~~Mia~~

  “Galon!”

  Too te. He’d let the string go, and Mia threw up her hands as she clenched her eyes shut.

  The batm rune fred in her mind. The runes lined up, and the chains that connected them lit up like electricity through a fiment lightbulb. It was blinding, and it brought the gold glow of the rune crashing down through the maze of her mind like a lightning strike.

  It enveloped her. The fingers inside her grabbed the rune and lifted it, a reflex, like someone catching a baseball thrown at their head. Because it had to. Because she had to.

  The gold glow turned red, and vanished. Her eyes were still closed, and she sucked in a breath as she waited for the inevitable pain of an angel arrow having already struck her through her guts or something. But it didn’t come, and she slowly lowered her hands as she opened her eyes.

  She was uninjured. And the angel hadn’t fired his arrow. He grinned at her as he lowered his bow, arrow held to the grip by his aiming hand, string beside it. The asshole had unnocked the arrow just before he’d let the string go. She should have seen it coming.

  “You… asshole!”

  “You really thought I would shoot you? I’m offended.”

  “You… you!” She swung her staff at him, and he chuckled as he stepped out of range. “I thought you might—”

  Wait. She had a staff?

  Slowly, she squeezed the grip of the metal staff in her hand, and set her eyes on it and the glowing red stone sitting at its tip. A rge ruby as big as her fist, wrapped in the squeezing, sharp spikes of the staff’s top. Bck, almost finger-like spikes. A bck staff. It was shiny, like bckstone that’d been polished, and had several segments where the metal had grooves and spikes coming out of it, with tiny red gems decorating between the metal spikes. Thankfully, all the spikes pointed up and in. Purely decorative. And damn, did they look good.

  The giant ruby on the staff’s head glowed, and Mia stared down into it. Fire swirled within, amber, hidden inside the almost blood red of the ruby, a swirling vortex of… hellfire? Or va?

  “I’m surprised Yosepha didn’t try this tactic with you,” Galon said as he paced around Mia, looking her up and down with analyzing eyes. “Mikalim usually resort to physicality when they can’t figure out a puzzle.”

  “Yosepha isn’t like that. She’s—” Mia gasped, and looked herself up and down. She didn’t just have a staff. She had armor. And unlike the bits of meera metal she’d tried on before, this weighed almost nothing. It covered her, from shoulders to toes, all hidden inside yers of beautiful bck armor. It wasn’t easy to get a look at herself, and she had to twist hard to do it, but thankfully the armor didn’t block her movement.

  It wasn’t as heavy-looking as a mikalim’s armor, not as thick, easy to turn. Bits of red silk hung from between the joints, like white did from Galon’s, but the simirities ended there. Her breastpte had breasts and a curved stomach. Her shoulders had shoulder pauldrons with big bck spikes. There were some fred bits of armor at the waist that struck out and down as curved spikes, too, like some sort of fancy armor skirt over armored legs.

  It was sexy armor.

  “Um… this… this…”

  “Interesting,” Galon said, eyebrow raised. “You have a crown.”

  “Crown!?” She grabbed her head, and winced as she stabbed herself on a spike. A crown, bck, with red rubies on it, almost a tiara. Gring down at her now bleeding finger, she put it back, and did her best to not let the thrill of donning a crown make her heart race.

  The angel ughed. “That armor isn’t functional at all.”

  “That’s what I was thinking! I can’t fight in this. I…” She blinked down at her staff again, and held out in front of her with two arms. It was five feet tall, same as her. “This isn’t even a battle staff! It’s a wizard’s staff!”

  “A wizard’s staff?”

  “Don’t lie to me, Galon. You know what a wizard is.”

  He ughed again. “I do, but I still want you to expin it, because I am just as much in the dark about this as you are, if not more.”

  “I…” With a flourish, she smmed the bottom of the staff against the ground. It went clink in a very satisfying manner, impact pulsing up the weapon, and she smiled. “I can cast magic, I guess?” She waved the staff around a few times, enjoying how light it was, and she drilled it into the ground again. “You shall not pass!”

  “What?”

  “Never mind. Why would the batm rune give me a wizard’s staff? Or armor that isn’t exactly combat ideal?” She rotated her shoulders a few times. Not combat effective, but at least all the spikes on it wouldn’t stab her if she twisted oddly, the crown aside. It even let her sit down and get back up, the armor skirt spikes lifting to fit the movement. “Look at this.” She traced some of the red gems on the bck armor, each found in a convenient location for maximum beauty, the biggest one right on her sternum. “I look like an evil wizard, too. Like, an evil wizard ready to ride a dark horse into battle. I… don’t know how to feel about this.”

  “Your potram rune made you look like an evil seductress, too.”

  “I am not evil!”

  The angel put up his hands, and his bow poofed out of existence.

  “Don’t hurt me!”

  She gred at him, marched up to him — clink clink went her boots on the ground — and she poked him in the chest armor with her staff’s ruby. They waited. Nothing happened.

  “I’m not a wizard,” she said.

  “You can craft auras.”

  “So can you!”

  “Not like you do. You can also use the angel runes.”

  “So can you…”

  “Not like you do.”

  “Ugh.”

  “You can read the ancient nguage, and apparently know many of the runes used by the archangels.”

  “But I can’t use any of them!”

  Galon chuckled warmly and patted her with his wing.

  “The three angel runes are gifts from God. They allow the rapholem, mikalim, and gabriem to engage innate aspects of themselves quickly. They shape themselves to who we are, which is why it’s different for the three types of angels.” He gestured to her with the same wing. “The rune is shaping itself to who you are.”

  “Which is an evil wizard that can’t use magic?”

  “Well, let’s consider what we know. While the archangels had powers beyond understanding, us angels and demons are quite limited. Angels can create auras of peace, and auras of contentment.”

  “Not exactly useful in a battle.”

  “True. Demons can emit auras of hunger. The opposite of contentment.”

  “That’s… Oh, that makes sense. A hunger for sex and a hunger for destruction?”

  “In a sense. I’d say the auras are a little harder to describe than simply sexual and destructive, but close enough.” He nodded, pacing again. “Angels can use grace to empower abilities humans might consider magical. Mikalim can unleash deadly rays of holy destruction. Rapholem can emit colossal, holy barriers. You’ve seen both in action.”

  She shivered. “Yeah.”

  “And we gabriem can heal wounds.”

  “Wait, what? Really? That’s amazing. Can you… cure the common cold?”

  He ughed. “There’s no such thing as bacteria, viruses, or fungi in the afterlife.”

  “Semantics!” But, true. His healing powers were probably specifically of the ‘close an open bleeding wound’ kind.

  “The most truly powerful demons can create hellfire, though that seems to be… different, than angel abilities. Reted, but simir. We don’t know exactly how it works, except that while an angel turns grace into essence to fuel their abilities, a demon creates a strange… reaction in themselves to unleash hellfire. It is chaotic, unpredictable, and, as you can imagine, quite destructive.”

  “I don’t have to imagine. Vin didn’t just use hellfire trying to kill that angel, uh, Azreal. He used it when the rider came at me. He incinerated a giant room.”

  Galon winced. “Vinicius is a dangerous demon, for a host of reasons. Be careful with him.”

  Mia clutched her neckce. “You think he’ll betray me?”

  “Honestly? No. I think Vinicius’s desires are pretty much in line with yours, at least your greater ones. You want to save the world. He wants to rule Hell, and he can’t do that if it’s destroyed.”

  “Enemy of my enemy, I guess.” Sighing, she tossed her staff from hand to hand in front of her, keeping its bottom close to the ground. “What other powers are there?”

  “For us angels and demons, that’s it. But for the archangels, the stories speak of ripping apart entire mountains, summoning oceans of va, tornadoes of hellfire, holy rays that scorched the nd, and…” He shrugged. “Powers on an apocalyptic scale. Armageddon.”

  She gulped. He gulped, too.

  “You think I can do that stuff?”

  “I hope not!” The nervousness in his eyes disappeared, and he ughed. It was such a great ugh, and she was sure he molded it that way on purpose. An expert at his craft. “But you can read the ancient nguage, know the ancient runes, and can craft auras that behave more like auras of the world. I’m guessing you can do more than you realize.”

  Mia stared at the staff in her hand, and the amber glowing inside the ruby.

  “A state of mind,” she said. “Like, how you think about yourself and stuff, does that affect the batm rune?”

  “It can make it more difficult to summon, as we saw with you. But that’s all. What it summons is always the same.”

  If batm was a rune designed to give angels a quick way to create armor and weapons that fit who and what they were, but not what their state of mind was, then the batm rune knew the angel better than the angel knew themselves. Then it definitely knew Mia better than herself, or at least what she was, and how she’d fight. Magical powers?

