Page 52 of Demon with Benefits (Hell Bent #3)

FAMISHED

H EY, YOU, WELCOME BACK —W OW , I SOMEHOW FORGOT how big you are.”

Hungry.

The human witch smiled sweetly at him. She was so full of life. Life he wanted to consume.

“Remember the plan? I know you probably want to eat me, but we’re going to eat Valefor instead, remember?” She was smiling, but there was fear in her gaze.

Hungry. Eat.

Yes, eating. He wanted to eat. Her fear would taste good, her life force sweet as he sucked it out of her. He approached the female and opened his jaw, ready to consume.

Stop that, idiot.

He halted, head tilting at the voice that spoke in his mind.

The weak one was back. How... annoying.

We’re not eating Iris. We’re eating Val. Remember Val? That fucker who trapped us in his dingy castle for centuries and tortured us until we learned to obey him? Who tried to hurt our witch? She’s ours, and he tried to take her from us.

The demon hissed.

Yeah, that’s it. Let’s make him pay.

But he was hungry now.

Shut up, you fat fuck. You can’t just eat the second you feel hungry. Sometimes you have to wait.

Still, the demon hesitated. He didn’t see why he couldn’t eat the witch and then Valefor after. He wouldn’t even kill the witch. He wanted to taste between her legs again, and he couldn’t do that if she was dead. He would just drain her a little, enough to satisfy him until he reached the castle.

You think Iris is going to let you eat her out again if you scare her half to death just to get a snack?

Get real, dumbass. Terror is not a turn-on unless you’re severely fucked in the head.

And for a demon who’s been tortured enough to make his sanity snap, I’d hope you’ve learned a thing or two about consent.

The demon growled. He didn’t like having the weak one’s voice in his head, but he didn’t know how to silence him. He couldn’t overpower him the way he used to.

Will you stop calling me that? I’m not weak, damn it.

The voice claimed not to be weak, but it belonged to a soft, fleshy human form—the one that had been incapacitated with a single syringe of angel blood.

If you could avoid bringing that up, that’d be great. I’m as embarrassed as you are.

The prey was still watching him with a wary gaze. She seemed to understand that he was waging a war in his head, and she waited patiently for it to reach its conclusion.

How about this , the weakling said. No, you can’t think of me as “the weakling” either. Jesus. I’m not that bad.

The demon growled.

Fine. The weakling has a suggestion. How about we don’t eat the witch, and you take her down to the castle. You protect her from harm—and don’t eat her—but you do eat anyone you come across. You can eat every single demon in the lair if you want. You just can’t eat Iris. That sound fair?

The demon’s head tilted. He could eat anyone he came across, without exception?

Anyone and everyone except Iris.

This time his growl was one of accordance. The weakling gave a sigh of relief and retreated into silence—temporarily, the demon was sure, but he welcomed the reprieve.

He formed his wings and spread them, and the prey’s eyes widened. “You do have wings. I guess you must have flown us here with them, but obviously, I don’t remember that.”

Without attempting to respond, he reached out and snatched her into his arms. Then he hurtled them off the edge of the cliff, his wings snapping out to catch them as they fell.

She screamed the entire time.

He opened himself to feed a little. Hardly at all. She was already afraid, so what would it matter if he took a fraction off the top?

Pumping his wings and circling above the castle, he opened his jaw wide and emitted a piercing shriek, loud enough for any in the vicinity to hear.

The witch screamed some more and slapped her hands over her ears, but his cry had the desired effect. From within the lair, he felt the fear of its occupants spark to life. He shrieked again to stoke it higher.

He would stalk them, build their terror until they were mindless from it, and then he would swoop in and consume them all.

His female held tightly in his claws, he folded his wings and dove toward an open window in the tower.

Hungry.

Now, he would finally eat.

It was a massacre.

Iris had known it would be bad, but somehow, it was still ten times worse than she’d imagined. Meph had said he’d go on a killing spree if anything happened to her, but she was fine so far, and he was on a killing spree anyway.

He wasn’t just eating whoever crossed his path. Oh no, it was far worse than that.

This demon liked to play with his food.

First, he’d emitted bone-chilling shrieks that had reverberated through the castle and whipped Valefor’s minions into a frenzy of terror.

Then, he’d begun stalking them through the halls—Iris hurrying along behind him, trying not to puke—and cornering them one by one.

