Demon’s Game by Xenia Melzer
Book 2 in the Demon Mates series
General Release Date: 25th January 2022
Word Count: 58,464
Book Length: NOVEL
Pages: 277
Genres:
ANGELS AND DEMONS,COMEDY AND HUMOUR,CONTEMPORARY,EROTIC ROMANCE,GAY,GLBTQI,PARANORMAL
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Book Description
For a demon, finding a mate is a difficult, anxiety-inducing process. Or he might just accidentally bite his gaming buddy during a bout of experimental sex and bam—mate found!
During a book club meeting where The Witcher is discussed in its entirety, meaning books, series and games, Barion again meets Jon, the zombie, who lives in Sammy’s basement, and the two bond over their mutual love of the game.
They begin gaming together, doing videos for Jon’s YouTube channel where he tests games that are to be released to the public. During one of the videos, they are asked what their ideal game would look like, and the idea for Demon Wars is born. Working together on the game brings Barion and Jon closer together and their friendship deepens every day, which worries Jon’s Grann, a zombie like himself and the witch queen of New Orleans. She wants Jon to come back home, while Jon realizes he loves spending time with Barion.
After some friendly—and oh so subtle—prodding from friends and family, Barion and Jon decide to explore the potential of their relationship. They have sex, and Barion bites Jon in the heat of the moment, marking him as his mate. They’re both over the moon, even though they now have to visit Grann in New Orleans because the family and the ancestors want to check Barion out.
They quickly realize that something is wrong there, and it turns out Grann has been challenged by a voodoo priest who practices the blackest of magic. Barion will do his best to save the day, Grann—and his relationship.
Publisher’s Note: This book is best read as book two in the Demon Mates series.
Jon was pacing again. This seemed to be his default when it came to waiting for Barion. He was a bit unsure if twice was enough to qualify as a repetitive behavioral pattern, but since he usually didn’t even do once with other people, twice was a two hundred percent increase, which had to be good. Unless you counted pacing as a nervous habit then increasing it wasn’t good at all and, oh gods, he’d need a shrink, one who made house calls—and where would he find one of those without Sammy and Dre and the others getting wind of it, not to mention Grann, who would tell him to come home immediately. Why is it so difficult to get a life? The irony in that question had him chuckling.
The sound of steps on the stairs pulled him out of this train of thought that was rapidly heading toward a very dark tunnel. Barion’s voice was clear on the other side of his door.
“I told you, Sammy, it’s fine. I can carry breakfast for Jon and me. It’s not that heavy. Plus, I could have just taken the short cut into his apartment.”
“No, really, Barion, I want to help.” Sammy had this stubborn tone Jon knew all too well. His friend and landlord was in meddling mode, born out of true worry for Jon, which was the only reason Jon was willing to accept it. Barion must have thought along similar lines, because despite his own tone carrying a hint of exasperation, he was patient with Sammy.
“Sammy, Jon and I are fine. I’m not going to kill him or leave him stranded in some weird-ass dimension. We’re just playing a video game!”
“You’d leave him in another dimension?” Of course Sammy would latch onto that. Jon grinned, wondering how Barion would weasel out of it.
“Never! That’s what I said. He’s perfectly safe with me.”
“But you could.” Sammy was more stubborn than a mule in front of a dark patch on the ground. Barion’s sigh was long-suffering.
“Dre, could you please tell your mate I would never, in all my life, leave Jon in another dimension.”
So Dre is there as well. Not really a surprise.
“Sammy, Barion would never, in all his life, leave Jon in another dimension. Time seems to be still on the table, though.”
“Dre, you asshole!”
Jon heard heavy thumping, indicating two demons play-wrestling. It was enough for Jon to make him fear for his door and the hall. He stepped forward and opened it.
“Good morning, Barion, Sammy, Dre. How are you?”
Sammy smiled happily at him, while Barion looked up from where he was trying to strangle Dre from two steps below him, which made quite the picture.
