Made in Hell

by Logan Jacobs

  In this manor house, we’d be able to avoid the Church, stay out of sight of the king’s guards, and rise in power until we figured out how to escape the Port of Rengfri. We’d also have plenty of research to conduct with our new trove of magical orbs, and as I pulled away from Ashe’s silvery skin, I found her pink eyes burning with sinful pride.

  “What is our first order of business, my lord?” she murmured in a wicked and smoky tone.

  “Hmm…” I muttered, and I strolled around the oak desk, over the scattered papers, and took a seat in the chair of the previous boss.

  We gained much in this endeavor, but there were a few things I knew I’d want to handle sooner rather than later.

  As much as I would have loved for my little fiend and I to stay here indefinitely, this hidden manor house was only the beginning for us. Our larger goal was to evade the scores of demons and Hellhounds who would inevitably hunt us in the Port of Rengfri, and to do that, we needed to make it either through the forested mountains, or onto a vessel in the port.

  Either option required Ashe and I gaining unconquerable power, or maybe even a loyal army of our own around us.

  Especially since the Church was constantly producing more of the Blessed every damn day, and it would appear we were the only rogue demons in the entire filthy city.

  But the Church wasn't the only operation who had a firm hold over the Port of Rengfri.

  We had a lead on a slimeball priest with an enterprise of his own.

  An enterprise that profited on the undesirables and most likely even the innocents of the Shadow Quarters. Granted, the incubi around here did the same, but I figured it was the Dark King’s job to worry about their bullshit.

  But no demons in the Hellscape would ever be sent to take care of an evil priest, and here I was, unshackled and indebted to the lecherous asswipe himself. Thanks to Madame Nyra and her gang of sultry fairies, I even knew a thing or two that provided the perfect opportunity to give the priest a firsthand taste of true evil.

  And I was in the perfect position to see he was punished as he deserved to be.

  I certainly wouldn’t mind taking on a side job or two of that nature while I worked on escaping the Port of Rengfri.

  “Well,” I sighed and sat back comfortably in my seat. “There is one thing I’d like to address around here.”

  “What is that?” Ashe purred.

  Then the little fiend turned around on the desk so her legs were parted in my direction again, and I chuckled at her coy smile.

  “Starting tomorrow, we’ll be conducting this business as our own,” I replied, “but in our spare time, you and I have a Red Witch to track down.”

  Chapter 18

  If you’d like to see a map of the Shadow Quarters, you can find it in my Facebook group (Search for Logan Jacobs in Facebook Groups), or on my Patreon (search Google for Patreon + Logan Jacobs).

  In the days that followed the elf attack, we stayed on the lookout in case more elves came around the manor house who we hadn’t been aware of. No one else showed up, though, so it appeared our takeover had been accomplished smoothly.

  Ashe and I spent a lot of time searching through the piles of paper in the manor house office, and this gave us some interesting information, including a few details on the times and dates of when payments were made and received. It also offered plenty of insight as to who our primary customers would be from now on.

  The bulk of clients in the ledgers were witches and other dark elves, but there were a questionable number of human nobles who seemed to be returning customers. Overall, though, it looked like every type of creature in Rengfri needed an orb or two once in a while, and we found enough information to make me feel we could keep the business running smoothly for now.

  One of my first orders of business was to purchase four covered wagons from a goblin. Then Ashe and I pulled each one through the Grimmway and into the trees beside the manor, and the wagons were dusty on the inside, but it didn’t take much to clean them up, and they didn’t need to be perfect.

  I purchased them for the imps who had spent their days trapped inside those miserable cages. I figured if I wanted to keep these imps for mining the orbs, then treating them even slightly better than the dark elf had could simplify everything for me.

  To ensure they wouldn’t immediately flee, I gave the group of imps five trunks of pieces to make up for their past employment here, and then I promised a full trunk every month from here on out.

  Judging by their blubbering and stuttering reactions, I trusted this was more money than they had ever been given or promised in their lives.

  I still planned to get them a better place to stay, even though they seemed deliriously happy with the wagons, but I had to wait until I was certain we’d pull in plenty more pieces before that happened. For now, they were safe, and the cages had been destroyed, so I had a feeling they would remain both grateful and servile to the degree I required.

  Once the imps had been relocated, I only had the human middleman to look after, but I’d already checked that he was still at Madame Nyra’s manor. The aged fairy was doing all she could to see him well attended to, but he’d need a proper place to live and some pieces to get his life up and running again.

  Especially since he’d be a crucial part of this operation.

  I made a mental reminder to return to the black fairies’ coven and speak to the human in the next few days, but I had a dozen other things to attend to first.

  The day after we slaughtered the dark elves, Ashe and I had returned to the half-elf’s flat to collect the last of our weapons, and I paid Garrik handsomely for the slight damage to the sleeping area. The half-elf seemed pleased to hear his weapons served us well, and when I assured him I’d be purchasing a lot more from him in the future, he actually looked me in the eye with a smile.

