Asmodeus - Demon of Lust: Pt. 07

Ash pulls the invite from my shaking hands and offers it to my mother instead. She takes it without hesitation.

"We're not going!" My father says, his voice hard and menacing. This is the final straw for him.

Ash ignores him and addresses my mum instead.

"Please consider it at least, Mrs. Sastri, I know Selena would have attended."

My mother nods just as my father snaps.

"GET OUT!" He shouts.

I don't wait to be told twice.

* * * * *

When we finally leave my parents' house, I'm horrified by the encounter. This was not the way I wanted to end things with them. I turn my back on Ash and ball my hands into fists. This is all his fault! He set my father on edge from the very beginning with his too firm handshake and unnatural allure. Then he drove the hammer home with all his ridiculous talk of weddings and what 'Selena' would have wanted. Did he ever take the time out to ask me what I want?

A car pulls up in front of us before can voice my protests. It's fairly non-descript, not too flashy though shiny and new. A thin man hops out, dressed in a chauffer's suit and runs around the car to open the back door. Then he waits, head bowed.

I look at Asmodeus, cocking an eyebrow. He tilts his head in confirmation and holds his arm out in an 'after you' gesture.

Sliding into the car is a little difficult. I hoist my heavier body onto the leather seats and drag myself over, making room for Asmodeus, he ducks in gracefully, then makes a fuss over my seatbelt, attempting to buckle me in himself.

"I know how to do it!" I hiss, slapping his hands away, "You sort out you own belt."

He settles into his own seat as soon as he hears the click of my buckle and the driver pulls away from the house. I wind down my window and avoid his gaze, feeling conflicted about today's turn of events.

After I took the time to think about what I wanted, I decided to give myself wholly and willingly to the Demon King. My conditions were that his original promise never to hurt me must be kept and that I be given a chance to say goodbye to my old life. Small requests, I realised, considering the severity of my sacrifice and Asmodeus knew it too. He'd agreed immediately, forming the plan in which we both wore glamour to visit the human world.

He took me to a corner of his cavern which I'd never noticed was there. It led to another, smaller room, filled with unfinished art, sinister looking weapons and a pool of bubbling clay. I eyed the weapons suspiciously while he went straight to the pit. Scooping up some of the – no doubt scalding – clay with his hand, he rubbed it into the skin of one of his arms. I watched with fascinated disbelief as the area coated with clay changed its colour. The ancient magic of his shifting, swirling skin pigmentation was cloaked by the alchemy of the clay. When he rubbed some of it on me, I was surprised at how cool it was, hardening against my skin and changing me also.

I'd never seen the appeal to mud-wrestling, but smearing it over the firm shoulders and taut ass of my lover had me twitching in anticipation. And of course being lathered so thoroughly by him was beyond delicious. His large, rough hands felt the same as they always had but they looked foreign against my breasts. The pleasure they elicited within me though was so delightfully familiar that any unease I felt about our changing appearances dissolved without a fuss. The slippery mud worked wonders, the silky texture of it aiding and caressing us as we explored each other. We ended up on the floor before he entered me. I was giddy with pleasure and wound so tight with orgasmic energy that every touch and movement reverberated through me with the power of stars imploding. I could feel every pulsing inch of him under my skin and hear the sweet sound of three heartbeats pounding in my ears, two fierce and thunderous, the other quick and fragile. Our lovemaking wasn't wild or desperate; it needn't be for the strength of our desires. It was steady and intimate; all slow thrusts, clinging limbs and hitching gasps, and all the more beautiful for it. When we'd finally reached our mutual climaxes, we did so as Ash and Rowan.

Dark skin turned light for both of us and a little clay rubbed onto our eyelids even changed the colours of our eyes. Asmodeus' rubies bled away into sapphires while my mocha globes froze and transformed into glittering emeralds.

