CHAPTER 10
The library was far more quiet than usual in the morning. Kira sipped on her to-go cup of coffee and pulled a book off the nearby cart. She sat down in the plush leather chair and opened the cover.
The title on the spine had caught her attention, Her Temptation, a romance novel. The male character was tall, dark and handsome and the female was a busy professional who wasn’t interested in romance.
Of course she couldn’t resist the man she kept running into on the train, at the restaurant, in the park. It was a silly book, predictable, but Kira found herself immensely enjoying it. She also found herself longing for her own tall, dark and handsome male character.
Maybe she’d go home and think about that for a while, in her bedroom, with the lights off and the curtain drawn tight.
She boarded the train, eyes still absorbing the words on the pages, not paying any attention at all to her surroundings. The good part was coming up, the tension was building, and Kira was completely enraptured.
She had boarded the wrong train, gone the wrong direction. She had been so involved in reading that she had ridden the train all the way down to the first stop, block one.
She put the book into her bag and got off the train. Maybe a walk would be a good distraction, she thought. She’d never been to this part of hell.
So she started walking. She rambled aimlessly for blocks, miles, she didn’t rightly know. She just kept going, looking at the ground and mulling over the questions in her head. How did she even end up here? Was she destined to be alone? Would she eventually find Keith here? Was that even what she wanted?
She suddenly realized everything had gotten considerably darker. The sky was a dark purple, not the clear blue she’d grown accustomed to. The sidewalk had ended a while ago and now the ground under her feet was black, no, charred.
There were no potted plants nearby, no apartment blocks, not even another person. Maybe she’d taken a wrong turn, she thought, but she had only walked a straight line from the platform.
She stared at the blackened soil under her shoes and suddenly felt very alone and very out of place, but still she continued to put one foot in front of the other. Something was calling to her, luring her farther and farther away from the platform.
Laughter was the first discernible sound that she heard. The only reference in her mind was that of a hyena. She’d not seen any animals, but still the cackling continued. The sound forced her feet to stop and finally look at where she was.
Now this was Hell, she thought. Jagged black mountains surrounded her, cliffs with steep drop offs loomed above. The black ground fractured with lines of molten red and orange.
She jerked back a step, expecting the soles of her shoes to be melted to the ground, but mercifully they were fine. That laughter was coming closer though, becoming louder. It filled her ears and her head.
A small figure came out from behind a sharp pointed rock. Kira squinted to see a little fat, red skinned creature with small horns on its round head. Its lips parted into a wicked smile as it approached Kira with erratic little steps on its stubby legs.
She was studying the creature so intently that she didn’t notice the rest of them coming out from the rocky landscape. These were the demons she had expected hell to have. They were kind of cute though, she thought, but then she was surrounded by a dozen of these little demons, their razor sharp teeth bared in horrifying grins.
Kira turned in place, stunned and unable to believe everything she was seeing. The little demons cackled with laughter, and one spoke in a dialect she couldn’t understand, hissing and clicking.
She cursed. She had definitely gone the wrong way. She needed to get out of here and fast, because these little creatures looked far too pleased to see her.
She was trying to develop some kind of plan when a deafening roar sounded behind her and she shrank down to the ground with fear.
“What the fuck was that?” She said, air whooshing from her lungs as she dropped low to the ground.
The answer was obviously a bigger, scarier creature, because the little demons scattered at the sound. They scurried on their tiny hooves across the dirt and back to their hiding places.
Kira had pulled her arms over her head, hiding her face in her sweater. “Please don’t eat me. Please don’t eat me,” she muttered into her sweater.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” the voice was rough, growling, but familiar. She pulled her arms down and looked up to see Azrin standing before her, his hand extended to help her up. Kira reached out and placed her hand in his
“Holy fuck, Azrin! You scared the shit out of me!” she was shouting at him.
“Those demons would have ripped you to shreds had I not scared them away. They are only frightened of my station, my power, or else they might have tried to rip me apart as well. It’s their only job, in their nature, one could say.” His voice had gone gentle again, but edged with a sharp truth.
