3. 3

3

Luc

L uc managed to locate a new set of sheets eventually, ones that had been washed in soul water and not brimstone. It was the inferior choice in Luc’s opinion, but the tiny human had asked, and Luc felt an uncomfortably strong desire to make it happen for him. He was just turning the corner when he heard muffled growls and thumps coming from his open door.

Beast.

Luc sped up, rounding the corner and spreading his wings, ready to intervene, then stopped dead in his tracks.

What. The. Ever-loving. Heaven.

Expecting carnage and blood, Luc was completely baffled to see his hellbeast lying belly up on the floor, ragged tail thumping happily back and forth and making sooty char marks on the stone.

Oren was crouched over his large, spiky form and petting his open ribcage, tickling under his huge, gaping maw, which was dripping molten orange saliva everywhere in happiness.

“Who’s a good hellish creature?” Oren cooed. “You! That’s who. Yes, you are!”

Beast grumbled his delight, a horrid sound that grated on Luc’s ears.

“Who likes pets on his spikes, hm? Oh yes, that’s the spot, huh?” Oren said, curling a hand over the twin spikes that curled away from Beast’s head.

“What is going on here?” Luc demanded, scandalized.

Oren blinked up at him and smiled. “Oh! You’re back.”

“Why are you… How did you… You’re petting him!”

“Sure,” Oren chirped, looking down at Beast. “I just need to avoid the fire, don’t I, handsome boy?”

“Handsome!” Luc choked. “He’s a hellbeast!”

“So he can’t be handsome?”

“His mouth can fit around your head!”

“I bet he has a big appetite.” Oren grinned, completely missing the point. “What does he eat?”

“Human flesh!”

“Do you think I’m tasty, boy?” Oren giggled. “Do you want to gobble me up?”

Beast pawed at Oren’s shirt, making tiny holes in the material with his claws as he demanded more pets.

“He’s dangerous!” Luc exclaimed, as much to remind his hellbeast as to inform Oren.

“But you left me in the room with him. You said not to worry,” Oren pointed out.

“Because he was chained up.”

Oren gasped, hugging Beast closer without setting himself on fire. “You chain him up?!”

“HE’S A HELLBEAST!”

“He’s a sweetheart, and you shouldn’t chain him anywhere. He clearly didn’t like it. That’s why he had such a bad temper. Look how happy he is now.”

“How is this how my day is going?” Luc muttered to himself, pinching his nose with his claws.

“What’s his name?” Oren asked.

“Beast.”

“Awww.”

“It’s not cute!” Luc stressed. “Did you hit your head on the way down to Hell?”

Oren shrugged contemplatively. “Maybe.”

Luc sighed, loud and deep. “Well, we don’t have time to figure that out. I need to call a meeting and let all my demons know you’re going to be hanging around until we figure this out.”

“What about the tour?” Oren asked, pouting those pink lips at him in disappointment.

Luc almost caved under that look, ready to give him anything if he’d just sit on his lap and stare at him with those big green eyes and use those pink lips for something else. Luc had been so busy trying to work this fuckup out that he hadn’t fully processed the idea of having Oren here. In his space. In his room. Looking like a full-course meal. Forget Beast. Luc would happily eat Oren up… out… whatever was on the menu.

He needed to focus.

“After the meeting.”

“Can I bring Beast?” Oren asked, pushing his glasses up his nose.

“Oren…”

“He’s been cooped up all day.”

“How would you know? You’ve only been here a few hours!”

Oren exaggerated his pout to a comical degree, stroking Beast’s skeletal head. “But he looks so sad.”

Luc stared down at the hellbeast, whose craggy mouth was split into a perpetual smile that wrapped around the front of his muzzle, all the way to the place where his horns met his head.

“Right.”

“I’ll take responsibility for him.” Oren gave him that look again.

Luc threw his hands up. “If he attacks someone, that’s on you.”

Oren cheered, popping up to his feet. Beast rolled back to his, as tall as Oren’s chest when standing, staring up at him adoringly. Oren stroked a hand over the mats of hair that were randomly scattered over the hellbeast’s body, glancing around the room. “Where’s his leash?”

“Leash?” Luc repeated.

“You know… to take him on walks,” Oren said. “Like a dog.”

