Bonus Material - A Tour of Hell with Asmodeus
I am not good at social situations, but my wicked little witch, Liora, has promised that if I behave and ‘play nice’, I am in for a treat.
I have taken my writer female, Felicity, up to the plateau. The plateau is Heaven’s only sanctioned area in Hell and there are normally one or two angels stationed here to keep an eye on proceedings in Hell and in the mortal world via a pool I will show you later. Today, these angels are, ah, missing?
I took care of them.
This may sound vicious, cold, and an evil thing to do.
I grin at Felicity. The look on her face says she knows what I have done and she rolls her brown eyes at me.
“You couldn’t just negotiate with them?” she says, looking as unimpressed as Liora often does.
I shake my head. “Where is the fun in negotiating with Heaven’s pawns? It is far more fun to send them back to Heaven.”
“By killing them.” It is a statement. She knows what I have done. She also knows that killing them just resets them, and they are reborn as angels in Heaven again. I shrug, the action lifting my large black wings so the longest feathers tickle my calves.
“Shall we?” I extend my hand towards the cragged black rocks near the centre of the plateau.
Felicity sighs and shakes her head as she walks away. Liora does that often too. I am beginning to believe females behave like this in general. I have seen Erin, the Devil’s daughter, and others do similar things with their men.
I follow my writer female, my honed senses scanning our surroundings in case Heaven replaces its angels more quickly than usual, and I will get to deal with them again.
“So, what’s around here?” Felicity says and I point towards the rocks. She eyes the metal ring near the top of one of them. “You were very bad here.”
I shrug again. Nevar deserved what he got and I was under orders. I lead the way, passing her, and take her around the back of the rocks. Her eyes widen. The large pool the rocks shield is bright, flashing with colour as images ripple across its surface.
“Angels can pause the images,” I say and bend to illustrate by waving my hand over the pool, freezing the image on one of Paris. My heart clenches at the sight of the city in which I met Liora.
“You look all gooey eyed.” Felicity nudges my backside with her boot and shrinks back when I scowl at her. “Just saying. You’re so ridiculously in love.”
No point in denying that. The woman is right.
I rise to my full height and glare down at her anyway. She rolls her eyes again. I am beginning to dislike how these little mortal women do not fear me.
“You don’t like Heaven having this place in Hell, do you, Asmodeus?”
I shake my head. “No. It is unfair. We have no men in Heaven. Why should they have men in Hell?”
“You make a good point.” Felicity walks away, heading back around the rocks, and slowly moves to the edge of the plateau.
Stretching below us as far as the eye can see is a black, cragged land, with steaming vents and fissures, and glowing ribbons of lava that snake through it all. It is not beautiful, but it is my home.
I edge closer to the sheer drop and stare down at the wide lava river hundreds of feet below. The cries and sobs of Hell’s less-fortunate inhabitants are quiet today and distant, contained in an area far to our right, where a large black stone building with multiple wings and thick spires stands. The Devil’s prison. There are no bars on the cells in that place. Occupants have a small room with three sides, and the fourth is open to the elements and a bone-crushing drop onto jagged rocks and lava fields.
The hot wind rising up off the river below me ruffles my feathers and my black hair, sweeping it back from my face. Normally, I would fall forwards, plummeting towards the river with my wings folded back and unleashing them only at the last second. Not today though. I have company. It is still strange for me to have company in Hell, or in general.
In the distance ahead of us, the Devil’s obsidian fortress rises to incredible heights, created of sharp spires that melt into the cavernous ceiling of Hell. Towering thick black spikes of rock surround it, forming a semi-circular defensive wall, enclosing a courtyard.
“Are we going there?” Felicity says, a nervous tremor in her voice.
I shake my head. “No. It would not be wise.”
Primarily because my master is what Liora calls ‘pissed’ at me. It is better to leave him alone when he is in a foul mood.
“We go this way.” I turn my back on the Devil’s fortress and cast my hand out before me. A swirling black vortex forms. A portal that will take us to another, distant part of Hell, far from my master.
Felicity lingers, gazing out over the land. What she can see is only a fragment of Hell. Beyond the prison are boiling lakes of lava and small clusters of buildings that are home to the Hell’s angels and the demons who reside in Hell. It is almost impossible to map Hell. The landscape is constantly changing because of the lava flow and activity beneath the surface. Very few areas are stable.
I have built my home on the greatest of them.
I snatch Felicity’s wrist and pull her through the portal with me, tired of loitering near my master’s fortress. We step out the other side in the courtyard of my own fortress.
The black castle needs repair in places, with only a few towers remaining and a huge section of it destroyed, but I am working on it, together with Liora.
Romulus and Remus come bounding across the courtyard and Felicity ducks behind me, avoiding the overenthusiastic greeting the two black hellhounds had wanted to give her. Wise female. Romulus slows his approach but Remus hits me with the force of a blow from my master, knocking me back into Felicity. She squeaks. Remus licks my bare chest and cheeks. His ear droops. I stroke it and straighten it for him.
“Remus!” Liora snaps and she is running towards us, her chestnut hair flowing behind her and breasts bouncing delightfully in her crimson top.
She catches me staring and raises an eyebrow at me as she slows to a halt and Remus drops down onto all four paws and goes to her.
“Sorry. I tried to make them behave,” Liora says and there is black dust on her cheek. I brush it away and she closes her eyes, briefly leaning into the touch.
“You have been working again.”
She nods and wipes her hands on her black jeans.
“Just a little. I want the rubble cleared from the bedroom so we can start on the next floor.” She looks at Felicity and smiles. “We had a little problem with the castle so we’re renovating.”
“Rebuilding,” I correct her and she looks displeased. It is the truth. Our castle is not what it once was, but it will be again soon. At present, it is little more than a pile of rubble with only a few floors and towers left intact and the courtyard.
Felicity steps out from behind me and looks around at the valley far below us. It rises at the edges like a crater and in the centre is the spire of rock on which I built the castle centuries ago.
“Hell of a view,” Felicity says and grins. “If you excuse the pun.”
I smile and take Liora’s hand. “Come. Liora desires to make you tea.”
“Oh, tea.” The writer female seems pleased. I believe this is a British thing. Both she and Liora are obsessed with tea.
I cannot have tea. Liora informed me the variety she prefers contains caffeine. Caffeine is a stimulant of a wicked nature for angels.
Liora looks over her shoulder as she leads me towards the castle, her smile alluring and the twinkle in her hazel eyes telling me that she thinks wicked things.
I believe I will like my reward for playing nice.
