Swallowing, I turned to see one of the seven most powerful entities in all the planes seated in the large art-deco chair near the small table. Her eyes gleamed as they locked on mine.
I stared into the face of my best friend, the Fury Megaera.
PART TWO
MEGAERA
Chapter 6
A Client's House/Periphery of Hell
The man rolled off of me, a look of extreme contentment on his face as he stretched his long, muscular body. "Darlin', you're the best lay I ever had. Some of what you did—man, you took my breath away."
Way more than his breath, but why spoil his afterglow?
I touched my tongue to my upper lip, then gave him a huge smile. That had been his particular Hook: The smile. For some men, it was the eyes. For others, legs. Tits and ass were right up there too. But my current paramour was all about the smile. I had a particular talent for recognizing Hooks. Hot damn, I loved my job.
"Glad you enjoyed, sweetie." I put a purr in my throat, just the way he liked it.
"Enjoyed? Darlin', words can't describe how I feel. That thing you did with your toes? No one's ever done that to me."
That's probably because the act was illegal in his home state. My voice flirty as I wiggled my toes, I said, "So you could say that I was your first?"
"You bet. Ahhhhh." That was in response to my fingers lightly tracing patterns just over his pubic hair. The abdomen is particularly sensitive after a climax, and I wanted him to sink into the last bit of pleasure from our short time together.
"That's so sweet," I said, sucking in his bliss. His emotional reaction was a physical delight for me, and I lapped up his ecstasy like a child slurping an ice-cream cone.
"Man, I'm spent." He tried to chuckle, but he didn't have the strength to do more than chuff out a weak laugh. "Feel like I could sleep for a year."
"Actually," I crooned, kissing his belly, the outline of his ribs, his nipples, "you won't be getting any sleep in the foreseeable future."
He was feeling the effects from our sex play, but even as his body started shutting down, his mind didn't comprehend what was happening. That's usually how it went, assuming my paramours didn't simply fall asleep and wake up dead. He blinked sleepy eyes at me, an exhausted smile lingering on his face. "I'd love another go, but I just don't have the energy."
"I know you don't, sweetie." I kissed my way back down his torso, teasing his penis with my tongue. Even as the rest of his muscles slowly went limp, his shaft stood thick and long. Some succubi liked to leave their customers with a smile. My goal was to have them salute me on the way out. I murmured, "You taste delicious."
In the barest whisper, he said, "Thanks…"
Ah, he was slipping away. Time to collect. I sat up, giving him the full view. An athletic man, he preferred his women to be strong, supple, and very toned. He also thought blondes were to die for, so my current form had mounds of flaxen hair that tumbled around my face like a waterfall, and my body was long and lean with dangerous curves. Giving his penis one more squeeze, I mounted him.
He let out a moan of pleasure and closed his eyes.
"Say my name," I said, my voice husky as I rolled my hips.
"Juh."
"Come on, lover," I said, my pace quickening. "Say it."
"Jezz…"
I felt him throbbing inside of me, his shaft swollen and quivering, moving with a will of its own. My nipples tightened as I sensed the buildup of semen in his testicles. I ran my hands over my breasts as my body pumped on top of his, ramming him into me again and again. "Say my name!"
"Jezebel… Ah!"
He ejaculated, and I shrieked with delicious joy as he came inside of me. Waves of rippling pleasure crashed across my body as I absorbed his seminal fluid and sperm. Succubi don't have reproductive organs; everything inside of us is geared toward fuelling our own bodies, not creating new ones. Actually, demons couldn't create, period. But we could destroy with the best of them.
And, in my case, I could seduce the soul away from a man. Given how nearly all of my lovers were used to charming the pants off of their female conquests, I considered it a perverse form of justice.
Still shivering from my orgasm, I smiled down at the man, whose body was already turning cold. "Wakey, wakey," I whispered in his ear.
His eyes snapped open. "Huh. I must've fallen asleep."
"Not exactly." I planted a kiss on his head, then rolled off of him. "Come on, sweetie. It's time to go."
"Go? But—whoa!"
