Honestly, Sam considered Dev justified in what he'd done. Like Dev said, he'd warned the human.
A weird groan came out of the man before he rose to his feet. He narrowed his gaze on Dev. "You're going to die for that, Bear." He swept his gaze around at the other male bear and Aimee, then turned that soulless stare to Sam. "All of you are going to die, including you, Dark-Hunter." Throwing his head back, he laughed maniacally.
This guy was definitely not human....
Dev grabbed him. "Enough of that crap. You're--"
The man exploded all over him.
Dev cursed as he was soaked by something light yellow that had the viscosity and properties of snot. It went all over him, even into his mouth, eyes, and ears. "Ah, gah, it's a slug demon. Aimee, mindwipe the humans. Colt, get me a towel and Lysol and Listerine." Spitting out some of the mucus, he slung his arms, which caused the snot to fly in all directions.
"Hey!" Sam snapped, ducking the sticky shrapnel. "Keep your snot to yourself."
Dev scoffed at that. "Oh, so now you don't want to touch me, huh?" He tsked. "What is it with women? The instant you put a little slime on them, they get squeamish and have no more use for you."
As he stepped toward her, she backed up. "Don't make me have to hurt you."
"You're such a tease. I knew it. Fine, I'll take my slimy self upstairs and deslug. Definitely brushing my teeth first. Then gargling with boiling water and straight rubbing alcohol."
She shook her head at him. How could he have a sense of humor about being coated in slug juice that smelled so bad? She couldn't imagine how a Were-Hunter with heightened senses could tolerate it and not toss his cookies. Though she'd never been hit by demon snot, she knew from others that it was nasty and that it burned.
"I think you'll forgive me for my rudeness?" Dev vanished instantly.
Sam turned to see Aimee "visiting" the handful of humans in the bar to erase their memories of the demon and Dev. She met the other bear's gaze and couldn't help asking, "This happen often?"
"Not usually. Demons don't normally come here, except for Simi and on rare occasion her brother Xed." He glanced toward Aimee. "May the gods help them. Aimee's not real good at that. Hope she doesn't burn out anything they need."
Ahhh, that explained Dev's paranoia. Made her wonder what Aimee had taken from him with her ineptitude.
The bear extended his hand to her. "Name's Colt."
"Sam."
He dropped his hand when she didn't take it and scowled at the mess on the floor. "Could you tell he was a demon before he exploded?"
"Not even a little bit. You?"
Colt shook his head. "Acheron moves all of you in here. We have a Daimon walk into the bar in broad daylight, and now a demon sliming Dev. I don't know about you, but that doesn't seem coincidental to me."
"I agree. Snot funny."
Colt rolled his eyes. "I can't believe you went there."
"Me neither, but I couldn't resist." She jerked her chin toward the demon remains on the floor. "What would make a demon threaten us, then kill himself?"
"Stupidity? Slugs aren't real smart. Maybe he thought he was teleporting and exploded instead. Or maybe even a bad case of indigestion. There's no telling what he ate before he got here."
"But why threaten us?"
"I'd say shits and giggles, but I'm with you. Something about this isn't right." Colt held his arm out toward her so that she could see his forearm. "Look...chill bumps."
Yeah, right. Sam let out an annoyed breath. There wasn't a chill bump on him.
Fang came running from the kitchen door with another blond man--a dragon shapeshifter--following a step behind him. He went straight to Aimee to make sure she was okay while the dragon took over mindwiping the humans.
Sam scowled. "Does the mindwipe happen a lot here?"
"Not as much as you'd think. We do a pretty good job keeping a lid on the unnatural around the humans. Max is the resident containment expert. He can clean out anyone without their knowing it."
For some reason she heard Dev in her ear talking about stealing passwords again. The memory made her smile.
Colt frowned. "What?"
"Nothing." She didn't want to share it with him. She liked having it as something between her and Dev.
I have lost my mind. Dev was impossible and annoying. And right now, he was covered in demon mucus.
And still he'd been sexy.
I am a seriously sick woman. Only the deranged could think a man covered in paranormal snot was hot.
See what happens when you go a couple hundred years without sex. You lose your mind and all perspective.
She turned her attention back to Colt. "You know, I mentioned to Dev earlier that I wondered if the Daimon you guys thought you saw might be a demon in disguise...."
"No," Aimee said as she joined them. "He was a Daimon. No doubt about it. Believe it or not, we can tell the difference."