7. Gabe
I sprawled in the dead man’s chair, watching Shemhazai pace the quaint yet outdated kitchen we had commandeered.
George, the previous owner of this home, was lying face down in the hallway where I had slit his throat several hours prior.
Lilith hadn’t been thrilled to receive his soul so early. He hadn’t been due to perish for another year or so, but it couldn’t be helped. Shemhazai had told me he needed a base close enough to keep an eye on his prey, and what my finicky chaos demon wanted, he got.
I’d left the shop and killed George an hour or so before Harper left.
However, any praise I’d been hopeful of receiving had taken a back seat to Shem’s concern over that Axel character that had shown up to harass Harper.
“I knew that fucker was going to be a problem. Little bitch. Didn’t learn his fucking lesson in Rome. What, did he think I was going to just let him fuck her? Entitled prick. Thinks he runs shit because he’s a god. Yeah, well… how’d that work out for you last time, dipshit?”
Shem was muttering to himself, digging through a black leather bag he had packed for us when we’d left Hell .
The duffle was large enough to fit a fully grown human man, and Shemhazai had dumped it unceremoniously on George’s teal blue tile counters.
I watched him pull out my golden scepter, then dig inside again, rummaging around for some unknown trinket, presumably for something that would be used against this Axel guy.
“Not that I’m entirely against blindly slaying your enemies, Shemhazai, but maybe share with the class. Who is Axel? Why do we hate him?”
Shem turned his burning green eyes on me, and I was struck suddenly with how fucking beautiful he was.
The clean lines of his face and the warm, tawny brown of his skin made him look like the immortal harbinger of darkness that he was. Sophisticated and elegant but with an edge so sharp it could slice through steel.
His eyes were full of excitement, but there was a manic edge to it that was beginning to concern me.
Shemhazai was always a little unhinged, and it was something that I loved about him.
However, he was also always in control. I suspected his need for control came from whatever Yahweh had done to him before I had been made.
Not that I knew what had happened to him.
Any conversation around Shem’s trauma was strictly off-limits . I had learned that over Yule.
If I didn’t want to spend the rest of our time here speaking to a brick wall, I couldn’t let him know that I could see he was already beginning to unravel.
I needed to be smart and coax answers out of him in a way that made him feel safe and in control.
“ Axel. Fucking stupid-ass name. His name isn’t Axel. That’s Ares. He’s the god of war.” Shemhazai rolled his eyes and returned to his duffle-shuffle. “Not sure why he’s trying so hard to serve lumberjack, but to each their own, I suppose.”
I bit my lip to keep from laughing. “And we hate him because…?”
“We have an old rivalry. After Lilith changed me into a demon, I had a lot of… free time.”
I snorted. An idle Shemhazai was a dangerous thing. I wasn’t even sure I was imaginative enough to think of all the things he’s gotten up to while left to his own devices for centuries .
“Do tell.” I smirked, crossing my ankle over my knee and leaning back in my seat to listen.
Shem shot me an amused grin, then sighed.
“Well, after years of being cooped up in boring-ass Heaven, I decided I wanted to explore the human world. I spent a lot of time in Rome. Christianity was relatively new at the time, and most of the human emperors hated Yahweh and his disciples as much as I did.”
Shem paused his rummaging, his green eyes growing wistful.
“You should have seen it—the slaughter. The Romans loved feeding Christians to lions, among other things. I just… helped things along.”
“Oh yeah? How so?”
“Well, Rome was under constant threat of invasion. I made several deals with emperors to keep them in power over the centuries. In return, they needed to promise to kill as many of Yahweh’s people as possible to keep me satisfied.”
I nodded, and Shemhazai continued.
“To keep up my end of the bargain, I made a deal with Ares. He would bless the Roman armies with the edge they needed to keep the barbarians and any other external threats at bay. Honestly, he was pretty generous with the mojo. Rome kind of exploded and took over for a while, thanks to my deal with him.”
“So far, everything sounds like it was going pretty well,” I observed dryly as Shem finally seemed to find what he had been looking for.
He held up a large ornate glass bottle. It was tinted blue and was covered in thin gold veining.
The liquid inside looked thick and viscous.
