Lust Is Calling (Demon Lust Series Book 1)

by Brandi Bell

  “I just thought it would be funny if each of you was a different sin, and I was sitting with the seven deadly sins,” I admit, my face still flushed from before.

  The group breaks out in laughter, like I just hit on an inside joke.

  “I like her,” Zadkiel says out of the blue, garnering some impressed looks from his tablemates.

  The waitress shows up with our drinks, and I order another one before quickly downing the one she gives me. The guys all give each other looks as if they are communicating silently.

  “You happen to be exactly right. We even call ourselves the seven deadly sins,” Dayson leans into me and smirks while his eyes dance with laughter. “You should feel special, Zadkiel doesn’t talk in front of many people.”

  “I do feel special,” I smile, the alcohol giving me a bit more courage. “How did you all meet?”

  “We grew up together, except Zadkiel; we met him when we were partying a few decades ago,” Tanas explains. “Once he joined our group the sins became our running inside joke. We go do missions together sometimes because the higher ups find it funny to dump all the sins on a place at once.”

  “The seven princes don’t get mad that you call yourselves the seven deadly sins?” I ask, eyes wide at the thought of my dad knowing.

  “We haven’t really publically went as it. I hear the lust demon would have a conniption,” Holdon explains quickly.

  “Oh he would!” I exclaim, thinking of the reaction Daddy would have.

  “Oh yeah, guys, this is Asmodeus’s daughter,” Dayson laughs, holding his stomach.

  The reactions vary around the table from shock to amusement, but no one makes a comment. The chat continues, getting to know everyone for awhile as the drinks keep coming.

  “So who is who?” I ask. “I know Dayson is lust, but what about the rest of you?”

  “Guess,” Maddox says with a gleam of mischief in his eyes.

  “Hmmm, ok. Graden is sloth. Dayson of course is lust. I would guess Tanas is pride. Kannon is envy, and Holden is wrath. That leaves greed for Zadkiel and gluttony for Maddox. Am I close?” I ask after guessing the best I could.

  “You got a couple of them right. Dayson is lust, Tanas is pride, Graden is sloth. The rest are Kannon is wrath, Holdon is envy, Maddox is greed, and I am gluttony,” Zadkiel corrects me.

  The night passed by quickly as the drinks and conversation flowed freely. By the time I decide to call it a night, I'm thoroughly sloshed.

  “Come home with me,” Dayson whispers in my ear.

  “No, I’m going home alone, but I had fun,” I reply, even though going home with him sounds fun.

  “You know you want to,” he says, forcing lust at me.

  “She said she doesn’t want to so back off, Dayson,” Zadkiel stands up and moves between our chairs. “I’ll take you home, come on.”

  Zadkiel walks me back to my apartment, his hand on my lower back keeping me aware of my surroundings. When I get there, he takes his hand off me, and I feel like something's missing. I lean over and kiss his cheek. “Thank you, Spike, for making sure I got home safely.” I walk up the stairs and finger wave at him from the door.

  I’m not sure what possessed me to kiss his cheek, but I thought calling him Spike would be funny; maybe I watch too much Buffy. I always did prefer Spike over Angel. I giggle at that because my Spike was an angel.

  After stumbling up the stairs to my room, I plop down on my bed face first, asleep before I even land.

  Dayson

  I stare anxiously at the door. What is taking that winged fiend so long to get back? I regret asking the group to come out, but I honestly wasn’t sure if she would even show up. At least she fit in with the group, but I’ll be damned if I let that gluttonous bastard steal my girl. Finally, he arrives back at the bar, and I’m anxious as he sits down.

  “She’s home, safe and sound,” he smirks, knowing that him taking her home got under my skin.

  “She’s mine, don’t forget that,” I growl at him.

  “No, she turned you down. Besides, I found her just as interesting. Maybe I’ll try to date her myself,” Zadkiel replies, laughing at me.

  “I don’t know. I liked her too,” Tanas speaks up.

