The Devil's Daughter

by Abbie Payne

  As I bent over my desk to try to get some work done, I heard a knock on the door. It wasn’t soft enough to be Eddie’s knock and it wasn’t rhythmic enough to be Roscoe’s knock, so I figured it was either Phoenix or one of my brothers. I knew it wasn’t the Hunters. As much as I wanted it to be one of them, they never would’ve knocked before entering... except for maybe Newt, but he would’ve sent someone in his place rather than going himself (probably Athena).

  I sighed and regained my composure before spinning my swivel chair around and calling for whoever it was to come in. Shortly after, Lachlan opened the door and revealed himself. I could immediately tell by what heq2 was wearing that he was planning on going out somewhere, and I had a decent idea of what kind of somewhere that was, but I was hoping I was wrong.

  I’d worked so hard to try to help my brothers heal from their pasts, to heal from the things that allocated them to their respective “sins”. Lachlan in particular always had a problem with going to parties and partaking in... activities that no prince should’ve ever participated in - at least, not to the degree that Lachlan did. Sure, he was the prince of Lust, but the problem was that he didn’t have any kind of self-control on his own - none of us did. He really had to work to have it and he was doing better with it now, but that was because he wasn’t putting himself in those situations where he could be tempted.

  I didn’t want to try to restrict my brother - at the end of the day, he was an adult and there was little to nothing that I could do to stop him once he got his mind up to something - but this worried me. If he relapsed in his progress, there was no telling where the other six were going to end up... actually, there was also no telling where I was going to end up and Wyatt and I definitely couldn’t afford to go back in our progress.

  The world would surely end if that happened.

  “What do you need, Lachlan?” I asked him coolly.

  “I’m going to a party.”

  I knew I should’ve seen that coming, but for whatever reason, I didn’t.

  Instead, I was so taken aback by the announcement that I almost fell out of my chair. I stood up and walked over to him, folding my arms across my chest and watching him closely. He seemed to shrink down a little bit as I approached him and my heart sank a little bit more.

  I had a love-hate relationship with when my brothers were scared of me. The sadist part of me relished in their misery, but the part of me that I was always fighting to push to the forefront wanted to cry out in agony when I saw the looks on their faces. The looks on their faces was always the worst part, I think, other than the sheer knowledge that I had that kind of influence over my little brothers.

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea, Lach?” I asked him gently. I put my hand on his shoulder, but he flinched away and backed towards the door.

  “Not really...” He lamented.

  “Then why are you doing it?”

  “Because... because I really want to. I need the stress relief, Lucifer.”

  I sighed and looked down at him, “I’m not going to try to stop you, Lachlan, but keep in mind that you’re responsible for what you do tonight - no one else.”

  Of course, I was still hoping that he would end up realizing that what he was about to do wasn’t in his best interest. I had no desire to try to control him, but still.

  There was a reason that he ended up having to stop going to parties all together.

  Lachlan smiled a little and wrapped his arms around me. I hugged him back, giving him a light squeeze.

  “Trust me, Luci,” he replied (I grimaced at the nickname, but let it go for the time being), “I’ll be fine - you know I will be.”

  I watched as he pulled away and headed back out of the room, teleporting downstairs once he was back in the hall. I sighed and hugged myself as I stood there for another moment or so. I wished that I could say I knew he was going to be fine, but I didn’t know that. I didn’t know that at all.

  Thirty-Five

  Lachlan Palmer

  Prince of Lust

  The Rosette Nightclub

  I KNEW LUCIFER WAS GOING TO BE mad at me for this, but I needed to get out of the house. With everything going on, I could feel that I was starting to fall apart and I was scared - no, terrified. I needed to feel again and I felt that the best way to do that was to do one of the things that I’d always done best: partying.

  I teleported to the surface before heading to one of the many night clubs in the area: this one in particular was always one of my favorites, it was called The Rosette and it was always the perfect place for those that loved to party.

  When I walked in, the sound of music immediately began to pound against my ear drums and the neon lights above made it where I had to stop walking for a moment because I couldn’t see well enough to walk down the stairs and into the main part of the club where the dance floor and the bar was. I stopped at the bar briefly to get a drink - not at all worried about the fact that I would get drunk considering I was a demon and getting drunk was literally impossible for me - before heading out to the dance floor.

  Within seconds, my mind began to fixate at the people around me. Everyone - men, women, and everyone in between - were dressed scandalously and dancing in a way that was clearly intended to be seductive. I tried to pry my eyes away, but I couldn’t - especially when a woman walked over and grabbed one of my arms. She grinned broadly as she started trying to pull me over to dance with her and her friends.

  Women weren’t exactly my type when it came to the love side of me, but the lust side of me never seemed to discriminate.

  “Come on, Handsome,” she cooed, “You know you want to.”

  She wasn’t wrong. I did want to, but I always wanted to. This was why I’d stopped going to parties or even to clubs about a year ago. I was barely able to control my urges when I was in Heaven, but the little control that I had ceased to exist and I was never fully able to regain even a morsel of what I had. The only time I didn’t feel the urges was when I was with my brothers, but anyone else seemed to be fair game for me. Even when it came to King Victor or Eddie, it seemed.

