Untamed: Demon Soul

by Julie Anne Addicott

  I lift Karson’s hand to slide the ring off his thick finger and read the inscription around the inside of the silver band: Hell Combined, One Ruler of Nine. This is no ordinary ring. It is a sign of strength, immortality, and immeasurable power. This ring combined with the other eight, will allow my father to take full control of the Underworld and bring the mortals, and the angels to their knees.

  Thick grey clouds cover the moon, it’s time to leave. We have more targets to take care of. My brothers appear beside me, and as they leave on foot, I spread my wings and fly into the darkness.

  §§§

  In the back streets of Angel Bay, behind a disused warehouse, my brothers finish off another rogue vampire. They both look bored out of their minds. It’s going to be a long night.

  Evan sighs. “Can we eat now?”

  I pull my glowing sword from the heart of the vampire and wipe the blood off, making a point to be to be silent.

  Sliding my sword back into its sheath, I glare at Evan. Do I hate him? Most of the time. Do I care what he wants? Never. Still not saying a word, I walk away from the vampire’s rotting corpse and head toward the city.

  “Wait up, Belial,” Nik calls.

  Another brother, almost as annoying as the rest of them. And there are so many, fifteen I know of personally, the rest I don’t care to know. It comes with the territory. As the son of Hades, there is no shortage of brothers.

  Nik and Evan fall in step beside me. I turn to Nik and ask, “Who’s next?”

  He shoves his hand into his pocket, pulls out a scrunched-up photograph and hands it to me. “A human female. Her name’s Lola Thorne.”

  I shake my head, and hand it back. Humans are a waste of my time. I am a hunter, a trained warrior, not a mortal hitman. “You do it Nik, I’m not in the mood.”

  Nik shrugs as he offers up an apology, “Sorry bro, father’s orders. You know how he is. Belial must do this, Belial my son, my favourite son. Blah, blah, fucking blah,” he mocks.

  Of course, there are advantages of being the favourite son of Hades himself. There is certainly no shortage of money, weapons, or females. My goal though, is to claim the throne, not spend yet another century playing hitman for my father.

  TWO

  Lola

  Mortal Earth

  §§§

  The front door swings open and Cress bounds in with her boyfriend Gavin. They’re the picture-perfect couple, always smiling, and immensely happy. Cress calls it true love and constantly gushes over how unbelievably hot Gavin is, and how his skills in the bedroom are above and beyond anything she’s ever experienced. As if I’d know what that’s like.

  Her singsong voice fills the room, “Hey, Lolly.” She plants a kiss on my head and heads to the kitchen.

  Gavin flops down onto the sofa opposite me. He says, “Hello.” But his eyes are focused on Cress. And why wouldn’t they be? She’s stunning.

  I’ve always envied her vivacious personality and luscious curves. She is the total opposite of me in every way. Platinum blonde hair falls in ringlets down her back, her sun kissed skin is always glowing, and she has the remarkable ability to apply three layers of make-up and still look like a goddess. And at six foot two, she makes me look more like her plain, boring little sister, than her best friend.

  “Are you coming to the club tonight, Lola?” Cress asks.

  I sigh, knowing the only answer she’ll accept, is a yes. I plaster on my best fake smile and look over my shoulder at her. “Yes, of course I’m coming. No setting me up with anyone, agreed,” I say.

  Cress throws her arms in the air. “Lolly, you need love. Love is the answer to everything. It might even help with the bad dreams.” She points to our message board where she’s written, Just Love, that is all.

  I roll my eyes and sigh. “I don’t need love, Cressida. No dates, and that’s final,” I tell her.

  She comes back to the lounge and tugs on Gavin’s hand. “Sure, Lola, no dates,” she says, as she leads Gavin to her bedroom.

  I suppose most people believe in love. They have an intrinsic belief their soul mate is out there waiting for them, and one day they’ll come together when the time is right. Perhaps when the stars align, or when God or some other higher power allows it. I bet they believe one person can make them happy for the rest of their lives.