“Good morning, Jon. Barion was just assuring me he would never leave you stranded in a strange dimension, but as my highly intelligent mate has pointed out, we haven’t yet established if he wouldn’t leave you somewhere else in time.” Sammy cocked his head. “Sounds a bit like Dr. Who, if you ask me.”
Jon felt his lips turn into an even wider grin, the way Sammy’s eyes were sparkling telling him he was mostly yanking Barion’s chain. The friendly human could be quite mischievous when he wanted to be.
“Yep, sounds definitely like Dr. Who. And you can rest assured that we’re only playing a game today—no going out into the world, not to mention other dimensions.”
“You don’t know what you’re missing.” Sammy clapped his hands. “We’re leaving you two alone. Have fun.”
“But things were getting good,” Dre whined.
“Yeah, I was close to finally getting rid of you,” Barion spat back.
“In your dreams!”
The temperature in the hall was suddenly rising and Jon didn’t know what to do. He wasn’t a fan of violence, at least not when it happened in real life. And though he had gotten used to the casual fights in the book club—shifters and vampires were a volatile bunch, especially when they were of differing opinions on the matter of female representation in the Dragonriders of Pern novels by Anne McCaffrey—two demons getting serious was way out of his league.
Luckily for him, Sammy had no qualms about getting between the two brothers, whose intricate tattoos had started to glow so brightly that Jon could see them through the clothing they wore which was…yummy, if he were completely honest with himself. Very yummy indeed. The light was just strong enough to emphasize Barion’s perfectly muscled body underneath the sweatshirt and designer jeans, both of which didn’t leave much to the imagination to begin with. Seeing all those cloth-encased muscles highlighted like a painting by an old master reminded Jon of his sex drive, the very thing he had thought he’d lost forever.
He shook his head. Thinking of Barion and sexiness and muscles and sex was wrong. So wrong. Even though he couldn’t seem to remember why. He heard a huff. Ah, yes, because Barion and Dre were this close to a full-on fight, and Jon had to protect Sammy or the members of the book club would kill him.
“Dre, Barion, stop it or I’m telling Dad.” The words were like a bucket of ice-water. The demon brothers turned to Sammy.
“You wouldn’t!” Dre’s eyes were wide with disbelief.
“Watch me. You two love each other, and you know it. So why do you always have to escalate things?”
“That’s what demons do, mo grah thu.”
“Yes, Sammy, we’ve been like this since we were small.”
Sammy crossed his arms in front of his chest. “Well, I don’t like it, so stop.” The devious little devil even managed to let his bottom lip tremble the tiniest bit. Jon had to applaud Sammy’s talent for acting.
“It’s okay, mo grah thu. We were just joking. Everything’s fine, isn’t it, Barion?”
“Of course, brother. We simply got carried away, Sammy.”
Both demons almost fell over themselves to placate Sammy. After a few more reassurances, Sammy and Dre went back upstairs and Barion entered Jon’s apartment.
“Sorry about that. Sammy insisted on coming down with me and Dre always manages to rile me up.”
“It’s fine. I know everything about annoying family.” Jon thought about all of his relatives and shuddered. Intent on leaving this topic behind, he looked at the box Barion had picked up from the ground after his attempt to get rid of his brother. “Please tell me this is breakfast. I think I’m starving.”
“It is breakfast. Crêpes from a quaint little café in Paris, the best you’ll ever taste.” Barion opened the box and the smells wafting up made Jon an instant believer.
“What do we have?”
“This here is with Parma ham and Le Beaufort Chalet d’Alpage, a very expensive cheese worth every penny it costs. I think you’ll like how the saltiness of the Parma ham harmonizes with the complex taste of the matured cheese. Then we have one with Fromage fraise made from goat’s milk paired with spinach and garlic and the last variety is Roquefort with figs, walnuts and Leatherwood Honey. As dessert I have brought crêpes with a filling of strawberries and cream, applesauce with sugar and cinnamon and a hint of cider, as well as the classic nougat cream made with seventy percent hazelnuts.”
