The moment Demonfang, Shadechomp, and I enter the kitchen, Lena pauses from stuffing a cookie into her mouth and grins at me.
“What?” I ask cautiously.
“You did it!” she shrieks. Cookie crumbs spray everywhere from her mouth. “Want a cookie?”
What in the world? Lena never offers to share her food.
“No thanks,” I mutter as I head to the fridge. It takes a huge amount of power for us to have a fridge down here in Hell. Yes, we have electricity down here. No, normal demons don’t. They aren’t privileged enough to. The lost souls? Yeah, don’t make me laugh.
Lola enters the kitchen and actually gives me a hug. “Almost, dear sister,” she cries. “You were so very close!”
"Very close to what?" I ask, a bit unnerved.
“To killing your first human!” She beams and lifts my chin as if she wants to look at me and see me for the very first time. “I wasn’t sure you had it in you, but you do! You’re a real demon after all!”
“Who’s a real demon?” Larissa asks as she enters.
I shake my head and look over what we have in the fridge. Nothing I really want to eat.
My hellhounds whine. They’re hungry too.
“I can make you something,” Lena offers. “What are you in the mood for?”
“Something with meat,” I say, knowing my hellhounds.
They bark, their tongues hanging out of their mouths.
“I can whip up a lasagna you’ll die for,” Lena says. “All kinds of meat in it… cooked, though.” She eyes the hellhounds.
“They’ll eat raw or cooked,” I assure her.
“I thought so, but… raw meat…”
“Don’t you like sushi?” I ask.
“I adore it!”
“That’s raw.”
“I know.” Lena makes a face.
“What is it?” I ask. For some reason, I’m getting the feeling that she’s hiding something.
“I actually don’t think raw meat is that bad,” she whispers. “Don’t tell the others. They’ll think I’m—”
“Don’t tell me.”
“It was just the one time,” she wails.
“You didn’t,” I hiss.
Her dark eyes are blacker than normal.
“Lena…”
“He was going to die anyhow,” she mumbles. “I was hungry, and I…”
“Really? Cannibalism?” I ask quietly enough that the others can’t overhear.
She nods a few times and then bites her lower lip. “I’ll cook the meat,” she assures me.
“No human meat,” I growl.
“Of course not. For the hellhounds? No? Okay. No problem.”
I shake my head as Lara enters the room. She eyes me and inhales deeply. “You smell like smoke.”
“I’m sure I do.”
“I love the smell of smoke,” she muses.
I lift my eyebrows and blink a few times. “You have a thing for arson now?”
“No. Well, maybe. Burnt land can’t really grow crops, after all.”
“And you hate food so much because…”
“So much food goes to waste every year. People can make do with less, and if some people happen to die…” She holds out her hands as she shrugs. “Population control.”
"You really don't care that it would be the elderly and the babies and youngest kids who would die first from a massive, worldwide famine?" I ask.
“The elderly have lived their lives,” she protests.
“The babies haven’t,” I grumble.
“I thought…” She eyes me. “You set that fire, didn’t you?”
I slowly nod as I finally realize what's going on. They're all proud of me for the fire. They think I had the hellhounds set it on purpose.
Not true. And they don’t seem to realize that I saved people either.
Well, I’m not going to correct them on that point.
Lani enters the kitchen. She’s wearing her characteristic scowl.
“Don’t you have anything to say to your demon sister?” Lola asks.
“Demoness,” Larissa murmurs.
“Do we really have to say demoness? What’s the difference? We’re all demons,” Lola argues.
Lani huffs a sigh, her eyes narrowing.
“What is it?” I ask, amused. “Feeling a bit jealous that you aren’t the one in the limelight?”
“Hardly,” she snaps.
And there’s the Lani I know and love. A ball of vengeful wrath.
“For once in your life, can’t you be anything but angry?” Lily asks as she sweeps into the room. She enfolds her arms around me and kisses my temple. “You spent some time in a car with a guy, I saw.”
