“Are you the one stirring up trouble in my kingdom?” I asked through clenched teeth.
He chuckled, his eyes turning a brighter shade of red. “And if I am, what is Asmoedus’s human daughter going to do about it?”
Before I could stop myself, I wrapped my hand around his throat and squeezed, pleasure rushing through my body. He grabbed my wrist, his claws digging into my skin, and I stumbled back.
Not in fear, but in realization.
“Oh, my god…” I whispered. This Wrath had touched me there before. I could feel his fingers, burned into my skin and my memory forever. I snatched my hand away. “You…” I took a deep breath, gazing him up and down.
I went to step back, but his tail tightened around my leg and snaked further and further up my thigh, lingering in places that it shouldn’t. “You were inside of Trevon, weren’t you?” I asked. “You were the demon that was exorcised.”
His eyes turned a lighter shade of red, the intensity in them not as strong as before. “That was his name?” he asked, lips curled into an evil smirk. “Trevon?”
Around us, the pink cherry blossoms shook slightly from the wind. My jaw twitched, and I clenched my fists, wanting to kill that man… but I held myself back. If I killed another Wrath, took their soul, and let it become part of me… there was no turning back. I’d have two demons destroying my mind, and I’d probably lose everything good in me.
Mom would be disappointed.
He gazed at me with those same eyes that Trevon had given me, yet they were softer this time. He stepped closer to me. I tried to step back again, but his tail forced me to stay still. “Trevon was weak. Weaker than I thought he’d be. I was glad you called that damn woman over. She was a real good kill, helped me return to who I truly am.”
I pressed my lips together, nostrils flaring. “What’s your damn problem?”
“My problem is that… everyone I do dirty work for wants you dead and I…” He paused for a moment. “But since I had been inside of Trevon and felt the way he felt about you… I can’t fucking do it.”
He couldn’t kill me? He… felt the way Trevon felt about me? I didn’t know what to think or even say, so I ignored that subtle sentence and asked, “Who do you work for now?”
“Are you that fuckin’ stupid?” the Wrath asked, gazing down at me and shaking his head. He curled his finger around a strand of my hair, and I slapped it away, my wrath building inside of me. “Haven’t you heard the rumors?”
My eyes widened even more, another wave of realization washing over me. “You’re Biast, aren’t you?” I whispered.
He uncurled his tail, released me, and pushed past me, walking toward the portal. I straightened myself out and gazed back at his large, departing figure. From his horns to his tail to that slick wrathful aura coming off of him, something about him screamed trouble. And I loved trouble.
“Why don’t you do it?” I asked. “Why don’t you try to kill me?”
“Because I’m sick of doing the dirty work. I have other plans with you.” He glanced back at me, his lips curled into a smirk. “I’ll see you at the ceremony, Commander.”
Chapter 28
Biast didn’t leave my mind all day. I sulked around the castle, waiting for Eros to come home and thinking about what he had said to me… that he had other plans for me. Was that why he hadn’t tried to kill me yet? What were his plans? He had known exactly who I was this whole time, but hadn’t laid a finger on me.
I pressed my lips together, walked down a set of stairs—deciding not to go to the kitchen and the bar area where Jasmine’s scent lingered—and pushed my office door open. My body relaxed against Dad’s comfy leather chair, and I opened his journal. If I was going to sulk, I was going to have to sulk and be somewhat productive.
Flipping aimlessly through Dad’s journal, I stopped when I reached the prophecy page.
Three demons will rise from the ashes:
The Devil, The Beast, The False Prophet.
God will call them the Triad of Sinners,
We will call them the Unholy Trinity.
Under them, Hell will rule the Earths,
And Heaven will fall to ruin.
The prophecy had been lingering in the back of my mind for days now. When would the beginning of the end officially start? When would we see the three most powerful demons rise from the ashes? How many bodies would fall? How much blood would be spilt? Would it be lies and betrayal or envy and wrath that leads us astray?
I had so many questions, and no answers.
