Leaning forward, I took hold of her goblet and poured her another glass. I didn’t know what it was about this little human, but I found myself actually enjoying her company. Pushing the goblet toward her, I watched as she lifted it and took a sip. Her nose wrinkled again, but she didn’t make the same disgusted face she had with her first sip. Her lips, stained by the wine, had become a deep red color, and I found my gaze riveted to them when she pulled the goblet away from her mouth.
I had to fight the impulse to lean over the table and drag her toward me when her pink tongue slid out to lick the wine from her lips. Whatever it was about this human, she affected me in more ways than one.
She stopped laughing and lifted her eyes to mine. They sparkled with the wetness of her tears; the sweeping lashes framing them were spiky with water. She wiped at them again before settling back in her chair and studying me with a frown.
“So if you exist on a different plane that humans couldn’t get into, then how did the stories of Heaven and Hell begin?” she asked.
Insightful, inquisitive girl,I realized. “Some mortals can see things they shouldn’t be able to,” I told her.
“Like me?”
She freely admitted her ability then. “Yes, and it would be interesting to know what you can see.”
Her fingers flicked dismissively beside her head. “Nothingof any interest to a demon I assure you, and nothing pertaining to me. I wouldn’t be sitting here if I saw things about myself.”
No, she wouldn’t. She would have fled before they ever showed up on her doorstep. “Some humans can see more than others; they can look past the veils of your plane and see what lies beyond to both dimensions. Some could even communicate with others outside your mortal coil. In Hell, we could see what you were doing on this side, not that we watched often; you mortals are mostly boring.”
She laughed again and sipped at her wine. “I suppose we would be boring to a bunch of demons and Lucifer himself.”
“There were times when I would look through. It helped to give me a better understanding of your world, once demons stopped entering it.”
“Wait…What?” she sputtered.
I chuckled again at the bewildered look on her face. I couldn’t recall ever being this amused by another before. “Demons used to cross into your plane, though the gates were closely guarded and monitored by those ofmykind. The ones who crossed to Earth were to keep our existence a secret. If they somehow slipped up, they were punished ruthlessly and in the most gruesome ways when they returned.”
“Why would they return then?”
“Some didn’t. Some chose to stay on Earth and perish rather than return and live. Others believed they could get away with their indiscretion and no one would know. They were always caught. My kind has always ruled the guardians of the gate.”
“How many guardians of the gate are there?” she asked.
“I was the only one who could open a gate and allow demons to pass back and forth, before you humans went and fuckedthatall up. There are two other sub-guardians who guard the gate along with me.”
I didn’t know what was going on behind those beautiful eyes of hers, but I was struck with the realization that I enjoyed the way she assessed me, the way she had no fear of me. Even those humans I’d bedded on this plane had been nervous, but their desire and curiosity had won out and they’d eagerly come to me to have their curiosity quenched.
“So you can no longer open a gate?”
“I can. Anywhere I choose and I can still close it, but there is little reason for me to do so now that your world is wide open for the taking.”
“You said the demons who remained on Earth perished as if they had a choice in the matter,” she said.
“All demons are immortal—”
“Holy…” She nearly spit out the wine she’d taken a sip of.
Coughing, her hands flew up to her strange necklace again. She ran it through her fingers as she stared at me as if she were trying to figure me out.Never going to happen, young human.
“Okay, so they were immortal but died on Earth, why?” she asked.
“When demons enter into the mortal realm, we begin to age. We show no adverse effects from it, if we cross back and forth, but if we stay here we will die.”
“So, you are dying now?”
I liked that she sounded displeased by this notion. “No, with a gateway into Hell wide open, we are suffering no ill-consequences from your realm.”
“Fascinating,” she whispered. “Wouldn’t the souls of those demons come back to Hell once they died on Earth?”
“No. Demons don’t have souls like you humans do, just another part of the balancing system.”
