His eyes never left her, not for a second and they stayed wide and red. His pupils hardly existed and he forgot to blink for...he didn't remember the last time he blinked. Every twitch of every claw, every shifting feather, every drifting ember, he took it in.

However.

However there was a kinship he held with all monsters, no matter how fearful or grudging or full of wonder he felt and when the being didn't immediately launch at him or let out another of those terrible roars, Maurice started to wonder. That wonder was cut off by it speaking up. Luckily the sound The Devil made registered as a word but he didn't catch the voice.

How could he?

Instead, he swallowed all the blood that had pooled in his mouth and coughed once.

"D'...do I owe you m-money?"

Why else would it have spared him?