The urge to get up, unsheathe my claws, and leave some marks across his face as a reminder of why he shouldn’t cross me or the Devil roused. I flexed my hands, and I concentrated on the wild part of me, the one that led to fur over my skin and the manifestation of my perfect, beautiful spots.
Growing claws hurt, but I accepted the pain and focused.
The unfamiliar living room irritated me, as did my place on an old, worn, and comfortable couch. Movement in the corner of the room drew my attention, and Belial regarded me through narrowed eyes. I flexed my hands, slid off the couch, and debated how to best tear strips out of my new opponent.
Belial raised a brow, and at a glare from me, he raised his hands in surrender.
“You dare to disobey me?” the Devil demanded, and the fires of his many hells crackled in his voice.
“You allowed a human female to undermine your authority,” the lesser devil countered. “Be rid of her, or I will get rid of her myself.”
Blue sparks danced over the Devil’s skin, and the flames cloaking him flared white before brightening to an icy blue. His form shimmered, and much like a glass dropped to the floor, something around him shattered, sending a cascade of shards raining down, which sparkled before dissolving away to nothing.
The beastly visage fell away to a golden skinned man with sun-bright wings, each feather clouded with white and tipped with blue. Something about the Devil’s face had changed. From the gentle curve of his jaw to his eyes, which had shifted in color to the sapphire of a winter sky, I found no evidence of human imperfection.
My breath caught in my throat and lodged there.
How could someone so beautiful exist?
Even if I could have breathed, I wouldn’t have for fear he’d vanish like smoke whipped on a growing wind.
How could someone so perfect exist?
How could I compare?
I couldn’t.
Mocking laughter rang out, but I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the Devil’s face. I could understand a moth’s determination to fly close to the flames. I couldn’t compare, but I yearned to touch and discover what perfection felt like.
Part of my very soul despaired for what I could never be, withering away while my lungs burned for the breath I refused to draw.
A cold darkness crept in, stealing away the Devil’s golden beauty and leaving me with nothing but shadows reminiscent of his glory. While my eyes could no longer focus or pierce the black shrouding my vision, I could still move my arms.
The shadows drew closer, and I lifted my hands and smiled at the warmth suffusing my hands, tracing his perfect face with my fingertips in the hopes of etching his image into my memories. I closed my broken eyes, but his visage slipped from my grasp, lost in the relentless dark.
“Breathe,” a still and quiet voice ordered.
I obeyed, and the world fell away into nothing.
“You shouldn’t kill him yet,” Belial stated, and something about his tone annoyed me into growling.
I was warm and comfortable, and some damned devil was blabbing about not killing somebody? I considered doing my best to kill him, but after a moment of thought, I decided against it.
Killing useful devils wouldn’t help me down the road, and for all Belial could be annoying, he had his uses.
“I absolutely should kill him,” the Devil replied, and his growls were a great deal deeper and louder than mine.
How unfair. There needed to be a rule against that. His voice rumbled in his chest, which was in close proximity to my head, a situation I quite liked.
His chest and my head needed to maintain a close and personal relationship. I purred, snuggling closer to the source of warmth, which I determined was likely him.
“In order to kill him, you would have to move her, and I can hear her purring from here. He isn’t going anywhere. I’ll see to that. I will quite enjoy helping with his complete ruination. Your lady seems content where she is at, and you would become more upset should she be disturbed. Perhaps this worm can be the first of her toys. Cats require many toys, do they not? Gift him to her so she can practice her arts, for she has much to learn. You can occupy yourself with building her a dungeon all of her own, filled with toys to keep her from becoming bored.”
“Who is he and why are we killing him?” I asked, and I cracked open an eye to discover the Devil had taken on a more human form, and to my disappointment, he hid his beautiful chest beneath a crimson shirt partnered with a black suit jacket.
Belial stood on the back of a struggling man, his suit torn and covered with soot. To all appearances, the devil should have been able to escape, although upon a second, closer look, I realized Belial’s feet had transformed into hooves equipped with curved claws, which impaled his victim.
“Alloces,” the Devil replied, and his chest rumbled with yet another one of his growls. “He thought he could defy me.”
“He wanted to kill you, Darlene,” Belial announced with a rather offensive amount of good cheer. “You are delightfully resilient. I am not sure who was more startled by the most unexpected intervention, although Alloces lives only because His Most Sulfurous Majesty turned his attention to you. What would you have me do with him?”
I eyed the squirming devil pinned beneath Belial’s clawed feet. “Turn him into a cute and harmless fish that can live in one of my tanks, and then I can show him off.”
“A toy for your amusement?” Belial asked.
“If I feed him to another fish, can he become a fish again so I can keep feeding him to other fish?”
The Devil remained tense, although he did chuckle. “Make the concoction particularly hellish, Belial. I’m sure you can make the appropriate arrangements to ensure his punishment is as thorough as possible before he is sent to Darlene’s dungeon to be used as a training tool. Locate the succubus who conspired with him and make an example of her.”
“Verify she actually played a role first, please,” I requested. “He could just be an idiot who thinks he’s being helpful when he is not. But if she was involved, I will not object to more pretty fish to play with.”
“I will see it done.” Belial reached down, grasped Alloces’s throat, and vanished in a dark plume of foul-smelling smoke. Unlike before, the stench wasn’t that of brimstone.
Sniffing, I frowned. “What is that smell?”
“That would be benzeneselenol. It is a rather toxic acid, and it’s one of Belial’s favorites. He is in a mood, and when he is in a mood, he enjoys warning those around him he is not to be trifled with. I requested he give proper warning to others of his state of mind to keep things somewhat peaceful among the various devils and demons inhabiting my hells.” Without any sign I weighed well over a hundred pounds, the Devil got to his feet, cradling me in his arms while he regarded the bloodied spot on the carpeting with a disdainful expression. “I have changed your plans. I will be having a few of my more trusted devils participating in some games with Gallo, leading him around while you have some time to recover. I will also deal with your brother’s situation at the same time. I intend to bargain with him, and unless he wishes to remain a squeaking rodent, he will become the equivalent of your personal secretary and gopher. That should keep him busy. You can boss him around however you see fit.”
“Does this change of my plans mean I won’t be walking?”