by Holly Dae
“Hold on a minute,” Malakha said pulling away from Julius and making her way through the crowd to get to Nancy.
It was a difficult feat. Malakha hadn’t realized how thick the crowd was when Julius was dragging her through it, probably because he had cleared the way with his larger body. When she finally did get to the woman, she wasn’t on the dance floor anymore. Instead she was splayed out on an old dull looking couch with something to drink in her hand. If possible she was wearing an even tighter top than the last time they had met, which made her already large breasts look larger and fuller. She was still grinning at Malakha and for the life of her, Malakha couldn’t figure out why.
“No wonder you fought me off last time we met,” Nancy began, her grin growing wider. “You have tastes for a much higher class than a little peasant gal like me.”
Malakha raised her eyebrows, not sure what she meant, but getting the idea that she was talking about Julius. When she asked as much, Nancy laughed.
“You mean you don’t know?”
“Know what?”
Malakha didn’t know it was possible for someone to grin as wide as Nancy did.
“Your little boyfriend isn’t like us, some run of the mill Hellion like the rest of us. I didn’t recognize him last time, not until he came back and gave us the beating of our life for messing with his pretty shiny thing from Heaven. See what he did to my arm?” Nancy asked, lifting it for Malakha to see.
Nancy’s arm was a sickly green and purple color that was visible even in the dim lights.
“Is that infected?” Malakha asked, unable to be alarmed as she probably should be because Nancy was so calm.
“Poisoned actually. I’m sure it’ll heal. If not, the worst that will happen is my arm will rot and turn black.” Nancy shrugged as she said this.
Malakha started to ask if there was such a thing as a doctor in Hell, but stopped herself from doing so. She was getting distracted again, and Julius had been more than enough distraction for one night.
“Julius did that?”
“Yeap. He’s really a right bastard… I like it actually.”
“Nancy,” Malakha said getting the woman’s attention. “What do you mean Julius isn’t some run of the mill Hellion?”
“Exactly what it means. He isn’t.”
“Then what is he?” Malakha asked growing frustrated.
Nancy grinned again. “That’s going to cost you extra.”
Nancy didn’t need to leer at Malakha for Malakha to know what the harpy had in mind when she said “extra.” Malakha didn’t even stop to ponder what she was about to do as she glared at the harpy, growing tired of people playing distracting games with her when she was on a mission. With one smooth motion, the grace of which even impressed Malakha considering she had no practice with the weapon, she slipped the scythe out the hook in her jumpsuit and put the curved blade to Nancy’s neck.
Though some people sent a casual glance her and Nancy’s way, the fact that someone was holding a weapon to someone’s neck didn’t appear to bother the rest of the Hellions as they continued about their business.
Nancy hissed at her. Malakha only put the blade closer to her neck.
“Talk,” Malakha demanded.
“I see why he likes you so much. This is something he would do.”
“Julius?” Malakha asked and Nancy nodded a little. “So what were you going to tell me about him?”
Nancy sighed, rolling her eyes. “You elitist are always ruining my fun.” Malakha had the tip of the blade pressing into her neck now. “Fine. He’s the prince of Hell! Happy?”
“He’s what?” Malakha asked, her brain only taking a split second to process what the woman said.
“He’s the prince of Hell. Lucifer’s son… well one of them. Not really one of the important ones, but still a prince.”
Malakha dropped the scythe from Nancy’s neck and turned to look for Julius in the crowd. He was nowhere to be seen. Groaning, Malakha made her way through the throng of people again, not bothering to put the scythe away. People shuffled out the way as not to be accidentally cut by the weapon, making it much easier for Malakha to get through than before. When she was outside, she looked around and huffed when she didn’t find him.
Damn her for giving in to petty hormones and not paying attention to the subtle hints that something was a little different about Julius. Damn Julius for being so distracting and hot that she was willing to overlook it. Damn. It. All!
He probably wasn’t even interested in helping her find the demon that was terrorizing her school if she were honest with herself. He was probably just patronizing her, pointing her in random directions as a way to seduce her in a much more subtle way than his father. The bastard!
She felt arms snake around her waist and thinking it was Julius messing with her again, Malakha turned around and shoved the person in the chest. It was after the person laughed a snake-like laugh (she knew snakes didn’t laugh, but something about it sounded slick and reminded her of the way a snake slithered across the ground) that she realized it wasn’t Julius. But she had also heard the laugh before.
“Deverick,” she said holding the scythe out in front of her to deter the man from messing with her. Even with the scythe, Malakha knew she was probably still outmatched against his demon-wolf form, but it at least evened out the odds a little.
“Relax sweetheart,” he said in a snake-like voice like his laugh. “Julius made it very clear that you’re… off limits.”
The slimy looking man still ran a finger down her cheek in some sort of twisted admiration.
“Back off,” Malakha said taking a step back.
“Just… admiring the goods.”
“I think that’s enough admiring.”
Julius was back, and he was glaring at Deverick, his reddish yellow eyes practically glowing. Had Julius’ eyes always been that color and she hadn’t noticed?
