It will be far easier for Zerxus to catch, once he realizes that Asmodeus can and will 'talk' to Bruce whenever he wishes, and that Bruce himself is effectively a listening device.

Not that it should be a shock, but thus far Bruce has deliberately kept when and if Asmodeus is present hidden to the best of his ability - and his ability on that front his pretty good.

Part of that is how deeply, completely, satisfying he finds the... intimacy with Asmodeus. For all the punishment and reward at his disposal, it really doesn't take much (anymore) than his presence and approval or sense of 'sharing' something, or disapproval and removal of himself (or turning cold and remote) to shift Bruce.

Given his arrogance and pride in his own mortality... There's derision there, even for him, almost habitual toward mortals. I'm sure dead in a gutter is something he'd see as 'better'. Bruce does not agree, and that had better go without saying.

He moves through the shelves, head cocked to the side and pulling the occasional book out to see the cover, but only removing books likely to contain information about Ioun's followers. Though now with more ...focus. What was that dream about and why is it this important?