Demon Bound (Bound Series, Book One) (2 page)

Several hours later, the torture of sitting here watching the clock tick away the seconds is almost as bad as having no concept of time at all. It is deathly quiet, there is only her in this vast room and she has been sitting on this shit stool for almost three hours now without a single soul coming through.

Axelle taps her pen and then finally a red light appears above the little wooden door. She opens it up, and calls out “Next!” loudly, although that was completely pointless as the Reaper and his soul are already standing right in front of her and she has just bellowed into his hood.

“Oh! Hi,” she says brightly, eager for some conversation, but the Reaper just ignores her and hands her a rolled up scroll. “Okay, whatever,” she mutters and takes it from him. She thinks it’s a ‘him’, hard to tell under that big, black hood.

Axelle unrolls the scroll and picks up her pen. Seems all she has to do is check the box that best describes the soul’s temperament, sign it and stamp it with the official Inbound date stamp.

Easy peasey.

She pops it into the slot, as instructed, and waves away the soul and his Reaper, slamming the little door in their faces. That sort of makes her feel better. The ignorant jerk. The least he could have done was make some small talk. She is bored senseless, but seeing the fear and trepidation in the wispy, black soul that just passed through has pretty much made her day. Oh, how she misses people, and their vices. She sighs and hopes that another soul comes along shortly with a chattier Reaper, before she loses her mind.

Sadly, there is only one more soul on her docket for that day and the Reaper was about as unforthcoming as the first one.
Miserable bunch
, she grouses to herself as the clock finally ticks away to five o’clock.

“Thank fuck for that,” she mutters as she leaps off her stool and makes her way to the exit. She opens the door expecting to be in the same room she was before with Roberta, but instead she finds herself joining the masses of demons making their way home at the end of the nine-to-five workday. She is starting to get how it works down here now. The door opens up to where
it
wants
you
to be. It’s kind of a neat trick, but also a way of keeping all of the Devil’s little minions in line. No escaping when it won’t let you. Besides, Axelle had wondered how she would find her way home and back here again tomorrow, so it’s just fine with her. For now.

Axelle files into a line of bored looking demons and steps up onto the escalator that has a big neon sign that reads ‘Apartment block D’ above it. All around her, there is chatter and laughter, but no one talks to her. She is all alone.

She never had a chance to make any friends the first time she was sent here as she went through the demon-making process immediately and was assigned straight back to earth to cause havoc among mankind, where she stayed for two hundred years. Only the most depraved souls get let out of the gate as soon as they arrive and that is something she had always prided herself on. Now though, she is just a lower-than-low admin bitch, forced to make her way back up the ladder to chaos-maker, and more importantly back to earth and Slade to seek her revenge.

Axelle follows the directions she was handed in her folder to her new apartment and she unlocks the door tentatively, pushing it all the way open before she steps inside. It looks like a regular apartment so she walks in and closes the door behind her.

Well, ‘apartment’ is probably taking it too far. It comprises of one room that houses her bedroom, the kitchen and the living room and a separate room for the bathroom. Err, make that shower room. There is no bath.

Axelle sinks miserably onto the fold out couch that is her bed and slumps her shoulders remembering the apartment that she’d inhabited when she was possessing Lacey. It was nice enough, not exactly to her taste, but it was a million times better than this dump.

However, at least this dump has a TV; she tries to find the positive in this. TV in hell is something she has never experienced before so she is rather curious as to what it entails. She slopes off the bed and pulls off her light gray jacket and opens the closet. The contents take her breath away and not in a good way. Or at least not all of it. There are four more light gray suits, just like the one she has on, four more white cotton blouses, just like the one she has on, and another pair of light gray mid-heeled shoes, just like the ones she has on.

But she pushes all of that aside to see the beautiful creation nestled in the middle of all the dullness. A stunning red dress that seems even more vivid due to its surroundings. It is a halter neck with a low back and falls to the floor in a satin puddle of gorgeousness. There is a note attached to it, which Axelle pulls off with a frown.

Dinner

That’s all it says. She can only assume it was sent by the Devil as he is the only one who knows she is here. Well, and Roberta of course, but she highly doubts that awful bitch would want to take her to dinner.

But why would the Devil want to take her out?

She ponders on this as she takes a look around the kitchen. There are a few basic food items in the cupboards and refrigerator, and the freezer is stocked full of Lean Cuisine’s.

Great.

It’s about as exciting as her skirt suit.

After that, Axelle doesn’t waste too much time in debating the reasons why he has asked her to dinner and sent her a masterpiece to wear. She is more bothered about finding the shoes to go with the dress. She sees a red box next to the gray shoes and she drops to her knees to lift the lid.

“Oh!” she exclaims, as her eyes land on a perfect pair of red Christian Louboutin’s, so decadently high she wants to weep with joy.

Axelle carefully places the lid back on the box and is on her feet in less than a second. Only slightly concerned as to his motives, she races to the shower room to get ready. If she has been invited to a dinner party, she has to make this work for her. She has to network her ass off in order to make friends in higher places so she can get the hell off the first deck.

An hour later, after Axelle spent more time than she should have in the shower room admiring her new and quite stunning, bright blue eyes in the mirror, she is swanning around her room in the gorgeous red dress and heels enjoying the feel of the satin against her skin. There was no time attached to the note, so she assumes she is to just show up when she is ready. She has pinned her hair back off her face, but has kept the long, blonde tresses cascading down her back.

She looks good. Damn good. And she knows it. She opens the door to her apartment and wonders what’s next. Where is she supposed to go?

