The Lady and I Ch. 02

Chapter Two

The Lady

Even though I hadn't known her name until the night before, I'd been watching Greta for a very long time. I suppose it started back when she was pre-adolescent.

Along with my duties in hell as head mistress, punishing the souls of the sexually wicked, I was responsible for going to earth at night and finding adulteresses so that I could add fornication points to their record.

Whether humans went to heaven or hell was determined on what they did. Every high ranking demon had a job and a map that aided in their work. The map would highlight the souls of the wicked based on the demon's responsibility. The demon would then have to go to their house at night and mark them. Then they would add negative points to their record, bringing them closer and closer to hell. It affected their appearance, their life expectancy and their financial success. Angels did the same process with positive points and at the end of the human's life, whichever side had more points took the human.

The night that I met Greta, I was out doing my job. One of the highlights on my map was her mother. She had recently started an affair with a co-worker of her husband's. I sighed and went into the house. The map system only highlighted the address and gave a name. Once I was inside, I was on my own. By accident, I went into Greta's room.

Upon seeing her face, I realized that she could not be the adulteress; she was far too young for this century. I tried to turn to leave, but something kept me there. The girl was sleeping so peacefully; her breaths were slow and gentle, her chest rising and falling gently. She looked so young and innocent. Part of me wanted to protect her and keep her innocent forever. Another part of me wanted to ruin her innocence, turn her wicked; deflower her and get her addicted to me. I wanted to ruin human life for her.

There was no demon law that would stop me if I wanted to. Demon-human relationships were often encouraged, but love was unadvised as it would cause a lot of trouble. I turned and left the room before I lost all of my self-control. After I finished my job, I fled to the roof quickly.

'Whatever you do, Carrera, never come in contact with this human again.'

Six years later and Greta was an almost fully developed human adult. I still saw her every day, I was still following her around, and I was still watching her sleep. The only thing that had changed was the fact that I was now completely and totally in love with the human.

The brother and Greta went to the park often and every time they would roam the park, talking about nothing in particular and laughing often. Their relationship was a close brother/sister friendship and I envied the boy. I wanted to be the one to make her face light up like that. I watched from a distance in my human form, careful not to let her see me. If she did, no good would come of it. I could lurk invisibly, but if she were to look in my direction, she would see me in my demon form. My powers were absolutely worthless in the face of love.

That day was no different. They did what they always did, walked the same route they always walked. It only fueled my envy. I cursed myself for being a demon; unable to do anything about my growing infatuation. After a while, though, Greta stopped and sat down of one of the park benches. She reached into her bag and pulled out a book, my book. She bought it. She looked down thoughtfully at the cover again and flipped through the pages.

"Oliver, listen!" She said, her eyes lighting up as she patting the empty space of the bench next to her. He complied. "Lady Carrera is a well-known, high-ranking succubus; known best as the head mistress of hell. She specializes in punishing the women who commit adultery, have sex before marriage, prostitutes and other women of the sort. She is also known to take the form of a human and appear in the dreams of women, seducing them through intercourse, like succubae are said to do."

"She fucks chicks in their sleep?" He asked, "Sounds like your kind of demon."

She scowled and punched him, jokingly. "That's not true at all. I'm saving myself for marriage."

"It's a dream, though. You'd still be saved." He said, nudging her with his elbow.

"Oli!" She yelled, blush quickly surfacing in her cheeks. "Stop it! Besides, it also says that she punishes adulteresses and such. Hm, I wonder why I picked up this book. Seems kind of weird."

"Maybe this Lady Carrera is trying to tell you something. Or me something. Hm, sis, are you a prostitute or something?" The brother laughed.

"Like I said, saving myself." Greta said, "It kinda makes me wonder about her; about demons. Maybe they're not like they're made out to be."

I turned and started to walk again.

Greta turned quickly to look at me and my heart stopped.

"Hey, I saw you at the bookstore." She called to me. I turned to face her.

