Chapter 5—The Meeting

Xorgor

“What’s the point of being an incubus if you’re not getting any pussy?” Erthrol asked, walking backward down Durnbone’s stone road with his arms outstretched. 

It would sound like a lighthearted joke to anyone who didn’t know him, but Erthrol never made jokes without cruel intentions behind them. 

This joke was aimed at me, the monstrosity that plagued my family—a half-human, half-demon beast with one curved horn, jagged teeth that even my lips couldn’t hide, and skin charcoaled from the depths of hell.

I balled my hands into fists and walked after him to wherever the fuck he wanted to go tonight. Usually, I wouldn’t even think about coming into town without being cloaked, but he had coerced me into it.

Yesterday, he had told me a girl named Maxine from the Dead Candle Tavern had come up to him and told him that she lost my ring—the same ring that I wore on my finger right this very second. But she didn’t know that, and neither did he.

He had been too caught up in making me jealous. He knew I had gone into the tavern, cloaked for a reason, and he had probably concluded that the reason was her. Demons loved corrupting pure girls like Maxine.

Walking, I stuffed my hands into my pants pockets and kept my head down, loathing the way everyone here stared at me. I’d rather cloak myself and become invisible to the world so I didn’t have to listen to the whispers from the townsfolk. 

Erthrol stopped in front of the Dead Candle Tavern, and I tensed. 

“Why are we here?”

“Come on, X,” Erthrol said, throwing an arm around me and waving to the succubi girls through the window, who giggled and waved back to him, not even sparing me a glance. “It’s your death day. Have some fun. The girl who lost your ring is working here tonight. I thought you might want to … punish her for it.”

My body turned even more rigid as I looked at Maxine through the window, who was tending to some rowdy customers at the bar. I turned away quickly so she wouldn’t see me, not even through the foggy window.

She’d never once seen me like this, and that was the way I wanted to keep it.

“I don’t want to punish Maxine,” I said. “Let’s go back home. I don’t want to drink tonight.”

“It’s your death day.”

“I said, I don’t want to drink tonight.”

“What a joke,” Erthrol said, tightening his grip on me. “An incubus running away from a sexy woman he could have some fun with. That’s why you don’t ever get any, X. You’re too afraid, scared of what they’ll think of you.”

Again, another jab.

The only fucking reason I looked like this was because of him–that’s what our parents had told us–and all throughout our childhood, he had made sure that I knew it too—that he was the only damn person in our family the girls gushed over. It was never me, and it never would be.

“I don’t want to,” I said again through jagged teeth.

If I admitted that I liked her, then Erthrol would go into that bar and bring Maxine home by himself, just to fucking spite me. And I would never let him get her alone like that. Maxine didn’t even know who I was, but I wouldn’t let my asshole brother taint her.

“You stare at her all the time, don’t you?” Erthrol asked. “One of the guys even felt your presence in the tavern the other night. He said you were using your magic to cloak yourself. Why is that, Xorgor? Are you too afraid that Maxine will think you’re an ugly prick, like all the other girls do?”

If I could kill him and not be banished for it, I would’ve a long fucking time ago.

“Stay here for as long as you want,” he said, a smug look on his face. “But I’m going to go say hi to her, maybe have a drink and bring her home for the night, or maybe …” He chuckled menacingly. “Maybe I can make her my little toy.”

When he entered the bar, I glared at the door, then followed him. Anger, rage, fury rushed through me. I hated this man almost more than I hated myself. But there was no way that I’d let him make Maxine his toy, not even if she wanted to be.

Dressed in a button-up blouse that covered her entire chest again, Maxine pulled some glasses off the counter and dropped them into the sink. Erthrol slid onto the stool in front of her, and I gathered all the fucking courage I had left and sat beside him, jaw clenched and … hoping that Maxine wouldn’t fall under my brother’s charm, like everyone else did.

A couple of people looked over, even some of the succubi, wondering what I was doing here. They didn’t have to say it out loud—I could see it in their disgusted glares and their scowls.

After setting some napkins on the counter in front of us, Maxine placed her small hands on the bar and leaned toward us. “What can I get—” She looked up at me and paused mid-sentence, her gaze traveling across every inch of my fucked up face.

I expected her to turn away, to direct all her attention to Erthrol, like all people did, even our parents.

Except she didn’t.

Instead, she stared at me quizzically. “Have I met you before?”

Erthrol slung his arm over my shoulders. “You probably have, as you lost his family ring.”

She widened her eyes, stepped back, and glanced down. “I’m so sorry. I-I brought it home to prevent someone from picking it up in the lost and found. I-I swear I don’t know where it went. I checked every inch of my house. I can do anything you want. I’ll—”

“It’s okay,” I said.

She snapped her gaze up to me, goose bumps rising on her skin. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

For a moment, her gaze dropped to my mouth, and she furrowed her brow, the same way she had last night when I found her lying in her bed and touching her sweet little cunt. She almost looked aroused.

But I didn’t know why. All I had said to her were a couple of words. I’d barely kept eye contact with her for more than a couple of seconds. I didn’t want her to know how much I fucking wanted her, didn’t want her to see right through me and sense that I had been here every night.

“Um … what can I get you guys tonight?”

“You,” Erthrol said, dragging her attention away from me. He leaned across the bar and lightly brushed his fingers against her skin, the hairs on it rising. “We want you to come home with us tonight. You know, as punishment for losing a royal family ring.”

“Erthrol,” I snapped, showing him my jagged teeth and wishing he’d shut the fuck up.

“Me?” Maxine’s cheeks flushed, and she sucked in a breath. “I … I have to work tonight.”

Erthrol stood up and slapped me hard on the back, staring at the tavern boss. “We’ll see about that.”

When he walked away, I glared at the bar with my jaw clenched and my hands balled into fists by my sides. What the fuck was he even doing? I couldn’t … Maxine wouldn’t want to do this anyway. She was just making excuses.

“You’re Xorgor, right?” she asked once Erthrol started talking to her boss. She wiped the counter with a rag and peeked up at me. “Why don’t you ever come around here? Your brother is here nearly every night, always flirting with someone.”

I glanced up to see her staring at me again. “I come here.”

“I’ve never seen you here before. Do you come in the mornings?”

“No.”

What the fuck was wrong with me? I couldn’t even keep up a conversation with her.

Before I could try to start up something else, Erthrol swung his arm around my shoulders again and leaned forward. “You’re done for the night, Maxine. And all ours.”

Maxine stared between Erthrol and me, nervously chewing on her cheek. “Are you sure? I—”

“Get out of here, Maxine,” her boss called. “We got things covered tonight.”