Page 29 of Claiming Demons
Wow. Controlling much?
Something was up with Ramsey. “Perhaps you should tell me everything.” I led him to the main sitting area of the living room and drew him down onto one of the couches next to me.
“Not much to know, other than Horus is a lecherous bastard, who wants to take what belongs to me. Well,Idon’t think you belong to me, but he does. You get the point.”
“Oh,” I said, surprised. I tossed the invitation onto the coffee table. “Okay.”
If Ramsey said to stay away, I trusted him.
“Although,” Ramsey said begrudgingly. “If you don’t go…” He sighed and rubbed his face with a large hand. “Horus might get even more vindictive and petulant. I don’t think he’d come after you personally, but… you never know with him.”
That didn’t sound good. “How powerful a god is he?”
Ramsey laughed. “He’s not a god at all, despite what he says. He’s a daemon prince like me, with aspects of rulership and the heavens. He often tries to claim other aspects, but it’s all bluster. He’s petty and vindictive and an all-around jerk.”
I sighed. “Well then, let him come after me. I’m a goddess with many more aspects, including war. I can take care of myself.”
“Yeah, you can,” he said with a half laugh, seeming to relax at that. “Sorry, I forget that sometimes.”
A moment later, the door to the penthouse opened, and Grey strode down the entrance hall into the living area. “Anything interesting happen while I was out?”
I hadn’t been going to mention anything about Horus, but Eva, still across the room, piped up. “Mom got invited to a ball by an ass, but she’s not going.”
Grey turned to me with bemused confusion on his face. “I think that requires explaining.”
He strode over and sat across from Ramsey and me, but before either of us could speak, he saw the invitation and picked it up.
“My cousin, Horus-the-dickhead, invited Ana to a ball,” Ramsey said. “He hasn’t met her, but he thinks he can steal her away from me.”
“Not likely,” Grey said, as he scanned the invitation.
“She’s already decided, she’s not going,” Ramsey said.
Grey hummed for a moment. “Except…” He looked up at Ramsey who grunted and bristled.
“Except?” I asked.
“She said she’s not going,” Ramsey insisted before Grey could answer. Then he turned to me. “You’re not going.”
I sighed and looked at the huge man, feeling his rage swelling, a palpable heat rapidly growing at the edge of my senses. I probably should have been scared of him in a state like this, but I wasn’t. I knew he’d never hurt me.
I raised a single brow in challenge. “You’re going to tell your goddess what she can and cannot do?”
He opened his mouth, then snapped it shut, jaw tight. He’d learned his lesson, even if he didn’t like it.
Good boy.
“I don’t really want to go,” I told him. “But I am curious why Grey thinks I should. I’m going to hear him out.”
Ramsey’s jaw twitched and chaos swirled in his eyes, but he didn’t argue with me.
When I looked back to Grey, he was meeting Ramsey’s fury with ease and smiling at me as if to say,that’s my goddess.
“This ball will attract a lot of gods and daemons,” Greys said. “It’ll be a great place for you to scout for your parents. Also—” this was to Ramsey, “—if you, Fen, and I go as her escorts, I highly doubt Horus would try anything.”
Ramsey huffed but didn’t argue.
I nodded. “If I skip this, will there be other opportunities to meet the various gods and daemons?”