“Yes! Young! Remember that next time you do things to me, asshole.” She kicked the giant tail sitting on the floor in front of her. Barefoot as she was, and Kas’s tail being as big as her entire body, heavier than her entire body, and skin almost solid black, she might as well have kicked the tires of a bulldozer. “I like reading. I like psychology. I write a little, but I know I have a habit of falling into stupid romance tropes, so I always throw away what I write and try again. Guilty pleasure, I know. I… have a large sex drive, as you and Adron noticed.” Not to mention everyone else in Hell. “And I fell over randomly died eating breakfast. Like, dead dead, almost instantly. Me and… yeah, died.” Shit, all this talk about trust and now she felt guilty not telling him about David. “Lots of pain for ten seconds, and then I was gone. The doctors couldn’t figure out what happened, either.”
Kas slowly tilted his head from one side to the other. Actually, he rotated it, like a confused dog.
“Boring.”
“Ha, yeah, it was. I mean, I liked it, my simple little life.” With her crazy monster dildos and vibrators with extra attachments. Mental note: remember to check out a scrying pool and see if the university students ever found out about her toy collection, because a girl’s life just wasn’t complete without a daily dose of embarrassment and neuroticism. “I wanted to become a psychologist.”
Kas waited, and said nothing. No reason to not continue, then.
“A uh, psychologist, is someone who helps people, in here.” She tapped her temple. “Because, you know, people can be pretty fucked in the head, right? Maybe they’ve had a traumatic experience as a child that’s left them unable to be around dogs, or walk across bridges. Or maybe they had a physically abusive dad, or emotionally abusive mother, sometimes even vice versa, and that’s left a lot of mental scars they need help identifying and overcoming. Maybe… maybe I’m speaking an alien language and you don’t understand what I’m saying.”
The shark dinosaur rumbled quietly. “I understand, but they are not problems demons have.”
“Really?” She eyed him, and nudged his tail again. “You seem to have some issues with your fellow demons.”
That may have been a bit too much. Without the aura, poking the bear was dangerous. Sure enough, Kas let out a slow, deep rumble, and she took a step back again. Ground lost.
“Explain.”
Oh thank god, actual communication. Ground gained.
“Well, I mean, with humans we have this problem where our pasts affect our ability to make rational decisions. They color our ability to see reality in certain situations. Our objectivity goes out the window.”
Kas rumbled again, deeper and louder. Yeap, he was back in the dentist chair and she was poking a cavity.
“Are you saying demons are not what I warn you they are?”
“No! No, I get that. I’ve seen enough shit to believe you. But it’s important to keep an open mind and examine new information whenever we can. Maybe not all demons are horrible? Maybe… not everyone has to sleep with a knife under their pillow all the time? A little trust, spread around? Could go a long way.”
And of course, he laughed again, though this time it was a short snort of disbelief.
“I–” He shut up and looked to the door. It opened a second later.
“Mia,” Zel said, dressed in some red silks but none of her chains. She didn’t look happy. “How goes your tests of your aura?”
“I uh… umm, I think I’ve gotten better? I can do stuff, but it’s still very weird.”
“Wonderful. And the runes in your mind?”
The runes, oh shit. She’d been so distracted with all the sex and the heart eating and Vinicius, she hadn’t even thought about the runes.
“I–”
“She’s been busy,” Kas said. “I fed her. There’s been progress with her aura.”
“Is that so?” Zel eyed the shark dinosaur for a moment, before gesturing to Mia. “Come with me.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Back in the dungeon deep in the spire, under the surface of Hell. Mia did a better job this time, not looking at the other prisoners or their skeletons, and even managed to cover her ears and block out some of the noise. This was the sort of stuff she was trying to talk to Kas about, the sort of stuff that would give any human some nasty PTSD and lead to weird behaviors. The fact it was Hell and the humans, and probably the demons too, did maybe kinda sorta deserve maybe some, a little bit, a pinch of the torture they received, did lessen the horribleness of it. A bit.
Zel had them in the deep cell with Vinicius once again, with Kas waiting outside. Like before, Vinicius was still chained, a dozen giant chains holding his colossal mass to a metal wall. Four arms, raptor feet, a big tail with spikes along the back, and big horns on his dragon head. Big black spikes came out of his joints, and the chains hooked over them, too. If the creature tried to move too much, he might break a spike, or maybe rip one out of a joint.
Worst of all, a chain wrapped around his snout. Being bound and gagged was horrible, but Adron told her this beast, this child of the Old Ones, was a savage brute who relished in violence. A berserker, who thrived on spreading death and destruction. Seeing him tied up didn’t feel so bad anymore.
Well, she did still feed bad, but she knew she was dumb and had a soft spot for shit like this.
“Hello, old friend,” Zel said, and she stood tall in front of the beast. But no matter how high the giant woman stood, she still seemed petite compared to the imprisoned titan. “Did you enjoy our last visit?”
Mia, standing a few feet behind Zel, peeked around the woman’s leg and up at the child of Belial. Vinicius looked at her, and his red demon eyes struck her still. There was life in those eyes, awareness, something more than just a mindless brute. Or, that was her stupid empathetic brain lying to her. Draw a smiley face on a rock and she could empathize with it.
“S-Sorry…” Mia said.
Zel looked down to her. “Sorry?”
“I… I uh… I was…”
“Mia, my pet, do not apologize for obeying my orders. Vinicius understands if you disobey me, I will torture you within an inch of your life.” Nodding, Zel pressed her chest and silks up against his chest again, but considering how tall the beast was, they mostly pressed against his upper abs. “Isn’t that right, old friend?”
Old friend? Mia blinked up at Vinicius, and the monster held her gaze for a moment before turning it to Zel. Rage built up in his eyes, and a heavy earthquake rumble vibrated out from his chest.
“Come now Vinicius, don’t be like that. If only you would obey, I could make your life here so much more enjoyable.” She gestured down to Mia. “I would share my pet with you.”
“W-What?”
Zel giggled and smiled down at her. “Come now. You know you’d like to see if you could fit this delicious creature inside your body.”
Mia held out her hands, indicating size, length, and girth, the same as she had Hannah, which of course only made Zel laugh
“Pretty sure it’d kill me.”
“Nonsense. We would take our time, stretch you slowly, and only sink you as deep as you could handle. Nice, and slow… at first.” With a wicked grin, Zel traced a claw down the bound monster’s absurd abs. “Adron has told me more about your sexual bouts, Mia. He insists there is something special about your body.”