“Let’s share stories,” she said. “Do a bit of bonding. It could be a while before we find Romakus and the Damall. We should get to know each other!”
Laughing, Julisa joined her and sat near Vin’s legs.
“We’re demons. We don’t care about stories. We care about food and sex. And trophies.”
“But you don’t have any trophies.” By trophies, Julisa had to mean skulls. “None of you do. Uh, Romakus did, but not you guys?”
Julisa shook her head. “I have many trophies. Or I had. But I joined the Damall, and we are constantly on the move.”
Everyone sat down, Adron and Kas around Mia, the incubi spread around, and Julisa and Vin closer to the wall. It didn’t take a shrink to notice everyone looked more relaxed. Even quickly agreeing to Mia’s request was a step out of the norm for a bunch of demons, especially the three assholes: Kas, Vin, and Julisa. A fed predator was a happy predator.
“And Romakus?” Mia asked. “He had skulls on his belts and stuff.”
“A fan of the old ways. He is old.”
“How old?”
“Old.”
Mia rolled her eyes. “He acts like some kinda… quirky guy. I can’t imagine someone who’s super ancient acting like that. I mean, I can tell you’re old because you talk with a sort of official, royal sound.”
Julisa licked a fang. “Royal?”
“You know what I mean.”
“Vinicius is far older than I or Romakus, and he speaks nothing like me.”
“I… guess.”
Demons were weird. With humans, she could predict the behavior in a social, cultural, and historical context. Demons didn’t seem to give a shit about any of that. They had their own quirks that didn’t seem to match anything she could encapsulate or define. The only common thread was they liked violence and sex, and even that wasn’t so clear.
Maybe things would be different once she met some demons born and raised in the Black Valley?
“How about you incubi?” Mia asked. “I saw Faust at the spire. How’d you get to working for Zel?”
“I never worked for Zel, not really. But if you must know, I slept my way in.”
Oh god. Mia laughed and fell back on her palms.
“Really?”
“Of course. Every incubus and succubus can enjoy favored treatment if we just use sex to our advantage. We’re the closest to humans. Every demon wants to fuck us.”
“I really don’t understand that. I mean, the part about demons wanting to fuck humans the most. Come on, you demons are so much more muscular, and tall, and the girls are all gorgeous with huge tits.” She gestured Julisa’s way, and the tetrad donned an evil smile.
Gallius shrugged. “Hard to say, really. You’d be better off asking the angels.”
“I doubt they’d know more,” Oudoceus said. “At least, the one I met didn’t really know.”
Mia sat up straight. “You’ve met an angel? Like, another one besides Yosepha and Galon?”
“I have.”
“And you…”
“Fucked them, of course. Well, she fucked me, really.” He shrugged and tapped one of his short horns.
Mia threw up her hands. “How? I mean, not the sex. How did you meet an angel? Why was there an angel down here in Hell? Yosepha and Galon told me angels are free to come down here unless it’s war, but, I mean, why would they?”
“Because,” Vinicius said. Everyone looked his way. “Heaven is not what it used to be.”
“What’s that mean?”
He shook his head. “Ask them.”
Sighing, Mia lay on her back and stared up at the cavern ceiling, and the tiny blue flames that danced in and out of existence. Would they ever find Yosepha and the others? This wasn’t like Death’s Grip. By the time they got topside, how would they even know which direction was counter-clockwise around Hell?
She set a hand on her egg and stroked its leathery shell. Warm. The creature inside shifted, and unless she was going crazy, it pressed its body against the shell to meet her touch. It’d be great if it hatched quickly, but it’d probably be another month. Unless, maybe it’d hatch faster because it was special?
“Sex with the angel was great, by the way,” Oudoceus said. “She was a gabriem, and really tender and sweet. And she had the curves of a succubus.”
Julisa gagged. “Tender? How dull.”
The incubi laughed, but Oudoceus didn’t follow up. Maybe he didn’t want to prove how awesome the sex was to Julisa, the bitch supreme, and Mia would completely understand that if that was the reason. She could ask for more details in private, later.
The idea of a beautiful, busty angel having sex with a handsome, muscular succubus, was a visual treat. Her thoughts roamed, and soon images danced through her mind of white wings spread as some mysterious angel woman, come down from the sky, reached down, grabbed the incubus’s cock, and lowered herself onto him. Tall as angels were, incubi were tall, too, had huge dicks, and she’d be so full, and dripping, and melting, and…
Mia squirmed. The fruit was affecting her. Like she’d taken a shot or three, warmth spread throughout her limbs, and the ache of her special fingers faded. Healing. And something she hadn’t had to worry about since the battle crept back up: her aura. She probably couldn’t play some giant orchestra song like during the battle, but her fingers didn’t need to to gently pluck the ambient strings that created background sounds.
“You are beyond deplorable,” Julisa said. “I can feel that aura, unmarked. How little it takes to ignite you.”
Mia sat up and glared. “Hey! I just fed everyone. Be nice.” Sighing, she hugged her knees to her chest. “Sorry. The fruit is just… yeah. I’ll get it under control.”
“I am being nice.” As if Mia had just challenged her to a duel, Julisa got up and stood over her. But after a glaring match, she squatted down beside Mia and looked her up and down. “I have to say, it does surprise me, though. Even I have seen the scrying pools enough to know how humans feel about Hell. If you are truly undeserving of the divine punishment of a mark, then how have you become so comfortable with Hell so quickly?”
“I’m not comfortable… am I?” Mia clutched her egg on her lap, hugged it, and kept her glare on the giant woman squatting so close she loomed over her. “Humans adapt.”
“Not this quickly. And of course, humans do not have your abilities. I am starting to wonder if there is a connection between Hell and the unmarked. More than we think.”
“Connection?”
“Yes. You are connected to this land, and perhaps, you are connected more deeply than you realize. Perhaps you are part demon?”
“Part de–how would that even work?” She set her egg aside and stood up. Alas, even standing and Julisa squatting, they were eye level, and Julisa had four towering horns from her hairless head that looked like a crown. Imposing. “Demons can’t breed, right?”
“Correct.”
“Angels, too, I suppose.”
“Far as I know,” Oudoceus said.
Mia nodded. “Then it’s not like a demon got to the surface and bred with a human, right? ‘Cause, I mean, we’re all in the afterlife, not really made of flesh, no matter how much it feels like it. So there’s no way I’m half demon.”
Julisa tapped a claw against her chin. “You make good points, little soul, but there’s no denying you are something connected to Hell. You’re comfortable in these dark, tortured depths. You become aroused at but the mere mention of sex.”
“And I can’t stand violence! So that doesn’t fit at all, does it?”