“Yes. In the beginning, humans used to get all kinds of ideas from each other, but they lackedimagination,”Shem said, running his hand down the trunk of one of the trees fondly.
“Hazai began to collect human ideas and bring them back here. You helped him turn them into seeds, and now we’re able to grow and cultivate nefarious ideologies. We plant them in the minds of the leaders of mankind when they need to be corrected.” Ramel continued.
“You see,” Shem said, his eyes flashing, “Yahweh gave the humans free will, but He denied them their true nature. Humans are just as predisposed to be cruel and inhumane as demons. They’re meant to fuck, murder, and sin. Yahweh tries to control them every step of the way. We like to see what they’re capable of.”
“So why do we punish the ones that do not follow Yahweh’s code?” I asked, genuinely curious.
“We don’t always,” Ramel said, wrapping his arm around my shoulder and leading me closer to the tree line. “And honestly, as amusing as their depravity can sometimes be, our goal is always to maintainbalance.Too much depravity gets boring if you don’t have some buttoned-up, squeaky-clean asshole to balance it out. We intervene only when Yahweh’s ways become too powerful or too strong. When He convinces the humans to deny their true naturetoo much.Then it is time to drop a small seed of temptation and watch the world succumb to…”
“Chaos.”Shem beamed, his pupils dilating and his white teeth flashing in the starlight.
I narrowed my eyes at Shem. “This is why at Voodoo, I always felt like you were just so down to watch the world burn,” I muttered, and he grinned at me.
“You may be the Goddess of Decay, and Ramel may be the Reaper of Death, but I am the Demon of Chaos, Lilith. You named me well when you thought I was your cat.” He smirked, and I couldn’t help but grin back.
“I named you Chaos for your petulant need to poke things off surfaces,” I laughed.
He chuckled in reply. “What better way to stir up some mayhem than to cause things to fall?”
I snorted, eyeing the ominous tree line warily. “I suppose.”
They fell silent as I examined my surroundings, and it took me a moment to process the heaviness in the air. I glanced away from the trees to find them both staring at me hungrily.
I took a nervous step away from them, and their eyes immediately darkened. Ramel narrowed his eyes and reclaimed the step I had taken, forcing me back toward the tree line. Something about the way he was staring at me was making my heart race.
“You’re running again, Lilith,” he said darkly, and I jumped as I felt Shem press in from behind. I tried to whip around to face him, but he grabbed a fistful of my hair and squeezed until my roots burned, forcing me to stay still.
“This game is getting old,” Shem growled in my ear, yanking me into his chest by the hair. I could feel their growing anger like it was a tangible thing. It wasn’tplayful. It felt like the church again. I was beginning to realize running was the one rule they truly wouldn’t tolerate me breaking. Everything was a game to them unless it came to my freedom.
They would never let me go. Even the other Lilith seemed frustrated with me for refusing to truly accept it, and I found myself shivering with fear as Ramel’s cold eyes met mine from mere inches away.
He reached forward and tugged on my collar, making me swallow in anticipation. My heart was in my throat and he was staring at my pulse like he was wondering if my heartbeat had a flavor.
“What is it going to take to convince you to stop running, Lilith?” he asked; his tone was soft, but there was no mistaking the dangerous undertone. He raised his hazel eyes back up to meet mine, and I shivered. Shem tightened his grip in my hair and ran a hand up the front of my hoodie. I gasped as he aggressively pinched and twisted my nipple through my bra, hard enough that I flinched.
“Choice,” I gasped, forcing myself to be firm. “I want to be able to have a choice.”
Both Shem and Ramel chuckled as if the idea were ludicrous. Ramel glanced over my shoulder at Shem, and I had the impression that they were silently communicating, as they so often did.
“Tell you what, deathtrap. We can’t give you a choice, but we can give you achance.” He pinched my chin in his fingers and forced me to look over at the ominous tree line. Mist swirled around the coniferous trunks, and a cold sense of dread flooded through me at the sight.
Shem bit my earlobe, and I jumped, my scalp stinging as I jerked in his punishing grip. “We’ll give you this one chance to run, sweetheart. If you can get away from us, we’ll let you go.”
“That’s not fair. You have magic. I’m a mortal.”
Ramel seemed to mull this over before nodding. “Alright. We won’t use any magic to catch you.”
I eyed him skeptically, but he softened. “I give you my word, Lilith. No magic. You will have a fair chance to get away.”
I searched his face as best as I could with my body locked so firmly against Shem’s. “What counts as‘getting away?’I’ll never make it to the bridge from here.”
“We’ll give you a ten-minute head start. If you can avoid us in the Infernal Woodlands for an hour, you win.”
My mind was racing. An hour? That was a long time, but I knew them. They would stay true to their end of the deal if I agreed to this and pulled it off. It was likely the best deal I was going to ever get. I was surprised they were even giving me this.
“What happens if I lose?” I breathed.
“Whenyou lose,” Shem ran the tip of his nose up my neck, sending another wave of gooseflesh erupting through me. “You will submit to us. You will do whatever the fuck we tell you without complaint. You will stop fighting. You will agree to be ours and never try to run from us again. In return, we’ll remove your collar, and you will have full range of the manor, starting immediately.”