  She pointed the staff at the wall and poured her will into it. A fireball. She wanted to summon a fireball.

  She thrust it forward toward the stone, and winced, waiting for an explosion.

  Nothing happened.

  “I don’t think this is going to work,” she said.

  “I’d like to say that it will if you practice, but no one has the slightest idea what’s going to happen. Heaven doesn’t even know the unmarked can use the angel runes, and as far as I know, they only know about your ability to craft auras.”

  “Maybe you should tell them?” She tapped her fingernails — oh wow she had bck fingernails — against the giant ruby. “If there are unmarked out there, doing bad things, I wouldn’t want angels running into them, not knowing what they were dealing with.”

  Galon looked at her, and paused as he searched for the words to say.

  “Telling them… wouldn’t be very tactical,” he said. “Your goal is important, more important than angel lives.”

  “Fuck, don’t say that. Aren’t angels the good guys?”

  “Angels exist to protect and heal the souls of Heaven. They are not always so gentle with how they do that. The angels of Azoryev can be quite fanatical and visceral in how they deal with demons and damned souls.”

  “Double fuck. I—” Exhaustion hit her, and she teetered a few times before catching her weight with her staff. But the staff betrayed her, vanished from existence, and she squeaked as she fell to her palms and knees. No clink. The armor was gone, too, a tiny fsh of red light announcing its departure.

  Groaning, she looked at herself. Potram was on, something her subconscious seemed to handle for her now, as easy and automatic as breathing. But the staff and armor were gone, and when she went looking for batm in her mind. The rune sat there, waiting to be lifted, but just considering it hit her with exhaustion. She needed rest, and food.

  “Damn,” she said, and she whined as she crawled over to her egg and sat beside it. “I lost it.”

  “You’ll be able to wield it again much more easily, I’m sure, just like potram.” He squatted down beside her, wings out, and he fpped them, creating a cooling breeze for her. “Feeling hungry?”

  “I am. Definitely. Putting that rune on drained the shit outta me.” She pulled her knees up to her chest and hugged them snug. “But… I don’t like eating.”

  “Why?”

  “Yosepha didn’t tell you?”

  “We only spoke for a few moments.”

  “I… see the memories of the people I’m eating. The bad stuff they did. If it’s violent or mean, or… meant to harm someone, I suppose, I see it.” She tapped her temple again. “It gets logged in here.”

  His eyes widened. “That’s a very unusual trait.”

  “I know! And they’re permanent memories, too. Thankfully, they don’t really pop up in my thoughts unless I go digging for them, but they’re there. It’s so weird.”

  “Very.” He stroked his chin and paced around. “I’ll have to think about it. In the meantime, keep working on batm, and keep—”

  “Avoiding having an existential crisis?”

  “Too te for that.”

  She groaned. “True.”

  “Keep exploring your abilities. The sooner we can determine your nature, the sooner we can figure out what to do.”

  “Who’s we, exactly? The Damall? Or Heaven and the council?”

  Frowning, he looked up at the rock ceiling, and his wings drooped.

  “I don’t know yet.”

  Oof.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  ~~David~~

  That was a disturbing dream. Nothing quite like looking into your own eyes and seeing the grim, disturbing face of a young boy about to commit murder to really give you some PTSD. Just another stone on that pile.

  Their group sat in an alcove some ways away from the temple, but not too far. They had no way to make a stretcher, and while Acelina had an easy time carrying the riiva, Daoka was too injured to risk so much as a bounce. Finding an alcove for her to rest had been agony, each step tense and horrible, and the Las didn’t know the area well. But Caera remembered a few things about it, and found them an alcove they didn’t have to climb or jump to get to.

  Come the waning twilight, everyone got around Dao.

  “Still breathing,” Jeskura said, and she sighed relief. Every muscle in her body rexed, and her tail wagged slowly as she y beside her lover.

  Dao smiled up at them, weakly clicked twice, and Jes motioned David in closer. He leaned in, and the satyr chirped once before she reached up, ran a cw down the side of his face, and gave him a kiss on the chin. Satisfied, she turned her face to nuzzle into Jes’s side.

  “She’ll live,” Caera said. The Las cheered with some high-pitched squeals and chirps.

  “You’re sure?” David asked.

  “Yes. We’ll have to be careful, but it’s always the first night that matters for life or death.” She leaned in and gave the satyr’s shoulder a nuzzle, and Dao chirped back. “Thank you.”

  Jeskura frowned at Caera, but it faded quickly. Still angry at Caera, but Dao definitely wasn’t, and all in all, their mission had been a success for more reasons than they’d even originally pnned.

  The sensation of a skull breaking under a rock ran through David’s skin. The image of seeing it from the other end cut across his eyes. Sure, the pn had gone well for the demons, but for David, not so much.

  Put in a box. Deal with it ter.

  “I had a dream,” he said. “I saw Greg die, same as the other dream with the other unmarked.”

  “Makes sense,” Caera said, “if you’re seeing an unmarked’s st moments.”

  “Sense?” Acelina said. “Any dream in Hell does not make sense. Dreaming is for the surface.”

  Everyone shrugged. At this point, they accepted that anything and everything involving David’s quirks were a mystery they wouldn’t be solving soon.

  “What now?” Lasca asked, and she climbed over Caera’s tail to get to David; it was a small alcove.

  “Ask Caera, not me.”

  The tiger shook her head as she chuckled.

  “You’re the one who killed an unmarked and two angels, David. That’s how demons pick who’s the leader, usually, the one with the biggest trophies.”

  “That… makes no sense. I only got Greg because everything was chaos. And the angels…” Christ, he’d killed two angels. “I don’t know how I did that. But that shouldn’t matter anyway, not when you’re the one with the most experience, Caera.”

  Acelina snorted, but nodded when everyone looked her way.

  “The boy is endlessly irritating, but he has a head on his shoulders. Zendariel would have agreed with his assessment.”

  Right on cue, Jes snapped her head up and gred at the spire mother, but one weak click from Dao was enough to settle her.

  “I hated that bitch,” Jes said, “but Acelina’s right. Zel was smart, and she would have known to ignore the whole trophy obsession. Caera knows more about the other provinces than we do.”

  “I have been around a lot of Hell,” Caera said. “All the way to Angel’s spine, and I’ve been to the Grave Valley. Each province handles differently. Here in Death’s Grip, it’s always been just… groups of demons doing their own thing. Tribes. They fight each other, but if they piss off a bailiff, the bailiff brings them in line. Three bailiffs keep the province strong and ready to fight off invaders.” Sighing, she brought a hand up to her face, touched her ruined eye, and hissed. “The Grave Valley is more like… a structured version of Death’s Grip. The groups there are more organized. They have names, and they fight each other regurly.”

  “That’s not bad for keeping their numbers up?” David asked.

  “Azailia and Zel are… were cooperative,” Acelina said. “They had a truce. They would never attack each other’s borders.”

  “I thought the Grave Valley bordered on another province, the Scar. Azailia’s not worried about them?”

  “Nah,” Caera said. “The Scar is mostly concerned with its own shit, and the other provinces leave them alone because they like the silk they make.”

  “Everyone loves fashion,” Acelina said, chuckling.

  There was no way the Scar maintained peace with its neighbors purely on exporting fashion, and Caera and Acelina knew it, too. The Scar had a secret, but apparently not one they felt like telling David. Not important, then? He could find out ter.

  “Alright, pn time,” David said, and he rubbed his hands together before sitting back against the alcove wall. Pns were fun. Executing them wasn’t, but he loved making them. “We’re done here, but if my gambit with that angel doesn’t pay off, we can’t stay here for long. Any idea how long it’ll take the angel to get reinforcements?”

  “It takes a few days of flying to reach the vortex from here,” Caera said. “I mean, so I’ve read. There’re a few old stories about battles with angels. I pieced it together, so I could be wrong. But I think a few days is a safe guess. Double that for the return trip.”

  “Then I guess we’re lucky we started on the wrong side of Hell, if False Gate is our goal. Are we even sure we need to get to False Gate to cross the inner sea?”

  Caera nodded as she prowled over to him, and y down perpendicur to him, side to the wall, and huge head on his p. She hid her bad eye in toward him, but made sure she didn’t put any weight on it.

  “Far as what I’ve read,” she said, “Lucifer and the Old Ones went back and forth between False Gate and the Forgotten Pce a lot.”

  “He, er, they didn’t just, teleport everyone? That something archangels can do?”

  “No idea,” Caera said. “I hope not, or we’re fucked.”

  The amount of uncertainties in their journey was triggering, and he ground his teeth until his jaw clicked.

  “Then I guess we wait until we can move Dao more easily, and then we get going to… the Grave Valley?”

  “Indeed,” Acelina said, “if we can get past Domice and the Geeraz Tombs.”

