My Funny Demon Valentine (Hell Bent #1)

Chapter 29

29

H ome Is W h ere t h e H eart Is

A bunch of stuff happened really fast.

Eva cursed, and so did Meph and Raum. Ash growled and lunged at Mist, and so did Belial. And Mist dissolved into, well, mist. They were left frantically searching around the room, until the demon reformed on the other side of the kitchen island.

“I would like to negotiate,” he said calmly.

Ash wasn’t hearing it; he lunged again. Again, Mist dissolved.

“What kind of negotiation?” Belial asked.

Mist reformed again, this time in front of the newly replaced windows. They all swiveled around at the sound of his voice. “I have been watching you since the day I found Asmodeus. Actually, I’ve been watching her.” He pointed a claw at Eva.

Ash growled and moved to attack again, but Bel stopped him with a palm on his chest. “Let’s hear him out.”

Ash glared at his brother. “He knows about Eva. We have to kill him.”

“The odds of success are low,” Mist said as if they were discussing the weather forecast and not his potential demise. “And if you try and fail, I will have no reason to continue aiding you. I will report to my mistress that you are here and in the company of a Nephilim. Or, we can negotiate and come to an agreement that benefits both parties.”

The demon was blackmailing them. And with his fancy mist trick, he was right that he stood a pretty good chance of escaping if they tried to catch him. By the furious look on Ash’s face, he’d come to the same conclusion.

“You say you’ve been aiding us?” Belial asked. “How?”

Yellow eyes blinked on an expressionless face. “I will explain once you agree to negotiate.”

Bel looked at Ash, waiting for his agreement. After some more grumbling and growling, Ash finally relented with a sharp nod, moving to stand in front of Eva.

“As I said, I’ve been watching you.”

“How’d you find me so quickly in the first place?” Ash asked.

“I am the Hunter. I hunted you.” He spoke like he was mildly offended by the question. “As I explained at our previous encounter, I traced your scent here and simply waited for you to return. As I did, I observed the human, and I became... fascinated.” He stared at Eva with those creepy eyes. “She is such a simple creature.”

Eva glared at him. She was not simple , thank you very much.

“And then, when Asmodeus protected her, proving he had formed an attachment, my fascination increased. I gave the matter deep consideration, and finally, I concluded that I would like a human pet of my own.”

Everyone stared at him.

“Uh, what?” said Meph, which pretty much summed it up.

“I wish to experience this form of attachment,” Mist said, like that was a perfectly reasonable explanation. “So, when I was interrogated by the Watcher, I did not reveal your whereabouts. And after he left and I escaped the sigil, I chose to remain here and await your return to negotiate.” He glanced at the window beside him. “I also called a human to repair the glass and keep out the draft.”

“Wait.” Bel held up a hand and then rubbed his forehead. “I’m still not clear on what you want.”

“I would like to form an attachment with a human pet like Asmodeus and Eli— like Asmodeus. I want to know about this experience.”

Meph burst out laughing. Even Raum couldn’t hold in his chuckles.

“Excuse me,” Eva snapped, stepping around Ash. “I am not a pet .”

Mist cocked his head at her like a freaking insect, and it took all her courage not to retreat right back behind Ash’s tall body. “You allow Asmodeus to care for you. He takes you with him when he goes out. He shares sex with you. I want a human for these purposes as well.”

“She is not a pet,” Ash said. “She chooses to be with me. We’re equals.”

Mist shrugged. “Whatever you choose to call it, I want to experience the same for myself.”

“But Ash is breaking the rules,” Bel said slowly. “You’ve never broken the rules before, Mishetsu.”

The Hunter blinked. “I have.”

“When?”

He simply stared at Belial, obviously unwilling to divulge that information.

“So that’s all you want?” Bel asked when it became obvious he wasn’t going to answer. “You’re willing to go rogue and risk everything just because you want a girlfriend?”

“Girl... friend?”

Bel waved a hand. “Pet, girlfriend, whatever. The term isn’t important.”

“Oh my god,” Eva groaned. “I can’t believe I’m hearing this.”

“I will not go rogue,” Mist said. “I’ll simply continue my mission of hunting you without any success and without stumbling upon a Nephilim, while in actuality, I will live here, and you will teach me how to secure my own human girl friend.”

“You’re going to lie?” Bel seemed to have a hard time wrapping his head around this.

Mist nodded.

“But your track record is infallible. You’ve never not succeeded. You’ve never bent a rule. You think they’ll buy it?”

“They will buy it because of my infallible record. And eventually, before suspicion can arise, I will tire of my pet and other Earth experiences, and then I can return to hunting. That is my true calling, and my only purpose.”

“And then you’ll just sell us out?” Ash asked, cocking a brow.

“No. We can formulate a nondisclosure contract.” Mist seemed unconcerned. “I will report my first ever failure and say that the great Belial was powerful enough to outsmart me. No one will ever learn that I actually found you within a week of your escape.”

Bel grimaced. Silence reigned for a few tense moments.

Surprisingly, it was Raum who spoke first. “He just wants what we do—a chance to live a little without the rules hanging over his head. I don’t see why we can’t help him out.”

