Page 1 of Demon with Benefits (Hell Bent #3)

MAKE A WISH

S TANDING IN THE CORNER WITH A DRINK IN HER HAND , Iris Donovan debated the logistics of ghosting her own birthday party.

Maybe if she skirted around the edge of the room, she could make it to the door without anyone noticing.

Or maybe she could stride purposefully there, and if anyone asked, she’d say she was going to grab more booze from the depanneur.

The minute she got through the door, she wouldn’t stop running until she made it home. Alone and sober.

“Wipe that scowl off your face,” a female voice hissed in her ear.

She swung around to find that her best friend had snuck up behind her.

“I’m not scowling,” Iris replied.

“You look like you’re either plotting murder or you caught a whiff of something foul.” Suyin considered this a second. “Or both.”

“I don’t—”

“Ooh. No. Better yet, you already plotted the murder and carried it out. And now you’re smelling the rotting bodies, and it’s grossing you out.”

Iris grimaced. “Okay, I get it. I’m scowling.”

She couldn’t help it. This whole night was putting her on edge. She was standing in a room crowded with predators and prey. And the prey were oblivious to the danger they were in.

But her twin sister had begged for her new “friends” to come, and Iris hadn’t been able to deny her. How could she? For years, what was supposed to be their shared birthday celebration had always just been about Iris.

Every year, shy, quiet Lily would find a way to sneak away from the festivities, and no one would notice. Even Iris wouldn’t notice, too caught up in her raucous friends and whatever loudmouthed douchebag she was dating at the time, and it made her hate herself a little.

How the turn tables... or tables turn. Whatever.

Because this year, Iris was the one scoping out the smoothest path to the exit, while her sister was surrounded by company like a regular social butterfly.

Sure, Iris’s usual rowdy crowd was here, but Lily had her own crowd now too. And if Iris had thought she hung out with unsavory people, well... Lily’s new besties made them look like honor-roll students.

After all, they were demons.

Actual demons . Hell’s dropouts, notorious fiends whose tales of destruction had been passed down through the ages. And somehow Lily fit right in with them. Because they were supposedly “good” now.

Iris had been literally dragged to Hell and back before she’d been willing to accept that there was such a thing as reformed demons, but she still struggled with the idea. How could she not after what had happened to her parents?

She and Lily were witches, and witches who enjoyed living did not mess with anything from the underworld. Yet tonight, as Iris looked around the room, half of her coven were rubbing elbows with demons, and they were completely unaware of it. The whole thing stressed her out.

“So?” Suyin asked. “What’s your deal? You’ve barely said two words all night.”

“I’m fine.”

Obviously unconvinced, Suyin scanned the room as if searching for the cause of Iris’s troubles.

Her eyes traveled over to Lily, who was laughing about something, blond hair tumbling in silky waves past her shoulders.

She was wearing the lowest-cut top Iris had ever seen on her, and damn, her boobs looked amazing.

Her demon obviously thought so too. One arm around her, Mist was staring down at her like she was the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

“Is it Lily’s boyfriend? You don’t trust him?” Suyin’s lips pinched together. “Yeah, I wouldn’t either. He’s way too good looking.”

Iris felt a surge of defensiveness on Lily’s behalf. “What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked. “You don’t think Lily could land a good-looking bloke?”

Lily had always been self-conscious about her weight, and Iris had spent most of their lives convincing her she was perfect as she was.

She meant it too. Iris’s body type ran more along the lines of “praying mantis,” and she’d always been a little jealous of Lily’s voluptuous curves.

The grass was always greener, as they said.

Suyin scoffed. “No. Have you seen her? That girl’s got assets. I just mean, men that gorgeous aren’t to be trusted. It’s a fact of life. Tell me you’ve learned this by now.”

Iris took a swig of the drink she’d just realized was still in her hand and grimaced. She’d been holding it so long, the beer was flat and room temperature. “Oh, I’ve learned it. I’ve learned it so many times, I ought to get it tattooed across my frickin’ forehead.”

Suyin chuckled. “Because you always seem to forget again as soon as you meet the next hot asshole, am I right?”

Iris grinned and elbowed her friend. “What’s with the roast tonight, bitch? It’s my birthday. Give me a break.”

Suyin just laughed at her. She wasn’t known for her empathy.

Iris tried one more sip of the stale beer, nearly gagged, and then gave up and set the drink on the table beside her.