  “We’re already mostly around it,” Caera said. “We’re a week out from the Grave Valley border, and Domice will be concerned with trying to get across the canyon to the spire, especially if she’s learned Zel is dead. No need to worry about her.”

  The spire mother nodded, growling quietly as she aimed her eyeless gaze down. David did his best to not look at Jeskura. He still hadn’t told Caera or Dao that Mia was the one who killed Zel, not the rider, and far as he knew, Jes hadn’t told them yet, either. And now with the Las around all the time, telling them without Acelina finding out would be nearly impossible. Honestly, the less that knew, the better, so Acelina would never accidentally find out. A white lie that made sure everyone got along.

  Another stone on the pile of things burying him alive in. Fucking lovely.

  Daoka clicked a few times, gesturing to the group.

  “A couple days,” Jes said. “Let’s just hang out here for a couple days. We’re all running on full stomachs, so let’s just lie around and do nothing for a bit, okay?” There was a hint of desperation in her face, and she sighed as she kissed her lover’s cheek.

  “A couple days,” Caera said, copying her sigh. “That’s a couple days we lose to—”

  “A couple days is worth the risk.” Acelina patted the ground a couple times with her tail, and patted Dao’s thighs a couple times, too. “Alright?”

  David, Jes, and Caera all traded quick gnces. That was oddly affectionate behavior from the spire mother. Then again, it wasn’t the first time Acelina had been nice to Dao, like genuinely perfectly normal nice, not limited to sharing jewelry, either. Maybe she just liked Dao? Who wouldn’t love Dao?

  “Alright,” Caera said.

  “Alright!” the Las said, and they waved their swords in the air. “We protect! Scouting!”

  “Uh, maybe wait on that,” Caera said. “We’re going stealth mode. The fewer demons that know we’re here, the better.”

  “No talk to other imps and grems?” Laria asked.

  “No,” Jes said, “not yet. They might talk about us if angels find them.”

  The four little dies all whined, but they dropped their swords, took off their armor, flopped on each other in a big dogpile, and whined some more.

  No matter how horrible their circumstances, the Las were just too damn funny, and everyone chuckled. David walked over to them, sat with them, and tugged on their feet; a couple had hooves, a couple had raptor feet, and figuring out who was who was fun. They instantly erupted into giggles, and jumped him. Pn backfired, he y on his back, and struggled to breathe against the weight of two impas and two grems on his chest.

  Daoka chirped and gestured his way.

  “Uh, how about no,” Jes said.

  “What’d she say?” he asked.

  “She said she wants to watch, ‘cause she’s too injured to join in.”

  “Watch what? W—oh.”

  Rolling her eyes, Jes shook her head and rubbed her horns into Dao’s.

  “You have a hole in your stomach, Dao.”

  Dao clicked a couple times, smiling as she kissed her lover on the nose. Which, of course, earned some groans from Jes, but she relented, and snuggled into her side.

  “I uh, think I’ll pass on sex for now,” David said. “At least until Dao is healed up more.”

  The Las resumed whining.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  ~~Day 43~~

  ~~Mia~~

  “Yulia, I—oh!” Mia stopped dead in her tracks in the alcove entrance, spun around, and covered her eyes.

  The sounds of flesh, lips, saliva, and a quiet chirp from a bat demon pulling a huge penis out of her mouth, almost made Mia turn around to watch. She did not.

  “Mia!” Judging from the sound, Yulia got up from her hands and knees, and ran over to Mia. Without even hesitating, she hugged Mia from behind, and gently turned her to face the naked angel.

  Galon, nude save for his sandals, sat on the ground with legs out in front of him, spread and casual. His massive wings were spread wide, and they gently held a tiger dy by one leg, and a gargoyle dy by the other. Both were lying beside him, facing out, and both were leaning in so they could kiss his abs, his penis, and each other.

  Yulia had been on her knees between his legs, deepthroating him, until Mia interrupted. Now she was giggling, holding Mia in a hug, and making sure Mia couldn’t turn and face away from the naked angel, or the two demons now kissing his soaked dick. Unlike a demon penis, his cock, as big as an incubus’s, was hard enough to stand upright and straight. He really was just like a big, unusually well endowed, ridiculously handsome human man.

  “Mia,” he said, perfect smile unrelenting. “I heard you coming.”

  “And you didn’t warn me?”

  “Nah. I figured, after our conversation, it might serve as a demonstration.”

  “And you told Yulia?”

  “Told me what?” the bat dy asked. “Galon didn’t say anything.”

  “Oh.” Of course he didn’t say anything about his advice to Mia. Galon would respect privacy, and of course Yulia wouldn’t need an excuse to jump up and hug Mia, not while the bat demon was hot, bothered, and eager to show off her apparent boy toy.

  Boy toy was the right word, too. It was fucking unfair how hot the damn angel was, and he smiled up at Mia as he set his hands on both demons still with him, and ran his fingers through their dreadlocks. Both dies purred, grabbed his cock, intertwined their fingers, and buried his ripe gns with their tongues. Demon tongues were long. More than a few times their tongues caressed each other’s, extreme French kissing, and they both purred as they leaned in, kissed each other again, and then got back to work on the angel.

  “Join us?” Yulia said, finally letting go and getting back on her knees between Galon’s.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Galon said, and he snuck Mia a wink.

  The gargoyle lifted her head. “Why not? Julisa says the unmarked can fit some rge things inside her, pretty easily.”

  “H-Hey!” Mia gred and folded her arms across her chest, a convenient way to hide her nipples. They weren’t hard yet, but she wasn’t an idiot.

  “And she cums easily,” the tiger said, nodding, “for a human. Maybe not so human?”

  “I—” She shut up. There was no point in arguing, especially when her sex drive and sensitivity had always been this high. The insane sexual stamina was new, but sensitivity? She’d always been like kindling in a fire.

  “Because,” Galon said, “Mia and I are working together. It’d make for a strange retionship.”

  “And we’re not?” the tiger asked.

  “Not quite the same thing.” He smiled down at her and scratched her scalp underneath the thick demon hair strands, making the muscur, huge creature moan and quiver.

  For all Galon’s confidence, though, his smooth expression faltered when Yulia opened her mouth wide, super wide, and eased the man’s massive cock in between her lips. Mia stared. She tried to look away, but her eyes were locked, and she stepped to the side so she could get a profile view of Yulia’s face as the skinny creature slipped more and more of Galon’s length into her. Her throat bulged, a distension showing the girth of the angel’s cock as it reached deeper into her. And deeper, eventually disappearing below the girl’s cvicle.

  Holy shit, that was weird. And… hot.

  Galon let the tiger go and slid his fingers into Yulia’s dreadlocks instead. She didn’t have a tail, but her butt wriggled slightly, and a quick peek showed how absolutely drenched her pussy’s lips were. Unfortunately for the bat girl, she didn’t have hands, and her two-cw wing joints were out and around Galon’s legs so she could support herself. Judging from how wet she was, she liked not being allowed to touch herself yet.

  “So you just… sit down… and fuck?” Mia asked.

  Galon nodded, warm smile perfect, fingers undeterred and still combing through Yulia’s hair.

  Mia squirmed. “And you don’t… I don’t know… You feel comfortable doing this?” It took serious effort to not watch the way Galon’s abs crunched as Yulia did things to him.

  “It’s not all that different from how it is in Heaven. And it’s most enjoyable.” He scooped the gargoyle up, set her on one of his legs facing him, and he slipped his hand between her legs. The woman melted, hugged his arm, leaned into him, and ground her ass down against him. Her legs blocked the line of sight, but no doubt Galon had his fingers inside her, and quickly reduced the gargoyle from her dangerous, animal groans, to soft, feminine mewls.

  “I… still don’t know,” Mia said. “I mean, I know I’m just being a prude.” Which was the most hirious thing in the universe. “But…” No more words came. She didn’t want to talk about how girls could be more emotional about sex; modern society had put more than a few dents in that idea. But it was still hard to imagine herself just sleeping around randomly.

  Except, that was just her still thinking about sex like she was on the surface. Heaven and Hell had different rules. Romance would be unbelievably difficult to come by. And, no one down here or up there got pregnant, or had to worry about disease, and physical limitations weren’t nearly as problematic. The guys could multi orgasm, same as the girls, and from the things Mia had seen, girls could fit quite a bit into their bodies, even more than teeny tiny Mia fitting Kas and Adron at the same time.

  The afterlife was a veritable feast of sex. If not for all the death and torture and stuff, Hell would be awesome.

  “You’re being ridiculous,” the tregeera said. “Come here, get out of those clothes, and spread your legs.” She gestured beside her near Galon’s leg, and stuck out her tongue. Her long, long, long tongue.

  “I d-don’t think so!”