“You were spying on me?” I demand, not at all pleased about that.
“If you want to be like me, or try to be since you aren’t technically a succubus, but if you wanted to act like one, or if you ever fall in love or anything… I wouldn’t dream of trying to, ah, horn in on your guy, so yes, I kept an eye on you. Do you like that guy? Personally, I don’t know. I thought you would have a thing for blonds.”
I blink a few times and scratch the back of my head. “Blonds?” I mutter as I try to recall what that guy in the car had looked like. Yeah, I don’t recall his hair or eye color at all.
“You know…” She touches my hair.
I shrug and turn away from her. The scent of the food cooking is intoxicating, and I inhale deeply.
“Here you go!” Lena hands me a plate that has far too much lasagna on it. It’s like soup, the meat, cheese, and sauce all leaking out from between the noodles. She dumps huge portions into bowls for the hellhounds, who immediately start to slurp it up.
I glance around for silverware. Lena giggles and hands me some. About half the time, she doesn’t bother with utensils herself.
The first bite is on my fork, but I eye Lara and hold it out for her. She grimaces and wrinkles her nose, but then she takes the bite and slowly chews.
I cut myself another bite and enjoy it. Absolutely delicious. I don’t want to share, but I get more forks, and we all enjoy the fruits of Lena’s labor.
Once we’ve finished, Lily starts to bake a special brownie dessert dish that she says will have some fun effects for us all, but I don’t bother to have any of that. It’s just nice to be here with my sisters and for them to not razz on me the entire time.
And all it took had been going to the surface and causing a bit of mayhem.
Once the others are done eating, they all flitter away as if the novelty of my finally embracing demonhood has worn off, only Lily guides me into the living room. She has out one of her albums. The succubus has at least one pic of every guy she’s been with, and you know what? Good for her. I mean, she never forces a guy to be with her. She hardly even uses her succubus powers on them at all.
“You do have to…” I hesitate.
“Oh, consume their souls? Yeah… But I’ve been cutting back on that. One a month now.”
“Oh,” I say faintly.
“Yeah. A succubus doesn’t have to eat, but we can. It’s not like we’ll get sick if we eat regular food. You sure you don’t want a brown, by the way?”
“I’m sure.”
She shrugs and flips the page. This spread features ten guys. “Any you think are cute?”
“The soul thing…”
“It increases my powers,” she explains. “All succubus have to do it.”
“Not from birth, though, right?” I ask, horrified.
“No, silly. Geez.” She flips her hair and grimaces. “I’m sorry. We should’ve done a better job taking you under our wings.”
Lily sits forward and poof! Her black wings appear to give me a wing-hug.
“Most demons can gain power through any demonic act they do. We have our innate powers and abilities, of course, but we can become even more powerful. The darker we are, the more powerful. Once you figure out your particular set of skills that you excel in, you can grow in power by leaps
and bounds. For succubus, we generally don’t figure out what we are and how to suck souls until we’re sixteen, seventeen, eighteen.” She shrugs one shoulder. “You’re how old now?”
“Twenty.”
She nods a few times. “I’m three years older,” she says with a grin. “No offense, but I’m also much hotter.”
“So you say.”
"It's the truth." She huffs a sigh. "But your hair! And your eyes! Ugh, the universe is so cruel because you could've been like a light succubus compared to my dark version." Lily sighs dreamily as she places her head on my shoulder. "Seriously? None of these guys do it for you?"
“I… I don’t know.”
Lily stares up at me. “None? Hmm.” She flips through, pointing out witches and vampires and werewolves and even a few humans.
“What am I supposed to be looking for?” I ask sheepishly, feeling a bit ignorant. I’ve spent more than enough time with male demons, but almost all of them have been my brothers.
I guess I don’t get out enough.
“Do you think any of them are hot?”
I shrug. “Sure.”
“Do you want to kiss any of them?”