“He could have already sold us out if he intended to,” Meph pointed out.

“But the minute he gets bored, he could change his mind,” Ash said. He glanced briefly at Eva. “There’s more to consider than our own safety.”

“We’ll do a blood contract, then,” Raum suggested. “We’ll make it so he’s incapable of betraying us or Eva even after he returns to his duty.”

Ash held up a hand. “This is Eva’s decision. She’s the one put most at risk by this.” He looked at her. “What do you think?”

She had to smile at him. She’d definitely caught the good brother. Phew . The rest of them were still figuring out the difference between a pet and a girlfriend, for god’s sake.

Then, she looked at Mist. Not long ago, she would have taken one look at him and run screaming from the room. In fact, that was literally what had occurred.

But her eyes had been opened now. Really opened. As in, her eyelids had been peeled off with torture-clamp thingies and held forcibly wide so she couldn’t blink no matter how badly she wanted to.

She’d learned that not only were demons real, but not all of them fit the mold. Some were evolving and didn’t want to be evil anymore. In her mind, that meant that as a compassionate human, it was her duty to support them in those efforts.

If Mist was serious about living in the human world, then he deserved a chance. He was going to have to work on his perception of humans before she let him near any women, however.

Not to mention, Mist had the upper hand here. At any time, he could mist out the window and disappear and then tell the world what she was. It seemed to her that agreeing to his bargain and binding him in a contract was by far the safest option.

“If we do this,” she told the gray-skinned demon, “we’re going to have to set some ground rules.”

Mist smiled and nodded, flashing two rows of sharklike teeth.

She winced. “First, you’re going to need a human form like Ash and his brothers.”

His smile disappeared. “I’ve never had a human form before.”

“Well, you’re going to have to get one.” She looked at Ash. “Can he do that? Make himself a human form?”

“We all have one. He just hasn’t used it before.”

She turned back to Mist. “Well, let’s see it, then.”

Mist shifted on his feet. “I don’t know how.”

“It’s easy,” Meph said. “Just imagine yourself as a squishy human with stubby hands, and it’ll happen.”

“I’ll try.” Mist closed his eyes and focused. Nothing happened.

And then it did.

“It’s working!” Eva whispered, caught up in the excitement despite herself.

First, he shrank about a foot, ending up several inches over six feet instead of his former giant size. Then his skin changed from ashy gray to a golden tan, darker than Ash but not as dark as her or Raum.

The swirling patterns that were barely noticeable against his dark gray skin became black tribal-like tattoos on his neck, chest and forearms. The design on his chest was circular and reminded Eva of a sigil, while the ones on his neck and forearms were like thick bands.

His messy hair stayed the same, but his body got broader and more muscular. His claws became hands. The bone structure softened in his face, leaving behind a defined jawline and high cheekbones. He opened his eyes. Beneath dark, expressive brows, the glowing yellow had darkened to a warm amber.

All in all, he was freaking gorgeous.

“Wow.” Eva stared in amazement. Not at all what she had expected.

“Not bad,” Meph agreed, nodding. “And nice tats.”

“They’re not tattoos,” Bel said. “They’re brands.”

Something dark flashed in Mist’s eyes.

Sensing this was a sensitive subject, she quickly changed it. “You forgot to disappear your tail.”

Mist frowned, closing his eyes. His skin became gray once again, but his tail vanished.

“But your skin...”

He opened his eyes, looked at himself and growled, and she realized he still had a mouth full of shark teeth. “This is difficult.” As he spoke, his eyes filled in with that glowing yellow and the reptile pupils returned.

“Well, Rome wasn’t built in a day,” Eva said weakly, watching as Mist shook his head and grew in height until he was back to his original form. “You’ll just have to practice.”

He nodded eagerly, snake eyes aglow. She couldn’t help but smile back. What was wrong with her that she kept meeting scary monsters and finding them sweet?

“You are going to have to learn a lot about humans,” she said. “We’re not pets.” She looked at the brothers and amended her words. “Honestly, you all need ‘How to Human’ lessons. Some of the stuff that comes out of your mouths...”

They all grinned, unashamed.

She rolled her eyes and turned back to Mist. “And lastly, you need to find somewhere else to live, because you can’t stay here.”

He stroked his chin with his claws. “I wonder if there are any apartments open in this building. I like it here.”

“No,” Eva said quickly, “That’s not—”

“That’s a good idea.” Bel’s eyes lit up. “We should all move here.”

“No, really, I don’t think—”

“Ash will be here more often than not, so if we live here too, we’ll be close by in case of emergencies.”

“Really, I’m sure you don’t want—”

“And then we can hang out at Eva’s place whenever we want.” Raum’s golden eyes were twinkling.

“It’s safer for Eva if we are close at all times,” Ash agreed.

Eva groaned. God help her.

A few days later, Ash sat at the grand piano in Eva’s living room, trying to find the perfect chord to link two others together. He was so close, yet it wasn’t quite right.

It would have helped if he’d actually been focused. Instead, he was mostly watching Eva from across the room. She lay on her back on the sofa, clad only in a slinky little bathrobe, her feet straight up against the wall as she chatted to her friend Skye on the phone. Thelonious sat beside her in a patch of sunlight streaming in through the big windows, and she stroked him while she talked, wiggling her toes absentmindedly.

