Chapter 1Sasha

Chapter

One

SASHA

I cradled the baby in my arms, cooing at him softly. I walked around the room, ignoring the others as Varek and Valen told each other about their pasts and what they had been through over the centuries.

Juliette and Kallista sat side by side on the sette next to where their men were sitting, their heads together as they looked through a catalog full of baby gear. I had been enjoying the same catalog with them just a few minutes prior until little Adrien woke up, screaming for attention.

I was the first to jump up, ready to claim baby duty, making Talon frown at me when he’d been a fraction of a second too late. I stuck my tongue out at him with a snicker and rushed over to the bassinet, ready to scoop up the baby for some snuggle time.

I glanced from his adorable little face back over to the men and marveled once again at how much they resembled each other. I hadn’t been in the mansion when Valen had first shown up on the doorstep with the vampire, Crispin, so it had come as quite a shock when I walked in to see my old friend and boss’s nearly identical brother sitting on the couch.

The last few days had been nothing but talk about finding the other two brothers and attempting to piece together their memories, though it seems as if both of them have huge blank spaces that can’t be filled no matter how much they talk it out. Charon has been camped out almost constantly in the living room with the rest of us. It isn’t uncommon for him to come by to visit his daughter or grandson, but it hasn’t been Juliette or Adrien who has had Charon’s attention recently. The ancient Ferryman demon has been getting memories back as well.

There is a puzzle surrounding the four brothers and the memory wipe of anyone who was around at the time they were separated. The largest piece of mystery undoubtedly surrounds Lucifer, the ruler of the Underworld realm. I, of course, remember him as the King of the Underworld from when I was a child. As long as I could remember, he ruled with an iron fist—my father being that fist. As the High General, whatever Lucifer decreed as a crime, it was the General bringing down the punishment.

I left young, only seventeen years old, and escaped to the Earth realm. It was a hard path to take, and I barely managed to make it to a portal with my life. As hard as my life had been growing up in the home of the High General, I hadn’t been fully prepared for how dangerous the Underworld really was. Carnivorous plants, animals with poisonous spikes, and water that was more acid than H2O, nearly saw my demise. Once I stumbled onto a portal deep in the Northern Forest, I was dehydrated, bleeding profusely, and starving. It was a depressing thought that had I managed to escape with my baby sister, we would both have undoubtedly perished before we’d even made it a day. I always figured that was likely why my father never came for me. There was no way he would even consider a mere girl to survive the Underworld alone and unarmed.

I took a deep inhale of baby scent to calm my nerves as the memories of long ago flooded through me. I did my best to suppress them, if only to protect the aching hole in my heart that was still there at the thought of Sein.

When I’d stumbled through the portal, it was with immense luck that Varek was in the process of setting up the demon fortress that we now knew as Brimstone. It was a place he intended demons to be able to come and go as they pleased with safety measures in place. Demons of all kinds could eat, mate, or fight as needed for their individual natures. Humans would never be able to comprehend the needs of demons, and if they knew we existed, they would hunt us down and eradicate our species. As powerful as many demons were, humans were just too plentiful in numbers. We would be overrun and destroyed. Not to mention the new weapons they have designed over the last couple of centuries.

As I contemplated the bloodthirsty nature of human beings, I heard a knock at the door. I turned to look back at the group sitting around the couches, all deep in conversation and shrugged. It was strange that someone would knock, considering the guard at the gate would have rang the house to alert Varek that there was a visitor.

I walked down the hallway and turned the corner to the foyer, the heels of my boots echoing on the marble flooring. As I neared the wide double doors, a feeling of anticipation zipped up my spine. It wasn’t exactly dread. Maybe it was just an intuition that something very important, even life-changing, was waiting for me on the other side of that door.

I hugged little Adrien closer to my chest and kissed the top of his head. If I had thought for a second that there was danger waiting, I would have turned around and alerted the others. Instead, I took a deep breath and steeled myself as I reached out for the doorknob. With a slow twist, I pulled the heavy door open and stared at the stranger standing on the brick landing at the front of the mansion.

