Chapter 53
Entertainment Fit for Demons
Asmodeus grinned wickedly and stood, waiting to escort them to gods only knew where. With pops and explosions of black billowing clouds, each demon prince wordlessly shifted into a humanoid form.
Elizabeth understood then what Asmodeus had meant about demons who created human forms versus those who possessed them.
Their bodies were blurry, ill-formed around the edges, pulsing with inner light. Only their eyes remained as they were, pits of silver flames, or in Lucifer’s case, pits of burning red. The lack of horns and wings should have been reassuring, but unease settled in her stomach instead.
They all preferred attractive masculine forms except Abbadon, who had chosen the form of a petite brunette woman. Elizabeth couldn’t tell who was who anymore, which unsettled her more than she’d expected.
Following Finnigan through the castle corridors, Elizabeth steeled herself for whatever awaited. When the heavy gold doors opened to reveal the ballroom, her jaw dropped.
Elizabeth had to refrain from curling her lip in distaste.
The hall teemed with half-dressed women, tables brimming with red meat, mushrooms, and roasted beaks, and pitchers of a red substance that was unlikely to be lamb’s blood.
Entire game animals’ carcasses hung grotesquely around the hall like a charcuterie board for demons.
“Well, aren’t you a handsome devil,” slurred what could only be a prostitute to Asmodeus, batting her eyelashes. Asmodeus grinned and put his arm around her. The woman muttered, “Tell me how you got those wings to look so real?”
The music wasn’t ballroom fare—this was hypnotic, meant for close dancing in dark taverns. Women lounged half-naked on sofas or danced, swaying their hips to the beat.
Sin was palpable in the air.
Elizabeth’s ancestors were surely rolling in their graves to see her here.
Focus, she commanded herself. You’re here for Caspian. For revenge. Nothing else matters.
The demon princes wandered, their forms ethereal, and mingled with the women.
Elizabeth wondered where Asmodeus had found women who wanted to dance and flirt with demons.
Elizabeth sat stiffly beside Asmodeus, who now had a girl in his lap, stroking his hair.
Finnigan, who sat on her other side, appeared equally disinterested in the proceedings.
“Not going to mingle?” she asked Finnigan with a smile.
“I have no interest in bedding mortals,” Finnigan said, curling his lip.
Ordinarily, she would have been affronted, but for right now, she was deeply reassured. She resolved to sit next to him for the rest of the night.
The girl in Asmodeus’s lap began stroking his broad chest, and Elizabeth flushed and looked away. But everywhere she looked, debauchery reigned.
Elizabeth watched Abbadon’s hands roam over her dance partner's body. An expression of ecstasy crossed the woman’s features. And when Abbadon bit the woman’s neck, drawing blood that ran in rivulets down her chest, Elizabeth’s face heated with embarrassment.
Not embarrassment, she realized with a start. Recognition. She knew that euphoric expression, that desperate arch of the back. She’d felt it herself.
Abbadon kissed the girl, hands coming to rest on her neck, and came away red. The demon raised her blood-covered hands to the sky, dancing to the hypnotic beat of the music.
Around the hall, the women were dancing as if in a trance, unaware that one of their number was in danger.
Abbadon circled her prey and roughly pushed her to the floor.
Straddling the woman, the demon moved her hips, rubbing her gore-covered hands over her neck, her breasts.
The woman on the floor writhed in bliss, her mind fooled into forgetting the pain she was in, how lightheaded she must be getting.
A woman stripped to the beat of the music, baring her breasts.
She was appalled at the open display of vulgarity and nudity around her. Her mother would have lost her mind to see Elizabeth in such a place, inches from the debauchery of the highest level.
The very air pulsed hot and thick.
The music and perfume made Elizabeth want to join them.
To dance, to live, and grind against a handsome demon.
But she held firm, her will iron. The demons were throwing their charisma and mind-altering powers around to the point she had to physically clamp her knees together against her body’s desire to squirm in her seat.
If I can barely resist with my mental walls intact, these women never stood a chance.
“Hello, mortal girl.”
Lucifer had chosen the form of a dark-skinned man with a powerful chest and tight braids zigzagging across his scalp.
His form was more solid than the others, but still slightly blurred at the edges.
His voice was impossibly deep and slow, bringing to mind slow, sensual things. She knew it was him by his red eyes.
“Hello, Lucifer, Demon King,” she said, standing and falling into a curtsey.
