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His chest puffed out. "So I made a deal with them. I would provide them with Daemons and Tainted, and they would leave Elysian. It was in both our best interest, every Daemon who died was a loss to them."
"So this is all about… sex?" Lilith asked, exasperated.
"Ah, Lilith, you disappoint me. You of all people should know better. No, this was not all about sex." Behlial rolled his eyes, and I gave Seth a warning look because he seemed ready to pounce on the former King of Darkness. "Immortality is what the Nayphyllym crave the most. Everything else was just a… pleasant byproduct. They don't care if their race is tainted as long as their future promises immortality."
"What did you do?" Demogorgon demanded.
"I provided what they asked for. I flew a fleet to Adama and gave them Daemons and Tainted."
"You betrayed your fleet?" I asked, astounded by his deviousness.
Behlial shrugged as if it was no big deal.
"So, that whole battle on Adama between the Daemons and the Nayphyllym was a lie?" Lilith wanted to know.
"The Nayphyllym's fleet is far superior to anything we could or would ever muster," Behlial confirmed darkly.
"Then why didn't they just wipe us out?" Seth demanded, even though I thought the answer was pretty clear.
Which Behlial confirmed by giving Seth a derisive look. "Because they need the Daemons. They don't want to see us die." He lifted his chin. "But make no mistake, they will if cornered or if we don't stick to our word."
Thinking he had won the upper hand, he continued, "You need to reestablish me as king now or suffer the consequences."
"What else?" I asked, sensing Behlial hadn't told us everything yet.
His smirk indicated he thought himself the victor, and he wiggled his shackles loudly.
Seth stepped toward him, but instead of freeing his hands, he cut Behlial across the forearm with a mortferrym knife. Behlial howled.
"By all the hells, I've been waiting to do that for centuries," Seth exclaimed. Then he held the blade in front of Behlial. "Make no mistake, I will cut you into tiny little ribbons until you tell us everything!"
Behlial convulsed in agony, and we all glared at him. How many times had he cut us the same way and gleefully informed us we weren't male enough to stand the pain? My fingers itched to take the blade from Seth and cut the former King of Darkness myself.
We gave him a few minutes to get himself under control. Sweat ran down his neck when he managed to sit up and give us a defiant stare. His jaw was clenched tightly to force off the pain ransacking his body.
"Give me blood, and I will tell you."
"No," Seth said, making another cut. "You will tell us now."
This time, Behlial managed to compose himself better, but he was still shuddering on his chair as the pain wracked his body.
"Fine. You know I made the deal with them to take a prince every seven hundred years to the mountain."
"Tell us something we don't know," Seth threatened.
"After a few cycles, it wasn't enough for them any longer, and they demanded more. They left their dying world and told me where to drop the others off."
"What others?" I nearly screamed.
"Mostly the Tainted we bred during the styx, but Daemons as well."
"How many?" Seth asked at the same time as Asmodeus wanted to know, "Where?"
"They are waiting for us as we speak," Behlial wiggled his shackles again. "I need blood."
Seth opened the sliding door and called for a Tainted. When she entered, he nodded at her to give Behlial her blood, which she did by cutting a small incision on her palm before laying it on Behlial's oozing wound without flinching.
Fay, however, shuddered in my arms, and I stroked her back a few times to reassure and calm her.