He smiled. Damn, he really loved her.

And what the hell was she doing with her bare legs up in the air like that? Did she not know how enticing she looked? How was he supposed to focus on anything with all that gorgeous brown skin waving around like a homing beacon, guiding him right between those curvy thighs?

Brown. He blinked, noticing the green plants, the orange sofa, the purple painting on the wall. The scent of coffee in the air.

His curse was lifted again. But how? He hadn’t done anything on the piano beyond trying to mash a few chords together. The other times he’d had to play for a while before it lifted. He wondered what had happened differently this time, and then his gaze landed back on Eva, and it dawned on him.

He’d been sitting there thinking that he loved her. And love was pretty much the furthest thing from demonic as one could get. Could it really be that simple? Could he be liberated from his black-and-white, invisible existence forever just by loving her?

Eva glanced over then. Seeing him watching her, she smiled and blew a kiss without interrupting her conversation. A sense of contentment unlike anything he’d ever known filled him, and he realized that yes, it really could be that simple.

Eva said goodbye to her friend a minute later, flipping her feet down and crossing the room. When she reached him, she swung a leg over and sat in his lap, that perfect ass of hers pressed against the piano keys.

“How’s Skye?” he asked, gripping her soft thighs and loving the way her flesh overfilled his hands. She smelled so fucking good too. Her flowery soap and the coconut oil she put in her hair mixed with that unique, sweet scent that was just his Eva.

“I couldn’t focus on a damn thing she was saying with you looking at me like that,” she replied, cocking a brow.

“I couldn’t focus on a damn thing either with you waving your bare legs around like that.”

Smiling, she draped her arms over his shoulders and kissed him lazily. Like they had all the time in the world together. Because they did.

His phone vibrated in his pocket. Eva leaned back and helped him pull it out, though he didn’t know why he bothered because as soon as he saw who it was, he rolled his eyes and tossed it on top of the piano.

“Bel again?” Eva asked.

He nodded. “Fucker’s way too excited about moving.”

“I would be too if it meant leaving that crappy apartment.”

“True.” His gaze shifted away. He hadn’t checked Bel’s text because he already knew what it would say. And he still didn’t have an answer for Bel because he’d been putting off the conversation.

“What?” Eva asked immediately, and he should have known better than to think he could hide from her. He didn’t want to hide from her anyway.

“I have to ask you something.” He forced himself to meet her gaze. “Bel found an apartment in your building that he wants to rent.”

“Great.”

Ash cocked a brow, and she rolled her eyes.

“I know, I know, it’ll be a pain in the ass, and we’ll never get any privacy, but it will be nice to have your brothers close, and you’re right about the whole safety-in-numbers thing.” She frowned at the expression on his face. “So what’s the problem?”

“It’s a four bedroom.”

“Perfect, then.”

“Well, not if... Since Mist is with them, it’s not... We might need something bigger if...”

“What?”

He looked at her. “Should I tell Bel I need a room in our new place?”

Eva blinked.

Immediately, he backtracked. “I wasn’t sure what you wanted, and I wanted to be clear, but there’s no problem if you don’t want—”

“Why would you need a room? Aren’t you living here?”

It was his turn to blink. “Uh...”

And then it was Eva’s turn to backtrack awkwardly. Wow, they made quite the pair. “I assumed you would be, but that doesn’t mean you have to, and I don’t want you to—”

“You want me to live here? With you?”

“Um, yeah. I thought that’s what we were doing?”

He started to smile.

“Babe, your stuff is already strewn all over my apartment. I even cleared you a drawer. What was I supposed to think?”

“I dunno.”

“Do you want to live with me?”

He pretended to have to think. “Hm. Live with the sexy woman sitting on my lap, or live with four obnoxious demons with no sense of boundaries or taste in music. That’s tough.”

She laughed and smacked his arm. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Take that as a fuck yes. I just wasn’t sure you wanted me here all the time.”

“Are you kidding? Getting up this morning to find you’d made coffee and were sitting at my piano wearing nothing but a towel?” She sighed dreamily. “I want every day to start that way.”

“Your cat hates me,” he reminded her.

“He’ll get over it.”

“Good.” He wrapped his arms around her. “Because there’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

“My demon, the romantic. You’re so sweet.” She rubbed her nose against his. He tilted his head and turned it into a kiss.

His phone rang, and he growled at it. To his surprise, Eva reached back and snagged it off the piano “Bel? It’s Eva. Ash doesn’t need a room because he’s living with me. And you have my blessing to move into my apartment building, not that you care, I know. But I’m warning you, you’d better never barge in here without calling first because I plan on keeping your brother very busy.”

Eva hung up the phone and tossed it back onto the piano. “There,” she said, leaning in for another kiss. “You’re all mine.”

“Yours,” he agreed, and maybe he should have done some dominance thing where he reminded her that she was his , but he didn’t. He was happy to belong to her.

So what if he’d gone soft. He didn’t give a shit.

She leaned back and stroked his cheek with a grin. “My funny valentine.”