Chapter 39
VILLAIN OF THE PEACE
WHEN DID YOU REALIZE YOU NO LONGER WANTED TO participate in the battle between Heaven and Hell for dominion over humanity?
” the angel across the desk asked, pen hovering above her clipboard.
She leaned back in a high-backed office chair, thick braid pulled over one shoulder, wearing a strappy black-lace dress that was decidedly unangelic.
Murmur shifted uncomfortably in his chair.
He’d once been hanged upside down until his head exploded, and he swore it was less painful than this interview.
He glanced over at Suyin, who sat beside him.
Her smile was encouraging with a hint of teasing.
She knew how much he hated this, and she found it amusing.
He would spank her for that later. For now, however, he supposed he’d better behave.
“My opinion on that matter has been unchanged for centuries,” he replied to Sunshine. “I find humans repulsive, and I have no care for what happens to their souls at all. It doesn’t matter to me in the slightest.”
“Hmm.” The angel ticked a box on her paper.
Suyin shot him a warning look, and he made a face back at her. But he knew she was right. He needed to be good for just this one interview.
If he passed, this angel had the power to grant him free, unrestricted access to the Earth, which meant there was no one who could keep him from Suyin. And that was worth anything—even answering ridiculous, uncomfortable questions.
“Would you say you feel compassion for others’ suffering?” Sunshine asked. “When you see someone in pain, do you want to help them?”
“That depends on who it is. Most people, I couldn’t care less. In fact, I’d probably enjoy it.”
Suyin cleared her throat.
“But only if I especially hated them,” Murmur added quickly.
“And if you didn’t?” Sunshine asked. “What would you feel if you saw someone you didn’t know suffering?”
“Well, then I don’t think I would feel much of anything.”
Suyin coughed lightly.
“But,” he added, “if Suyin told me to help them, then I would.”
“Is that so?” Sunshine muttered, marking something down on her clipboard. “So if Suyin explained to you why you should have empathy for another person, what would you do?”
“I would listen to her, of course. I always listen to her.”
Sunshine smiled. “Very good. And if Suyin was the one suffering? What would you do?”
Murmur growled darkly. “I would destroy whatever caused her pain. I would annihilate it from Earth or Hell. I would obliterate it.”
“Oh, well, I suppose that counts for something.” Sunshine marked something else down on her chart. “What is your opinion of humanity as a whole?”
He made a sour face. “I despise—”
He broke off and glanced over at Suyin. She was giving him a pained look, but she still looked amused. And then he really thought about his answer.
“I used to despise all humans,” he amended, “until I met Suyin. Now I must consider that she is half human and was birthed by a human mother. So I must conclude that I don’t hate her mother, or her mother’s mother before her.
Therefore, there is at least one bloodline of humans that I don’t dislike.
As for the rest of them, I reserve judgment. ”
Sunshine beamed at him. “That’s great, Murmur. I just have one last question for you. How do you envision your future? When you imagine yourself in five years, where are you and what are you doing?”
“Well …” He stroked his chin and thought about that for a moment.
And he was surprised to find he didn’t really have an answer.
“I have achieved all my goals and fulfilled my greatest ambition, and I’m content to be without clear direction for a time.
Right now, I don’t care what I do as long as I’m with Suyin.
Her goals are my goals. She wants to study magic, so I plan to teach her everything I know. ”
Sunshine smiled and looked between them. “I think that’s wonderful.” She marked something on her clipboard and then set it down on the desk. “That’s all for your interview, Murmur, and I can tell you now, you passed with flying colors.”
“I did?” He glanced at Suyin with a frown. She looked equally surprised.
Sunshine had made him promise—without a blood vow—to be completely honest during his interview, so he had deliberately spoken frankly, even if he feared it wasn’t what she wanted to hear.
He’d expected her to reject him. If she had, he would’ve just gone on with his illegal Earth trips to be with Suyin.
But he’d passed.
“Your answers weren’t always the most … empathetic,” Sunshine explained, “but they were honest, and that is important. If I feel that I can trust you, then I know we can work together. Also, it’s obvious that your bond with Suyin keeps you grounded.
I can easily believe that you won’t harm humans or upset the balance so long as you have her in your life. ”
“If she weren’t in my life, I would have no desire to remain on the Earth plane.”
