Page 31 of Virgin Lust

I would never.

A gentle reminder to Payne that Reapers could cut my kind down in a flash. It would never come to that. Thanks to Prudence, I was determined to be a better demon.

The veins in Payne’s neck pulsed along with his flaring nostrils. Two small black smoke rings wafted out from his nose as he exhaled. Unease prickled down my spine. There was something about that Reaper I didn’t trust. I tucked Prudence behind me. As the smoke floated up, Payne’s face turned ashen. Immediately, he covered his nose. What the fuck was he?

“Are you okay?” Prudence asked him. When she tried to step closer, I gripped her hips. Her dark brows slanted, but I didn’t budge. She sighed and said to Payne, “Did that smoke come from you?”

“Just descend the werewolves’ souls!” He grasped the bridge of his nose and turned around.

“Don’t tell me what to do!” Prudence shouted, but she frowned immediately after.

He said, “Come to the castle later.”

“I know,” she responded.

“I wasn’t talking to you.” Looking over his shoulder, our eyes met, and then Payne ported away.

“Something was off about him.” Dirk said the second the Reaper left.

Glancing down, I spotted Dirk alone. That didn’t surprise me. Gremlin were exceptional at disappearing when the need arose. “Where did they go?” I asked him.

“Hiding.” He pointed forward and then crossed his scrawny green arms. I tried to see what Dirk wanted to show me, but all I saw was a bunch of canned food and piled boxes in a corner.

Materializing a scythe, Prudence ignored us and walked a few feet.

“She doesn’t seem to like you.” Dirk said as Prudence retreated, and she paused midstep before continuing. She heard him.

Prudence waved her weapon, and a dark, swirling hole formed. Looking into the abyss made my skin prickle and the hairs on my arm stand on end.Agony. Fury. Pain.Every negative emotion poured out and smacked into me. It must be the passage to Hell. I stood at a distance and observed. I searched the area for the lost souls of the fallen werewolves. Screams filled the cave as they whizzed past me and through the air into individual black orbs. No matter how desperately they tried to avoid the passages, one by one, they were sucked in. I’d never heard the noises demon souls made. Probably because I was too busy eating them.

Prudence dematerialized her scythe and faced me.

“You’ve been busy,” I said.

Flicking her hair off her shoulder, Prudence said, “Paynehas been busy. I merely watched. But that can be just as exhausting.”

I smiled. There was something about her blank, mostly calm facade. Prudence wasn’t going to make my obsession easy.

The carcass, at her foot, moved. She glanced down and kicked it. Wallis squeezed from beneath the corpse and ran toward me.

I scowled. “Fucking nasty, Wallis. How many times do I have to tell you to stop toying with dead bodies?”

“I’m sorry, Sire.” Wallis fell to his knees and hid his face. “I was scared.” He raised his head and pointed toward Prudence. “Reaper,” he said, like she wasn’t watching him.

“I’m never taking you anywhere again,” I said. “Where’s Marty?”

“Here.” Marty waved his hands as he hopped down from the stacked canned food. So that was why Dirk pointed toward them earlier. It must have been Marty’s hiding spot.

Prudence’s nose crinkled as she stared at Dirk. “So the gremlins are truly yours?”

“Your words are cruel. But let it be known I’m not happy about you either,” Dirk said, meeting Prudence’s gaze.

“Dirk—”

Before I could reprimand Dirk, Prudence called forth her weapon once more. “Cruelty is the gremlin way when left on their own.” Morphing her scythe into a sword, she held the blade out toward Dirk. “Maybe I should end the three of them right now. Save us all some trouble.”

“They’re harmless.” I placed my hand against her blade. “Disgusting but harmless.”

“I never understood the situation between soul reapers and gremlins.”

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