"I don't want you to get Stockholm Syndrome, you idiot." Leviathan snapped. "I want you to like your new life.Actuallylike it. Which you would, if you would just give it a chance." When Cullen remained silent, Leviathan let out a quiet growl. "Tell me what isreallyso bad about this place, Cullen. You have delicious food. A prince who wants to please you, who offers to create things in this world just for you, and servants who wait on you hand and foot. What is so horrible about that?"
"I don't want servants." He whispered, furious that he was here. That he was letting this bastard hold him like this. "I don't want things to be created for me. I don't want a demon prince to do anything for me. I want my friends. I want my life back. This place is nothing without all of them." He pulled back from Leviathan, tumbling clumsily out of his lap. He pulled his knees up to his chest and hugged them, keeping his eyes low.
Leviathan sighed deeply, running a hand over his face. "You're a real pain in my ass, you know that?"
"Good." He snapped.
Leviathan glared at him. And for the first time, Cullen wasn't scared by it. He simply glared back, unashamed of the tears streaming down his cheeks.
Leviathan jerked to his feet, towering over him. Cullen did not move. Did not care what he wanted to do to him. "Take a bath, Cullen. Relax for a bit, while I figure outsomething fun for us to do."
"I don't want to spend any time with you–"
"I don't care. Letting you sit up here and sulk in this room has been a mistake. You need to spend more time with me. Get to know me, realize that I'm far more caring and trustworthy than those pathetic human friends of yours could ever be."
Cullen shook his head. "Can you stop lying about it? All you care about is bending me over. You don't care aboutme.You're not able to." No demons were. Their hearts may beat and blood may flow in their veins, but they were uncaring, emotionless brutes.
Leviathan flashed sharp fangs at him, looking furious, but merely gestured to the bathroom as he turned to leave the room. "I don't care if you destroy this room, pet, but the next time you try something stupid like that again, I will chain you to the bed for your safety and then you really will be bored and miserable."
"Don't even have the freedom to kill myself." He spat. "Some life."
Leviathan slammed the door closed so hard a crack appeared in the wood.
When he came out of the shower, he saw that the room had been perfectly restored, as if he had never destroyed it all in the first place. And Leviathan was sitting on his bed, twirling something black in his hand. When Cullen moved closer to see what it was, it vanished and Leviathan looked up with a small smile.
"I've decided you need a party."
"A party?" Cullen echoed, making a face. So much forLeviathan thinking he knew him better than Walker. "No thanks, not my thing."
“Oh, I know.” He said quietly, leveling a glare at him. “But you pissed me off and need to be punished for your stupidity, so we’re doing something I like today instead.”
“Did I miss the part where we did somethingIlike?” He scoffed, moving across the room to the fixed wardrobe. Just as he’d suspected, all his clothes had been placed back inside of it, even neater than before.
“Yes.” Leviathan said quietly, not turning around from his place on the bed. “I let you sit up here and stew in your rage and self pity until you tried to jump out a window. You seem to make dumb mistakes like that when I leave you to your own devices. So tonight you’ll come with me and have some fun.”
“Parties aren’t fun for me at all.” He scoffed, snatching up the first clothes he saw before rounding on him. He was still facing away from him, looking completely unlikely to move. “I hate them. I won’t enjoy it at all.”
“We shall see.” He leaned back on his hands then, clearly getting comfortable. “Get dressed.”
Heat rushed to his face. “Get out.”
“I’m not even looking. And it’s not as if I haven’t seen it all before anyway.”
The flush grew hotter. “Being a creep doesn’t mean I’m comfortable with you being in here. I’m not going to undress–”
“Do you think a robe would stop me?” The question was quiet. Dangerous. A threat. “Do you think being dressed would stop me? There is no difference.”
After a long moment, Cullen dropped the clothes to the floor with an annoyed scoff. “Fine then.” He shrugged therobe off and chucked it across the room before hurrying to put his clothes on, his eyes not leaving Leviathan’s back. Once he was finished, he straightened and picked up his robe, heading back into the bathroom to hang it back up.
“The servants will do that–”
“Are you so inept you can’t hang up your own robes?” Cullen scoffed as he moved back into the bedroom.
Leviathan gave him a displeased look and raised his chin. “The party is partly a celebration to welcome you to our world. You will come. You may kick and scream and fight me, but I will drag you there myself.” He smiled. “Or you can walk in maturely, on your own two feet and keep some of your self respect.”
He blinked slowly, realizing what he was meaning by a party. “Wait. There will be other demons there?” He wasn’t sure why that hadn’t clicked before.
“Many. Good friends of mine. And some low level creatures who lucked into an invite.”
