Made in Hell 2 Chapter 1

My glowing, violet eyes glanced around the square room and took in everything before me. The cracked, oak walls, the red velvet curtains, and the lone hook that once held a painting of the dark elf who used to own this manor house.

Now, everything in it was mine.

It had been two weeks since the battle with the dark elves, and my demon huntress and I had made this manor house our home, but we hadn’t replaced the various paintings we’d taken down with new ones just yet. I had plenty of ideas in mind, and all of them would display my demon lover and me in most of my favorite positions, but I’d been far too busy to find a female painter to do the work.

Running an illegal orb mining organization took up a hell of a lot of my time, but everything had been running smoothly so far. It appeared as though no one in the Port of Rengfri noticed the change in command around here, aside from my employees, and I certainly didn’t hear any complaints from them.

My thoughts were interrupted as I heard delicate footsteps coming down the corridor. Seconds later, Ashe kicked open the office door with her foot, and I spotted the tray of bread, cheeses, and meats she carried in her hands.

“Here you are, my lord.” The pink-eyed demon smirked. She placed the tray down on the desk, and she made sure to lean forward just enough that her breasts threatened to tumble out of her pretty dress.

My demon lover was wearing her new favorite silk dress today, and I figured this was partially because she knew how much I loved the way she looked in it. The garment was gray in color and stopped mid-thigh, and the corset was pitch black while her icy pale cleavage pillowed above the material. We’d tried hard not to destroy this dress within two seconds of her purchasing it, unlike the other outfits she wore.

I wasn’t sure it would live to see another day, though.

“You must have known I was hungry,” I replied.

“Men are always hungry,” Ashe chuckled. “Especially demon men.”

The huntress collapsed down onto the spare seat across from me, and she fanned her silver-blue hair over the back of the chair. She had the front of her hair tied back in two small braids, but the rest fell freely down the back.

“So, what’s the plan for this evening?” Ashe asked as she helped herself to some of the bread and cheese she’d brought in. “Are you going to check out the mining shack with the imps?”

“I definitely need to do that soon,” I agreed as I tore into a chunk of meat. “I’ll go there when I can.”

Even though it had been two weeks, I still hadn’t visited where the imps mined the orbs for me. The imps completed the tasks I set for them, and I never had any trouble with them, but there had been so much to do in the short amount of time since I’d stolen this business from the dark elves that I just hadn’t found a spare minute to follow them down there.

“I bet it looks beautiful,” my demon lover replied with a dreamy look in her bright pink eyes.

“Hopefully, we both can go down there one day, just as long as I know it’s safe first,” I added.

The vast forest that surrounded the Port of Rengfri on three sides was not a safe place for us to roam around in. We were still rogue demons who’d broken free of our shackles, turned our backs on the Dark King, and done what no other demons before had dared to do.

We chose to start our own lives on the surface world, and I was the only Master we answered to now.

But our disappearance wouldn’t be taken lightly. Our Lord Captains would stop at nothing to recapture us and drag us back to the Hellscape, and any demon they sent up here to do the honors would arrive in the dense, dark forest that covered every mountain surrounding the Port of Rengfri.

The gnarled, oaken trees of the Grimmway appeared safer, though, so this was where we resided now. A grand wall had been erected around the outskirts of the Shadow Quarters on this side, and the bricks were piled too high for a demon to scale, even the most powerful of our kind.

Because I hadn’t been to the mining shack of my imps before, I wasn’t entirely sure which side of the wall it was situated on. I wouldn’t have been a very good master to Ashe if I allowed her to risk her safety just so she could catch a glimpse of the magical gems, but as soon as I had crossed the threshold myself, and confirmed no demons could snatch her there, then she could join me.

The two of us fell into silence while we devoured the delicious meal she’d laid out in front of us. Before we came to the manor house, we had enjoyed meat, bread, and some apples, but thanks to our riches these days, we had a vast selection to choose from.

Ashe had declared her love for cheese recently, and a meal was never complete unless she had some of the stuff on the side. I realized the surface world offered sweeter, tastier fruits than just apples, so, as well as cheese, we also made sure to always have some grapes on hand.

One of the imps we had working for us named Gyor knew exactly where to get some of the finest quality cheeses and fruits, and he came and went all over the Shadow Quarters frequently, so he was in charge of bringing some by any chance he got.

