Heaven's Key (Demon Hunter Book 1) (4 page)

We rode for hours. I normally hate driving long distances, but the Hellcat’s seats were incredibly comfortable and we found this amazing mom and pop donut shop that served decent coffee and fresh homemade donuts.

By the time the third donut was sitting like a ball of lard in my stomach, I was getting sleepy. Cole and I always traded off the driving, but this was his new baby and he was having too much fun, so I let the carbs and fat drag me under for a fabulous nap in the sun.

The highway was practically deserted. That meant Cole’s driving was smooth and soon my eyes were shutting. I felt light, floating deeper and deeper into sleep. A loud horn startled me awake. Disoriented, it took me a minute to realize we weren’t in Kansas anymore. We weren’t on Earth and I likely wasn’t awake at all.

Cole had been replaced by Cain. He wore a suit and driving gloves. The road was dark and trees lined each side—sinister trees leaning in like predators waiting for their prey. The Hellcat was purring and I hoped she stayed that way. I had a feeling movement was the only thing keeping the branches from swallowing us whole.

“I was hoping your visit last night was because of the drugs I was on. Does this mean I now have my very own internal stalker?”

“For an ethereal key, you have a very cutting way of talking to me.”

“Maybe if you called first. You never asked if it was okay to invade my brain. I could have tidied up, put the kettle on.”

A flat, mirthless laugh filled the car. “You’re a different sort. I don’t ask permission as a general rule, but I’ll take it into consideration.”

“What do you want, Cain? I already told you I’m not going to be your key.”

“True, and I didn’t expect you to agree the first time I asked.”

“So you’re going to nag me into submission?”

“You can’t fool me, Jael. You act tough, but you’re terrified.”

“Of course I’m fucking terrified. How could I not be? I’m on a Sunday drive through Hell with the Prince of Darkness, and I don’t mean Ozzy Osbourne.”

He sped up the car. Each turn felt like we were going to flip; each straightaway he used to gain even more speed.

“Is this in my head or are we really in Hell?” I had to keep talking, asking questions, or I was going to lose it.

“Both. We’re in your head
and
in Hell. It’s all very complicated.”

“Why are you doing this?” He slowed the car.

“I want you to give my father what he wants so I can take the throne. I want to rule Hell.”

“What’s in it for me?” He slowed even more. My stomach slipped back in place and my heart wasn’t beating against my ribs anymore.

“I can grant you anything in my power, but what would be better than ruling at my side?”

“I’m supposed to believe you want me for your bride?”

“I don’t expect you to believe anything I say and I’m not proposing marriage. That isn’t something I believe in, but I’ve been studying you, hunter. I’ve come to admire you. I love your cunning, your independence. You’re a very sexy woman. A woman I’d love to have in my bed and by my side. We could rule together. As a hunter, you kill a demon and another one pops up. It is a never-ending battle. Think of how much you could accomplish if you could rule them all.”

The trees began to thin. A cluster of lights could be seen far off in the distance. It was a city. I didn’t know Hell had cities and I definitely didn’t want to visit this one. “So you would let me disassemble Hell? Kill every last demon? Seal it up so nothing from this place ever makes its way back to Earth?”

He pulled off into a dirt clearing. I felt safer when we were moving. Over the years of hunting, I had developed a demon radar and mine was off the charts. “No, of course not. I hope to one day convince you that there will always be evil and getting rid of Hell and its denizens won’t cure the world of its problems.”

“Man isn’t perfect. We have our flaws. We commit sins and we do horrible things to one another, but how much of that is your kind whispering in our ears and leading us down a path we might not otherwise follow?”

“Demons seek to create chaos and turmoil in your world, that is true, but we only have the power you give us. We can only enter if you commit the sin to let us in. You just worked with a woman who was so vain she threw away years of her life just to look young again. That Nybbus was invited in.”

“So demons are just opportunists? They don’t create their own opportunities?”

