Page 34 of Discord
“How the fuck did you kill one of those with magic? Sometimes, people make them to avoid payment. I have to tear them to pieces and then burn them. Not even Talvath knows how, and he’s studied a lot of the deep demon magic.”
Gabriel puffed his chest out and smirked. He seemed to be suddenly feeling much better after depleting his magic so thoroughly, and I didn’t get that either. That sigil had sucked all my strength and magic out… I could barely feel my Hellhound, and I couldn’t shift if I wanted to. But now he looked fine, and he smelled like sex too. How was he smirking and fucking like that already?
“I don’t know if my ancestor that made the deal is as infamous in Hell as he is on Earth, but he made damn sure no one was going to kill him, not even the village of revenants he made.”
I just shrugged.
“All of our deals are business transactions. We don’t make a huge issue about it, not like you do here. I know about the deals Talvath, because he tells me about them, and sometimes, he lets me out to collect payment. The demon that collected your relative’s soul probably told his family, but it didn’t get passed around Hell like it did here. We pretty much expect a fight when payment is due. This is some next-level shit, and I don’t know who in Hell is helping Silvaria.”
“I understand demon magic now,” Reyson said. “The spell that was keeping the two of you contained seemed complex. Balthazar said the blood used to paint it was from every supernatural species alive.”
I was starting to see a bigger picture, and we were so fucked. The only reason I knew about this kind of magic was because Talvath had told me if I ever saw it, to get the fuck out of there because something terrible was about to go down.
“Crime is not an exclusively Earthly problem, and not all Hell criminals limit themselves to our realm. That sigil is meant to trap and weaken, so we can apprehend criminals. When it’s done like that, it’s because someone is acting up on Earth. We don’t want anyone getting close and trying to help the demon escape.
“Someone usually hits up a supernatural blood bank for the blood and uses it to draw the sigil. It’s supposed to be extremely unpleasant to touch if you try to free the demon. Reyson would have been able to touch it because Silvaria had no way to get his blood.”
Felix just snorted.
“Silvaria probably didn’t get that blood from a blood bank. She’s gone pretty full out with this, so it wouldn’t be a huge shocker if she murdered people to make sure no one could get to Talvath.”
“That’s not the bigger problem here,” I pointed out. “Talvath isn’t just a soul collector. He’s a scholar, and pretty high up in the demon hierarchy. I only know this because he knows and he told me to get the fuck out of there if I ever came across anything like that.
“That kind of magic isn’t common knowledge in Hell. The only people who know it either work in law enforcement, or are friendly with them—like Talvath. You can imagine they don’t teach that in demon primary school because they could abuse it. If they don’t teach it to most demons, then who the fuck gave it to Silvaria?”
“Talvath might have answers, but I can’t fix him, so he wakes up,” Reyson said. “I don’t have the same magic Lilith does, so I can’t give magic back to her creations without changing them. My witch is resourceful and knows how to fix warlocks when that happens. Did you enjoy yourself?”
Reyson was looking at her with stars in his eyes, like she hadn’t just fucked a warlock in the other room. I didn’t get godsat all!I understood he could see something that she would be his wife, but everything I had read about gods throughout history stated that they tended to be petty and jealous. They wanted all the adoration and didn’t like it if someone dared to love another more than them. Reyson didn’t care about this whole group thing. I could smell him, too. He was aroused at the idea that Ripley had just had sex with someone else.
I think it bothered me more than it bothered him, and I wasn’t even in her bed every night.
“The recharging spell has a few side effects. I’m sorry, Bram. If I knew how to do it specifically for your kind of magic, I would. We could try it, but it’s only ever been tested on witches and warlocks. Lilith created both of us, so it’s worth a try.”
No way. Absolutely not. I felt like shit, but I wasn’t about to try untested witch magic that could make me horny. I was already avoiding thinking about knotting Ripley, and was all too aware that Reyson was extremely curious about my junk. Although, I wouldn’t say no to a bit of god action if a particular sexy librarian were involved.
I was already in this way, way deeper than I wanted to be. It took all my willpower not to jump on the whole group boyfriend thing, and she was flirting with me pretty hard. I wasn’t doing anything to make my cock betray me, because I knew how things would go when this was over.
“I’m not going to try it. Talvath might when he wakes up. You should probably warn him about the side effects.”
“Any idea when he’s going to wake up?” Felix asked. “If he knows that kind of magic, and not a lot of demons do, he might be able to tell us who is misusing it.”
I shrugged. I had given Talvath a sniff, but my nose wasn’t a pocket watch, and I wasn’t a doctor. I didn’t know about this kind of magic, except that I was told to avoid it. Talvath was still weak and I felt like shit.
“I wasn’t trapped for that long. Talvath was missing for a while. It’s not an exact science.”
“Watch over him, Bram. I need to cook dinner,” Reyson said. “Balthazar called in magical law enforcement, and we have a famous dinner guest coming to question us over a lot of meat. Dragons have always liked that.”
I had a feeling a dragon was going to have a lot of opinions about Hellhounds. I’d never collected payment from one and knew that they didn’t tend to make deals often. I’d met a few in bars, and they were ornery bastards.
Hopefully, he was on our side and didn’t have many preconceived notions against Hell, because we would need all the help we could get.
25
Reyson
Ididn’t know who Kaine Dragovich was, but my witch found him just as impressive as some of the authors who wrote confusing books about werewolf sex in her library. Everyone here seemed to be excited about meeting him, and if he could help, well, maybe I would be impressed with him too.
I liked dragons, and I’d entertained them before. Dragons tended to be the least pretentious of all the supernatural creations my siblings made. There were precisely two things they wanted that would make them happy—a good meal, and anything shiny. Theylovedtheir treasure. They were fierce killers, but they also had this sense of honor I could get behind.
