Leviathan slithered off the bed, his bare feet padding over to the side of my cage, where he squatted to be eye level with me.
The cage was so small, there wasn’t much room to put distance between us—it was only a few feet wide in length. I didn’t likehow close we were—enough to feel his breath through the bars, dancing over my naked skin.
His slitted eyes roamed over my body with unguarded desire as a fork-tipped tongue flicked out to lick his thin lips. Ugh. He was a total creep.
“How will you feel when he doesn’t come for you? When he leaves you here to rot in my realm?” He stuck his hand through the bars, which were barely wide enough to accommodate his arm, and trailed his fingers along my cheek.
I jerked back from his touch and forced a disturbed smile across my lips. “Careful—I bite. Just ask Asmodeus.”
“Yes…” the demon mused, a thoughtful look pulling at his scaly features. “What did you do to the Lord of Lust?”
“Let’s just say he’s going to need a new title. What, with not having a dick anymore.”
Surprise lifted Leviathan's hairless brows. “Really?”
“Really,” I snapped, my fiery gaze locked on his. “So keep your hands to yourself, or I’ll chop your dick off too.”
Leviathan tsked his tongue. “That’s no way for a delicious pet to behave, especially if she wants to be fed.”
My ears perked up at the mention of food.
He produced a half-shell oyster out of thin air, holding it up between his fingers for me to see. I scrunched my nose at it; I’d never been a big seafood fan, but oysters were probably the bottom of the barrel as far as my least favorite foods went. Despite that, my stomach rumbled loudly as he shoved the shell through the bars.
“I’m not eating that.”
“You can always starve.” Leviathan shrugged a shoulder and started to withdraw his hand. “It makes no difference to me.”
The hunger pains cramping my stomach had me rethinking my decision. “Wait.”
He froze while I struggled to cling to the last shred of willpower I possessed. I was starving. How long had it been since I’d eaten anything? Twenty-four hours, at least? I couldn’t afford to be picky.
“What did you do to it?” I asked, eyeing the nasty, booger-colored blob nestled in the Lord of Envy’s palm.
The last time I took food from a stranger, I had magical pervy dreams. Not that I regretted my sex dream with the Lord of Bones, but I had a feeling Leviathan’s oyster wouldn’t be anything like Belial’s plum.
“If I wanted to kill you, I’ve had ample opportunities so far,” he said without moving. “I’m not going to hurt you.”
I scoffed, rolling my eyes. “Oh, so you only want to hurt me in front of your brothers? Now you want to, what? Keep me safe? I’m not buying it.”
This close, I could make out his sharp, serrated teeth when he grinned, and they made my stomach drop. Leviathan might have seemed docile compared to his brothers, but there was something dark lurking beneath his charming façade. He might be playing nice for now—aside from the whole stripping me naked and shoving me in a cage thing—but I knew he could be vicious, deadly if I pushed his buttons.
“Keep you, yes. Safe? I suppose that depends on how good of a pet you are,” he said, wiggling the oyster in front of my face. My stomach churned at the way it jiggled in its shell. “You’ll find I can be rather…persuasive when it comes to getting what I want.”
I wasn’t sure what exactly he wanted, but it had to be more sinister than me eating an oyster.
We sat there, eyes locked in a stalemate, before my hunger won out over my willpower. I reached for the shell in his hand, licking my lips at the thought of sustenance, but he snatched it back out of my reach.
“Open,” he urged, shoving the shell in my face.
Gross—he wanted to feed me.
“Get fucked, asshole,” I growled, clamping my lips shut. I was already trapped in a cage; I didn’t want to eat out of his hand like a goddamn animal. I was also tired of men shoving things in my mouth without my permission.
“Come now, pet,” he urged, wiggling the oyster back and forth. “Be good and eat for me. You have to be hungry after your ordeal.”
My stomach growled painfully again, and my resolve crumbled. As I opened my mouth and allowed him to tip the oyster against my lips, I decided I hated Leviathan just as much as the rest of Belial’s brothers. I hated them all, but if it meant I’d get to eat, I’d behave—for now.
What the fuck else could I do?
