Page 62 of Cry for Help

My shoulders sagged with relief. Caim and Malphas were okay. Or, at the very least, they were alive. Even if I couldn’t see them, I felt comfort knowing they were in the cell next to mine, separated by a concrete wall.

“Stolas!” Behem barked. “Is it mocking me?”

Stolas dropped his hands. “No, Behem.” He dipped his head. “I thought I could comfort it by mimicking its hand movements.”

“Comfort...” Behem rubbed his pointy chin. “Fear does taint the meat.”

“Stolas, fetch that demon of yours. The turkey?” The demon, Behem, I guessed, tilted his head back as he spoke to Stolas.

“Vulture.” Stolas corrected with a drawl.

“That one.” Behem snapped his fingers. “He’s starting to stink up the place.”

Murmur? I didn’t dare ask if he was okay. He’d beenthere when I had screamed. Caim and Malphas had survived the scream. I’d hoped Murmur could, too.

“Certainly.” Stolas sighed, drifting down the hallway, leaving me alone with Behem.

Stolas shot me a look I couldn’t decipher as he went. It looked likefear.

Until that moment, I’d believed the skeletal demon to be naked, without genitals, but he reached down and pulled the waistband of his flesh-colored Speedos to the side, revealing an ancient key. With a flourish, the key jumped into his hand, and Behem approached, folding over the lock with all the concentration of a spider wrapping his prey.

I stepped back, but it was no use. Behem was almost seven feet tall, a couple of heads taller than Stolas. His limbs were longer, and Behem’s magic felt like a punch to the gut.

Stolas returned a moment later, carrying Murmur’s limp body.

Luckily, Behem didn’t come closer.

Stolas squeezed past Behem’s body and dropped Murmur’s body in the cell. “You’re planning to eat her,now?”

“No, no.” Behem shook his head, confused at the question. “A taste, at best, a finger, perhaps? Sídhe have the most delightful quality, Stolas.” Behem rocked back on his heels, distracted. “Gluttony demons have the curse of insatiable hunger. We cannot escape it. To eat only seems to feed the gluttony. Some of my ilk seek refuge with other vices. Anything in excess can be Gluttony, you know. Even sex, though Lust would have you think it belongs entirely to her.”

Stolas didn’t show Behem his back as he skirted the wall slowly, putting himself between me and Behem.

Behem continued. “Sídhe flesh. Sídhe blood. It is so saturated with the magic of the Aos Sí, it satiates. A Gluttony demon doesn’t need to feed for a week, sometimes more, if theyeat even the smallest sliver of Sídhe. The voices, the desire, and the drive to consume go quiet. It’s remarkable.”

“Sídhe are rare,” Stolas noted without emotion.

“They are!” Behem’s eyes came alive with manic energy. “Most Sídhe on this side of the Human Realities are mixed with human blood. The effect is diluted, but not by much. It was so dreadfully tiresome to hunt them. The new system is much more effective, though some, likeher,slip through the cracks.”

“New system?” Stolas glanced at me, gesturing to the sliver of space in the doorway. He meant for me to run. He was distracting me.

“Sugar would help you.” Behem nodded knowingly. “It is made of Sídhe blood. Perhaps, like consuming the Sídhe fills the yawning hunger in my empty belly, Sugar might plug up that hole inside you. The one left behind by your connection to Hell.”

“Hmm,” Stolas replied, but Behem was too high on his soapbox to notice.

I skirted behind Stolas, holding my breath, careful not to make a sound as I tiptoed to the open cell door.

“Would you like to join me, Stolas?” Behem extended a hand. “The devil was a fool to spurn you. Even without magic, you hold a dozen millennia worth of spells in that head of yours.”

It was clear that Behem needed an answer. He leaned forward, his nose an inch away from Stolas’s.

“Though, your common sense is in question.” Behem purred. “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice you inching towards the door?”

Stolas flashed his teeth. “I hoped.”

Behem sighed. “You’re no good. It would have made my cause legitimate and my reputation beyond reproach if I had Lucifer’s first advisor with me. The one responsible for the Devil’s fall.”

“I wasn’t responsible.” Stolas shook his head.

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