ASMODEUS: Demon of Lust

ASMODEUS: Demon of Lust--Chapter One

Chapter One

Struggling with the skeleton key, Kai swore under her breath as she fought to open the attic door of her grandfather's old, colonial house. Her mouth was set in a firm line as she wrestled with the uncooperative lock and reminded herself it was now her house. For better or for worse, the enormous place was now hers.

Kai hadn't ever met her maternal grandfather and if it weren't for an old picture her mom kept she wouldn't even have known what Jacob Kelly looked like. Kai's parents were killed in a car crash a couple of years ago, and not only did the jerkoff skip the funeral, he didn't even call. Not a card, a note, a text. Nothing. Not a Goddamn word.

What a prince.

Then about a month ago, Kai received a call from Ben Flaherty. He claimed to be an attorney in Idaho and said that she was the sole beneficiary of her grandfather's estate. At first she thought it was a joke or a scam or something, like one of those emails from the guy in Kenya who said you inherited a billion dollars. But after learning a few pertinent facts, she realized it wasn't a joke.

Ever since her parents died it was like she'd been traveling under a dark cloud of shitty luck. Kai's little tarot shop in New Hampshire went belly up last year, her boyfriend cheated on her—again.

Needless to say, life was sucking in a big, fat way. The only soul in the world Kai could count on was her Siamese cat, Zephyr, and she was a moody little thing. So, when Mr. Flaherty had laid it all out, the inheritance wasn't easy to turn down.

The property was in Bliss, Idaho with a whopping population of about three hundred people, but when Kai heard that Bliss was located in Magic Valley, that was when she knew it was all going to be okay. She'd always been fascinated with all things mystical and, at a young age, had discovered she had a knack for reading people, or more specifically the auras that surrounded them. Tarot cards helped her get a more in-depth reading but, in most cases, she was able to get a solid bead on people by studying the color of their aura.

When she was little, she called it the glow and only her mother knew what she was talking about because she could see it too. Kai's dad would chuckle when his girls yammered on about auras, inner light and so forth. Kai was relatively certain her father thought it was just a silly game, but she and her mom knew better.

While Kai's mother was happy to discuss it in private, she discouraged the idea of sharing their intuitive nature with other people. So when Kai opened the tarot shop, her mom was less than thrilled and worried that Kai might attract the wrong sort of people—the ones without light.

Her mother, Katherine, called them the Dark Ones and warned Kai they would come if Kai wasn't careful about the kind of mystical practices she dabbled in. According to her mother's stories, the Dark Ones were capable of stealing a person's light—essentially they were soul- stealers. Her mother said that a Dark One could suck the soul out of a regular person, but that it was even more dangerous for people who saw auras or light the way that Kai did.

Kai shuddered but quickly shook it off. She knew her mother was being overly cautious or perhaps just flat out made up these scary stories to keep her from using her powers too freely.

Kai scoffed as she continued to fight with the lock on the attic door. The idea of a person without an aura was ludicrous because it would mean they didn't have a soul. Kai had never met anyone without light. Some people had auras that were darker or murkier than others, but everyone had a glow of some kind because everyone has a soul. Even animals have auras.

Kai let out a short laugh as she adjusted her grip on the iron key. Right now, she'd give just about anything for one of her mother's lectures on the mystic realm... and one of her hugs. The hole in Kai's heart grew smaller with time but there were moments the sadness and grief would surge and threaten to overwhelm her.