5. GODRIC

As I consider charring his arse off, Asmodeus shakes the sting out of his hand and groans, in what sounds like both pain and pleasure. “Now that’s what I call a Heavenly booty.”

Failing to find any non-lethal reaction this fiend wouldn’t consider an invitation to commit more transgressions, I settle for staring back at him.

Rubbing the hand that just smacked my rear over his chest as if depositing the sensations there, he sighs. “See this? This absolute control? It makes me shiver with longing imagining you unleashed.”

“You wouldn’t want that.”

He tosses his perfectly groomed head back—which not even the buffeting wind dares muss—and lets out a boisterous laugh, before pretending to wipe away tears of mirth. “There it is again. It sums you up perfectly. So scarily delicious, so lethally entertaining. So few words.”

Just like that, my mind is torn from my contemplations of scorching his backside off, to ricochet back to her, the one being I consider this applies to.

So scarily delicious. So lethally entertaining.

So many words.

At least, for now, I have an archdemon to pull my thoughts away from her.

I tsk, giving him back his earlier pity. “You’re inflating my fascination quotient in your desperation for anything to ameliorate your ennui. You’re just too bored, too old.”

“Who are you calling old? If we walked down any street like this …” He gets into my face, before hooking his arm in mine. “Everyone would think you’re older.”

I consider hurling him over the cliff. It would be nice to see him flustered for the two seconds it would take him to sprout his batwings.

His smile tells me it’s exactly what he wants me to do.

So I don’t. I even let him drag me into an indolent stroll along the cliff’s edge.

His eyes are reproachful as he looks up the couple of inches between us. He’d clearly welcome anything I’d do to him, anything at all, as long as I lay hands on him. And I just deprived him of his non-existent heart’s desire.

He finally shakes his head and sighs. “It’s actually one of the things I adore about you. You have this incomparable—gravitas. Way, way beyond your years.”

“If gravitas came with years, and you had thousands of those, where have you misplaced yours?”

This time when he laughs, he accompanies it with a fond cheek pinch. “How old are you again?”

“This must be the tenth method you’ve tried to learn my true age. Give it a rest.”

“When you say stuff like ‘fascination quotient’ and ‘ennui?’ Never! I have eternity to dig out your secrets, whether you surrender them, or I seduce them out of someone who knows. I always get what I want.”

I scoff and look ahead. He takes my silence, and my not dismembering him, as license to caress my arm as we walk.

To any of our fictitious fans, I bet we look like the ultimate wet dream of a power couple.

Now I think of it, it would have been so much simpler, so much less catastrophic if this were true. If his was the power I needed, and he was the one I wanted.

Staring into the empty ocean horizon, I no longer feel soothed by the serenity. But it does loosen a memory I haven’t accessed in years. Of when we first struck our agreement. The way it happened was indeed memorable.

It was also the last time I was alone with him. It has been imperative to play our parts as adversaries. A role play he revels in. Too much at times. The man can ham it up.

If “Angelbloods” weren’t generally a dense lot, which came with being in a position of power for far too long, some would have questioned his theatrics.

Even if they do, there’s nothing I can do about it but maintain my side of the act, playing the Celestials’ supreme butcher. It’s the one role that comes easily to me. It’s what I am, after all.

But it isn’t what he is, not taking every chance to preen and overact. In retrospect, it made his lack of participation during that visit puzzling. With what he said earlier, it’s almost—concerning.

Which brings me to the reason he went to such lengths to get me here.

Since he’d probably burn in eternal flames if he were ever to be straightforward, I have to play his game to obtain his purpose.

I sigh. “That was quite the video you sent me.”

His laugh rumbles all around us like thunder as he gives my arm a squeeze. “Photos never had an effect, so I thought I’d up my game. And I was right. It got you here.”

“It was very hard, pardon the pun, to ignore your message—when it was being tattooed on your cock.”

“See the lengths I’d go to for you, darling?”

“Lengths is right. I didn’t think even you could maintain an erection with two of your demons speed-poking literal hot needles into your member.”

I grimace at the memory of watching him writhe and bellow in pain—and pleasure, as his cock bled—and grew harder and larger.

Bloody prick would forevermore describe him, in every way.

He tugs me nearer, putting his lips to my ear and whispering intimately, “Did you watch the video to the end?”