  It’s absurd to think another human being can alter your life in such a way. There’s no one single person who can give you everything you’ve ever wanted. No soul mate is waiting to sweep you off your feet. That’s for fairy tales. It’s a farce built into romantic poetry and stories of fantastical worlds full of flowers and rainbows, not real life. Definitely not my life.

  This life wasn’t part of my plan. My plan was to be gone by now, removed from everything that reminds me of Angel Bay, and the trauma I faced at the hands of the demon who murdered my parents in cold blood. At one time, I believed Angel Bay was a beautiful town. It rests on the coast surrounded by tall pine trees, and old Victorian style cottages with white painted shutters and beautifully manicured gardens. My mother said it used to be a fishing village where the trawlers would dock to bring in their catch to sell at the local fish market.

  I remember spending summer holidays running along the beach and not having a care in the world. The scent of the salty sea air still takes me back to the days of building sandcastles on the shore, and wading in the shallow rock pools, searching for crabs and starfish. My childhood was happy. I was content, carefree, and relatively normal until my eighth birthday, when I started seeing things I was told did not exist.

  Since then, I feel like I’ve been surrounded by a constant shroud of darkness. Each night, I’m sucked into a dream world where I witness angels and demons fighting against one another, battling out their differences while I stand watching. My feet are stuck in place and my legs won’t move. I’m unable to choose a side, unable to run.

  It’s as though I’m balancing on the cusp of nightmares and daydreams, desperately searching for a sign, anything to help me choose. They continually call my name, their voices reverberate off the surface of my mind, yet not one of them comes close. And I never take a single step, I never reach out. It’s as though my body and soul are divided. Half of me wants to run to the safety of the benevolent angels, while the other half yearns for the destructive heat of the demons. All the while there is something pulling me back, an invisible force cementing my legs in place and telling me to wait, but for what? No one has ever believed me.

  Cress tells me I’m crazy and refuses to acknowledge any of it. She says I read too many books and have an over-active imagination. Even when I wake during the night, screaming and calling for help, she tells me it’s all just a bad dream. I suppose I should be thankful she’s stuck around for the past ten years. Everyone else is gone, and I’m still known as the crazy girl whose parents were murdered by an unknown assailant.

  In those ‘bad dreams,’ I’ve witnessed beatings, torture, and lashings. Anything to cause as much pain as possible to virtuous white-winged angels, while sinful black-eyed demons stare me down as fire flickers around them, and they entice me with their lustful gazes.

  I never give in to them. How could I? All of this is happening in my head, or so my psychiatrist, Doctor Weaver, tells me. He calls them nightmares. He says they’re part of post-traumatic stress. According to him, they’re completely normal given the fact I saw my parents brutally murdered before my eyes.

  I know better. They are as real as you and I, and one day I am going to prove them all wrong and find the demon who murdered my parents.

  My goal now is to find answers, and to avenge my parents’ deaths.

  THREE

  Belial

  Mortal Earth

  §§§

  We arrive outside Angel Bay with ten furies, the fucked-up half-blood spawns of mortal mothers and immortal fathers. Cursed by Genesis to live their lives in the Underworld, their role is to tease and torment mortals. After dragging them to Hell, where the rel
entless torture turns many of them into devils. They are then fit to join my father’s army.

  Club Lust bores me at the best of times. It’s overcrowded and full of stinking humans who have nothing better to do than to dance, drink, and flirt. I cannot stand mortals and their mundane, shallow lives.

  Nothing is important to them, yet at the same time, everything is. All they care about is money, sex, clothes, and cars. Their lives are filled with the desire to be superior, stronger, and wealthier than everyone else, and they don’t care who they fuck over on the way. They value material possessions over their own stinking souls, and they think we’re the devils. All my life I’ve wondered how mortals have managed to exist for so long. My father’s plan to wipe them out sounds better every day.

