5. 5

5

Kassel

“ W hy are you here?” Kassel asked, watching Oren as he fiddled with his bowtie. It had a strange pattern, like someone had taken a picture of Beau’s living room and printed it on fabric.

“I made Luc let me come up so I could check on you,” Oren said, looking around the room with interest. “It’s weird being back up here again.”

“And them?” Kassel pointed behind Oren to Zorun, who was standing with his arms crossed, wings tucked close and a scowl on his face.

Zorun wasn’t looking at Kassel. He was intently staring at the two identical menaces poking and prodding at the dangling bits on Beau’s tree. Until one slipped free and tumbled to the ground. It didn’t shatter, but the side that hit the floor was severely dented.

“Looks better now,” Tarik said, using his tail to poke at the thing.

“Looks better there too,” Azoth agreed, wrapping his tail around Tarik’s and tugging him back to Zorun. They coiled around him, nuzzling his massive chest.

“Zorun had to escort me because I’m dead and all of that,” Oren said. “And, well, it’s not like Zorun can detach from those two, so they came along.”

“Right.” Kassel wasn’t exactly sure what to do with that information.

“So, how are you doing?” Oren asked with a very strange wiggle of his eyebrows.

Kassel shrugged.

Oren scowled. “A font of information, you are. Where is Beau?”

“He went to shower after we got back into the house,” Kassel said. “We went food shopping and later we’ll be baking cookies.”

“Wait, what?” Oren asked.

“Cookie?” Tarik questioned.

“Do we like cookies?” Azoth asked as Zorun slapped his hand away from where it was trying to sneak into his back pocket.

“I don’t think either of you have tried them,” Zorun said. “Now hush.”

“We want cookies,” Tarik said.

“Get us cookies,” Azoth demanded.

Zorun wrapped one arm around each of the twins, slapping his massive palms over their mouths. “The only reason you were allowed to come was because you promised you’d be quiet.”

Tarik mumbled something against his palm that sounded like “cookies” again, while Azoth was making slurpy sounds that told Kassel he was probably licking Zorun’s palm.

“Eyes on me.” Oren snapped his fingers in front of Kassel’s face. “All of them.”

“What?” Kassel asked, focusing most of his eyes on Oren. He kept one on the twins. You could never be too careful with those two. Not even with Zorun present.

“He summoned you to shop and bake with him?” Oren asked.

“Indirectly.”

“I’m gonna need you to use your words,” Oren said with a huff. “I didn’t bring the Talking Tibia, but consider this your turn to speak and tell me all the relevant details.”

“I came back, asked him why he summoned me, and he said he was lonely. So we’re doing activities to make him not feel lonely so that my summoning is complete.”

“He summoned you because he’s lonely?” Oren asked, voice shaky and lower lip wobbly.

Kassel recognized that look. Oren was sad. He was sad and that meant possible tears. Tears on Oren meant a Luc who was desperate to fix whatever was bothering him. Usually with the help of whatever demon he could rope into doing his bidding. Kassel wanted to avoid the meltdown if he could.

“We are working on it,” Kassel said quickly, but not quickly enough.

“Oh that poor little soul. I know too well what it’s like to be alone. You need to do everything you can to make it better for him. Especially now.”

“Why now?” Kassel asked.

“It’s the holidays,” Oren said. “The sadness and the solitude hit the worst during holidays. It’s when it hurts the most. So do everything you can to make it easier.”

“I am,” Kassel said. “That is literally what I said I was doing. We shopped. And we’ll bake.”

“Yes, but it’s more than that, Kas,” Oren said. “You have to be in the moment with him. You can’t just be present while he does things. You have to want to be there and doing those things with him. You have to make the experience count for him and you.”

It was an echo of what Beau had said to him.

He was interested in Kassel’s wants, not just his own, but the problem was, Kassel had never really thought about them before. What did he want?

Oiled horns were always nice. And peace and quiet. Space to work and torture sinners. Those were his baseline.

But recently he’d felt other things starting to creep in.

Like wanting Beau not to cry. And watching his bright soul pulse with joy over tiny things. Also making sure no one touched him ever . That one seemed more urgent than all the others, its hooks sliding deep and dragging out the primordial rage in him.

Oren huffed when he said nothing, turning around before spotting a remote control and flicking the TV on.

He shuffled through the channels for a bit before landing on one that showed a movie depicting a house decorated much like Beau’s, just… prettier. Not as chaotic as his. Kassel liked Beau’s better, despite that. There were people in the house too, and apparently, they were baking as well. Kassel recognized the sugar and the chocolate parts Beau had placed in the shopping cart.

