Page 104 of Demon with Benefits
She was out of the vision. He hadn’t eaten her. Had she gotten through to him?
“Ssss.”
She froze. It almost sounded like he was trying to say...
“Isss.”
Itwasher name. Her eyes widened. He was trying to say her name. He was trying to communicate.
“Meph.” Her heart pounded, but this time it wasn’t with fear. “Meph.” She lifted her hand to his terrible face, and this time, she didn’t hesitate to touch him. His skin was cold and hard. Did he even have skin? It just looked like bone.
“Isss.”
“Iris, yeah. That’s me.”
And then she heard the footsteps—thescritch, scritch, scritchof claws.
The air went still as the steps halted, and a low voice echoed down the hallway. “Leave the witch and return to me, Mephistopheles.”
Meph went still. Even his flowing, shadowy cloak went still.
Then, slowly, his head turned. It turned like an owl’s head, without twisting his body. Yet another terrifying aspect of him, but right now, he was the only thing standing between her and Valefor, and she didn’t give a damn what he looked like.
What shedidgive a damn about was the centuries of conditioning he’d undergone to obey Valefor’s every word. She’d seen it for herself before, how quickly he’d listened. Would he now? Or had their moment of connection gotten through to him?
“Now,” Valefor said firmly. He lifted a hand toward his coat as if reaching for something inside it. And just like that, Meph turned away from her and slunk obediently down the hallway.
Iris’s heart sank, and that hopeless despair threatened to choke her all over again.
20
LIVING DAYLIGHTS
THE DEMON WATCHED WITH MILD INTEREST AS HIS MASTERapproached the prey he’d just fed from. He wasn’t sure why he’d stopped or why his fear illusion had morphed into... whatever that was. He didn’t think much about such things—he was a creature of instinct.
He was darkness and emptiness. Andhunger. He was always hungry. His entire existence consisted of endless, gnawing hunger, and feeding when he found something he could consume.
He did not eat flesh like another monster might. He ate fear, of both predator and prey alike. The more prideful the creature, the more it had to fear, and the more delicious it tasted to him.
But he always wanted more. When he had finished feeding on one victim, he would simply begin his search for another.
“You will pay for this,” the master snarled as he bent and affixed his claws around the prey’s slender neck. His head was bloody, his sleek fur matted with congealed brain matter.
“Meph!” The prey’s eyes sought the demon’s, as if she thoughthewould help her. What he really wanted to do was continue feeding from her.
“Silence!” the master boomed. “I will show you what it means to defy me, and when I’m through with you, you’ll wish you’d burned to death with your parents years ago. Their deaths were easy compared to what I’ll do to you.”
The demon had learned that his master liked to talk for the sake of hearing his own voice. He needed another in the room to justify it, but really, his speech was all for himself.
It was a mark of pride. And the fear of the prideful always tasted the best.
“I’m going to drain every drop of power from you and then take you apart piece by piece. I’ll do it in such a way that you survive until the end, so you feel everything. I’ll make you watch as I separate your limbs, joint by joint. I’ll laugh in your face when you beg for mercy.”
It seemed a waste of words for such a small, helpless prey. Why not just begin to feed? There was so much to consume, and there was so much hunger.
“Meph!” she cried. “I know you understand me. I know you know me.”
“I saidsilence, witch!”
