Chapter 7
Hellion
The interested guests gathered for a game.
“Now let’s start this show,” I said, clapping my hands together.
“I just want everyone to know that I am here under duress,” Jaheel protested gruffly.
“You will have fun and you will like it,” I threatened. “Now, for the first challenge, I mean game, let’s start with ‘never have I ever.’ Let me demonstrate how the game works. You make a statement about something you have never done, and the rest of the players drink if they have done this thing. For example, ‘never have I ever grown black and white wings’”.
Zachariel sighed and picked up his drink, a viciously green concoction prepared by Raphael, and took a sip, blinking a few times when he felt how potent the potion was—strong enough to affect even Archangels and Archdemons, I made sure of that.
“Now, who’s next? Zachariel, how about you take it away?”
“Sure. But first, you should take a seat.” I moved to plop down next to Zachariel, but he stopped me and smiled sweetly. “Know your place, darling.”
I looked at the other couples. Aurelius was lounging in Abaddon’s lap. Michael sat primly next to Lucifer. The club owners were cuddling each other.
No way. No fucking way did Zachariel really expect me to be the only sub kneeling at their dom’s feet?
“Come on, I’m getting bored here!” Beelzebub booed.
I gritted my teeth and fell down, sitting with my back to the couch next to Zachariel’s legs. That was as much as I was willing to do; I needed at least a few rounds of drinks to kneel in front of everyone. Zachariel let it go and started speaking.
“Never have I ever worn a corset.”
“Your loss,” Aurelius snorted, raising his drink, as did Nathaniel, Anael, and all the Archangels and Archdemons.
Huh, it seemed I was in a minority. It made sense for the long-lived beings to try everything at least once, especially considering the period of male fashion where corsets were an expected part of the wardrobe.
Going clockwise, the next person was Tirael, my very own work slave, so I nodded at him to continue. The poor angel looked frustrated, but that was his baseline attitude, so I knew we only had to wait him out.
“Never have I ever pranked anyone,” he finally said meekly.
Everyone took a swig.
“Oh, you sweet summer child,” Aurelius said, sounding almost as if he was giving condolences.
I was pretty sure the flashy angel would not leave that injustice alone for long, so I absolutely expected Tirael to be drawn into a prank war soon.
“Pranks make life much more interesting,” Lucifer grinned, getting a dark stare from Raphael
“I still haven’t forgiven you for that glitter bomb.”
Lucifer’s smile widened.
“It was edible glitter. Don’t even try to tell me you and your army of boytoys didn’t enjoy getting it off you.”
“Never have I ever killed anyone,” Kreshadon cut in, not letting the situation deteriorate and successfully gaining everyone’s attention. Including his partner’s.
“Huh? Didn’t you?”
“Never have I ever killed anyone with my own hands,” he corrected with a shrug.
With the company including beings thousands of years old, only a few people didn’t drink, notably Jaheel, Zachariel, Aurelius, and me.
Was it normal to feel ashamed that I had killed no one? Sure. Sometimes I did use violence to solve my problems as I wasn’t above socking someone in the face if they pissed me off enough, but I had never really offed or even seriously injured anyone. Everyone who had their hands clean was an Ascended, and, even among those, Serena and Anael took a drink. Sweet, shy Serena had killed someone! But out of the angels born by God’s power, later fallen or not, I was the only one who had not killed. A demon with hands not stained with blood.
It was fucking bizarre.
I caught Zachariel’s eye, saw the flash of concern on his face. It had to be a response to the unconscious expression I had been making. Silently, I shifted, kneeling at his feet after all. Fuck other people; what they thought about me wasn’t important. The only opinion I cared about was Zachariel’s. With his na?ve optimism and penchant for trying to make the world a better place, me not having a hit list probably made Zachariel like me even more.
I straightened up and barked: “Next!”
Nathaniel smiled innocently.
“Never have I ever had Raphael shout at me for neglecting my health.”
Half of the room looked instantly cowed. They took their sips while avoiding the healer’s eyes.
“All the angels, huh?” I asked. “Makes me glad I’m a demon. I can understand Lucifer and Beelzebub as well as they had plenty of time to get shouted at while they still had their white wings, but what gives Kreshadon?”
“Uuuh, we kinda knew each other from before Nathaniel and I established the Steel Velvet club.”
“What he means to say is that Raphael was our BDSM mentor! Our Fairy Godmother of Kink!” Nathaniel happily threw his partner under the bus.
“You came a long way, so I hope I don’t have to shout at you for repeating those past mistakes, hmm?” Raphael teased.
“Please, nowadays I could teach you a thing or two,” Kreshadon rolled his eyes but the redness at the tips of his ears betrayed his embarrassment.
The game continued, and we all got progressively buzzed. A barrage of questions kept us entertained, from Never Have I Ever Danced In The Rain (Me, Zachariel, Abaddon, Serena, and Anael drank), to Never Have I Ever Had A Threesome (Tirael got some interesting looks for that one), and Never Have I Ever Cried While Watching A Movie (I cried after not during, shut up Zachariel, it didn’t count!), until it was unexpectedly Jaheel who stirred the nest of hornets.
He sighed and drank the rest of his concoction even though it was his turn and left after dropping his bomb.
“Never Have I Ever wanted to fuck someone playing this game, other than my current partner.”
Well, fuck, he knew how to make an exit.
I took a hit of the poison because I was of an opinion anyone with eyes would like to hit at least one of the fine specimens in the room. Zachariel saluted me with a drink and took a swig as well.
Everyone except Michael drank, in fact.
“You are so whipped,” Raphael said, tilting his head as if he was studying an interesting specimen. “Really? You don’t find me desirable anymore?”
“You slept with Raphael?” Lucifer demanded, his eyes wide.
“It was thousands of years ago, alright!” Michael winced at the jealousy practically emanating from his lover. “I wanted to give it a try with someone other than you. Later I realized I don’t find sex without feelings satisfying.”
“Oh, you are demisexual, that makes sense,” Aurelius nodded to himself.
“Humans and their labels for everything…” Lucifer muttered under his breath. He took Michael’s hands in his. “Let me get this straight: you only want to fuck me?”
“Yes, Lucifer.”
They were so in love it was giving me diabetes. Michael didn’t even seem to care the Lord of Hell was a giant hypocrite as he took a sip, which meant he found someone other than his current partner fuckable.
Soulful staring into each other eyes had to have stimulated some other parts than just brain because they unceremoniously left the game. Welp, with three players down, it seemed that was the end of this particular fun.
“Wait, Serena, aren’t you a lesbian?” Aurelius squinted at her.
“Y-yes?”
Anael, the only other woman in the game, stared at her with wide eyes.
Serena blushed and stammered over her words, panicking, until Anael framed her face with her hands.
“So cute. You are my girlfriend now,” Anael declared.
The forcefulness probably had to do something with the booze-like poison cursing through her veins.
“O-okay,” Serena agreed, letting Anael squish her cheeks.
I had a feeling Jaheel knew perfectly well the end result of his words, that clever bastard.