The Devil's Assistant (Watty Awards Finalist 2011)

Devil's Assistant [9]

Chapter 9

Wednesday was here sooner than I wanted. My nights had been more interrupted than usual. After seeing the glowing girl she was all I could see when I closed my eyes and after searching glowing and sex into Google I was even more unsettled. The first search had turned up nothing just articles about the magic of the post-sex glow; somehow I didn't think that was what I was searching for. But then on impulse I typed in demons and sex, I have no idea why I did it; it just seemed to jump out at me. That was when the results came back and there it was in black and white font, page after page of listings, succubus. I didn't even really know what they were until then but as I was reading it I felt bile rise in my throat. Prolonged exposure could lead to death. I stared at the screen for a moment more before closing window and disconnecting the computer. I was truly going stark raving mad if I believed in demons and such, next I would be saying that I saw an angel.

Rolling my eyes at myself, I tried to push open the door to the office but found it much more difficult than when I was leaving the other day. I sighed almost giving up in defeat when a guy stopped next to me, he had the whole bad boy look down and looked like an even worse player than my boss and that was saying something.

"Need a hand?" He questioned with amusement as he watched me struggle to grasp the door handle around the sides of the box. I gave him a grateful smile.

"Would love a hand, can you open the door for me?" I questioned as I fruitlessly attempted to grasp the handle only the box to lurch forwards. With a squeak I wrapped my hands around the box taking a few deep breathes to calm myself. It had taken me an age and then some to organise all of these files and there was no way that I wanted to go through them again. The guy stood there for a moment just watching and analysing me before he took a step towards me and when he was barely an inch away from me so that I could feel his hot breath on the side of his face and smell the strong clean scent of his aftershave, he leant forwards and pushed open the door.

"There you go; I'm Levi, Levi Parker." I nodded my head like I knew who he was but in reality it was just a name that I would probably forget in five minutes time. He stared at me for a moment more before grinning at me in a way that made me do...I don't know what but it made me feel strange and not in a good way. "I hope I'll be seeing a lot more of you Miss Holmes." I froze and turned to watch his hastily retreating back. How did he know my name? I thought dumbly before turning around on auto-pilot and entering Lucius' office. Almost instantly I had a flashback of the blonde grinding against him as I noticed him sitting in his leather chair. He looked up as I entered and waved me in.

Taking a step backwards, I used my butt to close the door before doing all twelve steps towards his desk and dumped the box in the spare seat. Lucius carried on with what he was doing for a few minutes before he actually looked up and met my eyes. I smiled grimly not liking how he was going to react, especially when I tell him about the contents of the box.

"Welcome back, Miss Holmes." He spoke smoothly as he laid his pen down on his desk and then leant back in his chair and dropped his hands on the desk. I nodded in response watching him for his sudden outburst about catching him with the blonde goddess but there was none he just stared at me. "Did you do as tasked?" he questioned nodding towards the box. Startled I stepped forwards and ran a hand along the edge of the box.

"Yes, it was worse than I originally thought. Whoever is screwing you over is doing it royally. It's ridiculous that this hasn't been caught sooner, by the looks of it, it has been going on for nearly two years." Looking down at the box, I ripped off the tape that I had thoughtfully applied to try and make sure the contents stayed in the box, I then pulled open the lid. With a gasp I stared into the box with shock. It just wasn't possible. Slowly I dipped my hands into the box and scooped up the ashy remains of paper, a few scraps remained intact but most of it had been reduced to blackened flakes or grey ash. Scooping a large handful I lifted it up and then let the pieces filter through my fingers. "This is not possible." I muttered as I turned my head to look at my boss.