“Well, that’s perfect, then.” Sunshine rifled through a stack of papers and then pulled out a folder and slid it across the desk to him. “You’ll need to fill out these forms and sign at the bottom of each to indicate you’ve read and understand the terms.”
“Are these magically binding contracts?” he asked, eyeing the papers warily.
“No,” Sunshine replied. “That’s the whole point of forming this relationship.
We start off with a strong foundation of trust and strengthen it with time.
There are no unbreakable vows or forced obedience.
You check in with me once a month and tell me honestly how your progress is going, and I’ll offer guidance and help you with decision-making and communication with humans.
We’ll trust each other to have the other’s best interests at heart. ”
Murmur cocked a brow. “So you won’t be breaking into my lair to steal from me anymore?”
Sunshine grinned unashamedly. “As long as you don’t steal Raum from me again.”
“Deal,” Murmur replied. I make no promises if I catch him sniffing around my boundary wards. But he left that unsaid.
“I have to ask you one thing.” Sunshine folded her hands atop a stack of papers.
“Do you think it would be possible for me to borrow The Book of Gamigin? The entire reason I went to Hell was to get that book for my mentor, Adriel. He’s been searching for it for a while and is quite curious to read it. ”
Murmur opened his mouth to tell her he wasn’t giving Suyin’s book away to anyone, but Suyin spoke before he could. “I actually have a PDF scan that I can send to you if you want?”
Sunshine blinked. “You can?”
“Yeah. I mean, it’s in my email already. I’ll just forward it to you. You can print it out if you need a physical copy.”
“Oh, wow. Thank you! How very kind of you.”
Suyin shifted in her seat. “It’s not a big deal. It’s just a PDF.”
Sunshine smiled brightly. “Adriel will be thrilled. And so will I. I never quite got over how I failed that mission.”
Murmur smiled to himself. He was pleased he had foiled the angel’s attempt to steal from him.
Sunshine handed him the folder of papers to sign, and they made plans to meet again in a week to finalize his entry into Heaven’s transition program, now officially titled DEEMON: the Dark Entity Evolution Management and Oversight Network.
How like Heaven to pick the most convoluted and unnecessarily complex name possible.
Shortly after, Murmur and Suyin stepped out of the bungalow situated in the backyard of Belial’s mansion.
Sunshine lived there with Raum, and her office was tucked away in the second bedroom at the back.
Their entire house was packed full of gold that Murmur suspected Raum had stolen from other demons.
The sun was shining as Murmur and Suyin followed the path around the outside of Belial’s house toward the driveway. He hadn’t seen Belial since the day he’d kicked Suyin’s door in, which was fine with him.
Lucifer was amassing his legions and preparing for war. It was only a matter of time before he acted, and Murmur would be drawn back into the conflict whether he liked it or not. He wanted to enjoy every moment he had with Suyin before then.
“So what do you want to do with your newfound Earth freedom?” Suyin asked as they neared where she’d parked her little car.
Murmur shifted to human form when they were within sight of the vehicle.
His demon form was far too big to fit inside, and there was always a risk of a human with the Sight spotting him on the road.
Suyin had declared that she was going to get him a bike and teach him how to ride because she detested using her car in spring and summer.
She’d told him it was a crime to drive a car when one had a bike in the garage.
He’d ridden as a passenger on the back of her bike once or twice, and he wasn’t sure how he felt about that plan.
It was no wonder that she was fearless, if she enjoyed such a vehicle.
He didn’t have a clue about automobiles and technology. He was still fascinated by her phone. Despite knowing of the existence of such things for a while, he’d never bothered to use them himself.
“Actually,” he said as he opened the rusted passenger door to her cramped vehicle and folded himself nearly in half to fit inside, “I wanted to take you somewhere in Hell. There’s something I want to show you.”
“Awesome,” she replied, hitting the gas and expertly reversing the car down the driveway. “We can draw a hellgate in my living room.” The gates opened, and she backed onto the road and then shot forward.
Murmur braced his hands on the dashboard.
He wasn’t sure he liked cars any more than motorbikes, despite the undeniable convenience of rapid travel.
