“That one is of prime importance to my—to our mission. You do not go near him, speak to him, or even look in his direction. I have focused too much effort on flensing away his defenses and binding him to my will to have you look at him as a snack. You were sent to aid me. If you cannot do so, I will end you myself and send you back to the pit. And then my lord will view you as a snack.”

She shook the lesser creature like a doll, not so much to hurt it, as its flesh shell didn’t feel pain from purely physical damage, but instead to make her point.

Then she threw it across the room and into the kitchen, where it skidded across the yellowed linoleum floor and slammed into the cheap kitchen cabinets. It lay there, unharmed, but wisely keeping still.

“But you took enjoyment from that monkey. Why can’t we?” Obiax whined. It was wearing the female shell, but it was in no way feminine.

In a flicker of movement, Lilith stood before it, her head tilted to one side, studying the lower demon. Obiax cringed back submissively.

“So you place yourselves on my level?” Lilith asked, voice mild.

The demon wearing human skin froze in place. The first glimmer of realization was just forming in its red eyes when Lilith’s right hand plunged into its chest. She held its gaze for a moment then withdrew her hand, holding a squirming, putrescent glob of black slime.

The body collapsed like a puppet shorn of its strings while Lilith turned and held out a hand to the remaining demon. Instantly, that one pushed an empty glass pickle jar into her waiting hand.

She slowly held her hand over the jar and waited. After a second, the squirming lump sagged, almost in surrender, and then oozed down into the empty container. Lilith held out her now empty but black-crud-encrusted right hand and the lid was carefully placed on it. She casually screwed the lid down and then held up the closed container.

“You will stay in this vessel, Obiax, until, and if, I choose a new shell for you. You will do nothing but contemplate the vastness of the gulf that separates you from me,” the Hell Baroness said.

She swept a spot clear on the littered coffee table with one arm and then set the jar down. Her gaze pinned each of the other demons until they wisely dropped their eyes.