Snowballs in Hell (3 page)

“I can hear you,” sang my father. “If you two want to finish up, I can wait. I’ll just sit here and watch some TV.”

I saw Auric’s body shaking, and I looked up at his face to find him trying to control his mirth. If I wasn’t afraid my father would stand over us giving pointers, I just might have gotten my morning nookie. I had a hunger in my body that had nothing to do with food. I also knew once I got out of this bed, I wouldn’t be able to satisfy that craving until much, much later.

Auric turned his back to me, a flash of naked butt taunting me, before he pulled on a pair of track pants. With a sigh, I flung back the covers and grabbed my robe. Belting the silken material around my curves, I walked barefoot over to my father and kissed him on the cheek before heading to the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee Auric had brewed.

“So what brings you here so bright and early?” I asked sipping the hot java while eyeing with interest Auric’s naked chest while he puttered around the kitchen making us some toasted bagels. I didn’t cook–unless it was trouble. My lover, on the other hand, could–in and out of the bedroom.

“I’ve had my scientists and mages working on that sleep incident.” More than an incident. A month ago while Auric had been tortured at the hands of a major demon, Azazel, and his mysterious hooded master, all of Hell had been put under a massive sleep spell. Millions upon millions of damned, demons and everything in between, including my father, had fallen victim to it. I’d noticed the spell when I’d gone to Hell on my rescue mission, but had not realized just what it meant at the time. Not a pleasant day when all was said and done. I had managed to save Auric, trading myself for him only to be tortured magically and mentally to within an inch of my life. A torture I relived every single night.

“What have they found out?” I asked subdued. I still didn’t like to think about that dark time. Auric, as if sensing my disquiet, came up behind me and wrapped solid arms around me. I leaned into his strength.

“It’s bad,” my father said looking shaken, which in turn frightened me. If Satan feared, it had to be bad. “Remember how I said a bunch of the damned seemed to be missing after that debacle?” I vaguely remembered, but I’d been more interested in banishing the memories and discovering the pleasures that could be found with my new boyfriend at the time.

My father continued. “Turns out they weren’t just missing. They’re gone. Vanished.

Not a trace of them left behind.”

I frowned. “What? Did they all jump into the abyss before or after the spell?” The abyss was where the damned who’d done their penance went to have their energy, their souls if you will, recycled so they could be reborn. Surprisingly enough many souls chose to live in Hell instead of taking that final leap and losing their identity for good. Something about the finality in dying again really wigged them out.

“I don’t get it. So a couple of souls got freaked and jumped. What’s that go to do with the big nap everyone took in Hell?” I asked.

“We’re talking about more than a few souls, my daughter. Try six hundred and sixty six thousand, six hundred and sixty six.”

That was a lot of sixes, not to mention kind of cliché. “Are you sure?” I asked incredulously. That was a pretty damn big number of people to have disappear all at once.

“Very, we’ve counted quite a few times. Each time it comes out to the same. Not only that, but they’re gone. As in not recycled in the abyss, as in will never be reborn again, gone.”

“But how?” Then in one of my rare moments of insight, I got it. “The sleep spell was powered by the souls of all those people,” I said horrified.

My father nodded grimly and I heard Auric make a noise behind me as he listened.

“But who?” I whispered. Who had the knowledge and power to do something so horrible? And why?

“I have a feeling that Azazel’s master, the robed one that tortured you, was behind it.”

That made me shiver, which really annoyed me. In the light of day, I knew the only reason that cowardly robed being had managed to hurt me was because of the “I won’t fight you” deal I’d brokered to secure Auric’s release. Had I not been magically bound by the terms of that agreement I’d have let my blade taste that supernatural’s blood. But enough of that, I still intended to track down that bastard and exact my revenge, in the meantime I needed to pay attention because judging by my father’s face, he thought his last statement was significant. So I backtracked and processed it, but I still didn’t get it.

It wasn’t the first time I’d ever gotten the impression there was something right in front of me jumping up and down waving for my attention but I just couldn’t see it.

“With Hell so vulnerable, why didn’t they take over and kill your father?” asked Auric. More than brawn, my lover had brains, too. And hearing his question made me want to slap myself for missing it. It now seemed so obvious.