Deverick dropped his hand, looking more than a little put off by Julius’ appearance. In fact, he looked downright terrified. While some part of Malakha, the part of her that was an admittedly hot blooded teenage girl, was thrilled and even dazed by Julius’ display of protectiveness and power, a much bigger part of her was even more angry as he proved Nancy’s words true.
Deverick slinked away, leaving Malakha to glare at Julius who turned to look at her with a grin as though she wasn’t obviously a little ticked off at him.
“Is that any way to look at your savior?” he asked taking a step closer to him.
Malakha didn’t allow herself to be swayed. “When were you going to tell me you were the fucking prince of Hell?”
“Do you always have to be so difficult?” Julius asked.
Malakha shoved him with both hands or at the very least tried. Those muscles she had admired on quite a few occasions weren’t just for show.
“You could have led me to this demon a long time ago. You’ve just been playing games with me.”
“What makes you think that?”
“You told me to go talk to your father knowing he wasn’t going to be any help!”
“That’s true,” Julius admitted. “But I needed you to have a reason to come back. If I told you I could find out who was terrorizing your school, you wouldn’t have had a reason to come see me again.”
“So this has all been a little game of seduction to you?” Malakha asked, trying not to hit herself upside the head for falling for this game and actually wanting to fall for it.
Julius chuckled. Then quick as lightning or faster actually, his hands were around her waist, pulling her close to him as he whispered in her ear, “Malakha, this is far more than just a game of seduction.”
Malakha resisted the instinctive urge to shudder and practically melt into Julius’ embrace.
“Could have fooled me,” she replied.
“That’s probably true,” Julius said pulling slightly away from her although he still kept his arms locked around her waist. “This is all about dominance hone
y. I want to overthrow my father and take his place as the King of Hell.”
“That’s nuts,” Malakha said. Julius was bad (in both senses of the word) enough that Malakha stopped and paid attention. But he had absolutely nothing on the tempting pull his father had, and she had she had only met the king once.
“Probably. I mean my dad is pretty powerful. But that’s where you come in. There aren’t many people like you, who can not only cross the divide between Heaven and Hell, but can do so at will. With you in Heaven and me in Hell, we can do what my Father hasn’t been able to pull off in thousands of years.”
Malakha had a feeling the task had something to do with Lucifer getting revenge on the world that cast him out. She could understand why he hadn’t been able to do it too. Not only were there the religious zealots, but there were the humanitarians, and philanthropists and other people who believed in the good of the Earth. Tackling religion was one thing. In fact, that was the easy part. It was everything else that was the problem, and Julius was crazy if he thought she was the key to doing it.
“So what?” Malakha asked. “You want me to be your Hellion queen or something?”
“What else would I be proposing?”
Malakha tried pushing Julius away again and this time he stumbled back a little.
“No thanks,” she said and began to walk away from him. She had a demon to find.
“You’re just going to just walk away like that Malakha. Think of everything you’d be giving up just to go back to a bunch of people who really don’t care anything about you because you’re a little… eccentric.”
Malakha stopped when Julius appeared in front of her. She sighed, starting to go around him until he grabbed her arm and pulled her to him again.
“Oh come on Malakha. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t miss this?”
He kissed her again before she could get away from him again, and Malakha was starting to wonder why she hadn’t connected him to Lucifer before now. Like Lucifer, Julius had a way of making her want to give in to temptation, consequences be damned, even if he lacked the strange pull that Lucifer possessed, the one that made Malakha want to give in even though she was certain that doing so was more to her detriment than anything.
Malakha managed to push him away though, the blush on her cheeks giving away that she would very much miss that. Still, her blush didn’t keep her from glaring up at Julius in annoyance.
“Anything else you want to tell me that you neglected to because you knew it would piss me off?” Malakha asked crossing her arms, the scythe dangling from her right hand.
It was meant as a joke. Malakha hadn’t really expected there to be anything else. In fact, she expected him to shoot her a grin before she decided to take off without him. Then, she predicted, from what little she knew about him, that Julius would probably follow her and fuss at her for being a trouble magnet after saving her again. Somewhere in the midst of all that, she might forgive him, and they might actually find the demon that was terrorizing her school and getting her exorcised.
The only part she got right was the grin, except it was devious and if Malakha were honest with herself, a little scary.
“I’m the demon you’ve been looking for.”
Chapter Fourteen
Waking the Dragon
Malakha wasn’t sure if what she was feeling qualified as shock because more than anything she felt a strange sense of bafflement at Julius’ words. She should have been shocked or even angry at first, but she couldn’t help but pay attention to how non-melodramatic all this was; how at the end of the day, she didn’t have to go through a whole bunch of hoops and hassles to find the demon she wanted when she finally put her mind to doing it. There had been no dramatic build up or suspense before she stumbled across some clue that would point to Julius as the culprit she had been looking for all along. She hadn’t even suspected Julius after she found out he was a prince of Hell. If Lucifer had better things to do than terrorize a school in the middle of nowhere in the northeastern part of the United states, why wouldn’t his son?