“You’re lucky I was nearby,” he continued, “but really, Miss McKinley, you aren’t allowed to be here. Allow me to take you back to your apartment.”
“What is this place?” she asked, looking around as she walked a few steps behind him.
“I’ll explain on the way back.” He said without turning around.
CHAPTER 11
The relief of sitting down in the familiar seats of the train was crushing. The car was empty save for Azrin and herself and he sat in the seat next to her, his thigh brushing hers.
He turned his face to her, his black eyes penetrating. “How did you get there?” he asked.
“I was just walking, really. I got off at the last stop and just started walking. I had no idea that was even there. I swear it!”
Azrin’s face bunched in contemplation, but she spoke before he could. “What was that place? That’s exactly what I thought Hell would look like!”
“First of all, Miss McKin…”
“Kira,” she corrected.
He started again, “First of all, Kira, keep your voice down. Humans are not allowed in the old city. It is hidden from them, they don’t know it’s there. You,” he pointed a claw tipped finger at her, “shouldn’t have even been able to cross the barrier.”
“Old city? Barrier? What the fuck are you talking about, Azrin? Tell me the truth.”
He sighed and scooted closer to her on the bench seat, his hip pressed against hers, his arm across the back of the seat. She would have found the closeness of his body exhilarating if she wasn’t absolutely terrified.
His voice was almost a whisper, “A long time ago, millions of your earth years, Satan questioned his father’s divine plan. His father sought to punish him, sending him here with instructions to build his own kingdom, with his own rules. Satan was angry, but his father had granted him the power of creation. So he built that place, decided he would use his kingdom to punish the humans who continued to be loyal to Yaweh regardless of how many times he had tried to teach them otherwise.”
“And he did try. He went to your realm many times and tried to persuade humans to denounce their god, to question his divine plan, but they refused. Even those who committed atrocities were loyal to Yaweh deep inside. So he filled this place with demons and the Hell you fear in your ancestral soul was born.”
Kira sat, rubbing her thumb across the hem of her sweater, listening as Azrin continued, “It took a while, but eventually Satan grew tired, bored. He came to realize that the humans who ended up in this realm had no choice. Some of them were good people, kind and loving, and perhaps didn’t deserve an eternity of torture.”
“He also came to realize that he was playing the hand dealt to him. He was given the freedom to make this place anything he wanted and he had made a mistake by making it precisely what his father had wanted him to create. So, he changed it. He sent messengers to Earth to teach humans about their world, to teach them to find answers without god. Not to be evil, but to be curious and rebellious, as he had once been.”
“And he created the apartment blocks, he modeled his world after the world that humans had built. The old city remains his home though and the home to many of the demons, especially the older ones, like the ones you met today. But there is a barrier that protects the two worlds from interacting, only demons can cross that barrier. At least, until today.”
Azrin narrowed his eyes on Kira’s face, but her eyes were wide and full of questions. She only asked, “Do you live there?”
“No,” he looked down at his hands, now in his lap. “I’m a bit more modern and having been an emissary to the mortal world, I choose to live with the humans. My residence is on the top floor of your building, Kira.”
“Emissary?”
“Yes, I’ve walked in your world for centuries. Encouraging humans to be curious. Studying them and reporting back to my king. I am, in many respects, a creature of both worlds.”
“Which one do you prefer?” Kira’s eyes were soft.
“Preference is a luxury I am not allowed. I simply do my job.”
They sat in silence for some time as the train continued on, stopping every now and then at announced intervals. Kira looked out the window, watching the tall, gray buildings fly past. Such a difference to the Hell she had just experienced.
The speaker announced their stop and they departed the train. The walk to building 739 was silent as well, both of them lost to thought.
It wasn’t until they were in the elevator, the metal doors closed tight, that Kira whispered at last, “Do you like humans?”
Azrin didn’t answer for some time, he just looked up at the digital numbers on the wall. The elevator chimed and the doors opened to the 112th floor.