“Watch how much fun they’re having together,” Oren said. “How engaged they all seem to be and how happy it’s making them. That’s what Beau wants. An experience, not just an activity.”

Kassel trained one eye on the screen again, seeing how the characters giggled, threw bits of the baking supplies on each other, and made a mess of things in the process.

“That doesn’t look productive.”

Oren shrugged. “Not everything has to be.”

Kassel squinted at him, checking to make sure he hadn’t been replaced with a changeling demon. “You. Of all people.”

Oren smacked Kassel’s bicep. “Yes, me, of all people. I love being productive, but not at the expense of making memories. Beau wants little things. You can make those little things huge.”

Kassel frowned at the screen just as the main character leaned close to pick something out of the other character’s hair. They lingered. And then, as if pulled together by magnets, they kissed against the kitchen counter, surrounded by the mess they’d created.

Was that what Beau wanted too?

He’d picked up hints of lust here and there emanating from Beau. It was tinged with his innocence, like his thoughts were feeling along the edges of desires he didn’t know how to express.

It tasted sweet on the back of his tongue, the type of thing that created a yearning to lick .

Kassel wondered if Beau’s skin would have the same flavor. If the frosting of desire and innocence would explode in his mouth…

The creak of the pipes and sudden absence of water falling signaled the end of Beau’s shower, interrupting Kassel’s heated thoughts.

“That’s our cue to leave.” Oren sighed, flicking the TV off. “Luc said we weren’t allowed to interact directly with Beau.”

“And you listened?”

“Not even the offer, or threat, of sex would change his mind this time,” Zorun said, then made an expansive, sarcastic gesture. “Personal growth.”

“I’ll up my game, don’t worry,” Oren promised sunnily, his grin masking a wealth of deviousness.

Kassel had never been more certain G had made the right choice in sending Oren to Hell.

He was not sad to see them go though.

In fact, he was starting to feel territorial as the minutes grew longer, like a switch had been flipped inside him and broken in the ON position.

Beau was unknowing and vulnerable in the other room. Naked.

The bubbling primordial ooze coursing through his body got hotter.

“Goodbye,” he said flatly.

“Don’t sound too enthused to see the back of us,” Zorun said with a roll of his eyes. “One express trip back to Hell leaving right… Where are Double and Trouble?”

They all glanced around the suspiciously empty room.

“Uriel’s balls,” Zorun swore. “ Azoth ! Tarik !”

“They couldn’t have gone far,” Oren chirped optimistically. “The house is tiny and adorable. What trouble could they possibly be—”

A terrible scream of untold horror echoing from outside rang through the house.

“Oh dear.”

Zorun rushed in that direction, footsteps thundering and shaking the whole house. He barely fit his horns through the doorway, his wings nearly upending the Christmas tree on the way out the door.

Oren caught it before it fell, arms wrapped around the whole perimeter and baubles hitting him in the eyes. “It’ll be fiiine .”

“Kassel?” Beau’s voice echoed down the hallway. “What’s happening? I think I hear Mrs. Knolly from next door screaming.”

“She’s fighting demons,” Kassel called back.

Oren hissed at him like an angry cat. “ He’s not supposed to know !”

Which caused a problem.

Kassel didn’t know how to lie.

“She has lived a long life. And the holidays are tough, those demons can pile up on you,” Beau called back. “Maybe we should drop some of the cookies off to her to cheer her up after we’re done?”

Kassel frowned in confusion, but Oren let out a sigh of relief, finally freeing himself from the tree.

“I’ll go check on them. You, bond,” Oren ordered, pointing a finger at him. “Beau won’t know we were even here.”

Kassel looked at the state of the living room already and doubted that, but he was happy when Oren slipped out the front door just as Beau’s footsteps came padding down the hallway.

He wasn’t expecting him to round the corner dressed like his Christmas tree.

The pants and long-sleeved top were black at their base, but the designs of various ornaments and patterns had overwhelmed every inch of the fabric. On his feet were oversized animals with red noses and horns that inflated and deflated with every step.

It was… a lot, even for someone with extra pairs of eyes to spread the chaos across.

Beau noticed him looking and played with the cuffs of his top, which were slipping past his knuckles. “We’re not going out again today, so I decided to get comfortable,” he explained.

Kassel recalled the Hallmark movie, Oren’s words, and his own resolve all at once. “Whatever makes you most happy.”

