Betting On His Demon by Kelex Page B

expected you to say his freedom,” Olivier said slowly, his nose wrinkling.  “Yet you ask for control over the human.  My, cousin, there is a dark side to you after all.” 
    Carr nodded.  “I only want it to protect him from any other demon.  If I have his contract, no one else can control him.  I won’t make him my slave.”
    “You always were too much of a goodie two-shoes, Carreau.  I really don’t know what your problem is.”
    “Do we have a deal?” Carr asked, ignoring the bait his cousin always tried to leave him.
    Olivier lifted a hand to Carr’s proffered one.
    Before Carr shook it, he added a caveat.  “We do need to agree on ground rules for this event.”
    “Ground rules?  More of your precious rules, which you can’t follow yourself?” Olivier sighed.  “What is it you want, Carr?”
    “No mind reading of the human while he’s playing,” Carr said firmly.
    Olivier frowned and crossed his arms over his chest.  “You wound me, cousin.  As if I would cheat while playing the human.”
    Carr tilted his head and stared at Olivier.
    “Fine.  I might have cheated, but only to make it more interesting.”
    Carr shook his head.  His cousin was mad, and a warmonger, but for some reason, Carr enjoyed their time together.  “You will play the game fair and square.  You won’t cheat in any way.”
    Olivier sighed.  “Fine.  Fair and square.  I’ll still win.”
    Carr lifted his hand.  Olivier shook it firmly.  Carr teleported back to his room and woke Julian.  “Come, you have the game of your life to play.”
    Julian rubbed at the sleep in his eyes.  “What?”
    “You’re playing Olivier for your freedom.  There’s no time to lose.”
    Carr teleported them back, fully clothing Julian before returning.
    Olivier immediately began divvying up the cards, never speaking to Julian or Carr.  As calm as Olivier attempted to act, anger simmered under the surface. 
    Once Julian had his hand, Carr looked over his shoulder and pointed at certain cards.
    “Carreau, just what are you doing?”
    Carr smiled.  “Helping Julian.”
    “That’s cheating.  The human must forfeit.  I win,” Olivier said much too happily.
    “Wait!”  Carr smiled, giving his cousin one of the smirking glances he’d always been on the receiving end of.  “The ground rules were for you to not cheat.  I never said I wouldn’t.  And you also didn’t explicitly say I couldn’t help Julian, either.  So … we play.”
    Olivier’s mouth popped open for a half a second before he recaptured his cool demeanor and settled back into his chair.  “Well played, cousin.  I didn’t think you had it in you.”
    Carr tried to hide his laugh.  Olivier’s words had been spat out between clenched teeth.  It made Carr happy to ruffle his cousin’s feathers.  That happened far too infrequently, but Carr also needed to be careful.  Olivier was a wily creature, without a doubt.
    They played another hand, the pot rising.  Julian was an adept player, winning a few hands on his own.  When the human’s pot had grown large, he became a little more comfortable and relaxed, which wasn’t a good thing.  Ego brought down many a man. 
    Julian pushed half his pot into the center of the table.  “I raise … a million.”
    Olivier’s eyebrows rose as he looked over the pot and then his cards.  “I call, human.”
    Olivier placed his cards on the table and Carr sucked in a breath.  A royal flush.  The hand was too good, and then something hit Carr.  Julian had four of a kind.  Four kings.
    “You’ve cheated, Olivier,” Carr said.  “We win.”
    Olivier sat up in his chair and leaned across the table, piling the chips closer to him.  “I had a rule to break, cousin.  I believe I still have one left since all I can smell on the human is you.”
    Carr gritted his teeth.  He glanced at Julian’s meager pile.  They weren’t completely out of the game.  They’d have to be careful and play their