Page 453 of Evil Hearts

In The Arms of a Devil

A Demonic Dynasty Short

S.L. Sinclair

If you haveto be a prisoner, choose your prison.

That’s how I see it, anyway.

Living in Maelstrom City, under the watchful eye of the Council Leader and Grand Coven Leader, whom I also have the misfortune to call “Mother”, was a prison I was born into.

Being kidnapped by a band of half-demon brothers and forced to help them find a way to transform into full demons? Honestly, it’s preferable.

Not that I have forgiven them for how they treated me and what they did to me after they got me to their lair on the outskirts of the Northern End of Monstrato. But it’s funny, being kidnapped and used also gives me freedom to have my dream of traveling and researching magic.

It also helps that the demons’ leader, Lyone, is a half-witch, and his affinity is for alchemy and potions, just like me. Two heads are supposedly better than one … which Pardus takes literally.

Anyway, more about his two cocks later.

Corel, the half-elf, comes from a family whose elven magic doesn’t only have an effect on nature, like most elves’. His elven magic is closer to technomancy, so despite being in the middle of a forest, near an archipelago with more greenery than satellites, we have state-of-the-art tech and internet access for research. Combining his two affinities, tech and nature, we have everything we could need.

Corel is not lithe like an elf, but his icy eyes and long, pale blond hair certainly evoke the feeling that J.R.R. Tolkien met him or an ancestor before writingThe Lord of the Rings. He’s also the smallest of the three brothers, though saying six and a half feet is small feels like an insult somehow. He lets horns peek out, and his wings are never retracted. His face is hard to describe; it’s sharp. Cheeks, nose, chin. Even his ears. His skinis pale greenish blue and shimmers in the sunlight as he gains power from it.

Pardus is the largest of the three, a full two feet taller than my own five-foot-two, and his face and golden eyes are catlike, and he is a skilled hunter. He prefers to stay with his fur showing, and his dark brown hair is long and slightly unkempt. He is never without his tail and catlike ears. And his lower half typically sports paws, and his hands, even when human, can easily sprout five-inch-long black claws.

Hanging around in private, two out of three prefer to look half like whatever they are, which is a more humanoid visage, as well as let some of their demon sides out. Wings, horns, claws, skin changes, size changes, whatever they’re most comfortable with.

Except Lyone.

Despite his impressive demon form, he chooses to look like a normal human as much as possible … though saying he’s “normal” looking is an insult. His long, curly, golden hair, gray-green eyes, pink lips, and sun-kissed muscles are rarely seen on a mere mortal … or mere witch. He looks almost royal, yet slightly wild at the same time. His size is the only thing that sort of gives him away, somewhere between Pardus and Corel, as does the flash of silver in his eyes he can’t control.

“Something on your mind, witch?” Corel asks from across the room, tinkering with a laptop. The glow from the screen enhances his pale blue skin.

“Why do you ask?”

“You’re staring at us like you want to eat us,” Lyone answers for his brother. He turns his chair to face me, and there’s that flash. The uncontrolled demon within.

“Not that we’d complain,” Pardus says with a purr and a smirk. He licks one of his paws, looking every bit the self-satisfied housecat. Today he’s in more of a cat form rather than demon, just walking on two legs.

“Unless she’s trying to figure out how to escape again,” Corel suggests.

Lyone scoffs. “Not like she was successful the first time. However … is it the punishment you like, little witch?”

“Fuck off,” I snap at them all.

“That’s a yes,” Corel mutters, then lets out a little squeak of surprise.

“What was that for?” Lyone asks.

He points to the screen in front of him. “What do we know about the Isfolk?”

I cocked my head, recalling a lesson one winter when I was a teenager. “The magic beings who live in the North and help maintain balance of the Earth’s climate, opposite the Eldfolk in the South.”

They’re the only species to not be part of the Council yet welcomed any time. After humans nearly destroyed Earth, they took it upon themselves to right those wrongs and allow the planet to thrive. They live amongst humans to accomplish this task. They’re technically witches.

Corel nods. “The Isfolk seem to have contacted Maelstrom City … and reports online don’t look favorable. Of course, the Council is trying to cover it up.”

I stand and walk behind him, aware the three demons’ eyes are on me like I’m putting on some sort of show.

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