Page 8 of Demon Dating Service
“Fine. I’m canceling the game. There’s no point in continuing if you can’t control yourselves for five seconds.” Azroth whirled toward the library door and began to march out. Tuk, Annod, and Mullmag cried out apologies, but what was the point? They weren’t the problem.
“All right.” Ogos sighed, as if he were being tortured on the rack. “I’m sorry, Tog, for saying that you have a brain and dick the size of a hummingbird and that you wouldn’t know what to do with either if they were normal sized.”
Azroth bit the inside of his cheek until he tasted blood and rolled his eyes at the ceiling. Part of him wanted to laugh. The other part wanted to strangle both Ogos and Tog for being so impossible.
“Fine,” Tog replied, the single word coated in his pout.
When Azroth was sure he could maintain a straight face, he turned to the gathered demons. “Enough with the bickering. Wait for the human to leave the house. We can’t give the game away in the first minutes.”
“Is he going to stay, Az? Have you found a good one?” Bath’tuk demanded, his hands folded together in front of him.
“The crows have led the perfect one to our domain.” As he spoke, he released his hold on the human form he’d taken and folded his batlike wings around his shoulders with a shake. “He is very poor and alone in the world. You can taste the desperation on him, and it is divine.”
A cheer went up, and all the demons chattered excitedly for a second.
“I don’t believe he has anywhere else to go. That means that if things becomeuncomfortablehere for him, he still won’t be able to leave.”
“Is he one of those God-fearing, demon-hating types?” Ogos inquired.
Azroth shook his head. “No, he appears to be more of the science type who would deny the existence of angels, demons, and magic.”
“Oh, those are nice, too,” Mullmag murmured, bouncing excitedly on the balls of his feet.
“Yes, and I don’t want to lose this one before we can even start our game. I still need to get the human to sign a contract?—”
“You already got him to sell his soul?” Annod gasped.
Azroth nearly groaned. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “It’s a rental contract. If I don’t at least offer one, the human will be suspicious.”
“Oh.” All the demons seemed to deflate around the room as he glanced up.
“I believe his intent is to move in immediately. After he gets his things here, we will organize the scaring order and?—”
A soft knock on the library door stopped Azroth mid-sentence, and everyone froze for a heartbeat.
“Mr. Jones?” Luke’s voice seeped under the door, full of concern and trembling with reluctance. “Is everything okay? Do you need some help?”
Shit. Shit. Shit.
“One moment, please,” he called out.
In the blink of an eye, Azroth shifted into his human form and waved a hand at the room. Burning books reformed and hopped onto shelves that mended themselves in midair. All the bits of Ogos that had been blown about the room leaped to his person, and he also shifted into human form. The smoke cleared from the library, and everything appeared normal again.Without being told, all the demons became human. Even Annod, though he remained at the back of the room, half-hidden behind Mullmag and Tuk.
Azroth sucked in a cleansing breath and made sure his benign mask was in place before pulling open both doors.
“So sorry about that,” Azroth greeted with a broad grin.
“No, it’s my fault. You said to wait, but I got worried. Is there anything I can do to help?”
“No, no. Everything is fine in here. I was just chatting with my fellow roommates.” Azroth motioned for Luke to enter the room, where five pairs of eyes were greedily eating up every inch of the human. If he could have gotten away with it, he would have tossed books at each of them to tone them the fuck down. It was almost as if they hadn’t ever seen a human.
“What was that noise earlier?” Luke inquired.
“A cat,” Azroth answered without thinking.
Luke’s head whipped around to him, eyes wide and face suddenly pale. “You have a cat?”
“Us? A cat? No, we don’t have a cat. It was a…”