“Powerful ones,” Iris said haughtily, chin up and hands planted on her hips.
He started to grin again. “I’ll bet you are, sweetness. So what’d you do to Mist to make him run?”
“What did wedoto him? He’s a demon!”
“Yeah, a demon who was trying to have a nice date with his girl.” He gestured to Lily and shot a glare at Iris. “Don’t tell me you scared him off. I recognized the remainder of a prison ward on the front door, not that that measly thing would keep him in.”
“Scaredhim off? He was here to hurt my sister! I would have killed him if he hadn’t fled!”
He scoffed. “Yeah. Okay. Good luck with that. And he wasn’t here to hurt her, unless it hurt when he— Never mind. So, Mist was having a good ol’ time before you started painting prison wards and threatening him. Then what happened? Where’d he go?”
“I didn’t threaten him! He threatened her!”
“Answer the fucking question!” he snapped with a sudden ferocity. Until that moment, he had retained his cool. Something flared in his eyes then that was dark and deadly.
“You’re a demon too,” Lily breathed, shrinking back.
“Uh, yeah.” He looked at her like she had slugs for brains.
“B-but—”
He rolled his eyes, chill demeanor firmly back in place. “But what? You’re expecting me to call on the fires of Hell and threaten to steal your soul?”
She winced. “Well… maybe.”
“Nobody wants your soul, okay? You’re too… good, or whatever, to be useful to Hell. Trust me, the humans we deal with are scum. Real lowlifes, backstabbers and liars and rapists; the kind of people you’ll probably never come across in your life.” He shot a warning look at Iris. “Unless you go looking for trouble.”
“But…” Lily couldn’t find the words.
“But what was Mist doing here? Told you, doll. Try to keep up.”
“Don’t call her that,” Iris snapped.
The demon grinned at her. “Damn, girl. You this fierce for everyone, or am I special?”
“Tell me what you want with us, or I swear to god I’ll find a way to kill you.”
His grin widened. “Chop off the head and burn the body to ashes with hellfire—that’s how you kill a demon. Has to be legit hellfire, and you have to incinerate it completely. Otherwise we’ll just regenerate and come back really pissed off.”
They both gaped at him.
“What? You’re witches. I hope you knew that already. And if you ever got close enough to succeed, the demon would deserve to die for being an idiot.” Abruptly, his expression darkened. “Now tell me where Mishetsu is.”
“Mishetsu?”
“Mist.”
“Told you,” Iris said, “he sprouted wings and flew off.”
“He didn’t say anything about where he was going?”
Lily shook her head.
He yanked his hat off and dragged a hand through his hair before jamming it back on. “He’s probably done something stupid.”
Pulling his phone out, he made a call right there while the two of them were staring at him. Part of Lily wondered if she was asleep having a vivid dream because every minute of this night kept getting weirder. She’d barely been able to believe it when Mist had kissed her, and now this?
“It’s me. Is Mist at home? Tell me he’s there.” A pause. Then, “Fuck that motherfucking fucker.”
