Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Adam

"Are you sure I can do this?" Adam asked nervously.

"Boy." Mal gripped the back of his neck. "I can go with you."

"No." He appreciated the offer, but Adam needed to learn how to get around the Hell realm on his own. There would be times that Mal wouldn't be with him. Plus, he knew where he was going. Or at least he knew who he was going to. "I already called Seb. He and Ari are expecting me."

"All you have to do is think of Seb. Get a good picture in your mind of him and will yourself there. As you get to know more places in the realm, you'll be able to do the same to get from place to place," Mal told him.

They'd practiced. Adam could pop from one room in the house to another. He could also always find Mal. Now that had been a sexy game of hide and seek. Every time he'd found his mate, Mal had removed a piece of clothing. Adam was getting hot just thinking about it.

"Focus, boy." Mal snapped his fingers in front of Adam's face.

"Sorry." He blushed. Sometimes his mind…well, it sort of went wonky on him and it was hard to focus.

"Nothing to be sorry for," Mal said kindly. "But your friends are waiting on you."

"Okay." Adam lifted to his tiptoes to press a gentle kiss against Mal's lips. "And you will be home for dinner, right?"

"I promise," Mal replied. He grabbed Adam's ass and lifted him.

Damn those demon muscles. They were so yummy. Adam ran his hands down Mal's shoulders.

"Adam," Mal said with a smile. "I need to get to work. You have distracted me long enough."

He hadn't really though? Adam could totally be more distracting.

Mal cut off his train of thought by kissing him hard. Adam strained in his mate's hold, trying to get his entire body involved, but Mal held him too tight. After Mal had pretty much mauled Adam's mouth, he set Adam on his feet.

And now Adam was hard.

"Don't touch that until I get home." Mal motioned to Adam's erection.

So not fair! "I'm gonna miss you, Daddy."

"I'll miss you too. I'll be thinking all day about how hard my mate is and that you're waiting for me to come home."

Adam stuck his bottom lip out. "One more kiss?" He could probably come with just one more. That had been hot!

"No." Mal smacked Adam's jeans-covered ass.

He hissed, going up to his tiptoes before dancing out of reach. Adam was still sore, but it was a good kind of sore. A reminder every time that he sat down how well his Daddy had taken care of him the night before.

"I'll see you later," Mal said. He waved his hand.

"What?" Adam blinked at him.

"Head to Seb before I leave. That way I know you got there safely."

"Oh! Yeah." He was going to ask Seb and Ari for help. Adam took a deep breath while closing his eyes and blew it out slowly. He thought about Seb. His handsome face. His kind eyes. The little crease that Seb would get between his brows when he was concentrating hard.

"Shit!"

Adam opened his eyes to see Seb holding a hand over his chest and he stared at Adam with wide eyes. "What? I told you I was coming." He hadn't meant to scare his friend.

"I thought you would portal like Ash!" Seb declared. He drew a shaky hand across his chest. "Not just pop into existence next to me!"

Adam glanced at Ari. "You didn't tell him?"

Ari shrugged. "Didn't think about it. Your mate is the Master of the realm. Of course you don't have to use portals."

"I don't even know what that means!" Seb threw his hands up. "I need another spreadsheet. I thought all demons used portals! This is new information. I did not have this information before. How am I supposed to keep track of everything I need to know if I don't know I need to know it!"

Seb walked off, mumbling to himself. Adam glanced back at Ari. "Uh…"

The cute demon grinned. "He's funny. I never know what he is going to find fascinating."

Adam agreed. "How's it going here?" He waved toward the long table laden with books and papers.

Ari's smile grew. "So well! Ash is really coming through with getting us mating surveys from other realms. I don't know if we'll figure out why no one found mates for so long, but this information is very valuable, like gold to a dragon."

Adam snorted. His dragon Alpha didn't collect gold. He collected family. He started over to the table before nearly tripping.

Looking down, Adam spotted the cutest small black dog with bright red eyes and flames around her ankles.

"Puppy!" he cried as he dropped down to his knees.

The puppy jumped against Adam, her front paws landing on his shoulders as she licked his face with her hot tongue.

"That's a Hellhound," Ari said. "Not a puppy."

"Puppy!" Adam repeated happily. He'd heard of the Hellhound pups, but he hadn't gotten to meet any yet. He gave the little girl all the loves. "Where'd she come from?"

"Jasmine decided that she wanted to belong to Ash and Seb and become Seb's guard," Ari told him.

"You get your own Hellhound?" Adam asked Seb as he returned with three new books.

