Cain

I’m making my way towards the stairs when I hear a familiar voice.

“Good evening, I have an appointment with Ms. Clermont.”

I turn around and find Cain standing at the front door.

You have got to be kidding me.

Samuel, our butler lets him in and leads him the way to Aunt Michelle’s office. I’m left in disbelief as I watch. I shake myself out of it and run down the stairs toward them. I catch up to them and grab Cain’s arm.

“What are you doing here?” I hissed.

Samuel turns around when he notices that Cain isn’t following him anymore.

“Is there a problem Miss Elsie?” he asked.

I smile at him. “No, problem. I need to talk to Cain for a second.”

Without waiting for a response I drag Cain to an empty room that’s used for storage. I close the door behind us and now I’m left alone with him.

“What are you doing here?” I repeated.

“You told me you needed to talk to your aunt and I’m here to help you.”

“No, I didn’t. I told you I needed to talk to my High Priestess.”

He raises an eyebrow as if to say don’t try to fool me. This bastard knows everything.

“I don’t need your help. Plus she doesn’t like strangers.”

“She invited me.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “Why did she invite you?”

He smiles. “I’m your new neighbor.”

****

I’m sitting outside Aunt Michelle’s waiting area that she has for her clients as I listen to Cain charm her. She giggles a few times like a schoolgirl rather than a ruthless High Priestess. I don’t know how he does it but the next thing I know I hear her agreeing to let me go with him. When the door opens and I snatch a magazine like it’s the most interesting thing and focus on it.

“It was a pleasure to meet you Cain and welcome to the neighborhood.”

“Thank you, Ms. Clermont.”

Aunt Michelle lightly touches his shoulder. “Please, call me Michelle.”

Aunt Michelle glances at me and the magazine before shaking her head and going back to her office.

I put the magazine down, grab Cain’s arm, and drag him to my room. My dogs immediately get excited to see a new person. Most of the time they’re outside with the other familiars. They sniff Cain and to my surprise, Cain reaches down and gives them both rubs on their bellies. Hot guys and cute dogs make me feel things I shouldn’t feel for this a-hole.

“What did you say to her?”

He gives the dogs some more pets before walking around my room picking up stuff.

“I told her I needed you and you’d be gone for a few days.”

“And she believed you?”

“Of course not. I influenced her and made her think I needed you for some coven exchange program.”

“Coven exchanges program- are you out of your mind? You can force my aunt until believing stuff like that. Besides I already told her I was leaving again.”

“Well, you don’t have to worry about it now because I influenced her.”

“Quit saying that. You forced her.”

“Well, now you have no problem coming with me.”

“About that. My friends want to come too.”

He starts opening up my drawers and pulls out a pair of lacy panties, I walk over and snatch them from him and close the drawer.

“Stop messing with my stuff.”

“Your friends can come but know that this is not an easy task Elsie. We will be in danger and you’re my first priority next to my Loyal. I will protect you with everything I have. I don’t give two shits about your friends”

I rolled my eyes. “I’m more than capable of protecting them.”

I go to grab my suitcase when he grabs my arm and pulls me to him. Heat burns through me as I breathe in his cologne. It’s woodsy and manly. Today he’s wearing a black button up shirt without the jacket, dress pants, and black shoes. His brown hair is neatly in place and his tanned skin looks more healthy than when he first came out of Purgatory.

“I’m not kidding Elsie. I will protect you and if that means leaving your friends behind then so be it.”

I snatch my arm away. “Because of this whole stupid bond thing.”

“You and I both know it has nothing to do with the bond. I was bonded with Lilith and never once developed feelings for her. This is more.”

“Yeah, well. I’m not into guys who can just cast my friends off.”

“I would try to save them of course, I’m not a monster, I’m just saying that if it came between you and them. I will always choose you.”

I choose to ignore that and how that oddly makes me feel protected. My friends mean everything to me and I would give my life to save them but I feel guilty for how I feel when I hear him say that. Maybe it’s just because I’m the one who holds his curse but a small part of me knows it’s more than that.

“Well, I’m not ready for all that big guy so let’s just get your Loyal and see if you still have these feelings.”

He’s about to say something when the door to my room opens up. I didn’t even hear the code being entered. Jaxon walks in and looks between me and Cain.

“Am I interrupting something?”

“No,” I said

“Yes,” Cain said at the same time.

“He was just leaving.”

I grab Cain’s arm to pull him to the door but he doesn’t move an inch. He puts a hand out to Jaxon.

“Cain Adams.”

Jaxon shakes his hand.

“Jaxon Smith. How do you two know each other?”

“I and Cain are -”

“Dating.” Cain finished for me.

Jaxon raised an eyebrow and looked at me. “Since when?”

“Since now,” Cain said in a dark tone that causes his eyes to glow that golden color.

Jaxon’s eyes widen.

“Cain, stop.”

I feel him wrap an arm around me and yank me to him. This is new. He curls his arm around my waist in a possessive way. I look up at him and I see his eyes glow and I’ve figured out that means his monster is close.

“Cain,” I repeated.

He looks down at me before looking back at Jaxon. He takes a step forward and I push him back.

“You should go Jaxon.”

Jaxon nods and almost trips as he leaves my room.

“What is wrong with you?”

“I felt his lust for you,” Cain growled.

“So? It doesn’t matter.”

He glares down at me. “It does matter.”

