Page 72 of Claimed By her Alien Prince

We sat like this for I don't know how long, just staring out into the unfamiliar, slowly darkening surroundings, and a part of me even enjoyed being cold. I hadn't realized that I missed temperature fluctuations.

A noise like a rock falling startled us before we heard the sound of what were unmistakably footsteps.

Seth rose. "Who is there?"

His hand moved toward his gun, which was hidden underneath his coat, just like mine. We might have been willing to come here, but whatever was going to happen, we weren't going down without a fight.

Our guns were a little different from what I was used on Earth. The bullets shot from them not only had a much longer range and more power, but they were also smaller and did a lot more damage than what I was used to from Earth. Plus, best of all, they could kill Daemons and hopefully Nayphyllym as well.

Seth spent countless hours with me on board theAsphodelshowing me their weaponry besides the swords.

"I'm unarmed," an unfamiliar, male voice said from the shadows.

The twilight was wearing on my eyes, but slowly, I made out the silhouette of a man walking around a large boulder, coming toward us. He was bundled up in makeshift clothing and coats, a scarf of different materials and colors hid most of his face. He pulled it down as he came closer. Exposing a handsome but scarred face. Beside me, Seth stiffened even before the stranger said, "My name is Asmodeus," as he stopped a few feet from us.

"Father?" Seth surprised me as he moved forward, pulling me with him.

"Seth?" The man asked, just as startled. "I only saw you a few times on the ship. Behlial liked to keep us apart."

Seth nodded thoughtfully. "I remember."

To my utter amazement, Seth stepped toward the stranger and took him into his arms. Asmodeus returned the embrace whole-heartedly, with a wide smile on his face, while I kept a tight grip on the butt of my gun, not fully trusting the man, no matter if he was Seth's dad or not.

"I should have known you would make it. You were always the strongest," Asmodeus grinned proudly.

It took me a few minutes to put things together, "So, you two were on theAsphodel, together the entire time, father and son?" I clarified.

Asmodeus nodded. "Yes, but we were forbidden to see each other, even after I won our little… competition? Is that the word? I won the ticket to hell."

I looked around and nodded. Yes, that was an apt word to describe this place. I assumed hell would be hot, but wasn't there a saying? Something like,It's cold as hell? I shook my head. If I had learned anything it was that there was a kernel of truth in most legends.

I was happy for the family reunion, but we were here on a mission, and since Seth seemed dumbstruck, I took the initiative. "Well, what is this place, where are the Nayphyllym?"

Asmodeus laughed hard at that. It was biting, humorless. "That's what we all have been asking for the past… I don't even know how many years."

"We?" I asked.

He nodded somberly. "Yes."

Seth needed more information. "How many of you are there?"

"Well, now we have grown to seventy-two people, but if you are asking about thewinners, there are sixteen, including me."

My mind cartwheeled with the information. Some of these people had been on this dying planet for over sixteen hundred years or more. Before Behlial took Ishtar as his wife, and they started their own little community here. They were bringing life to a dead planet. That thought made me almost sadder. "What happened?"

Again, he shrugged. "Demogorgon, who was the first to get here, found the planet entirely abandoned, says he has never seen a Nayphyllym. When he arrived, everything was abandoned. So, every seven hundred years the last one to arrive comes up here to welcome the newest competitionwinner."

Dizziness overcame me and I swayed just a little. Seth immediately pulled me against him to steady me. Tears burned in my eye., "So it was all for nothing? The Nayphyllym don't even know we are here, this whole competition, going on for thousands of years, was for nothing? Millions of people died over the last…" I threw my hands up in the air, "however, many years, for nothing?"

"I'm afraid so." Asmodeus looked at me with something akin to empathy.

"That man, Demo…" I faltered.

"Demogorgon," Asmodeus helped me out.

"He has been here for thousands of years?"

"Yes." He nodded patiently as if he was explaining all this to a two-year-old. "It was hard on the first ones, but once the first brought his Nayphyllym bride… well, the community began to grow."

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