“Hi,” he says curtly before looking back at Kas. “If you hear anything, let me know.”
“Didn’t think you cared that much, Daxaddon.”
“Oh, fuck off,” he says, waving Kas off and walking down the hall.
“Who’s Asmodeus?” I ask.
“You always were a nosy one,” she says, and I can’t help but think that she’s only known me for a few days. I realize then, that she just doesn’t want to answer the question, so I drop it. She groans and looks at me quickly. “Brace yourself,” she says as three women approach us.
The one in the front has freakishly white teeth and short blonde hair. She grins as she looks between Kas and me. “Who’s this?” she asks in a fake sweet voice.
Kas sighs. “Lilith, this is Lisa, Autumn, and Tina.” She points to Lisa first, she’s the one with the creepy-looking smile and blonde hair. Autumn is pretty plain, someone I wouldn’t look at twice, but she clings to Lisa while twirling her slightly frizzy hair around her finger. Tina looks dazed, her brown eyes unfocused, and her hair is pulled back in a tight bun. Tina is definitely a follower, it’s clear that Lisa is the one in charge of this group of women. I can tell that Kas is unimpressed, and I can’t say that I am any different.
“Didn’t know Lucifer was accepting new souls. You don’t look familiar,” Lisa sneers, her lackluster eyes looking me over from head to toe. She smiles, and I wonder if her teeth were like that when she died or if Lucifer has a sick sense of humor and gave them to her after he made her a demon.
“Yeah, well, you know how it goes. Was time to upgrade Lilith from gen pop.” I hold my tongue and try not to say anything stupid. Kas is lying to these demons, but why?
“Interesting choice,” Lisa says spitefully.
I can’t hold my tongue anymore. “Maybe he just got tired of seeing the same demons day in and out.”
“Mmm. I doubt that,” Autumn, the mousey one says.
“Times must be getting rough,” Tina says, bored and picking at her nails.
“Well, this has just been riveting. Why don’t we head back to your room,” Kas says, and that garners all the women’s attention. They form a tight circle and start gossiping together as Kas and I walk away. “Don’t mind them, I like to call them the cunt gang.”
I can’t help the genuine laugh that rips out of me. It feels nice to laugh, and when I see Kas’ smile, I can tell she’s proud of herself as well.
I might not know what I’m doing or who I’m supposed to be, but I’m starting to wonder if life in Hell might not be so bad after all.
Chapter seven
Ican’tfocus.
All I want is to be able to get through this meeting without thinking about her, without worrying about her being in my realm. I trust Kas to a degree—but I’ll never trust anyone with Lilith—possibly not even myself.
She seems so fragile, so broken right now. What’s worse is it’s clear she wants absolutely nothing to do with me. Beelzebub says something I didn’t catch, and when I don’t answer he repeats himself.
“The angels are getting bolder regarding their position on the offensive, my lord. We should take action.”
Toth and Milcom sit at the table as well, and it’s just the four of us. Out of the three, I trust Toth the most and Beelzebub the least. There’s something about him that just makes him seem… off. Or maybe it’s because he’s such a kiss-ass, his cowering nature annoys me.
“We don’t want a war with the angels if we can help it.” Which is true, it’s always a cycle of war with them. We end a feud, and another starts. For no apparent reason, the being they follow left them leaderless forever ago, and now they’re all on a righteous warpath against anything they don’t deem to be holy.
“With Michael being back alongside the angels, he seems to be stirring up some rumors,” Beelzebub says.
“And how do you know this?” He sinks back into his seat slightly as he responds.
“Heritis, the recently fallen angel, he told me everything.”
I arch my eyebrow at him and nod. “For now, we stay put. We don’t engage with the angels, and we don’t ruffle any feathers.” Toth shakes his head next to me when I mention feathers, but Milcom and Beelzebub don’t seem entertained.
“They’re still upset that Michael was captured and kept here for so long, my lord. They won’t let this stand.”
I exhale through my nose and try to keep my anger at bay. “You brought him here, Beelzebub. How did you manage that again?”
“A trap,” he says plainly. His story never made sense, this is the second time he’s brought Michael up in conversation, and it’s made me grow suspicious of Beelzebub’s loyalty. I still don’t know how Michael got out of Hell, but I’m looking at my number one suspect.
