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Ow, her finger hurt! I resisted the urge to recoil from her anger. “I–”

“My brother is Pride, and out of all of us, has the worst sense of humor,” Lust stated.

I turned and glared, then belatedly realized he was trying to help, in his own way. I grabbed her finger and pushed it away, straightening my jacket.

“Damon, may I bother you a moment?” I asked the empty air.

Howling sounds split the air and the shadows lengthened, the lights dimming. Lust rolled his eyes but Juniper tensed, arms out and glancing around as if expecting an attack.

The lights flickered back to normal, and the sounds ceased. And perched at my side, already purring and rubbing against my legs, was Damon.

“Who’s a good boy?” I said in a baby voice, scratching under his chin.

“Where...where did that black cat come from?” Juniper asked, taking a hesitant step forward.

“Oh ho, Damon isn’t a cat,” I informed her smugly. “He’s a shadow demon, one of Hades’s. He actually is the familiar of his daughter, the goddess Melinoe. Though she goes by Aggie. Also a witch, believe it or not.”

I shrugged my shoulders as Juniper frowned, utterly baffled.

Sighing, I withdrew my hand from Damon’s nose.

“You’ll have to show her, and then take a message for me if you don’t mind?”

Damon grumbled and hunkered down on his paws, as if he were about to pounce. But he didn’t pounce, he changed.

“Ah! Oh my gods!”

Indeed.

Juniper scrambled to get back behind Lust’s desk as Damon stood next to me in all his glory, a massive black demon with razor-sharp fangs and red eyes. He was bigger than a wolf, but not quite the size of a horse; suitably terrifying and hopefully convincing enough.

“So we are all in agreement about the very real Shadow Demon?” I asked calmly.

Juniper nodded frantically, even as Lust snorted and took a seat in his chair. Juniper shot him an exasperated look.

“Thank you, Damon. Can you pass a message along to Aggie that we’ve run into some problems, and gauge how Hades would react to an interruption? If I don’t hear back my brothers and I?—”

I stopped as Damon walked in small circles around a spot on the floor, shifting back into his black cat form. He hopped up onto Lust’s desk and curled into a ball, promptly falling asleep.

I tried again. “Damon, I must insist–”

A small snort of fire shot from his nose at me, stinging my fingertips. I hissed from the pain and stuck the hurt appendage in my mouth, sucking on it.

“And that’s why we don’t use Shadow Demons as messengers or servant boys,” Lust laughed, even as Juniper frantically snatched at the mounds of paper around the cat, as if afraid he’d set them on fire.

Which was a definite possibility.

“The point is,” I continued, “I am from the Underworld, and I can assure you that you’ve been there, very dead, and were re-animated.”

I studied her reaction as she meticulously stacked the papers on the other side of the desk, away from the mercurial demon cat. Her lips trembled, betraying how she really felt.

“Am I some kind of fucking joke?” she snarled, her hands shaking.

I moved closer, but kept the desk between us. Lust shot me a look, his hand flat on the desk toward me in warning. If he thought I was a threat, he’d deal with me like he dealt with anyone else.

He did care for her. Has he even realized it yet?

A kind of desperation thrummed inside of me. I’d had little to no lovers, especially compared with Lust. I could say I hadn’t had the time or inclination, but the truth was, I lacked the confidence.