Kira made to pass through when he said, “Some more than others”. One corner of his lips curled up into a half smile. “Goodnight, Kira.”
Kira moved her hand from where it was holding the door open and looked into his void-dark eyes. “Goodnight, Azrin. Thank you.” The doors closed and the elevator continued up.
Kira walked down the hall to her apartment and turned the knob. She was looking forward to the bottle of wine she’d gotten the night before and to collapse on the sofa. She was not expecting the breathtaking male figure casually seated on her loveseat.
CHAPTER 12
“Kira. Sit,” subtle command laced his voice. “We have things to discuss,” he said as he patted the cushion next to him, but she planted her ass on a bar stool by the kitchen island instead.
Glittering power rippled off this man, his soft blonde hair sat in perfect curls that hung over his forehead. Piercing blue eyes met Kira’s and there was something completely unearthly about him, angelic, she realized.
Awe and utter fear swirled inside her as she realized who, exactly, was sitting in her apartment. She swallowed, finding her mouth suddenly void of all moisture.
“Are you The Devil?” Kira asked hesitantly, bowing her head slightly.
“Let us dismiss formalities, as I find them rather boring.” He waved a hand idly in the air, dismissively.
His voice washed over her like gentle waves lapping on a lakeshore. She drifted a bit in the sound as he spoke, “You may call me Lucifer, child.”
He crossed an ankle over a knee. “As I said, things to discuss.” He focused his attention wholly on her and narrowed his eyes slightly, “How exactly, did you get into my city, Kira?”
“I um… I walked, Sir.” Speaking to a demon was one thing, but having a conversation with the Prince of Darkness himself, felt rather overwhelming. She couldn’t stop thinking about how beautiful he was, almost feminine, but the glittering power that stirred around him was pure dominance. He raised a perfect blonde eyebrow at her.
“Well, I took the train to the end of the line and then I walked. I don’t know, I was just walking and thinking and not really paying attention and then there were these little fat demons. And they were kind of cute, but those teeth and those grins, I don’t know, I think they were going to eat me, and then Azrin was there and he scared them away and brought me back home. And I swear I didn’t mean to cause any trouble, I just, I just wasn’t paying attention to where I was going. Azrin told me about the old city. He said I couldn’t tell anybody what I’d seen and I won’t. I swear that too. I won’t tell anyone.” She realized she was spewing verbal diarrhea at the literal devil and locked her lips together in a tight line.
Lucifer inclined his head to one side and took in a deep breath. He uncrossed his legs and rose from the sofa, taking measured steps toward Kira’s stool.
Every fiber of her being told her to run, to jump off the stool and run out the door, but he stood over her, inspecting her.
“Interesting,” was all he said as he reached out and touched a piece of hair that had come loose from her ponytail. He tucked it gently behind her ear in a move that felt far too intimate. A shiver raked up her spine. And he smiled at the reaction.
“I need you to come to my palace. I will have Azrin accompany you, since you two have gotten so,” he paused for emphasis, “familiar.”
He blinked slowly, his icy eyes dragging up and down Kira’s form, penetrating her soul, she felt. “I have many questions for you and this is not the place to ask them. I’ll send Azrin to collect you once I am ready. Until then,” he took steps toward the door. “Sleep well, Kira.”
He didn’t even open the door, he just disappeared leaving a slight shimmer in the air.
Kira released the breath she’d been holding and nearly fell off the stool. Fuck. This was bad.
She paced the floor for long minutes, talking outloud to herself. Maybe she should call Azrin. Maybe he would know what to do. Maybe she should run, but where?
This was his kingdom and she was dead. There was nowhere to go. Wait, she was dead. The thought hit Kira like a truck. He couldn’t kill her, what was the worst that could happen?
The image of those razor sharp smiles broke through that thought. There were surely more terrible creatures in that city.
She didn’t want to think about that, or any of this. She pulled a bottle of vodka off the counter and opened it. She didn’t even bother looking for a glass, she just put the bottle to her lips and drank.