Shem’s eyes caught fire as he admired the bottle, the grin on his face spreading so wide the corners of his mouth nearly touched his ears.
“Yeah, until Diocletian,” Shem said, turning to lean against the counter, his fancy blue bottle dangling from his long, elegant fingers.
“Who’s that?” I sighed, pinching my nose. “I wasn’t created until after the fall of Rome, Shemhazai, I’m not exactly up to date on my Roman Emperors.”
Shemhazai chuckled and nodded. “Well, up until Diocletian, I definitely had a good time in Rome. The gladiator games were always a great time, and as I said, most of the emperors were not super down with Christianity, so my need for revenge was more or less met. But Diocletian… man, he was something special. He hated the Christians, maybe even more than I did.” Shem was smiling to himself, looking almost teary-eyed at the memory.
“So what happened?”
Shem’s gaze slammed into mine, and suddenly, he wasn’t smiling anymore.
“Hecate happened. She’d heard about the games and came to watch on a day that Ares was also visiting,” Shem growled, and his fingers tightened on his fancy bottle.
“So… what?”
“Ares immediately became obsessed with Hecate, and when she turned him down, he wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
I cocked my head to the side, my mouth twitching at the hypocrisy. Shemhazai was known for his inability to accept the word no. But, as usual, the irony was lost on him.
Shemhazai often gave himself permission to do things but condemned others for behaving the same way. It was both infuriating and fascinating to me.
“So you interfered? Are you in love with her, then?” I dared to ask, and Shemhazai immediately met my gaze, a smug smile curling on his lips.
“Would it bother you if I was, little bird?” he purred.
I didn’t allow my face to show any emotion. That was what he wanted. Instead, I shrugged.
“I will love whoever you love, Shemhazai.”
He watched me for a long moment, and I couldn’t read the expression on his face. It was complex, whatever he was feeling. Finally, the tension bled out of him, and he shook his head.
“I have a great deal of love for Hecate, and I’ve always wanted to fuck her. But no. I’m not in love with her. I don’t think I’ve ever been in love with anyone.”
I frowned. “Not even Lilith?”
Shem shook his head. “I thought I was in love with her when I first met her, but… If being in love with someone is what she and Ramel share, then I’ve never truly been in love.
Don’t get me wrong, I adore every hair on that little Hell Queen’s head, but…
I don’t feel the need to possess her and own her the way Ram does.
She could fuck anyone she wants, and it wouldn’t bother me.
I don’t look at her like Ram does, and she doesn’t look at me like that either. ”
He shrugged, shooting me a cavalier grin that I was starting to recognize as his way of deflecting feelings that hurt him.
“So, what happened with Ares and Hecate?” I asked softly, giving him the out he clearly needed.
“Well, after she refused him, I knew he was going to hunt her down and try to force her to be his bride... Maybe it’s because she’s the mother of witches and I’m a cat demon, or maybe it’s because she and I are oddly similar, but I immediately felt the need to protect her.
I followed her out of the Colosseum that night, and sure enough, Ares was waiting for her.
“I interfered, essentially telling Ares to get fucked, and… it obviously didn’t go over well.” Shem chuckled, and I smiled.
Remembering the large bulldozer of a man from earlier, I could see how easy it would be for Shemhazai to piss someone like that off.
Shem examined the fingernails on the hand that wasn’t holding the fancy bottle.
“Naturally, he tried to unmake me and told me our standing deal was off. Rome fell shortly after. Without Ares’ support of the Roman armies, the barbarians were able to invade, and everything went to shit.”
Shemhazai shrugged, a light laugh escaping his lips.
“What happened to Hecate after that?”
“Well, I told her she owed me for saving her ass, then she told me to go fuck myself and that she’d had it handled… which was bullshit,” he scoffed.
“Anyways, I told her we should probably fuck to call it even, which didn’t go over well. She insulted me, telling me that she, and I quote, ‘Wouldn’t fuck a male demon even if he had a magic cock.’”
I burst out laughing, and Shem glared though his lips were twitching.
“Naturally, this just made me want to fuck her more. I spent the next several hundred years chasing her. It turned into something of a prank war between the two of us.”