“Oh, I’m going to see the Red Witch tomorrow,” I told Ashe. “I sent Gyor to Pixie Lane to get a message out to her.”

“Oh, yeah?” Ashe asked. “How did she respond to that?”

“She accepted the meeting.” I shrugged. “We must have made a good first impression.”

“Of course, we did, look at us.” The demon woman winked.

We hadn’t seen the witch since the night we cornered her in Pixie Lane. At first, she appeared slightly taken aback by our sudden appearance, especially when we just about threw her against the wall, but she didn’t fight us off, and it seemed as though she was interested in working with us.

“Let’s see what she says tomorrow,” I replied. “With any luck, she’ll be as useful as I need her to be.”

“She blackmails hundreds of undesirables in the name of a priest,” Ashe snorted. “She’ll either be useful or at least worth murdering in the slowest, most painful way possible.”

“I’m hoping for the former option,” I chuckled.

“Yes, it’d be a shame to have to kill a woman that fine,” Ashe sighed and crossed one knee over the other as she popped some grapes off the vine. “So, apart from your meeting with the witch, what else do we have planned?”

“Well…” I said as I checked the papers on the desk. “The vampires are purchasing some orbs this evening, that human, Vamir, is buying another load of orbs later in the week, and Bennet is delivering another payment to the priest as we speak.”

Bennet was our human middleman, and the very same curly-haired man we’d seen vanish with a blue orb one day outside of a tavern. He used to be a slave for the dark elves and was made to pay the priest off regularly, but it was clear he constantly lived in fear of the dark elves ridding him of his life whenever they were done with him. We had kept Bennet in hiding under the watchful eyes of a coven of black fairies for a few days at first, but we’d now found him a more permanent place to live in the outskirts of the Shadow Quarters, and he seemed to feel much safer with me in charge.

When we’d first seen Bennet hand over a sack of pieces and orbs to the priest, we had no idea how much money was actually in there, but now we had the numbers. Every two weeks, at the same time, Bennet gave the priest five hundred pieces and seven of our dark red orbs that apparently were capable of paralyzing any being on the surface world. Why a priest required a constant supply of these orbs, I didn’t know, but regardless, it was an irritating price, and one I wasn’t overly keen on paying. Still, it had to be done in order to keep the priest from realizing that anything had changed recently. We paid the same fee the dark elves had paid, and for that, we conducted our business without any trouble from the Church or the king’s guard.

“I wonder what humans want with the orbs,” Ashe mused as she collected some papers from the desk.

“I don’t know, but I’m certainly curious,” I replied.

Ashe adjusted the way she sat in the fine, green velvet chair. She looked incredibly comfy with her legs over one of the arm rests and her back leaned up against the other one. She had a small stack of papers in hand, and I watched as her eyes skimmed over all the information written down. It included everything, from when the imps went to the mine, to the collection points, and even the amount of money we made from each batch.

“Fuck, we’ve made over seven-thousand pieces just this week alone,” Ashe commented.

“Think about what we’ll have in a month.” I grinned.

“The trolls can keep their chests of pieces now,” she chuckled.

“We should be careful in case they decide to come and steal from us now,” I added. “They can smell a stash like ours a mile away.”

“Nah, those bastards are far too scared to take us on,” Ashe snorted as she continued to read through the papers. “Although, I heard some trolls robbed that half-orc I got into an argument with the other day.”

“The one who sells the dead animals on strings?” I asked.

“That’s the one,” the demon woman sighed. “He deserved to get robbed, the smelly wretch.”

“He only asked to borrow your sapphire sword for one day,” I snickered. “That’s hardly an insult. It is a nice sword.”

“It’s mine.” Ashe sent me a possessive look, and I grinned. “He wouldn’t even tell me what he needed it for. Who just asks a woman for her magic sword and won’t tell them why? Fucking half-orcs… I’m telling you, he would have sold it. He thinks I’m a fool, and that is precisely why I threatened to skin him alive.”

“I wonder if he’s looking to do something about the trolls who robbed him,” I mused, and Ashe pursed her lips. “I know you hate the half-orc, but…”

“But you want to kill some trolls,” Ashe guessed.

“I do,” I chuckled.

