by Eve Newton
“Well, Luc thinks I’m special,” I boast.
Roberta narrows her eyes at my use of the Devil’s first name. The look of envy almost makes what I went through last night worthwhile. Even the sidesplitting cramps and the ax-in-the-head migraine I’d endured after I’d vomited up a whole lot of suckling pig.
“Yes, he does,” Roberta says quietly, lowering her eyes to my astonishment.
Caught off guard by this sudden turnaround, I glare at her and demand, “What are you doing here anyway?”
“I’m here to give you this,” Roberta declares and holds her hand out in a showroom gesture at the kitchen.
In the next second, there is a feast of breakfast foods in front of me, some of which make my empty stomach churn in protest.
I put my hand to my mouth and turn away. “Why?” I croak out.
“My master asked me to,” Roberta says and that is clearly all that she needs.
“Again, why?” I ask, having regained control of my stomach.
Roberta just shrugs. “Eat up now, you have work to get to.” And with that, Roberta heaves herself off the bed and disappears in a flash of light.
I stare enviously at the space that Roberta used to occupy. It’s not fair that she gets to do that. I look back at the array of food and decide there is no way my stomach can take anything right now, but maybe a few things to go for when I get the munchies later on.
I fill up a bag of croissants, and the such like, and shove my feet into my shoes.
“Back to the grindstone,” I mutter, hoping that Luc will show up and tell me that I’m too important for the drudgery of Inbound Admin now.
No such luck. I make it to work without any visits from the Devil.
As I sit down on my uncomfortable stool, I wouldn’t even mind if Stanford turned up to take me away from this nightmare.
As I remember the long, creepy fingers and big, bulbous eyes, I shudder and rethink that. Although, now that I’m back at work in my dull, gray room with no outside distractions, I also remember seeing Luc’s true form. While it terrified the life out of me when he’d been doing the ritual, I now think it is quite sexy. Even more so, seeing as he revealed himself to me and my eyes remain unscathed and my mind intact.
The light goes on above my head and I turn to the little door with a sigh.
The Reaper on the other side hands me his scroll wordlessly. I don’t bother trying to make conversation this time. I’m still too busy daydreaming about Luc and our, well, whatever it is that we now have.
After a couple of hours have passed, I start to feel hungry, so I delve into my bag of goodies and pull out a croissant. It is light and buttery and tastes delicious. I’m halfway through when I’m interrupted by a Reaper.
Bored out of my skull again by this time, I smile up at the Reaper. “Oh, hi, Jacob,” I say, scanning the scroll to get his name. His hood is pulled so far down, I couldn’t tell who it was.
Jacob grunts at me, but it doesn’t deter me.
“Having a good day?” I ask as I take in the soul’s temperament.
“What?” he snaps after a moment.
“I asked if you were having a good day,” I repeat slowly. Is he stupid or something?
“Don’t speak to me, Admin bitch,” he snarls.
Wow, okay. I knew the Reaper’s were a rude, cliquey bunch, but that was a bit mean when I was being so nice. I decide to get my own back.
“Hm, your soul is looking quite sad to be here,” I say with a mock sad face at Jacob.
Jacob’s hand clenches into a fist. Sad souls are the worst for a Reaper, they get shoved to the bottom of the waiting list for activities and it reflects poorly on the Reaper who brought them in. Sad is even worse than terrified.
“No, he isn’t,” Jacob says menacingly. “He is perfectly happy to be here.”
“Doesn’t look like it from where I’m sitting,” I taunt, waving my pen in the soul’s direction.
The soul looks back at me, confused, and perhaps a little interested, but not at all sad.
Jacob shoves back his hood a fraction and glares at me out of his coal black eyes. “If you mark him down as sad, bitch, you will regret crossing me.”
“Geez, lighten up,” I say breezily and mark the soul down as ‘interested’.
Jacob gives me a nasty smile as I send the scroll on its way and he turns away with his soul in tow, thinking he has gotten the better of me.