  Then he flinched and quickly averted his gaze, but I was glad to see we could be on friendly terms.

  Next, we’d revisited my troll stash, and it took three trips to haul the last trunks of pieces away. There had been ten trunks of pieces stashed away in the dark elves’ headquarters, five of which had been given to the imps, so this added nicely to the pile we already owned.

  Which was good, because the decadent food in the kitchen had been thoroughly enjoyed and almost completely devoured by the end of our third day in the place. I wasn’t too concerned about replacing it all, because apart from Ashe purchasing another dress from the elf with the orange hair, we hadn’t needed to spend any money on anything so far. I was lucky enough to be able to wear the richly-designed clothes we found in the bedroom, but for our next mission, Ashe wanted to have something a bit fancy to wear, as well.

  I happily agreed, since I’d never complain about spoiling my demon lover with more dresses I could tear apart, or even some more of those fishnet stockings.

  This evening, we planned to seek out the Red Witch Ashe had been stalking every day at five o’clock, and I chose to wear a dark, royal-blue velvet jacket and a white shirt from the wardrobe. Although Madame Nyra had mentioned that it was best for one of us to be there at a time, we’d snuck around the alleys enough in the time that we’d been here to know how to be careful.

  Ashe’s newest dress was jade green and stopped mid-thigh, right where she liked it, and it was tied at the back with a long black ribbon. The ribbon crisscrossed across her spine to cinch the dress tight around her delicious form, and she didn’t even need a corset to help emphasize her cleavage. Fortunately, her fishnet stockings had survived their first evening with us, so she slipped them on under the dress, and she added her cape to complete the look.

  “You suit the dark elf style,” she purred as she watched me pull on my boots.

  “And you suit the black fairy look,” I chuckled.

  “Hmm…” she muttered and looked down. “I don’t think they’ve ever worn this much material in their lives.”

  I let out a loud laugh as I combed through my choppy hair with my fingers. It cer
tainly would have been strange to see a black fairy wearing more than just a few scraps of material.

  Once we were both dressed and chose a weapon to keep in our belts, we began the walk through the Grimmway, and we entered the Shadow Quarters in the direction of Pixie Lane.

  The Shadow Quarters had a different feel to it later on in the day, particularly since the banquet had taken place several days ago. Tensions were easing, and a small group of tinsel fairies stumbled from a tavern while they giggled and tripped over their tiny feet. Then they fluttered their white wings and lifted off into the sky, but a few of them looked as though they were about to fly their drunk bodies straight into a building.

  We entered an alleyway as the sun began to set and spotted three orcs snarling and spitting at each other. It was clear that something notable had happened between them, especially when the largest one threw the smallest against the wall. Then the one against the wall hooked two fingers into the eye sockets of another orc, and a loud, gargled groan filled the tight space.

  Ashe and I snuck away before we could get wrapped up in their brawl, and both of us smothered our laughs with one hand. I did want to know what had happened between the pack of orcs, but we had a schedule to keep this evening.

  A few minutes later, we arrived on Pixie Lane, and as I looked in one direction for the Red Witch, Ashe looked in the other. I didn’t know an awful lot about witches, especially Red ones, but I had a feeling they could be cunning if they wanted to be, and depending on their powers, maybe even vanish from sight if they sensed an impending threat.

  “Aaah,” Ashe whispered excitedly. “There she is.”

  I turned, and Ashe held her finger pointed in the direction of the witch.

  The woman wore a billowing amber cloak, and the hood of the cloak was pulled up over her head, so I couldn’t make out anything about her. All I could tell was that she seemed to float gracefully through the street opposite us, and I watched intently as she came to a halt outside of a dingy stone house. A dwarf man came to the door and handed something over to her, and then she turned on her foot and walked away. From the position that I was in, I couldn’t see what was handed over, but I assumed it was a money bag, because the jingle of coins came to me faintly as the witch continued toward her next stop.

  Ashe and I crept out from our hiding place and casually walked down the street behind her, but with enough distance so as to not seem too suspicious. We trailed her for several streets without her being aware, and I couldn’t help but let my mind wander to my new work while I waited for an opportune moment.

  According to the papers we found in my new office, a generous order of the orbs was going to be sold the following afternoon to someone named Vamir. Our human middleman would be in charge of collecting the money while the imps delivered the goods. This all seemed well enough arranged to avoid being found out so soon, and I felt confident that we’d manage to get away with what had happened so far. It was clear no one had noticed the switch in power just yet, but as I watched the witch collect the payments, it made me realize that someone, potentially this Vamir, was going to notice the disappearance of the dark elves soon enough.

  The dark elves were large, powerful members of the Shadow Quarters, and even if business went on as usual, some of their associates or acquaintances would catch on once they hadn’t been seen for a while. There would no doubt be someone who came around causing trouble over the circumstances, possibly even the local incubi, but the notion brought a pleasant smile to my face.