“Consider them salesmen you let into your home. Once there, they may convince you to buy more than you bargained for, but you still let them in.”

“I’ve seen innocent people hurt by your kind.”

“No system is perfect. What of your God? He could intervene. He could be your champion, yet he never leaves his post. He loves you more than anything, yet he never shows you that love. He demands you have faith. At least we don’t claim to be anything other than what we are.”

“You’re barking up the wrong tree. I’m no fan of God either. I only think he exists because I know you exist. I assume if there is a Hell, there is a Heaven, but I don’t care to go to either. I hope when I take my last breath, the only place I go is in the ground. I fight demons for the good of man, not because I’m a religious zealot.”

He took my hand in his. His touch sent a spark of electricity down my spine. I hadn’t meant to be so revealing to this monster in an angel suit. Cain brought my hand to his lips and placed a cool kiss on the back. “Look at it as getting your revenge. You let my father into Heaven and then we can finally see who is more powerful. They use humans as their chess pieces. Let them use each other.”

For a moment, it felt like he was right. I almost said so. Closing my eyes, I imagined my revenge on the devil who brought such terrible creatures into the world and the God who did nothing about it, and then I came back to my senses.

This was what they did. This was what they were bred for. They seduced your mind. They made you think what they were saying made perfect sense. They made you think they were on your side, that they wanted what was best for you. They seduced your mind or your body and most humans never saw it coming. I knew their tricks and I wasn’t so easily fooled.

“Humans don’t need God to fight our battles. He made us so we could fight our own. I’m no fan of His, but if, as you say, there needs to be a balance, then killing Him isn’t likely to do us any favors.”

He wasn’t done with me yet. Biting the inside of my cheek, I tried to wake myself up. It did nothing but give me a sore cheek.

“Do you see that city off in the distance?”

“Yes.”

“That is Caina. Yes, named after yours truly. It’s the capital of Hell. It’s where we will reign. It’s where you will have your very own throne, right next to mine, and we will rule Hell together. I won’t expect an answer this time. It is a big decision, but you will say ‘yes’ someday; you will come to see that it is your destiny.”

I snorted. “My destiny? I don’t make deals with demons and I certainly don’t agree to rule Hell with them.”

He pulled me to him, his eyes so close to mine I could see every golden fleck. His lips were a mere whisper away. He was strong and I couldn’t back away. The windows started to steam up and I was getting warm.

“You’ll resist me. I see that. You have to because of who you are. It is ingrained in you to hate my kind. I can understand that; you’ve seen some horrific things perpetrated by my kind, but once you get to know me, you’ll see how much more we can do as a team. I don’t hate humans—I am one—my father does. You’ll see; ruling at my side is what you’ll want. It’s what you’ll crave and ache for. Do you feel the heat between us, my hunter? It will grow and consume you until resisting me is no longer an option.”

We had chemistry. Being this close to him, I wanted his lips on mine, my hands exploring his body. His lips hovered close to mine, daring me to close the gap. I had to tell myself it wasn’t real. It was just a wet dream. That concept tickled my funny bone and I started to laugh. Once it started, it had a life of its own, and I couldn’t stop. My side was hurting and I couldn’t catch my breath.

Fire blazed in those beautiful eyes. Laughing while he was trying to seduce me wasn’t the smartest thing I’d ever done. He threw me back and my head hit the window. It made me laugh even harder. My stomach muscles were aching.

His hand went to the back of his neck and he rubbed it with his head hanging low. His jaw clenched and unclenched while he waited for my bout of the giggles to end. As he looked towards the horizon, he was still and quiet.

It was the sad look on his face that finally made me quit my case of the giggles. I was expecting him to kill me. Laughing at the Father of Murder isn’t exactly something you expect to walk away from. He was quiet for a long time. I stared at him as he looked straight ahead.

“Are you done laughing at me?” His tone was clipped and measured.

