Page 13 of Prayer of the Damned

“I was supposed to take your life tonight, so you could go to Demon University, where you’d learn all about your new life and receive the new role the Devil has planned for you, but your body didn’t complete the transformation. I was obligated to inform the Council, and they insisted you couldn’t keep wandering the human world unsupervised, when we know nothing about your exceptional situation. So you must report to them in order for them to determine whether you can begin your studies anyway. If my guess turns out to be correct, and I very much hope it is, your human remnants should be cleansed from your body and the transformation process will be completed at some point.”

“Ifyour guess turns out to be correct?” I ask. “And if it doesn’t? What’ll happen to me?”

“The Council will have to decide about that.”

“My whole life now depends on people – sorry, demons – I’ve never met and who I didn’t even know existed?”

“That’s how we live, Bellcolor, don’t disrespect our way of life.”

“Holy shit…” I blurt out, and immediately regret it. ‘Holy’ is the wrong choice of word given what I am, kind of…

“But the good news is you’ll get to meet the Council members. It’s a very great honor. Few demons are considered worthy of an audience with the council.”

“Lucky me,” I hiss, and my father shoots me a look that could kill.

Shit, I did it again. I have to start choosing my words carefully. “W-will you come with me?” It’s more a plea than a question. I’m terrified of meeting them alone.

“Of course, you’re my daughter, my responsibility. And I promise, you have nothing to fear from the Council.”

He says the words, but for some reason they can’t penetrate the layer of fear enveloping me.

Chapter Five

Bellcolor

This must be one of the few times I’m grateful for my father’s wealth. I sit on the private plane’s leather seat and thank God, or Satan, there are no other passengers besides us.

I look like I’m being haunted. I peek at my father and he seems no less haunted. This Council business must be pretty serious if my father, a tycoon running such an important corporation in the world, is tense.No reason to fear the Council my ass.

“I don’t read thoughts like you, Dad, so you’d better start spilling some details about this Council so I can be prepared for it.”

My father groans and turns his gaze to me. “They’re the oldest demons on earth. They’ve walked the lands of Adam for a very long time, since before recorded history. And due to my advanced age, I’m a candidate to soon inherit a seat on the Council.”

I gasp. I’d never thought to ask my father how old he was. Truth be told, he’d never told me his age, and he didn’t like celebrating birthdays either. I’d imagined he was the same age as all the other fathers in my school, in his late forties. But he was actually an immortal demon. God, maybe I really did deserve this punishment. I was a shitty daughter.

“I’m almost eight hundred years old,” my father revealed what I’d been wondering.

“Say what now?!”

“Seven hundred and eighty-three, to be precise.”

“So how do you look… like that?” I indicate his strong and too-young body.

“Elder demons are entitled to great power, and the demons of the Council are especially powerful. Alfredo has the ability to change shape. His powers are quite useful in disguising our true age. I wear this form in my current life, and he ensures that I age from time to time so as not to raise suspicion.”

“Dad, you’re a killer stud for someone in their late forties, Alfredo needs to do a better job hiding your real age.”

He laughs in response. “Would you be more pleased if your father were balding with a pot belly?”

I think about it for a moment and contort my face. “No, but Alfredo could’ve adapted you better to my childlike body. I look like I’m twelve when I’m actually eighteen.”

“Your body will gradually assume your true form, so don’t worry.”

“Is that why my body’s developing so slowly?”

“It works differently for each of the Marked, but the fact that you aren’t done developing indicates that the Devil is planning a long life for you in the human world. That’s why the Council is so anxious about this situation you’ve dropped in their laps.”

“If you’d bothered to let me in on who we are, it might not have happened.” I stick my tongue out at him and he runs a handthrough his mane of hair. He hadn’t bothered slicking it with gel this morning, and I wonder if he’d skipped it just so he could pull this move.

---