  She rolled her eyes, slipped her cws into Yulia’s hair, and lifted the girl up. The bat girl took some deep, needed breaths, and she giggled as she looked back at Mia, some drool on her lips.

  “Galon is right! Trust the angel. Have sex. All the time. As much as you can.”

  Mia frowned at her friend. Before she could make some quip about them all being a bunch of sluts, especially the angel, the tregeera pushed Galon onto his back, outright tossing the gargoyle off his leg. Some growls were shared between the demons, some snarls, too, but Yulia and the gargoyle went silent as the tiger dy sat on Galon’s cock. With no hesitation or teasing, she took him to the base and buried every inch of him inside her.

  He was thick and long enough for a small bulge to push out against her abs, but the tiger dy was even bigger than the angel, and a little belly distension from a thick angel dick didn’t bother her at all. She grinned down at the angel, leaned in, squashed her breasts against his chest, and ground on him as she pinned him.

  Now that Mia thought about it, it was a wonder there weren’t more women in here throwing themselves at Galon. Demons got to fuck each other and human souls all the time. How often did they get to fuck an angel? She’d heard demons say that demons were attracted to humans above all else, but the idea just didn’t compute. Angels were inhumanly gorgeous.

  “I do believe,” Galon said, fluttering his grounded wings a couple times, “that as much as it’d be good for Mia to embrace her sexual side, it’s probably best she explore such options with someone else.” He winked at her. He was a nice guy, but also a smart guy. If he was going to be someone Mia came to for help and advice, like Yosepha was, it was probably best sex didn’t become a factor between them. Yet. Which probably meant they could have lots of sex ter, once their problems were behind them. If she wanted.

  “I wanted to ask,” Mia said, doing her best to ignore the tiger riding him, “about Azreal, Shir, and Noah. What happened when you got back to Heaven?”

  Galon raised a brow. Thankfully, the tregeera wasn’t so mean to try and grab the angel’s attention away from Mia; not so nice she’d stop fucking him, though, and she sat up so she could grind on him, instead.

  “Azreal, Shir, and Noah all lived. And with some time, Shir will regrow her wings, or choose rebirth for a new body, and new wings.”

  It was Mia’s turn to raise a brow.

  “Angels can do that?”

  “They can. But we can talk about it ter.”

  “Oh, right. Yeah, um, I’ll talk to you when you’re done.”

  Yulia giggled, climbed onto Galon’s stomach, straddled him, faced the muscur tiger dy, and wrapped her arm wings around her. She buried her face in one of the tiger dy’s breasts, and suckled. And the gargoyle joined in, too, climbing onto Galon’s chest, facing him, and wiggling her hips forward until she found an angle to lower her dripping slit onto his face.

  She grinned at Mia, and licked her fangs.

  “Go ahead,” the gargoyle said, while literally rubbing her wet lips on the angel’s mouth. “Talk.”

  Mia frowned at her. Galon smiled up at the gargoyle — with his eyes — before looking Mia’s way again. No words needed. The girls weren’t going to let him talk.

  “I… We can talk ter.” Mia offered the gargoyle one st gre, and left before the demon could retort. The following moans echoing through the tunnels were retort enough.

  That was growth for Mia, sort of, keeping her aura suppressed after seeing that. Galon was ridiculously attractive, ridiculously confident and nice — a pleasant change of pace compared to confident and mean demons — and ridiculously… surreal. It was like someone had cut him out of an erotic romance book cover and dropped him square in front of her, complete with sexual context and connotations. And he was saying they shouldn’t have sex, which of course just made him sexier.

  As for his sex advice, he practiced what he preached, that was for sure. If Yosepha was here, she would probably be having sex with Romakus right now. And David definitely was. Her damn brother was probably using his aura to get all sorts of demon ass.

  Maybe… Maybe Mia should listen to the gabriem? It was one thing for a bunch of demons to tell her she should get id as much as possible. It was another thing entirely for an angel, whose sole purpose was to help human souls in Heaven, to tell her something simir. Not exactly the same message, but simir. And it wasn’t like she had to worry about not being able to find someone for sex. She was attractive, in that tiny little redheaded girl kinda way, with a deceptively rge, toned ass. Much as having huge tits would have been nice, she worked hard to get her body where it was, and she liked it. Other people liked it. The demons liked it.

  Vin liked it.

  She set a hand against the cave tunnel wall and stopped. It’d be easy to go to Vin and just tell him to fuck her. He would, no aura needed. He certainly knew how to please, too, considering what he’d done to her already with that tongue. The memory of the hot, long, wet appendage opening her and stretching her in all directions sent tingles down her legs, and she curled her toes inside her sandals.

  But Vin didn’t just want to tongue her. He wanted to fuck her, and just one of his cocks was big enough she wasn’t sure she’d survive the encounter. On top of that, she had him on a leash, literally, and it was paramount she remember that, because she had to use him as a tool to keep her alive. Then again, he wanted to help her, and even right now, he was sitting in their alcove, healing, and guarding her new egg. She trusted him that much.

  Okay, enough thinking about sex. Next problem. Once Yosepha was back, she and the Damall, or at least some of the Damall, were probably going to head for the Bck Valley. If she wanted to drag the egg around, she needed a sling, and Faust said he had something. To Faust, then.

  There was no surprise this time. The moans, growls, and grunts of demons filled the tunnel, and Mia braced for a sex-filled visual as she poked her head around the curving rock.

  Faust, Gallius, Oudoceus, and Locutus were all there, naked and glorious. They were almost as big as Galon, tall and fit and strong, and naked, with muscles on dispy, and some scars, too. But, much as they should have been the center of Mia’s attention, it was Livian in the middle of the room who grabbed Mia’s gaze, all cocks pointed at her.

  A bolstara tetrad like Zel, Livian had hooves and four arms, no tail, four big horns, and short dreadlocks. Small breasts, too, that fit her tiny waist and hard stomach perfectly. She y on her side, one leg up so its weight could rest on a hoof, and she had her head propped up on an elbow and palm. If she’d had a book in her hand, it would have been a sexy reading position.

  A brute, not Yulia’s buddy but someone else, knelt behind her ass, an eight-foot tall juggernaut of pure muscle who looked small compared to Livian. He wasn’t as big as Diogo, but all brutes were huge, thick, and built like tanks. He thrust forward, and a bulge pushed out along the tetrad’s stomach, long enough to push past her navel. Despite the size difference, demon cocks were huge.

  She didn’t stay in that position for long, though. Noticing Mia, she smiled at her, waved at her with a cw wag, and got to her knees. The brute knew what to do, and got underneath her without a word, so the tetrad could easily grab his dick and sit on it, taking over a foot of thick cock into her. Sighing with satisfaction, she wiggled her hips left and right as she lowered herself down, got comfortable, and gestured to Mia.

  “Yes, unmarked?” Another one who thought sex was a fine time to talk. Yay.

  “I uh… wanted to talk to Faust.”

  Faust, along with two other incubi, was masturbating, slow and casual, all standing around the tetrad. Locutus winked at Mia, stepped in behind Livian, and out of Mia’s line of sight, thrust into the tetrad.

  The bulge on her belly grew, and the woman sighed with pleasure as she pnted her two lower hands on the brute’s chest, and her two upper hands teased her hard nipples and once-ft stomach.

  “What about?” Faust asked.

  “W-What?”

  He raised a brow, stood beside Livian, still casually masturbating, and gestured to Mia with his free hand.

  “You said you wanted to talk to me?”

  “I did, I—”

  Livian let go of her breasts, gestured to Oudoceus, and the incubus joined her other side, opposite of Faust. Julisa would have given Mia some snarky gnces, but Livian only smiled at her before she wrapped one set of fingers around Oudoceus’s huge cock, the other around Faust’s, and casually stroked them, leaving them with free hands. Both set a hand on her shoulders, and their free hand took to massaging her breasts for her.

  Gallius stepped behind her, and somehow managed to share space with Locutus in a way that let them both get inside her. She didn’t have a tail, unlike Julisa, giving one man enough space to pnt his stomach and chest against her back, while the other got inside her from underneath. It was all hidden behind her, and Mia fought the urge to step around and get a better view of what it looked like, a third cock entering the demoness, especially when a quick gnce down at the woman’s belly showed how the three fought for space inside her.

  Mia poured every bit of mental strength she had left into suppressing the fingers inside her, desperate to py the strings. It’d be so easy to py them, to let her fingers do what they wanted to do, and fill the cavern and nearby tunnels with a sexual aura so thick, their casual sex would change into an orgy frenzy, with everyone involved desperate to get off as many times as possible. If she did, Faust and Oudoceus would come to her and take her, and even if she squirmed and made tiny, weak, mewling, begging pleas, they’d take her, and fuck her together, and she’d cum and cum and—

  “I can feel that,” Livian said. “Would you like to join us?”

