Asmodeus: Demon of Lust---Part One (Princes of Hell) (2 page)

Mystery box in hand, Kai trotted down the main staircase, which led to the front entry hall of the old colonial. She passed through the massive formal dining room that looked like it hadn’t been used in a century and took her treasure into the sunny country kitchen.

She put the crate on the weathered butcher-block kitchen table, but as she headed for the mudroom, the sound of a car pulling up the driveway caught her attention. With Zephyr at her heels, Kai went to the front hall and peered through the screen door to see a familiar black Lexus pulling to a stop in the semi-circular dirt drive.

Smiling, Kai pushed open the creaky door and stepped out onto the covered porch to greet Mr. Flaherty. She held the door for Zephyr but the petulant feline stuck her tail in the air and went back inside, clearly uninterested in their visitor. Kai brushed her hands off and trotted down the steps to greet her grandfather’s attorney.

Ben Flaherty stepped out of the car and looked even more out of place in this rural setting than his car did. His dark suit and crisp white shirt stood out in stark contrast to the rolling green fields and red weathered barn. He was tall, handsome, wealthy and educated. The kind of man she would never in a million years attempt to date because the man was slick from head to toe.

Even his aura was extra bright. Most healthy people had brightly colored auras but his was an almost blinding yellow. She’d never met anyone with an aura that bright other than her own mother. The familiar feel of his aura was probably why she’d felt comfortable with him right off the bat.

His clothes were never wrinkled and so far she’d seen no evidence that he perspired, and at the moment Kai was sweating like a pig.

Mr. Flaherty flashed a big pearly, white grin as he crossed around the front of the car and extended his hand to Kai.

“What brings you all the way out here, Mr. Flaherty?” Kai asked as she shook his well- manicured hand.

“I thought I told you to call me Ben,” he said as his aura shifted from yellow to a reddish hue. “Mr. Flaherty was my father.”

Kai blushed as his hand held hers a bit longer than a typical handshake.

“Right,” Kai said. She dropped her hand and stuck it in the pocket of her shorts. That color change in his aura was a sure fire sign that he was attracted to her and she had to admit, he was cute. “I thought we took care of everything the other day in your office.”

“We did,” he said as he took off his sunglasses and peered at her with warm brown eyes. “But since you don’t know anyone in the area and you’re living out here all alone, I thought I’d pop in and check on you. You look like you’ve been working hard,” he said as his eyes wandered over her.

“You could say that,” Kai said as she self-consciously brushed off her dusty tank top. “I managed to get through most of the house and today I finally tackled the attic.”

“Really?” His gaze flicked to the open attic windows and his eyebrows rose. “In this heat? You’re a brave soul, Kai Kelly. Find anything of interest?”

“Not really. Mostly old clothes and stuff.” Silence stretched out for a moment as he continued to study her. Feeling awkward, Kai jutted her thumb toward the house and squinted against the setting sun. “Would you like to come in for a glass of lemonade?”

“I’d love to but I have to get back into Gooding for a dinner meeting.” Ben glanced at his watch and then locked eyes with Kai. His voice dropped to a softer tone. “I’ll do you one better, though. How about if you let me take you out for dinner tomorrow night?”

“Uh, sure,” she said with a smile. Kai stuck her hands in the pockets of her shorts and instantly felt even more self-conscious than she did before. She didn’t own a single item of clothing that would be appropriate for any restaurant Ben would want to go to.

“Did you have any place in particular in mind because I saw a neat looking place in town and I wanted to try it,” she said. “Angels and Outlaws. Have you heard of it?”

“Well, sure.” Ben let out a short laugh. “But I was hoping for our first date to be somewhere more fitting of a lady. But I want you to be comfortable. So Angels and Outlaws it is.”

First date? Kai swallowed the lump in her throat and wrestled with her conflicting emotions. Ben was hot and rich and she’d be crazy not to go out with him. So why was she feeling hesitant?

“Well,” Kai began slowly as she tried not to notice the ripples of red in his aura. “I’m a simple girl and if you tried to take me to one of the fancy places you probably had in mind, I’d use the wrong fork or something. A burger joint is fine with me. How about if we meet there tomorrow night around seven?”