My father spread his hands and shrugged. “Apparently the being was after something more important than my death or the takeover of Hell.” I shivered again in Auric’s arms. If it had been that important it would be back again and for an instant I was transported back to that world of pain. I think I whimpered. Auric kissed the top of my head, and I saw a flash of pain cross my father’s eyes. Satan might be the king of evil, but as my daddy, I knew he loved me and it drove him nuts that something had hurt me and he hadn’t been able to punish it yet.

“We don’t know that it was specifically after you,” said my father spinning a web of lies that even I could tell he didn’t believe.

”Oh, please,” I said pushing away from Auric’s comfort. I also pushed the fear that kept trying to well back up down hard. I refused to be afraid. “They obviously didn’t want Auric, they traded him for me. They didn’t want you. They left you snoring and drooling on your throne. They wanted me. I’m not stupid, so stop pussyfooting around the fucking issue. They want me!” I screamed. Okay, I admitted to losing a little bit of control there but anger burned a lot more cleanly in my psyche than that wretched stifling fear I kept suffering from.

“We don’t know that for–.”

I cut Auric off. “I appreciate you trying to lie to me, but let’s face facts. They didn’t get what they wanted the first time. Something more than just my power. They wanted something hidden in my head. Mind telling me what it is exactly, daddy dear?” Lucifer shifted nervously. “I don’t know.”

I hated it when people lied to me. “Daddy, it wanted my memories from before I came to Hell. From when I still lived with my—.” I had to force the word out. “Mother.” And even as I did, I felt a stab of pain in my head for the woman who had callously dumped me.

“I’m sure you’re mistaken,” my father said too quickly.

“Really? Then why is it my memories from that time are locked up tighter than a virgin in an iron maiden chastity belt that’s been welded shut?” I had always had a way with words.

“I don’t know. For your own protection maybe so you wouldn’t remember and pine for something that could no longer be.”

I frowned at my father. What a load of bullshit. “What the fuck are you hiding?” I could see my father grimace and he shrugged instead of answering.

“Okay, let’s look at this a different way. Why would this creature be interested in my life as a child? We’re missing something here.”

Trust Auric to once again see to the heart of the matter. “Who is Muriel’s mother?” It seemed so simple. So elegant. So obvious. So why hadn’t I thought of it? Actually come to think of it, why had I never asked my father about the mysterious woman who birthed me? I tried to recall one single instance where I’d questioned my father about my absent mother and realized I hadn’t. I’d thought of her over the years. Cursed her many a time in my head, but not once had I ever voiced my questions about her aloud.

I forced myself to say the word mother again, my throat tight. “Mother.” Again I felt that stab of pain. I turned stricken eyes to Auric. “Auric, I think I’m under a spell. I can’t seem to–.” The words had to be forced past a suddenly thick tongue. “Ask questions about my m-m-mother.”

Just saying this much sent a much larger jab of pain through my mind that had me sinking to my knees grabbing my head in my two hands.

“Muriel,” I felt Auric kneeling beside me, as I rocked on my knees, working through the pain that shot through me and left me a trembling wreck.

“What have you done to her?” Auric said harshly.

“I did nothing except prevent that from happening,” replied Satan. “When she came to me as a little girl, while she couldn’t remember her life or her mother, she had a bright mind. It didn’t take her long to realize that other children had a mother. The first time she asked me about her mother, she was in bed for three days screaming. There’s a geas on her, actually there’s several. One is she can’t ask about her mother without experiencing pain. When I realized this I had a small compulsion placed on her, one that would get her to avoid asking questions about her mother aloud which seemed to be her biggest problem.”

Talk about learning something new. No one had ever told me about the geas placed on me in regards to my mother. A geas was a spell, or in many cases, a curse, that compelled a person to act a certain way or experience things if specific conditions were met. In my case, mommy equaled pain.

“Who is her mother?” asked Auric, saying the words I couldn’t.

“I can’t say.”

I felt Auric’s hold tighten around me, my father’s evasive answer angering him.

“This obviously all centers around Muriel’s mother. So why are you protecting her instead of your daughter?”

“I’m not. I just can’t tell you. I know she had a mother. I know she was powerful.

