Page 67 of Sleeping Redemption
She’s a good little demon; she knows you hold a higher power over her. Maybe she could serve at your feet someday.
The Devil was always in my head, trying to show me ways to increase my power over others, but something about controlling Z like that didn’t sit right. I wanted to brush it off as nothing but an intrusive thought.
I spent the next twenty minutes trying to bury myself in TPS reports, evaluating ratios of evil and violence to good deeds.
Just as I pulled up the TPS report for the sector that contained the city of Brixton, Z waltzed out onto the porch, holding an extra-large coffee cup in her hand.
My gaze shifted from the screen in front of me to look at Zorah. Her attire was more casual than normal. She had on apair of navy sweats with white branding on one leg and a white oversized tank top knotted at the bottom hem in the front to fit more snugly, and her choppy bobbed hair was held back in a ponytail with several escaped strands hanging down by her face.
With espresso eyes harboring a slight sense of annoyance, she carried my coffee over to me.
“I hope you appreciate that I debased myself by flirting with a male human so that he could shed his virgin tears into your coffee,” she stated while almost sounding nearly as cranky as Sylas.
I puckered a kiss in her direction with a sweet smile at her before taking a sip of the coffee. Sucking the flavor off my tongue, I furrowed my brows slightly. “He may have been a virgin, but he sure as hell has had a blowie before.”
Z huffed out a sigh. “How do you think I got him to cry?” she asked wearily. “After an entire bottle of mouthwash, I can still taste dick in every crevice of my mouth.”
A slow smirk spread across my face, and I tried to suppress an amused giggle but failed. “Your sacrifice is noted and appreciated.”
As Z took a seat on the cushion next to me, I shifted my legs to crisscross them underneath my computer.
“So, TPS reports, huh?” She leaned over and took a look at my screen curiously.
Nodding, I scrolled down the page I currently had pulled up.
“Yeah, this is Brixton’s sector. So far, everything looks normal,” I noted.
There was a small hum from Zorah that had me glancing over at her questioningly.
“What?” My eyes scanned over each twitch of her facial features.
She reached over and pointed at data in a small chart nestled into the middle of the page. “Those numbers are too high,” she stated with a twinge of concern.
Looking back at the chart, I shook my head. “No, they’re on par with the last several months, Z.”
“Lee-Lee,” her voice dropped to a more somber tone. “They would be if we weren’t down the Malechai triplets. The three of them have been summoned down to the First Circle. Limbo is nearly maxed out and approaching overcapacity, so they were reassigned there to enact a sense of order.”
I let that sink in for a moment. If there was a personnel shift, that meant there was a significant increase in wicked events. The gears in my brain continued to churn while I sipped on my virgin tear latte.
Slowly, I wondered if the same oversight was made in other sectors. With hundreds of them, such a subtle difference would add up quickly, meaning the scales truly were tipping. That led to the biggest question of all: who was responsible for it, how, and why?
“My dearest Kinley.” The deep register of the ruler of Hell himself came from behind the sofa.
My name rolled off his tongue like a lust-filled moan. “Lucifer.” I addressed him as I shoved my laptop to the side and stood to turn and face him.
Zorah immediately scrambled onto the ground, debasing herself onto her knees and pressing her forehead to the ground.
His presence was a silhouette with the backdrop of the sunshine pouring onto my porch, providing a blinding background to his otherwise shadowy presence here earthside. He stepped closer, paused and looked down at Zorah.
The words that came out of his mouth next were firm but not menacing. “Be gone, pet. I have important matters to discuss with my Second In Command.”
There was no hesitation from my demon best friend, just a quick nod of her head. She was there, bowed down before him one moment and gone the next.
Now, it was just me and the ruler of the land of hellfire and brimstone.
“It must be important if you have traveled from the depths of your kingdom,” I observed casually.
He approached me until his towering darkness loomed over me. The shadows themselves swirled like a black mist around his hand as he reached out and stroked my cheek with the back of his fingertips. The contact was a tingling warmth that flitted over my skin.
