Page 51 of Demons & Damnation

Chapter 21

After Kyla left, Azazel wandered back to the mansion, his mind in a constant whir of what he’d learned about Kyla and what had happened today.

Being a demon, Azazel had seen, heard, and done, some rather macabre things in his time, but what Tony and Kyla’s mother had done to her was something that not even he would have ever thought possible. Exactly like Sam said—you couldn’t even dream it up.

Aimlessly walking around the gardens, kicking bits of dirt and stones out of his way, Azazel tried to understand where his head was at and why this bothered him so much. Usually, for him, things entered his head for all of a minute, max, then left again, leaving not a trace behind. If it served him to store it to memory, then he would, but no scenarios had ever left a scar on his mind that caused him to overthink like this.

Had it been Sam that affected him? Sure, she’d been emotional recalling the story, but that hadn’t bothered him. He’d had plenty of women in tears in his time and not one of them had ever broken through his steel layers to prick an ounce of sympathy from him.

By process of elimination, if it wasn’t Sam’s teary tale telling that had filtered through to his conscience then the only conclusion left was that it was who the tale was about.

But why? What was so special about Kyla that hearing such a ghastly story pained him so much? Somehow, she had managed to evoke emotions in him that hadn’t stirred for thousands of years. How?

Amor aeternus sprung to his mind, reminding him of the spell Balthazar had cast when he brought them here.

A ball of dread settled in his stomach as his heart lurched. No, no, no, he thought to himself. This isn’t possible. Balthazar wanted this, not me.

“Rule number one and the most important rule,” Lucifer had said, when he’d first recruited them both. “Professional emotional detachment. Absolutely vital if you have any chance of surviving around here.”

This was the first time in all his years of serving Lucifer he had ever encountered a problem with this rule. His life as a demon, up to now, had been pretty much as you’d expect—full of torture, mischief, and all things grisly. It was his job, after all. But all being said, even a demon had rules to follow. They didn’t kill innocents or create chaos for anyone that didn’t deserve karma.

The souls in Hell that they tortured were there for a reason and Azazel and his brother were there to carry out the sentences delivered. To inflict Hell punishments on someone who had done nothing to deserve it went against Lucifer’s rules. Doing that was something not even a demon would do.

For two humans who were supposed to love and care for Kyla to actively premeditate something as horrific as what they did sparked a fire in him. For them to betray her as they did, what kind of people were they?

A slow malicious grin spread over his face as he looked forward to the day their souls ended up on his torture table. What fun he would have.

Then he questioned himself as to why he wanted revenge for Kyla. Some of the souls he’d torn to pieces were worthy of their pain—child murderers, child molesters, rapists, they all deserved whatever Azazel had done to them, but he’d never actively thought about one human and wanted to singularly avenge what happened to her specifically.

The further he delved inside himself and his thoughts, the more of a mangled mess he became. By the time the skies turned dark, the stars winking at him from the black velvet above, Azazel hadn’t achieved anything other than wearing a path in the damp grass.

“Where did you go?” Balthazar asked, striding across the grass to his brother.

“I went to see Kyla at the pub.”

Balthazar studied his brother for a few seconds before asking, “Why?”

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