“He’s not a dog. He’s a hellbeast.”

“Well, he should still get to go on walkies. I’m sure there are some nice firepits he’d like to visit. Maybe that’s why he was such a cranky-pants before.”

Luc stared at Oren in disbelief. How was this person here right now? Luc felt like he was in a fever dream. He’d like to skip ahead to the sex portion of it, thank you very much.

“What?” Oren asked.

Luc shook his head, moving to look for something suitable for Oren to take Beast out with. There were the chains under the bed, but they were bolted to the floor and no doubt destroyed, considering Beast was out and about and loving on his new favorite thing.

Luc stepped into his closet, hearing Oren follow him. He had to be the nosiest creature in both Hell and the living world.

There was a saying about curiosity killing someone. Maybe that was how Oren had really died.

Luc kicked a few whips out of the way that had fallen when he’d retrieved the bedding Oren hadn’t wanted and moved to the left side of the closet. He was eyeing the various leathers and metals, contemplating some harnesses when he felt Oren’s presence at his back. He turned his head to look at him and found him peering at the gear Luc had in his closet.

“Is that for BDSM?” he asked, eyeing a spiked collar attached to a ball gag.

Luc raised an eyebrow and smirked. “You like that?”

“Never tried it. Never tried much of anything really, before dying,” Oren said, reaching out to grab the ball gag, bringing it to his lips and opening his mouth as if testing the size of it. Luc felt a stirring in his dick that he wasn’t even going to fight. Oren had to be fucking with him at this point. “I think this one’s too big for me. I watched a documentary on BDSM, and it said not everything will be for everyone, and that it’s best to try things before deciding what works for you. It was pretty fascinating.”

“And do you think you might want to try things for yourself, hon?” Luc couldn’t stop himself from asking in a purr.

The thought of Oren being untouched did things to Luc. He was a possessive creature by nature—an entity made up of all the sins humans came to Hell for. He knew them all intimately.

Oren flushed to the roots of his hair in response to his tone, but he looked intrigued. Luc found himself reacting to the mental image of Oren spread out on his bed, collared and restrained, begging for his touch…

What was he looking for again?

With some effort and concentration, they eventually found a leather collar and chain belt combination that would fit around the hellbeast.

Oren held the chain happily once it was done, still petting and fussing over Beast periodically while Luc called his head demons for the meeting.

He gave them five minutes to get moving before leading Oren down the corridors and through the skull garden. Beast tried his best to get Oren to play fetch, but he was eventually persuaded to move after he was allowed to take a tibia from the piles.

The gardener was going to have a field day with Luc once he found out. He was very particular about the placements. Something about summoning a creature of untold wrath and destruction and blah, blah, blah… After eons, it was hard to retain every piece of information, and harder to take it seriously when the words ‘wrath’ and ‘destruction’ had been invented specifically for him.

Luc led the way into the meeting room, which was a brimstone cavern with fiery chandeliers lighting up the space overhead. He did a quick headcount, clocking a few notable exceptions; Tana for one. She rarely turned up to anything she didn’t want to, and it wasn’t worth the risk of maiming in the workplace if he forced her.

He spotted Zorun off to the side, his big body posted up against a magma wall, a brilliant bright spot in the room that drew eyes. Four in particular. The lithe onyx bodies of the twins were curled up against him, barely reaching his shoulders. They had him cornered and surrounded and were chattering away in tandem, pushing and prodding as they messed around with the straps across his chest, like everything was just there for their express amusement.

Azoth and Tarik took delight in annoying the entirety of Hell, but they especially loved to rile Zorun up whenever they got the chance.

Luc snorted at Zorun’s scowl.

“BOSS IS HERE!” Kassel said loudly to the room, the most observant of the bunch as always, mostly due to all the eyes.

“Oh, he’s handsome,” Oren said from behind Luc’s back, and Luc felt something ugly stir inside him at the words.

Kassel was regarded as the most attractive of the demons in Hell, with his lavender skin, multiple brightly colored eyes, and long, dark hair. His horns were a deep purple, and he was tall and muscled from all the hard work he did. He’d been the winner of the Mr. Hell pageant for several centuries running.