Seb looked up and blinked. "Oh yeah. I guess." He shrugged. "I'm still not sure how it happened."

"Jasmine chose you," Ari said. "That's all that needed to happen."

Seb glanced at Adam and shrugged. "She chose me?"

"That's so cool." And maybe Adam was a little jealous. Jasmine was so cute!

"You have minions," Seb told him. "You can't be jealous of my Hellhound."

He could. He was. "But—"

"Come over here and look at this," Seb said.

Adam picked the puppy up before walking over to the table. Every inch of the table was covered, and it was not a small table at all. "How do you even know what all you have?" Now that he was looking around, Adam was quite impressed with the place.

What had Mal called this place? The archives? It looked like a library to Adam. A really fancy library.

Stacks of books went back as far as Adam could see. And he had really good vision, so there was no telling how big this building was. Even with the number of books and papers on the table, there must be millions more around him.

"Isn't it great?" Seb said with a dopey smile. "I've never seen anything like this place. I'm in heaven."

Ari nodded. "This was my favorite place in the entire realm growing up. I could get lost in the rows and came across books and scrolls that hadn't been touched in decades, if not longer."

"How'd you end up running this place?" Adam asked. He wanted to know more about his new friends, but it was also important to figure out how the realm worked. He leaned against the table, still cuddling the puppy, who appeared to be going to sleep in his arms.

"The old demon that was in charge of the records decided that he wanted to spend more time traveling around the realm. As he got older, he'd gained more favors and had permissions to go pretty much wherever he wants. He asked me if I wanted to take over for him and of course I said yes. It's the perfect place for me."

"See!" Adam pointed to Ari. "That's what I'm talking about. I don't get how demons get their…assignments."

"Is this what you wanted help with?" Seb questioned.

"It is." Knowing this would take time, Adam pulled out a chair and sat. "Take my minions, for example. I believe that they're where they were meant to be. They're organized, reliable, and love their jobs. Except now I have more demons that are applying for a position within our household."

"That's mainly because you announced that they weren't lesser demons. They want to work for someone who doesn't devalue them just because of their…lack of power," Ari said.

"You heard about that, huh?"

Ari snorted. A puff of smoke coming from his nostrils just like Mal. Damn, Adam missed his mate.

"Everyone has heard about it," Ari told him.

"I loved it," Seb said. "As soon as the demons started talking about what you said, I knew that you were the perfect mate for the Master. You're going to turn this realm on its head."

"I don't mean to," Adam confessed. "You know me. I speak before I really think it through. I just don't like the term lesser demon. My minions are not lesser than anyone else in the realm and neither are the other demons. Power comes in so many different forms. It doesn't just mean strength."

"I know," Seb said. "Look at our family. We might not be a family of warriors but from what I understand, Axel drew together a family that is more powerful together than we would ever be apart."

"And you're not wrong," Ari added. "Growing up, I knew that I would always be weaker than the other demons. Ash, Mal, and Atom were always going to become something that involved power, but I was on the path to being nothing more than what my Master wanted. I was lucky that the old demon that ran this place took a shine to me. I came into my power later in life because my power comes from knowledge."

"It's so confusing," Adam admitted. "I want to do right by everyone, but I have no idea where to start."

"You need a spreadsheet!" Seb clapped happily.

Adam groaned before he banged his head on the table. This was going to be painful. Not the banging. He didn't do spreadsheets or research. Adam was more an action guy.

* * * * *

"That place was fantastic!" Adam commented as he, Ari, and Seb headed back to the archives. His friends had taken him to a nearby cafe with outside seating so he could see more of the community. "No one even looked at us weird for having Jasmine with us."

"A Hellhound guard will go everywhere with their chosen," Ari said. "You might see some others around the realm. It's rare that a Hellhound decides to become a guard instead of staying with their pack but it's not unheard of."

"I didn't know it was rare," Seb said.

Ari shrugged. "I don't know the statistics on it—"

"We could figure it out!" Seb exclaimed.

"No more spreadsheets!" Adam said with a groan.

Seb huffed. "They're really helpful. You have to admit now that you've put the data of the demons in the spreadsheet I made for you, you have a better idea of where they can help."

That was true. The next step was figuring out a system that young demons could utilize to apply and get training for their interests. Currently, demons either waited to come into some kind of power and placed accordingly by family or they stumbled onto what job would become theirs. That was not a good system. How many demons worked in fields that didn't interest them? Too many, according to Ari.

"You think Mal will agree?" Adam really wanted his mates to support this project.

"Mal cares about his demons. All his demons. I think this will make him very happy."