I stick my tongue out at his back. Then, I pick up my half-eaten croissant and with all the force that I can, throw it into the darkness hoping to hit my mark.
“Ow,” comes a plaintive cry out of the inky blackness.
I smile triumphantly and brush off my hands, only to be hit in the face with my croissant a moment later.
“Hey!” I snap, wiping crumbs off my face. “Jackass!”
“Bitch!” comes the distant reply.
“Humph,” I mutter, scooping up what is left of the croissant and dumping it in the trash.
“Not to your liking?” Luc asks as I slam the little door shut.
I spin around on my stool and smile up at him. He is wearing a black suit and a white shirt. He looks really sexy. Too bad he isn’t a monster in the sack like I’d hoped he would be.
“It got into a fight,” I say smoothly, leaning forward to flash my cleavage at him.
He pays no attention to my flirting and frowns. “Did you eat this morning?” he asks briskly.
I sit back. “A bit. Why did you send me all that food?”
“You need to keep your strength up,” he says, his bright-blue eyes focused on the bronze bracelet.
“What for?”
His eyes go back up to mine and he smiles mysteriously. “You’ll see,” he says.
“Soon?” I ask hopefully.
Luc shrugs nonchalantly and I give up. I’m not getting anything out of him today.
“I want to thank you,” I murmur, lowering my eyes seductively.
“What for?” he asks.
“Showing me your true self,” I reply, bringing my eyes back up.
His bore into mine, so fiercely, I feel my brain turning to mush. “My true self?” he asks with no hint of emotion.
I nod carefully. He doesn’t seem to know that he revealed himself to me.
“What did you see?” he asks in a low voice, licking his lips.
“A creature with eyes of fire and twisted horns as long as my arms,” I say.
“Oh,” he says with a laugh, after a moment. “No, my dear. That is not my true self.”
“It isn’t?” I ask deflated.
“You aren’t strong enough to bear witness to the ruler of Hell,” he says with a cruel smirk.
“Well,” I say with a sniff. “It wasn’t that impressive anyway.”
Luc lets out a loud laugh and I feel myself blush furiously as he mocks me.
His laughter stops abruptly, his gaze penetrating mine again before it flicks up to the place above my head where the light has switched on. I glance up as well and when I look back down, Luc has disappeared.
Dammit.
Luc
I pace up and down the hallway of my residence. I’m pensive. Axelle is proving to be everything that I’d hoped for, but I cannot allow myself to accept it yet. I’ve been disappointed too many times.
I stop in front of the portrait of my beautiful, wicked Jezebelle and grimace at it.
She wasn’t everything that I’d hoped for. Not by a long shot.
I resume pacing and then come to a halt in front of an enormous painting of a beast most would call terrifying. Eyes made of fire, long twisted horns, large hands with vicious claws and a forked tongue.
“Is she the one, father?” I ask the portrait quietly. “She saw one of the Devil’s forms during our binding, that has to mean something. It has to mean she is stronger than the rest. Do you know? If you do, tell me.”
As expected, all remains silent. My father is not of this domain anymore; he has long since lost the abil
ity to communicate. Good riddance. I don’t even know why I’m bothering with him.
“Sir,” Darius’s raspy voice interrupts my thoughts.
I turn around and stare at my guard for a moment. He is as ugly as they come, with a big square head and two sets of stubby horns running from front to back on either side. His teeth are in rows of three, wickedly sharp, and his skin is a dark gray and as hard as armor.
“What is it?” I ask.
“The bitch upstairs needs to be taken care of,” Darius says, clearly with no tolerance for the said bitch.
I chuckle. “Has it gone to her head already?” I ask and laugh harder at Darius’s slow nod. The female I’d picked out last night to suck my cock while I’d watched Axelle, has clearly decided she likes it on the upper floor of the residence better than the pits. “I’ll take care of it. Right after it has taken care of me.”
