Page 128 of Demon with Benefits
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BUTTERFLIES
AFRESH START MEANT GETTING A CLEAN START, SOIRISheaded over to the bedroom window and opened it as wide as it would go, letting in a blast of the frigid air.
Passing Meph, who was still lurking in the hallway like a ghost, she then went to the kitchen and asked Belial for a broom. He showed her where the cleaning supplies were and then went back to taking shots of hard liquor and bickering with Raum.
Back in Meph’s room, Iris swept up as much of the ashes as she could. The chalk line of the hellgate was mostly swept up too, unfortunately, and she would need to redraw it for Meph to visit Jacqui, but she’d get that done later.
At Meph’s window, she pulled open the screen and dumped the ashes into the sky. Most of them blew away on the wind, but a portion fell to the ground below, and she winced. Luckily, as she leaned out and looked down, it seemed the sidewalk was empty, and she hadn’t dumped demon remains on anyone’s head.
The freezing cold air was starting to make her shiver, but she could already smell the freshness seeping into Meph’s bedroom, so she left the window open after resecuring the screen. Next, she gathered up all of Meph’s clothes from the floor that had been in the vicinity of the demon cremation and went to find the laundry room.
Meph haunted her while she started a load, so she was extra careful, even separating lights and darks—something her mother had taught her, but she’d never actually bothered to do. But Meph was a clothes snob, and with him hovering like that, she felt the need to do it properly.
When the load was started, the second pile on top of the machine waiting for its turn, she turned to her shadowy grim reaper and dusted her hands off. “There. Let’s go hang with your brothers now. I think day drinking sounds like the perfect way to recover from all the shit we just went through, don’t you?”
Meph, of course, didn’t reply.
Iris headed down the hall and perched on a barstool beside Raum, listening to the two brothers argue over what to do about Murmur. Meph slunk in behind her and lurked by the fridge.
Without breaking conversation, Belial poured a glass and slid it across the counter to her. She sipped it, feeling the burn ground her with every swallow. Her emotions were all over the place. Part shock, part relief, and more than a little post-traumatic stress.
“Just because he won’t tattle to Lucifer doesn’t mean he won’t sell the information for the right price,” Bel was saying.
“Soweoffer him the right price before anyone else does,” Raum replied.
“Or we find him and get rid of him.”
“It’s too risky. Anything goes wrong and we’re fucked.”
“Wait,” Iris interjected, finally putting two and two together. “You think Murmur knows where you are?” Her eyes widened. “Of course he does.”
Valefor had explained how Murmur had given him the vial with the spell he had used to find them in the first place. If Valefor had figured out where they were, then Murmur likely knew too.
Raum nodded. “While Murmur might not be loyal to Lucifer, he’ll know how valuable the information he has is, and he’ll want to make use of it.
“And you want to bargain with him?” Iris asked, incredulous. “How would you even get in touch with him to do that?”
“As much as he likes to deny it, Bel has contacts in Hell who can set up a meeting.”
A vein in Belial’s temple bulged as he ground his teeth, but he said nothing.
“And we already know Murmur is open to bargaining from when you and Lily got stuck in Hell,” Raum said.
Iris remembered how Murmur had shown up to rescue them—butchering a dozen gargoyles in the process—and declared that Belial had made a deal with him to get them and Mist out of Paimon’s lair unscathed. From what she remembered, Belial now owed Murmur a “favor.”
Iris shuddered at the thought of what someone like Murmur would want for a favor, and as much as she was still wary around Bel, she didn’t like the idea of him being any further indebted to that traitorous demon.
“Maybe we should go with Bel’s idea and just kill him,” she suggested.
Belial glanced sidelong at her, eyes flaring with momentary surprise, and, for the first time, he regarded her with something other than irritation or indifference. It was stupid, but she felt a flush of pleasure. She wanted Meph’s brothers to like her, even if she’d made it her mission to be unlikeable in the beginning.
“It’s too risky,” Raum said again. “One mistake, and he’d sell us out just from spite.”
“The fucker betrayed us, and you want me to offer him more fucking favors?” Bel growled.
“I want you to take the smartest course of action to protect our freedom.”
