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Bella appeared, holding up her hand. “Where’s the fire?”
“I need to speak to Beelzebub or Mammon.”
“Oh, is this about the vampire arrangement?” Bella jut her bottom lip out. “Why couldn’t I get a sexy vampire toy? Is he fun? Is he big?” Her eyes flashed with excitement.
“Not now, Bella. Let me through.”
“You came into my territory.” Bella didn’t move, her hand still hovering in the air. She put it on her hip, staring at us both petulantly. I rolled my eyes but kept my mouth shut. This wasn’t my place. However annoying I found her, Bella was still, technically, my boss.
“I can tell you what I know.”
Aida stopped moving to stare. “Out with it then.”
“What can you give me?” Her eyes flicked to me, and I snorted in disapproval. Bella wanted anything that wasn’t hers, being the demoness of envy, after all.
“You want a hell-hound. I’ll give you a hell-hound. But not him.”
Her lip pushed out further. “But Talon is so pretty.”
“Too fucking bad. He’s mine.” The finality of her words echoed around us, setting off several cracks of volcanic lightning around us. “What about the vampire arrangement?”
Bella rolled her eyes and waved her hand. “The vampires are trying to bring back the old gods. They believe this ancient spell that includes bringing together a vampire and demon will awaken their souls or something.”
“So?” Aida frowned, trying to piece this all together. “Why would our brothers be interested in that?”
Bella stared at her like she was stupid. “Who else is a god?”
There was a moment as Aida considered the answer, and then she whispered, “Father.”
My hackles raised as the rush of realization overwhelmed me. They were trying to free the Devil and bring him back to life? The excitement of a Hell on Earth zipped through me, imagining all the souls I could devour if demons were allowed to roam free.
“How is this spell done?” Aida asked, setting her hands on her hips, mirroring Bella’s posture.
“Sex, I suppose. Apparently, if you two fuck, because he’s an original, and you’re an original demon, it will unlock some old charm that binds their souls to wherever they are.”
Aida turned to look at me, frowning to herself. “I know whyIdon’t want that to happen, but why doesn’t Magnus? A world of Gods means a world of magic and supernaturals once more. No more living in the shadows.”
But I knew it already, without asking the vampire because it was the only thing that could come from a world made entirely of magic and supernaturals.
“If the Gods were freed and supernaturals could roam free, eventually humans would be eradicated, and then what would vampires live on? What wouldIlive on?”
Aida sucked in a sharp breath, nodding her head in understanding. “Bringing the Gods back would destroy us all.”
AIDA
I sentTalon off to gather his brothers and find the spell the vampires intended to use. My brothers were likely the ones who gave it to them, so it had to be in the demonic libraries. As for me, I was going to go to this wedding and act like I had no idea what was going on until at least Talon returned with news of how to prevent this spell from ever happening.
The vampire behind me jostled me as she fought with the zipper, momentarily jarring me from my thoughts. I inhaled, sucking in to help as I ruminated on our circumstances.
Demons like my brothers, sister, and I existed because we controlled the production line. We determined the value of the souls, collected them, and sent them where they belonged to keep Hell running.
The demons under us did our bidding as needed to ensure these numbers were met. From there, creatures of Hell, like Talon and his hound brothers, all existed to help move the production line and ensure it ran smoothly.
Vampires, shifters, witches even; all had hierarchies, and in the grand scheme of things, they also existed on the hierarchy system beneath us demons. Returning gods to an evolved world since the time of their first creation would disrupt the production line.
They had absolute power and required more for their existence than we lesser creatures did. Talon had a point, bringing the gods back would mean the magic went to them entirely, and from them, they would create the creatures that served them like demons or vampires. The more of us there were, the fewer humans there would be. Ultimately, it was humans and their world that allowed us to exist.
It was their fear and their life force giving us our power. And if you tripled, even quadrupled, the number of prey versus the number of predators, they would become so depleted that, eventually, we would have to prey on our own kinds. This would lead not only to the extinction of humans but the extinction of supernaturals in general.
