The Battle of Wills | Gay MxM |

5. The Beast Within

-Adrian-

"Well, you did have a demon before, didn't you?" Wendell's voice on the phone was a little too amused for my taste. "They're not like us, and they are far from humans, even though they occasionally look like them."

"I had a demon, but she was nothing like Micah," I hissed quietly to the phone.

I was sitting on the edge of my bed, rubbing my temples and glaring at the monitors. Micah was fast asleep in his room in the basement with his limbs spread and snoring away like he had no worries in the world. It pissed me off.

"Well she was already tamed when you bought her. And she was a regular demon – Micah is not," Wendell said. "Man, I have heard plenty of stories about witches, who have been suicidal enough to tame a royal demon, and right now I'm not sure if you even have a royal. You should be grateful that the only thing he's pissed about is the motherfucking shampoo!"

"He wasn't pissed! He's mocking me!" I spat. "He's childish, arrogant, and making constant noise!"

"Well boohoo!" Wendell said harshly. "If you want to take down Raoul, you better sort out your priorities! The lynx is obviously young, and he already knows that you can't handle the situation, so of course he's doing whatever he can to annoy you! Like I said, they're not human, so you can't treat him like one. Kindness may work with humans, but demons are chaotic creatures, and they don't fear death. They need to be handled with an iron fist, and you're clearly failing!"

I squinted my eyes in anger and tried to decide whether to throw my phone to the wall or not. Wendell was right, but I didn't need his lecture.

"I need your help. Or advice, or a hypnotist or whatever," I said, trying to hide my irritation.

"What you need is to buy a tamed pet. I have a family to take care of!" Wendell protested.

"Or what's left of it," I muttered before I could stop my tongue.

"Don't you dare talk about my family like that!" Wendell yelled at me.

"I didn't mean it to insult you!" I yelled back. "Raoul killed half of your family already! He stole your lands and forced your allies to abandon you guys! I can defeat him, but I need help!"

There was a small pause on the line, before I heard a deep sigh. "Do you want to hear my honest opinion?"

"No," I said and gritted my teeth.

"I'm giving it to you anyway. You can't do it. His family is big enough to take over a small country. He has allies everywhere. I know he has a few of his people in my family too," Wendell spoke with a hushed voice.

"What?" I asked, feeling a sharp jolt of worry going through my body.

"He's recruiting, and apparently loyalty is overrated these days. Look – I want to help, I really do, but if I keep visiting you, someone will notice. I would be surprised if Raoul doesn't already know about the lynx. Even if he is a royal, and you can tame him, you still have thousands of Raoul's men against you," he spoke, and I could hear the defeat in his voice. "All I'm saying is that maybe we ran out of hope a long time ago."