  “Same,” Holdon says.

  “Anyone else?” I bark out, getting angry with my friends.

  Maddox and Graden both raise their hands, causing me to groan audibly.

  “Then the only thing we can do is agree that no one dates her,” I sigh, burying my face in my hands.

  I made the biggest mistake of my life inviting everyone here. I can’t get the little lust demon out of my head, and now, all my friends want her too.

  “We should at least vote,” Maddox says smirking like he’s up to something.

  I look around at all my friends, “I propose none of us date Clio. We can all still hang out with her; she's too good of a fit not to have her in our group. Who agrees with me?” I look to see if anyone is nodding or anything.

  “Hell no! Why is it if you can't have her no one else can? That's total bullshit!” Kannon booms from across the table.

  Zadkiel looks like he’s thinking for a minute and finally says, “I want to spend time with her, I don't care if it's a date or just friends. I can't get enough of her. She even gave me a nickname already.”

  Wait, when did Princess give him a nickname? That's not fair, I've known her longer.

  “Wait, why does the freak get a nickname and I don't get a nickname? I need a nickname, too. I'm going to have to change that.” Maddox declares.

  “Technically, I saw her first,” Graden speaks up. “I didn’t have to call you.”

  “You called him and not the rest of us?” Holdon’s eyes turn dark as he asks. Graden just shrugs.

  Okay this has escalated beyond where I thought it would. “Is she really worth all this arguing we are doing? In all the years we have been friends, when has a chick ever gotten between us? Never. We need to keep it that way. I still think we should just have a friends only clause with her. She'll still be around us; I'm not suggesting cutting her out of our group. I'm suggesting turning our seven into a group of eight.” I look around pleadingly at the rest of the guys, and they all look to be on some degree of compliance.

  “As long as I still see her, I'm fine with it,” Zadkiel agrees. I'm hoping with him the rest will relent as well.

  Graden just shrugs again. I know he is scheming something. He just pretends to be lazy, I just know it.

  Holdon and Maddox nod their heads. The rest of the guys sit stone faced for a few minutes.

  “Fine, but if we are doing this that means no one can hit on her. She’s put firmly in the friend zone for everyone,” Maddox scowls, obviously not liking this plan.

  “I’d rather be able to get to know her, so I agree,” Holdon sighs.

  “Tanas? Kannon?” I ask.

  Kannon is sitting with his arms crossed across his chest, obviously trying to keep his temper controlled. I always get worried when he’s quiet; it means he can’t keep control of his wrath. If he loses it, we will all be at each other’s throats.

  Finally, he uncrosses his arms. “I agree. I don’t want to fight with you all, but I need to go earthside now.”

  He gets up and walks out of the bar, leaving everyone silent. We all know there’s going to be reports of a mass shooting or a war breaking out with as bad as his temper is right now.

  “Since I’m the hold out, I’ll agree too, but if one of you breaks your word, this is going to go south fast,” Tanas relents.

  The conversation dies, and we all leave the bar, heading our separate ways. I can’t believe I lost the shot at the girl I’m wanting. I’ve never had a girl get in my head this deep.

  Maybe there's a way I can get around this ban without the guys getting pissed at me and losing our friendship. Maybe if I help her with her missions, I can spend more time with her. That’s it! I’ll make an appointment with dear old Dad and offer to show her the harder mission
s, so she can advance her skills faster.

  I arrive home and set an alarm for the morning to call the boss then pass out.

  The alarm goes off pulling me from a deep dreamless sleep. I groan and shut it off, almost forgetting why I turned it on in the first place. A quick check of the time reminds me to call the boss.

  “Can I talk to Asmodeus?” I ask the secretary when she answers the phone.

  “What’s the nature of the call?” she counters, her voice dripping with boredom.

  “I want to talk about training Cliona,” I say, nerves wracking my stomach now that I’ve said it aloud.

  “Just one moment,” she places me on hold.

  “What do you know of my daughter?” a voice booms seconds later.