“Sounds good to me,” Ben said as a smile cracked his face. He slipped his sunglasses back on and walked back to the driver’s side of his car. “I’ll see you at seven tomorrow and by the way...something tells me you’re anything but a simple girl.”

Before Kai could respond Ben was in his car and driving down the driveway. As the cloud of dust settled and his taillights disappeared from view, a smile played at Kai’s lips. Maybe Bliss wasn’t going to be so boring after all?

Kai made her way back into the house and started rooting around in a box of tools that were in the mudroom adjacent to the kitchen. Crow bar in hand, she came back into the kitchen and found Zephyr sitting on top of the box again.

“What’s your story?” Kai asked with narrowed eyes as she pointed the crow bar at her companion. “I’ll make you a deal. You can have the box but I get whatever’s inside.”

Zephyr, seemingly satisfied with the arrangement, hopped off the crate and onto one of the chairs. Her large blue eyes stared intently at the box, her curiosity matching Kai’s. That phrase
curiosity killed the cat
ran through Kai’s mind.

“Here goes nothing,” she murmured.

Finding the seam along the top, Kai wedged the tip of the crowbar into the crack and with one big push the top popped open. She did the same thing along two other edges, and when she finally pulled the top off, what she found inside left her stunned.

A stack of old black and white photographs sat inside, and the hauntingly familiar face of a young woman stared up at Kai through a pair of large dark eyes. Eyes that were just like hers. With shaking fingers, Kai reached in and pulled out the pile of weathered photographs.

She flipped through the stack one at a time and found that every picture was of the same woman. Based on the fifties style clothing and striking resemblance to both Kai and her mother, Kai could only assume this was her grandmother, Kristine.

All the photos showed a smiling young woman full of life, but it was the last picture that gave her pause.

It was an image of her grandmother with a baby in her arms and Kai was certain it was her mother, when she was an infant. Tears fell freely down Kai’s cheeks as she ran one finger over the faded image. Sniffling, she flipped the picture over to see if there was a date and while there was something written, it wasn’t what she expected.

My sweet, Katherine. The next Custodian.

“Custodian?” Kai said, confused. Her grandmother was a custodian? “Do we come from some long line of school janitors or something?”

As Kai swiped at her damp cheek with the back of her hand, she spotted a small black bag that had been hidden beneath the photos. She placed the stack of photos on the table and picked up the heavy, worn, cotton bag and felt a lump inside. Kai loosened the drawstring and turned the bag over, emptying the contents into her hand.

A heavy ring made of iron, tumbled into her palm and the metal felt cool against her damp skin. Holding it between her fingers, Kai squinted and went to the light by the kitchen window to try and make out the unusual design on the round face

There were a series of four circles with some kind of lettering evenly spaced between the rings. It was so tiny and worn away by time that she’d need a magnifying glass to get a clue as to what it said. At the center of the smallest circle was what looked like a star and it had some kind of crystal in the middle.

“Why wouldn’t Jacob have given this to my mom?” she murmured.

It was beautiful. Not in a traditionally gorgeous and sparkling kind of way but beautiful, none-the-less and it was definitely old. She had no idea just how old but it really didn’t matter. This ring obviously belonged to her grandmother and that’s what made it valuable.

“Priceless.”

Smiling through her tears, Kai slipped the precious ring onto the middle finger of her right hand and found that it fit perfectly. As she held her hand up to inspect her newfound prize, a howling gust of wind ripped through the house and slammed the front door shut.

Kai yelped and spun around to see the pile of pictures blow around the room and flutter to the kitchen floor. Her hands gripped the edge of the counter behind her as she fought to still her racing heartbeat. Zephyr was nowhere to be seen and the only sound was the old cuckoo clock that ticked loudly on the wall.

She squatted down to pick up the scattered photos and as she placed them back on top of the table, her attention was captured by something written on the side of the crate. As her gaze slid over the words, the little hairs on the back of her neck stood on end.
Custodians of the Light
.

***

The disturbance in the air had been subtle, a quiet rumbling that, at first, Asmodeus mistook for the usual notification of new arrivals. Every day when a new batch of tormented souls arrived, there was a shift in the atmosphere. As one of the seven Princes of Hell and the Demon of Lust, he was responsible for the pathetic individuals who earned their ticket to hell by reveling in lust and desire.