  Scanning the crowd for the female, I try to block their stench. There she is standing at the bar. She has long black hair and pale blue eyes. She’s young and average as far as humans go, but she’s short, around five feet tall. Why her? She’s scrawny, and probably useless. I’ve killed mortals many times before, most of them half-bloods whose dark side was weak, the ones who would be worthless as furies or devils. They never saw it coming. One minute they were breathing, the next they were dead. Simple as that. Often, they’d bought drugs from the shifters instead of the demons. They didn’t know the difference, and to Hades it didn’t matter. What mattered was that he was in control.

  Some of the half-bloods he keeps for his growing army, whose sole purpose is to eradicate the pure and virtuous humans and create an army of devils and furies to destroy mortal earth. Then he plans to move on to taking out the angels.

  Evan makes a gagging sound and I suppress the urge to roll my eyes. “They stink brother,” he moans as we walk unnoticed through the club. One of the advantages of being an immortal, is I can walk right past humans and they will never know. To be seen, I must make myself visible and that’s not happening.

  I stop a few feet away from the female and wave my brothers off. “Go, I’ve got this.” There’s no argument; they hate humans as much as I do. Possibly more.

  Lola Thorne’s now on the dance floor, dancing with another female. They’re laughing and talking about something that happened the day before, it’s boring me to death.

  Another step. Still waiting. Still watching. Something about her makes me think about sex. Ugh, no way. I shake my head in disgust. Not with a mortal. I have never gone there in the past, and I don’t intend to. I take another step and draw my dagger out.

  What has she done to deserve death? Usually, I don’t care, but I’m curious. There’s something familiar about this one.

  Her eyes meet mine and her brow creases. She squints then blinks a few times, and grabs hold of her friend’s arm.

  Stunned, I stop in my tracks. She can’t see me. It’s not possible. In my stupor, I pause for a moment to take in my surroundings.

  Club Lust is a typical mortal nightclub. Mirrored disco balls hang from the ceiling between rows of coloured strobe lights. Behind the bar bottles of alcohol are lined up on clear glass shelves. Most of the drinks here will be watered down before being served to intoxicated teenagers who’ve managed to sneak their way into the club with fake ID’s.

  In the back corner, there’s a large sofa where a group of males and females are drinking, and flirting. One female straddles the legs of a male while he ogles another female on the dance floor. No morals, and no class. You’d think they’d be more careful considering their limited life span but no, they think they’re invincible.

  A live band is set up on a large stage and are blasting out rock music. The lead singer wears tight leather pants and a black t-shirt, and is covered in tattoos and piercings. The words come from his mouth in deep, guttural screams,

  “Desperation and disorder

  taint your mortal soul,

  as your demons steal the light

  and you fall through the cracks.”

  If only he knew the truth about the world he lives in.

  The furies are now wildly running around the club, whispering into the ears of the mortals. They are following the orders given by my father and filling the mortals' heads with lies, doubt, and sin. The furies can make the weak-minded humans question themselves, their friends, and their entire lives. Some willingly give in to the temptation, their dark side stronger than the light. Those, the furies will drag to the Underworld, where they will be trained to fight, kill, and loathe humanity.

  Others don’t give in so easily; their subconscious tells them to think before they act. It’s not common, though there are a select few who will not succumb to sin, no matter how hard the furies push them. That’s how balance works, the scales of life never tip either way. Always a perfect balance of sin and virtue. Soon, that will change.

  After a few minutes, the furies are gone. I watch Lola closely; her tight black pants show the curve of her small round ass. I stare at it for too long and shake my head. I need to focus on the task at hand.

  The other female asks her what’s wrong. She hesitates then points to me and whispers to her friend. Her eyes dart around the club as if she’s searching for someone else. She’s scared, and there is no doubt in my mind she can see me.

  “Who are you?” she asks. Her heart beat quickens. I can sense her fear.

  The other female puts a hand on Lola’s shoulder and scans the crowd of mortals. “Lola, babe, who are you talking to?” she asks.