  She squeezed her eyes shut. Mental reset. She found the fingers inside her and fttened them against the strings. No music. Control!

  “No. I wanted to ask Faust about the sling.”

  “Right, the sling.” He moved toward Mia. But, got a whole three inches before Livian gave his penis a tug, and he winced as she brought him close, using his dick as a leash.

  “You can go after you cum.” She nodded, licked her fangs, winked at Mia, and stroked Faust faster.

  “I’ll… come back in a bit, then,” Mia said.

  “Nonsense. How long do you think it takes an incubus to cum? Mere moments.” Grinning, she stroked faster yet, and Faust’s hand joined hers.

  And because she was stupid, Mia watched. Their fingers intertwined, and Faust leaned in close, close enough Livian guided his cock to her breasts and half moaned, half purred as they both rubbed his cock along her swollen nipple.

  She was right. It wasn’t long before Faust groaned in that deep, restrained, delicious kinda way, and a gush of cum spttered against the much bigger demon’s breasts, and more followed. It poured down her chest, down her hard stomach, down the bulge pushing out against and above her navel, and down onto her spread thighs. The devorjin brute beneath her didn’t mind at all.

  “There,” Livian said, let go, and licked a cw as she smiled at Mia again. “Do return quickly, Faustinus.”

  “Will do.” He stepped away from the orgy, and walked with Mia. Naked. With semi-hard cock hanging between his legs. It’d disappear into his body when he stopped being aroused, but he’d keep it out until he was back with Livian, and got to cum on her, and in her, a half dozen more times.

  His alcove wasn’t far, and Mia sighed with relief when they entered it. He and the other incubi slept in it at night, and their chunks of meera armor and weapons sat about in four distinct piles. No trophies, because the Damall never stayed in one pce long enough to bother with them, or because the incubi didn’t care for them. Hopefully, the tter; the Damall seemed to be the ‘nice guys’ of Hell, after all.

  “Here.” He pulled a long sling out of his pile and handed it to her.

  “Ooh!” She plucked it, hooked it around her shoulder, and chuckled as she admired how the thick leather sling had a fat, cute pouch at the base. It’d taken work to get the leather, meant to hold a chunk of meera metal to a limb, into this shape. Faust had been busy.

  “Will it work?” he asked.

  “I think so, yeah.” She punched the pouch a few times. “I mean, it doesn’t really have a deep dip, but it should be good enough. Thank you!”

  “No problem.” He winked at her, but at least he kept his hand off his dick. In Hell, that was quality manners. “You sure you don’t want to join us? Livian would enjoy your company.”

  “I uh… I think I’ll pass. For now?”

  “For now?”

  “Well, I mean, Galon tells me I should be… looser, essentially. You know, the whole ‘enjoy what pleasures you can when you can’ sorta life advice.”

  “And you disagree?”

  “No, but…” She shrugged, and kept her eyes on the sling hanging against her stomach. A much less sexy sight than naked Faust and his rge, hanging penis. “I’m just not comfortable with the idea yet.”

  He nodded, and the two of them stepped back out into the tunnel.

  “Well, I think you should trust the gabriem, but it’s not like you can trust my words.”

  “Definitely not.”

  Laughing, he walked backward, away from her, back down the tunnel toward Livian and his buddies.

  “Up to you. No pressure. But considering that aura of yours, it might be a good idea to get used to sex, no? Might help you control it more easily, if you got more comfortable with it.”

  She rolled her eyes and waved him off, earning some more ughter from him as he disappeared around the tunnel corner. He wasn’t entirely wrong, but not exactly right, either. Marathon masturbation sessions on the surface had long taught Mia she wasn’t the sort of girl to find an orgasm took the edge off her desires. It just carved it deeper into her mind, and sometimes she had to abstain from masturbating to stop herself from doing it three hours a night, every night.

  Sighing, she looked after the path Faust disappeared through. It’d be so easy to follow him and get what Livian was getting, and with Faust and the others, she trusted them to not hurt her, and she could really give in, and just cum, and cum, and cum.

  Mia, you really are an idiot. It’s Hell. Everyone’s dead, dying, a demon, or a remnant. Stop holding onto your ridiculous ideas from the surface, like pnning for the future, saving up an RSP, and looking for romance. Every day is life or death, literally, and you’re worried about… what? Preconceived notions about what a healthy approach to sex was?

  Thus, it was decided. Go, enjoy sex. A lot. Just, not right now. Later.

  A big surprise waited for her in Romakus’s alcove, or rather, a ck of one, which was the surprise. No sex. No Yosepha, either, since the woman was still on a return trip to Heaven, but that didn’t mean Romakus wouldn’t fuck someone else in the meantime. Did it?

  The winged demon sat beside Julisa, and while the four-armed woman analyzed some meera knives — swords, for someone Mia’s size — with exploring cws, Romakus did the same for his giant sword.

  “Mia,” he said, “expecting a baby?”

  “I—oh.” She ughed as she looked down at her leather shoulder sling. “I mean, kinda?”

  Julisa snarled, but didn’t lift her eyes from her weapons.

  “That baby is going to rip your throat out, unmarked,” she said.

  “Maybe. Maybe not. Demons tame goorts, and you said some manage to tame cannams.”

  The demoness sneered, but rolled her eyes and continued her work.

  “What brings you to my alcove?” Romakus asked. “Hungry?”

  “I… I mean, a little. But that’s not why I’m here. I wanted to say Vinicius is mostly healed and looking to leave.”

  “I figured.”

  “And… how’s that going to work?” She came closer, refusing to be intimidated by the ten-foot-tall demons and their giant weapons. Not true, she was very intimidated without Vinicius nearby, but she wasn’t going to let them know that. “I’m not an idiot. I can’t believe you’re going to just let us go. You let me keep this leash because you want to keep me alive, for Vin to keep me alive, and you want to keep me under your thumb, right?” She came closer again, until she was beside Romakus’s giant sword that he callously held tip-down on the rocky ground. “You want me to succeed, and you want to be a part of it.”

  He listened, evil smile growing more evil by the second, and he twirled the huge sword. How someone had made such a thing, she couldn’t even guess, except by literally throwing a dozen other meera swords into a pile and smashing them together with a hammer.

  “All true,” he said.

  “So… what now? We wait for Yosepha?”

  “We wait for Yosepha. If we have to go before she arrives, then some of us will stick with you, but ideally we wait for the angel and get an update about the situation in Heaven.”

  “Makes sense. And, uh, how’s that going to work? Because as much as I can order Vinicius around, this leash can only stop him from doing something I don’t want him to, not actually make him do anything. Zel was using worse torture than this leash can cause, and she couldn’t break him.”

  Julisa licked her teeth. Something Mia said intrigued her.

  Romakus nodded. “Indeed. We’ll figure something out.”

  “Figure something out? No backup pn prepared?”

  He ughed again, leaned in, and brought his face within inches of hers.

  “If push comes to shove, I’ll be joining you, if you’ll have me, oh powerful unmarked one, master of the st child of the Old Ones, destined chosen one to save us—”

  “I get it!” She waved a fist at him, which of course just made him ugh more. But it was a good kind of ugh, a pyful ugh, and Mia couldn’t help but smile. No wonder Yosepha liked him. “Uh, about Yosepha. I noticed you haven’t… since Yosepha left… you know?”

  He raised a brow, and waited.

  Mia gulped. “You haven’t slept with anyone else.”

  “Wow, aren’t you a nosy little pervert? Were you hoping to fuck me?”

  “No! No, I just… I’m an observant woman, I’ll have you know. I’m smart, observant, and I notice these things.”

  Julisa snickered and gave her partner a knowing grin. Romakus didn’t think she was so funny, though, and swung his wing out at her. This was a dance they’d done before, and she leaned back and dodged the wing with familiar grace.

  “Yosepha and I prefer to only fuck each other, if you must know. Gossip.”

  Mia raised a brow. “Really?”

  “Really.”

  Julisa raised a hand, knife included.

  “More like, Romakus has fucked all of us many times, and has grown bored with us. But fucking the angel? He enjoys fucking her. She resists him every time, and gives in every time. Even when other demons join in against her wishes, she gives in, at least a little. I know Livian has touched the angel on a couple of occasions.” She leaned in toward Mia, and licked her teeth as she looked her and her potram rune clothes up and down a couple of times. “I think Romakus likes her more than he lets on.”

  Mia rolled her eyes, but snuck a quick peek up at Romakus as she did. It made sense for demons to fuck each other, recklessly at that, but for one of them to actually grow so attached to someone else that he decided he didn’t feel like fucking if they weren’t around, was pretty unusual demon behavior. Maybe he did actually like Yosepha? In the same way a sociopath could learn to love someone: as an object they possessed.