"I wonder why no one has thought about this before," Seb commented.

"Demons are very set in their way and tend to follow the generations before them. We just accept that this is the way things are supposed to be and don't think to question anything," Ari said.

"I guess that makes sense," Adam agreed. It didn't mean that Mal or anyone else would support his idea. Adam wasn't one to just stand by and watch anyone being unhappy. Or be treated badly. If this was his new home, then Adam wanted to help the residents of Hell.

"Oh look! They're working on the training yard. There's Atom!" Ari perked right up. He even went as far as straightening his bow tie. A demon in a bow tie. Wow, Adam loved his new friend.

"Go say hi," Seb encouraged.

There were about ten large males moving what looked like heavy machinery in the large field next to Ari's building.

"I don't want to bother—"

"Ari," Seb said quietly. "Atom is moving his entire operation to be close to you. He wants to see you."

"You think so?" Ari sounded so unsure.

Adam nodded along with Seb. "I think so too. Mal told me that when I showed up at his work yesterday that I had made him so happy. I was scared he would be mad, but he was pleased that I had searched him out."

"Maybe I could at least say hi?" Ari questioned.

"And get a kiss," Seb encouraged.

"Or something more." Adam wiggled his brows. Come on! When wasn't Adam thinking about sex?

Ari blushed.

"Go!" Seb patted Ari's shoulder. "We'll get back to work but you take your time. You know where to find us."

Ari shuffled a few steps away then stopped. "I'm really glad you're both friends now."

"So are we," Adam assured Ari.

"I'll…I'll just go see my mate." He rolled his shoulders back then lifted his head. When he started in the direction of his mate, there was more confidence in his steps.

"Good job," Adam whispered. He knew that Ari would still be able to hear him.

Adam and Seb huddled together as they watched Ari cross the distance between him and his mate. It didn't take long for Atom to notice Ari heading in his direction. The scowl that was nearly a permanent fixture on Atom's face melted away as he smiled at Ari.

"That's nice," Adam whispered to Seb.

"I want everyone to know that kind of love," Seb said. "The all-consuming perfect love of having a mate."

"I know. Let's go get to work." Adam directed Seb back to Ari's building.

They'd only taken about a dozen steps before Jasmine started to growl and ran in front of them from Seb's right side.

"What's wrong?" Seb patted her head.

A tall, muscular demon stepped out of the shadows, blocking their path up the front steps of the Archives. He sneered at both Adam and Seb.

"Who…who are you?" Seb asked. His voice shook and Adam slipped his hand in Seb's and squeezed. They were safe in the realm. It didn't matter that this demon towered over them. Adam was mated to the most powerful demon in the realm. Ash was not one anyone would want to mess with either.

The demon ignored Seb as he sent a glare at Adam. That look would have scorched him if Adam didn't know that this demon couldn't hurt him.

Adam lifted a brow in challenge. He would not be intimidated. Okay, maybe on the inside he was shaking but that didn't mean he would let this guy…this demon scare him.

The demon growled. "You're the Master's mate?"

"I am," Adam responded firmly. "And you are?"

"Zacorah," the demon replied.

Ugh, Adam knew who this was and probably why he didn't like Adam. This was Gammer's bully.

"Is that name supposed to mean something to me?" Adam questioned.

The demon, Zacorah, did not like that. He pushed his chest out and his muscles seemed to grow. "I am the newest warrior." He pushed power at them, like a wave crashing over them. It didn't faze either of them.

Zacorah frowned.

Adam wanted to laugh but it might push this demon into doing something stupid. Besides, Adam knew how to deal with bullies.

"Okay, dude," Adam said, clearly unimpressed and showing it. "Mated to the Master of the realm." He lifted the hand linked with Seb. "He's mated to a Reaper. Did you need something, or did you just want to show off your new power?" Really this guy…he was just a jerk.

Zacorah gritted his teeth. "You need to stop telling the lesser demons that they're more than they are. You're confusing the idiots."

Seb gasped.

Adam squeezed his hand. He could handle this. "Weren't you a lesser demon two weeks ago? Are you saying that you were an idiot?"

Zacorah snorted. "I knew I would come into my power."

"Aren't you lucky," Adam mocked.

"Stop giving the lesser demons ideas," Zacorah ordered.

"I don't think I will." Adam released Seb's hand and took a step forward. Jasmine moving with him. Her lip was curled back, and she hadn't stopped growling. Zacorah hadn't even acknowledged her presence. She might be small but she was mighty. So was Adam. "And I don't take orders from you. You might be a new warrior, but my mate is the Master."

