Page 7 of Demon Demands

Three complex thoughts ran through my mind simultaneously.

I hated the idea of marking my guys and Grim like they were cattle. They didn’t belong to me, but my demon would be pleased. It was truly the best protection to offer them once we made it to Hell. Stars was safe enough, but Hell was a terrible place on a good day.

My grandfather, Lucifer, the First Devil of Hell, was meeting us at Dolyn’s house. That meant whatever was going on in the Underworld was bad. Worse than what they’d previously told me.

Papi was going to need a power boost, which meant that he was going to be pushing himself to the extreme to get the portal up and running in such a short time.

My hellhounds could do many things, but Cronus was essentially a walking battery pack. He could refill us all and still keep going, never truly running out of power.

Atlas could sense deceit from a mile away, and Helios had unparalleled senses and tracking abilities. Cronus was arguably the most useful, though I never abused his gift.

For Papi to ask for Cronus… Yeah, the portal was borderline too much too quickly for him. I could dwell on it later. But I had a feeling that whatever was happening in Hell was draining Papi physically, as well as mentally and emotionally.

“Okay, seals,” I repeated to myself, summoning my hounds mentally with a whisper of their names. “This isn’t like the tracking symbols. It won’t hurt, and you won’t be able to see them. It’s more or less a feeling or energy that they put off that lets demons know you’re protected by the Devils of Hell.”

Vaughn gave me a curious look. “Did you call yourself Devil Spawn a minute ago?”

“That’s what demons call the heirs to the Devil’s throne. She’s a Devil Spawn in the same sense that yer a prince. It’s a title, though not a flatterin’ one,” Palmer replied, sounding almost like he was reading the words straight from a book.

Stone nodded his head. “I’ll agree with most of what Palmer said, except the flattering part. In the Underworld, the title holds as much or more merit than yours does in your own realm.”

I grabbed Stone's hand first, turning it over so his palm was up. I started with him so that I could wipe Papi’s seal off him and put mine down first. The way the marks would look and read were important, even if the guys couldn’t see them.

Since we would be taking over soon but not immediately leading, I needed to have the base of this protection as my own. That way it didn’t look like we were hiding behind Papi and Lucy.

The mark, or seal for the proper term, was the same symbol you’d often see on things that were related to Satanism. Some called it a goat, some misinformed people called it a ram. It really depended on who and where you got your information from.

I knew it for what it was. Neither.

It was a slightly more humanized depiction of what Lucifer looked like when he shed his human and angelic skins. The snout was longer than Lucy’s, but the horns and wings were close to being right.

Fun fact: The Satanic rendition was based on a drawing from a human man — he went by Éliphas Lévi, though that wasn’t his real name — in the 1800s who nearly nailed Lucy’s form, interestingly enough. Except for the whole pentagram and torch on his head part.

Right. It wasn’t the time to let my train of thought derail. The mark I placed upon my guys and Grim was of said head, and in between the horns was the Roman numeral for three. For me. Soon to be the Third Devil of Hell.

When Papi added his on top, the only thing that would change would be an added Roman numeral of two on the left side. Same with Lucy, only his was a one, for obvious reasons, and would be on the right.

My hellhounds wore these seals like brands on both sides of their rib cages, but they were hard to see unless you had the right angle. It was easy enough to compare their marks to brands. Their leather-like skin would only allow you to see them if you were able to look from right up against them, like viewing a barely raised knot under their flesh.

As Atlas, Cronus, and Helios joined us from wherever they’d trotted off to, I snapped their collars off one by one, watching as the magic pulled away from their true forms. Hellhounds were beautiful and terrifying.

Seven sets of glowing red eyes blinked down at me. Their sheer size dwarfed the wolves that Briggs and I shifted into, making us look like puppies by comparison.

They were a few inches shorter than the average horse, but their bodies were shaped more like an African lion, sinewy and ready to pounce. With paws damn near as wide as my chest and claws that could slice through bones, they had evolved over time to hunt down the biggest and baddest of the demon race.

And their teeth, holy shit. Think saber-tooth tiger, or similar enough. Four large, deadly incisors hung out of the top of their mouths, their bottom jaw filled with razor-like teeth designed for shredding.

Their snouts were more narrow than that of a lion, but it was no design flaw. Their bodies were weapons, through and through. From the ends of those snouts, all the way to the flaming tips of their tails.

While Atlas and Cronus had two sets of eyes each, Helios had three sets of eyes that could, quite literally, see everything. He had a reddish stain to his blackened skin, and his ears had thin red lines of fine hairs around the edges.

His ears were a bit taller and wider than the other two, his snout a little longer. That resulted in Helios’ senses being heightened beyond a normal hellhound’s hearing, vision, and smell.

Atlas had always been my smallest and smartest, so attuned and sensitive to everyone around him. He would be best described as an empath. His skin looked like sun-bleached leather, more charcoal than black, but soft and worn to the touch.

Cronus had a much bulkier body and was the darkest of my hounds. He was so black that he looked almost blue. The extra power he held manifested itself in muscles that rippled and danced across his body, the same way a lake would if you continuously tossed stones in the center. He vibrated with untapped power.

My hellhounds were the creatures that plagued literal demonic nightmares, but they never scared me. They were my babies, gifted to me as pups by Papi. I’d spent countless hours training, nurturing, and loving them, and now they were massive beasts who were loyal to me.