I’d never forget the first day I’d spent in Rengfri, and how I’d slaughtered a group of trolls just so I could get some money for myself. I’d been hoping to stumble across a few of their kind who deserved to die ever since. The way their deep-blue blood splattered across my body, how they begged for mercy with a simple look in their eyes, and then, as I took the final swing, how their enormous bodies slumped to the ground with a squishy flop… it was always fun killing trolls, and I wouldn’t mind sorting out the trouble for the half-orc.

As much as Ashe wanted to skin him alive, he made decent money selling those dead animals of his, and he’d bought an orb from me a few days ago that cost four hundred pieces.

My thoughts about murdering trolls suddenly dissolved as I heard someone running through the corridors of the manor house. The footsteps were light, so it wasn’t someone very large, and a labored breath came out in deep pants. I sat up straighter at my desk, and I knew whoever it was couldn’t have been coming to deliver good news.

The wooden door to my office flew open to reveal a tiny blue imp. His dark eyes were wide and full of fear, and his spiked tail swung wildly behind him. The imp placed a little hand over his chest as he tried to control his breathing, and I stared at him in utter confusion.

The imps were meant to be on the other side of the Grimmway right now, which meant this tiny creature had raced through the village and probably spent all of his energy to get here.

“Gyor?” I asked. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“Atticus, th-the vampires,” he panted with a squeaky voice. “You need to come. Quickly.”

“What’s happened?” I demanded as I jumped up from my chair, and Ashe did the same thing.

“The vampires have ambushed us,” Gyor replied with a flustered voice. “I knew something was off with the deal soon as we arrived. I was turnin’ to come and get you, and then they attacked. The others are trying to fight them off.”

“At the clearing?” I checked.

“Yeah, they’re at the pickup point,” the imp confirmed. “Hurry, master. I don’t know if they’ll be alive by the time we make it there.”

Ashe and I grabbed the first weapons we could see, her yellow sapphire sword and my onyx blade, and then we ran past the exhausted imp, down through the manor house, and out into the night.

We had a pretty decent set-up with the vampires, and they always paid the full price for the orbs. Apparently, they held some crazy seances that required the smallest orbs, usually no bigger than a thumbnail, but in various colors depending on the power they required. They’d already bought three orders from me in only two weeks, and I tried to think of why they’d pull this shit now as Ashe and I barreled through the winding lanes, past stone hovels and wagons, and between the gnarled trees of the Grimmway. The only thing that came to mind was the fact that the vampires were greedy assholes who always wanted to be above everyone else around here, but the exact reason for their attack didn’t really matter.

They’d decided to fuck with my organization, and for that, they’d pay an even higher price than I was charging for the orbs.

I could tell from the gleam in Ashe’s pink eyes that she was just as excited as I was to teach these bloodsuckers a lesson, but it was more than just the thrill of the hunt. It had been two weeks since we got to murder some evil bastards, and now, we were going to throw the vampire assholes into their coffins for good, and we’d have smiles on our faces while we did it.

The two of us ran as fast as our demon legs could carry us, which was about five times faster than any mortal in the lanes around us, and as we neared the opposite edge of the Grimmway, I could smell the icy, carnal scent of the vampires already.

I’d only killed one vampire in all my eons in the Hellscape, and I knew their bodies were laced with evil, which only made it more exciting for me and Ashe as we hunted them down. These vampires deserved a cruel, slow death, and I was going to make sure they experienced every kind of punishment they had coming to them.

Especially if they thought they could fuck with my imps and get away with it.

Fury billowed in my chest as the smoke of the Hellscape festered in my lungs, and then the clearing finally came into view.

The secluded, grassy area was small and circular, and it was surrounded by a few sycamore trees. The crates of orbs were placed in the center, but the wood had been smashed, and splinters of it lay among the grass and the colorful orbs that had spilled from inside.

There were four vampires in total, and their deathly pale skin glistened in the moonlight while their blood-red eyes shined. They each wore smart, black dress pants with velvet jackets and white ruffled shirts, and they hissed and bared their bright white fangs while they clawed out at the imps.

Like I had been told, the tiny imps were doing their best to fight off the vampires, and they used their speed and size to their advantage. The imps didn’t even reach the vampires’ knees, and they zoomed in and out between the bloodsuckers’ legs in order to get away from them.

