Azagoth: A Demonica Novella

Chapter Seven

Azagoth materialized in his library, wishing he could scream in fury and agony. But all the emotion that had nearly crippled him earlier had found its way back into the desolate, frozen wasteland he called a soul. Although he supposed his soul had been sucked out of him a long time ago.

Snarling, he swiped a soda-bottle sized crystal chess piece off his desk and crushed it under his boot. Methicore had given it to him, a reminder that Azagoth was a king, and the world was his chess board.

Methicore should have remembered that.

Azagoth ground the heel of his boot on top of the piece, relishing the sound of destruction.

His son had betrayed him yet again. Not only betrayed, but destroyed every relationship Azagoth had forged with his sons and daughters. Not that he’d ever had much in the way of relationships, but at least he’d been able to visit with some of his offspring now and then. The ones who hadn’t abandoned him when Methicore led the rebellion against him, anyway.

Funny how Azagoth had seen Satan’s insurrection coming from a mile away, but he’d been utterly blind to Methicore’s machinations. Then again, by the time his son had risen up against him, Azagoth’s ability to sense deception had been dulled like a blade that had sawed too much bone.

And then there was Lilliana and her unwelcome observation about him. Calling him a breeder. A stud for hire who doesn’t give a damn about the lives he creates.

The real pisser was that she was right. But not about all of it. He did give a damn about his offspring. He might not be able to feel true love for anyone or anything, but he did care.

He cared too much, and Satan had exploited that fact in order to get what he wanted from Azagoth.

The demon had never forgotten Azagoth’s role in his expulsion from Heaven. Talk about holding a grudge. What a big, whiny baby. So Satan hadn’t succeeded in taking over Heaven. He was King Shit of his own domain now. Who else could say that?

Oh, right—Azagoth could. Not that Lilliana gave a crap.

She’d given him the greatest gift of his life by taking him to the desert, but when he’d offered a gift of his own, the key to Sheoul-gra, she’d mocked him and flung it right back in his face.

This cold, dreary realm full of death and griminions and fallen angels? Yeah, it’s what every girl dreams of.

How dare she, he thought, as he flashed himself outside his manor. How dare she reject anything that he, the Grim Reaper, offered? Females creamed themselves over him. They’d come to him by the thousands, begging for any scraps he’d throw their way. Granted, they were demons, but they’d been high-ranking, influential females from every species. Before her recent demise, even Lilith herself had approached him on multiple occasions to try to convince him that a union between the two of them would make them the most powerful couple in existence.

No thanks. He’d already been screwed by her. In more ways than one.

Frustrated, he kicked at the oily soil beneath his feet. It felt nothing like the sand in the desert. He looked into the distance at the dozens of buildings and beyond, to what used to be a forest filled with life, rivers, and lakes. Now there was nothing but gnarled tree trunks and stumps, dry creek beds, and one lake so stagnant that its toxic stench sometimes crossed the barrier between Sheoul and Sheoul-gra. Denizens of Sheoul’s Horun region had affectionately named the affected area The Grim Reaper’s Asshole.

It’s what every girl dreams of.

Azagoth’s heart went dead in his chest. Holy shit, Lilliana was right. Demons might think of Sheoul-gra as a treasure, but no one else, especially not an angel, would think that any of this was a gift.

What a fool he’d been. What a fucking dumbass.

He had nothing to offer Lilliana. Sure, he could give her great sex. Better than great. But beyond that? Nothing. His realm, which had once been teeming with activity and life, was dead.

The only thing for her to do down here was what Azagoth did; meet each evil soul as it came through the tunnel, and then decide its fate before sending it to the various levels of the Inner Sanctum to await reincarnation. Assignment to hard labor? A stint in Hades’s dungeon? Maybe roasting in the Eternal Field of Flames or swimming in the Acid Pools of Agony?

And really, he should not have let Hades name shit in the Inner Sanctum. Azagoth wanted to beat the fallen angel every time he was forced to say, or even think, of the miserable area known as Feces-palooza.

Oh, hey, Lilliana, let me take you on a tour of your wedding gift. Yep, check out Disembowling Beach. We can honeymoon in Feces-palooza. And just wait until I take you to Boiling Piss Pond and the Fetid Razor Swamp.

Fuck.

Scrubbing his hand over his face, he decided he needed to rethink his strategy. If Lilliana was truly here because she was given no choice, eternity with him would, literally, be hell for her. He was a bastard who traded in death and pain, and while he liked to tell himself that he’d been corrupted by thousands of years of life in Hell, the truth was that even as an angel he’d been in the business.

Interrogators weren’t exactly nice people.

Okay, so where did he go from here? First, he supposed, it might help to know why, exactly, Lilliana had agreed to mate him. Jim Bob had indicated that this was a punishment, but Azagoth wanted to hear it from Lilliana herself. Had she been given any choice in the matter at all? And if so, why had she agreed?

