A Hand in Hell

Chapter 8

"Atrocities?" I asked, batting my eyelashes innocently. "Why, whatever do you mean, officer?"

The demon's features tightened. "Don't play dumb with me, Verapaini. I don't have time for your games."

"Everyone has time for my games," I began sharply, crossing my arms over my middle, "because I make them have time for my games. If you want to make this short, say what you came here to say and get the fuck out of my kitchen. I have much, much more important matters to attend to than a little-dick demon with a complex."

"You might want to watch how you speak to me, Vera dear," he said lowly, venom dripping from every syllable — the impotent venom of a lyre snake, for how little it affected me. "I could take you alone, but I have an entire council on my side, and I don't think you'd like it very much if we used on you the same torture that you've been using on humans for years now."

I chuckled, grinning wickedly. "Just tell me what it is you've come to complain about, then perhaps we can pause for a little one-on-one battle. Wouldn't that be lovely?" Dexter let out a particularly loud sob, something like the wail of a dying cow trailing along behind it, and I reached behind me to clamp a hand over her mouth. My smile never faltered. "Make it quick. My pet needs me."

"Those humans you killed in the girl's apartment," he said, every hint of irritation bleeding from his features to leave him smooth-faced and composed. "That was a bad choice on your part."

"But not the other girl, eh?" I said wryly. The girl had mattered more to Dexter, the men had mattered more to this demon, and not a single damn one of them had mattered at all to me. Odd, how broadly a person's worth could differ.

"Of course not," the man said in a voice almost entirely empty of emotion. "While we would have preferred it if you'd stopped killing humans altogether as we'd asked you to, the girl was a mere civilian. The men, on the other hand —"

"Part of that handy-dandy human coalition bullshit, right?" I interrupted dryly, and at his sharp nod, I sighed. Dexter squirmed beneath my heavy hand, but I didn't dare uncover her mouth. At a time like this, her shrieking would likely send me over the edge, and as I always said, a dead pet isn't a very good pet at all. "Well, no need to fear, Mr. Demon Council Overlord. I intend to massacre the rest of the pathetic bastards as soon as I'm done with dear Dexter here."

"Not all of them are mere humans, you know," he said simply, and a hint of smugness seeped into his expression — I know something you don't know. Na-na na-na naaa-na. What was he, fucking five? "Some of them actually have a clue as to what you are, and they have the means to handle it."

I cocked an eyebrow, curious but unimpressed. "So they think they can kill me. So what? I've never been 'handled' by a human before, and I highly doubt that this century is when I'll meet my match in their sad little species." Dexter began to squirm and twist beneath my hand, her breath cascading across my skin in warm, frantic puffs, but I only clamped down tighter, pinning her head motionlessly to the table. "Unless they've been personally trained by a demon, I —"

"They have," he interrupted, and the shit-eating smirk that quirked the corners of his lips sent realization sliding through me like ice water in my veins, the flames of indignant rage hot on its heels.

"You fuckers are the ones who told them about me!" I roared, finally pulling my fingers from Dexter's face and storming toward the demon. I jabbed a finger into his chest as I added, "And you fucking told them how to take me out, didn't you?!"

"Relax, Vera dear," he chuckled, catching my wrists as my fingers strained to wrap around his throat, and that fucking name, that condescending, patronizing, annoying fucking Vera dear, only made me struggle harder against his iron hold. "It's all in good fun. Life's just a game, isn't it?"