“Not really.”
“Do you think you’ll never want to kiss anyone?” she asks. “I mean, I guess that’s all right, but I couldn’t imagine that. Wait…” Her eyes widen. “You haven’t kissed a guy, have you?”
I shrug. “Maybe I have. Maybe I haven’t, but I’m not going to kiss and tell.”
She giggles. “Fair enough, but, girl, if you ever want me to be your wingwoman…”
“Yeah, okay.” I burst out laughing. “Like any guy would go for me over you.”
“The guy for you, the one who loves you and only you, won’t even see me,” she assures me. “You want to know if it’s love and not lust? You call me around. If I can tempt him away, then he’s not that into you.”
“I, ah, I’ll keep that in mind.”
“We’re sisters,” she declares, laying her head on my shoulder. “We have to look out for each other.”
Chapter 8
It’s nice to have Lily try to take me under her black wing. We’ve never really gotten along before. I think that’s mostly because she doesn’t truly understand me, and I think I understand her even less now. I heard a rumor about succubus needing to suck guy’s souls to survive, but I honestly hadn’t thought that true.
Well, now I know.
Her whole wanting to test the guy I like… I know she means well, but the thought of forcing the guy into a situation like that just makes my skin crawl. Who would want to do such a thing? There’s a little thing called trust, you know?
Yeah, I know. Not very demony of me. I guess maybe I’m in some kind of awkward in-between stage where I’m trying to learn who I am as a demon and as a person, and I’m not sure who I am or what I want to do with the rest of my life. I mean, I have options. I can continue to spend all or the bulk of my time here in Hell and take advantage of being a daughter of Lucifer.
Or I can head up to Earth and get into whatever trouble I want to up there. The possibilities are endless.
Hmm. I wonder what it would be like if there were a demon for the President of the United States… If Lily became president, she could find a way to have world peace real easy if she wanted to because she could just make the leaders of all of the other countries love her and settle things that way.
But Lance would become envious of her power. He would probably team up with Leo and Lucas, and the three of them would lay conquest and cause war wherever they could.
If Larissa, on the other hand, became president, she wouldn’t show up most of the time. The people would suffer as a result, and Lara would sneak around and cause a huge problem with a nasty famine, and Lena would eat what little food had been kept in reserve, and that would be a disaster too.
And if I became president, there’s no doubt in my mind that my siblings would all work together to undermine me every chance they got. We can’t ever work together unless it suits our own personal needs and wants. Isn’t that terrible? But our goals don’t align, I guess, and we all want to be the best of the best.
Or something like that. I don't know. Honestly, I'm not the best at anything. I'm not the queen of any one vice. I'm just me.
And maybe that’s why they tease me so much. Because I am that different from the rest of them.
So be it. I’m still growing and learning as to who I am, but I will continue to do so on my terms.
Abruptly, I’m yanked through space and time and forced to stand before my father. He’s sitting on his stone throne, the back of it all sharp and pointed, almost like blades. A massive fire burns directly behind him, giving the illusion that his throne is on fire.
I hate being summoned.
But I smile charmingly at Lucifer because that scowl on his face? He is seriously furious with me. As in ready to kill me furious, and I don’t want to die yet. I don’t think I ever want to.
“Hello, Father,” I say as sweetly as I can. “How are—”
“You can cut the crap right now,” Lucifer barks. He wags a finger at me. It’s almost a claw. Fire-rific. He’s that irate with me that he’s almost turning into his demonic self.
The last time I saw that side of him… Let's just say that I try to repress those memories as much as I can because I still have nightmares about them.
I debate saying something, but honestly, I’m not sure what set him off, and I feel bereft without my hellhounds. I bet he didn’t summon them with me on purpose, just to make me feel unsettled.
So I just stand there, hands by my side, still smiling although my lips are straightening into a flat line more and more with every passing second.
“You saved humans,” Lucifer finally growls.