He couldn’t do anything about Methicore and his idea of revenge...at least, not in the immediate future. But he could take care of what was happening right now in his home.

Home. What a joke. Home was a horror show of a necrotic realm. Dream stuff, there.

As he contemplated his next move with Lilliana, he headed back inside and straight for the bedroom. He expected her to be waiting for him, but to his surprise, she’d climbed into bed, her chestnut hair spilling over the black satin pillowcase in a shiny wave. The clothes she’d been wearing were laid neatly on the recliner next to her wardrobe and, he noted, the sapphire silk baby-doll nightie was missing from the hanger.

Man, he wished he hadn’t missed her putting that on. He could imagine her hard body loosely covered in luxurious material meant to caress her smooth skin, and when he added himself to the picture, the nightie became a shredded pile on the floor.

Mouth watering, but not for food, he made a quick detour to the kitchen to see if she’d eaten, and he was pleased to see that she’d made a huge dent in the Italian food Zhubaal had scored from one of Azagoth’s favorite restaurants. Azagoth could cook, but one of his few pleasures was eating the best foods in the world, and Zhubaal had a knack for knowing exactly what Azagoth was in the mood for.

Too bad his mood for Italian had passed, because the three pasta dishes, steamed mussels, and tomato bisque looked amazing. What was left of it, anyway. Apparently, his angel had a hearty appetite.

The thought made him practically purr inside. He loved a female who could eat.

Returning to the bedroom, he eyed his erotic furniture, wondering if she’d show as much enthusiasm for sex.

How could she? She doesn’t want to be here.

He shook off the thought. He’d make her want to be there. Sure, he didn’t have a plan, but he had the power to bring anything she wanted into his realm. He could keep her content. Happy, even.

Keep telling yourself that, jackass.

With a growl of frustration, he stripped naked and climbed between the crisp sheets. She was lying as close to the edge of the mattress as possible, her back to him and the covers tucked under her chin. He closed the gap between them, easing himself close to her, but just short of touching. He didn’t trust himself. If he touched her, he’d need to keep touching, and he wanted to give her time to adjust.

How gentlemanly of you. Yeah, well, his soul might be warped into something unrecognizable and his emotions all but dead, but his memories were fully intact and untainted by Sheoul’s evil influence. He remembered his mother and how she’d been so timid and afraid of new experiences. It had hurt him to see, especially not knowing what had made her that way.

Those memories were what made him handle his nervous bedmates differently than he handled the others. While he might not actually feel sympathy for faint-hearted females, he knew he used to, before he came to Sheoul-gra. And despite the rumors, he had never taken a female by force or coercion.

He certainly wouldn’t start with his mate.

“Lilliana?” he murmured. “I know you aren’t asleep.”

“What gave me away? The fact that my eyes are open?”

Apparently, the theme tonight was ornery. He could play that. “You have a sharp tongue, female.” He caught a lock of hair in his fingers, and so much for not touching her. “May I suggest that you put it to better use?”

“May I suggest that you go to hell?”

“That insult has no bite, given that we’re already here.” Not technically, of course, since Azagoth’s realm sat on a special plane between the human realm and the demon one, but the barrier between Sheoul and Sheoul-gra was extremely thin, allowing far too much leakage between them.

She sighed. “What do you want?”

Bracing himself on one elbow, he leaned in, inhaling the fresh rosemary mint of her shampoo. His cock stirred, and whaddya know, that scent was apparently an aphrodisiac.

“Tell me,” he breathed into her ear. “Tell me why you’re here.”

“You really want to know?”

He inhaled again, this time catching the faint citrus spice of her skin along with the shampoo. She was a living, breathing dessert he couldn’t wait to taste.

“I’m not in the habit of asking questions I don’t want the answers to,” he said, letting his lips brush the skin of her cheek.

She inhaled sharply, and the unmistakable aroma of arousal rose up all around her. His body responded with a primal surge of hunger, and his rapidly swelling cock went all helllooo, baby on her backside.

Another inhalation, this time a little ragged. “I...ah, I was given a choice between being demoted and stripped of my abilities or mating you.”

Azagoth had known the answer, but hearing her say it felt like a punch to the nuts. Buh-bye, baby. “And how difficult was your decision?”

The mattress creaked as she turned over to face him. Light from the fire danced on her face, softening her features, but making her eyes glow with a defiant glint.

“I’m sensing that there’s a right and a wrong answer here, so why don’t you go ahead and tell me which one I should pick.” She propped herself up, matching his pose. “And why does any of this matter? I’m here. Isn’t that enough?”

No, it wasn’t. Being here wasn’t the same as wanting to be here. If he had any emotions left in him at all, he’d be happy if just once, someone—anyone—truly wanted to be with him.

“It doesn’t matter.” Impulsively, he kissed her on the forehead before rolling away to leave her alone on her side of the mattress.

Weird, but this was the first time his massive bed didn’t feel big enough.