Page 109 of Demon Demands

“I’ve been called a few colorful names,” Novak started, and we all snorted at him. “Okay, a fuck load of them,” he amended.

“Is there something wrong with me?” Vaughn suddenly asked, cutting the vampire off.

“No. Why?” Briggs answered immediately, concern creasing his brows.

The fae shook his head, looking lost. “I’m not, I don’t know, running a fever or something?”

Novak narrowed his eyes, looking the fae up and down. “No. You’re fine. What’s your deal?”

“I’m just trying to figure out how I’m falling for a psycho,” Vaughn muttered to himself, glancing over both shoulders. “Are my mommy issues showing? You guys would tell me if they were, right?”

We all laughed, nodding at him in agreement. Hanging out with the guys was a hell of a way to officially start our first true off day. We weren’t going home, there were no new fights; we were just lounging around until tomorrow.

Briggs nodded his head thoughtfully. “Seriously, I get it. She’s like—” He snapped his fingers. “What are those sweet and sour candies called? The ones that I steal from you and they get stuck in my teeth?” He motioned his outstretched hand around his mouth.

The fae sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. “I knew you were the one who was stealing my candy. They’re called Sour Patch Kids.”

“Those,” the shifter acknowledged. “She’s a sour patch girlfriend.”

Palmer chuckled. “So, she’s yer girlfriend now, is she?”

“I’m not really sure,” Briggs admitted, shrugging his broad shoulders.

“I don’t know what to call her either,” Vaughn confessed. “But I keep wondering if I’m gonna wake up in the middle of the night with a knife to my neck, and the thought kinda turns me on. Which leads me to believe that there’s got to be something wrong with me. Maybe not physically, but mentally, for sure.”

Sloane ambled up, wrapping her arms around the fae’s neck loosely as she leaned in to whisper in his ear, “Would you like me to do that, Vaughn?”

“No,” he replied, then tilted his head to the side as he thought about his answer. “Well, yes. Maybe, but don’t tell me before you do it.”

She rolled her eyes at him, grinning as she moved to sit in his lap. “I love how you guys talk about me like I’m not even here.”

“You were way over there,” Stone commented, smirking at her as he pointed across the yard.

“I can still hear,” she sassed, winking at the demon.

Vaughn shrugged, tugging at the ends of Sloane’s hair. “For some reason, I feel like you didn’t learn anything new, so I’m okay with you hearing the conversation.”

“She didn’t,” I assured him. “She knows more than she lets on.”

“How’d ya see her, and I didn’t? We’re facing the same direction.” Palmer inquired, scratching absently at his cheek.

“I saw her creeping along the side of the palace. There are no wolves in the Underworld, except the two sitting right here, and she wasn’t here at the time so…” Stone shrugged. “One plus one equals two.”

The mage grunted. “Smartarse.”

We heard the baying of the hounds before they emerged from the tree-line, Pete trampling through the undergrowth behind them. Sloane smiled as her hellhounds and the pedmar split away from the pack, trotting toward us while they nipped at each other.

When they reached the garden’s edge, Vaughn tossed Helios a ball of ice. Atlas whimpered at him, and the fae sighed, grinning as he shook his head. He made two more and then rolled a bowling ball-sized one to Pete.

The pedmar glanced between the hounds and the ball, observing their behavior before copying them. His transition into Sloane’s little pack had gone flawlessly. The boys had accepted him the moment she asked, and he was eager to have their company.

Sloane didn’t take her eyes off of them as she spoke to us, her happiness palpable in her tone. “I want to show you guys something later, but I have to check out some new neighborhoods that are going up first.”

“Your neighborhoods?” Vaughn asked, playing with her hair.

She side-eyed him before sinking further into his embrace. “Not mine,” she assured him. “But I like to do what I can to help. What’s the point in having power if I don’t use it to better the people I’m supposed to represent?”

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