We were different people, akin to our other bodies only in stature. The clay changed me into a Caucasian woman with more delicate features, tawny hair and green eyes. My lover had transfomed even more significantly, the aggressive plains of his face filled out more so that he looked less rigid than before, more approachable and less intimidating. While still exceedingly tall and largely built, the lightening of his skin and almost boyish glamour on his face made him look less severe. Certainly, he could pass for a human, albeit one whom most would think a professional athlete.

I coordinated our clothing, instructing Asmodeus until he was able to create clothes for us both which would be casual enough to let us pass through relatively unnoticed. When we were both dressed and unrecognisable, it was time to go. Asmodeus, now Ash, picked me up as if I weighed nothing and the air seemed to shimmer around us. The reds and browns I'd grown so accustomed to over the past few days, melted away and were replaced by the shocking greens and yellows of flora. We'd appeared impossibly in a secluded corner of the nature reserve across my parents' house. Birds took off, startled by our sudden arrival, but we were otherwise unseen.

I'd assumed we'd travel back the way we came after our visit, but the arrival of the car was an unexpected surprise. What more does he have planned for us here?

Down the road from my parents' house lives one of my best friends. When we stop in front of her house, Asmodeus wills another invitation into existence. I raise an eyebrow, how does he know where my friends live? He gets out of the car, slips it in the mailbox and slides back in before I have time to figure out what I should be doing.

"This is the home of a friend of yours, is it not? Bailey Stilo?"

"Yes," I sigh, "Though I don't know what you're expecting of her."

"I expect her to attend our wedding, of course."

He smiles as if he is plotting something elaborate and I roll my eyes. The memory of our sweet lovemaking fresh in my mind is enough to sooth my anger for the moment, though I still do not approve of his wedding plan. Why can't anything ever be simple with him?

I protest as the car pulls away from Bailey's house; I didn't even get to see her! How am I supposed to convince her to attend my sham wedding – at such short notice too – if I can't see her? Asmodeus, vague as ever, says that we will convince them all tonight.

He drops off one more invitation, at Rochelle Sindhal's house, the other of two friends I would trust with my life. As with Bailey, we leave before I have a chance to see her.

When we leave Rochelle's house, I think that we'll be heading back to Asmodeus' realm. We keep driving though, eventually turning onto the motorway. We head toward the city centre using the route I take to University. The driver seems to know exactly where he's going and needs no instruction from me or Asmodeus. Now that I think about it, I don't recall Asmodeus speaking to him at all. How did he know to visit my friends? He must be one of the Demon's lackeys.

A rich ripping sound diverts my attention to the demon sitting next to me. He grips the seat with uncharacteristic tension, his eyes closed and body rigid. He's actually torn clean through the thick leather.

"Asmodeus?"

He releases a strained breath and cracks open an ice coloured eye. Then the car jolts slightly and it squeezes shut again.

I stare at him, dumbfounded, then burst out laughing!

"Oh my god! You're afraid of being in the car aren't you?"

"If one were meant to travel at such speed, one would have developed the power," he grinds out, eyes still shut.

"We're only at one hundred kilometres an hour!" I laugh, "You mean to say that teleportation is fine but a car isn't?"

"As I stated, the only modes of transportation with which I am comfortable, are those which I am capable of achieving with my body alone."

The car begins to slow down as we take an exit and Asmodeus relaxes a little.

"Then why didn't we teleport?"

"The travel link only exists between the human realm and mine. I cannot flit from one human location to another, only from the demon realm, here and back again."

We stop a little while away from the city, at the entrance of a large botanical garden. I've been here before, years ago with my family; I remember spraining my ankle after tripping over a tree root on one of the trails. It's still one of my favourite places though, surrounded by the beauty of nature, tamed though it may be. I follow Asmodeus through the reception building and into the gardens themselves.

The weather is glorious and it's unsurprising that the park is packed with visitors; families sitting on picnic blankets, children feeding ducks at the pond, teens tossing frisbees and couples strolling amongst the roses. Asmodeus takes my hand in his and we walk a quieter trail, within the sights of others but out of earshot. I wonder idly why we're here but my mind is still teeming with questions from the car ride.