“In other words, not death by sugar overload as would be the case with Nutella.” Jon found Barion’s enthusiasm about food endearing.
“No, no Nutella.” Barion shuddered. “Once you’ve tasted what nougat cream can be like, Nutella becomes nothing but a bad memory.”
“I’ll take your word for it. Let’s get the goods over to the gaming room and I’ll get us plates and cutlery. The game is ready and the camera focused, so we can start right away.”
“Great. I can’t wait.”
Jon went to the kitchen in a hurry because he didn’t want the crêpes to get cold. Once they were seated, Barion put the ones with the Parma ham on their plates and Jon couldn’t suppress a moan when he got the first taste of salty crunchiness mixed with soft dough and the almost biting flavor of the cheese. Barion sure knew what was good. They ate the first crêpes in deferential silence, showing the excellent food the respect it deserved. Before they started with the spinach crêpes, Jon asked Barion, “How should I introduce you, by the way? Do you have a gamer name you’d like to use?”
Barion sighed. “I’ve been thinking forever about it, trying to come up with clever puns or names but it seems I’m not that creative. So it’s going to be my WoW name, Big B.”
Jon bit back a chuckle. “Big B isn’t so bad. It certainly fits.”
“Yeah, there’s that. Which reminds me, what does PLM stand for? Did you know there’s tons of theories out there about your name? Some of them quite disturbing, I might add.”
Jon laughed. “I know. People can get quite inventive.” He turned serious. “Nobody but me knows what the letters stand for. Well, Grann could probably guess it if she knew about the name.”
“You don’t have to tell me, Jon. Keeping secrets is fine. That just makes me more interested in getting to know you better.” Barion winked.
If Jon hadn’t known better, he would have thought Barion was flirting with him, but that couldn’t be the case because he knew from Sammy that Barion was looking for his mate, not some quick fling or short affair. Jon didn’t even know if he wanted to have one of those. Technically, he was looking for something serious as well, though he doubted zombies had fated mates. At least he’d never heard of it, and he had been too chicken to ask Grann, in case she decided to take matters in her own hands and find him someone. Her meddling was bad enough as it was. Despite all those logical thoughts running through his mind, Jon felt the urge to tell Barion this secret he kept more out of habit than anything else.
“You can’t tell anybody.”
Barion put one hand over where Jon thought the heart was located with demons and held the other one out to him, his pinkie finger extended. “Pinkie swear.”
That was so ridiculous that Jon had to chuckle. Then he hooked his own pinkie with Barion’s to seal the deal. The sudden heat surging through him from the point where their skin met reminded him of how cold he always was, but for the first time, it didn’t bother him. Perhaps because his thoughts were occupied otherwise. “Pinkie swear.”
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Xenia Melzer
Xenia Melzer was born and raised in a small village in the South of Bavaria. As one of nature’s true chocoholics, she’s always in search of the perfect chocolate experience. So far, she’s had about a dozen truly remarkable ones. Despite having been in close proximity to the mountains all her life, she has never understood why so many people think snow sports are fun. There are neither chocolate nor horses involved and it’s cold by definition, so where’s the sense? She does not like beer either and has never been to the Oktoberfest – no quality chocolate there.
Even though her mind is preoccupied with various stories most of the time, Xenia has managed to get through school and university with surprisingly good grades. Right after school she met her one true love who showed her that reality is capable of producing some truly amazing love stories itself.
While she was having her two children, she started writing down the most persistent stories in her head as a way of relieving mommy-related stress symptoms. As it turned out, the stress-relief has now become a source of the same, albeit a positive one.
When she’s not writing, she translates the stories of other authors into German, enjoys riding and running, spending time with her kids, and dancing with her husband. If you want to contact her, please visit either her website, or write her an email.
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