Chapter13
Adam
Adam found himself in… an office? Like a really nice office with a killer view, but still, not what he expected for the King of Hell. He was facing a huge, shiny, gleaming black desk with a super comfy looking empty chair. There were light gray walls with bookshelves and all sorts of cool art and knick knacks he’d totally love to explore, and one whole wall was a window with an amazing view of a firefall and those awesome looking trees with the ash coating them.
“Holy shit, this view is killer!” Adam gushed.
A voice chuckled behind him. “No, that would be the view of the pits, but this one is infinitely more pleasing, I can assure you. Quieter, too.”
Adam turned around to see a man in a bespoke black suit with dark hair casually standing by a gleaming black bar at the back of the office. He glided—there was no other word for it—over to the chair and gracefully sat down. And did Adam mention he looked like a man? Like, a totally super hot, runway model, underwear ad, tik tok famous hottie kinda man, but still, a man. No purple or red or magenta skin. No horns. No tail (sadly).
“Are you, like, actually Lucifer? Because I expected big hulking demon horns and fangs and maybe a tail. Because tails are just really awesome.” And Adam fanned himself a little at that. “Like,reallyawesome.”
The man laughed and gestured Minos and Adam toward two seats in front of his desk. Adam swore they hadn’t been there a moment ago.
“I’m sorry, Luce, to call you in on this,” Minos said, tugging Adam by the hand over to the seats, where Minos sat down in one and pulled Adam into his lap. Adam also swore the seat hadn’t been big enough for both of them a moment ago, but it certainly was now. Hell magic was pretty cool.
Adam figured maybe he could keep his mouth shut for a few minutes so the two very important demon hotties could talk about whatever they needed to talk about. Which happened to be Adam’s soul.
“I amsonot going back upstairs. It’s my soul and it is staying misplaced right here with Minos. Just so you know,” he insisted, maybe a little too sternly considering he was talking to Lucifer. Also, oops. Because maybe Adam couldn’t keep his mouth shut. He shrugged a little and settled into Minos’ chest. At least he’d let his opinion be heard.
“Ah, I see,” Lucifer replied.
Minos merely sighed, spreading his hands before going back to cradling Adam, saying, “The memo.”
“Yes, I did think you were coming about the memo. The Leadership Team seems to set everyone off. They’re quite insufferable. You know I’d do away with them if I could.”
“Can’t you throw them in the pits for a few decades?” Minos asked, and really, it was the closest thing to whining that Adam had ever heard come from his big guy’s mouth.
“You know how that went last time,” Lucifer huffed, his beautiful face scowling. “Morale plummeted. No one wants their torture techniques constantly critiqued. Or their levels of efficiency rated as they’re trying to work. We had demons refusing to torture anyone from Leadership; they were transferring out of the pits in droves. When we had to start denying transfers, everyone started calling out for being summoned to the surface—and you know how much demons hate being summoned—but they were doing anything just to get out of work. Never mind the havoc they caused up there; we’re still dealing with some of their more awful decisions.
“The Leadership demons weren’t even the worst; the angels had torture demons crying in my office, Minos.Crying in my office. They had all the joy in their work stripped away. It took decades to get the pits right again after we removed Leadership. So no, the pits arenota viable option. I’m sure I don’t need to remind you what happened when we put them in the labyrinth, either,” Lucifer stated darkly.
Minos and Lucifer both shuddered and shared a look, and Adam couldn’t imagine what was bad enough to make the King of Hell and the Judge of the Damned look so foreboding.
“Well, I mean, can’t you just fire them?” Adam asked. “It doesn’t sound like you like them. It doesn’t sound like anyone likes them. And you’re, like, the CEO, or COO, or CFO, or whatever C-letter acronym it would be for hell. So don’t you get to make the rules?”
“They are, most unfortunately, a necessary evil. Yah and I tried to do it all ourselves, and in the beginning, we could. You humans simply procreate too quickly, however, and there was no way to keep up. Delegation was necessary. Unfortunately, no matter how many times we switch out the Leadership Team, they always end up this way,” Lucifer sighed.
“They’re awful,” Minos grumbled, and yes, Adam thought his sexy demon was actually pouting. It was sort of cute.
“It’s their fault there are so many souls, anyway,” Minos ground out. “The hell overload is their doing—who thinks putting mosquito souls into human bodies is a good idea? Of course you’re going to get bloodthirsty, annoying humans from it.”
Adam stifled a chuckle as Lucifer replied, “Yes, that was one of their more unfortunate choices in soul transfers to make up for human procreation rates.”
Minos continued his rant. “Maybe if they actually assisted in the workload instead of making more work, there wouldn't be ‘backlog’ in the queue,” Minos groused, and he did Adam’s thing with his fingers and air quotes. Awww, Minos was really a Mr. Grumpypants about the whole thing. But still so cute in all his pouty glory.
“You’re so cute, my big, grumpy demon,” Adam gushed, and then he gave Minos a quick peck on the lips before turning back to Lucifer, who looked slightly bemused by the exchange.
Lucifer clasped and folded his hands in front of him, leaning forward in his seat, staring at Minos and Adam. He was very quiet and very serious, and his eyes got kinda glowy, and Adam fidgeted a little, suddenly nervous.
“I see,” Lucifer said, leaning back.
“Do you?” Minos asked, and Adam had to admit he was more than a bit lost. But he actuallydidmanage to keep his mouth shut this time.
And then Lucifer turned around, made some squiggly looking gestures with his fingers on the glass, and sat back in his chair. It seemed like everyone was waiting now, and so Adam (still managing to keep his mouth shut, miracle of miracles and win for him!) curled into Minos and waited too.
There was a feeling like his ears were popping, and then he was looking at another absolutely gorgeous, model-worthy, sexy as hell… ummm… man? Woman? He wasn’t sure. The person looked completely androgynous to him, with a gorgeous white robe/gown kinda thing, an angular face, the lightest and most gorgeous blue eyes Adam had ever seen, and hair so light it was practically white.