“I wasn’t really laughing at you. I was wondering if we had sex, would it be considered a wet dream, and I found that funny. I guess only guys can have…”

“Enough!” Turning to me, his eyes glowing, he smiled, and I swear I saw a forked tongue. “I’m fond of you, you intrigue me, and you are the key, but don’t ever think you’re safe to humiliate me. I will not suffer that, even from you, my hunter. I am powerful and I deserve respect.”

I had to make this right. I didn’t care about his feelings, but I was worried about my safety. “Cain, I meant no offense. You’re in my head and you scare the crap out of me. I laughed out of nervousness.”

His eyes cooled and he looked human again. He placed his hand on my cheek and I didn’t dare move. “You will come to see things my way, Jael. I can be very persuasive. Give in now or later; I have all the time in the world.”

“You might scare me, Cain, but I won’t be with you and I won’t unlock the door to Heaven. I won’t do anything Lucifer thinks is a good idea.”

“We’ll see. Next time, I’ll take you on a tour of the city. We can see a play maybe? There are a lot of Hollywood stars down here. Heaven gets a few, but we get all the good ones.” His charming smile was back, but I had seen his other face and that was the real Cain.

“So I guess asking you to stay out of my head isn’t going to work?”

“I don’t want to start this relationship off with lies, so that’s a promise I can’t make. I’ll stay out of your head if you agree to start seeing me in the real world.”

“If I have a choice, then the answer is no. What would the other hunters say if I was seen with the son of Lucifer? I’d never be invited to any of the good parties anymore.”

“You always make jokes when you are scared?”

“Not always, but I’m at my funniest while under pressure.”

He took my hand, kissed it again, and he was gone. I awoke in the car with Cole looking at me like I had laid an egg. “What?”

“You were laughing, then you settled down for a little while. Next thing I know, you’re placing your hand to my face. It was frigging bizarre. FYI, wash your hands. They smell weird.”

“I guess I was having a strange dream. Sorry about the hand thing.”

“Working with you is not boring.”

Turning up the music, I faced the passenger window and watched the scenery fly by. I wasn’t ready to tell him what was going on. He had a right to know, but what would I tell him? I was having dreams about Cain, he healed me, he wanted me to open Heaven because I was the key and, the piece de resistance, and he wanted me to rule Hell by his side? It sounded crazy in my head. Saying it out loud, I might commit myself.

If things didn’t work themselves out, I’d tell him after I had some time to think about what I was going to do. First thing I needed to do was some research. I had a few sources who were good at digging up information on demons and angels. They might be able to come up with a way to keep Cain from visiting my noggin every time I went to sleep.

The next sign for Seattle said we were only thirty-five miles back. “Take this exit; she lives on Mercer Island.”

“She must have money.”

“All of Bevie’s clients have money. This one is supposed to be a famous artist.”

“Good. We could use a little culture. I can’t wait to meet her.”

“I can’t wait for you to meet her either.” Bevie had warned me what kind of artist she was. Not warning Cole was going to be a little gift to myself.

Cain

It took every ounce of strength I had not to kill her. I had flashes of her delicate neck breaking under the pressure of my hands. Jael was going to be a trial of my patience and one I wasn’t positive I was going to win. Looking around my bedroom, I surveyed the damage. My gothic-inspired room was now just a pile of scrap wood. It had taken every last smash and snap of each piece before I felt myself again.

Carl was going to be a busy man. He would have to clean everything out and then put the room back the way it was. I knew it was going to be impossible to replace everything; some were one-of-a-kind pieces. It almost made me feel guilty that I’d have to punish him for failing.

I couldn’t help myself. Most women took one look at me and their panties were wet. They were putty in my perfectly manicured hands. Jael was not one of those women. She fought her attraction and she couldn’t see sense when it was staring her in the face. I was giving her unimagined power and she laughed at me.