Surprise rippled over Beau’s face, parting his lips just like when he’d told him he was there for anything he wanted. Kassel was starting to worry he had totally missed the mark and misspoken again when a shy smile turned up the corners of Beau’s mouth, pure pleasure lighting up his eyes and turning them into sparkling pools. A dusting of pink settled along his nose and cheeks like snow.

Kassel felt something like satisfaction creep along the edges of his usually dead insides.

Beau reached up to toy with the damp, curling ends of his hair, the other hand hiding in his cuff and blocking his mouth as he mumbled something into the fabric.

“What was that?” Kassel asked.

Pink turned to red, sliding up toward his ears and down his neck. “I said…” He took a deep breath, meeting Kassel’s purple eyes. “You make me happy.”

Kassel paused. Examining why it felt like he’d just been smote by the holy man himself. They were just words. A confirmation that he was performing his summoning well. But they felt more like a gift, delicate and fragile, placed in his massive hands to keep safe.

Kassel wanted to cradle Beau’s happiness. To protect it fiercely.

“I’m… happy. That I made you happy,” he found himself saying, testing the words out to see if they were true and hearing them ring with sincerity.

Beau glowed , brighter than all the lights inside and outside combined. He bridged the gap between them, taking hold of Kassel’s jacket in questing fingers for no other reason than it seemed like he needed some form of touch.

Kassel had noticed that Beau responded more than anything else to physical contact. He could be rendered speechless with just the brush of fingers, tiny, budding curls of lust wisping up into the air.

He looked down at Beau’s upturned face, scanning every inch in this new light.

Two of his eyes flicked down to Beau’s lips. The indent right in the center of the bottom one looked soft, its color a bruised red like crushed roses.

An earthshaking BOOM ! rocked the house’s very foundations, and Kassel had to take a second to realize it was happening outside of his own body. Beau gasped in surprise and Kassel’s arms went around his waist to steady him, pulling him into his side securely.

Clearly, things were going great outside.

“Was that an earthquake?” Beau asked, looking spooked.

“Not sure,” Kassel said truthfully. “You don’t have to worry, whatever it ends up being.”

Beau gave him a shy, pleased glance, snuggling closer like he didn’t think Kassel would notice it. Another small hint of that desire curled up between them like perfume. “I’m not worried.”

“Good,” Kassel said, the beast in him settling. “Let’s bake cookies for Mrs. Knolly’s demons. Maybe that will calm them down.”

Beau giggled, nodding and pulling him along to the kitchen on eager feet. “I have some great cookie cutters. They’re to die for.”

Kassel was finally intrigued, squeezing into the small kitchen after him. His horn scraped the range hood. “Is it a quick death or can they be used for torture also?”

“The torture is only getting to use them once a year,” Beau said, diving into a drawer with a clatter and unearthing what looked to be a thousand different shaped… things.

“They must be powerful.”

“The most,” Beau said smugly. “Martha Stewart wishes she had this collection.”

The name pinged something in Kassel’s brain. “Stewart, you said?”

Beau stared at him for a moment. “No.”

“What?”

“She can’t be evil! She’s still alive!”

“There’s a lot of souls on Hell’s waiting list with similar names,” Kassel said, even though he was pretty certain he’d seen on next year’s intake forms that their hobbies included stuff about cakes. “Maybe it’s someone different?”

Beau groaned and melted onto the counter in a dejected puddle, right on top of his cookie cutters. “Christmas is ruined,” he groaned. “How could this be? I feel so betrayed! She seems so lovely and nice.”

Kassel stared at him for a moment before he reached out like the woman on the TV had done and patted Beau’s head. “There, there.”

Beau arched into the touch, but he was still pouting. “There’s something in the Bible about worshipping false idols, right? I guess that’s why.”

“I don’t know about that. I think Martha just likes cookies and murder.”

Beau was quiet for a moment before he snorted out a giggle that sounded like bells. Kassel tilted his head in question, which seemed to set Beau off more. He pulled himself out of his sprawl and twirled in place, startling Kassel by wrapping his arms around him in a hug.

Kassel stared straight ahead, rationalizing this new experience.

He’d held Beau close. Picked him up. Moved him around. Beau had even snuggled into his side. But someone hugging him?

Kassel had never been hugged before.

“You’re funny,” Beau mumbled contentedly into his chest, rubbing his nose against him. It was a ticklish, yet not unpleasant sensation. “Not about the murder. That’s not funny. But you’re funny.”

“Funny?” he repeated, pressing a hand to Beau’s narrow back. It spanned the whole length, fingers curling around the sides.