At my command, his soul lifted out of his body. From what I understand, the feeling is like slowly pulling an adhesive bandage off of one's skin—sticky and uncomfortable, but not truly painful. His soul glistened like obsidian and cherries in the dim light of his bedroom.
Oh, my. Based on its color, in life this man had been a horrific person. Thievery, physical violence against women—and a lawyer. "Ooh. You've been a very naughty boy."
He stared at the ethereal form of his hands. Mouth gaping, he touched his face… and pushed his hands through his head. "Ahhh! What did you do to me?"
"I fucked you to death."
"Ahhh!"
"Oh, really now. Based on your soul, you've fucked over many people in your time."
"AHHH!"
I crossed my arms. "Come on, now. So you're dead. No use complaining about it."
His mouth opened, closed, opened. "You had no right to do this to me! I didn't deserve this!"
"Uh-huh." Denial.
"I didn't!"
"You liked to raise a hand to the ladies, didn't you?"
Tendrils of scarlet swirled around his form, warring for dominance with the blackness in his soul. Frowning, he said, "How do you—"
"It's written all over you." I made a "come here" gesture, and his soul—temporarily bound to me—had no choice but to obey. "Enough chitchat, sweetie. It's time to go."
He licked his lips. "Go where?"
I dropped my current form, letting it pool around my ankles like discarded clothing. With a wicked grin, I said, "Where do you think?"
But he was too busy screaming to hear my words. I sighed. Theatrics were utterly wasted on the faint of heart.
In a shimmer of gray light, we materialized outside the Gates of Hell. I could have just zapped my catch directly inside, but there was a protocol to these things. Humans didn't go to Hell by mistake; they had either made an agreement with a demon or had been very, very wicked in real life, so they deserved to get the full treatment. Thus, the first stop was the Gates. Intimidation at its finest.
Out of sight beyond the entrance, the Lake of Fire churned, emanating sulfuric gasses that permeated all of the Pit and its outskirts. I inhaled deeply, relishing the way the brimstone stung my nostrils. Some people liked the smell of frying eggs in the morning. Give me the stench of rotten eggs any time. The staleness of the air made it that much more acrid, and altogether suffocating. Yummy.
A dim light, shifting between indigo and vermilion, flickered above the great Wall that surrounded the Pit. Mortals tended to think that the Underworld was as dark as a black hole. If that were the case, Hell would be called Black Hole. As with the eternal, infernal stink, the glow was thanks to the Lake of Fire, which fulminated blue sulfuric flames amid its pool of lava. It was also the source of the temperature. Situated in the center of the Earth, the Abyss topped the 3,000-degree mark. Anyone who says "It's not the heat, it's the humidity" has never been to Hell.
From the other side of the Wall, wails of suffering and torment rode the air. The screams of the damned mixed with the raucous laughter of the demons, forming a beautiful cacophony of anguish and gratification.
It was good to be home.
"Ahhh!"
Annoyed at being yanked from my reverie, I clouted my lover's head. Because we had descended to the Underworld plane, his soul had become as solid as his physical shell had been. My hand smacked against his skull with a satisfying thwock. "Quit your whining already."
"
Ahhh!"
"You going to shriek all the way to the Lake of Fire?"
"AHHH!"
I took that as a yes.
Outside the Gates, a long line of sinners and demons snaked around the Wall, waiting for admittance into the Abyss. Mortals liked to think that we creatures of the Pit are all chaotic, but in truth, we had major rules to follow. Being Evil wasn't an excuse to ignore laws literally set in stone. Our Ten Great Rules were etched into the four walls of Abaddon, their commands legible no matter where one stood (or crawled) in Hell.
Hey, Moses had to get the idea from somewhere. But the whole parting of the Red Sea thing, that had been original.
I shoved my charge in front of me as we headed toward the back of the line. Privately, I thought the massive Wall around Hell was pandering too much to the mortals. I mean, talk about overkill. Who in their right minds would break in? Humans had no desire to go to Hell (even though they told one another to do so all the time), and angels would never de-base themselves by sinking into the bowels of the Earth. The Archangels left us the fuck alone, which was more than fine by me; they were seriously frightening entities.
