Lucas: Origins Of A Demon (2 page)

BOOK: Lucas: Origins Of A Demon
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“Will that be a problem for you?”

“A problem?” He laughs, then puts the gun back in the drawer finally. “I don’t have a fucking problem, not at all. But
someone
will have a fucking problem with it, I can tell you that.”

“This Dimitri you keep mentioning.”

Jake refills his glass without offering Lucas one. “Yeah, fucking Dimitri.”

“May I take a seat?”

Jake waves his hand dismissively while he sinks half the contents of his glass.

Lucas sits down in the cheaply made faux leather chair by the front of the desk, gazes calmly at the mess of a man opposite him, who is currently doing a bad job off wiping whiskey of the front of his gray sports jacket. Lucas hates to see humans in this condition. They make it too easy for demons to despise them.

“So,” Jake says, after refilling his glass for the second time. “Why would a young guy like you want to buy this shit hole anyway?”

“It has potential,” Lucas says, and because it is the perfect place for him to hide out while he works on securing his future on this planet.


Potential
.” Jake laughs bitterly and shakes his head. “I used to think like you.” I doubt that, Lucas thinks. “I used to see potential. I saw potential in this place when I bought it ten years ago. This place used to be great before-”

“Before what?”

“Before I let that Russian motherfucker Dimitri into my goddamn life.”

Lucas says nothing.He has come across countless men like Jake in the past. Men who had it made, but for one reason or another, lost their grip, usually because of greed or because their appetites and desires took precedence over holding their shit together. In Jake’s case here, it is obviously the booze that derailed him in the beginning, and then it became a slippery slope from there, ending with him being under the thumb of this Russian gangster he keeps mentioning.

Rather than sit and pretend to be interested while Jake gives him a sob story, Lucas decides to cut straight to the chase. He takes a pen off the desk and then writes down a number on a slightly crumpled post-it note before handing it to Jake.

Jake frowns, but takes the note. His frown deepens as he takes in the figure Lucas has written there. Then he makes some sort of guffawing noise before draining what’s left in his glass. “Seriously?” he says to Lucas. He throws the post-it note and it lands in Lucas’ lap. Not what Lucas is expecting. “There’s no fucking way anyone would pay that amount of money for this place. Get the fuck out of here. I don’t know why you come here, but obviously you’re just yanking my chain, so go on, get the fuck out of my office.” He has the gun out again, waving it in front of Lucas.

Lucas doesn’t move. “Let me assure you, Jake. This is not a joke, and that figure you just tossed at me is what I’m prepared to pay you for this place.”

Jake stares at him, seeming unsure of what to do.

Lucas stares back, waiting.

It would be easy for Lucas to just reach into Jake’s mind and force him to comply. It would also be easy for Lucas to cause Jake to think that he needed to take the gun he was holding and shoot himself in the head with it. But Lucas does not want to go down that road unless it is absolutely necessary. Once upon a time, mind-raping people would have been his first course of action if he wanted something from them. Not so much now. He has learned the hard way that such behavior always comes at a price.

After staring at Lucas for a long time, Jake says, “Jesus, you
are
fucking serious, aren’t you?”

Lucas nods. “Yes.”

“But you’re no more than a kid, for Christ’s sake. Where would you get that kind of money?”

Lucas removes the post-it note from his lap and places it on the desk in front of Jake. “Money is not an issue for me.”

“What are you, a drug dealer or something?”

“No.” Lucas feels like flashing his demon eyes at Jake, as he is becoming tired of Jake’s reticence. Things were so much easier in the past when he could just make humans and non-humans alike do what he wanted them to do. But he is trying to change, to not land himself in the shit for a third time, so he just smiles at Jake. “I can have the cash transfered into your account within the next five minutes.”

Jake visibly swallows, tries to contain himself as he no doubt thinks about having all that cash sitting in his bank account, about all the drinking and whatever else he could do with it. But he shakes his head. “It’s not that easy. I can’t just sell this place. Dimitri would fucking kill me.”