“Sure.” Beau raised his head and rested his chin just below Kassel’s sternum. “No one’s ever told you that before?”

Kassel could safely say no one had. He shook his head in answer.

“What do they say about you then? Do you have a reputation in Hell?”

“I win the Mr. Hell pageant every year,” Kassel said after some thought, unable to come up with anything else. “I think that’s my reputation,”

“Mr. Hell?” Beau squeaked, suddenly turning red. “Is that like Mr. USA?”

“I don’t know what that is.”

Beau detached from him suddenly and began fiddling around with everything and nothing. Kassel followed him with his eyes, picking up more of that young lust.

“It’s a competition and a title. You know, for beauty and grace and… oiled-up muscles. Not that I pay that much attention, I’ve just seen it in passing, of course. I definitely don’t have any copies of the magazines anywhere around the house, so don’t even look! Or on my search history…”

Kassel didn’t know what a search history was, he just knew he didn’t particularly like that lust pointed anywhere else but him. He also didn’t like the thought of Beau running after this ‘Mr. USA’ like the demons did to him in Hell.

He cast his gaze out for the magazines, finding one in the bedside drawer and one under the sofa. He burned them to cinders in a matter of seconds.

“I don’t know what the criteria is for Mr. Hell. Probably better than Mr. USA,” Kassel found himself saying in a sort of mumble. “They just give it to me every year.”

Beau paused with his hand in a cupboard, fingers wrapped around a package that said FLOUR in bold lettering. “They just give it to you?”

Kassel nodded. “I’ve never entered.”

“So you’re the prettiest of all the demons and everyone agrees on that?” Beau asked, and Kassel blinked.

Was that what it meant? He wasn’t entirely sure.

He watched Beau stare at him for what felt like a century, biting his lip and mumbling something like, “That makes sense. You are super handsome. I bet you’ve been on a lot of dates in Hell. You probably have five demon boyfriends, or girlfriends, or bothfriends…”

“Are these questions? Are you asking me?” Kassel checked, even though his prickly insides were a little soothed by Beau acknowledging that he was handsome. More handsome than oiled-up muscles, anyway!

“Huh? What?!” Beau squeaked, seeming to realize he’d said those words out loud. “Nothing! I didn’t say anything! Here, hold this.”

Kassel took the tiny plastic cup Beau shoved into his hand and watched as he fluttered around the kitchen like a startled bird, the red slowly fading from his face.

Eventually he stopped pulling things out of drawers and cupboards and slinked back to Kassel’s side. He glanced up at him nervously before grabbing the paper bag he’d first been reaching for and starting to pour it out into the cup Kassel was still holding out because he hadn’t been instructed to do otherwise.

Kassel didn’t want Beau to be nervous. He wanted him to enjoy himself like the people in that movie Oren had shown him. He wanted to hear the sound of Beau’s laughter again like the bells on the Christmas tree.

He stared at the flour for a second before acting, pelting Beau in the face with a handful of flour and turning him as ghostly white as Zorun.

Beau stood there with his eyes squeezed shut, in stunned stillness and not seeming to breathe. No laughing. No playful yelling. No chasing around the table.

This… wasn’t how it had gone in the movie.

Kassel frowned slightly. “Aren’t you supposed to throw it back?”

Beau wiped his eyes with the back of his hand and looked up at him with white spiked lashes covering a watery gaze and a dusty pout. “Why are you being mean to me?”

“Mean?” All of Kassel’s eyes widened. “Isn’t this what humans consider… fun?”

“Fun?” Beau sneezed suddenly. A small, pathetic sound that sent a small cloud of flour rising. He sniffled and coughed and Kassel rushed to do something urgently.

He cupped Beau’s face and began dusting the flour from his upturned cheeks, being as gentle as he knew how to. He used the very tips of his fingers, keeping his claws away and smoothing over every delicate feature until they were rosy pink again.

“I was misled,” Kassel said. “I apologize.”

Beau stared at him as he was cleaned up, turning his face into every touch. His pout was lessening, which seemed to be the most accurate indicator of how Beau was feeling.

“I don’t like that way of baking,” Beau said.

“Which way would you prefer?” Kassel asked, using his thumb to brush off one last swipe of flour in Beau’s right eyebrow.

Beau chewed on his lips before slipping through Kassel hands and toward his chest. Kassel stared at him curiously as he turned at the last minute, putting them chest to back. He grasped Kassel’s outstretched hands and arms and placed them around himself. He peeked back at Kassel over his shoulder.

“Like this?” he whispered hopefully.