But other than that, I can’t tell you her name or even what she looks like. My memories are just as blank as my daughter’s.”

That shut Auric up and stunned me. Who had my mother been that she had the strength to mess with my father’s mind? Come on, my dad is Satan. King of Hell.

Nobody, not even his brother, God, could mess with him. But apparently my so called mother could. And…

“The cowled figure? It had power.” I pushed out of Auric’s arms and paced. “What are the chances of two people being interested in me like that?”

“Was it a woman?” Auric asked.

I thought of the hand, slim, pale and almost delicate looking. “It could have been. I don’t know; all I ever saw was its hand.”

“But why?” asked my father. “Let’s say it was your mother for a minute. Why hurt you? She placed the spell on you, so she should be able to remove it.”

“I don’t know.” Maybe she forgot. Maybe she just didn’t care. But I was more determined than ever to find the cloaked stranger because if it was my mother, she had a lot of questions to answer. Right after I popped her one in the nose for fucking with my head in the first place.

We hashed it out a little more without coming any closer to an answer. My father left the whiff of brimstone, his calling card, wafting behind. Annoyed and feeling sticky, I hopped into the shower as Auric made a few calls.

As I soaped my body, I waited for him to join me. I loved the feel of his hands on my body. It took very little thought–and touching of myself–to bring myself back to a fever pitch. I leaned against the shower wall and closed my eyes, rubbing my hard clit and imagining Auric on his knees, his tongue lapping at me.

As if conjured by my fantasy, I felt motion. I opened my eyes to see him smiling at me wickedly. He knelt in the bathtub, his hands gripping my hips. I propped one leg up on the side of the tub and grabbed his hair pushing his face toward my cleft. With a strength I loved, he held back so he could tease me, holding his lips just close enough to my sex for me to feel his warm breath tickling it. My womb contracted in anticipation.

With a light flick of his tongue, he touched my nub. My body shivered. He stroked it again, the back and forth wet laps making me dig my fingers into his scalp, urging him on. He placed his whole mouth on me and sucked, his tongue delving between my velvety folds and stabbing me inside.

I could hear myself moaning, my body building itself up to a fever pitch. When he tore his mouth away from me I whimpered with loss. But I knew what was coming. Auric wrapped his arm around my waist and lifted me enough that I could feel the tip of his erect cock probing my wet sex. I wrapped my legs around his waist and my arms around his neck and sheathed him inside of me, loving the feel of his thick shaft sliding in and stretching me to accommodate his width. With his hands gripping my ass cheeks, he pumped me under the pounding hot shower. The water made it seem tighter as it washed away my natural lube, but I enjoyed the gripping feel as he had to push his cock hard to get in. My whole body panted in time to his rhythm. My nails dug into the skin of his shoulders as he brought me to the edge and with a hard thrust brought me over it to fall, diving into the pit of pleasure that first made me feel weak, then so incredibly strong.

He slipped out of me, but still he held me. One hand left my ass to fumble with the soap, only to return as he lathered my bottom, his touch sending little aftershocks through me. I let my legs slide down and stood shakily, leaning into him. I loved it when he bathed me. And had I not needed to get ready for work, I would have taken him back to our gi-normous bed and shown how much I liked it by fucking him with my mouth until his eyes rolled back in his head.

Hmmm. Now that I’d thought of it, I’d definitely have to indulge in that later. I whispered what I wanted to do to his cock after work in his ear, the look of torture and anticipation on his face making me already count the hours until I could make it a reality.

But Auric had mastered the art of teasing long before I had. Almost dressed for work, I turned around to see him fully clothed sitting on the bed, pants unbuttoned with his cock in his hand.

My body flushed with desire. “What are you doing? You know I don’t have time.

I’ve got to get to work.”

“I know,” he said rubbing the blushing tip that I loved to lick. “But you got me so horny that I thought I’d show you just how much. And while you’re at work, I’m going to be thinking about you while stroking my cock and…” I dove, my lips seeking that swollen popsicle, but he held me off laughing. “Nope, not ‘til later. In the meantime, you can just think about it.” I hated it when he turned the tables. I hated his laughter even more as I swapped out my wringing wet panties for dry ones. Jerk.