Mentored in Fire (Demon Days & Vampire Nights)

I rolled my eyes and looked back at Cahal, working my other knee. Only a small ache.

“Yes, it is still with the elves, or yes, someone grabbed it?” I pressed.

“Both. You don’t need it. There is no point in lugging it around.”

“Says the guy with the enormous curved blade.”

“I don’t have the same magic as you. I need my sword.”

“You can kill a man with your thumb. Why do you need a sword?”

“A sword is faster.”

“Speaking of…” Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the demon was on the move again, creeping across the floor. The food would be cold by the time it got out of the room. “Where is your blade?”

“In Lucifer’s private quarters, I imagine. He doesn’t want me to have it.”

“Why is that? Surely he doesn’t think you can take on a kingdom of demons…”

“No. But I know the demons that he values most, and I could kill those if I felt so inclined. It seems he’d rather not chance it.”

I stuck out my lips while nodding. “Good call. Right, okay.” I clapped once and turned back toward the demon, now setting the tray on the desk. “What about my clothes?”

The tray of items clattered to the table, the porcelain jiggling. The demon set it down and scampered away as though burned, the long nails on its feet clicking across the wood floor. The door closed with a thud and silence reigned in the room.

“Does that mean no clothes? What the hell is the deal with that thing, anyway?”

“The service staff, as we will call them, are the invisible workers.” Cahal closed his book and stood, crossing to the desk. “They are low in power and have zero status. It’s best if you don’t speak to them, and they would never dare to speak directly to you. Don’t notice them. To do so…stresses them out. The last heir would curse them for any misdeeds right before killing them.”

“He sounds like a real peach.”

“That’s the way it was.” He bent over the food. “Mystery meat. Great.”

I chuckled at his sarcastic tone and pushed up to standing, turning so Cahal didn’t get an eyeful of my derrière. I stretched to one side and then the other, working out the ache. Padding across the room, adding a little fire below my bare feet to combat the chill, I snagged a French fry and popped it into my mouth.

I crossed to the grand closet, which was completely bare.

I need my clothes, I thought, and then decided, since I was finally up, I might as well just take a peek out the door.

A demon fashioned after a human woman stood to one side of the frame, half my height but with jutting boobs far too big for its petite body. Red leather covered it from neck to ankles, one big jumpsuit without zippers, hinting that it never had to take the thing off to use the restroom. Hooves took the place of feet, and the hair on its knuckles curled up in soft puffs.

Standing with its back to the wall near my door, the demon stared at the lovely garden mural painted on the opposite side of the wide corridor. The ceiling soared above us, more than ten feet high, and a white carpet ran down the center of an otherwise dark wood floor. No gold adorned this area, which had a somewhat modern look and was painted and accented with deep earth tones.

I glanced back into the sea of gold from which I’d come.

“If it looks like this out here, why is my room so hideous?” I asked.

The demon turned to me, and I honestly wondered how it didn’t topple forward with the size of those breasts.

Its yellow eyes took me in for a moment, and I could feel its intense power thrumming around us. Glaciem magic—ice magic, as I thought of it—and a lot of it.

“Good evening, your highness.” Its voice was scratchy and deep like a drum, the perfect accompaniment to the bushy mustache on its upper lip.

“Don’t call me your highness. I don’t intend to take the post.”

“Unfortunately, I must address you by a title.”

“Your heinous will do just fine.”

“As you wish, your heinous. In answer to your question, your room is a hideous sort of gold because the Great Master wanted to see if you’d get the joke.”

“I didn’t.”

“Fabulous. I will let him know. You may choose your quarters whenever you would like. Clothes are currently being collected for you, and then I will show you the way.”

“I thought I could roam freely?”

“And so you shall, but the palace has undergone many changes since your insufferable druid companion was here last. You will get lost inside of a human minute.”

“I have an excellent memory.”

“Which will greatly help you in places that do not habitually change.”