After sighing, I brushed my fingers against the bottom of the page. When my ring grazed against it, black Demoniac letters appeared in the once blank space. My eyes widened, and I took off my ring, scrubbing the metallic side against the sheet until it had all filled with the demonic text.
There was more to the prophecy than Dad had wanted other people to discover.
But I couldn’t read any of it. So, I hurried to the library, found all the books on how to speak Demoniac, and buried my face in each one for the next two hours. It didn’t take long to figure out how to speak; I found myself mouthing the unfamiliar words as I read them. Sounds that I didn’t even know I could make tumbled out of my mouth, almost naturally.
I glanced at Dad’s journal, brows furrowed, and continued to read it almost as easily as I could read English. “Belial lives to speak more to the Commanders,” I said aloud.
On the eighteenth day of the twenty-fifth year of the century, when the bodies are littered around the Devil and the blood has been drunk by the Beast and the lives have been bound to the False Prophet, the End will commence.
My eyes widened. It was the twenty-fifth year of this century, and the eighteenth day… was… when I’d be announced as Queen of Lust. I swallowed hard and slammed the book closed. This changed everything. There would be pure chaos during my ceremony, pure and utter chaos.
When I heard the palace door open, I sprinted down the stairs to find Eros. I needed to tell him about this and Biast now. I wouldn’t be a fool and keep this from him like I had kept Javier.
The bar was filled with more people than usual, higher ranked Lusts from other towns, who were here for the ceremony. Eros was sitting in front of Jasmine at the bar and waiting for her to pour him a Passion Delight.
Jasmine locked eyes with me and smiled, that lustful glint on her face. I slid onto the seat next to Eros, inhaling his cinnamon scent. “There are more people than usual here tonight,” I said.
Eros placed his hand on my knee, his fingers rubbing small circles on my inner thigh where Biast’s tail was earlier. “There will be more people joining us in the palace these next couple of days. People from all over Lust—not just Chastion—are coming in for your crowning. Some people from Pride, as well.”
“Lucifer?” I asked, brow raised.
“You know he’ll be here,” he said to me. “He’ll be staying at the palace tomorrow night, after the pre-ceremonial party. There you’ll announce your court and all the people who will take part in the ceremony. Then the Crowning is on the following day. Parts of the palace will be under construction until then. The Courting Pit will be outside in the Gardens, and then the court and the other commanders will bear witness to the Crowning in the Throne Room.”
“Is Biast going to be there?”
“Unfortunately,” Eros said, sipping his drink. “There isn’t much I can do about it. It’s law that every commander and their heirs must attend the Crowning of a new commander.”
I nodded my head, staying quiet. “I saw him today.”
Eros tensed, pulled his hand away from me, and sat up in his chair. “What do you mean you saw him?”
“I’ve been running into him a lot lately… I just didn’t know who he was until today.”
Eros’s eyes filled with darkness, his sharp jaw tightening. “Has he laid a hand on you?”
Well, not in the I’m-going-to-kill-you way but I could still feel his tail wrapped tightly around my inner thigh, c
rawling up my leg, making me shiver. I inhaled Eros’s scent, so I wouldn’t have any rash thoughts, and shook my head. “He hasn’t… but I’ve met him before.”
A throaty growl escaped Eros’s lips, and some people glanced over. “Where?”
“Remember, I told you Trevon was possessed by a demon more than once?” I kicked my legs back and forth. “Well… that was Biast.”
“Biast was in your fucking home?” Eros asked, his fingers turning white on his glass. “I’m going to fuckin—”
I grabbed his hand and shook my head. “No. You’re not going to do anything. I want him dead and gone just as much as you do… but we’ll wait until after the Crowning. This will just cause a bigger fuss than what there is already.”
“But—”
“No,” I said sternly, leaving no room for an argument. I didn’t want everyone to think I needed Eros to do my dirty work. That would make me look weak. I needed faith in the people. I needed them to trust me. I needed to be strong. And, as Biast said, he wasn’t going to do anyone else’s dirty work. He had other plans for me. But by the way, he spoke earlier, I didn’t think he’d hurt me. And if he tried, I’d kill him like I killed his brother.