Malakha opened and closed her mouth several times in confusion before asking, “How?”
“Why do you seem so shocked? It’s not like I lied. I warned you ahead of time.”
Malakha began to point out that at no time had he warned her that he was a prince of Hell and terrorizing her school for the last week. Then she remembered that though he hadn’t outright told her he was dangerous, he had warned her.
“Nothing in this world is what it seems.”
…
“And why should I trust you?”
“Because I haven’t tried to hurt you yet?”
“I know that. But you’re the one who told me that nothing here is what it seems. So what are you really?”
“What do I appear to be?”
“You want me to be honest?”
“Otherwise I wouldn’t have asked.”
“Well, you seem like a really nice guy, despite the fact that you seemed pretty pleased to stare at me naked earlier.”
“Well then there’s your answer.”
“Why?”
“If it was any other time, I’d just say it was for the fun of it, but to be honest, except for amusing some of my dad’s lower minions, messing around with your school was nowhere near as amusing as some of the other stuff I could have been doing on Earth. I already told you what I was doing though. Everything I did had everything to do with you.”
“With me?” Malakha asked.
“Of course,” Julius said. “To think that I found you by accident when some of my father’s minions were peeking across a crack in the divide at a priest at your school performing an exorcism on that girl.”
“She wasn’t possessed.”
“Oh she was ‘possessed’,” Julius assured. “But those exorcisms don’t do anything to ward us off. They can’t break the connection and seal a crack in the divide. It wasn’t even that funny until the girl started going into those crazy hysterics, going mad at the voice across the divide that was telling her to beg and cry and plead. And then I heard you, telling us to stop laughing, to stop mocking her. I don’t even think anyone else even noticed at first. I didn’t even really pay any attention to it until you said it so loudly, so forcefully it echoed across the divide. Not many of your people have the power to hear across the divide, let alone send a message across as clearly as yours came across. Needless to say, I was a little curious. And then as luck would have it, you found a way across the divide.”
“And you decided to keep an eye on me?” Malakha guessed.
“No. Actually, at first I wanted to kill you. Why do you think that girl attacked you in the bathroom? I had been pestering her since you came across the divide and somehow convinced her that the voices would stop if she killed you. But she didn’t want to do that. She almost killed herself and that was at least mildly amusing. But you heard me, and I have to say the way you beat that girl impressed me. It’s usually pretty difficult to beat a person under the influence of a “demon.” That’s when I decided to keep an eye on you.”
Malakha huffed. That explained why he always seemed to find her every time she came to Hell.
“And the boy who had the seizure?”
“He resisted the suggestion and I got a little frustrated,” Julius said with a shrug. “I don’t understand it really. Why do you feel the need to protect your school when you hate it anyway? Everyone thinks you’re fucking psychotic.”
“I’m beginning to think that’s not all my fault.”
“It’s not. Some lesser demons have a good time making it hard on people like you in places like a boarding school. Normally, something so trivial is beneath my notice. But you made it worth my while. It was interesting to watch you. To see how you resisted the brainwashing of what your people call religion even after growing up in it.”
“How do you know all this?” Malakha asked.
“I told you. I’ve been watching you for the last few days. We’ve
built a connection Malakha. And let me tell you, you’re practically a Hellion that was born on the wrong side of the divide.”
Malakha raised the scythe to his chest this time, fury beginning to overtake her confusion.
“I’m no Hellion.”
“Could have fooled me,” Julius said circling her, not at all deterred that she was using the scythe to follow him. “You say I was mocking your people when that’s all you do. Mock them and roll your eyes at how ridiculous you think all their stupid rituals are.”
“I don’t mock them,” Malakha said, even though she had to admit she did roll her eyes and think some things were a little ridiculous.
Julius shrugged. “If that makes you feel better.”
“It does,” Malakha said still following him with the scythe. “And you’re going to stop messing with my school… Wait a minute. Not just you. You’re going to stop and you’re going to stop any other demons who see fit to bother it from across the divide to make my life hell.”
“You and what army?” Julius asked laughing. “You think just because you can cross the divide and stole a scythe from my dad that you could stop me if you wanted. Be serious. There are better ways to spend our time together.”
He moved a hand to cup her face, but Malakha swiped at it with the scythe while taking a step back.
“Back off,” she said.
“You’re really serious aren’t you?” Julius asked, something flashing in his eyes as he took a step towards her for every step she took back.
“I mean it.”
“You don’t want to fight me Malakha. It would be easier to just let this be water under the bridge while we negotiate the terms of our contract.”
“There’s no contract between us.”
Julius continued to advance upon her. He wasn’t smiling anymore, his reddish yellow eyes seeming to glow.
“Don’t be like this Malakha. It’s starting to irritate me.”
Malakha was against the pole of one of the streetlamps now feeling a little like she had the first time she ran into Deverick except she knew fighting off Julius was not going to be easy. He was upon her now, smiling down at her in a way that made her heart race for more than one reason and she shuddered when he blew on her ear, even as she used a hand to try to push him away while her other hand went into her pocket.