Page 15 of Demon Hunger
I stared fixedly at the food on my plate. There was cracked pepper on the roast beef. Fascinating.
“Hello, Lucia.” The way he said my name was like a slight caress over my skin. Goosebumps broke out over my arms.
Was he using some demonic magic to do this to me? He had to be. Maybe he was like a vampire and had the power to compel people. He could do all other kinds of magic, so why not this?
“I was wondering if after the meeting we could talk,” he said.
I had lost count of how many times he’s asked me the same question. Did he really think he was going to get a different answer after I’d turned him down every single instance?
“My answer is stillno,” I said. “Aren’t you tired of asking?”
“I’ll never tire, moro mou.”
I frowned, unsure of what that meant. I was itching to ask, but I figured that was probably his intention, so I bit my tongue.
“Let’s gather so we can talk about the next subject.” He gestured toward the seating area, which was occupied by two comfortable sofas and flanked by matching armchairs.
We took our food with us. I sat with Jenna on one of the sofas with Sage and Benjamin across the way, while Drevan and Khargon took the chairs.
“I assumed Lucia told you a bit about our subject, Kody Jeong,” Devan started.
“Yeah.” Sage nodded. “I watched some of his videos on YouTube.”
I put down my fork and blinked. Sage had done research? Next to me, Jenna also appeared surprised and had the look of someone who wished they’d done the research, too.
“It was my idea,” Benjamin admitted shyly.
Now Jenna seemed mad that Benjamin hadn’t invited her to surf the web, but he was oblivious to subtle things like angry glares.
“Very good, young Benjamin,” Drevan said with a smile.
Benjamin preened.
“What can you tell us about Kody based on what you observed?” Drevan asked.
Thinking for a moment, Benjamin scratched his head.
“He eats a lot,” Sage put in.
“Obviously.” Drevan crossed his arms.
“He seems like a nice guy,” Benjamin said at last. “He’s funny and makes his videos entertaining to watch, even if it’s a bit disconcerting to see someone consuming so much food at once.”
Setting her plate on the side table, Jenna took out her phone and quickly pulled up one of Kody’s videos. I leaned in to watch as the man on the screen sat at a table with the gigantic bowl of ramen noodles and began slurping, making funny faces when a particularly long noodle challenged his sucking abilities. Next to the noodles, there was a plate piled with some sort of meat drenched in red sauce. The food in front of him would take me days to consume.
“How does he stay that skinny if eats like this?” Jenna asked, bewildered.
Good question.
“I wondered the same thing,” Sage said. “Probably magic.”
“Or just a phenomenal metabolism,” Benjamin pointed out.
Khargon sighed, took out her fidget spinner, and got to work with it. “I think that’s the least of our concerns.”
Okay, so maybe not a good question.
“I was wondering.” Benjamin put a hand up as if he were in class.
