Demon King (Claimed By Lucifer #1) - Elizabeth Briggs Page 0,34

him and crush his heart and his lungs. Then I tossed his body to the ground as the remainder of his flesh shifted back to human form. He should have heeded my warning earlier.

I looked around at the continued fighting, my chest heaving as I battled the desire to burn each of the remaining shifters to ashes. Perhaps they’d surrender now.

None of them did.

I pushed my darkness outward. As soon as the remaining shifters saw more of the twisting shadows swirling from me they ran, but they were too late. They’d forced my hand.

My darkness snaked around the throats of each of the rebellious little traitors, yanking them back. I sucked all the life out of them, drawing it back inside myself, their resistance only making me stronger.

Their lifeless bodies hit the ground and the battle was officially over. I turned toward the motel in time to see Samael emerge from the front doors with Asmodeus and a pretty Black woman. Her dark skin was dust-covered and there was evidence of blood congealing around small tears in her clothes, but her brown eyes still held a gleam of determination. This must be Brandy.

She was faring better than Asmodeus, by all appearances, and she held onto his arm, like she refused to be parted from his side. The incubus’s olive skin was covered in more dried blood and dirt, as were his ripped and torn clothes. His normally vibrant green eyes were dull and exhausted, and he stumbled forward along the dirt, leaning against Brandy for support while Samael looked on with a frown.

I took a handkerchief from my suit pocket and slowly wiped off my hands. “Tell me what happened.”

“They kidnapped us,” Brandy said, and I was surprised she answered first. A brave one, for sure. “They tortured him, trying to get him to talk about you, but he wouldn’t break.”

“Did you feed on her?” I asked Asmodeus. It would be understandable given the circumstances, but humans could only handle so much of an incubus’s attentions. I needed to know if he’d done any damage to Brandy before I returned her to Hannah.

“No, I didn’t,” Asmodeus said between clenched teeth. He obviously needed to feed, and was doing everything in his power to hold himself back.

“You heroic fool,” Brandy muttered, her eyes softening as she looked at him. “I told you it was all right.”

Heroic? Asmodeus? The incubus who ran my strip clubs and went through human women like candy? I nearly laughed, until I saw the way they looked at each other. With their gazes locked, something intense passed between them, like powerful longing. It must be a side effect of his powers. Asmodeus may have refrained from feeding on her, but the lust he inspired was impossible for humans to ignore.

“I would never hurt you,” Asmodeus said to her.

Samael stepped forward and took Asmodeus’s arm, yanking him away from Brandy with a disapproving frown. “You need to feed, son. I’ll take you now.”

“Yes, go,” I said, waving them off. “I’ll handle things here.”

Asmodeus reached out to Brandy like he was going to stroke her face, but then he dropped his hand and his expression turned grim. Samael’s wings stretched out and he picked up his son, before they flew up into the sky. Unlike Samael, Asmodeus didn’t have wings. He took after his mother, Lilith, instead.

Brandy watched them fly away and brushed her fingers across her eyes, wiping away tears she didn’t wish me to see. Then her head snapped to me and she stared at me with something like curiosity.

“You know who I am?” I asked. As she certainly knew all about demons now, there was no sense in hiding my abilities or pretending to be other than I was.

She bit her lip and nodded, but I was impressed that she didn’t drop her eyes or look away. “Asmodeus told me. I didn’t believe it at first but…”

She was handling things very well, all things considered. I could see why Hannah would practically sell her soul for such a friend. “We’re going to fly you back to my hotel, The Celestial, where you can recover in safety. Hannah is there already.”

“Hannah?” Brandy looked around at all the bodies helplessly. “She can’t be here. This place, this world…”

Perhaps this was a bit much for a mortal to endure. I waved my arm and the night devoured the bodies, causing them to vanish. That only made her jump though, and I wondered whether I’d overdone it. It had been