by Eve Newton
“Get out!” I yell at him.
We both jump in surprise, as the bedroom door suddenly bursts off its hinges, and in storms the ruler of Hell, looking for all the world like he is about to commit murder. When he sees that I am, in fact, unharmed, and just being leered at by an imp, I see the relief pass across his face. It sends a warm shiver over me, but then I remember how naked I am behind the small towel and how close Stanford is to me.
“What is going on here?” Luc thunders at Stanford.
He quakes on his big feet. “I just brought the lady breakfast,” Stanford stammers.
Lady?
Hmm. Female, yes. Bitch, yes. Wench, absolutely, but lady? Nuh-uh. It doesn’t happen down here.
My gaze bores into his head before I turn it on Luc. If I didn’t know better, I would say he is avoiding my gaze.
Stanford points a shaky finger at the tray of food on the table and Luc calms visibly.
“Next time, perhaps less lurking and wait for her to invite you in,” Luc reprimands his familiar and sends him on his way.
“Yes, sir,” Stanford mumbles with a bowed head and leaps off out through the gaping hole where the door used to be.
“Uhm,” I murmur as Luc continues to stand there. “Look, I’m all for you seeing what you created over here, but if you are just going to reject me again, turn around and let me get dressed.”
Luc snaps his fingers and I’m instantly covered up in a white blouse and black pants with six-inch heeled black ankle boots.
I look fucking amazing!
“Nice work,” I comment and discard the towel.
“Always,” he says.
“So, what now?” I ask a bit awkwardly, as we stand there staring at each other.
“Now you eat,” Luc says and sits down at the breakfast table to wait for me to join him.
I sigh. I really want to get this phase show on the road. “Do you know when?” I ask after picking the blueberries out of a muffin.
“No,” Luc says shortly.
“So, I just sit around here and wait to die?” I ask with a sad laugh.
“No,” he says, taking my hand. “We will sit here and wait for you to survive.”
“This really goes against the grain, you know. It’s very confusing,” I remark, pulling my hand back reluctantly, but out of necessity. I can’t bear this platonic bullshit a second longer.
“What do you mean?” Luc demands, staring at his hand. “I have already told you; your body has to remain pure.”
“I’m not talking about the sex, Luc,” I say exasperated. “Although, that is beyond annoying. I’m talking about how you seem to care about something. Even if it isn’t me, exactly.”
Luc
I turn away from her and drum my fingers on the table. It is very against the grain for me, and I’m not all that pleased that she has sussed me out. Although, I haven’t exactly been too subtle about it lately, which is my own damn fault. I want to tell her that I don’t give a shit about her, but I know the lie will show to her.
I also want to tell her that I know about her little office dalliance with a certain Reaper. But what would be the point? She will just rake me over the coals again about her sexual needs that I’m not fulfilling, much to my own disgust and discomfort. My cock has had a raging hard-on ever since I saw the two of them cavorting in her office. As much as I want to extinguish that little prick who has been a thorn in my side since the day he was damned, I can’t deny how much it turned me on to see Axelle writhing under his attention. Fuck knows if I can’t accomplish this task, then someone should. She lives for sex. It’s not just a job to her, but her entire existence. It must be killing her to have me abstain from touching her. The fact that I not only acknowledge this and accept that she needs a male to get her kicks, and that I’m not ripping Evan’s skin off inch by painful inch right now, says a lot about me. Or more to the point, a lot about what she has done to me. What she continues to do to me every second I’m in her presence.
I’m more than grateful that she stuck to her word and didn’t fuck him, but I also know Evan. He will be itching to get his dick inside her, not only to stick it to me, but because he has fallen for her so badly. It would be laughable if the same thing hadn’t happened to me. That doe-eyed, adoring gaze he’d given her in her office would probably cross my own face if I didn’t have the restraint that I do.
I bite my tongue and then I hear a loud, “Whoop!” and a resounding thud above my head.
“What the fuck?” I bark, annoyed that my thoughts were interrupted and turning back to Axelle, but she is no longer sitting next to me.
I look up with a feeling of dread.
She is above me, plastered against the ceiling in a ring of fire, her mouth open in a silent scream as the flames lick her perfect skin.
“Shit!” I exclaim as I stand up abruptly, the chair falling back heavily to the floor as I gape at the scene above me.
Axelle is writhing in agony as she is engulfed in the flames, but I can’t help her. There is nothing I can do but stand helplessly underneath her as she suffers.
~ CHAPTER FOURTEEN ~
Dashel
I grunt in pain, doubling over as the unseen fire sears my skin. I rasp, drawing in a painful breath as the brimstone burns my lungs.
“Axelle,” I grunt, closing my eyes.
I don’t know why I’m feeling what she is right now. I don’t know why she is being burned by the flames of Hell.
I can feel her terror and it brings tears to my eyes.
I squeeze them tightly closed, wishing that I could help her. She is in so much pain, but I’m helpless. I cannot reach her.
I hold my hand out anyway, reaching out for her, but it’s useless.
I can see her now. She is in a circle of flames, being burned alive.
