Page 65 of Craving Demons
And Fen… Fen was actually blushing!
I was about to yell “she’s your grandmother” at him, but then remembered, she wasn’t, not by blood. “Just… fucking wow. Really?” I mean, she was hot, yeah, but… “Is she that good in bed?”
Fen looked at me earnestly. “Nothing compared with you.” His tone was level and honest, even a little heated. That made me shiver all the way down to my toes, heat pulsing with every beat of my heart and dripping down to settle warm and wet in my core.
“Oh,” I breathed.
Grey and Ramsey both stopped to stare daggers at Fen.
“Did you fuck her?” Ramsey growled. “No fucking allowed, no nothing. Those were Harmonia’s rules. We couldn’t do anything unless—”
“I asked for it,” I finished. “And I did.”
“Oh…” Ramsey fumed.
Grey’s dark eyes were stormy. I figured I should defuse this now.
“First, remember, this was all your plan, not mine. Second, I’ve got some rules of my own that I’m following, too.” Okay, so maybe my “no dicks” policy was on the verge of collapsing, but still! “And finally. I haven’tchosenanyone yet. Grey got to show me how he felt last night, Fen this afternoon, and you” — I turned my gaze to Ramsey — “you get me tonight. Only once I have all the information will I make a decision, and that’s assuming I evenwantto make a decision. You three are supposed to be fighting over me after all. Maybe I’ll keep making you fight until I make up my mind.”
“If it were a real fight, I’d win,” Ramsey muttered.
I sighed. These three daemon princes were filling this small room to overflowing with swaggering bravado and macho ego. It was almost stifling in here.
Perhaps a change of topic was in order.
“So, why is this bank so bad?” I asked.
The suffocating masculinity in the room dropped a notch or two. Though I felt a different sort of aura replace it, something dark and dangerous.
Grey leaned on the table. “Ramsey found out the bank is funding terrorism. When I looked into them, I found several disturbing things. They’re behind a good portion of the drugs coming into the city, not to mention weapons, which they sell to anyone anywhere. Initially, we thought the bank was run by a small group of powerful and money-hungry humans. But what we’ve discovered, is that the chairman of that little cabal is a daemon named Mammon, and he’s powerful and dangerous.”
I looked at these three men, who I considered to be powerful and dangerous and all of them seemed just a little shaken. “Is Mammon that powerful?”
“He should be a god,” Fen said. “He was, long ago, one of the first. His power rivals that of many gods. He’s only called a daemon because he still only has two aspects, and gods generally have more.”
“Oh.” That didn’t seem good.
“And,” Grey sighed, “he has another daemon working for him. A vicious fucker of a henchwoman named Nemain, who revels in havoc and pain.”
“She sounds lovely,” I said with a grimace, a new realization hitting me. “This is still a normal bank, isn’t it? Do you think there would be any problem with Donny getting his money?”
“Tommy’s money, not mine,” Donny said, not looking up from his computer.
I’d actually forgotten he was in the room. He had to have heard all this talk of gods and daemons, and he hadn’t said anything. He deserved an explanation, but before I could say anything, Ramsey answered the question I’d just asked.
“It’s possible. A quarter of a billion dollars is a lot of money and Mammon is a greedy fucker. He may have multiple billions, but I’m guessing he wouldn’t want to lose an amount like that. If your uncle went in on his own, Mammon would probably manipulate him into either keeping the money where it was or even possibly signing it over to the bank. He has a way of manipulating the greed in people to make them do stupid things.”
I yelped with surprise when Donny’s fist slammed down onto the table. None of the guys even twitched.
“Will someone tell me what the hell you’re all talking about?” Donny said. When he did look up from his computer, he looked at me.
And here it came. “Ah… well, gods are real, so are demons, but they’re not really evil and they’re not called demons, they’re called daemons. Ramsey, Grey, and Fen here are all daemon princes, and apparently, I’m a daemon, too.Surprise!I had no clue until just a few days ago. But my birth parents were celestial beings of some sort and I know it’s a lot to take in, but yeah, that’s the gist of it.”
“Was that so hard to say?” Donny said. “Thank you.”
I blinked. “Wait, you’re just… accepting everything I said? No questions?” I was thoroughly incredulous. I’d expected a flip-out of epic proportions.
Donny looked up at me. “You may be a handful of a niece, but you’ve never lied to me. I may not have trusted you with my money, but when it comes to anything else, I trust you. Everything you said is absolutely ridiculous, but if you say it’s true, I believe it.”