  Just because I was in a good position here, I didn’t intend to avoid having fun when it was offered to me. In fact, the idea of using my new organization to provide all sorts of deadly entertainment appealed to me quite a lot. I was certain some clients could be done away with here and there, and if they were truly disgusting beings with hideous intentions, Ashe would adore the extra work.

  In the meantime, I would enjoy getting my hands around this fucking priest’s holy throat.

  “Fuck, is this how far you went the first time?” I asked after we had been following the witch for over an hour.

  “No, she was already in the carriage at this point, so tonight must be a bigger task for her,” Ashe mumbled in reply. “I’ve noticed she does a different path each evening. Sometimes more houses are visited, and sometimes less, but they’re all over this entire area.”

  We had practically walked an entire loop around this area of the Shadow Quarters, and there was no sign of the Red Witch stopping any time soon. The streets were practically deserted by now as everyone went into their houses or the taverns to pass the evening hours, but this was what we’d been waiting for.

  It was almost time to hook ourselves a Red Witch.

  As our target stopped at yet another home, Ashe and I started closing the hundred-yard gap between us and her, but only by a little. As we came closer, I could hear her voice more clearly, and she seemed deeply displeased at the moment.

  It appeared as though her next goblin wasn’t as willing to hand over his pieces. Even from where we stood in the shadows of the homes across the street, I could hear him snarling curses at the witch, and then she seemed to decide on a different approach.

  The Red Witch held both of her hands in front of her chest, and she kept her fingers spread out wide. Then she began to slowly spin her hands around each other, almost like she was holding a circular object between them, and suddenly, from the space between her palms, a red mist appeared. The mist grew larger the faster she spun her hands, and then she pushed it out toward the goblin so it engulfed his head completely.

  I could just barely see how his eyes glazed over and drifted in opposite directions from the magical presence. He seemed possessed, and he happily dug out his own bag of pieces for the witch like the argument had never occurred.

  The Red Witch snatched the money bag away, and she stalked off down the lane without another word.

  The mist slowly began to evaporate the farther away she got, and it wasn’t until the smoke had vanished completely that the goblin’s eyes returned to normal. Then he shook his head and frowned in utter confusion, like he had no idea why he was even standing at his door, and I had to admit, I was impressed.

  Whoever this Red Witch was, she clearly had some useful skills, and this only convinced me further that she could be a valuable asset to us.

  We crossed through the alleyways again, but this time, we found one that overlooked the witch’s work directly from the side instead of watching her from behind. The next house proved to have the same issue, and so the mist returned in order for her to receive the money she was after. Once the White Witch at the door had been possessed, and the required pieces were collected, our target continued on her way, and as she turned a corner, I finally managed to get a good look at her.

  Her hair was long and dark purple, her eyes were a brilliant shade of amber, and her skin had a golden glow to it. She was dressed in a simple red dress that had a black belt around the middle and flowed down to her feet, and she was extremely petite, but with more ample curves than my muscular and erotic demon lover.

  She was also incredibly beautiful. The planes of her golden cheeks rounded flawlessly, and her chin pointed as elegantly as her nose did. She looked more like the wealthy princesses I’d slaughtered over the eons than a servile witch, but the look on her beautiful face conveyed more to me than most princesses ever betrayed.

  “Isn’t she a prize, Atticus?” Ashe purred in my ear. “I can’t wait for you to make her yours. Her body looks made to pleasure your cock, and I can’t wait to see her pretty face gasp when you first penetrate her… and then fill her to the brim with your seed.”

  “She is delightful,” I said as I continued to watch the witch.

  According to her facial expression, this Red Witch was sick to death of the job she was being forced to do. I imagined this was warranted, too. She apparently had to walk all over the Shadow Quarters just to hand over all the money she collected to a double-dealing priest, a
nd then she would most likely return to her cage of a hovel.

  Perhaps she was over the bullshit of her life just as much as the human middleman had been.

  Still, the Red Witch continued to trudge toward her next stop without once taking a break. She was certainly a good worker, I couldn’t argue that fact, and her satchel was bulging at the bottom from the amount of pieces inside it.

  It probably wouldn’t be long before she stepped into the carriage and left for the night.

  “When did the carriage appear when you followed her the other night?” I asked Ashe.

  “I’m not exactly sure,” she admitted. “It sort of just appeared on a street when I wasn’t expecting or looking for anything else. The priest must have a list of her stops, though. He probably has the entire ordeal organized.”

  “That makes sense,” I muttered.

  The Red Witch was nearing the last couple of houses on this street now, so she’d either turn down another and start again, or the carriage would pull up, and she’d be out of our grasp.

  If the driver caught us interacting with the Red Witch, we’d probably end up with yet another death penalty added to our roster, and I doubted the priest would shrug off the report of a pair of demons nosing around his servant.

  “So, what’s the plan?” Ashe asked as she kept a close eye on the witch in question. “How do we make her yours?”

  “We surround her at the first opportunity,” I replied. “I’ll handle the talking. You keep watch.”