That left the damned, the demons, and God. If the damned could escape their punishment, they deserved to leave Hell. Demons had no other place to go, so it wasn't like we were trapped in an Underworld Roach Motel. As for God, well, considering that the Almighty created basically everything in existence, I seriously doubted that the Gates would keep God out.
Even though Hell didn't need the Wall or its Gates, mortals expected them, so we demonfolk obliged. Sweeping up more than ten meters high, the colossal stones of the Wall gleamed, polished to a high shine thanks to the tremendous heat of Hell. At the last Time of Consensus, the Wall stretched more than 7,000 kilometers long. Given that Hell altered its shape to accommodate all the damned, the number was an approximation at best.
"AHHHH!"
My paramour's shrieks increased as he stared at the various denizens of Hell loitering around the Wall, waiting for their turn to be admitted with their charges and pass through the Gates. I easily recognized other succubi and incubi, no matter what physical shape they currently wore. Whether a sixteen-meter gargoyle or a buxom redheaded midget, all Seducers were creatures of the demon king Asmodai, and we all recognized one another for what we were through a psychic seduction sense. I acknowledged my brethren as we passed, giving my ass a bit of a wiggle. They, in turn, answered with assorted lewd gestures. One of the incubi, my pal Daun, did this complicated thing with his thumb and pinky, and I felt my groin tighten in response.
Mental note: Speak with Daun later. I purred just thinking about it.
The rest of the waiting demons were tougher to distinguish. Both the Gluttons and the Lazy had flesh rippling over their various bodies. In their natural forms, the Jealous and the Envious all were shades of green, although Coveters always had hypnotic golden eyes. The Arrogant were easy to spot; they all radiated an unholier-than-thou attitude that got under my skin. I didn't note any Berserkers, but I hadn't expected to; those demons of Wrath always transported their catches directly to the Lake of Fire for judgment. If they didn't, things would get… messy.
The various mortal charges, for the most part, all screamed, gibbered, and wailed, no matter which member of the demon horde they belonged to. I shook my head. Mortals. It was so hard to tell them apart. They all looked the same: Terrified.
Cringing before me, my lover raised the volume on his own screeches. His eyes darted about wildly, a fine sheen of panic making them particularly bright. He tore his ethereal hair, which wisped away in smoke after he yanked it from his head. Gazing upon the vast, cratered plain outside of Hell that eventually gave way to Limbo, the man summed up the whole of his situation in one word:
"AHHHH!"
Rolling my eyes, I resigned myself to listening to his cries for the next ninety minutes or so. Screaming was okay—that went along with the territory—but it did get tiring on the ears. Some demons claimed that a mortal's shrieks could sing them to sleep. Me, I'd rather listen to Britney Spears.
"Jezebel! There you are!"
I grinned up at Megaera as she flew down to me. At the moment, she sported long brown hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. A white toga draped around her form; I guessed she was doing the Greek Muse look, which was all the rage with some of the Fallen.
Around me, demons backed away, giving Meg a wide berth. Most of my brethren were nervous around the Furies, but Meg and I went back a long, long way. "Hey, girl!" I said. "What's up?"
She would have been breathless if she actually breathed. "I've been looking all over for you." She noticed the man next to me, who blanched from the attention. To me, she asked, "Can you get away?"
I motioned with my chin to my lover. "I'm sort of busy at the moment. After I turn in my charge, I have to file my receipt." Waiting to get into Hell was nothing compared with trying to get paid. I had planned on spending the better part of the next three days waiting in line.
Meg blew out a sigh. "As soon as you're done, call me." She leapt into the sky and disappeared somewhere inside the Abyss. I had no idea what Meg wanted, but knowing her, it meant she was up to no good.
Most excellent. I loved looking forward to things.
My lover and I walked slowly—the man's abject terror had slowed him to a crawl, so every few meters or so I'd have to give him a push to get his legs working again, to the amusement of the demons around us. More than once, my charge threw himself to the ground, where he'd roll on the black cinders and rocks until I hefted him up by his armpits. It took us nearly fifteen minutes to reach the back of the line.
