after Sage and I returned from Richie’s party in Mill Neck. Ever since I saw his true form, he’d been trying to explain himself, but I hadn’t let him address the elephant in the room, and I wasn’t about to do it now either.
We’d been so close to making love, if not for the fact that he lost control and bit me. He jumped away from me, breathing hard and looking crazed. At the time, I’d been disappointed and hurt, but after I saw his true semblance, I could only be grateful that nothing had happened.
I braced myself for another request to please let him explain and readied my usual answer: a big, fat NO.
Drevan opened his mouth, then shut it. He inhaled sharply, and when he spoke next, I knew he’d swallowed the words he truly wanted to say. “I have news from my father.”
His father: Lucifer Morningstar, the King of Hell himself.
Knowing his parentage, why did I ever think that the face Drevan chose to show the world was the real one? How naïve I’d been.
“I have the information for our next subject,” he added.
“Oh.”
I was certainly relieved he wasn’t going to try toexplain things, but this wasn’t a much better topic. The last couple of weeks had been nice. I hadn’t missed worrying about another messed-up person who needed redemption. I was able to concentrate on my lessons, but most importantly, I could stay away from Drevan, despite the fact that he’d forced his way into the only safe place I had. By pretending to be a league teacher, he became a constant thorn in my side. Though, it wasn’t too hard to keep him at bay—not when I could run out of The Fray room to my next class as soon as Summonings ended. But going back to our mission would make evading him harder.Damn.
“What are we dealing with?” I asked, making my tone as cold and professional as possible.
“The Gluttony Subject, this time.”
Of all the sins, gluttony sounded like the least threatening, so maybe it would be easy and fast to redeem the culprit. My redemption as the pride subject was fast. Solar Hudson’s, despite a few dangerous situations, also occurred quickly. Whatever else might be going on, Drevan and I made a good team, exceeding all initial expectations. Hopefully, we would find a diet pill on the Internet that would take care of our next target in a breeze. The faster we redeemed everyone, the faster I would be rid of this demon.
“What can you tell me about this person?” I asked.
“His name is Kody Jeong. He’s thirty-five years old and lives in Chinatown. He’s of Korean descent, mind you. He’s a mukbang celebrity on YouTube.”
“A what?”
“Mukbang celebrity.” He paused, then continued after I gave him a questioning frown. “Mukbang is a sort of eating show where the person eats large quantities of food in front of the camera while talking to the audience.”
“Never heard of it, but I guess it makes sense for the Gluttony Subject.” I fidgeted with the edge of my hoodie. “So, do you have a plan?”
“No, I just received the news. I was hoping we could get together to discuss.”
“When? And where?”
“Not here at the league, of course. There could be eavesdroppers, spies. Josephine LeBeau used to be the director, after all. She might still have people on the inside.”
Good point. Though, I was sure she wasn’t the only one with spies within the LDH. Even before he was a professor, Drevan always seemed to know exactly what was going on inside these walls.
“I will text everyone details about where to rendezvous,” he said. “Sound good?”
I nodded, twirled on my heel, and walked away without a goodbye. It was good to know that Jenna, Benjamin, and even Sage would be there. They would serve as the perfect buffer.
“Why, Sage? Why?” I demanded, sitting across from him at the lunch table, Jenna and Benjamin to my left and right.
“Yeah, why?” Jenna echoed. “Why would you be such anasshole?”
A muscle ticked in Sage’s jaw. Benjamin winced at the word, but it was a perfectly good adjective to describe our very, sometimes-insensitive friend.
