“Yeah, and I could be the Easter Bunny.”
Meph grinned. “Oh, yeah? Then where are your cute little ears, baby?”
Iris stuck her tongue out, and he grabbed her jaw and leaned down to kiss her. As usual, they didn’t stop once they started. The mutual looks of disgust exchanged between the rest of them were a bonding experience no one wanted.
“This is a goddamn embarrassment,” Bel snapped, sliding the fresh shot towards Ash and smacking a palm on the counter. “We have no bargaining power and no choice but to give Murmur what he wants. It makes us look fucking weak.”
“What else can we do? He knows we’re in Montreal, and that’s probably the most valuable information in all of Hell right now. He already sold it to Valefor, and he’ll sell it to someone else now that we killed Val. His asking price for silence is going to be high.”
With that optimistic proclamation, Ash sipped his coffee and dragged his fingers through his hair, pulling it back from his face. That jet-black, hip-length mane was his secret pride, and as a former lust demon, he would always be a little vain.
“What if we found something to bargain with?” Raum suddenly said, and everyone looked at him. Faust lifted his head off his lap. Even Meph and Iris stopped kissing for a second.
Raum wasn’t shy about speaking, but he tended to stay silent until he actually had something useful to say. Meph was already good at filling every possible silence with noise, and there was no need to compete.
“If we find something he wants and take it first, then he’ll have to bargain on our terms.”
“And how do you propose we do that?” Bel asked. “Like Asmodeus so helpfully stated, if he thinks we’re trying to fuck him over, he’s going to fuck us back. Hard.”
“Kinky,” Meph said.
“Shut up, Meph,” everyone said simultaneously.
Except Iris, of course. She just laughed and patted his leg like he was adorable and not annoying. The poor witch had really lost her marbles since they’d started dating.
But then she stiffened suddenly and said, “The book.”
There was confused silence.
“Suyin’s book,The Book of Gamigin. Murmur had Valefor steal it for him, remember? That was his price for giving Val our location so he could go after Meph. Whatever that book is, it’s important to Murmur.”
“I knew who Gamigin was,” Ash said, sipping his coffee, “but I never heard of him writing a book. Demons aren’t exactly known for their literary endeavors.”
Raum snorted into his espresso cup. Speaking every language was just an innate part of a demon’s nature. If reading and writing had required any effort for them to learn, he was pretty sure all of Hell would be illiterate.
“I don’t know if he wrote it,” Iris replied. “Maybe it’s just named after him.”
“Pretty sure he’s dead,” Bel said, “so you won’t be able to ask him.”
“I still don’t get why Murmur wants it,” Meph said.
“Let’s steal it,” Raum blurted.
Once again, everyone stared at him. This time, he knew it was because he couldn’t keep the anticipation out of his voice.
He cleared his throat and tried to pretend he hadn’t reacted as he had, but Meph knew him too well. The bastard started to grin. “You would get a boner at that, wouldn’t you?”
Raum shot him a glare.
He didn’t like to talk about his addiction. It wasn’t even an addiction. It was just a mild itching that lived under his skin that grew into unbearable burning, crawling torment if he didn’t assuage its need from time to time.
So what if he had a stash of stolen goods in his closet so large he could no longer risk opening the doors? So what if no matter how often he fed the urge, it was never satisfied?
He could control himself. Hecould.
He’d once lived in constant war with other demons over territories he didn’t want, simply so he could raid their lairs for treasure like a fiendish dragon. He’d kept stashes of loot all across Hell in secret locations.
But he’d risen above that now. He was in control. The insatiable need no longer ruled him.