“We have other things to talk about,” I said in a hushed tone. “Like how the Beginning of the End will commence on the day of my crowning.” He furrowed his brows at me and parted his lips to speak, but I just shook my head and said, “Just prepare,” because I didn’t know what the Unholy Trinity meant for us either.
Chapter 29
“You think Zane will like this on me?” Maria asked from Dr. U’s bathroom. We were supposed to be here to help Dr. U get ready for her date, but it turned into all of us preparing for something. Zane had asked Maria to the pre-ceremonial party tonight. Dr. U was about to go on her first date in years. And all I was trying to do was impress my Eros for the party tonight—hoping that it wouldn’t go as terribly as the last one in Lust did.
“Come on out, Maria,” Dr. U said, moving her lips as I tried so desperately to put a light pink coat of lipstick on them. I had begged her to let me try a bold look on her, but she denied. Dr. U peered over my shoulder from the couch at Maria, made the funniest pained face I had ever seen, and smiled.
I suppressed a giggle and turned around to see Maria in a very unflattering pink ball gown. Ruffles and glitter and even small rose flowers sewn into the train. Maria placed her hand on her hip. “Yeah, I know. I don’t like it either. Zane brought it over this morning and told me I’d look good in it.”
“Maria,” I said. “If you’re going to attend a party in Lust, you got to show some skin.”
“I literally have nothing else to wear. All my dresses are flirty, but I don’t have anything for a queen’s ball!” She took a deep breath, gazing at the ground. “You know what? I’ll just put on some mascara, take a couple shots, and go in this damn dress. I don’t have time.”
Dr. U stood up. “Wait here, Maria. I have something that might fit you.” She disappeared into the hall, her footsteps becoming quieter and quieter.
Maria collapsed onto the couch next to me, angrily grabbing a cracker from the coffee table that Dr. U had put out for us for snacks. “I love Dr. U… but do you really think she’s going to have something for me to wear?” she asked. “Can I try something of yours on, if I don’t like it?”
“You can try, but…” I gazed out the Palladian window and into the forest that surrounded Dr. U’s house. “You won’t fit into anything of mine. You’re a lot skinnier than I am.”
She signed and slouched back onto the blue couch. “You think that’s why Zane doesn’t want to date me?” she asked, brows furrowed together. “I don’t have enough for him?”
I raised my brows. “No! Maria, where’d you get that from?”
“Well…” She paused and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know. Sex demons seem to have a type…” She let out a quiet laugh. “You.”
I gave her an Are-you-serious? look, and she bumped her shoulder into mine. “I’m just kidding, but seriously… I was just starting to get comfortable with the idea of being a couple, but, whenever I ask him about it, he always steers the conversation elsewhere.”
“A couple? I thought you didn’t want to date him because he wanted an open relationship,” I said. She made a face and groaned, rolling her bright blue eyes. I grabbed her hands. “Maria, you need a lot of trust in an open-relationship.”
“How do you do it?” she whispered.
“I don’t.” My lips curled into a smirk. “As far as I know, Eros doesn’t do anything with anyone else.” But I was getting awfully suspicious of him and Luci. “He’s demisexual, I think.”
“Huh?” she asked, brow raised.
“He only enjoys having sex with someone he has formed an emotional relationship with.”
“Oh.” Her frown deepened. “How does he feel when you flirt with other people?”
“Well…” I started, thinking about all the times Eros has gotten off on the thought of me sleeping with Lucifer or flirting with someone else. It was one of his kinks, and I didn’t mind it—as long as he really wanted to watch. I shook my head at her. “Nevermind that. Every demon is different. If you want to ask Eros about it, you can at the party tonight.”
Dr. U walked back into the room with a gorgeous black silky dress. “Maria, I found this.”
Maria stood up, her eyes wide. “Oh, my god.”
