by Eric Vall
“What do you think now?” I asked as I stared up at the perfect blue Arizona sky.
“What was the question, again?” Aruna panted. “I think you may have just literally fucked my brains out and filled me to the brim. I don’t remember what you were even talking about before.”
“Are you willing to stay around as part of my team?” I reiterated. “As a paid independent contractor, of course.”
“Do we get to do that again?” she purred.
“Oh, yes,” I promised, “we’ll get to do a lot of that. And, if you’d like, we can even get some of the succubi involved. They always like to share the love.”
The Rakshasi raised her eyebrows as she rolled over onto her back and stared up at the sky. The beginnings of a smile curled up the sides of her mouth, and there was a warm happiness behind her eyes.
“Then I guess I’ll stay,” she admitted. “Can I still take other jobs while I’m a, uh ‘independent contractor?’”
“Of course, you can,” I reassured her, “just as long as they don’t involve us or our enemies.”
“Fair enough,” the Rakshasi sighed, and then she slowly wobbled back to her feet. “Damn it, Jacob! You fucked me so hard I don’t think I’ll be able to walk straight for weeks.”
“Where are you going?” I questioned as I also stood up. “Don’t you want to stay a bit longer?”
“Oh, I do,” Aruna assured me, “but I still need to get that check to the Council of Death. The sooner it gets to them, the sooner your issue with getting attacked every other week goes away.”
As much as I wanted to beg the Rakshasi to stay and go a few more rounds, she had a point.
We needed this situation resolved ASAP, and Aruna was the only one who could do that right now. As much as I hated to see her leave, she had work to do.
As I watched the sexy, toned woman moving toward her dress, I realized I was still missing my boxers.
“Uh, Aruna?” I chuckled. “Do you have any idea where my underwear went?”
“So demanding,” the Rakshasi joked. “I’m on it.”
Aruna took a firm stance and then summoned dark ectoplasm all around her body. Slowly, her figure began to shift and contort until she eventually took the shape of an animal.
I’d seen her do this before. She was a fucking crocodile.
The Aruna-gator splunked down into the water and then took off like a rocket toward the other side. A few seconds later, it reappeared with my boxers in its mouth, spat them out at the side of the pool, and then pulled itself out of the water.
The crocodile was surrounded with ectoplasm once more, and then Aruna reappeared before me.
She walked over to me with a large smile, placed her tender hand against my cock, and then gave me a peck on the lips.
I could feel my erection returning, and so could Aruna.
“Save that for next time,” she cooed. “I’ll see you later, Jacob Ralston.”
Aruna walked over, tossed on her tight dress, and then engulfed herself in black ectoplasm. Her arms turned into large, feathered wings as her legs contracted into talons, and her face extended out into the form of a sharp, curved beak. Within seconds, Aruna had transformed into a hawk. Then the assassin in disguise let out a shrill squawk as she took to the sky and headed off into the horizon.
I watched as the majestic hawk turned into little more than a small dot in the distance, and I let out a deep sigh.
I didn’t know when I was going to see Aruna again, but I hoped it would be soon.
“That seemed to go well,” Mirage’s disembodied voice announced from somewhere in the lounge area.
The sudden appearance of the madame startled me, and I nearly fell back into the pool as I tried to figure out where the voice was coming from.
Finally, I saw a nearby section of the fence become encased in misty green Hellfire. It vanished in a flash to reveal Sia and Mirage standing there with large grins and a slight blush on both of their faces.
“Were you guys watching that entire time?” I gasped.
“We had to make sure everything went according to plan.” Mirage shrugged. “Also, we weren’t going to miss a chance to see you naked. Or Aruna, for that matter. The outfits she normally wears don’t do her true figure any justice.”
“Well, you saw what just happened,” I chuckled as I held up my boxer shorts to dry in the intense sun. “We’ve basically got the right of first refusal for Aruna, and she promised to deliver our payment that’ll get the other assassins off our tail.”
“Let me help you with that,” Mirage suggested as she pointed to my sopping-wet boxer shorts. “Hold it out away from your body.”