I should be glad that this is happening to her. I should feel relief that Luc’s chance with her is dissipating by the second.
But I don’t feel any of that.
I feel remorse that I couldn’t help her. I wanted the chance to save her, but I couldn’t enter her dreams last night. I didn’t have the opportunity to convince her to do the right thing and leave the Devil, leave this ritual, behind.
I breathe in deeply and push the pain aside. I open my eyes again and clench my fists. This connection that I have to the Demon is unnerving me and leaving me uncertain as to its cause. It cannot just be because of my responsibility, my need to convince her to choose a different path. It runs deeper than that. I can feel it in my very soul. I know it is real. I know she makes my heart pound faster when I think about her. I know that I feel a stirring inside me when I think about those beautiful blue eyes. I know that I want to feel those rosy red lips pressed against mine in a kiss so forbidden, I’m damning my pure soul just thinking about it.
“Axelle,” I moan out loud, not caring if anyone overhears me. “Let me help you.”
I close my eyes again and focus on her. I enter her mind easily now, her guards lowered by the pain she is enduring.
“How can I help?” I ask her desperately.
She looks at me, her face contorted with her agony, the flames licking at her skin, burning away the beauty that the Devil has given her for his own ends. That beauty that is seducing me into thoughts so wicked, I loathe myself for them, but at the same time, I cannot stop thinking about her.
She opens her mouth, but all I hear are her screams inside my head as she continues to burn alive.
“How goes your task, Dashel?” Vazna asks me, breaking my concentration and severing my connection with Axelle.
“She has failed the Devil. She is burning alive as we speak,” I state, pushing aside the misery that it is consuming me.
“Wonderful news,” Vazna exclaims. “I shall let our Master know immediately.”
I nod with a gulp, turning my back so that my fellow Angel cannot see my sorrow. “Yes, wonderful,” I murmur, my heart sinking even as my soul feels relief that this infatuation is over.
>
Axelle
The only feeling that I have is pain. There is no shock or sadness that these are my last few seconds in existence. All I feel is the agony of Hell fire tearing across my body.
I know I’m not really burning; it all has to be in my mind. The heat is imaginary.
I cling to that as I continue to scream at Luc to help me, but there is no sound coming out of my mouth. I stare down into his bright blue eyes, that are wide with shock. I see his helplessness. As I thrash around on the ceiling, trying to get away from the flames, I hold my hand out to him. I stretch, as far as I’m able, to reach him and the last thing I see before my eyes are burnt out of my head, is his hand reaching up for me.
It’s not really happening. It’s not really happening.
It is all an illusion to break me.
I have figured this out somehow. Not helped along by the same Angel that I dreamed about the other night. He was here again, in my head, trying to help me. It confuses me, but honestly, it’s the last thing that I can think of right now.
My eyes are gone, my hair has been singed off my head, my lips have cracked and fallen off. My clothes are melting into my skin and I can feel it all. But somehow, I know it isn’t real.
My rationale for this is that I would be completely useless to Luc as a burnt-out corpse. There would be nothing left to go into phase four if this was real. So, I cling onto that.
It’s not really happening.
I must fight it.
I must find the strength in me to push back the flames. They are starting to lick at my essence now through the gaping holes in my skull. Worming their way inside me, burning my lungs so that I cannot take another breath.
I let out a “whoosh” sound and then grit my teeth. They are still intact, but my tongue has flaked into ash at the bottom of my mouth.
I’ve never cherished anything in my couple of centuries of being. I’ve coveted things, of course, like power and strength, but I’ve never really felt the need to keep something because I liked it.
I know I’m dying now.
I can’t fight the fire and as my life flashes before my mind’s eye, I see Slade, the slave that I’d enjoyed tormenting until he broke. I see Lacey, the woman whose body I occupied on Earth to go about my havoc-wreaking.
But none of those things are enough for me to grab onto.
Until I see Evan, the cute Reaper who seems to care about me and who I desperately want to see again.
I see the gorgeous Angel who wants to save me. I know he’s real now, not just a dream, and even though I don’t understand it, I know his motivation isn’t to end me.
I see Luc flash before me. Not in his handsome, suave, human form, but the version of himself that I saw when he molded the bronze to my wrist. The creature from the bowels of Hell that had, at once, terrified me and made me nearly cream myself for him.
He is the Devil.
My lord and master.
A creature that, through no other reason except that he created my Demonic essence, I owe my loyalty to.
And he needs me.
He picked me out of all the others to do this task for him and I blindly accepted it because I know it is important. I told myself that I wouldn’t let him down and yet here I am giving in to this illusion.
Ready to die.
I fix my mind onto him. Both versions of him, and the other two males who are now consuming my thoughts. I grind my teeth even further down.
I will fight this.
I feel the flames recede from inside my form, leaving my essence to flicker and heal. I feel my tongue in my mouth again and I blink my reformed eyes to see Luc still standing beneath me, worry etched onto his features and his hand still outstretched to take mine.
It’s all the encouragement I need. He wants to save me and even if it is just because of what I’m supposed to give him, it is enough that he just wants to.
