Page 9 of Demon Dating Service
“One of the neighbor’s cats,” Ogos chimed in. “One of the neighbor’s cats sneaked into the house and knocked some things over.”
“We chased it out,” Mullmag confirmed.
Luke exhaled and his slim shoulders slumped. “Oh, good.” He turned those wide eyes to Azroth. “I’m allergic to cats. Plus, cats are bird killers, so I’ve never really been a fan.”
“Cats suck!” Annod shouted, and Azroth prayed to the Dark Lord for strength.
“This is Luke. He has agreed to be our new tenant. He’s a graduate student at Ravenwood University, where he’s studying to be an ornithologist,” Azroth introduced. “Luke, this is Tog, Ogos, Mullmag, Tuk, and Annod.”
“Oh. Hello. You have…very interesting names. I’ll try very hard to get them right.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’m sure you’ll learn them quickly enough.” Azroth smiled to himself. He’d learn them as he screamed in terror while trying to run from the house. “Why don’t we go to the family room and sign a bit of paper work? Then you can get settled.”
Luke grinned up with such a look of relief and open joy. It almost seemed a shame to ruin all that.Almost.
The human waved to the others and left the room. Azroth threw a last warning glare at his demon companions, making it clear that they would wish they’d been exorcised to Hell if they dared to cross him again. He closed the doors and conjured up a generic rental agreement while Luke’s back was turned.
As he walked, he skimmed the document and magically crossed out the sections where Luke handed over his soul and sold the life of his first-born child to the Dark Lord. While standard stuff in most contracts they created for humans, it was breaking the rules of their game. The point wasn’t to own his soul or possess any of his children. No, no. Nothing so serious this time. This was all about scaring the man to death. If they were to take possession of a human soul suddenly, it was likely to send up some red flags in Hell and cause someone to look into their rogue status. And not one of them wanted to return to Hell when there was so much fun to be had with the humans.
He sat beside Luke on the sofa and explained the boring bits of the contract before getting the man to sign it.
The second Luke put his pen down, he breathed an enormous sigh of relief. “Thank you so much for this. I was really getting worried that I’d be sleeping on the streets soon.”
“Now you have nothing to worry about but your studies. You’ll always have a home here with us.”
“Thank you so much. I-I forgot to ask! Is there a side door I should use?”
“A side door?” That was an odd request.
“Yes. I thought you might not want to see your tenant coming and going so much through your house. Some homes will have a back door or a side door that takes me straight up to my room.”
“No, you are welcome to use the front door. In fact,” Azroth paused and made a show of shoving his hand into his pocket, where he magicked up a key. When he pulled his hand free, he held aloft a bright-silver key. “This is for you. A key to the house. Our home is now your home. You may go wherever you wish in this home. Of course, you may wish to avoid our private rooms.”
Luke held the key tight in his left hand and nodded. “Don’t worry. I won’t invade anyone’s privacy. I’m sure you won’t even notice me here. Between my various jobs and classes, I don’t tend to be home a lot.” He put the key into his pocket and pulled out a checkbook, where he wrote a check for the first month’s rent.
Azroth accepted it with a smile—not that he planned to cash the thing. What use did they have for human money? If they wanted something, they used magic to create it or simply stole it.
The transaction complete, Azroth escorted Luke to the door with the young man giving him the promise to return later that night. He needed to run off to gather up the rest of his possessions and complete his shift at one of his jobs.
Azroth closed the door quietly and watched the poor student practically skip along the sidewalk. Yes, he was riding high now with his new cheap home, but that high was going to come crashing down around him. It was going to be so very fun.
But who should torture poor Luke first? Should he punish Ogos and Tog for nearly ruining their game before it had even begun? Should he take the lead spot since he was the oneorganizing everything? Or allow one of the others to have a go at him first?
Chapter 4
The Eight-Legged Test
LUKE
Exhaustion gnawed on Luke’s bones as he shuffled to his brand-new home on Sleepy Hollow Road. It was kind of sad that he didn’t have the energy to enjoy his first night in his new place. After signing the lease and leaving, he’d gone to Jacob’s to get his duffel bag of clothes and toiletries. His intent had been to return to his new room and unpack. Enjoy a quiet night in and get some reading done.
But no.
The manager at Burger Hut had called to say that one of his coworkers had called in sick and another had quit, leaving the restaurant desperately shorthanded. He’d needed Luke to pop in for a couple of hours to help with the lunch rush. With money so tight, Luke hadn’t been able to pass it up.
The lunch rush had turned into the dinner rush. At least he’d gotten out of there before his boss could convince him to stick around for the evening cleanup and prep.
However, as he’d headed over to the bus stop to catch one of the last buses to run near his new home, Lydia at Sinful Soaps had called in tears. A new shipment of soaps had arrived, and it was all wrong. The supplier was refusing to take them back, claiming she ordered five boxes of Lavender Lover and OrchidOrgy, or some such nonsense. She’d needed Luke to stop by and help her reorganize the shelves.