  I step back, a sideways glance, then behind. She is talking to me. I take a step forward to kill her before she can react. I raise the dagger in my hand and… she screams.

  The mortals stop dancing and stare at her. Their eyes scan the club, confused. I freeze for a fraction of a second, slide my dagger into its sheath, then shift out of the club to the roof where my brothers are waiting.

  Evan’s leaning against the fire escape door picking at his fingernails. “What took so long, man? I’m starving,” he moans.

  Without another word, we shift back to Club Stygian in Nevermore. Nevermore is just one of a few places on earth invisible to humans. Would Stygian be visible to Lola Thorne? I wonder. I have no idea how she saw me, and I’m pissed off.

  Never have I walked away from a kill. I trace my fingers down the scars on my forearms, one mark for every death. Hundreds of thin, slightly raised scars cut through my tattoos and stain my flesh.

  FOUR

  Lola

  Mortal Earth

  §§§

  I sit on the arm of the sofa and sigh. “I saw him, Cress. Honestly, he was right there in front of me, with a knife.”

  Cress plonks down on the sofa and wraps her arms around a cushion against her chest. “Was he hot?” she giggles.

  I glare at her, annoyed. “Cress, I’m serious! The guy had wings, and a knife.”

  She tilts her head and smirks. “I’m serious too, Lola, was he hot?”

  I am not crazy. I stand and pace to the other side of the room, then turn back to face her. “I don’t know, maybe. He’s bad Cress, I know that.”

  She giggles again. “So not a guardian angel?”

  I sigh, exasperated. “NO! Black wings. His eyes were black, too. Or, maybe dark blue. He had a knife and I know he was going to kill me. It was like I could sense it, Cress. He’s one of the demons from my dreams, I’m sure of it.”

  Not that it matters. As usual, Cress doesn’t believe me. I rub my eyes. My head’s a little fuzzy, but I’m not drunk. Not even close.

  “Maybe I didn’t,” I say. The way he appeared out of nowhere, just like the demons who appear in my dreams, was uncanny. I know damn well he was going to kill me, he had the knife in his hand and I could tell he was prepared to use it. Then something happened, and right as he was about to strike, he vanished into a cloud of grey smoke.

  Gavin leans back on the sofa and puts his feet up on the coffee table. “Lola, you’re insane. Ya know that, right? They’re gonna take ya. They always come for the weird ones first,” he jokes. He puts his arm over Cress’s shoul
der and kisses her cheek.

  I roll my eyes. “Okay, okay, maybe I was a little drunk,” I admit. Drunk or not, though, I do know what I saw.

  Cress laughs. “See, Lolly, it’s all in your head. Don’t worry though, only the whole club saw you freak out.”

  She wriggles out of Gavin’s embrace, throws the cushion on the floor and walks over to me. She wraps her arms around my neck and kisses my cheek. “They’re not real Lola, we’ve talked about this. You need to let it go now, kay?”

  I nod, there’s no point arguing, it’s never helped before, and it won’t help this time.

  Cress drops her arms from my neck and grabs her bag. “Well, I’m staying at Gavin’s tonight. Call me if you need anything,” she says as she slings her bag over her shoulder.

  I pout and cross my arms. “Fine, just leave me here, alone,” I mumble.

  Cress sighs. “Lola, there are no demons, babe, no angels, and no one is trying to kill you.”

  Gavin stands at the front door waiting for Cress, she looks over her shoulder to him then back to me, for a moment she hesitates and I know she’s waiting for me to break down and cry. Not this time.

  I grab the cushion off the floor and throw it back on the sofa. “Go, Cress, I’m fine, really,” I say waving her away.

  §§§

  I sit on my bed and think about the winged man at the club. He had short black hair and dark eyes just like the demons in my dreams. I saw the knife too and I know damn well he was going to kill me right before he vanished into a cloud of grey smoke. They are real, I’ve known it since I was a child. What do they want and why me? I curl up with my pillow and close my eyes trying to focus on anything else.