  “I saw her on a mission the other night, and I wanted to offer my services training her, so you can have her on real missions sooner,” I choke out, suddenly thinking this was a bad idea.

  “Ah, Dayson, you’re a good choice for this. As long as you keep your hands to yourself, I think it would be a good idea. Meet at the office in an hour, and I’ll give you your first joint mission.”

  He hangs up the phone, and I cheer out loud. I now have a valid excuse to see her. I get up and start getting ready, wanting to look my best when I see her again.

  Cliona

  An annoying noise rouses me from my sleep, causing my head to pound. I hit snooze and roll over, holding my pillow over my head. My stomach churns, and I feel like shit. The alarm goes off again, and I remember that I have a meeting with my father in under an hour.

  I crawl out of bed, my head still pounding, dress, and grab some pain killers. I put on a pair of sunglasses and head out the door so I won’t be late. Punctuality is important to him, and I don’t want to face his anger today.

  I arrive and am sitting in the waiting room when Dayson shows up and sits down beside me.

  “What are you doing here?” I hiss at him.

  “I have a meeting with your father,” he smirks, a secret hiding in his eyes.

  I’m not happy to see him here. It’s going to be hard to hide my attraction to him in front of my father. If he even got a hint that I liked a demon, I’d hate to see what would happen. He’s so overprotective of me.

  The office door opens. “Dayson, Cliona, get in here,” my father orders, standing imposingly in the doorway.

  I stand up and walk into the office with Dayson on my heels. My stomach is tied in knots. Why in the world would he be here at the same time as me? I guess I’m about to find out.

  My father moves to stand at his desk and looks down at both of us. “Since you are still learning the ropes, I have decided I'm going to have one of my more advanced demons take you under his wing. He will be teaching you how to do more advanced techniques. It's only temporary so don't start to complain.”

  Dayson looks like he's about to say something, but again, my father interrupts, “Your first real mission is going to be to start an orgy at a local strip club. They are very lax with their rules, so it shouldn't be hard to incite that type of behavior. If you have any problems or questions, Dayson will be there to help you. After a few missions, you will be caught up.” His tone tells me that we are being dismissed, so I stand and start to walk to the door.

  I make my way out of the building quickly, trying to avoid talking to Dayson until I have to but he follows me.

  “Hey wait up!” he hollers from behind me.

  I stop and turn around and put my hands on my hips. “You set this up, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, but only so I can get to know you better. I’ll behave,” he replies, giving me a panty dropping smile.

  “Do you know where this place is that we have to do this because I don't remember him telling us.” Maybe if I act professional, then it will be less awkward.

  “Yeah, I think I know the place he's talking about. I've been there multiple times; the values there are very low, so it makes corrupting humans there like giving kids candy.”

  So, all I have to do is go to this place that Dayson says is easy and release lust pheromones and the rest should take care of itself. I can do this. After giving myself my internal pep talk, I know it's time to just do it.

  “Okay, should we do this and get it over with?” My voice is exuding all the confidence and professionalism I can.

  Dayson laughs, “You obviously have never been to a club like this. They normally don't start to get busy until late afternoon or evening if we want a good crowd.”

  “Okay, so we meet here after dinner, and we'll do recon some and see where we go from there. Does that sound acceptable to you?” I know I'm acting bitchy, but I need to put some distance between Dayson and myself before I do something stupid.

  “Fine, see you then, Princess.” Now the condescending ass is calling me princess. I need to finish this and any other missions as soon as possible.

  I walk away before he could say anything else to me. I still need to call Meghan and tell her about the fiasco of a night I had. I make short work of getting home and hastily grab my lifeline, aka the phone. Lucky for me, Meghan answers on the second ring.

  “Hey girl now dish, did lust demon use his pheromones or not?”