Darius snuffles quietly—his version of a raucous laughter—and watches me head upstairs, two at a time to get laid by this one, one last time before she ends up back in the pit and I attempt celibacy out of respect for my Demon Bound. I snort with mirth. Respect. She’d better fucking deserve it. It will likely kill me, but these feelings that I have for her, that I’ve been trying to push away are breaching the perimeter in a very unfamiliar way. I desire her above all others, but there’s something else. I don’t recognize it and I don’t like it.
I growl and grit my teeth as I push open the bedroom door. I find the bitch in the bed, where I’d left her to check on Axelle.
Seeing her there strikes a nerve. I want to throw her out, but instead I force myself to go to her. I need this to get Axelle out of my head for just a moment. I can’t allow myself to be consumed with thoughts of her. But I’m so anxious about her, it’s twisting my stomach, and there’s something else. She makes me laugh. She has such a feisty attitude that she presents in such a way that it delights me. I have never, in all of my many eons, felt quite like this before. I don’t know how to deal with it, all I know is that I need to keep an eye on her so I can see that she is still alive.
With a flick of my hand, the bitch is reduced to ash and I resume pacing up and down, hoping that Axelle makes it through the next second, the next minute, the next hour…
~ CHAPTER EIGHT ~
Axelle
After Luc has vanished from my dingy office, I grow bored. It is a seriously slow day and I hope that Evan stops by so we can have a banter. I haven’t seen him all day and that is unusual.
“I must be desperate,” I mutter as I beat my pen on the desk. “And now I’m also crazy,” I add, and sigh with relief when the light comes on.
I open the door with a dazzling smile, to find that it is Evan on the other side.
“Hey,” I say brightly and reach out to take his scroll.
“Hey,” he says back gruffly and then freezes. His hand grips his end of the scroll as his other hand clamps down on my new fashion accessory.
“Ow,” I complain as he grips it so tightly with his fingers, it digs into my skin. “Let go, you dick.”
Evan doesn’t let go, in fact, he grips it even tighter. “Where did you get this?” he asks in a tone that borders on menacing. The soul next to him whimpers, but we both ignore her.
“None of your business,” I say to him haughtily, taking his hand in mine and using all of my newly acquired strength to tear his hand away. I’m dumbfounded to discover it was like batting away a pesky fly, but I cover up my surprise so that Evan doesn’t see it.
“Axelle,” Evan says softly, and it catches me completely off guard. I’m so used to harshness and rudeness, not this gentle tone. It makes me extremely uncomfortable, so I ruin it by spitting out, “I said it’s none of your fucking business.”
Evan’s face closes off.
“Very well,” he says in a monotone. “Just don’t come crying to me when you end up as a burnt out, insane whore, or worse, dead, by him.” Evan storms off before I have even stamped the scroll, leaving the female soul behind to stare at me in fear.
“Great,” I mutter as Evan doesn’t come back for his Reaped one. “What the hell am I supposed to do with you now?” I ask the soul.
All I get back is more whimpering and it is getting on my last nerve. “A word of advice, dearie, you might want to grow a pair. The meek do not thrive down here,” I warn.
I roll my eyes as the soul outright weeps into her misty hands and I’m just left to look at her. Will she just disappear if I close the door on her?
I reach up to slam it in the soul’s crying face, when Roberta bustles in behind me with a loud tut.
“Who is responsible for… this?” she indicates in the general direction of the soul.
I bite my lip. Evan will probably get into deep shit for abandoning his Reaped soul at Inbound. Why that bothers me, I have no idea, but I clamp my mouth shut, as Roberta scowls at me.
“You have loyalty to someone other than your master?” she sneers. “How well you deserve your new trinket.” Roberta snatches up the scroll before I can shove it down the chute and she rakes her eyes over it. “Evan,” she growls.
“Don’t be too hard on him,” I start, but then shut it as Roberta glares down at me and then my bangle. I cover it up with my other hand.
“You should be careful, little girl,” Roberta says.
I swallow, desperate to fix Roberta’s mood. It has gone really dark and I don’t want to piss her off, so I indicate the soul. “What am I supposed to do with this?”