Oh. That. Yeah, I can see why that would upset him.
I plaster that fake smile right back onto my face. “Yes, well, you see, Father, I was trying to help you.”
He drums his fingernails that are turning more into claws against the arm of his throne.
“You prefer souls that go to Hell, right? You want them to come here. Well, the people I saved, they weren’t bound for Hell, you know? Not yet anyway. I thought that maybe if they lived a bit longer, they might make more terrible choices. They would have more opportunity to commit more sins and turn their souls blacker and—”
“And that thief?” Lucifer demands.
Of course. Of course he would have kept an eye on everything I said and did. Having a father who is pretty much omnipresent is the pits.
“He was more borderline than you would’ve thought,” I say in a rush. “He could’ve gone either way.”
“And that man in the car, the one that you… What precisely did you do to him?”
My heart starts to hammer in my chest. I was so very lucky that I didn’t turn the guy into a vegetable, but if Lucifer sets his sight on the guy and turns it all around, who knows how many that guy will kidnap and kill.
“I… I was attracted to him,” I murmur, thinking fast, falling back onto Lily almost as a default since I had spoken with her last. “But I wanted to see what kind of a guy he was, and honestly, no. He wasn’t my type.”
“You expect me to believe that?” Lucifer asks dryly. “Do you honestly think that I can’t tell when you are lying to me?”
“Okay, so I don’t really have a type yet…” I hedge. “But he just didn’t do it for me. I don’t know. Can you really… Can demons love? I mean, I think I love you. I know I’m afraid of you. That’s kind of how a demon shows love, right? Through fear? Or fealty. I don’t know. Maybe I should—”
“You should stop talking,” Lucifer growls.
“Why?” I burst out, trying not to make him even angrier but also tired of being told what to do. “I set the store on fire—”
“Accidentally, and it wasn’t even you. Your hellhounds are more demonic than you are. I should take them away—”
“Don’t you dare!”
Without thinking, I hold up my hands, and two glowing, fiery orbs of energy hover above my palms.
Lucifer is not impressed. He merely closes his hands, and the energy orbs try to wink out of existence, but I fuel more magic and power into the balls so that Lucifer has to use even more to extinguish them.
“You are nothing without me,” Lucifer growls.
“It takes two to make a baby demon,” I remark coolly.
“Your mother…” Lucifer flares his nostrils. He grips the arms of his throne before launching himself into the air. He’s nearly lost composure, his skin almost bright red, but he manages to control himself even as he lands right before me and grabs me by the throat. “You will not talk to me about her, and you will do exactly as I say. Do you understand?”
I shrug one shoulder. He hates when I do that because he thinks it’s lazy of me, and he knows I’m not truly a sloth like Larissa. It’s a matter of extreme disrespect in his eyes to be so lazy with my indifference.
But I am indifferent to him and his opinion. I’ve tasted freedom, and getting a rise out of him is actually the most fun I’ve had in a long while.
So long as my hellhounds don’t pay the price…
His grip tightens, and I can’t breathe, but I refuse to show any outward signs of distress.
“You will stay in Hell for the duration,” Lucifer announces, and he squeezes my throat until I choke a bit. Then, he releases me, but he does not step back. He’s trying to intimidate me.
But he doesn’t.
I glower up at him. “I will not.”
“You will. You saved them, and you can’t get away with lying to me. You saved them because you felt guilty about the fire, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t set the fire,” I say.
“Your hellhounds did.”
“Yes. I don’t regret the fun they had.”
“And you don’t regret saving them.” It’s not a question.
“I finally go to Earth, and a fire is started, but that’s not good enough for you,” I fume. “You want to control me, but you—”
“I want my daughter to act like she’s my daughter,” he snaps.
“You let all of the others do as they want, both here in Hell and on Earth. Why can’t I—”
Daughter of Flames: A Mayhem of Magic World Story (A Girl and Her Hellhounds Book 1) Page 5
