Demon King (Claimed By Lucifer #1) - Elizabeth Briggs Page 0,42
said you’d be eager to catch up.”
I thanked her with a smile, though I wondered if I should be thanking Lucifer. Again. How could he be the actual devil, with all the wickedness and darkness that brought, and still melt my heart with his small gestures of consideration? But my smile quickly disappeared as I looked at Brandy once we were alone, and I shuddered at the thought of the things she must have gone through.
I sank into one of the chairs. “Tell me what happened.”
“This is some high-class shit,” Brandy said, before she downed the champagne. I got it—it was easy to be distracted by the trappings of Lucifer’s life, especially when the other subject might be more difficult to address. She stared into the empty glass. “I guess you deserve to know, more than anyone.”
“If it’s too painful to talk about, I understand.”
She sat beside me and shook her head. “No, it will help to talk about it. It’s so crazy I have to share with someone.” She drew in a sharp breath. “Well, you know I came to Las Vegas for a librarian conference, right? But when I got here, there was no conference.”
I nodded. I’d learned the same thing when I’d started poking about.
“I didn’t know what to do. I mean, I was in Vegas, by myself, with nothing to do. In the end, I went to the bar to get a drink.” Her face took on a far-off, dreamy look. “That’s where I met Mo—Asmodeus, I mean. He was probably the hottest guy I’ve ever seen, and charming as all hell. Before I even got my drink, I wanted to take him back to my room and do naughty things to him.”
My jaw dropped. Brandy had never been the hooking up in a bar sort of girl. Maybe that was his incubus powers at work? “What then?”
“He convinced me to go out to dinner with him. While we were leaving the hotel, we were attacked. By these…monsters.” She shook her head like the disbelief was still real, and I gripped her hand as horror showed again in her eyes. “Giant wolves and bears. It’s such a cliché, but it all seemed to happen so fast, and it was totally unbelievable at the time. Then I got knocked out.”
“That had to be a big shock.” From what I’d heard, it was shifters who had captured her. I’d never seen one in animal form myself, but I’d seen gargoyles and Fallen angels, and they were scary enough, thank you very much.
“I’ll say.” Brandy snorted before reaching over to grab the champagne bottle and pouring herself another glass. “When I woke, I was with Asmodeus in a small concrete room—some kind of basement I guessed, because there was a tiny thickened glass window at the top of the wall. It didn’t open and there was no point banging against it.” She laughed a little. “I mean, I tried. But it just hurt my fists and barely made a noise. We couldn’t even see through it.” Her eyes took on that distant look again. “Asmodeus was with me the entire time, and we talked a lot. There wasn’t much else to do. He…filled some things in for me.”
I looked at her, trying to figure out what she and Asmodeus had spoken about. I didn’t want to dump a load of information on her that she didn’t need. Being taken hostage was probably traumatic enough without learning all about Lucifer and associated paranormal beings. I could hardly believe it myself still—and that was after all the things I’d experienced. “What things?”
“Things I still find hard to believe,” she muttered.
She knew. She had to know. I was just going to come right out with it. She was my oldest friend—we didn’t have secrets. “He told you about demons, didn’t he?”
Her shoulders dropped and a huge sigh of relief rolled from her. “So, you know? Please say you know.”
I pulled Brandy into a hug and tried to reassure her, but what could I really say? She hadn’t said what exactly Asmodeus had shared with her. I probably did know, but she didn’t need to hear any kind of uncertainty from me. “Yes. I know. You can be totally open with me. Of all people, I’ll understand.”
“How?” Disbelief rang in her tone.
“You know the guy they call the devil of Las Vegas?” I asked. “Turns out he’s the actual devil. Not just of Las Vegas.”