I peel my arms off the ceiling, the muscles screaming with the effort. I push back the flames with the strength of my mind and soon it is a simple ring of fire circled around me. I stretch my arms out to the sides and touch the ring, clasping it in my hands. I pull away from the ceiling and float down to the plush carpet, landing silently in the center of the circle on my feet, crouched, like a cat ready to pounce out.
I lift my head up and the look of wonder on Luc’s face makes me grin wickedly. With one quick leap, I exit the ring of fire and it dissipates into nothing.
Luc is on me the second I’m out of the circle. He grabs me and roughly pulls me close to him, tenderly placing his hand on the back of my head as he pants softly into my hair.
“You made it,” he whispers.
I feel a swell of pride go through me at his words. I’m awfully content to be held by the most fearsome creature known to man and beast. It sends all sorts of emotions racing through me. I lift my arms up to embrace him back, but before I can get my arms around him, he grabs my shoulders and pushes me away from him. He drops his hands and straightens his cuffs. His face has gone as cold as stone and with a stiff, “Well done,” he stalks off towards the gaping door-hole.
Well done? Well fucking done? Who the fuck does he think he is?
I’m enraged by his curt brush off. I’ve just endured literal Hell for him, and he gives me a “well done”!
I stamp off after him and through the hole-way into the corridor. I see him walking towards the stairs and I race to catch up with him, my spiked heels clacking on the hardwood floor.
“You bastard,” I spit at him before I can stop myself.
I see his back stiffen and I bring my hand up to my lips. Oops, that was not supposed to come out of my mouth. I might as well have shriveled up in the Hell fire ring as he turns to me with a face of thunder.
~ CHAPTER FIFTEEN ~
Luc
I’d heard her coming, heard her heels on the floor behind me and the staccato beat told me she was angry with me.
She has every right to be.
Well done? What the fuck was I thinking?
The fact is, I’m thinking too much. About her. About her and what I plan to do with her once she has survived this test. I shouldn’t care; I’m not capable of caring about anything except myself and producing an heir. I don’t even really care about the child itself, just the idea that I need a son. And yet, this little bitch has turned my head in the most sickening way, and I can’t turn it back.
I stiffen my back as I hear her getting closer and then I grip the front of my jacket tightly as she spits out at me, “You bastard.”
Well, I can’t say I don’t deserve it, but who does she think she is using that tone with me?
I turn to her, my worry over her ordeal boiling over into anger so that she can’t see my true feelings. Seeing her up there engulfed in those flames had been…
I see her flinch and step back, but she lifts her chin up, defiant as ever.
“What did you just call me?” I ask, taking a menacing step forward.
“You heard me,” she says, but I can hear the quiver in her voice.
“I did,” I respond, but I don’t know where the words are coming from. “Say it again, you bitch.”
Axelle peers at me, wondering what my game is. She is clearly trying to gauge whether or not I’m being serious. I head towards her, and she straightens up.
“You bastard,” she snarls. “Well fucking done? Is that all you can say? Do you know what that was just like for me?” She gestures back towards the room. “And all you can say to me is ‘well done’.” She puts her hands on her slim hips and I find myself gazing into her livid, blue eyes.
“Axelle, my dear,” I say, shifting to put on the charm. “I have never witnessed anything quite so astounding in all of my existence. You are truly strong.”
“Err,” she says, caught completely off guard by my compliment. “Yes, well, remember that for next time. I expect gifts showered upon me and champagne to celebrate my success.”
“And you will receive them,” I say,
taking her hand and kissing it briefly before I let it drop back to her side and I vanish from her sight. The heat between us is driving me to the point of distraction. I’m eager to show her what sex with me is really like. I’m starting to loathe the clinical copulation the ritual called for. The codex states that no emotion can go into the joining of our bodies, negative or positive, as it will twist the binding. I hate the fact that I couldn’t bring her to a mind-blowing climax again and again so I could feel her clenching hotly around my dick.
I wipe my brow as I’m starting to sweat again. I whisk off my suit and flex my shoulders, much happier now that I’m nude. I light a cigarette, a vice that I rarely indulge in, but right now I need it like I have never needed it before.
Axelle
“Jackass,” I mutter as I stare at the space Luc had been occupying until he fucked off. I couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or not. His features are usually so closed off it drives me mad. But I will forever remember the look of worry on his face earlier, and the tenderness with which he’d held me when he knew I was safe. I hate that I’m starting to have feelings for him because, for starters, I don’t ‘do’ feelings. Secondly, neither does he. He is the Devil for fuck’s sake. If there is anyone in the entire universe who is bound to hurt me, it’s him.
I’m mistaking his kindness—if you could call it that—towards me. I have to keep remembering that it has nothing to do with me, but only what I can give him. I might be in awe of him, worship him as my creator, do whatever he asks when he asks, but there is no way I can ever make it anything more.
I have to push my feelings for him aside and concentrate on the one male that I can have feelings for.
Evan.
He must be getting worried about me by now. I wish that there was some way I could get a message to him. I’ll have to find one of the servants to see if they can pass it along, just to let him know I’m okay.