Until Greg had kissed him. They’d been drinking at a party and had gone back to their dorm room, and they’d been laying together watching a show that had sex scenes, and Gabe hadn’t even been turned on, and then Greg had been kissing him, and suddenly he was hard as a rock and frantically kissing Greg back.
They’d had a brief affair. They had never told anyone. Greg considered himself straight, and Gabe hadn’t known what to consider himself. All he knew was that he suddenly couldn’t get enough of Greg, and the feeling seemed to be mutual. The sex had been phenomenal. He hadn’t been worried about logistics or who was doing what or thinking of it as an anatomy lesson. It had been wild and fun.
But one day Greg had come in and said he just couldn’t do it anymore. He’d been crying, and Gabe had hugged him and said then they wouldn’t do it anymore, and that didn’t change that Greg was his best friend. And yeah, it had been awkward for a bit, but they had settled back into their friendship, and somehow Greg slipped back into the friendzone in Gabe’s head, and he stopped thinking about him sexually.
When Greg started dating a girl, it hadn’t even phased Gabe. One drunk night Greg had asked him if he was jealous, and Gabe had been sort of confused by the whole thing. Why would he be jealous? At which point Greg had said he was “not normal, man,” which had kind of hurt, but Gabe figured he was probably right.
His musings were interrupted by the lust demon. Az, the demon had said his name was. Az was still sitting there, but he had cleared his throat, and he was staring at Gabe.
“I’ve told you my name, and you don’t appear any closer to sending me back, so perhaps I can get yours? Or should I just call you Gabey?” the demon joked.
Gabe really didn’t like this one. Maybe that wasn’t fair, but he was just so cocky. He reminded Gabe of some of his more annoying students, the ones who were always used to getting their way and who thought they could charm their way out of bad grades. Newsflash—that never worked with Gabe.
“Gabe,” he retorted. And he figured that was enough introspection on his sexuality since he wasn’t planning on keeping the lust demon around. “And I need your full name,” he added.
“Asmodeus. But it still won’t work,” the demon responded.
Whatever. He’d be gone soon enough. Gabe had the Latin memorized, so he used the revocation spell they’d all been taught before they were even old enough to read. He spoke the Latin clearly, using the demon’s name where required, and on the final word, he watched for the disappearance of the annoying smirk and the demon it belonged to.
Only nothing happened. Az smiled more broadly. Gabe frowned.
“What the fuck?” he asked. “Thatalwaysworks.”
“Not with me,” the demon chortled. He was way too gleeful.
“You’re stuck here,” Gabe said sourly. “Demons don’t like to be summoned. Why are you so freaking happy? You shouldwantto get out of here.”
The thought occurred to Gabe, and he asked, “Did you not give me your true name?” It hadfeltlike the demon’s true name. While other kids took art or music lessons, Grams had given them lessons on summonings, revocations, and figuring out a true name from a false name.
“It’s my true name. Would you like my full title? Perhaps that would help?” the demon asked, and his air of innocence immediately set Gabe on edge. He dealt with teenagers, parents, and administration every day. He knew that self-satisfied, innocent act never produced anything good.
“Sure,” Gabe sighed, resigned to something troubling.
“Asmodeus, Lord of the Nines, Prince of Lust, Infernal King of the Underworld,” the demon pronounced, and for just a moment, Gabe thought he saw the outline of large, black, bat-like wings, horns, and a thick, long, black tail on the demon, but when he blinked, Asmodeus was back to looking like a normal human.
Well, shit. How the fuck had Grams summoned an Infernal King of Hell? And what the heck was Gabe supposed to do with him?
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Chapter4
Asmodeus
Az just smirked. “You know, I haven’t been topside in ages. This is going to be such fun, I can already tell. After all, Grams has the big dildo around here somewhere.”
He thought he heard Gabe mutter, “Fuck,” under his breath, but he couldn’t be sure, so he just chose to ignore it.
He got up and dusted his butt off. And yup, the guy didn’t even really glance at him while he did it. Definitely interesting.
Az had two things on the agenda. One—figure out what turned the guy on, or if he was asexual, what exactly he desired. He’d been summoned, dammit, and he wasn’t leaving without seeing some desires fulfilled. The guyhadto lust after something. Az would find out exactly what, and then they’d spend an afternoon cuddling or eating or having sex or whatever. It was a matter of pride. He simply wasn’t going back to hell to say that he hadn’t fulfilled his role. It was ridiculous. The Prince of Lust being totally ineffective at his job? He wouldn’t hear the end of it for centuries.
Second item on the agenda was a little more complicated—he needed to figure out why the guy was immune to his powers. It took an Infernal King of the Underworld to get immunity from his gifts, and even then, when he turned it up full notch, they ended up slightly affected by it. They had to consciously make the effort to not be lusty. So for this random human to not be affected? Definitely something that needed investigating.
“So, do you live here? Or will I be crashing with you someplace else?” Az asked innocently. He had to admit the guy was kinda fun to rile up. He reminded Az a little of one his favorite grumpy friends, Minos.
He was not disappointed. “Wha—?” the guy sputtered. “Oh hell no, you arenotcrashing with me, or doing anything with me! We are sending you back to hell. The end. Done.” Some muttering under his breath ensued, and possibly some more cursing as well.
Az just sauntered toward the house, calling back over his shoulder, “Sorry, but you summoned me, so now you’re stuck with me. You can’t send me back to hell. I can guarantee that your grams can’t either, even if she is willing to try, because I’m definitely telling her I haven’t sexed you up yet. I have a feeling she’ll keep me around.” He laughed as he continued walking and got to the back door, opening it and stepping into the kitchen.