These aristocratic bloodsuckers had no idea what was coming their way.

Ashe and I sprinted headlong for the moonlit clearing, and I almost wished we had a stake at hand to pierce these fuckers in their hearts, but for now, our demon strength would be enough to ensure they never drew another breath.

The hissing of the vampires and the snarling of the imps covered the sound of our boots pounding through the woods, and by the time we broke through the trees and into the clearing, it was too late for the vampires to do shit about it.

I went for the first vampire I saw.

His short, white-blonde hair was slicked back across his head, and his eyes narrowed menacingly as he whipped around to face off with me.

But it was too late.

My hand locked on his neck before he could even bare his fangs, and I tightened my fingers while I grasped a hold of his hair with my other hand. Hellish energy had already sparked in my sinew and built in my fingertips, and the vampire’s red eyes winced wildly in pain as I allowed my hell power to leak through his skull. Bolts of lightning shot from my hand into his head, and his body trembled as he attempted to fight me off, but it would have taken a lot more than a vampire’s strength to tear away from my demon hands.

An almighty crack pierced through the air as I shot the final wave of thunderous energy through his head, and his brain matter exploded all over my face and shirt.

Then the vampire crumbled to the ground, and his pale skin turned a sickly gray color in a matter of seconds.

One thing I’d always remembered about vampires was they never fully died unless their hearts were staked or their brains were destroyed. Until their brain exploded everywhere, and their skin changed to gray, the game wasn’t over.

“Enjoy your coffin, leech,” I snorted as I brushed the meaty tissue of his brains off my shirt.

Then I turned away from the corpse at my feet, and a second, white-haired vampire lunged at me.

I planted my fist in his gut just in time to send him staggering backward, and he absorbed the shock of my hell power pretty well for a surface world being. But he was still twitching uncontrollably as he snarled, and he bared his pointed incisors at me while his eyes burned red in the moonlight.

“Bite me,” I laughed humorlessly. “I fucking dare you to try.”

My taunting only appeared to anger the vampire even more, and this was the exact reaction I was hoping for. It was always fun to watch someone beg and plead for their life, but pure rage always made my prey put a bit more effort into the battle, and a devilish grin spread across my face as the vampire hissed and came after me.

The vampire raced toward me with his teeth bared, and he became a blur of pale skin and blue velvet, but I was one step ahead of him. I tore my onyx blade from my belt and slashed it across the bloodsucker’s stomach the second he was in reach, and the force of the blow sent him staggering sideways.

My onyx blade had created an almighty slice through the vampire’s gut, and a river of thick, dark blood began to dribble through his ruffled shirt and down his front. It didn’t appear as if the gouge had cost him much strength since he lunged forward once more, but that was about to change.

I sent a ferocious punch into the wounded stomach of the vampire, and this time, I used the full power of my Infernal Tempest.

Lightning streaked over him as thunder blasted through his bones, and the impact sent him flying through the air. Then his back cracked against a sycamore tree, and I thought I saw the tree buckle backward, but I’d wait until the fight was over before checking it out.

My pretty was out cold and laying mangled at the base of the trunk, and the smoky shriek of my demon lover grabbed my attention.

Then I flipped around to see Ashe on the back of a vampire with her silver, venomous claws out.

The little fiend clawed ruthlessly at the bloodsucker with her legs wrapped around his waist, and I watched in awe as he screamed in pain and took slash after slash across his chest. Infernal Venom boiled into his system and spilled down his front while he desperately attempted to get the demon off his back, but then Ashe wrenched back his head and sliced her silver talons across his jugular.

Blood exploded from the boiling gash and left dark splatters across the bright green grass, and as the vampire gurgled and flailed, Ashe let out a laugh that was full of excited evil and delight.

“Now you know what it’s like to have someone tear away at your throat,” Ashe purred and finally released the vampire.

She left her prey there to suffer for a while instead of destroying his brain right then, and the two of us turned to the final standing vampire.

He was frozen in place with my imps surrounding him, and it looked like they’d managed to grab the right orbs from the shattered crates to immobilize the fucker for me.

Now, my demon lover and I stalked forward while the vampire stood surrounded by pissed off imps and the bodies of his friends.

“You’re fucked now,” I growled, and the smoke seeping from my mouth glowed in the violet light of my eyes.

