The Beloved Fire

  As they walked out of the sheriff’s office, Ben felt hopeless replaying what Ander said. If she was taken by those monsters in the trafficking industry, there was little chance they would be able to find her. There was no other family for Mikayla besides him and Anita, she’d been adopted so there really wasn’t any family to call and Ander was her only friend. They would need to discuss more of the information Ander had about this New Mexico business, it might be their only lead. It was impossible for Anita to travel in her condition but if it would save their little girl, he knew they would do anything.

  Cain and Elijah continued with their instructions about the days events. She had zoned out at some point staring out the window and wondering how it could be light outside when Sarah had told her they were underground. So Purgatory was underground but there was an outside? That made just as much sense as a fish breathing air.

  “MIKAYLA?”

  She zoned back in noticing they had finished with her hair. She turned around on the little black stool giving them her full attention. “Sorry.” She said giving Blake a quick glance who stood silently in the corner of her room, on guard.

  He was back in his fighting gear in human form. She was still struggling to shake the image in her mind from seeing him in his demon form. Apparently after her little failed attempt to escape last night he didn’t trust her because he’d been standing there, silent, ever since she woke. She had tried talking to him a couple times, but he just ignored her.

  “What were you saying?”

  Elijah scoffed, “Told you she wasn’t listening.”

  “You’re about to be in front of all the royalty of Hell and the most dangerous group of demons, the Watchers, and you’re not concerned with staying alive.” Cain said in disbelief.

  She just stared back as her answer. She’d heard them the first time they went through this as they watched her eat her breakfast this morning. The event would be held in the throne room, where she would be formally introduced to Anock as his potential wife and Queen of Hell where he would formally accept or reject her. Though it was a given he would accept her, and she was to be silent through the proceedings and she wasn’t to look up from the floor and blah, blah, blah. Be an old-timey woman, like women’s rights didn’t happen. Right. Her skull hurt from how many times she had rolled her eyes this morning already; at least a million times but no one knew for sure. Zoning out was a lot better than the attitude she had started giving. She tried to rein it in when she remembered her own plan of play along, no matter how much she hated this.

  “I heard you the first time.” She stood looking in the full-length mirror at the silver dress that showed more cleavage than the boobs she had, and the sexy slit that went up, not one, but both her upper thighs. They had put weird contacts in her eyes turning them from their original brown to a purple, stating it was a custom in Hell. It changed her whole face, not for the worse, but just looked weird. They also put in extensions, straightened her hair then put it up in a high slick ponytail. She thought it made her look slutty, that and the winged eye liner she wore. Maybe other women could make it look good, but on her, she thought it was too much. She sighed.

  “Walk, kneel, don’t talk, look at the floor, leave.” She looked up at them. “Simple.”

  They glanced worriedly at each other than back at her, as Elijah said, “Okay.” At the same time Cain said, “You would think.”

  She brushed off their sarcasm changing the subject. “You guys look different today.” Normally Elijah had brown hair and was paler, while Cain had blonde hair and was tanner. It was really the only way she could tell them apart. But something was different today and she’d been hyper focused on the change.

  “Oh, yeah…we switched our hair color. I’m usually a blonde and Elijah a brunette, but I thought we would switch it up. Keep it interesting.”

  “Yeah interesting…I guess.” Mikayla mumbled sitting back down on the stool to put on her heels. Stilettos of course. She sucked in an annoyed breath, repeating her mantra like her life depended on it.

  Don’t roll your eyes. Don’t roll your eyes. Do not roll your eyes.

  Cain packed up the hair and makeup supplies while Elijah busied himself making a drink. Blake for the first time all day stepped away from his post walking towards the center of the room. “Did you tell her about after the presentation?”

  Oh hell there was more, and why couldn’t he tell her?

  Repeat mantra.

  “Getting to it. Sheesh.” Elijah scoffed removing the wrinkles from his wrinkle-less shirt before sitting down on the couch. “Okay. Afterwards you will be taken back into the dining room, where you will have drinks, stand by Anock’s side and be seen not heard. Then you’ll come back to your room when it’s all done.”

  Elijah paused looking dramatically to Blake with his hands on his hips, while she tried not to laugh. “There does that suffice oh mighty one.”

  She watched Blake’s eyes flash red before returning to the blue they’d been all day.

  Unable to stop herself she rolled her eyes; Make it one million and one.

  “Why even tell me any of this? Do you think I’m that much of an idiot not to act complacent when I’m surround by demons?”

  It was Blake who answered her now. Wow was he actually addressing her now? All day he acted like she didn’t exist.