That cursed name again, Lucas thinks. Whoever this Dimitri was, he sure had the screws well tightened on Jake. “Why don’t you let me worry about Dimitri,” Lucas said. “Just take my offer and go far away from here.”

Jake’s bloodshot eyes flit about everywhere as he appears to wrestle with his conflicting wants and emotions. “He’d find me. That motherfucker would find me and he would
kill
me. You don’t know this guy, he’s not even human, I’m telling you, he’s a fucking…”

“He’s a what?”

“He’s just a psychopath of the highest order, alright? He would never let me get away with selling up here and just walking away. He would want his cut for a start.”

“He has a stake here?”

“A stake?” Jake laughs. “Yeah. He sends his fucking goons in here once a month so they can take five grand off me, fuck all my girls, drink my fucking bar dry and then clear off without so much as a goddamn thank you!” Lucas has to keep from smiling. Humans who get worked up and angry like this are amusing to him. Jake is comedy gold as he spits all over his desk during his rant. “And to top it all off, he runs his filthy fucking drugs through here as well.
And
he expects me to launder his money for him!”

“It sounds like you’re in deep with this guy.”

“In deep? His balls are banging off my ass while he fucks me!”

Lucas allows himself a cool smile, though he wants to laugh at that. “Like I said. Take the money and this Dimitri will no longer be a problem for you.”

Jake looks at Lucas like Lucas is nuts. “Do you hear yourself, kid? You have no fucking idea of who are you are dealing with when it comes to a guy like Dimitri.”

I think I do, Lucas thinks. He is willing to bet this Dimitri is a non-human. Maybe even a demon. It is baggage he can do without, but he likes the club, wants to stay in it. He will deal with Dimitri somehow, demon or not. Although if Dimitri is a demon, paying him off might be the best option. Starting a war against another demon might not be the best thing to do if he is trying to stay low key.

“Do you want my money or not?” Lucas says to Jake.

“Of course I want the money,” Jake says back. “But-”

“Good enough.”

Lucas enters Jake’s mind in an instant, causing Jake to suddenly sit still, his eyes glazing over like he has just been hit with a mild dose of Morphine. When he violates a human mind, as he is doing now to Jake, Lucas usually tries to make the experience as painless as possible, unless he does not like the person, in which case he would cause them untold pain in the process of mind-fucking them.

Jake seems okay. Just a guy in a bad position, albeit through his own mistakes. Lucas makes Jake think that Dimitri isn’t a problem anymore, that he no longer feared his tormentor and that it is safe for him to sell the club to Lucas and move away somewhere else. When he is finished, Lucas smiles at Jake as the man comes around, his eyes coming back into focus.

Jake shakes his head a little. “Sorry,” he says, a bit woozy sounding. “Zoned out there for a second, didn’t I? Too much of this stuff.” He puts the glass down that is in his hand. “Anyway, I’d like to sell the club to you, kid. Fuck Dimitri. I’m not afraid of that guy. Come to think of it, I don’t know why I was afraid of him in the first place. I mean, Jesus. The guy’s a fucking pussy, right?”

“A pussy,” Lucas says, nodding. “Indeed. May I use your laptop?”

“Of course.” Jake turns the open laptop around so it faces Lucas. Lucas logs into one of his many bank accounts, then asks Jake for his own bank details, which he enters in as well. A moment later, and it’s done.

“The transfer is complete.” Lucas turns the laptop around to Jake again. “See for yourself.”

Jake takes a moment to check his account. “Holy shit,” he says. “I can hardly believe that’s my account.”

“Happy?” Lucas asks.

“Yeah, I’m fucking happy.” Jake stands up and outstretches his hand towards Lucas. Lucas stands up as well, takes Jake’s hand. “Pleasure doing business with you.”

“Sure. Enjoy your early retirement.”

Jake is already moving to leave the office. With the amount of money he has in his bank account, there is nothing in his office that he needs or that he can’t buy ten times over now. “I don’t know about retirement,” Jake says just before he leaves. “But I’m going to enjoy myself, I tell you that.”