  When I was younger, I was so embarrassed by it that I would keep myself locked in my room and not even Lucifer or Wyatt could get me to come out for days at a time. It never got any better, though - actually, it seemed to get worse as time went on.

  I followed the woman over to her friends (mostly because she didn’t give me much of a choice), but as we danced, more and more people came over. Most of them seemed to be coming over for me and they made a lot of comments that seemed to point that way, too. I could feel my heart race as I watched them. I had only been in this kind of situation one other time when we were still in Heaven, and I didn’t like it then.

  I looked up at the clock on the wall and swallowed. It was almost midnight - I needed to be getting home.

  Still, no matter how much I fought it, I was no match for the dark thoughts once hidden away in my subconscious and less than half-an-hour later, I found myself going into one of the back rooms with a number of willing participants in tow. The only thing I could think of, though, was how disappointed Lucifer was going to be.

  ❀

  Palace of Sins

  WHEN I GOT BACK TO the Palace of Sins, the sun was already rising over Las Vegas, but I wasn’t sure what the exact time was. My mind was nothing but a blur. I rarely had any thoughts after a night like the one I’d just had. I walked into the Palace of Sins, closing the door softly behind me in an attempt to not wake up my brothers when I looked up to see Lucifer standing by the stairs.

  He had his arms folded across his chest, plus his wings and curly, black horns out. I could tell that he wasn’t happy with me, but I couldn’t really form anything to say to him. I tried to urge myself to say something to him, but he started talking before I could even open my mouth.

  “Lachlan, your horns...” he mumbled.

  I looked at him blankly before reaching up to my head to, indeed, feel two pointy horns on my head. I
tried to hide them, but they wouldn’t go away. I felt my heart begin to race as I looked at Lucifer. This felt far too much like when I was a little and couldn’t control my demon form - when I couldn’t control anything at all.

  Lucifer walked over, putting his hands on my shoulders. “Don’t panic, Lach,” he warned, “You’ll make everything worse.”

  He looked me up and down, probably noticing that my clothes were torn in places.

  “Lach, what did you do last night?” He asked, seemingly distracted from the (more important) subject at hand. I shrugged him off of me and moved away, trying to remember.

  What did I do last night? I couldn’t recall any of the events that took place. I knew that I’d given into my temptations (several times over, by the way) and I’d spent most of the early morning hours doing so, but other than that I couldn’t remember a thing. The sad part was, the minute I realized that that was the case I thought to myself that I needed to go out again tonight. It seemed that I was right back to how I was last year before I stopped going to parties and clubs altogether... great. Just great.

  “I... uh...” I stammered.

  Lucifer narrowed his eyes at me, grabbing me and shaking me. “You did it last night, didn’t you? You let your reputation get the best of you again, didn’t you?” He asked.

  I looked down, unable to look at him when he was looking at me the way he was now. He shook me again.

  “Answer me, Lachlan Asmodeus,” he demanded.

  I shoved him off, “Yes, I did! So what?”

  “So what? So what? Lachlan, what happened to all that work you put in? Why did you throw that all out of the window for just one night?”

  I still didn’t look at Lucifer, but I could hear his voice faltering as he spoke. He let his arms drop to his sides and he hid his wings and horns away.

  “Lachlan, why did you do it?”

  I turned away, feeling something burning deep inside my stomach.

  “Because,” I growled, shocked by how deep my voice suddenly got, “Because it’s my choice what I do with my life! You can’t control what I do! Besides, I’m the prince of Lust, Lucifer. It’s in the job description.”

  “Lachlan...” Lucifer began, going to put his hand on me again when the door opened behind me.

  We both looked to see Gus standing there with piles of shopping bags and probably stolen items behind him. Not to mention, he, too, had his horns out.

  Thirty-Six

  Gus Palmer

  Prince of Greed

  Palace of Sins

  I DON’T KNOW WHAT CAME OVER me, but regardless, late last night, I found myself with an intense desire to go to the mall on the surface. I knew that I didn’t have a lot of money (I never allowed myself to have that much money on me for the simple fact that I couldn’t always control myself with it), but that didn’t stop me from finding out when the mall opened and going as soon as I was able. I bought everything that I was able to, but even after that I found myself stealing whatever else I thought I could easily get a hold of.

  I could hear myself and the voices of Lucifer and Elton yelling at me in the back of my mind, begging me to stop, but I couldn’t stop. For hours.

  The only thing that made me stop was the fact that I went to the restroom and saw my horns in the mirror and realized that I couldn’t hide them. So, I then went back home in hopes of Lucifer having answers.

  I showed up at the door, looking at Lachlan only to realize that he also had his horns out. That was odd - especially for him. Lachlan was the most self-conscious about his horns out of all of us, frequently calling them “ugly” and a number of other things. I then looked at Lucifer who was gaping at the mountain of shopping bags I had behind me. He stepped towards me and, unable to control my own body, I launched myself towards my bags and hissed the word “mine” under my breath. Lucifer stopped in his tracks and the look on his face softened ever so slightly.