“You’ve made the wrong decision,” the vampire replied with a sickly smooth voice. “We’ll destroy you for this.”

“Looks like it’ll be the other way around,” Ashe snorted from my side.

“Yeah, I think I’ll just paint the grass with your brains and then finish doing the same with your buddies,” I said as I waved my hand toward the vampire who was locked in a venomous torture and twitching on the ground.

The vampire in front of me shook with fury, and I grinned as I gestured for my imps to release their hold on him. The second the orbs were no longer keeping him imobile, he narrowed his eyes, bared his fangs, and made his move.

But his teeth were the only weapons he had on him, whereas Ashe and I had both the sword and the onyx blade.

The vampire faked me out and dove to the side at the last second, and he grabbed a hold of my arm instead of jumping straight for my neck.

I felt an intense pressure radiating through my bones as he tried to twist my arm back, and had I been human, my arm would have snapped in two, and the bones underneath would have been pulverized into dust.

I was much stronger than any measly human.

As the vampire wrenched my arm to the back, I flipped around, tore my wrist free of his hold, and then clamped my hand around the bloodsucker’s neck. A twisted smile curled over his lips, like he was enjoying the pain and torture, but Ashe was prowling up behind him now, and I knew she’d teach him better.

The little fiend smirked and raised a taloned hand, and she drew a line down the back of his jacket with a single silver claw.

The velvet fell away easily as her claws tore through the material and straight to the vampire’s flesh, and the bloodsucker hissed as Infernal Venom boiled its way down his spine. Still, the vampire continued to try and wrench my hand from his throat, but he must have known he was fighting a losing battle. His boney fingers desperately tore at my chest and arm as he attempted to drag me close enough to bite, but I had my Infernal Tempest pulsing through his neck, and he was losing strength by the second.

Still, we liked to play with our prey before they died, so I kept the energy at a minimum, and I chuckled as he snarled, hissed, and licked the tips of his fangs.

Ashe left another slice down his back to make him finally roar in pain, and then she chuckled and delivered two more scratches just for fun.

While she giggled and toyed with the vampire in my hold, I glanced over quickly to check out the bloodsucker I’d thrown against a sycamore tree. He lay perfectly still beside the buckled trunk, and his eyes had closed. His white shirt was drenched in blood from the slice to his stomach, but the vampire would find the strength to wake up soon enough.

“Can I do the honors?” Ashe asked as she prowled around the vampire in my hands with a wicked smile. “I can’t control my urges… I want to kill him so badly.”

“Please, enjoy yourself,” I said sweetly and let go of the bloodsucker’s neck.

I took a step back and watched the coy smile play on Ashe’s plump lips as she circled the gasping vampire like she was trying to decide which angle to go from.

The vampire was shaking from pain and the aftermath of my hell power in his bones, and I knew he couldn’t have run even if he wanted to, but I almost wished he’d try. Then I’d have an excuse to break both of his legs and hold him down with my boot for Ashe so she could her torture him to her heart’s content. As it was, his legs would probably give out in a matter of minutes, so all there was left to do was fuck with him until we finally killed him off.

Ashe held up her right hand and wriggled her silver claws teasingly in front of the vampire’s face.

“Now, where do I start?” she sighed.

“Go for the chest.” I grinned.

“Yes, my lord,” the demon woman purred.

Ashe dug her nails into the base of the vampire’s throat, right at the sternum, and he hissed as he limply tried to claw her arm away. The demon woman snickered as tiny pools of blood seeped around her nails, and as she drew a line straight down his chest, the blood followed as the skin was ripped open.

The vampire’s pale skin turned a light shade of blue as the venom soaked in and began to blister in his tissue, and his body thrashed around as the pain took over.

Ashe dodged every swipe without much effort, and she reminded me of a dancer, with the light touches, skillful footwork, and the delicate movements. Once the demon woman had finished tormenting the vampire’s chest, she slipped her sword from the belt around her waist, lined it up neatly on his shoulder, and then sliced through his neck without a second’s hesitation.

The vampire’s decapitated head dropped to the ground, and his body followed on behind. His skin was still to turn gray, so Ashe pierced the tip of her sword through the vampire’s temple, and then she held it up in the air like a trophy with an evil smirk on her face.