"If you hate cars so much then why didn't we just travel back and flit here from there?"

"It is exhausting scattering ones atoms and making them whole again. I would not have the energy for a return trip."

"You scattered our atoms?" I breathe in wonder, remembering a feeling of weightlessness for the split second after the cave disappeared.

"I was granted the ability so that I may visit the human world whenever I so see fit. I remember a time when one could walk between points of interest without the need for chariots. Why in the Great One's name do humans insist on traversing great distances?"

"Expansion is a natural part of a developing civilisation. As a population grows, so does the space it inhabits. By your logic, even riding a horse is unnatural and humans have been riding for millennia! Yours is old fashioned thinking," I admonish.

A smile spreads on his face and he looks at me with an arrogance which belies his next words.

"You forget my love, that I am the epitome of old age. I remember a time when humans were yet too young to walk on two legs let alone break a horse. I am over three million years old."

I stop in my tracks. Three million?! It is an amount of time that I cannot even begin to fathom. Three thousand is ancient in my view, the times of Achilles and Agamemnon. Then I remember that he said he was born before the first humans and shudder to think of enduring such a lifespan. No wonder he considers a human lifetime 'but a moment'. To him it would probably seem as if the first car was invented mere seconds ago; after all, what is two and a half centuries when you have lived over three mega annum?

I suddenly feel extremely small in the grand scheme of things. Not for the first time I find myself wondering whether I have made the right choice. I am so utterly insignificant compared with the immortal who stands beside me, yet here I am, thrust into his enthralling world.

I can't believe that-

"Cease." His voice is commanding, humour gone. He places his large hands on my shoulders, holding me firmly within his sight. His eyes are hard and flash with annoyance.

I shoot him a questioning glare.

"You know what I speak of. I will not have you doubting yourself. Our ages mean nothing. I am no more superior simply because I have lived longer. You should consider yourself fortunate that you have not lived to suffer as long as I have without you."

His eyes soften and he combs his fingers through my hair.

"I love you Selena, now and for all eternity. I wish for you to know this always. You, my young love, you mean more to me than you will ever possibly fathom. I wish to be with you until the end of time. I wish to marry you, not as a ploy to allow you more time with your family, but because I want you bound to me just as surely as I am bound to you. You deserve everything you will ever desire and I intend to begin affording you these desires tomorrow, in these very gardens. Will you honour me by becoming my bride?"

He drops to one knee while I stare, stunned, and produces a gorgeous platinum engagement ring. The band curves into a sharp V point at the top and is adorned with a large red diamond. Smaller, black diamonds glitter on either side of the red one, trailing along the V, and the effect is breathtaking.

My throat closes and I nod mutely as tears drip off my chin. Distantly, I hear cheers and hoots as strangers watch my lover take my hand in his and slip the ring onto the third finger of my left hand. The V points up toward my wrist as if it is an arrowhead enchanted by Eros aimed straight for my heart.

I pull my lover up and into my arms for a fierce kiss, ignoring the wolf-whistles and cat calls from our audience. It doesn't matter that we wear unfamiliar faces because I see my King in his ice blue eyes when we break apart.

He was right of course; ever since he'd offered my parents the wedding invitation, I did think getting married to my demon was just a ploy of his to secure me more time with my loved ones. It had hurt me more than I was willing to admit. Just as I'd felt like I was a breeder to him before, a means to an end, used cheaply; I felt that the marriage he had sprung on me earlier was a mere convenience, a way to ensure that I stayed with him. Now I believe that he'd planned this all along and the thought fills me with such love for him that I can't stand it.

How will we convince my invited guests to attend though? Now that I know the wedding is not just for show, I am eager for them to be present.

'We will convince them tonight', he said, and while I have no idea what that could mean, I have faith in my fiancé.

To be continued...