Page 27 of Demon Dating Service
“I was talking to the house.”
Azroth pushed out of the chair and turned to face Luke. Gone was his human facade. Azroth towered over the pathetic human, standing more than eight feet tall, not counting the horns that curled out of his head. His wings exploded from his back, banging into the walls on either side of him. Eyes glowed a fiery red. He was a nightmare come to life.
“A-A-Az?” Luke stammered. His voice was soft and trembling. The man in front of him shrank, his shoulders hunched and head down, as if hoping he could make himself small enough not to be noticed.
“My name is Azroth, First General of Hell’s Western Armies, puny mortal. You’ve willingly walked into our little game.”
“Game?”
“You’re now our plaything.” Azroth reached out with his left arm to the bookshelves and flung his hand forward. Books flew toward Luke, but he was careful not to hit him with a single one. Luke screamed, and the library sobbed anew. Azroth fought the urge to roll his eyes. There was no point in telling it to stop. At least the moaning added to the dark ambience.
Luke tried to run for the doors, but with another wave of his hand, the doors disappeared, becoming a blank wall.
Azroth slammed a hand above Luke’s head and leaned in close, crowding the human on all sides as his slender frame trembled. The entire library filled with the rich aroma of his terror, but it didn’t smell as sweet as it should have.
Never mind. Not important.
“How could you not have realized you’re in a house filled with demons?” he mocked.
“All of you?”
“Yes,” Azroth hissed, savoring the word.
“But…but…”
“But what?” he roared and then ignored the little voice in his head that begged him to take it down a notch. He’d already won the bet. There was no reason to give Luke a heart attack.
“But you’ve all been so nice to me.” Luke’s voice was so tiny Azroth could barely hear it over Luke’s racing heartbeat.
“Nice?” Azroth shoved off the wall and resumed his towering stance while making the entire room tremble. “Demons aren’t nice!”
Luke stumbled and fell against the wall for support. Hundreds of books tumbled from their shelves to crash onto the floor. The candlelight flickered wildly as if a violent wind had rushed through the room, causing deep shadows to lungeand dance. Under their feet, the floor creaked and buckled, appearing a heartbeat away from total collapse. And yet, Luke kept his eyes on Azroth, staring up at the demon.
“But Ogos talks books with me. And Tog stayed up and watched horror movies with me after I had a bad day.” Luke paused and shoved a hand through his greasy hair, leaving it sticking up in every direction. “Tog must have been the reason my asshole boss ended up with explosive diarrhea. He was stuck in the bathroom at work for his entire shift, and even then, I heard he shit himself on his way home. Wow. We talked about it, but I never guessed he’d take me seriously.”
Azroth closed his eyes and silently cursed Tog. Nothing seemed to derail a good scare like talk of explosive diarrhea.
“And you…” Luke resumed, his voice softer and inexplicably filled with a note of wonder.
Azroth eyes flicked open again. “What about me?” he roared, his voice rattling the windows.
“You’re the one who sent those crows to protect me, aren’t you? The one who protected me that day from the frat boys.”
If a demon could blush, Azroth knew he would be on fire. How the fuck had Luke guessed that?
“No! Of course not!” he bellowed, but Luke didn’t go back to his earlier meek cowering. In fact, he was standing straighter now, and his wide eyes were traveling over Azroth as if he found the demon interesting instead of scary. He needed to end this now before it turned into a real debacle.
“Now that I know who you and the others are, does that mean I have to move out?”
Too late. It was a complete debacle.
“What?” Azroth choked out, losing his thundering tone. “You want tostay? With a bunch of demons?”
“Yes, please,” Luke whispered.
Azroth took a tentative step forward, waving his talon-tipped hands in front of him as if trying to grasp some thin tendrils of understanding in this bizarre situation. “You’re not scared for your soul? You’re not afraid that we’re going to sneak into your room while you’re sleeping and eat you?” Had he scared the sense right out of Luke’s precious little head?
“Yes, but I think being homeless is scarier. It’s almost winter, and I’m not sure where I can go next. And maybe…it hasn’t been that scary living here so far.” Luke swallowed hard and took a tiny step closer to Azroth. “To be honest, you and the other demons have been way better roommates than any of my past ones, and the rent is just so cheap.”