Lily’s friends, Eva and Asmodeus—or “Ash,” as she’d been careful to call him tonight—had volunteered to host the party in their apartment since the wards on Iris’s and Lily’s respective places would light up the second the demons walked in the door, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out how that would go down in a room full of witches.

Ash wasn’t concerned about having witches in his home because, apparently, they weren’t a “real threat.” Iris had taken offense to that, but for Lily’s sake, she kept her mouth shut.

Ash and Eva’s open-concept flat was the perfect space for a party.

Their grand piano had been covered by a protective cloth and rolled to the side to make a dance floor, and colorful LED bulbs replaced the regular ones in the lamps.

Eva had set up her DJ booth on a table in the far corner, and heavy house beats were currently pumping at high volume.

Apparently, the old brick building was well insulated, and Eva had assured them it wouldn’t bother the neighbors.

It was possibly the coolest house party Iris had ever been to, and she’d been to a lot. But it still couldn’t fix her sour mood.

“So what’s the deal with them?” Suyin asked, eyes still on Lily and Mist. “How did they meet? And where did he find his friends, is what I want to know, because damn. I’ve never seen a better-looking group of men in my life.”

Iris grimaced. This was exactly why she hadn’t wanted to have this stupid party. If Suyin knew who those “friends” really were, well... flirting would be the last thing on her mind.

Suyin was the leader of the Montreal coven and a badass blood-born witch.

She had no idea Lily’s friends were demons, and Iris couldn’t tell her either.

There was no way Suyin would believe the whole “there are good demons” thing.

Iris hated keeping secrets from her best friend, but in this case, it was necessary.

“And who’s the fuckboy with the tats?” Suyin asked.

Iris cleared her throat. “Who?”

“ Who? ” Suyin scoffed. “Yeah, right. You’ve been eyeballing him all night.”

Iris sputtered. “I have not—And how do you know he’s a fuckboy?”

“Look at him. He’s a fuckboy.”

Iris did look. She’d been looking all night, in fact, just as Suyin had said. If she was honest with herself, he was the real reason for the scowl on her face.

But god, he was fine. Just the way his baggy T-shirt clung to his bulky shoulders turned her on.

The pristine Jordans on his feet, sweatpants bunched behind the tongues, turned her on.

And when he dragged his tattooed fingers through his short black hair and his forearm flexed, all the dark designs on his skin flexing with it.

.. well, that sure as hell turned her on too.

The tats went up his neck, under his hairline, and bled over onto the left side of his face under his eye and over his eyebrow. He had rings in his lower lip, the center of his nose, and up the sides of his ears.

He was insanely, unspeakably hot. He made all Iris’s previous boyfriends look like trolls compared to his godlike hotness.

He was also a demon. A motherfucking, goddamn demon . D - E - M - O - N .

He wasn’t just any old demon either. Mephistopheles was one of the most infamous, feared creatures of Hell, if the legends were anything to go by.

So what if he and his brothers had escaped the underworld because they didn’t want to be evil anymore?

It didn’t change what he was, and it certainly didn’t make him a good person.

If Iris’s previous boyfriends had been jerks, well, they had nothing on him. Meph was the king of jerks. Duke of the douchebags. Father of all fuckboys. There were so many red flags flying around him, he might as well have been marching in a Canada Day parade.

Iris had learned her lesson about assholes, and she knew better than to fall for the false charms of a creature from Hell. He may have been hot, but she wasn’t touching him with a ten-foot pole.

“So, who is he?”

“Toxic,” she replied darkly. “He’s toxic, and I’m staying the hell away from him.”

“Tell that to your ovaries,” Suyin retorted, and Iris snorted derisively.

This damn party was going to be the death of her.

Since she and Lily had rescued Mist from Hell six months ago, Iris had done everything in her power to avoid Meph and his demon brothers.

Accepting their presence in her life felt too much like a betrayal to the memory of her parents, who had given their lives to protect her and Lily from their kind.

Iris also wasn’t ready to face her recent feelings of inadequacy, brought about by Lily’s newfound connection with her magic.

Her sister, who’d rejected everything about who she was for years, had suddenly become twice the witch that Iris was, when Iris had been the one studying relentlessly since childhood.

And what did she have to show for it? Nothing except crippling self-doubt and a gaping hole in her chest where her sense of purpose had once lived.

So, no, she wasn’t in the mood to party.