  But Mia didn’t know the details. Better to just shut up and reserve judgment.

  “Yosepha is pretty amazing,” Mia said.

  Romakus nodded at Julisa and gestured to Mia like she saved him from an argument he was losing.

  “She is. And she has the best ass in all of Hell.”

  Images of Romakus filling Yosepha’s ass so his cock bulged out from her stomach hit Mia hard, and she grabbed her inner fingers and strings and stopped them as best she could. But the aura had leaked for a second, a second too long, and both tetrads grinned at her.

  “Mia has a rge ass as well,” Julisa said. “Such a tiny creature. Short even for a human. A ft stomach with a tight little waist, and barely any breasts to be had.”

  “Hey…”

  “But every demon who sees her wants to be inside that deliciously rge ass.”

  Romakus nodded. “Agreed. I wonder if I can convince Yos to—”

  “Hey!” Mia stepped back, blushing a bunch, but at this point, that was normal. “Well, thank you for the compliments, but my ass is not for communal use!” No matter what her damn potram rune dressed her in. She adjusted the dangling bits of her red silk, but it was hopeless. The clothes were designed to show off her ass. “I’ll tell Vin we should wait for Yosepha.” She left before they could say anything.

  This pce was corrupting her. A few weeks ago, some big meanies like that, addressing her body shape like she was a sex toy they were window shopping for, would have royally pissed her off. Now, she was trying to suppress her smile. Knowing every demon nearby was attracted to her was like giving a candy addict… candy. Knowing that, if she wanted, she could let her aura out and have every demon, guy and girl, doing anything and everything in their power to get inside her, at the same time, was like dropping a candy addict off in a candy store with an unlimited credit card.

  She rejoined Vinicius, suppressing her aura, and scooped up her egg.

  “It fits,” she said, and she beamed up at her bodyguard as she spun around a few times, careful to keep the egg in the sling but letting the sling do most of the work.

  Vin nodded and returned to sitting and doing absolutely nothing. Boredom was, apparently, not a big concern for demons.

  “Romakus says I was right. Some Damall will probably join us when we leave for the Bck Valley, but he wants to wait for Yosepha first.”

  Vin grunted an affirmative. That was a lot better than the argument she expected.

  “Think the egg will hatch soon?” she asked.

  “No.”

  “Aw.” She stroked the egg a few times, held it close, and hummed some gentle tunes. “Think… I can tame it?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Have you ever seen a tamed cannam?”

  “Yes.”

  She walked up to him and stood between his legs again.

  “Who tamed one?”

  “The rider.”

  She winced and looked down.

  “I was hoping you wouldn’t say that.” Sighing, she slowly turned in pce, petting her egg. “Hey… Vin. You say you didn’t really know the rider. Didn’t talk to him much, just went on killing sprees with him?”

  The titan nodded.

  “I wanted to ask about the rider.” She had a sneaking suspicion demons had a hard time remembering their history, and that maybe memories older than a century or three faded and got blurry. If she didn’t navigate this conversation carefully, he’d cm up and tell her nothing. “You’ve been around a super long time. One of the oldest demons alive.”

  He rumbled, and his dragon eyes flicked to her for a second, but he said nothing.

  “Was the rider… always like he is now?” She shivered and rubbed her arms. “When he attacked us, it was strange. I felt his aura, and it was so weird, you know? It wasn’t like a demon’s, but it didn’t quite feel like mine, either. And yeah, it felt like a violence aura demons make, but not? It was… cold.”

  Vin looked at her and held her gaze. A long silence set on them, and Mia forced herself to keep eye contact, no matter how heavy the silence grew. If he was going to say something important, something like ‘you’re going to become just like the rider’, she had to know.

  “He was not always like that.”

  “No?”

  “No. When we first met, his aura was… not cold. It was heat, and power. It felt something like a demon’s aura. Not the same, but simir.” After another long moment of silence, Vin looked down, eyebrows furrowed as he dug through his memories. “A human who’d gained power from eating angel hearts, supposedly.”

  In some strange turn of events, some weird, mystical, magical moment of sheer lunacy, Vin was willing to answer her questions with more than yes and no, or a grunt. She had to take advantage while she could.

  “Scary.”

  “But something changed at some point, before my failed attack on Death’s Spire. We met again, and he’d changed. The rage had lost its heat, and gained a coldness to it.” He shrugged, as if it was perfectly reasonable. “He was no longer willing to join me on my rampage. We fought.”

  “You fought? He attacked you?”

  He shrugged again. “We attacked each other.”

  Of course they did. She bit down the urge to yell something about men being dumb men. But that wasn’t fair, or accurate. They were both predators, apex predators at that, and upon realizing they couldn’t cooperate, a fight was inevitable.

  “So, way way way back when, the rider was… like you? A big ball of rage and aggression?”

  “Yes.” He almost sounded proud.

  “But then, some hundreds of years ago, you met him again and he’d changed? Just randomly? And now he’s this cold killer who’s… out to get me? And probably the other unmarked?”

  “Yes.”

  She shivered again and stood a little closer to her bodyguard.

  “He was able to tame monsters before the change?”

  “Yes.”

  “You know how?”

  Vin shrugged. “His aura.”

  “Do auras work on hellbeasts?”

  “Not demon auras, not well.” He gestured to her. “Maybe your different aura will work better.”

  “Maybe. But, I mean, I’d prefer to not use an aura. And it’s not like I’m good at crafting auras other than sexy ones. Remember when I tried that control aura on you?”

  Another long pause as Vin met her eyes, and this time she looked away. It was an uncomfortable, weird memory for her, and no doubt a frustrating one for him. If things had gone according to pn, Zel, her tools, and Mia’s aura would have broken Vin’s mind and turned him into a doting sve.

  No wonder Vin didn’t really feel quite like himself tely.

  “Your aura is a tool. A powerful tool. Use it.”

  She sneaked a peek back at him. Sure enough, he was looking straight at her, unfazed.

  “And the rider’s aura and mine, you don’t think they’re the same kind?”

  “Whoever or whatever the rider is, his aura is not like a sin aura, or a grace aura. Those auras are… direct. A sword to the chest.” Of course, he’d use a battle analogy. “Your aura is… like a vibration, a hellquake. It cannot be resisted. It simply is.” The vibration comparison was more accurate than he knew. “The rider’s aura has always been more like a harsh wind, now and before. You can resist it, but to do so is not easy. It surrounds and attacks you from all sides.”

  “Fuck.” She shivered, rubbed her arms some more, and caressed her egg. “That… Yeah, that’s what it felt like when I was near him.”

  “It’s closer to demon or angel than it is to yours. But… not entirely different, either.” Vin nodded more to himself than anything, eyes pointed down as he slipped into thoughts. “Before, it had heat. He wanted violence. He relished in it.” The child of Belial smiled, but it faded. “Now he wants death with the absolute conviction of someone who has died themselves.”

  Died themselves. Mia stepped away and tried to suppress the urge to shiver more. That was enough trembling from her, today. The rider wasn’t around, and even if he showed up again, she had Vinicius to help her.

  “Vin.”

  Vin raised a brow, a subtle motion on his dragony demony face, and waited.

  “I uh, I wanted to…” Fuck, what did she want to say? How did she even want to say it? A lot of humans struggled with receiving a heart-felt ‘thank you’ from someone else, let alone a compliment. She doubted Vin would feel bashful or awkward about it. If anything, he’d be offended, and that was the problem. The fuck did she say to someone like him to thank him?

  Sighing, she set her egg-puppers to the side, and stood between her bodyguard’s legs again. Vin looked at her, eyes stern, dripping with the stoicism of a crocodile. The big guy probably didn’t even realize the tall, dark, brooding atmosphere he was putting out was very appealing to stupid young girls like Mia.

  “I…” Double fuck. Why’d she have to notice that? Now thoughts of what Galon said floated through her mind. It’d certainly be a way to thank Vinicius, and repay him. A blowjob here or there, what would be the harm? Or maybe even sex? Maybe he could fit inside her? Or maybe just… a piece of him? Or maybe—

  She cmped down on the fingers and strings inside her.

  “I wanted to say, that… I don’t know what the future is going to bring, but if there’s anyone I’d trust to rip and tear any demons or angels that get in our way, it’s you.”

  The dragon smiled. Compliment successful? A slow rumble worked through the demon, and his eyes stared into her until a single word from the colossus might make her shatter. Was he angry? Was he happy? Was he going to say something really mean and make her cry? Was he… going to scoop her up and jam his tongue into her again?

  He opened his mouth, but after a pause, said nothing. Instead, he grinned at her, licked his teeth in a very ‘I know what you’re thinking’ kinda way, and went back to being a statue.

