Page 6 of Prince of Ruin
The reaping was a contract between demon and human.
It couldn’t be forced.
No mortal could be coerced to join Hell’s ranks. The battle between Heaven and Hell was all about choice.
Demons weren’t interested in rape. Seduction was the game. Temptation. Sin. There was no fun to be had in force, not for sex. No, the best drug for a demon to feed on was surrender. Lust. Lies. They’d choke you in it, if they could.
“Yay, imp?” Tayla asked dubiously.
“Yay, imp,” she repeated. “Now… to find a certain dark lord.”
“Ooh, on it. Let me hack the camera feed. I will track that lecherous piece of ruin-on-a-stick. Give me five.”
Sera leaned on the bar to wait.
What the mortals in here didn’t know was that the Chosen had most likely already been whittled down to a list of ten. Finances would have been picked over; private lives torn apart; wives and children and mistresses surveyed…. For all that demons liked to twist humans into knots of guilt with temptation, a guy who cheated on his wife was not someone they’d pick to turn vampire.
They wanted loyalty.
They wanted someone who was strong enough to resist temptation.
They wanted someone who would sell their soul to become a vampire, and sign away one hundred years of service of their newly immortal lives and mean it.
Five humans would sign that contract tonight. They’d be led into the back rooms where—she presumed—Azazel offered them the final kiss that stole their souls.
Of course, it wouldn’t be as pretty as it was made out to be.
More fucking propaganda.
The kiss of afterlife….
She’d seen those words blazing across a dozen billboards in the city. More like the kiss of a knife across your throat as you were pinned over an altar, the demonic contract still wet with your blood. To become a vampire was more than just signing over your soul. You had to die first.
That was always in the fine print.
“Holy shitballs.I have a problem,” Tay breathed as her attention returned to Sera.
“What?” Every inch of her came alert.
“You know how I said I liked working for #TeamSaveYourSoul and couldn’t see why anyone would actually want to join #TeamKissHellsAss?”
It had been Tay who had coined such terms.
“Ye-es.”
“I found our Prince of Ruin.” A squeak echoed in Sera’s head. “Sera! He’s…. He’s….”
“You’re starting to see the attraction?”
“Attraction? Where do I sign? I would do a lot of things for a piece of ass like that. I mean, what’s a soul?”
“You do know this is the point? They dress themselves up in flesh suits designed to appeal to your basest nature.”
“Iknow.” The little witch practically orgasmed. “None of that matters. My brain is short-circuiting. My wires are fried. I’d like to hack that system, if you know what I mean? I can’t help it. My panties just got drenched.”
Sera flexed her knuckles.
She knew what her friend was doing.