I summoned green Hellfire into my hands, surrounded the boxers, and then floated them out into the air in front of me.
Half a second later, Mirage hurled a tiny fireball at the underwear. The flaming sphere struck the garment, lit it up with a warm red glow, and then disappeared almost instantly. Somehow, the shorts were still in one piece, but they were no longer heavy and dark from the water that had just been inside the fibers.
I brought my boxers back into my hand and, much to my surprise, they were completely dry.
“How did you--” I began, but Mirage just shrugged.
“I have very, very good control over my Hellfire powers,” the succubus madame admitted. “Literal millennia of practice.”
“You’ll have to teach me someday,” I noted as I pulled the underwear over my body.
“Maybe we can try the Pavlov method,” Sia suggested. “Every time Jacob does well, he gets a treat.”
“Ohhhhhh,” Mirage purred, “I’d love to give him some treats … especially the cream-filled kind.”
I honestly couldn’t tell if they were using a euphemism or not, so I just wandered over to the rest of my clothes, put them on, and then turned back toward the house.
“Where’s Todd?” I questioned. “Don’t tell me he’s still in there choking out one-eyed willy.”
“I’m not sure,” Superbia admitted. “When we finally got to that area of the mansion, we could distinctly hear Todd’s voice shouting something in Japanese.”
“Ah,” I chuckled, “he’s definitely not done, then. I guess we should give him a few minutes, and then we can head back down to the Fourth Circle. We’ve got a lot to talk about with the others.”
“We really do,” Sia agreed. “Now that all of our distractions have been dealt with, we can move on to bigger and better things.”
Bigger and better things. Like making the first move in the chess match that will end up being our final battle.
Chapter 8
“I’m really fucking pumped to see what the Great Pumpkin has done with the place, bro,” Todd giggled as we floated along the River of Souls in our tiny dinghy. “I just hope he didn’t go overboard with the whole ‘orange’ thing. It’s not really a neutral color, ya know?”
“I’m not sure what Mephisto’s done with the Fifth Circle,” I laughed, “but I can almost guarantee you he hasn’t painted it all orange.”
“Don’t make guarantees you can’t be sure of, bro,” the imp clicked his tongue. “I remember you guaranteed me Daredevil was the most badass movie ever made. That shit was so terrible, I wanted a truck full of chemicals to blind me!”
“I’ve heard Mephisto has done great things in the short while he’s been King,” Libidine noted from across the boat. “Apparently, he’s turned the entire Fifth Circle into something out of one of your Earth Realm’s resort books. He cleaned up the water and has enlisted the Shades in his domain to help him construct an entire new civilization!”
“Now, Libidine,” Sia chuckled, “what have I always told you about listening to rumors and gossip?”
“That I shouldn’t believe everything I hear,” Liby sighed.
“Even I knew that, Lib,” Todd noted. “If you really wanna know where to go to get factual information, just hit up the ‘ol interwebs. People are super trustworthy on the internet, so you can
take just about everything you read as one-hundred percent truth. Unless it comes from ‘The Man.’ Then I can guarantee you it’s a load of bullshit.”
“‘The Man?’” Mirage questioned. “What ‘man’ are we talking about?”
“Oh, you sweet summer child.” Todd shook his head somberly. “The Man. Like, the evil shadow forces that feed us all lies and operate behind closed doors, working as hard as they can to fuck over the everyday citizens.”
“But, if they’re a secret shadow organization, how do you know who they are?” Mirage continued with a furrowed brow.
“Because the noble truthers who have their own websites know about ‘em, Houdini,” Todd reiterated. “And they so generously offer to lift the curtain on all this conspiracy shit for the small price of fifty dollars a month.”
“Sooooo,” Mirage was obviously trying to wrap her brain around all this, “you have to pay people for the truth?”
“Damn straight,” Todd nodded, “they ain’t gonna give it away for free.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” the brunette madame retorted, “but isn’t that the whole point of Earth’s ‘internet?’ To give people access to boatloads of information for free? Why would anyone lock the truth behind a paywall?”
