Page 54 of Demon Demands

“Well, that jus’ rolled off yer tongue, didn’t it? Had ta explain that a few times, have ye?”

Dolyn snorted. “Try hundreds. She does that shit to my horde at every meeting.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s good practice.”

The incubus snapped his attention to me. “Are you sure you want to send Hyde to ask around about Satan?”

I stared at the ceiling as I contemplated what I’d asked her to do, but resolve settled over me quickly. “She can handle it.”

“It’s just…,” Dolyn sighed, shaking his head wearily, “After what happened a couple months ago with the rival horde and everything we’ve been through after Dylan, I’m not really comfortable with you putting her in that position.”

“Uhm, thanks, D, but Lo is right. I can handle it.” Hyde glowered at her brother. “I won’t be running around town, screaming his name at the top of my lungs. I’ll be discreet, and I did the same shit for you all the time.”

“Yeah, but I wasn’t sending you after Satan,” he shouted, his agitation making his body vibrate.

“Wait,” Novak cut in, waving an arm between the two siblings. “Who is Dylan? And if Dolyn is a nightmare and Hyde is a basilisk, then what kind of demon is Stone?”

I scrunched my face up, struggling with the déjà vu of repeating myself, but maybe I hadn’t explained the Drakes to my guys. “Dolyn and Hyde shared a succubus mother, and they carry both of their parents' traits. They can use both sets of powers they inherited. It’s uncommon but not unheard of to get both traits.”

“And I’m an archdemon,” Stone supplied. “I have no subspecies like Dolyn and Hyde. My ancestors were some of the original demons that Lilith created before they started experimenting with making the new subspecies. So I have no actual type like your thinking. I’m just a demon — in the purest form. I’m not an incubus, an imp, or a spider. I can fully or partially morph into my demon skin, fly, use and call forth hellfire from my body. You’ve seen my horns, right? Most demons that are alive today don’t have horns. And my teeth? Those are traits of archdemons. Sloane gets hers from Lilith while her wings were molded after Lucifer’s. That’s why our wings are so vastly different but our horns are so similar.”

Hyde scoffed playfully. “I have teeth too, you know?”

Stone let his demonic teeth elongate, filling his mouth with hellacious razors, and he smiled viciously at Hyde. “Like these?”

“Uhm, no. I have fangs in my shifted form, though.” She rolled her honey brown eyes. “We don’t have enough space in this room for me to show off.”

“And who is Dylan?” Novak repeated.

Jack, Dolyn, and I sighed collectively. “Dylan was Dolyn’s twin brother.”

York raised a brow at me. “Was?”

“Would be if he wasn’t dead,” Dolyn muttered. “Our mother killed him and put both Hyde and me in the hospital. She was extremely abusive when our dads weren’t home. One day it got more out of hand than usual. That’s where Hyland’s nickname came from, because we were always telling her to hide.”

Briggs was downright murderous, ready to go kill the bitch as soon as the conversation had ended. “What happened to her?”

“She’s dead,” Hyde acknowledged with zero remorse.

“She was my first kill,” I murmured. “I was thirteen, Dolyn and Dylan were days away from turning fourteen, Hyde was six. Papi got a call from Hyde’s dad while we were in the North Fork mountains at the pack lodge with Charlie, and I overheard them talking. So Jack and I came to the Underworld, straight to Stars, and I killed her.”

“Good,” Palmer exclaimed before grimacing. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be.” Dolyn waved his apology away. “We feel the same.”

“While we’re discussing things…” Stone trailed off, glancing at Palmer and Novak. “Why did you pull Palmer away when Lucifer was talking to Sloane?”

Novak raised a pierced brow at my demon mate. “To keep him from overhearing something that he may be forced to share,” he stated seriously.

Palmer groaned. “The nosy bastard went through my emails, but I talked to Sloane about it last night. We’ve come to an,” he peeked at me, rolling his stormy eyes, “understanding of sorts.”

“Yeah, that’s great.” Briggs snorted. “Care to share with the rest of us?”

“I don’t care to get my arse kicked, so I’d rather not,” Palmer retorted.

“How about the cliff notes version?” I suggested, not waiting for an answer. “Palmer has been working for Raguel, the angel who wants to kill me, for over a decade. He’s been lying to him, and we agreed to work together to feed him false information. He couldn’t talk about it on Earth because the dick-faced angel of vengeance has eyes and ears everywhere, so he had to wait until we came to the Underworld. Raguel can’t interfere in hellish affairs. He can’t hear shit down here.”

I twisted my head to face Palmer. “Sound about right?”