The bloodsucker’s head slowly slipped down the sword with a trail of congealed blood left behind, and as the skin finally turned gray, the red eyes glazed over and rolled back into the sockets.

“So, what shall we do with the last two?” Ashe asked once she’d freed her sword from the decapitated head.

“It would be rude to leave them suffering, right?” I snickered.

“I don’t think they really deserve to be put out of their misery,” my demon lover sighed, “but I do love to watch you work.”

“Likewise,” I murmured, and the two of us sauntered over to the vampire I’d left at the base of the sycamore tree.

I knew my punch had done some damage to the tree, but up close, I could see the base of the trunk had been pulled from the roots, and a large crack rippled through the wood. One push would have sent the tree collapsing to the ground, but I was more interested in the bloody vampire beside it, because his eyes were open again.

He looked up at me with a determined glint in his red irises, and that one simple gesture confirmed he deserved a gruesome death. It was a sure sign that someone had the darkest of souls if they could look a demon straight in the eyes without flinching.

It was also one of my favorite parts about the hunt.

Ashe and I never received the same amount of satisfaction if we murdered the innocent, who couldn’t look us in the eyes.

“Please take this one, Master,” Ashe said with a sinister smile.

“Thank you,” I replied.

We pulled the vampire off the ground, and then Ashe held his arms at his side, and I took the great pleasure in forcing the tip of my onyx blade through his eye socket and into his skull. His dark blood began to pool at the opening of the wound while he screamed, but I was more interested in the changing of his eyes and the darkening of his skin. I twisted my blade around a few times until I was sure the fucker was dead, and then I ripped my knife from the vampire’s head.

Ashe let go of his arms, and he collapsed onto the ground with a heavy splat.

I glanced over at my huntress and noticed she had the same satisfied look on her face as I had on mine. It may have been a long time for us to go without killing anyone, but this slaughter had certainly been the right way to start up again.

“Need a hand with your final prey?” I asked as I gestured to the still-twitching vampire behind us.

The vampire who’s jugular she slashed was locked in perpetual, blistering pain, and his entire body had gone rigid while he flopped side to side like a dying fish.

“Nooo… I’ve got this one,” Ashe purred.

Then she trotted forward while her gray dress bounced around her silvery thighs, and I noticed my nearby imps watching her with a mixture of curiosity and fear. Ashe took a few graceful leaps while she worked to gauge her landing spot, and then she jumped into the air and planted both of her boots into the vampire’s head.

His skull snapped under her as blood splattered up her knee-high boots, and my demon lover sent a flirty smile my way as she wiggled her ankles a bit.

“Beautiful,” I chuckled, and the nearby imps snickered quietly to themselves.

“I am,” she agreed, but then her smile dropped as she looked to the side of the smashed crates.

“Oh, fuck, Atticus…” Ashe said in a low voice, and she pointed toward a little blue figure in the moonlit grass.

That’s when I realized there was more than just the vampire corpses lying around. I’d sent nine imps to watch over the vampires’ purchase, and one of them hadn’t made it out alive.

Given how strong and powerful the vampires were, and seeing how small the imps were, it was a miracle that only one had died, and I couldn’t see any blood on the little imp, but his head lay at an odd angle, so I guessed a vampire had broken the imp’s neck.

The other imps shuffled over to us, and they all surrounded their lost friend. The anger in their eyes from before had vanished, and now they were filled with nothing but grief and sadness.

“We’ll bring him back to the manor house,” I told the group. “You can have your burial there.”

“Yes, master,” one of the imps mumbled.

“I’m sorry we couldn’t get here sooner,” I told them.

The same imp managed to smirk as he glanced up at me. “But you did come. That’s more than the dark elves would have done for us.”

“We’ll get all this cleaned up for ye’, master,” a second imp promised as he pointed to the shattered crates of orbs. “Won’t take long, we’ll--”

“I’ll get it,” I assured him.

Ashe and I left them to their grief and went to clear up all the orbs that spilled from the broken crates, but three imps still shuffled quickly after us to lend a hand in the work. The grass was littered with tiny glass gems in a mixture of blue, red, yellow, and green, and we started piling it all back into the crates while I wondered if the bloodsuckers’ coven would be causing me more trouble in the near future.

