Page 25 of Demon Demands

While his eyes were still closed, I stretched my wings out and lifted us both up. With my arms hooked under Palmer’s, we were face to face, and I was able to delight in his panic when he realized I was carrying him.

“Fuck, Sloane! No warnin’?”

“Nahhh.” I gave him a saccharine smile, flapping my wings in powerful pushes to catch up with the hellhounds. “I like to keep you on your toes, Mage. Who else is going to challenge you?”

Palmer

Tuesday Early Morning

Flying with Sloane was both emasculating and nauseating. The view was amazing, though. We weren’t very high, but looking out over the desert landscape was awe-inspiring.

Never, in my wildest dreams, did I imagine the Underworld as such a vibrant and lively realm. I thought everything would be dead and decaying, flat and lifeless.

From the height she flew, I was able to see the sand glittering under the reddish moon. Like a muted rainbow, the colors were all there, but the brilliance of the moon did little to illuminate the area. All the light we’d been traveling by had come from the plant-life and small animals scurrying about.

I could stay in the realm for years and never see enough. The Underworld was… beautiful.

“I can feel your mind spinning a mile a minute. What are you wondering about?” Sloane asked me as I gazed over her shoulder.

“Are all the places in the Underworld this breathtaking?”

She twisted her head to try to look at me, but the way she was holding me as she flew us toward the hellhounds made it awkward unless we both leaned back.

“Some places are more, some places are less. There are still areas that are run down and decrepit, just like anywhere else, but the untouched land here? It’s wild and free… and unexplainable, something you have to see with your own eyes.”

I wanted to see all that the Underworld had to offer. We wouldn’t have time for that until after Raguel was killed, but I hoped that we’d come back often. I needed an Underworld bucket list, just like the one I had for all the wonders on Earth that I wanted to see.

It only took us a few minutes to catch up to the hellhounds. They’d stopped in front of a minuscule shack. It wasn’t much bigger than my office at the University where I had been teaching.

Sloane dropped me to my feet as she hovered, her wings flapping lazily. I felt so confused about how she was able to fly when her wings were just bones. There was no skin, no webbing or membrane to catch the wind between the bones, no muscles to flex and fold them.

She rolled her eyes, gently touching down on the toes of her combat boots. “You’re dense.”

I arched an eyebrow. “Are ye calling me heavy or dumb?”

One of those I’d let her get away with, the other would lead to punishment. After our talk, if she’d still let me. I groaned internally, hating the idea of not being able to touch her.

She shook her head, giving me innocent eyes. “Well, I don’t want to flaunt my strength. That would be emasculating.”

“Careful, Love. Witnesses won’t save ya,” I whispered in her ear, biting my lip as I watched her shiver. “Yer smart mouth will get ya spanked. I don’t care if they watch.”

Sloane patted my chest with her left hand, smirking at me. “Don’t make promises that you don’t intend to keep, Mage. I barely have control, and I can assure you that a blowjob in this battle will turn out to be more than you bargained for. We’ve got a hellsteed to save and demons to kill.”

She turned her back on me, and I couldn’t resist. I pulled my hand back, slapping her ass hard enough to make her yelp in surprise. When she whipped her head around, she gave me a filthy, devious grin.

“Keep flirting with me, Mage. Just remember, what’s mine...” she rasped in a breathy voice as her eyes began to shift. Black abysses stared back at me, lightning striking in their depths as she finished her sentence, “Is mine.”

Gods. I wanted to be terrified of that prospect, but the thought of making the Devil moan had my cock hardening in my pants.

Not the time, Palmer.

Sloane rolled her shoulders back before addressing our group, speaking first to the hellhounds. “Lira, don’t let anyone escape, but don’t kill them until one of us comes back outside. There may be more captives than just Jack. We don’t want to kill them. And watch out for the scorpion. I’ll be taking my boys in with us.”

She turned her attention to the feisty demon hybrid with us. “Hyde, stay with one of the guys. Do not wander off by yourself.”

“Understood,” Hyland commented, much more serious than what we’d seen from her.

She tugged the black staff off of her shoulders, slinging one end down. It expanded in her petite hand, lengthening from two feet to a bit over six.