She isn’t left to wonder for long for as soon as she steps out, she dematerializes and reappears almost instantly in a very dark, very grand foyer.

Axelle blinks rapidly, trying to get her eyes used to the dim light of the few black candles scattered about. She can make out a sweeping staircase off to the left and several archways, which lead to who knows where, to her right. She is left standing there on her own for just long enough to start to feel uncomfortable, when a pair of olive-skinned beauties glide towards her, dressed only in heels that match her own.

The dark-haired twins give her a disinterested once over before they flank her and start to walk forward. Axelle follows wondering what is going on. The place is completely deserted from what she can tell, except for the three of them.

The twins lead her straight forward, under another archway, and into the bowels of this dark mansion. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out it is the Devil’s residence. It has decadence and elegant debauchery stamped all over it. The naked twin beauties are only a small part of that. The artwork is downright pornographic in its depictions of various versions of how people see the Devil--horned, red-skinned, claws, goat head, the usual myths--engaging in vile sexual acts with various men, women or beasts. There are statues in a similar theme to the paintings, and there are instruments of torture adorning the walls, several of them coated in blood, that add to the air of depravity of this house of sin.

Axelle loves it!

She finds herself quite comfortable in these surroundings. Perhaps if she plays her cards right tonight, she will be seeing more of this place in the future.

Eventually Axelle is led into an enormous banqueting hall with a stone floor and a big, candle chandelier above a ridiculously long table that could easily seat twenty people on either side. At the head of the table the furthest away from her, there sits the Devil.

All by himself.

He is suited in an eye-wateringly gorgeous, expensive, black suit and his blue eyes are regarding her intently as she makes her entrance. The twins abandon her side and make their way over to the Devil to drape themselves all over him. He ignores them in favor of raking his eyes over her, and her skin prickles.

“I knew that would look good on you,” he drawls and indicates that she should sit. The only other place setting is at the opposite end of the table, miles away from him, but she sits down anyway.

“We are dining alone?” she asks loudly, motioning with her hand to the vast, empty seats in between them.

“Did I give you the impression that someone else was joining us?” he asks.

She narrows her eyes at him. “You didn’t give me any impression, just a dress with a note on it,” she remarks.

“Just a dress…” he murmurs, doing a damn good job of ignoring the twin that has her tongue stuck in his ear.

“A beautiful dress,” Axelle says quickly, feeling slightly flustered by his extreme coolness.

“Hm,” he says and picks up his silver goblet to take a small sip of the contents.

Axelle waits for more conversation, but there is just silence and her relaxed attitude disappears on her and she feels somewhat tense. In an effort to break the tension, she picks up her own silver goblet and takes a large swig of it. It is a smooth red wine mixed with what she is sure is human blood, and it makes her feel better as it slides down her throat.

“To your liking?” the Devil asks her.

“Yes, thank you,” Axelle replies politely, “err, sir?” She has no idea what to call him. “The Devil” seems a bit gauche.

He snickers slightly. “You may call me Luc,” he says easily, his aloof air receding slightly.

“Okay, Luke,” she says with a teasing smile, feeling like they are finally getting somewhere.

He frowns at her. “No,
Luc,”
he emphasizes the pronunciation.

“Got it,
Luke
,” she says raising her goblet to him before she takes another big gulp of her blood wine.

“Luc!” he shouts at her, slamming his fist on the table. The twins step back from the display of temper, lowering their eyes in supplication, but Axelle just gives him a wicked smile letting him know she was teasing and testing him. It’s a dangerous game, but she was made to cause chaos--it’s what she does--and the sooner he remembers that the better.

“Hm,” he says again, looking completely unruffled after his strop, and picks up his goblet again.

“Dinner is served,” a loud voice suddenly announces, and a plate of the most mouth-watering food appears before Axelle.

Only Axelle.

“You aren’t eating?” she asks.

“I have no need,” he replies.

“Neither do I,” she says. She can eat in this human form, and she enjoys it, but she doesn’t really need it to sustain her essence. “Doesn’t mean that I don’t, and it’s kind of rude to just sit there and watch me.”

“I like to watch,” he says with a dark flash to his eyes.

I bet you do
. “So do I,” Axelle says seductively, her eyes briefly going to the twin that now has her hand under his shirt. She is all on board for a bit of fun. She hasn’t had sex in forever and she is getting quite horny watching his two sex slaves slobber all over him while he sits there as if they aren’t even there.

Luc doesn’t say anything as she takes a bite of a supremely succulent steak, cooked to perfection. The blood oozes out of it as she slices into it and she twirls her knife through the liquid missing the feel of blood on her hands.

“I understand your disappointment,” Luc says breaking the silence. “But rules are rules, my dear, and quite frankly I should have left you where you were.”’

“Why didn’t you?” she asks quietly, her misery suddenly engulfing her. She looks doomed to spend eternity in a dead-end, gray job.

“Your
talents
are wasted in that cell,” he answers her just as quietly.

“Better put to use as an Inbound Admin bitch?” she asks tartly, her attitude resurfacing as quickly as it went down. She pushes away the sadness of her situation. It just isn’t in her to be beaten down. She will fight this and she will fight it her way. Even the Devil can be tempted and seduced by her fiery attitude.

Luc laughs seemingly enjoying her defiance. “Inbound is an integral part of the workings of hell, Axelle. You should be proud to be a part of it.”

“Hah,” she scoffs, her mouth full of mashed potato.  “Sure, super proud.”