“We can bake like this?” Kassel asked. “Isn’t it more difficult?”

Beau hummed a negative as he shimmied back into his chest like he was settling into bed, sighing in satisfaction once he was done. “This is perfect. Don’t you think it’s nice?”

Kassel contemplated that. The coy question was filled with more meaning than he was capable of grasping. He held Beau’s questing, shimmery blue eyes as he mentally shrugged, admitting that it was nice. Having Beau close and right where he could see him felt the most comfortable, and Beau was warm and smelled like his innocent desires with a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar.

“It’s nice,” he said. “What should we do next then?”

Beau made a happy noise in the back of his throat, putting his hand on Kassel’s wrist where it was wrapped around Beau’s waist. “Keep this arm here and don’t move it. Then use the other one to hold this bowl and keep it steady.”

Using two of his hands was surely better than one, but Kassel did as he was told, cradling Beau’s hips and holding the bowl while Beau measured and poured various ingredients, humming tunes happily.

The continued screaming outside was almost drowned out, but not quite.

Kassel looked out the window to his left and saw that the twins were now playing hot potato with Mrs. Knolly, her red dressing gown trailing her through the air like a ribbon. Oren and Zorun were chasing them all over the backyards that were only separated by a low fence, trying to corral the demonic pair.

It seemed like Oren was trying to bribe them with treats while Zorun was straight-up trying to tackle them, only for them to slip through his grasp time and again.

It was mildly entertaining.

“She really is screaming a lot more than usual,” Beau said, trying to crane his neck around to see the window.

Kassel blocked the way with his shoulder. He knew the others had most likely made themselves invisible to Beau, but there would be no explanation for why Mrs. Knolly was floating through thin air without hitting the ground, and he seemed to be upset by violence.

“Does she scream often?” Kassel asked.

Beau was easily distracted from his goal, going back to his mixing. “Yeah. The police have been called a few times over noise complaints, but they’ve stopped bothering half the time now. She’s just eccentric, I say. She’s a good person deep down.”

Kassel glanced over at Mrs. Knolly, whose soul reeked of evil even from this far away. The twins had sniffed it out and followed it straight to the source, and were having their fun before her soul got sent to Hell. He looked back down at Beau, whose soul was pristine and angelic, almost too bright to stare straight at, who looked at evil incarnate and thought the best of them.

He really was too good. Even for Heaven.

Beau asked Kassel to grab the sugar, unaware of his thoughts, only remembering that claws shredded paper when the shifting grains poured out all over the counter to join the remnants of the failed flour fight. Beau just laughed.

The dough didn’t take long after that, and pretty soon Beau was rolling it out and pulling his fifty cookie cutters close.

“What shape do you like?”

Kassel frowned at the overly bright and happy options until he spotted a small red cutter with horns. He picked it up between two claw tips. “I like this one.”

“That’s for Halloween, silly, not Christmas,” Beau said with a laugh. “Why don’t you choose this reindeer? See? He’s sooo cute!”

Kassel’s lip curled in disgust, but he dropped the devil cutter and plucked the reindeer from the middle of Beau’s palm with a sigh of defeat. Beau’s happy cheer made it slightly less atrocious.

Beau took his hand between his soft ones. “Okay, now put the sharper side down and press… gently…”

Beau laid his hand flat on top of Kassel’s, stretching out his fingers as far as they would go and not even reaching Kassel’s second knuckle. Kassel didn’t put any pressure on, allowing Beau to manipulate his hand entirely and apply it for him, tiny fingers shifting over the tight skin and knuckles. Pretty pink skin against purple.

It was ticklish, sending small zings through his nerve endings.

Beau lingered, probably longer than was required for cutting out a cookie shape. Kassel didn’t say anything, allowing Beau to explore his hand, enjoying the sensations it evoked.

Strangely, a weird tension began to build the longer Beau took. Kassel’s fingers began to twitch, feeling stimulated and hypersensitive to every brush of skin, anticipating the next one as a groan began to build in his chest.

Beau began to grow a little bolder, applying more pressure and eventually his fingers slipped between Kassel’s and into the squishy dough underneath.

It was almost obscene.

Beau made a small sound in the back of his throat.

Everything was sticky and messy as Beau made a small undulation, pulling his fingers out and pressing them back in. Kassel found himself catching Beau’s fingertips between his, curling them under and back into the mess as his palm pressed tightly to the back of Kassel’s hand.

Beau gasped as he rolled their hands together and Kassel shifted closer, pressing Beau tighter between his body and the counter, feeling his dick get hard against the small of Beau’s back.