A few moments later, Janice comes into the office and sees Lucas sitting behind the desk Jake used to own. “What’s going on?” Janice asks. “Why did Jake say he wasn’t coming back?”

“Because he isn’t,” Lucas says. “I’m your new boss.”

Janice frowns for a second, then smiles. “I like the sound of that.”

“So do I,” Lucas says. “So do I.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

 

 

Turns out the door in Jake’s old office leads to a private suite of sorts, complete with bed, large leather armchair, mini bar and a widescreen TV on the wall. Not that Lucas has any use for a TV, something a crafty demon invented years ago in order to keep the humans docile and pliable, making them easier for demons to possess and abuse at will. If only the humans knew how much of their culture was created by demons to make the humans stupid. If humans could see demons for what they were, they would never look at Simon Cowell the same way again.

Janice is standing in the suite with Lucas. “Jake liked to watch porn in here while he did coke by himself,” she says. “He was kinda sad that way. Never
used
to be like it. Only when his gambling got out of control and Dimitri got his hooks into him.”

“Jake had a gambling problem?” Lucas says, thinking as he looks around the suite that he needs to at least change the bed if he was going to be spending a lot of time here. Not that Lucas
slept
or anything. Demons don’t sleep. They don’t shit or piss either. When you become a demon, loosing those base human things are a blessing. Trying to source food and water in a place like Hell is akin to a virgin trying to find his way around a woman for the first time. It can be done, but it’s damn difficult, and rarely satisfying.

“Jake
always
had a gambling problem,” Janice says, pouring two glasses of vodka from the mini bar and handing him one. He took it, as he liked the taste. “It just got out of control when his wife left him and took their two kids with her.”

Lucas nods as he sips on the vodka. Humans and their sad little tragedies. Not that he didn’t
feel
for some of them, he did. It’s just he has been around
too
long, heard too many human sob stories to feel much sympathy anymore. Not that Lucas was ever a sympathetic person to begin with. He spent his first tour of Earth being sympathetic towards no one. Playing on other people’s emotions in fact, people he
made
to trust him through ruthless manipulation. In Hell, as sympathy and feelings in general were in short supply (non-existent in fact), he had to change tactics to get what he wanted. It wasn’t hard. A more brutal approach was needed is all, a more
evil
approach. Since being back on Earth for the second time, Lucas has been focusing more on the
straight
tactic. Doing things
legitimately
as much as possible. So far, it has been working out better than the other two approaches, although those other two approaches are still needed at times. Getting exactly what you want is a
skill
, an
art
even. The delicate blending of all three approaches you might say--deceit, force and honesty.

Right now he wants to sample whatever delights Janice has to offer. Going by the fact that she has her hand on his balls, he guesses neither deceit nor force will be necessary to achieve
this
particular goal.

“There’s something about you,” Janice is saying, putting her glass atop the mini bar and then using her free hand to grab his cock while she continues to massage his balls. Her naked body is practically glowing under the lamp light in the room, her sizable pink nipples already erect, standing out like flattened bullets.

Lucas smiles at her, then drops his glass to the floor, where it thumps down but doesn’t break. “And what do you think that might be?” he asks. It isn’t the first time a woman has said this to him. A lot of Lucas’ power, you might say, lies in the seemingly bottomless depths of his charisma. Already, Janice is lost in him, unable to stop herself from staring into his dark brown eyes like she has suddenly found the secrets to all life written in them. In a way, it isn’t fair. She really
can’t
help herself. If he was being fair, he would tone down the eminence of his essence, dilute his beaming charisma. But the truth is, he enjoys the effect he has on human women. It gives him pleasure to know that they are under his control and that they don’t even
care
that they are under his control. When you have spent as long in a place like Hell as Lucas has--a place where pleasure is almost non-existent--you tend to enjoy every second when you get the chance to feel what pleasure is like again.

BOOK: Lucas: Origins Of A Demon
3.97Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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