I yank away from him. “We are not together. So, it doesn’t matter who does or doesn’t want me. I don’t know where this possessive feeling comes from but it needs to stop. We have a bond but this..” I gesture between the two of us. “Isn’t going to happen. You can’t say you have feelings for me one minute and then as soon as a guy comes in all of sudden we’re dating? I don’t know how it worked in hell but us regular people take a little longer to even consider dating someone.”

He looks amused which pissed me off even more.

“Stop acting like you don’t feel this between this,” he said. “I can feel you through the bond. I can feel how much you want me.“He steps closer to me and I have to look up at him. “I can feel you and I know you can feel me.”

“I can’t.”

“That’s because you’re not letting yourself. Open the bond. Feel me as I feel you.”

I shake my head. “No.”

He nods like he somehow gets me. “You’re scared. That’s okay. I can wait.”

I scoff. “I’m not scared.”

“Okay, I’ll just go then.”

A-hole. Just to prove to him that I’m not scared, I close my eyes and feel for the bond. I picture it like a string tying us together. I feel the string and touch it, pluck it to my will, and then I feel it. I feel everything. I feel the love he has for me even though we barely know each other. I’m different to him, he’s never met anyone like me. He sees me as this mysterious woman who is alluring, sexy, and determined. Everything about me calls to him. He doesn’t understand why we’re connected because the bond doesn’t bring an emotional connection, only the connection of being the person to keep his monster locked up. He wants me. He wants to spread me out on his bed to fuck me so hard that I forget my own name. Lust, love it’s all the same to him.

I gasp as I come back to reality.

“Now, you know. Get packed, we’re leaving in two days.”

“Wait.” he turns around. “Last night I had a dream about you.”

He smirks. “A good one I hope.”

“I saw your life in Purgatory.”

His eyes briefly widened. “What did you see?”

“You were running from some creatures and then you hid in a cave to get away from them. Why didn’t you use your monster?”

“I did most of the time but even my monster needed time to rest.”

“I saw and felt what you felt and I still couldn’t imagine doing that for sixty years.”

“I’d rather move on from the past. Looking back only brings pain.”

“Then why are you trying to fight Hell? Why not get your Loyal and move on.”

“It’s not just about putting me in Purgatory. It’s about everything that happened before.”

“Care to elaborate?”

“I’m not big on storytelling.”

“I would feel better about helping you if I could understand you more.”

He sighs and leans against the wall.

“The Bible was written by prophets who listened to the whispers in their ears. Angels, God’s servants would tell them what to write. Prophets only write what they are told to. But they are able to break free and write what they deem is correct for the world. Angels also don’t give two shits as long as the general message gets out. They did get most of my story right. My parents are in fact Adam and Eve but they weren’t banished from the Garden of Eden because of an apple. It was because of what Eve did.” he said in a dark tone. “She slept with Lucifer. But that wasn’t why we were kicked out. It was because of what she brought into the world.”

My eyes widen. “Are you trying to say what I think you are?”

“If you think I’m saying I’m Lucifer’s son then yes.”

What is the holy Hell?

“Lucifer is not a father figure so once he found out he had a kid, he did what Lucifer does best. He left. Adam raised me as his own and never looked at me any differently. He later forgave Eve and they had my siblings Abel and Awin. Abel was the kindest person to ever live. Next to Adam of course.” he said with sadness in his eyes. “As I got older, so did the monster inside me. I didn’t know what it was. I just thought I was a kid with a dark imagination. As God created more people, the monster seemed to grow. He fed off the emotions of the people around me and later that hunger grew.” He paused for a moment as if processing his thoughts.

“There were nights where I would go to sleep and wake up covered in blood. I wouldn’t know what happened until someone was found dead. I always knew instantly it was me. At that time, Eve and Adam never told me I was Lucifer’s son. They let me go on believing I was as normal as Abel and Awin. It wasn’t until Abel got in the middle of one of my monster’s kills that they took it seriously.”

I see the regret in his eyes and I feel bad that I’m making him go through this. I go to tell him to stop but he talks over me.

“Abel was only fifteen when my monster killed him. I was seventeen. You should have seen Adam’s face when he saw me standing over his son’s dead body. It was the first time I’d ever seen hatred in his eyes. Eve prayed to God for an answer and that answer was to send me down to Hell where they all decided I belonged. When I got there Lucifer crowned me the prince of Hell. Adelaide raised me and I became the killer you know today. I didn’t reach immortality until I was twenty two. I was taught everything anyone could ever learn, I got everything I could ever have.”

I don’t need to look at the bond to finally see who Cain truly is. How broken he really is. I keep fearing him for his actions but I realize now that’s who he was raised to be. A killer. I can see in his eyes that my fear is nothing compared to the fear he has for himself.

“It wasn’t your fault you know? They could have prevented all those deaths if they would have just told you who you truly were.”

He looks at me with a look I don’t understand. “What if they were protecting me? I was mad when I found out but what if you knew something about someone and it could change their whole world? Could you honestly tell them?”

It didn’t sound like we were talking about him anymore.

“Yes, lying to someone for the sake of ‘protecting’ them is B.S. If it were me, I would want to know. No matter what it is.”

He nods. “Tomorrow I want to try a locating spell. Adelaide was only able to get the countries my Loyal are in. We need to narrow it down more. Come over tomorrow. I’ll text you the address.”

“I don’t have your number.”

“Yes, you do.”

I grab my phone, unlock it and go to my contacts to see Cain’s number there.

I look at him. “When did you even do that?”

“I have my ways.”

Before he leaves I ask him one last question.

“What happened to Awin?”

He looks back at me with a cold look.

“Lucifer killed her in front of me before throwing me in that prison.”

Cain slams my door and walks out without another word.