“I know.” There was an odd note in his voice...admiration, maybe? The idea that he, a powerful Biblical legend, admired anything about her, a disgraced Unfallen with few survival skills, gave her a boost of much-needed energy. “I’ll be right back.”
She waited on the bed, the scratchy wool blanket wrapped tightly around her. Soft voices drifted back and forth from the other room, and a few minutes later, he returned with a pottery mug and a bowl of steaming meat and bread swimming in gravy. Her stomach growled fiercely, and she didn’t feel the slightest embarrassment when she snatched the plate and crude metal spork from him.
Completely setting aside polite manners, she shoveled a bite into her mouth and chewed. “Oh, damn,” she moaned. “This is amazing. But I’m not going to ask what kind of meat it is.”
He chuckled as he set the mug on the stand next to the bed. “I can tell you that it’s not demon snake.”
“Good,” she muttered. “I’ve had enough of that for a lifetime.” She took another bite, chewed, swallowed. “So why aren’t we at your place?”
“Because Malonius locked the portal to my crypt to protect it, and I can’t open it without him. I can break through his lock eventually, but I didn’t want to waste time. Besides, I figured you’d be more comfortable here.”
She licked gravy off the spork and decided she wanted the recipe. “Where is here?”
“We’re in hell’s version of Cloud Cuckoo Land.”
“Say what?”
“Don’t you watch movies?” He shook his head, making waves in his Mohawk. “We’re in a recently-built realm Azagoth and I created for demons who don’t really fit into any of the five Rings.”
She frowned. “But I thought the Rings coordinated with the Ufelskala.”
“They do.” He moved over to the window and peered out, his expression watchful but not tense, which relieved her more than she’d care to admit. She’d always thought of herself as being tough, but the last couple of days had tested her resolve, and she was ready for a break. “But the 1st Ring didn’t seem suitable for all good demons. There was no reward for demons who have done more than simply exist. Who have contributed to society for the greater good.”
As an angel who spent her entire life in Heaven, she’d been raised on stories of the depravity of demons, so while she had no trouble believing that there were demons who were “less evil” than others, she wasn’t convinced that “good” demons existed.
“Good demons?” she asked, not bothering to hide her skepticism. “Really?”
He turned away from the window, his big body partially blocking the eerie orange light from outside. “You said yourself that humans come in a wide range of good and evil, so why wouldn’t demons? God has always wanted balance, so for every evil human, there exists a good demon.”
Cat scooped up a bit of bread and gravy. “Makes sense, I guess. But what kinds of good demons are you talking about?”
The muscles in his shoulders rippled as he shrugged, and her pulse kicked. When she’d clung to him earlier, her lips had been right there. She could have kissed him. Licked his skin to see if it tasted as smoky as it smelled.
At least, she could have done all of that if she hadn’t been occupied with trying to keep from curling up into a weeping ball of spider-trauma.
“Kinds like the ones who work at Underworld General Hospital.” He propped one booted foot against the wall behind him, his pose casual, but deadly energy remained coiled beneath the surface, so tangible that Cat swore she could feel it dance on her skin. He might say they were safe, but he was prepared for anything. So he might not feel safe, but she did. Nothing was going to get past him.
“Or the ones who live among humans and do nothing more than try to fit in,” he continued. “Before this expansion, they went to the 1st Ring, which is still a pretty hellish experience. Here demons can actually enjoy their time until they’re reincarnated. Which, thanks to Revenant being Sheoul’s new overlord, happens pretty quickly.”
Someone who looked human walked past the window, a ball in his hand. Hades didn’t even glance at the guy, but Cat had a feeling he was well aware of every step the male took.
“I’m curious,” she said after the guy disappeared. “In Heaven, humans choose their appearance, but everyone can still ‘see’ each individual as the person they’d always known, even if they knew them on Earth as a twelve-year-old boy, but in Heaven they appear as a twenty-five-year-old female. Is it the same here?”
Hades dipped his head. “Essentially. Demons in the Inner Sanctum do choose their appearances, but people don’t always recognize them. I think it’s because they’re rarely born twice as the same species.”
Huh. It hadn’t occurred to her that a Seminus demon wouldn’t be born again as a Sem. “How does that work?”
He cocked an eyebrow. “Do you really want to talk about this?”
“It’s your fault,” she said around a mouthful of bread. “You piqued my curiosity.”
“Well then,” he said with a lopsided grin and an impish glint in his eyes, “I guess I’ll have to satisfy your…curiosity.”