I knew I had never seen him before. I also knew immediately that it was a demon. He wasn’t standing in a threatening manner, though I could sense that if needed, he would become a lethal force within a blink. He was also dressed unlike the demons in this realm. We had adapted to the Earth realm and dressed in a way that allowed us to blend in with the humans. The demon standing on the doorstep was in all leather garb, with studded straps crisscrossing his chest, forearms, and thighs. His chest was bare under the leather, and a large medallion the size of my fist held a cloak attached to his right shoulder, the other half thrown back over his left one. I knew that manner of dress, and my instinct was to immediately stumble back, grasping the baby tightly to my chest.

Before I could open my mouth to scream or cry out a warning to the others, his deep baritone spoke softly, helping to calm me a fraction. “Be calm. I bring only a missive.” He held out a thick piece of parchment folded neatly with a wax seal, holding it closed in one large hand. I took in a deep breath and held it for a long second before letting it back out again slowly. It had been a very long time since I felt the kind of terror that had overcome me at the sight of the demon.

“You’re a guard,” I whispered, glancing from the letter and back up into his ruggedly handsome face. His golden blond hair was pulled back to the nape of his neck and tied with a strip of leather, reminding me of the way men used to do it here on the Earth realm when I’d first arrived. It was the first time I realized that while the people here had made many advancements in technology and even clothing choices, the Underworld was obviously still clinging to the old ways. Even his clothing looked rough cut as if done by hand and not mass-produced by a machine.

The Underworld soldier inclined his head in acknowledgment of my words. “I am. But I mean you no harm. Someone who wants to see the Four reunited sent me to deliver this to you.” He gestured with the parchment again, obviously wanting me to take it.

“Who am I supposed to give it to?” I questioned as I finally lifted my hand from the tight grip I had on Adrien and reached for the letter.

“You misunderstand.” He cocked his head and took me in, paying specific attention to my hair. It made me feel self-conscious, and I flipped my long braid over my shoulder to fall down my back and out of his sight. “The missive is for you, daughter of the High General.” At my startled reaction, he smiled gently. It was the first time I noticed his green eyes held a kindness in them that I had never seen in my father or in his men. There was a hardness there, without a doubt, but he wasn’t evil. “You look very much like him. I’m sorry for that.”

At his unexpected comment, I barked out a short laugh and shook my head. I knew he didn’t mean that I was ugly or masculine. As a succubus, I was considered all things beautiful. I had a natural allure that drew men and women like a moth to a flame, and most succubi and incubi would suck the very life from them. Being raised with my father as a role model and seeing the way he seduced everyone around him as if it were his duty to sex someone to literal death, I had made a vow to myself long ago that I would avoid all manner of sex with anyone, man or woman. Whatever my father was, I was determined to be his absolute opposite. No, I knew he meant my hair, my eyes, and even my facial features bore a very close resemblance to the very handsome High General. As horrid and decayed as his insides were, his outsides couldn’t have been any more stunning.

“You have no idea how much I regret that, myself.” So many times, I had wished I had taken after my mother instead with her brown hair, hazel eyes, and gently rounded face. She looked like a sweet doll with rosy cheeks and long lashes. Pretty but not overly beautiful as to draw every eye in every building she ever entered. At least, she had when I was a young girl. That all changed after the birth of Sein when she had withdrawn into herself, and her rosiness faded to be replaced by sallow skin and dull eyes.

I finally gripped the parchment and slid it from his hand, that same feeling of impending change sweeping through my belly again. I looked back up at the soldier.

“Who sent you? Should we be worried?”

He was already shaking his head. “You have nothing to fear from me or my mistress. She only wants what is best for…” he glanced past me and into the foyer as if searching for something, “the Four.”

“The Four? Do you mean Varek and Valen? Or Death and Pestilence?”

“Are they not the same?” he asked. “But, yes, the Four hold the key to the end of an era that should never have been. I would assume that Death and Pestilence are searching for their brothers.” He inclined his head toward the parchment I was holding. “That leads to one of them.”

My mouth dropped open, and excitement thrummed through me. “I need to let them know immediately!” I held the door open wider in invitation. “If you have information we don’t, you should come inside and tell us what you can.”