“Where were you keeping this?” I asked, drawing my fingers against the silky material. It looked like it would fit right to Maria’s body, cling to every one of her curves.
“I wore it once… in my Kasey-days.” Dr. U smiled.
Maria squealed, took the dress, and hurried back into the bathroom to change into it. Dr. U sat back down on the couch with me and grabbed another stick of lipstick from the table, a darker matte pink. She grasped my jaw lightly. “Your turn.”
I closed my eyes, letting her apply the lipstick and trying not to smile. This was the first time, in a long time, we had spent time together. I had learned so much about her within the past few days compared to all the time she had raised me.
She smelt faintly like Ollie’s, and I wondered if Kasey and her used to go there. Did they have cute breakfasts together? Feed each other strawberries? Listen to sweet love songs in the car in the pouring rain? Did Dr. U miss her as much as I did?
Dr. U glided the lipstick across my lips, and I blew a deep breath out of my nose. The subtle action reminded me of when she helped me get ready for all of my dance recitals when I was younger, all the times she watched me in my pink tutu twirl around the stage, everything a mother would do.
“Do you think I’ll make a good queen?” I asked.
“Dani,” she said softly. “You’ll be a great queen.”
I opened my eyes, letting them fill with tears. “You really think so?”
She nodded her head and smiled at me. “Of course. You’re sweet and loving and caring. You follow your heart and do what you think is best. Whether they like you as a queen matters, but how you love yourself matters more.” She grabbed my hands. “I don’t know much about demons. I only spent a few weeks with Kasey… so all I can tell you is to stay true to who you are. Don’t let the darkness consume you, and if you do… make sure you have someone who can bring you back to the light.”
A tear slid down my cheek, and Dr. U pushed it away, smiling even wider at me. I tilted my head into her hand and smiled. I had compared Dr. U to Mom so much, but… I should’ve. She and Mom both wanted the same things from me—to see me happy and smiling, and I appreciated her more than anything.
Suddenly Maria let out a scream from the bathroom, followed by an “It’s perfect!”
Dr. U drew me closer to her, and we laughed. This life—no matter the struggles I had been through or would face soon—was perfect in its own imperfect way.
Chapter 30
Maria and I gazed into a window at Crimson’s Nouveau, watching Dr. U sit at the bar with th
e pretty, pink-haired beauty. In the crowded restaurant, they laughed over drinks before a hostess ushered them to a booth.
I grinned and grabbed Maria’s hand, leading her to the alley behind the restaurant. My heart warmed, butterflies fluttering in my stomach. “I hope she has a good time tonight. Dr. U deserves it.”
Some flurries drifted down from the grey sky, and I nodded to Zial, one of the guards near The Lounge who always opened portals to Hell for me. After moving his hands in a pattern I hadn’t quite picked up on yet and tossing a lit match onto the ground, a black mist formed in the alleyway.
Maria stared at it with wide eyes, then walked up to it—thrusting out her fingers and watching them disappear into the portal. “Last time I went into one of these things, Zane made me close my eyes. What’s in here?”
After clutching her hand in mine, I said, “You don’t want to know, Maria.” I knew for a fact that it’d give her nightmares. Hell, it still gave me the chills seeing my best friend, my ex-boyfriend, and my mother doing those unholy things. “Close your eyes and don’t open them until I tell you.”
She arched a brow at me, but I arched mine harder. She sighed and closed her eyes, letting the gusts of wind from the portal plaster her dress to her petite body. I thanked Zial and pulled Maria into the portal, hoping that she’d listen to me.
Though I had been in the portal about a hundred times since my first, the demons in there still freaked me out a bit. My fingers dug into Maria’s shoulders as I pushed her toward the light pink path toward Lust. Demons reached out for her, sensing her quickened heart rate, but I refused to let them have her.
When we finally reached the portal, I pressed my hands into her back, told her to brace herself, and pushed her through it. She almost somersaulted through the air, but my personal guard, Esha, caught her arm and lifted her to her feet.
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