  Leaving Mia to squirm in her thoughts of said tongue opening her up again. God damn it.

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  ~~Day 44~~

  ~~David~~

  “Healed?” David asked.

  “Healed!” Lasca beamed up at him, slipped in past his hands, and rubbed her forehead and horns against his chest to prove it. “Shallow cut.”

  “Yeah, it was.” He moved her dreadlocks out of the way to double check the scar. Pinkish, reddish skin, the softest possible for a demon. But it was healed over, and as long as nothing happened to it, it’d eventually turn to an off-shade of dark red like the rest of her forehead.

  “Angel spear hurt.”

  “I can imagine.”

  “Super sharp.”

  “Evidently.”

  “David saved me!”

  “I… did, yeah.” He smiled. “But you saved me too, fighting all those Cainites.”

  “Not like David did, nope nope.” Nodding, she climbed onto his p, hooked her legs around his hips, and fpped her wings a few times as she hugged him. With her cheek against his throat and horns rubbing against his chin, her breasts pressed to his chest, and she made sure they did, too. Lots of wriggling, lots of wiggling.

  The group was going a little stir crazy. Jes never left Dao’s side, but even she was feeling the weight of sitting around for the third day, waiting for the riiva to heal. Of course Dao insisted she was good to go, but Caera knew better, and whenever Dao clicked at her, Caera gave her wrapped stomach a poke. Dao’s hiss of pain was proof.

  One more day, and they’d be off. Dao still wouldn’t be able to move on her own, but Caera would have no trouble carrying her, mount style. A week after that, maybe Dao could move on her own, but until then, they had to be careful with every step they took. Go slow, no chase scenes with deadly angels, nothing like that. It was going to be a crawling walk across the st stretch of Death’s Grip to reach the Grave Valley, but a walk that could wait until tomorrow.

  The imps and grems hated sitting around doing nothing, though. Lasca rubbed against his body, giggled, squirmed some more, and fluttered her wings. Laara and Latia sat with him on either side, while Laria sat with Acelina. They shared a few clicks, and Acelina groaned in that ‘annoyed mother dealing with a child’ kind of way, but at the same time, she didn’t dismiss her. Maybe she kinda liked her?

  The spire mother took off one of her many bck neckces and handed it to her. Laria giggled, spun around a few times, and put it on. Thrice. It had to be triple looped to not dangle so much, and three yers hung between her rge breasts. She was the bustiest of the Las, and shortest, a certifiable shortstack.

  Caera rumbled, plucked Lasca off David’s p, earned some squeals and giggles from her, set her aside, and repced her. The huge tiger y between David’s legs, but way too big to actually fit, so most of her long body stuck out away from him into the center of the cave. But there was enough room for her to y her head, and she did, nestling it along his pelvis. No need to ask. He knew what she wanted.

  He slid his hands into her hair and combed her short dreadlocks. Demon dreadlocks had the same texture as hair, but smooth, bck, and nearly an inch thick, super easy to comb, and reach past to massage the tregeera’s scalp.

  Lasca would not be denied. She snuck in beside the tregeera against his inner thigh, cozied up against her side and chest, and buried her face in Caera’s breasts. None of the girls were aroused at the moment, skin all shades of bck and dark red, breasts firm, but that didn’t mean Lasca wasn’t going to take an opportunity to snuggle Caera’s rge bust.

  Daoka chirped, smiling. She y on her back, the only demon wearing any clothes, the leather straps Jes and Acelina had wrapped her with. Treating a wound in Hell was weird, far less nuanced, and more just about the pure value of the most obvious thing: there’s a hole, keep it closed, keep a full belly, and pray you can recover. The specifics of organs? Blood total? Electrolyte bance? Dehydration? Infection? None of that mattered, or even existed. Life — or the afterlife — in Hell was so very simplified, but that also made it kind of scarier. There were so many things that wouldn’t kill you in Hell that’d kill you on the surface, and that meant your potential for long-term pain was so much higher.

  But hey, at least they didn’t have to worry about cleaning her bandage or anything. The blood faded, staining the leather a bit, but otherwise entirely evaporating.

  David smiled as he looked around at the girls. Beautiful, fun, strong girls. How the fuck did this happen? Even with the weirdness about him, the whole being unmarked thing, meeting these girls was a collection of unusual events and straight up luck that warranted some thought. Divine intervention? Nah. Being unmarked meant weird shit just kept happening to him, and that included how people reacted to him. And from there, what sort of friends he made, or allies.

  Greg met Cainites and became the leader of a fucked up cult; a cult that was still around all across Hell, don’t forget that. If David had run into Cainites first, would he have become some sort of evil leader? No chance. But he might have lied to them about his intentions and pyed the role until something better had come along. Anyone would have.

  Which meant there was a good chance the other unmarked were getting themselves into strange situations, meeting powerful demons, and making interesting allies, too. But none of them would be as awesome as these girls. He was beyond lucky.

  And if they died, he was going to break.

  “You’ve yet to expin yourself,” Acelina said, and she gestured to him with a wing. “How did you summon those bckstone spikes?” Oh no, not this conversation again.

  “I told you, I just… pyed the strings, and Hell listened.”

  “Yes, but that is hardly an expnation.” She held out a hand and started counting on her cws. “You can read the ancient nguage, and apparently know of runes, sisters of the ancient nguage, capable of powerful feats like imbuing weapons with hellfire. You can craft auras, and unlike a demon aura, they are auras of the world, like a spire’s. When we were ambushed days ago, you summoned a gold light and defended yourself, but have no idea what you did. You experience the sinful memories of those you eat.” She thumped her thin tail against the ground. “Am I forgetting something?”

  Caera lifted her head and snarled at the spire mother, but David stroked her shoulder and back, settling her enough to stop her from throwing herself at the zotiva and get into an argument.

  “We’ve all got a bit of cabin fever,” he said, “and—”

  Lasca perked up. “Cabin fever?”

  “We’re stuck in one pce and going crazy.”

  “We are!” Laara said, and she perked up, too, but Caera used her tail to squash the impa back to the ground. Despite Caera being half serious, Laara burst into giggles and wrestled with the huge, heavy appendage.

  David put up a hand in surrender; best to keep the other one still stroking Caera’s back.

  “All I know is, when I saw Daoka get hurt, I…” Sighing, his gaze fell, and he looked to the satyr. “I freaked out.”

  “I was there,” Jes said. “I didn’t hear you scream or anything.”

  He poked his temple. “In here, you know? I freaked out, and… and whatever those strings are I can feel, and whatever these fingers I have inside me, I used them to hit the strings really hard. And then… I don’t know! Suddenly I was… pulled under. Something in me or around me pulled me into the vibrations, and before I knew it, I had access to… new strings, sorta? I could py different strings, and get different results, and…” He threw up both hands. “I don’t know! I don’t know anymore than you do, Acelina.”

  “Clearly you know something.”

  “I don’t know! I don’t know why that invisible monster is after me, either! I don’t—”

  “Invisible monster?” The Las asked as a chorus.

  Acelina let out a slow growl. “Invisible monster?”

  Shit.

  Caera, Dao, and Jes all looked at him, and a pair of eyes rolled in their skulls. Of course, it was him who said the thing, first.

  “An invisible monster attacked us,” Caera said, “weeks ago.”

  Even without eyes, Acelina’s gre was deadly. “Expin.”

  “We don’t know what happened,” Jes said. “Just, some big, invisible creature came at us. For David specifically. But it couldn’t touch him.”

  “It couldn’t really touch anything,” Caera said. “We could only see its footprints. It tried to lift a rock, and the rock broke apart. It sshed at David, but just hit the ground underneath him. Then it vanished. I mean, vanished even more than it already was.”

  “And why didn’t you mention this before?”

  “We weren’t sure we could trust you,” Jes said. “Can you bme us?”

  After a long, heavy snarl, Acelina relented, and rexed back against her side of the alcove.

  “An invisible monster stalks us. Did you ever pn on telling us?”

  “I was gonna leave it up to Caera,” David said.

  Caera raised her good brow as she turned back and looked at him.

  “Uh, I was expecting you to tell her.”

  Acelina groaned and covered her obsidian face with her cws.

  “I am surrounded by morons.”

  Caera growled again, but a few strokes of her back spikes soothed her, and she set her head back on David’s thigh. Which was perfect for Lasca, and she happily buried her face in the tregeera’s huge breasts once again. The Las didn’t give a shit about potential invisible monsters ruining their fun, and Laria continued to experiment with Acelina’s overly long neckce.

  “We don’t know what it was,” David said, “and I’ve been kinda distracted and…” He thumped himself in the head. “Not an excuse. I should have told you. The invisible monster probably has something to do with that thing at the bottom of the canyon under the Death’s Grip spire now. They seemed simir.”