  “Gus, I’m not going to take your bags, but... where did you get the money for all of this?” He asked me.

  “I didn’t.”

  Lucifer’s eyes widened, “You mean you stole them?”

  I didn’t respond, continuing to just stare at him. Lucifer groaned.

  “Gus, you have to take everything you stole back.”

  I immediately shook my head.

  “Not happening - they’re mine,” I protested, surprised by the rapsy edge in my voice.

  Lucifer started to argue with me when he was distracted by the sound of crashing coming from the kitchen. Immediately, the three of us went to the kitchen to find Griffin there. He had his horns and his fly-like wings out, but what was most bizarre was how he was frantically teleporting around the kitchen, rummaging through our now-empty kitchen.

  “Griff, what are you doing?” Lachlan asked cautiously.

  “Must find food,” he said rapidly, not even looking at us as he continued to look through the kitchen.

  Lucifer teleported over to him, grabbing him from behind and trying to restrain him from looking through the fridge again. It was empty anyway, so there was nothing to find, but I didn’t put it past Griffin to try to eat the fridge again. He’d already done it once before, but... that was years ago. The amount of work he’d put in to control his hunger seemed to all be worthless now as I watched my older brother try to wrestle out of Lucifer’s grasp. He even tried to bite his hands, but Lucifer wouldn’t let him.

  “You already ate everything, Griffin, there’s nothing left,” Lucifer argued.

  I could tell that he was trying to stay calm, but he was beginning to unravel. Honestly, though, we all seemed to be unraveling.

  “I need to find something!” Griffin yelled, his voice echoing through the massive kitchen.

  Lucifer howled as Griffin chomped down on his forearm and jumped back, releasing Griffin who then teleported away from him and into a different part of the house. I wasn’t sure what he expected to find, but it didn’t matter.

  Obviously, there was something else seriously wrong here and I could already feel my temptations beginning to surge back into my mind.

  Thirty-Seven

  Pierce Palmer

  Prince of Pride

  Some Neighborhood in Hell

  OVER THE YEARS OF LIVING IN Hell, my brothers and I all had to learn the hard way to control what ultimately matched us with the “sin” that we represented. I learned the fastest and the best out of all of them, but for some reason, the stress we were under was beginning to make me fall back in that progress. In the dead of the night, I teleported to one of the many neighborhoods on the main floor of Hell and began to do everything that I could think of to get attention.

  It didn’t take long for people to begin staring at me and talking about me, bowing down to me when they realized who I was. I felt the rush in my veins and relished in it. The more they stared, the greater the lengths I went to. It went on until well into the morning and I found myself deeply offended when everyone left, though the logical part of me - the part of me that was usually out, but evidently not now - figured it probably had something to do with the fact that even demons had to work to be able to survive in Hell.

  I started to call after them when I heard the familiar sound of someone snoring. Furrowing my eyebrows, I rounded the corner of one of the nearby houses to see Sylas there, laying on the ground in a sound slumber. I crouched down, planning to attempt to wake him up.

  Sylas was always embarrassed when he was caught sleeping during the day and I knew that he’d been trying to fix his sleep schedule for several weeks now (which was a harder task that it would’ve been for most people), so I wanted to try to help him out. I put my hand on his shoulder and gently shook him.

  “Sy, come on,” I whispered, “Let’s go back home and play a video game together or something.”

  I thought that would get him up, but nope.

  Instead, he swatted my hand away and rolled over, which was when I realized that his tail and horns were out. I found that odd, but then
I looked down at my shadow and realized that mine were out, too.

  “What on Earth?” I thought aloud as I tried to hide my horns and tail away and realized that I could do no such thing.

  I loathed my horns and tail, though probably not as much as Lachlan did. They were quite unsightly and they always earned stares (not necessarily from the demons, but always from others), which both fed into my pride as well as hurt it. It was a vicious cycle that I was always trying to balance - keeping my confidence up without allowing myself to become what everyone imagined the prince of Pride to be like.

  “Sylas, wake up,” I called, going to shake him again.

  He groaned and shoved me off of him again, knocking me backwards. It was then then that a woman’s shriek cut through the air, tearing my attention away from my younger brother and onto one of my other younger brothers as the image of Wyatt came into my head. At another point in time, I would’ve prayed that it wasn’t Wyatt, but there were two reasons why that wasn’t going to happen now. I was now older and knew that prayers were a waste of time and I also knew that, with us all seemingly going back to our old ways, it wasn’t out of the question for Wyatt to be going back to his.

  If it was Wyatt, though, this wasn’t going to end well.

  Thirty-Eight

  Wyatt Palmer

  Prince of Wrath

  Some Neighborhood in Hell

  MUCH LIKE MY BROTHERS, I HAD to learn pretty early on after coming to Hell that my ways of answering things back in Heaven weren’t the way things were supposed to work.

  I remembered how much I used to rage - especially when people compared me to Lucifer (whom I probably still had more in common with than I had with anyone else, as much as I hated it). King Victor got the brunt of a lot of my problems, but it was never his fault back then and I wished that I had more sense to make sure that he knew that back then. It was years later, though, that I finally apologized to him for treating him the way that I did when I was a kid.