We appeared in the middle of what looked to be a village. Blood saturated the ground until the mud beneath our feet threatened to drag us down to whatever hell had appeared here.
There was laughter and cheering from the beings around us... but I didn't care about any of that.
What demanded my attention was the sight of four of my men's heads on a pike while their bloodied bodies were slumped under them.
The… things… had put my men on display like they were nothing more than dolls to be played with at will.
I guess in the few seconds that it had taken Nicholas, Michael, and myself to get here, Greyson met the same fate as the other three, but that didn't matter. Whether the creatures had taken one of my men away from me or all of them away from me, the answer was all the same.
They must pay.
Taking in a deep breath, I closed my eyes to collect myself.
I had never felt this level of rage and sorrow all at the same time. I could handle whatever anyone dished out to me, and I didn't expect that the four men who had pledged themselves to my House, my personal House, couldn't receive the same benefits that I had.
I had thought that I had given them eternal life… that was the whole reason why I accepted them leaving for this mission in the first place: because I thought that they would be coming back to me, no matter what.
But that wasn't what happened. And I blamed myself for that. I was so fucking confident that I could handle whatever the world threw at me that I never thought for a second I could be brought to my knees like this.
But I was.
"Butterfly," whispered Nicholas, his arms around my shoulders, and he tried to steady me. "It's okay… I am here."
"What part of this is okay?" I asked, cocking my head to the side as I looked at the demon over my shoulder.
Nicholas was silent… unable to speak. He looked to Michael for help, but even he couldn't think of anything to say.
"Ah… if it isn't the Demon Prince of Hell… the Destroyer of Worlds, the Eater of whatever it is that you eat… you are late to the party," smirked a voice from across the village square.
"Who are you?" I asked, ignoring his question.
"Me?" scoffed the man, straightening his impeccable suit as he strolled toward us. He didn't have a single drop of blood on him… a feat since even we were now covered in blood from just standing here. "I am the new Eater of World, Destroyer of Light and Dark. I am now the Highest Prince of Hell… I am Daemon."
Nicholas tilted his head back and burst out into laughter at this man's boast.
"Daemon? That was the name you decided on? Daemon? Oh, I tremble in fear," chuckled Nicholas as he gently pushed me into Michael's arms and stepped in front of me. "But last time I checked, you are not on my level, let alone worthy of taking my titles."
"You fled from Hell the second you could," sneered Daemon, adjusting the bright red ruby cufflinks on his dress shirt as if he was worried we wouldn't be able to see them. "I simply stepped up where you didn't."
"Ah, I see," nodded Nicholas. He opened his mouth to say something else, but I wasn't about to be brought into a pissing contest between two monsters.
"You killed my men," I hissed, pointing to where my four men were. My heart jumped into my throat with each drop of blood dripping out of their severed neck.
"They were nothing more than weak beings that shouldn't be here anyway. The time has come for a new ruler of Earth, and, as in all the other times, those that currently reside here must be killed." The man shrugged his shoulders like he didn't just tell me that he was going to kill everyone and everything possible.
"I'm sorry," I said, looking at the crazy man. "What did you just say?"
"Did you know the Earth was meant to be a haven? A place where everything was perfect and no one had to work for anything. And then humans came about and ruined it all. Then, from the humans came the monsters…causing the world to fall into the cesspit that it currently is," hissed the man, coming to a stop right in front of me.
I didn't have to look at his thread to know that he was rotten to the core. But I wanted to know what he was.
I had never seen anything like it before. Red mixed with purple and white, creating a new being that…
Well… it didn't really matter what he was, now did it? Vampire, demon, angel… whatever he was involved with meant nothing to me.
"You have a deal with the angels, don't you?" I smiled as his eyes widened. "What? You thought I wouldn't know? That I couldn't see? You touched something that didn't belong to you. And I don't care who you consider to be your backup… I will kill you."
"You? A puny human? Or do you consider yourself a monster since you are fucking them?" The creature sneered, and I have to admit… I took offense to that statement. I had yet to fuck a single one of them…
But that would change as soon as I got home.
I thought that I had all the time in the world to build up a solid foundation before I fell into bed with them, but now I realize that no time is the perfect time. And things can change in the blink of an eye.
Why hold back on something I know is right simply because there were no trails of rose petals or candlelight to set the mood?
Nah, I would deal with this first and then take the guys into my bed. I wanted to be tied to them for the rest of my unnatural life, and that was starting right this minute.