"Oh God… oh God… oh God…"
A smile played on my lips. "Wrong direction, sweetie."
He stared at me, wide-eyed. His soul had taken on a distinct grayish tone, which dampened the obsidian and scarlet swirls. He was nearly petrified with fear.
So cool.
After a few moments of him trying to hyperventilate, he realized he wasn't breathing anymore. Finally he stammered, "Can we maybe make a deal?"
"A deal?" I blinked, incredulous. "Really?"
"You get me out of here, I'll give you whatever you want."
I threw back my head and laughed. Damn, it had been a long, long time since I'd had a charge so completely clueless. After I got my guffaws under control, I said, "Sweetie, what do you think landed you here in the first place?"
He paled to a sickly ashen color. "What do you mean?"
"At one point, you made a deal with one of my associates. And here you are, fulfilling your end."
"But… No, I never did that! I never signed anything!"
I sighed. "Why do mortals always think that you have to sign something to make it binding? You were a lawyer. Haven't you heard of a verbal agreement?"
"But—"
"Look," I said, "if you seriously think there's been a mistake, take it up with your Case Worker."
He swallowed. "Case Worker?"
"It'll add to the paperwork, but if you're sure there's been an error, we'll have to backtrack."
Weakly, he repeated, "Paperwork?"
I put a hand on his shoulder, enjoying the way he flinched from my talons grazing his form. "Sweetie, this is Hell. We invented paperwork."
That was a lie, but hey, I was a demon. I was supposed to lie.
My lover's color continued to bleed out, leaving him marbled with shots of pink. Staring down at the blackened ash by his feet, he asked, "I'm really in Hell?"
I squeezed his shoulder. "Not yet. Based on this line, we're not getting you inside for about another two hours."
Chapter 7
Hell—The Second Sphere/Pandemonium
"Next!"
Ah, finally. I pushed the man forward hard enough that he stumbled to his knees. Part of the fun of waiting for almost two hundred minutes (I counted) was watching the fright settle into my paramour. With nothing to do but wonder what awaited him, he would have scared himself to death if he hadn
't already been dead.
To the left of the wrought-iron Gates, a red plaque hung, held in place by severed hands nailed to the bars. The writing on the sign changed whenever the Gateskeeper felt like it. The position was filled on a rotating basis; the current Gateskeeper seemed to be in a literary mindset. For the moment, the plaque read:
ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE
What a shock—a Dante phrase. When I served as Gateskeeper, I liked to have the sign read "ENJOY YOUR STAY!" I'm a bit of a sadist at heart.
Squatting in front of the Gates, a massive being slobbered, glowing a poisonous green with white pinpoint eyes—a creature of Envy. Shooting me a glare, she sniffed my lover's chest. He squeaked and turned an interesting shade of gray and pink, sort of like a sunburned ghost.
"Thievery!" The Gateskeeper smacked her rubbery lips together. "Loves thievery!" She snuffled some more. "Lechery! Pah." She hawked a green glob of phlegm onto the heat-baked ground. "Hates lechery. Ooh." She inhaled, and a look of beatific pleasure spread like a fungus over her face. "Violence. Loves violence."
Most creatures of Envy simply didn't get the concept of love, which made them suspicious of Seducers at best. Whatever. They didn't know what they were missing. Or maybe they did, and that's why they were envious in the first place. I did a mental shrug; philosophy had never been my strong point.
The demon grunted at the man's chest, directly over where his heart had been in life. "I guesses it goes to the Cauldron, I does."
That was my guess, too, but that wasn't her place to say. Or mine. The Case Worker would decide. I pulled my lover away from her snout. "No touching the merchandise," I growled. In my arms, the man stiffened, perhaps upon hearing the malefic tone to my voice.
The Gateskeeper snarled at me, and I snarled right back. Finally, she hocked another green-tinged loogy at my feet, then stepped aside. "Enters."
Giving the man a shove forward, I blew the Envious a kiss and sauntered through the Gates, making sure to bump my hip against her.
Hell on Earth 1 - Hell's Belles Page 6