  “So, I get there and he didn't think I was going to show, so he invited all his friends to join us. So, my date with him turned into a drunken meeting of his hot friends. Oh and to add to the humiliation, the hottie from the gym is one of said friends who flirted more than the lust demon did, or at least, I think he did. It's all a fucking blur right now. I drank quite a bit. One of his friends walked me home. I think I kissed him on the cheek, but I could be wrong. All in all it was fun, just not the kind of fun I thought I would be having last night.”

  “Some bitches have all the luck. So, while I was hoping you were getting it on with a lust demon, you were actually hanging out with a group of hot guys, and you didn't call and invite me to join you? I don't know if I should be insulted or pissed off or maybe both,” the bitchiness in her voice makes my blood boil.

  “I just met the guys last night, it's not like I've known them for years and excluded you on purpose. What was I supposed to do, stop mid drink and say sorry let me call my friend to come here and add another person to this so she can get to know you too? I didn't even know he was inviting them. If I had known, I would have asked you to join us too. What the hell crawled up your ass and died?” My voice dripping with anger.

  “Sorry. Remember, I’m an envy demon, jealousy is second nature. Next time invite me along, ok?”

  “There won’t be a next time.”

  “Girl, if they were flirting, there will be a next time. Just don’t leave your bestie high and dry.”

  “I need to go. I need a nap before this mission today,” I explain, not wanting to fight anymore.

  “Fine, call me if you want to chat later.”

  She hangs up on me, and I lay down and set an alarm for dinnertime.

  Cliona

  I wake up a couple hours before my alarm is set to go off, so I get my workout clothes on and go to the gym. I put on headphones and sweat up a storm for an hour then head home to shower. I dress in jeans and a purple corset top. I’m beginning to get predictable so I change into a purple tube top instead with a denim jacket.

  I leave my house and make my way to the meeting spot we chose. Of course, I arrive early and end up waiting on him. While I stand there, I think about what a bad idea this is. Two lust demons releasing pheromones at the same time is going to cause a major orgy. The souls in a strip club won’t need much help, since they are already corrupted.

  Finally, Dayson comes walking up five minutes late, which irritates me, but I keep my mouth shut. I just want to get this mission over so I can get away from him and my conflicting feelings. My stomach growls loudly, and I remember that I forgot to eat. This is going to be a long evening.

  “Why don’t we grab a bite to eat on the way? A hungry demon isn’t going to be as effective,” Dayson offers, grinning like a
fool.

  “Fine, what about tacos?” I suggest, wanting something quick and easy.

  We walk over to the local taco place, and I order three soft tacos to go. We eat as we make our way to the portal. When we arrive, Graden is running the portal again. He gives Dayson a look I can’t quite decipher before turning to me and smiling.

  “It’s good to see you again, Clio. We should all hang out again. I had fun last night,” he says, waving his arms animatedly. Strange, a sloth demon usually doesn’t move much.

  “I had a good time as well. That would be nice,” I reply, noncommittally.

  “Where are you guys going?”

  Dayson rattles off the location of the strip club and explains the mission while I stand there looking the portal over. It seems like such a simple device, but it requires some heavy magic to use.

  “How did you start working with the portal?” I blurt out the question in my head.

  “It gets me out of going earthside so often,” he shrugs.

  “We need to get going. If we get this mission over soon enough, maybe we can all go get a drink again?” Dayson offers, looking at me, waiting for an answer.

  “Um, yeah, we could do that,” I stutter, feeling flustered at the thought.

  I know I told Meghan I would invite her along if it happened again, but I really don’t want to share. I decide if I do go, I won’t tell her about it. Does that make me a bad friend? I’ll have to think on that more later; right now, I need to get my head in this mission.

  Graden opens the portal, and we are dumped out next to a community center.

  “I thought you knew where we were going?” I question Dayson, with my hands on my hips.

  The sun has just gone down earthside and the parking lot is full of cars, so I have the idea just to try and spread lust in this building instead. I don’t know if Dayson will go for it, but something is better than nothing when it comes to Daddy.

  “Let’s get in there and make some lust happen then,” I sigh, as I start walking towards the building.