Todd raised his finger into the air and opened his mouth to respond, but then he quickly closed it. His face contorted into a look of confusion as he tried to rack his brain and find an answer.
“I think she may have just broke Todd,” I whispered to Libidine, and the Sister of Lust giggled heartily.
“I-I don’t know,” the imp finally admitted. “Have … Have I been giving John Zeitmann fifty dollars a month for nothing?”
“Oh, no,” I mused as I recognized the name, “is that guy finally gone off the deep end and joined the rest of the conspiracy theorists?”
“They call themselves ‘the protectors of truth,’ Jakey!” Todd retorted. “But yeah, this dude’s gone far beyond all the demon shit. Now, he’s got entire pages dedicated to UFOs, cryptids, witchcraft, and even government cover-ups. Did you know JFK was killed by martians?”
“I did not,” I admitted sarcastically, “but now I kinda feel bad for the guy. If he’d never seen us fighting that bull-headed bastard all those years ago, he never would have gone down the rabbit hole of the paranormal world.”
“Don’t feel too bad for Zeitmann,” Sia scoffed. “That man is currently worth more than Robert Quinn was in his prime.”
“Seriously?” I asked skeptically. “People are really eating up all this shit?”
“Give the people what they want, I suppose,” Sia said with a shrug.
We eventually came upon the entrance to the Fifth Circle, a large cave with a series of rapids and violent waterspouts that deterred Shades from wandering from one Circle to the other. As we passed through the mouth of the cave, Invidia let out a sigh of relief.
“Finally,” the Sister of Envy said almost orgasmically, “we get to the part that’s as dark as my soul. I just hope Mephisto hasn’t changed too much about the doom and gloom of the Fifth Circle. It sounded like a wonderful place for a vacation.”
“Everybody hold on!” I commanded my friends as we hit the first set of rapids.
We’d all done this so many times, it was almost second nature, but I still wanted to make sure we got there in one piece. Our boat was tossed and turned by the violent water, but none of us ended up going overboard. Instead, we approached the large, glowing green portal rapidly, and soon we found ourselves being transported through space and time.
Then the world went quiet, and we were spat out in the Fifth Circle.
My jaw hit the floor when I saw what had been done to the place.
Gone was the dark, depressing gray sky and the murky water full of shadows and Shades who were being tortured for all of eternity. Instead, the sky was a vibrant blue and filled with clouds that all appeared to be shaped like various animals. The water was now crystal clear, too, almost like something you’d seen in the Maldives.
Most importantly, there didn’t seem to be any Shades in the water.
“I wonder how Mephisto is torturing his Shades,” I pondered aloud as our boat headed toward the center of the Circle.
“Apparently, he’s torturing them in an eternity of paradise,” Mirage noted as she stared at her own reflection in the pristine water.
“Nah, there has to be a catch,” I explained. “That’s the one downside of ruling over a Circle of Hell. Even if you want to make it the coolest fucking place in the universe, you still have to incorporate some form of torment. If you don’t, it’s not really Hell, is it?”
“Lucifer would not be happy,” Sia added. “That’s why we make sure to fine our Shades excessively for every little thing. Sister Ira is actually our Torture Master, and she is always coming up with some truly twisted ways to punish these people.”
“Like the ‘whistling while you walk’ fine,” Todd shuddered, “what kinda psychopath punishes you for whistling in public?”
“The kind that makes sure our Circle is up to code,” Sia reminded him. “Jacob might be Lucifer’s son, but the natural order of the Universe does not allow for there to be a Hell without punishment. That kind of defeats the whole purpose of its existence.”
“Well, we can ask the Master of Whispers when we get there.” I nodded to the large island in the middle of the sea.
As we got closer, I saw our trusted ally had even redone the few buildings that existed within the Fifth Circle. Baphomet’s medieval style castle had been completely torn down and replaced with a large, white marble structure surrounded by equally white pillars. The roof of the place was as red as our incendiary Hellfire, and there were statues all over the courtyard.