Beau’s head fell back onto his shoulder as their hands separated in the stickiness and pressed back together again, palm to palm this time.

Kassel had to fight the urge to thrust. The hand on Beau’s hips slipped up under Beau’s top by accident, hitting bare skin.

Beau sucked in a sharp breath that ended on a whimper that was pure plea.

“Beau?” he said into his ear, feeling him shudder. His stomach was rising and falling rapidly in time with his breaths. “Are you okay?”

“Don’t stop,” Beau whispered, his voice dazed and pillow soft.

Kassel craned his neck further and saw from his furthest eye that Beau’s were completely closed, his lips bitten red and parted. He looked sinful for the first time. Beautiful. Brimming with desires that wanted to spill over. They had flowed into something fully formed, no longer young and innocent, seeping from his skin. Kassel’s claws dug a little deeper into the skin of Beau’s vulnerable stomach and he felt it grow into a flood.

Beau wanted . So much it was a little dizzying now that it was unleashed.

Kassel just needed to take those wants and split them open to see what poured out. See the sticky, wicked parts so he could gather them up and feed them past Beau’s lips to satisfy his hungry soul.

He was here to serve, after all.

He slipped his sticky hand out from under Beau’s lax one, reaching up and cupping Beau’s chin. He painted him in the confection, smearing it down his neck as he turned Beau’s face toward him. Beau’s eyes blinked open but they were glazed over, his pupils completely blown out.

“Kassel?” The murmur sent tendrils of warmth over Kassel’s lips.

He looked down at Beau’s mouth, so plump and inviting, and pressed the tip of his claw into the valley in his bottom lip, indenting it, leaving a stain of dough.

Beau shuddered, grasping hold of Kassel’s wrist as his legs went completely weak. Kassel held him up easily with the hand on his stomach and inched their faces closer, gauging Beau’s reaction, whether he wanted it. The way Beau’s eyes fluttered closed again and he shuddered out every hot breath gave him a good indication, allowing him to close the gap and brush their lips together. First his top lip, then his bottom, the damp skin sticking like it didn’t want to let go.

He tasted like cookies.

Only this time Kassel’s mouth watered for the taste of more.

Beau followed his lead, his movements clumsy and unsure, but full of hunger. When Kassel parted his sweet lips with his tongue Beau moaned straight down Kassel’s throat.

The front door opened in the background and Kassel watched with one eye as Zorun marched in with Azoth and Tarik held by the scruffs of their necks like naughty kittens. Oren followed them, lecturing them on proper etiquette and behaviors with a wagging finger.

Any idea of stopping was hanged, drawn, and quartered as Beau, previously swooning and weak-kneed, got a chokehold grip around Kassel’s neck and spun to put them chest to chest, practically gluing their mouths together.

They ended up crashing into the counter as Kassel lost his balance and braced them, the mixing bowl and cutters scattering on the ground. Still Beau held on to him for dear life, kissing and kissing and kissing him like he needed it more than oxygen.

Kassel wasn’t even sure he was breathing.

Four heads popped around the corner, comically, one after another to see what the commotion was, eyes widening when they spotted them.

“Oh. My. GOD!” Oren squealed in delight, hearts practically shooting out of his soul.

Zorun simply smirked. “Having fun on the job?”

“How come we can’t play with the evil humans…” Azoth complained.

“…but Kassel gets to make out with the good ones?” Tarik finished.

“He was summoned,” Oren said.

“For a booty call?” they asked together. “Where’s ours?”

Zorun glared at them. “You want to be summoned for a booty call?”

Twin feline smirks formed. “Why does it matter to you, Daddy?”

“It doesn’t,” he gritted out.

Kassel’s mouth was too busy to tell them to get lost and take the drama back to Hell. Instead he growled, glaring at them, angling Beau so he wasn’t in view. He didn’t want them observing Beau so vulnerable like this. He didn’t want to share this moment at all.

It was probably the single most selfish thought he’d ever had, and it confused him entirely but there was no fighting it.

“Keep us updated,” Oren whispered over the bickering. “I want ALL the details, you hear me?”

Kassel glared some more, promising death through his eyes if they didn’t get lost as Beau peppered a thousand kisses over his bottom lip, like he had decided it was his favorite lip and it needed acknowledging.

Oren hurried the other three out of the room and finally, with a waft of heat and brimstone, they were alone again.

Leaving Kassel with Beau, the demon realizing he hadn’t checked whether Beau could swim before he had opened the floodgates.