Lust or lusting for someone wasn’t evil but when humans allowed themselves to be corrupted by it, that was when the scales tipped to damnation. The souls that landed in his little corner of hell were the worst of the worst. Rapists, murderers, pedophiles. The humans, who in Asmodeus’ opinion, gave lust a bad name and he was more than happy to escort them into an eternity of hell and damnation.

But he could do without the paperwork.

Asmodeus had been overseeing tortured souls in Hell for several millennia and he was growing weary of it. He watched mortals, on many occasions, and envied the life, the freedoms they were given. So when they abused that freedom, there was something gratifying about implementing their punishment.

Lucifer, the leader of all demons, granted them a vacation on earth every one hundred years. However, Asmodeus, much to his dismay, wasn’t due for another trip for quite some time. Oh, he’d snuck up there a time or two to help his half-mortal son but he didn’t stay long enough to truly enjoy it.

While Asmodeus loved trips to the mortal plane he sure as shit didn’t want to get a trip to earth like this. As he walked through the tunnels of stone that led to the mortal plane, he let out a beleaguered sigh.

The first disturbance in the air had been nothing compared to the series of bone shattering sonic booms that rocked the Underworld in nauseating succession. The instant it happened, Asmodeus knew what it was. He’d heard and felt that same ear-splitting sound three thousand years before and, until an hour ago, Asmodeus and the rest of the Brotherhood thought the threat had been eliminated.

Apparently not. The disturbance in Hell meant that someone had found the Ring of Solomon. The ring had the ability to control all demons and if the bearer so desired, it could be used

to destroy them as well. King Solomon had almost done exactly that when the guy had put Asmodeus and the rest of the Brotherhood under his complete control. Lucky for them, one hot summer day, Solomon had imbibed far too much wine and his curiosity got the better of him. He asked Asmodeus what demons could do if they had total power over humans. What powers did they truly possess?

Asmodeus promised to show him but said he needed the ring and his freedom in order to properly demonstrate. Solomon, drunk as a skunk, handed the ring to Asmodeus, who then promptly tossed it into the sea, releasing the Brotherhood in the process.

They all thought that was the end of it. Not so much.

Someone had not only found the ring but was wearing it and, whether or not they knew it, this individual quite literally could command Hell. Since none of the demons had been summoned, it was a safe bet that the bearer of the ring had zero idea of the kind of power they had in their hands.

However, not wanting to take any chances, Lucifer chose to send Asmodeus and the rest of the Brotherhood up to earth in search of the ring. As far as Asmodeus was concerned it was like looking for a needle in a haystack and could take a century to find it.

They knew was it was somewhere in North America but since they were unable to pinpoint its location they suspected the mortal wearing the ring possessed some type of unique gift. Given the fact that the ring’s whereabouts were somehow cloaked, the wearer must be a unique human being indeed.

Asmodeus slipped on a pair of aviator sunglasses as he strode out the mouth of the cave. Wearing jeans, a white t-shirt and motorcycle boots, he placed his hands on his hips and let out an exasperated sigh as he surveyed the area. Idaho. Of all places, he gets to start his search in Idaho.

There were several direct portals to Hell within the continental United States. Los Angeles, Houston, Las Vegas and New York City just to name a few, but one of them was deep within the caves of the Craters of the Moon. The four hundred-acre lava field was one of the only places on earth that actually resembled the Underworld but it wasn’t exactly a bustling metropolis.

Although, given Asmodeus’ weakness for the company of women and pleasures of the flesh, he wasn’t terribly surprised that he pulled this particular location. Having fewer ladies around meant fewer distractions and he knew that was exactly why Lucifer stuck him way the hell out here.

Great. He gets an extra chance to enjoy the mortal plane and Lucifer puts him in one of the most desolate places in North America.

“What a dick,” Asmodeus murmured as he squinted against the light of the setting sun.

Welcome back to earth,
Lucifer’s voice touched the collective consciousness of the Brotherhood.
Based on various disturbances in the energy fields, I have sent the six of you to the locations the ring is most likely to be. Additionally, there are certain individuals located in these areas that are descended from unique bloodlines and are the most probable candidates to be in possession of the ring.