“Huh,” Todd mused, “I never woulda pegged the Great Pumpkin for a fan of Ancient Greece. Waiiiiittttt. Does this mean he has a bottomless pit he tosses his enemies into?”
“I’m pretty sure that was made up for the movie,” I explained to the imp as the boat pulled into the dock. “Besides, it looks like Mephisto’s going more for Athens than Sparta.”
“But … but …” Todd trailed off and hung his head in disappointment. “I was totally gonna kick a mofo down the pit and scream ‘This is Sparta … ’”
The six of us exited the dinghy onto a narrow wooden pier, and the ground beneath us swayed with each crash of the waves below and threatened to dump us into the water.
Although, at least now there weren’t Shades waiting inside to tear us limb-from-limb.
Almost instantly, a man wearing a toga, with curly black hair, approached us.
“You must be King Ralston!” the man exclaimed as he stuck out his hand in greeting. “King Mephisto sent me to meet you. The name’s Tyler.”
“Nice to meet you, Tyler,” I said as I shook his hand. “Have the other Demon Kings arrived yet?”
“Not yet,” Tyler explained, “you guys are the first group here. Now, if you’ll kindly follow--”
Before the Shade could finish his sentence, a loud, shrill beep pierced the air. Tyler quickly glanced down at his watch, let out a deep sigh, and then silenced the sound.
“I do apologize, folks,” he continued, “but it’s my time right now. Just head up this pathway to the main door of the palace, and I’ll meet you there. Whatever you do, don’t try to save me.”
Save him? I had no idea what the fuck this Shade was even talking about. Save him from what? This was a peaceful Circle now.
Much to my horror, the Shade answered my question without another word.
Tyler fumbled around in his pocket, produced a small rope with two large stones on each end, and then flung it around his neck as tight as it would go. Then, before anyone could say a single word, the Shade stepped off the edge of the pier and sank beneath the surface of the water.
“Holy fuck!” I gasped and summoned green Hellfire into my hands.
I reached out to surround the Shade’s body in the telekinetic spell, but Mirage pl
aced her hand on mine and lowered it down.
“He asked you not to interfere,” the succubus reminded me. “I’m sure this is part of the penance process, and we should not interfere.”
I watched as the Shade thrashed underneath the water, and his eyes were wide as he choked for air. As much as I wanted to help the poor guy, Mirage was right. The last thing I needed to do was disrupt the punishment of the Shades who had been condemned to this place.
“Uhhhh,” Todd finally broke the awkward silence, “right this way? Up the path?”
“That’s what he said.” Libidine shrugged, and then she began to head toward the end of the dock.
Sia, Mirage, and Invidia followed their sister, but Todd and I stayed behind to watch the horrific scene in front of us.
“I’m sure he’ll be fine, bro,” Todd explained as he tapped me on the shoulder comfortingly. “He’s a Shade. They’re practically invincible.”
I gave the poor guy one last glance as his eyes rolled back into his head and his body went rigid. The whole scene gave me the heebie-jeebies, but I knew we had to push on.
So, the six of us followed the path up through the docks and across the rocky island of brimstone until we finally came upon the palace doors. I reached up to knock, but they started to creak open before I even had a chance.
There, on the other side of the door, was Tyler.
“What. The. Fuckkkkkkk,” Todd hissed into my ear.
“Hello, friends!” Tyler exclaimed happily. “I’m very sorry you had to see all that. It was four o’clock, and that’s when my daily reenactment is supposed to occur.”
“Daily reenactment?” Sia questioned. “Does that have to do with your penance?”
“It does,” the Shade nodded with a smile, “smart cookie there, this one. You see, King Mephisto is a just ruler, but even he cannot change the natural laws of the universe. Those of us who are condemned to the Fifth Circle are condemned to repeat our mortal deaths for all of eternity, forever meant to suffer the same way we suffered in real life.”
“It’s gettin’ reeeaaaallll dark in here, Jakey,” Todd warned with an overly-loud whisper.