"Your mate." Zacorah made the words sound like a curse. "You shouldn't even be in this realm. Fae and humans mixing with powerful demons. It's…disgusting.

Adam laughed. Oh, Hell no! This demon would learn his place and it was beneath the feet of demons like Gammer. "Trust me, I'm right where I'm supposed to be. The fates don't make mistakes. You might not like the fact I'm here or the changes that I'm making but you better get used to it."

"Or what?" Zacorah asked.

"The thing about power," Adam said quietly, "is that it can be taken just as easily as it is given." Adam didn't know if that was necessarily true but the way Zacorah's eyes widened and how fast he stepped back showed he thought it might be.

Adam nodded at the demon. "I was brought to this realm. Don't forget that. My place is right beside my mate. My powerful mate."

"Yes, it is."

Adam jumped but he felt better that Zacorah and Seb did as well. Turning, he took in the way that Mal stood tall and beautiful as he faced them. A force, a huge reminder that Adam was loved and protected. Fuck! He'd missed his mate.

"Hi!" Excited, Adam jumped at Mal.

Of course, his mate caught him.

"What's going on here?" Mal demanded.

Adam glanced back at Zacorah. Ball was in the demon's court. Did he have the confidence in his beliefs to say Adam didn't belong with the Master?

"Nothing," Zacorah said. "Just introducing myself to your mate, Master." He bowed his head, but Adam didn't like how strained the words had come out. That had not been respectful.

"Watch yourself, Zacorah," Mal warned. "I just left your uncle in my place. I can have him come collect you."

Zacorah paled.

Huh, Adam didn't know that demons could do that.

"Now move along," Mal ordered.

Zacorah hightailed it out of there. Literally. His short blunt tail was high in the air as he ran across the training field and toward a small group of demons that were sitting on the shade of a boulder. Adam needed to add some trees around the training yard. Give the warriors some shade as they rested. He'd work on that later though.

Adam didn't see any sign of Atom or Ari either.

Hmm, he wondered what they were doing.

"Who's his uncle?" Seb asked. He'd pulled Jasmine to his side and was giving her pats.

"My Lieutenant, Furfell," Mal answered.

Damn! "I should have recognized the scowl." Adam wasn't really surprised. Furfell hadn't been that welcoming either.

"You should have," Mal told him. "Furfell is not a bad demon. He's just…moody."

"Aren't you all?" Adam teased.

"Until we find our mates," Mal agreed.

Adam kissed him. That was such a smart thing to say. "Glad you found me then."

Mal nuzzled his neck. "Me too."

"What are you doing here?"

"I felt your unease," Mal said. "Are you okay? What was that really about?"

"Nothing I can't handle." Adam would love to get his mate involved but he felt like there were just some things that he should handle. The demons were relying on him. Adam didn't want to let his new friends down.

"You felt his unease?" Seb piped up. "How does that work? Like you physically felt it?"

"I'm surprised I beat Ash here. He would have felt yours as well."

"He's working—"

The doors of the Archives slammed open, and a pissed-off Reaper stormed through them. Ash relaxed as soon as he spotted Seb standing with them.

"Guess he got the message," Adam retorted.

"Hey!" Seb cried. "You can feel me? Like, how does that work?"

Adam chuckled. Ash was rushing toward Seb and Seb hadn't stopped asking questions. Ash did manage to quiet him down with a long, deep kiss.

"I'm done working for the day," Mal told him. "Ready to head home?"

Since Ari had disappeared with Atom, and by the way Ash was mauling Seb, Adam didn't figure they were going to get much more work done anyway. "Blink me home, Daddy!"

"It's not—" Mal shook his head. "You know what? It doesn't matter."

They were standing in the living room a second later.

There was a shriek.

Mal's arms tightened around Adam.

"No! You are not supposed to be home yet," Siezman yelled. "Go! Go right now! The surprise is not ready!"

Both Mal and Adam stared at the normally calm demon as he flapped his hands at them.

"Where are we supposed to go?" Mal asked, confused. He was staring at Siezman like he'd never seen him before. Adam snickered. Siezman had some bite to him, after all.

"Upstairs!" Siezman ordered. "Do not come down for another two hours!"

Adam grinned. He could work with that. "Blink me up to our room, Daddy. I have just the way we can spend our time."

Mal's grin was full of promise. "I agree, my boy."

They landed in the bedroom. Adam kissed his mate so there was no mistake on how they would be spending the next few hours. Maybe he could do Siezman a favor and make it three or four.