“I assume, being the father of all kinks, there was a money shot for the ages. Sorry to disappoint you. I was busy hacking the accounts of all those you cc’d, to erase it before anyone opened it. I’m sure it would have been the first thing they did, the moment they saw your name—and subject line.”

“O Sword of Heaven, I pledge my sword to thee,” he intones with such solemn passion, before he wiggles an eyebrow at me.“I think it was inspired.”

“As your beloved internet denizens would say, the cringe factor was astronomical, even by your standards.”

“That’s the taint of your angelblood talking, my sweetest.”

“The cringing had nothing to do with my prudish upbringing, you arsehole. Besides a male referring to his member as a sword being deeply pathetic, if this had reached any of your targets, you were setting me up to be re-labeled Heaven’s Cock or something of equal aggravation. I would have relieved you of yours if that had come to pass.”

His grin only widens. “You know at our level of power, it would only grow back.”

“But it would hurt. Not to mention would wilt your phallic fixation for the duration. Don’t tempt me again.”

That seems to delight him even more. Of course. “My, oh, my. I have heard delightfully horrific tales of your inventive mastery of torture. But it seems you’re way more than that. Who knew Heaven’s perfect son could be such a connoisseur sadist.”

With that, my mind hurtles back to the moments I first choked her. And how much it shocked me to realize what I felt was another instant addiction. To her domination, to her struggle, against me, and against her own desires, and to her eventual submission to both …

Mother of all Demons. I must stop this. I must. At any cost.

Asmodeus nudges me out of my reverie with an elbow in my ribs. “You did at least watch long enough to read my full message, right?”

“I got the first line of your pledge of undying fealty—as my fucktoy. Was there more?”

“For you, there’s always more.”

“Spare me, you demonic degenerate. If only one message slipped through my net?—”

He squeezes my arm hard enough to hurt, interrupting me. “Can’t you at least appreciate the sentiment? The effort? I knew you’d handle it with your superlative hacking abilities.”

A harrumph escapes me. “I’m evidently nowhere good enough to stop you from invading my devices.”

He runs a finger down my cheek and jaw. “You’re superlative.” He puts that finger in his mouth and sucks, moaning as if overcome by my taste. “I’m unparalleled.”

I exhale again. Hell, I’m starting to sound as overwrought as he does. “I have long made peace with that fact. But you don’t care if you sabotage our plans, do you?”

“Oh, I do care. Deeply. Madly. Eternally.”

I finally give him the eye-roll he so covets. “Drop the seduction act already.”

“You think it’s an act? And here I thought your intellect was prodigious. Evidently, your emotional intelligence leaves a lot to be desired.”

It’s at this moment that I also discover that he frustrates me. If nowhere near as much as she does …

“Chill.” He flicks my nose. I grit my teeth, more at his using her favorite chastisement when I’m being a “drama queen.” “Even if my bleeding dick vid reached all my targets, I would have spun it into a drunken episode over an unavailable prize. It would have actually strengthened the claims to our enmity. After all, Hell hath no fury, literally, like a Prince Demon of Lust scorned.”

That makes sense. But … “Even so, I maintain it would have still planted a seed of doubt where none existed before. You keep gambling with the secrecy we need to pull off our plans. Without incalculable damages, that is.”

“It’s you who forces me to get—creative. And I did get you here, even if only to beg me to stop.”

“I’m here because I wanted to find out what you were doing in the Celestial Region, and how you came to join that ambush. But mostly, what’s new that made you commit this literally bloody dick move.”

“Why can’t you believe I just wanted to see you, alone? I did. I always do.”

I stop, disentangle myself from his grasp, taking in his immaculateness. “Your lecherous act is seamless, I’ll give you that. It does serve as an infallible camouflage, to what you really are.”

“First of all, it’s not an act. Not around you, anyway. But what am I really? Do tell.”

I twist my lips at his perfect rendition of eagerness. “You’re probably the most shrewd entity in Existence.”

“Really? I thought that honor is reserved for those who can read minds.”

I wave his suggestion away. “It’s not shrewd if you glean answers from an open book. Also minds are littered with all sorts of garbage. Those who read them get lost in their maze of inconsistencies and deceptions and filth. Not to mention they always impose their own prejudices on what they read. You, on the other hand, are the supreme decipherer of unadulterated wants and needs. That’s what all beings, no matter how devious or oblivious, boil down to.”