“Is that what the witch trials were? A prank gone wrong?”
Shem nodded, holding up the bottle he’d pulled out of his bag.
“The witch trials were meant to be revenge for what she did to me in England,” he said, eyeing his bottle thoughtfully. “Do you know what this is?” he asked abruptly, gesturing to the thick liquid in the blue-tinted bottle.
I shook my head, frowning. “No. ”
“This is an elixir created by the Greek god Eros.”
“The god of desire?”
Shem smirked and nodded. “Yeah. Basically, you put this shit on someone, and they get so horny they would fuck a corpse… even if they’re not into that type of thing.”
I covered my mouth with my hand, already having an idea of where this was going.
“No…”
Shem rolled his eyes, though he was still smirking.
“ Yes. You see, I’d been having a hard time hunting her down after Rome.
At one point, I got close to catching up with her in Greece, and she challenged me to a coin toss.
Heads, we fucked, tails, I left her alone…
but before it hit the ground, she turned the coin into her two guard dogs, each of which both had a head and a tail, effectively nulling the toss.
“Her new pets made it difficult for me to find her, as they could usually smell me before I got close. So, when I finally found her in Henry the Eighth’s castle, casting a revenge spell against him on behalf of one of his wives, I thought I’d finally caught her unaware.”
“No…don’t tell me…”
Shem grimaced and nodded.
“Yeah. It was a trap. She was waiting for me with a full bottle of Eros’ elixir and one morbidly obese king. Before I knew it… I had my dick in his disgusting mouth for hours.”
I couldn’t keep it in. I was full-blown cackling.
Shem rolled his eyes at me and waved a hand in my direction good-naturedly.
“Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up. It’s all very funny.” His eyes flashed, and his grin widened as he suggestively swirled the elixir in the bottle. “It’ll be just as funny when I make her fuck her ‘brothers’ in the next few days.” He punctuated the word ‘brothers’ with air quotes.
My eyebrows shot up into my hair, and I threw my head back, laughing even harder.
“Holy fuck, Shemhazai. You’re fucking insane,” I howled, and he winked at me, stalking forward and positioning himself between my legs.
The energy in the room darkened as he ran a thumb gently over my bottom lip, causing the laughter to die in my chest .
“Mmm, you have no idea, little bird,” he purred, and I spread my legs wider, bringing my hands to his hips and tugging him in closer.
“I have some idea,” I hummed, staring directly at his perfect, plush lips. I wanted to run my tongue over them and suck on them until he quivered.
He let out a low, dark chuckle and pressed a soft kiss to my forehead, making my toes curl in my shoes.
“Want to test the potion out?” he hummed against me, leaving gentle kisses down the side of my temple toward my jaw.
Leaning back, I tilted my head to give him better access.
I shivered as he ran his tongue over my jawbone, licking and sucking my sensitive skin.
I’d noticed this was his favorite place to linger when he got in one of his rare, affectionate moods—and I loved every second of it.
Sliding my hand into his hair, I pressed him more firmly into me, encouraging him to continue.
“You want to use that on me?” I hummed, and he nodded, pressing a hot kiss just below my ear, causing me to groan softly.
“I want to watch you squirm and fucking beg for me.”
I pulled back and cupped his face, turning him to look me in the eyes so he could see how serious I was.
“Shemhazai, you don’t need a magic potion for that,” I hummed, leaning forward and skating my lips over his. “I’m already on my knees for you, baby,” I purred, and he immediately tensed, pulling back.
I forced myself not to sigh at how quickly his playful, affectionate mood disappeared and was replaced with the hard, domineering version of himself that he used as emotional armor.
“So you don’t want to play?” he asked, his voice accusatory. I sighed.
“That’s not what I said. If you want to test out the potion on me, go ahead,” I replied, meeting his gaze and slowly unbuttoning my shirt. “All I meant was?—”
“Stop talking,” he snapped, though his eyes were following the slow path of my fingers as I undid each button. “Let’s move to the living room. I want you on the couch,” he ordered, and before I could respond, he was already stepping over poor George’s corpse and walking away from me.
Because that’s what Shemhazai did whenever things got too real.
He walked away.