Once an underling was trapped, he’d unhinge his jaws like a snake and suck the life force out of them.

Their screams of abject horror would slowly fade as they withered into desiccated husks before Iris’s eyes.

She tried to console herself with the knowledge that they would ultimately regenerate after this encounter, but it didn’t work. Considering what they were, she was pretty sure it would be better if they did die permanently.

She lost her battle against the urge to vomit when Meph ripped the legs off a demon who tried to run after he’d been cornered.

Worse, she couldn’t just hide and wait for it to be over.

She trusted Meph not to turn on her now, but she didn’t think he was aware enough not to get too caught up in the hunt and forget about her.

She wasn’t glowing again, but she firmly believed that if she needed the protection, it would come. She’d never had that kind of self-assurance before, but when she’d let go of her anger, it had sprouted inside her like a plant struggling for life that was finally exposed to the sun.

As for Valefor... she was still waiting for Meph to find him. He had to have been aware of what was happening by now. Was he gearing up to fight somehow? Planning a trap? Or was he running scared, trying to hide from Meph?

Iris didn’t know, but she knew he was cunning, and the longer they went without seeing him, the more nervous she got. She wished she could communicate to Meph that he should focus on eating Valefor first, but she doubted he would understand.

And so, she was left with no choice but to follow him through the passages, up staircases and down long tunnels.

As the screams of his prey pierced her ears, as he trapped them in dead-end corners and uncovered their hiding places, she could only plug her ears, turn her face away, and give thanks that he was on her side and not the other way around.

Finally, Meph went after his primary target.

They climbed the spiral staircase to the highest room in the tower. Not wanting to face Valefor again, Iris hung back as Meph pushed open a set of heavy double doors slowly enough that the hinges creaked eerily.

She could tell by watching him that he’d done it on purpose. He was the master of silence when he wanted to be, but he was even more skilled at haunting.

Valefor’s voice drifted out into the hallway where she hid. “Ah, Mephistopheles. I see you’ve returned.”

Iris frowned, her back pressed against the wall outside the door. She didn’t know if Valefor was aware of her presence, but she wasn’t going to face him if she didn’t have to.

What was he playing at? Had he not heard Meph’s shrieks and the screams of his minions? Maybe he was used to Meph eating his servants?

“Did you have your fill of the witch? Is that why you’ve returned? You’re still hungry and you wish to consume even more? Well, don’t you worry, I have just the thing for you.”

Ah. So that was how he was playing it. He was going to pretend everything was fine and appeal to Meph’s insatiable appetite as a means to control him.

Unfortunately, it was a pretty good plan.

Meph didn’t reply, and since Iris was standing out in the hall, she couldn’t see how he responded. But the fact that Valefor wasn’t already screaming wasn’t a great sign.

Don’t get distracted , she mentally begged him. Don’t believe his empty promises. Do what we came here to do.

“You see, Murmur has been getting on my nerves,” Valefor continued. “First, he took Paimon’s lair, and now he’s manipulating me through this bargain. He’s trying to amass more power for himself, and he sees me as a threat. But I will not be controlled.”

Why aren’t you eating him, Meph?

“And now that he has this book, I know he’s planning something with it. Yet I, a fellow Duke whom he should view as an equal, was forbidden from gazing upon its pages. I went to Earth and retrieved it like a lowly servant, and he would not deign to share the information with me.”

Valefor sniffed haughtily. “I will not stand for this insult. The Necromancer thinks he can use me to achieve his aim, but he is mistaken, and he underestimates me. I want you, my dark creature, to go after him. Consume anyone that stands in your way. Last I heard, Paimon’s remaining gargoyle force had pledged allegiance to him, so you know there’ll be plenty of fresh meat.

And Murmur himself... well, a demon in his position surely has much to be afraid of. ”

Meph’s low hiss echoed out in the hallway. It didn’t sound like an about-to-strike hiss. It sounded like an excited-for-a-snack hiss.

Valefor had dangled the bait, and he was taking it.

Fucking fantastic. Meph was going AWOL. He’d warned Iris about this. He’d been against her plan for this very reason, and she had assured him over and over it wouldn’t happen.

Well, it was damn well happening now. So what was she going to do about it?

“You will go to Murmur’s lair, eat as much as you like, and then take his precious book and return it to me. I must know what information it contains.”

What book is he talking about? It didn’t matter. Think, damn it.