“There’s a special kind of hellgate that remains locked to another,” he said.
“We can draw one to minimize the risk of leaving a gate open in your home while we’re gone. It’s much safer.”
“Double awesome. Teach me when we get home?”
“Whatever you want, witchling.”
In response to her favorite nickname, Suyin shot him a challenging grin and then floored it around a corner. Murmur winced as his body was crushed against the side window.
When they returned to Suyin’s apartment, he shifted back to his preferred form, and they drew the hellgate, linked it up with his study in Hell, and then stepped through.
Suyin wandered about the freshly cleaned library while he readied to draw another gate, since the first would remain permanently linked with her house.
“Whoa, what happened to all the books here?” she asked, pointing to an empty section of shelves that had previously been stuffed full.
Her fingers were tipped with little black claws, and he smiled at the sight. She’d been practicing shifting forms and was already gaining control of it. He encouraged her to take her half-demon form whenever they were in Hell to reduce the risk of anyone discovering what she was.
“You will see,” he said from beside the fireplace, where he was inscribing the new gate on the floor. When he finished, he activated it and then straightened and dusted his hands off.
“Ready when you are,” he told his witch, holding out a hand.
“I hate surprises,” she told him with a smile. Nevertheless, she came to his side and placed her small hand in his big one.
He curled his fingers around her palm and pulled her close, bending down to say in her ear, “You’ll like this one.” And then he scooped her up and stepped into the gate.
They stumbled out the other side into the study of his former lair.
The windows overlooking the sea were freshly cleaned.
The bookshelves on either side were filled with grimoires he had transferred from his new lair.
He’d brought furniture in as well—a desk sat in the middle of the room facing the window, offering an exquisite view of the tossing waves.
Down the hall, he’d had another mattress brought in with fresh bedding.
Suyin rushed forward to stare out the window. “Holy shit. I never pictured there being an ocean in Hell.”
“There is, but don’t make the mistake of swimming in it. You’ll be eaten in seconds.”
As if to punctuate his comment, the kraken chose that moment to flail its tentacles out of the water. Murmur lifted a hand and waved back. He was never quite sure if the creature knew he was there, but he liked to think so. And it was always smart to remain on the good side of a kraken.
“Oh my god,” Suyin breathed at the waving tentacles.
They descended back into the waves a moment later, and she spun around. “What is this place? These books—Is this your old lair?”
Murmur nodded. “After the souls were released, Lucifer’s fury unleashed an earthquake, as I predicted, but my lair survived the tremors.
I’m beginning to think it’s sturdy enough to withstand the coming tribulations.
We’ll have to be careful, but if you’re going to be visiting me in Hell, I thought you would appreciate a place to come away from …
everything. My new lair may be heavily fortified, but it’s also a target.
I always liked this place because no one ever bothered me here.
I thought it would be nice for us to have a quiet space to come to where no one can disturb us. ”
“So you basically set up an oceanside retreat for us … in Hell.”
He frowned. “I suppose you could say that.”
“Murmur …” She stepped up to him, and he wrapped his arms around her. “That’s the most thoughtful thing anyone’s ever done for me.”
He made a face. “I hope not. It’s not that big of a deal.”
“Yes, it is. You’ve gone to so much effort for me these last few days—sitting through that meeting with Sunshine, letting me drive you around in my tiny car and take you places in human form.
You even came to the coven with me and pretended to be human in front of Marie-Thérèse.
I know how much you hated that, and you never complained once. ”
“I can complain if you’d rather,” he mumbled, hating the heat he felt rising to his cheeks.
“No, stupid, I’m thanking you for not complaining.”
“Well, stop it. I feel uncomfortable.”
She snorted a laugh. “Fine. But I hope you know that I see the effort you’re making, and I appreciate it. And I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Their gazes met. She smiled softly. Tenderness filled him at the sight—his fierce little half demon giving him such a gentle look—and he brushed a thumb over her lower lip.
“You’re mine, witchling.”
Ours, his inner voice agreed.
“Always,” she replied, and everything in his being practically vibrated with satisfaction.
He stooped to kiss her, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. She held him tightly, but he didn’t flinch or feel the need to pull away. If her embrace was a shackle, it was one he never wanted to escape from.