"Uh, yeah. I go there every day." I said, "You work there or something, don't you?"

I started to walk toward her and she picked up her things and stood, moving around the bench and facing me.

"Yeah, I do." She said, "Sorry, I must've freaked you out. I'm Greta, Greta Caruso."

"My name is..." Shit. "...kinda hard to pronounce. You can call me Ryla. Ryla Bliss."

"Ryla." She repeated, her voice deliciously sultry. "Nice to meet you. I guess I'll see you tomorrow if you go to the bookstore every day."

I watched in shock, unable to speak as my innocent young Greta turned into a demanding sex kitten. She had just said she was saving herself, but her eyes... her eyes begged me to take her.

"I suppose so." I managed to say, regaining my demonic confidence. "See you then."

"See ya." She said, and I quickly got away from her. She was making it extremely difficult to keep myself under control.

Greta

I saw her again; the woman who dresses in black and lurks quietly around the store. She never reads anything, she never buys anything. She doesn't even go to the coffee shop and read the books that people leave behind like I do.

Every once in a while, however, I catch her looking in my direction. This might sound crazy, but she was much too beautiful to be human, much too flawless. Her black, lacy clothing hugged her slim, curvy body perfectly; her skin was smooth and pale. She had eyes of a striking reddish color and her pale face was shaped with long, silver hair.

Oliver and I saw her the other day at the park. Her name is Ryla.

"Ugh, it's the weird chick." My co-worker, Alexis complained.

Alexis didn't belong in the bookstore; she was, to put it nicely, a slut, who hated books and reading and was only here for the job, half-priced coffee, and the occasional mildly attractive guy who accidently walked in. She was rude to the customers and never did inventory. The only reason the boss kept her around was the fact that we were short-handed.

"You just think she's weird because she's hotter than you." I quipped.

She laughed, "Are you kidding? She's one of them goth satan-worshipper freaks."

"I don't think so, she doesn't seem like the goth type. There's something else there, something mysterious." I said, "Mystery is the sexiest shit in the world."

"Y'know, other than me." Alexis said, flipping her hair and causing me to laugh slightly. Ruby and I got along pretty well; we were kinda rude towards each other in a joking way, but I was friendly in order to keep the sanity.

"So, Gret, you're into dark room stranger sex."

"No way. You never know what kind of STD's they have. I wouldn't mind being blindfolded by whoever I end up with, though." I said, truthfully, "She's not quite a stranger, though. Oli and I met her yesterday at Kurt Memorial."

"Hm... weird. You think she's following you?" Alexis asked.

"I dunno. I wouldn't really mind." I said.

"What if she was a rapist?" Alexis asked, making a really weird face and stoking my arm.

"I wouldn't mind that either." I said,

"After all, she's definitely fuckable."

"Whatta 'bout me, Gret?" She whined, "Do you think I'm fuckable?"

"No way. You're like a sister to me. It would be like doing Oli." I said, "Besides, I thought you didn't swing the gay way."

"Maybe I do, maybe I don't." She said, pouting. "I just said yes to men. I never said no to women."

"You'd probably say yes to anyone." I laughed as she mock-slapped me.

"Fine. I'm going to go talk to mystery over there." She said, strutting over to the isle where Ryla disappeared.

I leaned against the counter. The bookstore was fairly empty, so I could hear their conversation clearly.

"Hello, miss, can I help you." She asked.

"I'm afraid you can't." Ryla said. "I've found what I wanted."

Ryla walked over to where I was at the register and placed a book on the counter. The book looked terribly familiar. I realized why when I read the title; "Lady Carrera of the Darkest Nights."

I went on with the transaction and handed over her receipt and change.

"Meet me at Kurt Memorial under the graffiti bridge." I said. "I need to talk to you."

Ryla grinned. "Will do." Then, she left.

"Greta's got a girl friend." Alexis sang.

"No I don't." I said, "Not yet."