He was already stepping back with one hand raised and his fist crossed over his chest in a half bow. “I cannot. It is not for me to do. The task at hand can only be accomplished by you, daughter of the High General. You must find the third and bring him back. You must go alone. That is all my mistress learned. But you must follow the instructions the Fates have laid out. It all falls at your feet to accomplish or fail.”

With those final words, he backed away without looking back up at me. When he spun around on his boot heel, he paused for just a moment and glanced back, taking in the sight of baby Adrien as he slept in my arms, unbothered by the conversation I had been having with the stranger.

A small smile crossed his lips briefly. “She would very much like to know that one of her sons has had a son of his own.” His smile drooped a bit, giving me the impression that something about the situation made him sad. Then he turned back around and strode away, heading toward the trees next to the fence line instead of the gate. That explained why we hadn’t been notified of a visitor. I briefly considered my options, but in the end, decided to let it go instead of alerting anyone to the presence of an Underworld soldier. As dangerous as that seemed to be under the circumstances, I believed that secrecy was more important when it came to the matter at hand.

I looked down at the wax and stamped seal, not recognizing the insignia. Not that I would. I had been gone too long and hadn’t been well educated on the high-ranking members of our demon society. I was just a girl, after all. According to my father, I was only a step up from a servant in importance. I contemplated my options, eager to see what was written inside but also knowing that I needed to keep whatever it was a secret from everyone in the living room.

I felt like the worst piece of shit, keeping a secret this huge from Varek. My loyalty had been with him for over three hundred years. He’d saved me, clothed me, fed me, and when I was ready, he trained me to be a warrior until I was good enough to be one of his few trusted. But if the demon was to be believed, if I told him about a brother possibly waiting to be rescued, everything could fail. I believed in the Fates. All demons did. We understood how important it was to take their words to heart.

With a sigh, I tucked the letter under my shirt and into the waistband of my jeans. I would follow instructions because there had to be a really important reason why.

I carried Adrien back into the living room with a smile plastered to my face that I really didn’t feel, doing my best to appear calm and like my world hadn’t been upended in the last few minutes. As I walked over to the settee where Juliette sat, the baby began to make fussing noises, and I took the opportunity presented. I placed him carefully into her arms.

“I think my little buddy is starting to need his momma,” I cooed softly down at him and traced my finger over his downy, soft cheek. I chuckled when he turned his head and opened his mouth, beginning to root around for his next meal. I swallowed back a pang of regret at the thought of what lay ahead for me. I would be leaving soon, and I would miss out on seeing Adrien grow. Maybe I would only be gone for a week or two if I were lucky, but babies age so quickly. I blinked quickly before pasting the same fake smile on my face. “I’m going to head to my room for a little while. I just need a little bit of quiet time.”

It wasn’t an unusual thing for me to do. Everyone knew the struggles I fought with my hunger and the urges that battled inside of me. When I lived and worked at Brimstone, I was surrounded twenty-four hours a day by sex, allowing me to absorb the pheromones through proximity. At the mansion, it was decidedly less so, though what I managed to absorb from Varek and Juliette and now Valen and Kallista kept me from starving.

I had attempted to go without for a while a couple of years ago, but that had ended in a near disaster. I apologized profusely to Ivy, the Hunter, and mate to the vampire I had stupidly attempted to seduce. It was a lesson that opened my eyes. I hadn’t actually wanted to seduce anyone, least of all a mated male, but my stubborn pride had tried to overcome the hunger. I no longer abstained from the sex of others. I accepted that I needed the pheromones to function. Without them, I was weak, both mentally and physically. And apparently, when pushed too far, my succubus nature would just decide to take over, damn the consequences. I shuddered at the thought of what could have happened if I’d attempted to seduce someone else, someone who wasn’t attached and wouldn’t say no.

“Okay. Thank you for keeping him company, Sasha. I hope you feel better soon.”

I laughed softly. “I’m sure either one of the brothers will see to that later.” I winked at Kallista and chuckled as she blushed, quickly figuring out what I was implying.

I walked away from my group of friends, hoping it wouldn’t be the last time that I saw them.