  Acelina shivered. “Then you should have indeed told me sooner. I probably would have left and gone to the Grave Valley on my own.”

  Jes ughed. “You need us. You ain’t reaching Azailia without our help.”

  Silence fell on the room, tension drawing tight and ready to snap, but a few clicks from Daoka, and every demon rexed once again.

  “Whatever’s going on,” David said, “we’ll get some answers at the Forgotten Pce. If whatever made that crack in Death’s Grip is going to do that to all of Hell, and probably worse, then I have to get there. Any help is appreciated, even if it’s only temporary. And you have helped a lot, Acelina. I appreciate that. Thank you.”

  Silence again, and everyone slowly turned to look at the biggest demon in the room.

  “Yes, well, I am zotiva. My value is high.”

  “High!” Giggling, Laria spun around a few times, and her new neckce clinked and bounced around against her chest. Unfortunately for her, a triple loop of any rope quickly turned into a noose if you spun it around, and she fell on her back and wings as she choked and gargled.

  Acelina giggled. She crushed the sound quickly, but they’d all heard it, and she gave everyone a quick, eyeless gre before she scooped the little dy up, and saved her from asphyxiation. Laria cheered, but also took off the neckce and gave it back.

  “Need shorter neckce,” she said, whining as Acelina put her back down, beside her legs. The spire mother sat in her usual feminine way, on one hip and side, legs to one side, and Laria held onto them for support as she coughed and sputtered.

  “Yes, well, perhaps I will shorten some for you.” Acelina wagged her tail, just barely, and just the tip. “I have many.”

  “Yay!” With another squeak and giggle, Laria stepped around in front of Acelina, got on her knees, and buried her face in the woman’s enormous breasts. Breast, really, just the lower one, plenty big enough to cover Laria’s entire upper body. And even with her skin dark, Acelina’s breasts were never quite as firm as everyone else’s, and Laria sighed happily as she pressed her face into the giant pillow. So much for being scared of her.

  Acelina looked down at the tiny critter, opened her mouth, and prepared what was bound to be an assault on the ears. But she said nothing, closed her mouth, and looked back to the rest of the group, daring them to say something. No one did.

  A few clicks and chirps changed to pained coughs, and David forced his eyes onto Daoka. She squirmed as Jes checked under her leather bandage, and David squinted as he scanned for her reaction. The gargoyle smiled slightly, nodded, and knocked horns with Dao twice.

  Jes looked his way, and his eyes fell. The sound of the gargoyle’s screams after Dao had been stabbed rang through his head, and he winced. Caera felt it, and she looked up at him and raised her good eyebrow.

  “You okay?”

  “Y-Yeah, just—” He looked down into her good eye, and then her ruined eye. It was closed, but the gash had turned it into a giant scar, a mesh of ruined skin.

  Lasca perked up from Caera’s breasts and blinked up at him. The scar on her forehead would have been a death sentence if it’d been a single inch lower.

  He did his best to not show it, but he winced again and gulped down the rising bile in his throat. His heart rate picked up. He breathed faster. If he’d been on the surface, he’d have grown lightheaded, like he’d pushed himself too hard on leg day.

  The sounds of two dying angels echoed in the bck matter of his brain.

  Caera slid a little closer, until her hair pressed to his stomach, and she rubbed her head into him as she snuggled into his thighs. His fingers combed her hair almost automatically, and he forced himself to breathe deep. Panic attack? He didn’t get panic attacks, never. Not even that day at the funeral. That hadn’t been a panic attack. That’d been something else.

  Lasca and Caera went back to snuggling, and no one said a thing. Maybe they didn’t notice.

  After a few minutes of peace and quiet, Daoka chirped, and Jes motioned to David.

  “Get over here.”

  Shit. Maybe someone had noticed. The riiva was smarter than she let on.

  “Uh, sure. Caera?”

  Caera smiled at him, got up, and once he got up and moved, she y back along the alcove wall like a cat or dog getting comfy. Unfortunately for the tiger, the Las traded attention from David to her, and Lasca, Laara, and Latia snuggled into her long body and tail. Caera may not have been as big as Acelina, but she was still huge, with a lean, muscur, surprisingly busty physique. Lasca took to her breasts again, Laara snuggled up to her thick thighs, and Latia literally climbed onto her side and y across her waist and torso.

  The tiger rumbled, but any annoyance she had quickly faded, a tiny smile sneaking out as she closed her eye and got comfy.

  Jes and Dao y along the floor, Jes against the wall, Dao beside her, side by side like a couple in bed. David could have counted on one hand the number of times she’d left the satyr’s side.

  David got down on his knees beside Dao, and smiled down at her as he touched her shoulder and its bck spikes.

  “Yeah, Dao?”

  Dao chirped up at him, sounds soft and gentle.

  Jes ughed, shook her head, leaned in, and kissed her girlfriend.

  “She wants you to pay some more attention to her. She’s clingy.”

  “Oh? Oh! Yeah, sure. Um, ho—”

  “Snuggle. Come on.” Jes gestured to Dao’s side with a wing.

  David blinked down at Dao before checking back over his shoulder to Caera. Caera looked at him long enough to smile and wink, before she raised a hand up to Lasca’s hair and combed it, encouraging the little dy to kiss and snuggle the tiger’s bust all the more. Much as Caera and David were getting close, that didn’t seem to register on the physical side of intimacy at all. Far as demons were concerned, romance and physicality had nothing — almost nothing — to do with each other. Hell was a strange pce, but, also, kinda awesome.

  He y with Dao, snuggled up to her side, and leaned in close for a kiss on her cheek.

  “You doing okay?”

  She nodded and quietly chirped again.

  “You nearly died,” Jes said, “you dumbass. Stop pying it off.”

  With a small head shake, Dao clicked as she turned back to her lover, and headbutted her. Headbutt was too strong word for anything Dao could currently do, and Jes headbutt her right back, just as gently. Headbutt turned into forehead rubbing, some knocking of horns, and Jes ughed as she moved her hair out of the way and kissed her.

  Dao smiled into the kiss, but her arm closer to David snuck up around him, and she got a set of cws into his hair. She pulled him toward her head, turned, and forced his lips to hers. Shifting weight was a bit of a problem, but David got some weight on an elbow so he could lean over Daoka, and kiss her. The gorga was two inches from his face, and she smiled at him as she nuzzled in and kissed his cheek.

  “You know I owe this all to you two?” he asked. “I mean, in a good way. Only reason I’m alive, and instead of using me as a bargaining chip or bait or an easy meal, you—”

  Jes kissed him, closing her eyes. And then she headbutt him, not so gently. Thunk.

  “We get it,” she said. “You owe us your life, we’re awesome, how could demons be so nice, and sexy and beautiful, bh bh bh. You don’t need to keep telling us.”

  “I—”

  She headbutt him again.

  “Yeah yeah, but here’s the thing. I can tell, and Dao can tell, that you’re pacing yourself into a ditch in your head. Just treading around in a loop in your skull, worrying about shit.” Dao nodded to confirm. “What we need you to do is figure shit out about you and the unmarked and whatnot, and stop worrying about us.”

  “I—” He pulled back to avoid the inevitable headbutt, but none came. “I’m trying not to, it’s just…” He gestured around at all the dies, Dao included. “You girls nearly died and—”

  Dao clicked several times, frowning slightly.

  “Dao’s right. We’re demons, dumbass. Fighting is what we do, okay? Let us worry about that, and about each other doing that. You just figure out all the strange shit happening to you, and how to save the world or whatever, and don’t do anything stupid because you’re worried about us.” Jes reached out with a wing, hooked it behind his head, and pulled him in snug until his forehead pressed to hers. “Okay?”

  “I… don’t know if I can do that.”

  “What? Save the world?”

  “Stop worrying… caring about you.”

  Jes sighed, and her smile was heavy. “When Dao got stabbed, what did I do?”

  “Threw yourself at—”

  “I attacked a fucking angel. You know, an angel? They’re strong enough to fight tetrads one on one, and win, but you’ll notice I’m still alive, because I didn’t run in like an idiot like a certain someone else did earlier, running across a battlefield.”

  He winced. “That was for Mia, and—”

  Dao reached up and pulled him down to her. Her grip was weak, but it felt like a ship anchor pulling him down, and he pressed his forehead to hers, too. Quiet chirps and clicks resonated in the chamber. No one said a word. No one needed to.

  He leaned into Daoka, and kissed her. She kissed him back. He nuzzled into her side, careful of her shoulder spikes, and elbow spikes, and knee spikes, and touched noses with her before they kissed again. Something hard touched his head, and he looked up to find Jes’s horn nudging his hair as she leaned in, too, and demanded kisses. She shared a kiss with her lover again, before she pulled him in close and kissed him again, too.