“Carl, get in here. I can hear your knees knocking from here.” The creature known as Carl lumbered in. He had been a human once upon a time. After centuries of being in Hell, he was a horrid-looking beast. In life, he had been a tall, handsome warrior, a Viking king who had terrorized and conquered many lands. Now he was barely over three feet tall and covered with warts and large moles. His limbs had grown thick and squat, making him more closely resemble a gnarled tree than a person.

“You called, your Highness?”

“I made a bit of a mess. I’ll need you to refurbish my room and I’ll need it before I retire tonight. That should give you almost an hour.” Some might think I was cruel to give him an impossible task, but when he got really scared, his eyes would bulge and his rotund belly would jiggle and dance. The sight of that always cheered me up. I wasn’t disappointed.

“Of course. Right away.” His beady eyes darted around the room, surveying the task at hand.

“I think I’ll have a nice soak before retiring. I need to relax.” Carl tripped over his own stubby legs trying to get into the bathroom to run my bath. Considering all he had to do, I really should have run it myself, but he had that magic touch. It was never too hot or too cold, and he knew the exact oils I needed for maximum relaxation.

Carl busied himself with the task at hand while I got undressed. He hurried out of the room as soon as he was done. The water was perfect, as usual. The man would deserve a raise if I paid him. Maybe I’d give him an extra bit of straw for his bed. I didn’t want to spoil him, though.

The water and Carl’s magical touch failed to relax me. Her irritating giggle echoed in my head in an endless loop. She was just so infuriating. The world was supposed to work where I asked for things and then I got them. Was I growing soft? No, she was a hard case and that was the whole point. Making the key an easy target wouldn’t be very smart.

I thought I had her. When she leaned in, I could hear her heart racing and could smell how much she wanted me, and then she had to start that infuriating laughing. She was the reason poor Carl was out there right now cleaning and sweeping up splintered pieces of furniture.

All that research I did on her and nothing helped when I was with her. It only made me want her more. Should I resign myself to the fact that she might never want me back? No, I believed my hunter and I were meant to be and we would reign Hell together, no matter what I had to do to make that happen.

Father wanted the task done yesterday, but it would take time to build trust with her. It might mean I had to work a little harder than usual, but she was still a woman and I had seduced thousands. She would fall under my spell.

I had time. If I had to ask her every day until she was old and senile, I would do it.
Bah!
I wanted her now. I wanted her by my side when I took the throne. Everything about her drove me mad. No other woman—and I’d known so many—had made me want her this much.

My father was going to be furious. Failure was not an option when he asked you to do something. The family dinner table had many empty seats. He’d also tortured a few, but I’d mostly been spared any kind of punishment.

I was his favorite son but that was only because I was half angel. I was conceived before he had been changed by Hell. He was able to give me part of his ethereal essence, but it wouldn’t matter if I failed him; he would torture me until I begged for death and, being part human, that unfortunately was possible.

He would regret it of course, not because he loved me and would miss me; no, nothing sentimental like that. He would regret killing the man who truly ran Hell. My father sat on his throne all day, plotting his revenge on his own father. He had little time for the daily workings of the place he ruled.

Hell had rules and it needed close supervision. I was the one who made sure everything ran smoothly. Some demons would decimate the whole human population if left unchecked, but that wasn’t the purpose of Hell. The purpose of Hell was to punish those who needed to be punished. It had evolved over the years and some demons were very powerful. Following the rules wasn’t in their nature, so it was my job to make sure they did.

Father had no interest in any of the day-to-day tedium of running a system as complicated as Hell. He wanted revenge and he wanted God to see what he had done to his once favorite son. Granddad really had done a number on him. We were the original fucked-up family. God preached forgiveness, but he had none for my father. Lucifer led a rebellion against his father and was thrown from Heaven.

My father hated humans. He hated God’s infinite forgiveness that he had for them. My father failed to see that God only forgave those who repented and asked for forgiveness. Something my father had never done, nor did he think he should have to do. If I was being objective, Granddad had been in the right; he had been betrayed by his son. Throwing him from Heaven was an act of mercy--he could have killed him.