He nodded, releasing her from formalities. “Do you have a name?”
“Elizabeth, Your Majesty.”
They stood, watching as Abbadon bared pointed teeth and bit into her partner's thigh. Her partner arched in ecstasy, bringing Abbadon closer to her flesh. Gods.
Elizabeth’s throat constricted. She understood that high too well—the mind-altering ecstasy of a demon’s bite, how it could make anyone lose sight of reality. She did not blame the woman writhing on the floor. She pitied her.
“You don’t have to watch,” Lucifer said.
“With all due respect, Majesty … I do have to watch.” The words came out sharper than intended.
Around them, the debauchery escalated. Rivulets of red ran everywhere, and she felt like she had front row seats in a twisted pleasure hall.
A woman thrust her hand down a demon’s pants and …
Elizabeth had to avert her eyes, blushing.
Another demon kissed naked breasts, drawing blood that coated his face as he raised it skyward, revealing fangs.
I had no idea how much Caspian restrained himself with me, Elizabeth realized, her chest tight.
“Do you not want to join … the entertainment?” Lucifer asked. His voice was deep, sounding like sin and silk sheets.
“I am fine where I am, thank you,” she said stiffly.
“Does it bother you? Seeing your humans used for blood and body?”
Court training kept her smile bland. “It is not my place to question, Your Majesty. We said we would host the demons, and we have.”
“Lucifer. Not Your Majesty. I don’t bother with fancy titles.”
She smiled in acknowledgement, hoping he’d move on.
“And why must you watch? You would not be missed if you retired to your chambers.”
Elizabeth cleared her throat. “Because firstly, hosting you might ensure we have the best chances of convincing you to save Caspian.”
“And secondly?”
“I don’t think I should say in present company.” Truthfully, she was transfixed because Caspian had done all this. All this and worse. For centuries. And she knew he was perverse in his desires, had seen as much with her own two eyes, but had no idea how much he restrained himself in her presence.
“Please, now I must insist.”
Across the room, demons were openly having sex with their partners.
One of the demons had bent a woman over, and another was spreading a woman out on the couch like a banquet.
It was a bloody, demon filled orgy. The girls moaned in euphoria as demons bit them, riding the waves of pleasure that rode their blood.
Her cheeks burned.
Another demon joined the group on the couch, bringing his waist near a girl’s face. The girl rubbed the front of his pants excitedly until the demon let out a low purr.
Elizabeth’s eyes widened.
Lucifer was surveying her with raised brows.
“You are human, yet you stand aside while my friends bleed and fuck your friends?”
“You seem very interested in my reasons and not at all interested in the women here tonight,” she said, meeting his amused gaze. “Go join the entertainment, if you wish.”
Join them and leave me alone.
“I like puzzles, and you standing here unbothered is … puzzling. You should be begging to join them with all the suggestions we are throwing into the air.” His voice was pure temptation. “Yet here you stand, unaffected.”
“Asmodeus invited you,” she reminded him.
“Asmodeus would not stand before me requesting help, not in his current condition. It was you. You are the only factor that has changed. Asmodeus is a good demon, but he is spineless.”
Asmodeus unglued himself from the lips of the woman in his lap. “Hey!”
Ignoring him, Lucifer fixed his piercing gaze on her.
“A woman who made Betsael run into enemy lines for vengeance on her behalf. Who makes Asmodeus do whatever she likes, even if it’s against his nature.
How does a mortal woman have two demon princes wrapped around her finger?
Perhaps you are a little witch, some monster wearing human skin. ”
“I’m not sure I understand your meaning, Lucifer.”
“You know exactly what I mean.” He gestured at the hall. “Why are you okay with the entertainment? Aren’t humans preachy do-gooders? I’ve seen humans run screaming, seeing much less.”
“The part of me that was virtuous and law-abiding died long ago,” she said, her voice turning cold. “There is nothing I would not do to get Caspian back and have him avenge my family. Everything else is of little importance now.”
“Revenge is something that I can understand.” His voice softened. “The depthless rage that poisons your heart. Vengeance can cripple a person, or it can be the whetstone that sharpens the blade. It is something I know well.”
His expression hardened, amusement sliding away like a discarded mask.
“Tell me, why should I join your cause? They will follow me.” He jerked his head at the scene unfolding in the hall.
“Because he has helped you and fought for you. Because he is your friend and would have done the same for you. Is that not reason enough?”
“No.”