  “No, I think you’re going to run screaming or pass out. You’re going to be surrounded by demons, and a lot of them, if not all, will be in demon form because we will be in Hell. You thought seeing what I looked like last night was scary, you haven’t seen anything yet. A lot of them will have a human slave they eat from. Some will make the boogeyman look like a child. None of it will be a pretty site. You’re in Purgatory now, which is a lot calmer, but the throne room isn’t in Purgatory, it’s in Hell. You need to wake up and realize you’re not on Earth anymore. The beings in this room are pretty much wearing a skin suit to keep you from losing your shit and keep you from going insane. It won’t be like that out there.” He said pointing to the door. “Not only are you expected to act like none of this will scare the shit out of you, you’re supposed to be leading these monsters as their queen which is supposed to make you in some way superior to them. Which you aren’t. As of now anyways. They would, can, and will eat you alive without a second thought if they could. Your just lucky your fiancé is the demon of minds and powerful enough to keep that from happening. They are expecting a lot different person than who will be walking into that throne room. This isn’t going to be a fun day.”

  Blake turned away from her heading to her door, pausing on the threshold. “We leave in ten minutes. Finish what you need to do and I’ll meet you outside.”

  She stood there absorbing everything he said. She figured she might see scarier things after last night when the reality of where she was sank in, but she really didn’t think there would be a whole throne room of creatures awaiting her. Thinking of it now, she just expected them to be like the rest of the people she met so far. Human, or human like. She didn’t know the twins and Blake were wearing skin suits, as he put it, and she glanced over at the twins now taking in their attractive faces that looked normal. Did they really look like Blake or scarier in their real versions?

  Cain walked over handing her a drink and leading her over to sit between him and Elijah on the couch. She sipped on it tasting cranberry but really didn’t know what else was in it. Whatever it was went down smooth and tasted amazing.

  “We can put the necklace on you if it would help?” Elijah asked softly with a look of concern. She knew he meant well. The necklace had helped her to stay blank and emotionless, well until Blake touched her, but she needed her wits about her today to gather as much information as possible. No matter how scary this was going to be. She needed to put on her big girl panties and take it in like the adult she was.

  She shook her head taking a bigger drink. “No.” She looked at them both before surprising herself taking Elijah’s hand. “Thank you t
hough.” He squeezed her hand back giving a small smile, his brown eyes warm and kind. It helped to make her feel like maybe she wasn’t so alone.

  No matter how scary their real selves may look, Cain and Elijah had been nothing but nice to her since she arrived in this prison and there was no reason to ruin that. Ander had constantly drilled into her to never judge. Yes, she was scared shitless of Blake’s demon form, but again, he never hurt her or was mean to her. At least not anymore mean than a normal bodyguard. He had even saved her.

  “Awe she’s got Stockholm syndrome.” Cain said leaning his head down on her shoulder. Making them all laugh. She’d forgot they could read minds.

  “Shut up.” She finished her drink just as Blake re-entered the room with his signature ready to kill expression. He seemed hyper focused on Cain until he removed his head from her shoulder.

  “It’s time.” He growled out.

  Cain and Elijah stood with her as she set her drink down, feeling a lot lighter with the liquid courage. They both looked to her holding out their arms to escort her and in a blink of an eye they were wearing tuxes. Her mouth dropped open, but she decided to save that question on how they did that for later.

  “You ready to officially enter our world?”

  She sighed taking their arms. No. She wasn’t but instead of saying it out loud, even though she knew they could hear her thought anyways, she nodded. “Let’s do this.”

  “That’s our girl.” They said together in their eerie together talk, followed by their laughs at her calling them creepy in her head.

  With one last eye roll they followed Blake out of her room and down the hall.

  7

  Empathy

  Walking through the halls, she realized just how big the mansion really was. It seemed endless and everything looked the same. The exact same. They walked for so long Mikayla started to count the doors per hall; thirty. Fifteen to each side. The identical halls even held the same pictures on them. It was disorienting. They would enter a random room, never the same that led to another hall, and then another. On and on it went. She wondered how she hadn’t caught on to the hallway thing before, but really every time she’d been out of her room and wondering through this place, she’d been dazed one way or another.

  At some point during what she believed to be random walking, the twins had broken off from their group stating that they would see her there and to behave. That left her alone with Blake who once alone with her, walked at a steady pace that she could barely keep up with in her tall high heels. He only looked back every once in a while, when she was lagging, giving her an annoyed look. She honestly didn’t know what his problem was. He acted pissed all the time. Was that the demon in him?

  “How do you know where we’re going?” She projected her voice a bit to be heard over the clicking of her heels.

  He paused giving her a chance to catch up but right when she was a foot away, he took off walking again.

  “Seriously?! Would you just slow down!” Mikayla ran as best she could to catch up to him throwing her hand out on his shoulder when she got close enough to stop him. He immediately shrugged her off. She was about out of breath from the fast-paced walk he’d made her do and was glad he’d stopped for a second even if the whole time he gave her a look of distain.

  “We can’t be late.” Was all he said before walking again, this time at a slower pace she could keep up with.

  He was acting like a jerk. He had been all day and she didn’t understand why. Ever since she woke up, he’d either resorted to ignoring her, or snapping at her any chance he got. Well, other than when he was feeling her up.

  Shouldn’t she be the one pissed at him? He was the one keeping her here against her will.

  Shouldn’t she be the one revolted by him? He was a kidnapping demon.

  But no she just had to be attracted to the bastard.

  What the hell was wrong with her?