Roberta accepts the change in topic with a small sniff. She leans past me, crushing me between her enormous bosom, and the wall, and reaches for the soul. “I’ll take her,” she says and whips her through the small opening with a step back. The soul lets out an “eek” and Roberta glares down at her. “By the Devil, will you shut the fuck up!” she shouts at her. “That noise is getting on my nerves.”
I stifle my snort of amusement as the soul lowers the volume on her whimpering a fraction.
Roberta’s eyes meet mine and I wipe the smile off my face. “Get back to work,” she snaps and then disappears with the soul.
I look around. There is no work to do, or I would. Man alive, but I was not made to sit around on my ass all day. I’ve always been where the action is, causing it even. This is…
This is my life now, I sigh heavily, and close the door.
Evan
I lie in wait for Axelle to return to her apartment later that day. I see her enter and wait a few minutes before I knock on the door.
She glares at me, blocking the doorway. “What do you want?” she asks rudely.
“To apologize,” I mutter quietly. She makes me so nervous. My stomach is in knots. “Let me in, please?” It was a plaintive plea and that somehow causes her to take a step back and invite me in.
I rush inside and close the door behind me quickly. “I’m sorry,” I say. “I was out of order, but…”
“But, nothing, Evan,” Axelle says with her arms crossed.
“Do you know what that thing does?” I ask anxiously, so anxiously that Axelle unfolds her arms and twirls the bracelet around nervously.
“Yes,” she lies.
“Do you?” I demand. That thing terrifies me. I can’t let her go through with this. “It is going to hurt you, Axelle, you should never have…” I trail off.
“Look, I appreciate you looking out for me, but it’s not necessary,” Axelle says. “I know what I’m doing.”
“Fair enough,” I mutter, my mouth in a tight, grim line. “I won’t stand in your way.” She is so stubborn. She isn’t going to listen to me. I need to rethink this idea and come back with something she will have to listen to. I turn to leave, but Axelle steps around me and blocks my path to the door.
“Why do you even care about me?” she asks with a tilt to her head.
I have no idea what to say to that. She has caught me off guard with her candid question, although it shouldn’t surprise me. She strikes me as the most forthright of Demons.
>
As I look into her blue eyes, I’m surprised to see a growing interest in them. She gives me a raking once-over that makes me blush and clear my throat awkwardly.
She catches her breath and the moment turns so heated as she gains a predatory air.
I gaze at her as I see the shift in her manner and open my mouth to say something, but she is on me instantly, latching her mouth onto mine and delving her tongue into my mouth.
I moan with desire as she gives me a kiss that sets alight the desire I have for her and turns it into a raging inferno.
“Oh, yes,” I groan into her mouth as I kiss her back with so much fervor, she starts tearing at my clothes.
She walks me back to the bed, taking complete control over the situation and I let her. My surprise at her arduous attack on me dissipates as she presses her body closer to me and my body responds with a painfully hard erection.
“Axelle,” I breathe as she pulls her mouth away from mine to give me a wicked smile. I cup her face and turn us around so that I am now in control and the one to push her back to the bed so that I can fall on top of her.
She reaches for my zipper and slides it down enticingly when suddenly she disappears out from under me, causing me to face plant on the bed in a graceless sprawl that has me glad that she wasn’t here to see it.
It begs the question though, where did she go? And furthermore, why the fuck at this precise moment?
“Luc,” I growl, climbing off the bed, with my fists clenched. “You fucking prick!”
Luc
“What in the name of…” Axelle thunders at me, but I hold my hand up and her mouth slams shut of its own accord.
“I should ask you the same thing,” I thunder back at her. My rage at seeing my vessel about to be defiled by that disgusting, lowly Reaper out of all of them, bursting forth. My head is spinning; I cannot get the image out of my head of her projected onto my wall with her legs wrapped around that creature. She cannot be tainted by any male except me.
I just won’t allow it.
She is mine.
“I was about to get laid and you whisked me away to yell at me!” Axelle shrieks, so mad with me, it momentarily escapes her notice that I’d been so obviously watching her.