Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 80563 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80563 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 403(@200wpm)___ 322(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
“At first. But then things get so messy and their lives are ‘over’ as they say, they’ll do anything to make the pain stop.”
Her words are familiar. Lucifer said something similar when he would accept deals in exchange for souls during his heyday in Hell.
“You’re collecting souls,” I say, getting a chill down my spine. The more souls a demon has, the more power they have.
“I’m trying.” She finishes the whiskey and turns, running her finger over bottles of vodka. “It’s not as easy as your Dark Lord and Savior made it seem, but yes. Once someone’s life is ‘beyond repair’ they become pretty desperate. I’ve gotten lucky just recently where I didn’t even have t make a deal and I got there right as the human took their last breath. Snatching those souls is much easier.”
“What is your plane with the souls?” Lucas asks.
Drea shrugs again and unscrews the top of a cheap bottle of vodka. “Nothing yet. I got out of Hell for the first time in centuries so I’m just doing what any demon would. I’m having fun. And I don’t want to go back. But here…it’s fun here. There is death and destruction anywhere you go, and those reality TV shows about finding love is a form of torture I wish I’d come up with.” She hops up on the counter with ease. It’s a bit trippy to see her moving around so easily while inside a body that should be in a morgue.
“Look,” she says with a deep inhale. “I was locked up in the pits of Hell. I haven’t been out that long. I don’t want to listen to anyone else or have anyone impede on my fun.”
“Including us,” Lucas says dryly.
“Exactly!” She pours a generous amount of vodka in the glass and takes a big sip. We both want Paimon gone and ideally, Lucifer back on the throne. I’ll be long gone here on earth by then, and I also want you to guarantee that.”
“You need her to protect you,” Lucas says, coming to the realization. “You can’t go against Paimon and survive.”
“Hell no,” she says and chuckles at the use of hell, kinda like how Lucifer does. I wonder if he used that joke while he was in Hell. “Paimon is a powerful dude with a whole-ass army. He needs someone like her to come in and fuck shit up because I sorta think she’s the only one who can. Demons…chatter. And I know what you’ve done and I know that Paimon killed your friend and having the chance of getting revenge has to be something you want.”
“Don’t push it,” Lucas warns her, knowing this is bait I will easily take.
“Okay,” I start. “So there’s a portal. I still don’t see why we need you.”
“We took a page out of your book with the whole only someone with archangel blood can sit on the throne thing. This portal can only be accessed by a demon.”
Chapter
Nineteen
“Of course you’d say that,” Lucas retorts. “And I don’t quite believe it.”
“When you left Hell,” Drea starts. “It created a rift. Think of it as ripping a piece of fabric and sewing it together again. It’s easier to pull apart the thread than cut a new slice, right? There were demons desperate to get out of Hell who clung onto that rift, slowly clawing at it to get it to open back up.”
“Why do demons want out of Hell so badly?” I can’t help but ask, still not really able to get a read on Drea. “Don’t you like torturing souls?”
“It’s enjoyable, but it’s more fun torturing the living. There are souls in Hell who’ve more or less accepted their fate. But the living…” She bites her lips like she’s getting turned on. “They beg and cry for their lives. Plus, when you wear a body, you can experience pleasures. Like this.” She holds up the glass and downs the rest of the vodka. “Sex is fun too, but not all human men perform well under the kind of pressure I put them in.”
She jumps off the counter and looks at the alcohol behind the bar. I glance at Lucas again, trying to see what he’s thinking. His handsome face is stoic, with an unreadable expression.
“Plus the whole being enslaved to Paimon and forced to stay in Hell thing blows.”
“Forced to stay in Hell?” Lucas echoes. That’s not what we thought was the plan. He wants to take over the earth, making it his personal playground. He showed me visions of what the future would look like, of the apocalypse he’d bring to the world. I saw it first hand…all the death and violence. I felt the fear and hopelessness. Humanity would do its best to survive but it would be a fate worse than anything the world has experienced before.