  Lost in her thoughts she didn’t realize that Blake not only stopped walking, but they had entered into some type of sitting area. The door slammed behind her on its own accord spiking her nerves. It made it seem more real. Her plan to just go along with things and bide her time now sounded ridiculous. She was about to be walked in front of a whole realm of demons to be presented to Anock like a piece of meat and there was nothing she could do about it.

  Blake walked up leaning against the wall opposite of two huge red doors. They were at least ten feet tall. The mansion seemed more like a castle at times with the crazy size of doors and rooms. The sitting room they were in followed the rest of the theme of the mansion. She walked over to a chase lounge in the corner sitting nervously on the edge.

  How many demons would be in there? Were they like Blake and the twins, decent when they were in their skin suits and evil when in true form? Or were they all just monsters? Was this like a typical throne room she had seen in movies and described in books? She was going in there to be accepted as a Prince of Hell’s future bride and queen and not only did she not want to agree to it, she wanted to run screaming. Her plan could backfire if they moved the wedding along before she figure out how to escape.

  “Where are Cain and Elijah?”

  Blake looked up from the knife he’d been messing with. “They will be beside Anock.”

  She rocked slightly back and forth trying to stave off the panic attack she could feel coming on.

  Talking was a good distraction.

  “Why aren’t you with him? Aren’t you his guard?”

  “You will need more protection than him. I’ll stay with you.” He looked up at her putting his knife in a holster on his lower thigh. His eyes were back to their normal blue. It shocked her once again how gorgeous such a monster could be.

  “Why do your eyes change color?” She asked before really planning to.

  Blake looked away running a hand down his face in frustration. “It’s starting soon. Don’t worry about me. Worry about yourself.”

  Jerk.

  After what seemed like an hour but was probably ten minutes the silence was killing her, and she was ready to just walk through the damn doors herself. She wanted to get this over with. Unable to shut off her inner babble and wondering what the hell was taking so long, she decided to get up to distract herself from her anxiety ridden tendencies; and because squeezing her hand any longer would result in breaking some fingers. She took up a steady pace in between Blake and the doors leading to her prison. Her dress trailing slowly behind her and every time she turned it caught her attention giving her something to focus on.

  “Shouldn’t I be dressed in,” She stopped walking and turned facing Blake while trying to find the right words. “Like a queen looking dress. I look like a slut.” She looked down at her exposed legs courtesy of the two slits that ran up the front of the dress.

  He sighed walking over to where she stood. “You look fine.”

  She scoffed; this guy truly was a demon if he thought a female wanted to hear she looked fine. “This doesn’t look queenly. Maybe mistressy.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Mistressy isn’t a word.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  He shook his head looking down and she could have sworn she saw a small smile trying to break through. “Either way you look fine.”

  “You know women hate being called fine.” She leveled.

  Looking back up at her he took a small step closer before looking her up and down concentrating longer than necessary on her chest. He looked as if he liked what he saw. She concentrated on breathing as a low rumble sounded from his chest.

  “What would you rather I call you?” Taking another step forward he closed the gap between them, and she wasn’t sure why she was letting him get this close. Although, it did excite her.

  “Would you rather I say you look good enough to eat?”

  She took a shaky breath in hoping he wouldn’t see how much he affected her. “You couldn’t eat me even if you wanted to.” She said, knowing the sexual innuendo she thre
w in there wouldn’t be lost.

  He breathed in deep almost like he could smell her arousal in the air. She watched as his tongue jutted out wetting his lips. She tried not to shutter from the pure power he radiated.

  “Oh I could, and I would eat you so good that your toes would break and the blood vessels in your eyes would pop from them rolling so hard. And when I brought you to the edge I would have you screaming so loud in ecstasy you’d be voiceless for a month. Every time there after, you will want me to eat you because after I touch you everyone else will pale in comparison. You won’t just want it; you’ll beg for it.”

  When she went to look away unable to stop the blush and keep eye contact with his now purple looking eyes, he reached out grabbing her chin firmly before lowering his mouth to hover just above hers. The smell of aged whiskey and spice assaulted her senses. She held her breath.

  “I am a demon of raw, intense, sexual pleasure. There will never be anyone else who could eat your pussy better than me. Stop pretending it’s me who couldn’t handle you; It’s you who couldn’t handle me.”

  He dropped her chin using his same hand to reach out and grab her wrist. Before she could react, he had her hand pressed against his hard erection. She sucked in a shocked breath as her body flooded with desire.

  “Too bad you think I’m just a monster.” Dropping her hand he stepped back looking completely unaffected his eyes flashing orange then blue before turning around and heading back to his original position against the wall.

  She spun around giving him her back, wishing she could run from the room. She couldn’t want him. He was a demon from Hell. He was bad. He was her prison guard. She tried to keep the thoughts rambling to chase away her desires but the image of his lips hovering above hers and the feel of his erection shattered them quickly. How had her life gotten so screwed up? She went from making out and getting felt up by an angel, to wishing to be fucked by a demon, all while getting ready to walk down an aisle to accept her betrothal to a Prince of Hell.