Page 11 of Insatiable

Anthura doesn’t bother sitting down. Instead she hovers over me, grating my nerves.

“If you aren’t here to give me the pitiful orgasms you usually offer, what is it you want, Felix?”

“You are now back in the Games committee. I want to win and I want you to help me.”

She laughs. “And why the fuck would I want to do that? I thought you were going to do it by yourself without my help?”

I swallow bitterly, hating what I’m about to say, but needs must. “Come on Anthura. You and me. It’s always been us.”

She takes a sip of her drink then decides to finally sit down on a chair.

“You have been a mediocre fuck at best to me. The way I see it, Felix,” she crosses her legs as she speaks letting her short red skirt ride up her thigh, “I have all the power here and apart from your pretty boy looks, you have nothing. Go and play happy families with your boy bitch and leave me alone.”

Her turn of phrase riles me up and I know her well enough to know she’s trying to provoke me, but it wasn’t that long ago I spoke about Rowena the way she is doing. I just smile and plaster on my business face.

“You want to get through these games as much as I do, Anthura. This was never about getting credit with the main man, or torturing humans for you.”

“True,” she muses, her red lip-sticked mouth curling up at the edges, “but torturing humans is a delightful byproduct.”

“You want to win these games to get to Satan and plead your case. You want to go back to Earth,” I say, my voice low, watching her carefully.

“I’ve never been to Earth,” she spits out bitterly, her eyes narrowing with contempt.

“And you’ve never been human,” I counter, the words sharp, cutting through her defenses. “That’s what you want, isn’t it? You despise us all because we’ve had something you never have, and you crave it. You can almost taste it, can’t you, Anthura? Being human. Feeling it—living it. That’s why you’ll do anything to win. Because deep down, all you want is to be one of us.”

She grimaces and slams her glass onto the coffee table between us. “So what if that’s true. You can’t help me in these games. You know nothing.”

I sit back and relax a little. I didn’t make my billions by taking shit and being a bad judge of character. First rule of business. Know your opponent, and especially know their weaknesses. Anthura likes to pretend she’s strong, but underneath all her bullshit and red clothing, she’s fucking terrified she won’t get through this and will be stuck in Hell forever. The games are her only chance and if she fucks it up, back to Purgatory she’ll go and will have to start the process all over again. And that’s only if Hades lets her.

I lean forward, my voice low. "Say you do manage to appeal to the boss’s better nature and somehow you get your heart’s desire. Then what?"

She narrows her eyes. "What do you mean? Then I’ll get to live out my life on Earth as a human, a luxury I was never afforded."

"You think you’ll know how to fit in? You think you know how to be a convincing human?" I challenge, raising an eyebrow.

She smirks, crossing her arms. "I’ve been watching you fools for months. And before you, there were others. Thousands of humans. I’ve been studying your kind since humans first came here. I don’t need your help." Her gaze flickers over me, cold and sharp. "Look at you. You’re barely human yourself."

“I think you do need me and what’s more, I think you know it. I might not be worth much in your eyes, but out there I was somebody. Fuck that. I was the person everyone wanted. I had it all, Anthura.” I swig down the last of my dragonfire whisky. “Out there I was the shit. Do you want to ruin your one chance on Earth by being a complete nobody, scrounging for scraps like that pathetic snowflake Quinn or living in poverty with screaming kids like Juliette…” I hate myself for what I’m about to say and knowing I’m saying it for a reason doesn’t make it any better. “…living like an outcast and ending up dead on a bar room floor because someone didn’t like the way you looked like Rowena.” My stomach clenches, but it seems to be getting through to her. “I can teach you how to not only survive in the big bad world, but to own it.”

She raises a perfect eyebrow. “Color me intrigued. I’ve yet to see any of this prowess you keep harping on about, but I suppose you did have a way of getting what you wanted on Earth.”

And I’m going to get what I want now. “You help me through the three challenges in this Circle, and keep helping me if we manage to get through to the fourth circle, and I’ll tell you everything you need to know to be a successful human being.”

She sniffs, clearly aggravated, but she holds her hand out for me to shake. “Fine.”

I shake her hand, letting go quickly. I forgot how hot her skin runs. “You’d better make this worth my time, Felix, because if I’m caught helping you, we’ll both be out and not even you will be able to worm your way back in.”

“I will,” I promise, guilt gnawing at my stomach. “But before you tell me what the first trial is, you really need to get me access to some food. I’m fucking starving already.”

She gives me a lifeless grin. “Follow me.”

I stand and follow her to the kitchen. As far as I know, only the penthouses are full apartments with kitchens. The rest of us have a bedroom, bathroom and walk-in closet. She flings her cupboards open. I should be surprised when I see them stocked to the top with food, but I’m not. Of course the demons are eating. One look at George is enough to tell me they don’t go without. I grab a ready-made sandwich from her fridge and bite into it. It tastes better than any food I’ve ever tasted in my life.

“The first trial is a banquet.”

I raise my eyebrows as she sidles over to me.

“It’s not just any banquet,” she continues with a sly smile. “Everyone’s favorite foods will be there. It’ll be even more delicious than that sandwich you’re holding.”

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