Then a sudden rustling of branches came from the other side of the moonlit clearing, and I braced myself to tear through another few vampire skulls, but a curly, gray-haired man emerged instead. He had one green and one blue eye, and he looked fucking terrified.

“Bennet,” I called out. “What are you doing here?”

Our middleman glanced around him to make sure the coast was clear, and then jogged over to me and Ashe. His cheeks were flushed red, and a bead of sweat rolled down from his brow.

“I came to help out the imps after I finished with the priest, but then I saw the vampires arrive,” Bennet replied, and his voice shook with fright. “I watched the whole thing, it was a fucking bloodbath.”

I tried not to grin, but Bennet hadn’t seen Ashe and I fight before, so I could only imagine how many times he must have almost pissed himself in those bushes. Judging from the look on his face, we’d terrified him half to death.

“What happened here?” I asked.

Bennet ran a hand through his sweaty, curly hair as he retold the story.

“The vampires arrived as normal to buy their fair share, but I could see the look in their eyes,” he explained. “I knew they were up to something, so I ran before they could see me. I wanted to come and get you both, but then I saw an imp run off in that direction, so it wouldn’t have made much difference time wise.”

I nodded in understanding. The imps really were fast little buggers, given their small size, and they almost became a blue blur when they ran as fast as they could manage. Even with Bennet’s blue vanishing orb, he probably would have arrived at the manor house around the same time as Gyor.

“Right, so you saw the vampires arrive, and then what?” Ashe asked. “How long did it take for the imps to notice something was off?”

“Instantly, as soon as they turned around to face them,” the man answered. “It was like they could see the menace in the vampire’s eyes, the same look I saw, and that was when they knew things weren’t going to go as planned. The one imp died first thing, but the others managed to fend for themselves before you both arrived.”

I looked over my shoulder to see half of the imps circled around the one who’d lost his life, and the others frowned solemnly while they continued regathering the orbs. The imps’ spiked tails, which usually swung around in the air, fell limp between their clawed feet, and that sight alone emphasized how sad and hurt they were over their loss.

One thing I had learned about those small creatures in the short time we’d known them was that they all looked out for each other. The fact that one had died here tonight would affect the entire group for a while, and I wasn’t exactly sure how to address this.

Things didn’t work like this in the Hellscape. Demons died daily in the voids, either when a fight broke out between a few of them, or when a demon had violated the rules and were thrown into the lava pits or subjected to another slow and torturous end. We all knew more demons were being reborn as quickly as they were destroyed, and the truth was, we were easy to replace.

Mortal imps were slightly harder to swap out.

“Thank you for keeping watch,” I said to Bennet.

“I don’t think those vampires knew you had taken over the business,” Bennet continued. “They’ve always been a bit tense with the dark elves, and I think that’s how this all came about tonight. Perhaps they thought they could fuck with the dark elves, rob them of their orbs, and murder a few imps in the process.”

“The rest of their coven will think twice next time,” I muttered. “Especially when they see what we’ve done here.”

“But… what about the incubi?” Bennet asked with a voice full of worry.

“What about them?” I snorted.

“The vampires are highly valued by the incubi,” the middleman explained. “You know their lot practically runs the entire Shadow Quarters. As soon as the incubi find out about the death of the bloodsuckers, we’ll all end up their number one targets.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it,” Ashe sighed and mussed her silver-blue hair.

“You know you’re playing with fire, right?” Bennet said as he paled a few more degrees. “The incubi don’t fuck around.”

“Have you forgotten where we’re from?” my demon lover chuckled.

“Ashe and I play with fire on a daily basis,” I assured the human. “It’s what we’re made for. A group of incubi is nothing compared to what we’ve faced in the past.”

“Just as long as you know what you’re getting yourselves into,” Bennet said warily. “I’m telling you, this lot are a ruthless band of crazy bastards. You’ve never seen anything like them. You piss off the incubi, and you’re in for some torture like you’ve never dreamed of.”

Ashe let out a smoky laugh as we exchanged a glance, and I tucked the little fiend under my arm. Bennet looked ready to shit himself with worry as the two of us turned to get back to work, and I sent him a devilish grin over my shoulder.

“Fuck the incubi,” I laughed, and the ashes of the Hellscape rippled in my throat as my demon voice echoed through the clearing.