Lucifer fell and lost his wings, but not his pride. He still thought he should have been the ruler of Heaven and he wanted one more chance to prove it. Imagine if the king of Hell ascended to rule Heaven. What would that look like? He spent his exile trying to steal all of God’s children away from him. What would he do if he was God? Would he annihilate the human race? Or would he bask in their adoration or their fear?

Part of me thought if he ever met Grandpapa again, he’d fall at his feet and beg forgiveness. I thought a tiny part of his blackened soul wanted forgiveness. He wanted to be loved again, but that part was small and weak compared to the anger and yearning for revenge.

I was no better. I hated my father and yet I had this sadistic need to please him. I wanted his throne and I wanted to make him proud and getting the key to open Heaven would give me both. When the throne was mine, Hell would be a place to fear; it would be in the back of every human’s mind when they wanted to do wrong.

Hell would no longer be an abstract place, a fairy tale. I would make sure every man, woman, and child knew where their actions were leading them and then, when they were mine, the punishment would fit the crime. Jael and I would rule over a kingdom that wasn’t evil, but just.

Only humans had the free will to choose to be good or evil. They had it within them to be both. They made that choice every day. Demons were who they were and they had no ability to be anything but. You couldn’t expect a demon to be kind or to be generous. It wasn’t within his capability. If my father was any example of what angels were like, they were no better; they just lived by a different set of rules.

Heaven and Hell have been in a struggle for souls since my mother ate the forbidden fruit. It’s how they feel they win. I was sick of the pissing contest. I wanted Hell to be for those who deserved it, not those who were suckered into filling a quota. I wasn’t demon, angel, or human. I was a little of all three. Nephilim by birth and demon by circumstance.

What my father did in Heaven mattered little to me. My grandfather turned his back on me. He chose to love my brother Abel, but I wasn’t good enough. I was an innocent; my father was not my choosing, but I still bore his sin. God loved all his children but me. It was my human side that grew the seed of jealousy and it flowered into rage and a need for revenge. I regret killing my brother; he was not to blame. We were victims of fate. He had the right father and I did not.

I wanted her to be by my side. I could think of no woman past or present who would make a better queen. She’d see reason eventually. I wouldn’t stop until she did.
Bah!
Why did I want this infuriating woman so much? She vexed me. She had been on my mind every minute since I knew of her existence. She was a foul-mouthed creature with no refinement. She’d kill me if she could and never have one moment of guilt.

A smile spread across my face and my cock began to stir. She was a warrior and she was strong willed. Jael was sexy and she knew it. We were kindred spirits, she and I. We’d both known tragedy and we were better for it. We were alone in this world and our souls recognized that. She’d see sense and she would be mine. I would do everything in my power to make it so.

“Carl.”

The little man ambled into the bathroom. “Yes, sir?”

“The bath is getting cold. Have you finished with my room?”

“No, sir. I’m almost done with the cleanup, but the furniture has yet to arrive. I’m expecting it any minute. Perhaps I could warm your bath?” He waddled towards me.

“No, my skin is starting to prune. You know I hate that.”

“Of course, sir. Let me get you your towel.”

The towel warmer was on high and Carl flicked the towel in the air to get it to my preferred temperature. I really should have been nicer to him. Was there anything that felt better than being wrapped in a warm fluffy towel? Carl had stubby wings that somehow were capable of lifting his body. Once he had me wrapped and I was dried, he held out my robe.

“I’ll have a drink in the library first. I have some research to do. You have until I get back to have my room exactly how it was.”

“Of course, sir. You are most generous to give me the extra time.”

“I am, aren’t I?” The creature named Carl bowed several times and then left me to dress.

Walking to the library, I thought of the next time I would see my hunter. I was going at it all wrong. Turning on the charm and flashing a smile worked with most women, but not my hunter. She had hardened her heart a long time ago and I would have to work to get through to her, but I was willing. She was worth it.