ASMODEUS: Demon of Lust

Chapter Two

Chapter Two

The elderly man's aura was a dull, sickly green and wavered around him in the dingy gas station like smoke but Kai kept a smile on her face. He was definitely ill, most likely cancer of the lungs based on the way he was sucking down his second cigarette in less than fifteen minutes. Kai usually saw that pea green color when someone was sick and as the old fella coughed up a hunk of phlegm, she was relatively certain her mojo was on point.

"I'm new around here," Kai said as she placed a twenty on the counter for the gas she'd just pumped. "Is there anything interesting to see in the area?"

"Yup," he rasped. His pale gray, watery eyes glanced at her briefly as he rang up her purchase on an old fashioned cash register. He adjusted his dirty baseball cap and gave her a toothy grin, which actually brightened up his weathered complexion. "This your first time in Magic Valley, I'd bet. Well, if you're like most folks you'll want to see them caves or take a ride over to Atomic City and see the first nuclear reactor."

"Caves?" Kai smiled as he rang up her purchase slower than molasses in winter, and though she tried to be patient, she was starving and had to get something to eat before she fainted. "Nuclear reactors? Sounds like a lot going on for such a... remote area."

"Yes, ma'am. Magic Valley is full of surprises." He pushed his hat back and wiped the back of his neck with a red bandana. "I'm Clive and I'd bet my bottom dollar you're Jacob Kelly's granddaughter."

Kai stilled and the smile fell from her face as she self-consciously tucked a long lock of blond hair behind her ear. While she was used to seeing inside people, it was unnerving to have someone do it to her.

"Don't go gettin' nervous now." Clive waved one hand and sat on a stool behind the counter. "There are only two hundred and seventy five people livin' in Bliss." He shrugged and laughed through a smoker's cough. "Folks are bound to notice when someone new comes to town. Besides, Jacob told me you'd be movin' into his place after he passed and, if I didn't know that, I'd sure notice you were drivin' his old Dodge." He jutted a thumb toward the window. "That piece of crap is almost as old as me."

"Y—You knew my grandfather?"

"Course I did." Clive crushed his cigarette out in an ashtray on the counter that was overflowing with ashes and old butts. "He came here for gas for that old beater you're drivin' around."

"You were friends?"

"Ha!" Clive coughed and covered his mouth with the bandana as he laughed up a lung. "Jacob didn't have friends but I 'spose I was as close to a friend as he ever had. Ever since his wife Kristine died, man hardly spoke a word, and then when his daughter left." He let out a sigh and shrugged. "He just wasn't a people person I 'spose."

"Clearly not," Kai said under her breath. She stopped herself from going into a tirade about a man she'd never known and forced a smile. "I didn't know him. Never met him actually."

"I know." Clive nodded and gave her sad smile. "He was a cryptic old bastard. Told me that someday his granddaughter would come and take over his place. Said your grandmother, Kristine, would want that. He wanted your mama to stay but I guess Bliss just isn't for everyone."

"My grandmother." Kai smiled and slipped her wallet back into her satchel. "You knew her?"

"Sure did. Kristine was good friends with my Clara... I lost her last fall." The smile faltered and he adjusted his cap again in an almost soothing gesture as emotion filled his eyes. "Them two gals was like peas and carrots when they were young. After Kristine died, my Clara tried to get Jacob to come to church and the socials but he stayed up in that house most the time. He worked around town as a groundskeeper and back in the day, well, if he wasn't workin' then he was at home with your mama. But when your mama left, well," he said on a sigh, "That was that."