Page 106 of Demon with Benefits
The weak one.The weak one had... spoken. Somehow, he’d pried open the bars of his inner cage enough to shout across the abyss that separated their psyches. Such a thing had never happened before.
What are you waiting for? And stop calling me “the weak one.” If either one of us is weak, it’s your indecisive ass. Now move!
What an irksome voice. The demon wasn’t sure he cared for this development.
Yeah, I’m not thrilled either. Hearing your caveman thoughts—me hungry, me eat—gets old fast. But I’m not kidding right now. You need to go get Iris or Val is going to kill her.
There was a note of panic in his cerebral voice.
Comeon. If you do this, you can eat Val. Think of how good he’d taste, how much fear that fucker has. The guy is so ambitious, he’s practically bursting with it.
The demon thought of that often, in fact. But the master was not for eating—
Why the hell not? Because he has a puny whip? Since when are you scared of a little flogging? That shit’s like foreplay to you, you creepy fuck.
But the whip was not the only punishment that followed disobedience. There was the—
Trust me, I haven’t forgotten about all that. But if you eat Val and escape with Iris, then he can’t do shit to you, can he?
The demon stilled as he considered this.
It was... true. If he ate the master and took the prey, he could have the prey to himselfandescape punishment. He would take the prey to the mountain caves and consume her fear over and over again. He wouldn’t kill her. He would leave her alive and let her regenerate so he could feast again and again—
Okay, we’re gonna have to talk about that plan more later, but for now, can we just get on with the “eat the master” thing? We’re running out of time.
The master had disappeared around the far corner, taking the prey with him. The demon couldn’t see her anymore, and he didn’t like it.
The weak one spoke true. There was no time left to waste.
Iris fought for consciousness. This was her last chance. If she gave in and passed out now, she was doomed. Unfortunately, she was so close to fading away, she was flopping like a ragdoll as Valefor dragged her behind him by the hand on her throat.
Her fragile body had taken a serious beating—one strike from Valefor would be enough to kill a human, and she had endured several—and when she thought about the shape she was in, her heart fluttered with panic.
But she couldn’t give up now.
She forced her eyes open, not really sure what she was planning—
And saw Meph peeking his head around the corner again, watching her like he had before.
Hope rose like a flash flood. If he fed from her again when she was this weak, she wouldn’t make it, but she didn’t care. She’d rather die feeding Meph than giving her power to Valefor.
“Meph...” Her voice came out a hoarse croak, so feeble she didn’t think Valefor even heard it. She tried to meet Meph’s gaze, but every time she blinked, it felt like an eternity before her eyes opened again.
The next time she forced them wide, Meph’s face was inches away.
“Sss,” he said.
Valefor heard that—he stopped and whirled around. “I told you to stand aside. Stay here and do not follow. Don’t make me use the whip.”
Was that a tremor in his voice?
“SSSS.”
Valefor stiffened and dropped Iris. Gathering her waning strength, she scrambled toward Meph as Valefor reached into his coat and pulled out the whip again.
Obviously, he’d spent a long time conditioning Meph to be afraid of it, because Meph flinched visibly. There was something so wrong about seeing a monster that terrifying recoil at the sight of a measly whip. She wanted to cave Valefor’s skull in again for doing that to him.
Valefor stepped back and snapped the whip. Hellfire crackled along the length as it connected, and Meph screeched. Even in her weakened state, she cringed from the volume of it, shrinking back against the stone wall to keep out of the deadly weapon’s path.