Luc had never paid any attention to Mr. Hell before, but now that Oren had expressed interest, he felt like he should probably find the deepest pit of Hell and send Kassel to be handsome there.

“He’s fine if you like purple… and eyes,” Luc said petulantly, swallowing down the beast inside him as he turned to his demons. “Listen up, everyone!”

Zorun kicked off the wall with his entourage trailing behind him, still trying to climb all over him and not paying attention to anything else. The rest of the demons grew quiet immediately, every eye turning to the elephant in the room. Or human, as it were.

“Did sssomeone bring their work to the meeting or…?” Jek asked from the back, his serpent’s tongue making him lisp.

Luc huffed in amusement and placed a hand on Oren’s lower back to push him forward. “This is Oren. Some of you may have seen him this morning. There’s been a mix-up Upstairs with his placement, so he’ll be staying here as a guest until we straighten it all out.”

“He’s not a sinner?” Azoth asked, abandoning conquering Mount Zorun for the moment to give the subject a modicum of attention.

“No,” Luc said.

Azoth looked at his twin, who then asked, “So we can’t torture him?”

“No.”

“Not even an itty-bitty baby torture?” they asked in unison.

Luc rolled his eyes. “No.”

“Not even—”

“No torture,” Luc said firmly, swiping a clawed hand.

There was a chorus of disappointed groans and a few pouts cropping up around fangs and tusks.

“Listen, we don’t need higher management coming down on our heads,” Luc said. “The Dante incident was more than enough hassle, and all because someone left the damn door open.”

Grumbles ensued, and some demons looked sheepishly around the room, avoiding eye contact.

“Well… what are we supposed to do with him then?” Kassel asked at length, all his eyes blinking at once, completely baffled.

Luc opened his mouth, then snapped it shut, tapping his claws against the back of his neck. He… hadn’t really gotten that far in his plans yet. Other than picturing Oren on the end of his cock, that was.

“Keep him out of trouble,” he said finally, nodding to himself.

“Babysitting?” Tarik asked, nose scrunched and already turning away.

“We’re busy,” Azoth said, crossing his arms and turning his head the opposite way.

“I don’t actually need a babysitter,” Oren chimed in.

“It’s not a choice. It’s an order,” Luc said firmly. “I don’t want to see him close to the Azarath Pits, or any of the restricted circles.”

“Why not the Pits?” Zorun asked, raising a brow at the same time as he stopped a wayward hand sliding down the back of his pants. “He seems to have Beast there wrapped around his little finger. Why not stick him in with the rest of them?”

Oren gasped in delight. “There are more of him!”

Beast grumbled his disapproval around gnawing on his bone, likely at the prospect of sharing Oren’s attention.

Luc glared at Zorun, then turned to Oren. “No Pits.”

“But—”

“There are more than just your standard hellbeasts down there, and not all of them are trained not to eat on sight.” Luc cut him off before Oren could persuade him with those big eyes magnified by his glasses.

“Especially yummy fleshies!” Tarik grinned, giggling behind his hand.

“Yum, yum, yum!” Azoth giggled along.

Luc sighed, giving Oren a final stern look. “No Pits.”

Oren pouted, rubbing a hand over Beast’s head like he was trying to console himself with just having the one hellbeast. Luc barely contained his eye roll.

“Can I use Oren to tessst out sssome of my experimentsss?” Jek suddenly asked from the back.

“Well, if I can help…” Oren started.

“Absolutely not!” Luc said, beginning to feel the edge of panic now. “Protect. Oren. Each and every one of you. Got it? If he goes somewhere alone, the first person who sees him will be held responsible for whatever happens to him if you ignore him. I’ll be personally seeing to any punishments.”

A faint shiver went through the room, followed by a chorus of huffy agreements.

“We do have jobs to do though, boss,” Kassel said logically. “The new intake is stretching our limits, and we have the culling and the egg laying and hatching coming up. Not to mention the hunt.”

Luc sighed. “I know. Hopefully it’ll be resolved soon and won’t interfere with all that. I’ll try and take most of the brunt of looking after Oren myself.”

Maybe he could just sit in his lap all day. That wouldn’t be so bad.

“Um… I have a suggestion for what to do with me.” Oren raised his hand in some weird human culture thing that seemed to indicate he wanted permission.