His eyebrows rise as he sweeps me in a fresh wave of lust. “I keep hoping you’d say or do something to douse my ardor. Instead, you always fan the inferno even higher.”

I scoff a mirthless huff. “Classic of you to victim-blame. I make you do it, being so tempting.”

“And so scary. Don’t forget that.”

“Are you admitting you’re afraid of me?”

“O Son of Death, why do you think I was originally so interested in you?”

“I guess fear is the only kink of any relevance left for a being of your powers. But if this was my main attraction, Death has another son. I don’t see you hounding him.”

“Ah, Gideon.” He gives an elegant, dismissive shrug. “Too young for my tastes. Yeah, I know when that one was born. He has a way to go before he comes close to your level of magnificence, my sweetest. Maybe after a few decades of torture?”

So. He knows. At least the parts others are privy to. It should be expected, since he knows about what they call “my revenge.” And because he has eyes and ears everywhere.

He curls his lips downward with a headshake. “Though his existence still puzzles me. I don’t understand why your father sired another when his first try spawned you. You’re more than he could have dreamed of. More than should exist, really.”

Wiley bastard. He sees too much. What others can’t even perceive.

I empty my lungs. “You got me here, alone, and I even let you paw me. So if you’re not going to share your real motives, you can continue conveying vital strategies through insecure messaging, and sabotaging our efforts with your innovative dick pics and vids to your non-existent heart’s content. Consider this my first, and last courtesy call.”

As I step away, he catches my arm in a grip that would have turned any other being’s to dust, practically batting his lashes at me. “Aw, you don’t find me interesting anymore? Or just not as interesting as that angel-graced you dragged to the Divination, pretending she was your pet? The one you won’t kill or let die now?”

Finally. The point of all this. This is about her.

Is it any surprise, though?

Everything is always about her.

He gives me a stunned look, as if he heard that pathetic thought.

When he speaks, his voice has lost most of its levity. “That little morsel of a human female is important to you.”

Only my total control over my vital functions prevents my heart from hammering. I keep it and my expression placid. “She’s my assignment. My punishment, as they call her.”

His gaze sharpens, as if trying to slice through my pretense. “If she is, it would make the arseholes’ argument even more valid than I thought. You should have let her die, and not even your father could have blamed you. They considered a malfunctioning Imperium Gate the perfect opportunity to be rid of her. But I actually think the golden window to do it without any repercussions to you was during the Azazel incident.”

I don’t answer as immediately as I would have preferred. “Your spies within the Academy are clearly fishing for a raise, if they’re keeping you abreast of every insignificant incident.”

He gives an admonishing huff. “First of all, nothing you do can ever be insignificant. Second, you always strive to be as low-profile as your greatness can possibly allow. Something I’ll never understand, or condone, mind you.”

I shrug. “Us powerful types can’t all be megalomaniacs, with a childlike need for being perpetually the center of attention, and a juvenile dread of not being worshiped every single second of our endless existence.”

His pensive expression disappears and his guffaw shakes the cliff, and sends boulders shearing off its face and crashing into the ocean below. “You do say the sweetest things.” He sobers almost at once, his gaze probing me. “It was anything but insignificant when you attacked the psychopathic head honcho of the Fallen motherfuckers, to save her. I can only imagine the fallout of such an action.”

“Which part of ‘she’s my assignment’ didn’t you get?”

“And you’re daddy’s good boy who must finish all the tasks he hands him to the very best of his gargantuan abilities? At any cost?”

I nod. “That is the summation of me, yes.”

His gaze lengthens, and I feel his shrewdness sluicing over me, searching for any hairline fissure to enter thought and crack me open.

He finally exhales. “Sex—be it the drive to obtain it, or the hangups over it—is the top driving force in any being, right after survival. In beings like us, it does come after power, but remains firmly in the ruling triad. But you—it never even featured in the totem pole of your priorities.”

“Are you trying to delay my departure, or do you have a point? If you do, do me the courtesy of getting to it.”

“My point is that, with all your massive—endowments, and your as impressive—exploits, you’ve never been a sexual being.” He pauses, his eyes searching mine almost feverishly before his lips tug in a rueful twist. “You are now. In fact, I’ve never been exposed to anything like the seething hunger I feel from you.”

I hold his all-seeing gaze, and read the truth he’s deciphered.

I know he reads my own conclusion in mine. That I’ve just considered him too dangerous to continue to exist.