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“Yes, I’ll see what I can do.” He goes about searching through his supplies, so I take a moment to look around.
There’s only a few people in this short alleyway, and the setup at the corner of the entrance catches my eye.
“Will this do?” the Demon asks, but Moni’s screech grabs my attention first.
“Sparks!” Moni cries as she picks up a sack of coffee beans and hugs it to her chest. “Now I can make all the coffee in the world!” Happy tears gather in her eyes. A throat clearing brings my attention back to the Demon, who’s giving Moni a bewildered look. She kisses the bag and gently places it back on the counter before patting it tenderly and shrinking down to her preferred size.
There’s a pretty pink stone the size of a quail’s egg with a yellow swirl in the middle sitting in his hand. “How many do you have?” I ask, thinking of all of my friends, including the ones Emer didn’t mention. Knowing her and the way my luck is, she would fuck with me out of spite. “I need eight more.”
The Demon chokes but tries to hide it with a cough, apparently talking shit in his demonic language as he bags up my other ingredients. “This crazy girl; thinks I’m daft. Nine Demstones? She doesn’t look like she can afford her own food, let alone stones this powerful.”
My mouth drops as I consider this Demon. I glance back at Knots and Levi, while Moni just chuckles in my ear.
“Excuse me, but I have no problem affording my fucking food, or a bath, or clothes, which you are sorely lacking.” I point out.
Leave it to the Demon to not be ashamed that I called him out. He just peers at me over the counter and chuckles. “Listen, I like your spirit. How about we help each other out? I know where you can get some more Demstones. I’ll give you the spot that I harvest them from, if you can bring some back to me. I don’t care about the size or shape. I just want five, and you can obviously take what you need,” he bargains with me.
I don’t trust anyone, but I also know I need those Demstones if I want to protect my friends. “Why?” I ask suspiciously.
He chuckles. “Hmm. A smart one.” He leans back and pulls his leg up on the counter, showing us that half of his calf is missing. “It’s not exactly safe for an unarmed Demon, and I lost my partner on our last run. It’s taken me a few months just to heal, to get back here to sell my stuff. I need to make a living, and you need Demstones. Plus, you’ll be able to find your bat flowers there, so it sounds like a good deal for me.”
“Sounds like a good deal, but why trust us?” Knots leans in.
“Because I know that if I don’t play nice, you could easily send L.A.M.B. after my ass, and you still need the bat flowers, which I don’t have,” he confidently says with a pointed gaze at my left wrist.
“You can see that?” Shock races through me that he can see the brand from where he’s at. He’s not even that close, nor is he touching my skin.
“Of course, with our license to sell, we have the sight to see brands. I just don’t always sell legal shit; that’s why I’m here.” He points out.
Well damn.
Zissa regards me and the rest of the group. I swallow around the lump that’s stuck in my throat as I take her in, knowing that they are waiting on my call. “You wanted my friendship? Well, that needs to start with trust first. So, if you can get us there and back alive, you got it!” I tell her, and she smiles as if I just gave her the biggest gift.
“Deal. We can plan to go first thing tomorrow morning,” she says, then turns back to the Demon. “Tell me how to get there and what to expect.”
Moni flies over to Knots and starts talking about going on another adventure, but this time, it’s in Hell. It’s like a field trip! Levi listens intently to the Demon and adds my items to his satchel, but my attention goes back to the entrance once again.
Walking over, I spot a Demon sitting by a pen with a few animals moving around in it. He spots me approaching and throws the haunch of meat he was eating into the pen. The sound of ripping flesh and growls roar from the pen.
“What’s in there?” I ask, trying to see but not daring to get too close.
“Hound puppies. My bitch had a litter, and I need to get rid of them. Want one? These are vicious as fuck and can tear through bone in seconds,” he brags. As if to prove a point, I hear the snapping of the bone he had thrown in there. Then one pup looks up at me with beady red eyes.
“Ahh… I’m good,” I say and start backing up, but a thick chain by his foot catches my eye. Following it, I peek at something that does grab my attention. “Wait… What’s that?” I ask, pointing to the puppy that at a glance could only be eight weeks old. The closest breed it resembles is a golden retriever, but with short hair and two little nubs poking out behind his ears. Are those the start of horns? Runes glow along his front legs, and a short trail of fire runs from between his ears down to the end of his really long tail.
“Oh. He’s spare parts.”
“W-what?... What do you mean?”
“Exactly what I said. People will pay good money for Hellhound parts, and that’s what I’m going to sell him for,” he informs me, and my heart shudders for a moment.
“How much for him?” I ask without a second thought.
“Which part do you want?” he asks, picking up a knife.
“NO! I mean him as in the whole dog!” I explain.
“You don’t want this menace. Look at him! He ain’t right. His tail is too long, his skin is funky, not to mention he’s not vicious at all,” he points out. “I wonder if my son dropped him as soon as he came out… Maybe that’s why he’s goofy acting,” he mumbles to himself.