“What is it?” Luc asked.

“I’m really good at organizing.”

“Organ… izing?” Tarik repeated, mouth moving weirdly around the word. “Is that some cool new torture with human insides? How comes he gets to do it and I don’t?!”

“How comes Tarik gets to do it and I don’t?!” Azoth chimed in, stamping his bare foot.

“No, no, that’s not…” Oren paused, and the whole room stared at him.

“Well, I mean, you could organize someone’s organs, I guess,” Oren said thoughtfully before shaking his head. “But that’s not the point. Organizing is, like, admin stuff. Filing and color coding.”

Zorun shivered. “Are you sure that’s not torture?”

“It’s fun!” Oren said brightly. “And I could maybe help with all those other things if you’re short-staffed… I’m not so clued up on hunting, but eggs and culling things doesn’t sound so hard.”

Azoth snickered, and Tarik joined in. Zorun was smirking himself as he said, “I don’t think you have the right, uh, equipment for egg laying.”

“And culling?” Oren asked.

“I want to cull with the innocent!” Tarik said, clapping gleefully.

“Yes, let’s get the innocent to cull the demon horde!” Azoth chorused.

“Oh… Maybe not then,” Oren said faintly, seemingly realizing he might have signed up for more than he bargained. He quickly rallied. “But if you need a schedule for that or something? I can do that!”

Luc shook his head at Oren, completely baffled. “We’ll talk about it later. For now, let’s get back on topic. I need someone to head topside and grab some of Oren’s things since we don’t know how long this will take. Zorun, you have the most experience.”

“With retrieving the personal effects of a wrongly condemned human? Oh sure, absolutely. Done it a million times over the centuries,” Zorun said dryly.

“I can stick you on hellbeast cleanup if you’d prefer that?” Luc said.

“You can clean us up instead,” Tarik said, smoothing a hand over Zorun’s stomach.

“Yes, we’re very, very dirty,” Azoth said, crowding closer.

“I’m gone. See, look, I’m already leaving.” Zorun held his hands up, taking long strides backward away from all threats and grasping fingers.

Oren rushed to keep up with him, Beast hot on his heels, murmuring something Luc couldn’t fully hear. Probably what things he would like. Luc tried not to watch him go, but it was hard. It was like his eyes were magnetized.

When he turned back to the room, he found many eyes trained on him instead, and not just the ones from Kassel. Azoth and Tarik were sharing a conspiratorial look now their plaything was gone, their tails twisting up together and snaking around excitedly behind them.

Luc didn’t want the double headache of that, so he quickly drew himself up to his full height. “That’s all for today. You can head back to your usual duties unless you have something you need to see me about. Then stay behind.”

“Isn’t there anything else you want to tell us?” Tarik asked with a smirk full of tiny, pointed teeth.

“Anything at all?” Azoth blinked gleaming red eyes at him.

“Actually, now that you mention it, I haven’t gone over the roster in a while. I guess we could talk about making some switches,” Luc said casually, pursing his lips.

Azoth and Tarik yelped, clutching each other closer, wrapping their twined tails around both of them. “Forget we said anything. The roster is fine.”

They hightailed it away from him, and Luc smirked. One hint of splitting them up and they fell right back into line. He glanced at the rest of his demons and found them trying to look busy so his wrath didn’t fall on them next.

Sometimes it was good to be the big bad boss.

“Hey, Luc, could I maybe finish that tour now?” Oren asked, appearing at his side. “We can walk Beasty at the same time. Oh! And I had some ideas about the torture storage room that I need to talk to you about.”

Luc balked. “What torture storage room?”

Oren blinked up at him innocently. “The one Zorun said I shouldn’t go into. But he told me that after I was already in there, so I don’t think it counts.”

“Right.” Luc felt himself starting to lose his grip on some of the control he’d just gained over the room.

“Anyway,” Oren rambled on carelessly, wrapping his arm around Luc’s. “It’s a mess, and it’s very hard to find anything in there. I think if you arranged the system by century, then subcategorized it by body part, it would be both efficient and educational!”

“Of course,” Luc replied, his head spinning from the whirlwind that was Oren.

He wanted him. He wanted to indulge him.

He rolled his eyes at himself.

So much for the big bad boss.