Secondhand Devil

Chapter Three

At six thirty sharp Aradia’s alarm cried out. There was a time in her life when she would’ve groaned and pressed snooze about five times before actually getting up but now she simply shut off the alarm and got out of bed as if she never even slept. Procrastination was for the weak and the weak-minded.

She looked at her phone to see she had six missed calls from Natos already. Aradia rolled her eyes as she tossed her phone on the bed and made her way into her bathroom. She stepped inside the standing shower and twisted the silver knobs till hot water poured out. Aradia scrubbed her body and hair till every inch of her smelled of vanilla.

Aradia dressed in a smooth black pencil skirt and a gray silk button-up blouse. She could’ve passed for a young business woman easily which is exactly what Natos wanted. And of course whatever Natos wants, he gets. At that thought Aradia scowled and picked her phone up checking for anymore missed calls. Not having any she slipped it into her black leather purse and pulled her car keys out.

When she arrived at the Tower of Eris Aradia didn’t waste any time finding Natos. He was in his office going through papers on his large oak desk. The only other person in the room with him was his dainty blonde assistant, Kara Jones. The second Aradia’s foot stepped through his office door Natos went rigid and snapped his head up to look her dead in the eye. For a moment her heart stuttered.

“Kara, do mind giving us a moment,” he said so coolly Aradia almost thought she imagined the anger in his eyes. But then he said, “And make sure all of the blinds are drawn and lock the door behind you.”

Aradia’s mind went on overdrive trying to come up with a reason to have invoked his anger but came up empty. Her heart was fluttering and she had the urge to follow Kara out of the office at full speed. Instead she pulled her head up and took a seat in one of the black leather chairs in front of Natos’ desk. The sound of the shutting door rang with finality. And the sliding sound of the lock clicking into place from the outside sent a painful chill down Aradia’s spine.

A few minutes had passed and Natos hadn’t said anything, he just stared into Aradia’s eyes without once blinking. The initial fear she had felt slowly melted away with each passing second he didn’t say anything though she knew the silence was meant to have the opposite effect. It was actually starting to aggravate her.

“What’s your problem, this morning? Seriously, the silent treatment is getting really old, really fast.”

“YOU’RE MY PROBLEM, ARADIA!” Natos’ voice thundered out.

“Excuse me?”

“I told you to take out Allison Perry last night and guess who’s still alive this morning! There is an order and a balance to everything, why can’t you just listen for once in your damn life?!”

Aradia shot out of her seat and slammed her palms down on the smooth surface of his desk, “Are you fucking kidding me right now? I was in bed trying to sleep so I could get my ass here in the morning!” Her eyes burned into Natos like emerald fire, her hair falling wildly around her shoulders. “If you wanted the job done you should’ve had one of your night workers on it.” She hissed.

Natos got up from his desk so he could stand over Aradia. “You’re my night worker, my day worker, my morning worker, my whenever-I-tell-you-to-do-it worker. It is your responsibility to do as I say when I say it. I don’t give a damn about your personal preferences, Angel.”

 “Screw you.” She growled out.

Natos smirked and grabbed her hips pulling her flush against him, “Please do.” His laugh shook both of them and an unrelenting fury burst through her veins. Aradia suddenly latched her teeth onto the flesh in the hollow of his collarbone and bit down until a large pool of blood seeped into her mouth.  She pulled back with every intention of spitting Natos’ blood back into his own face but he grasped her jaw in his massive hand. A furious grin stretched across his face as he tilted her head up and kept her mouth shut until she was forced to swallow the blood in her mouth.

“Do you know what happens when someone like yourself drinks the blood of a powerful demon?” Already Aradia could feel her head spinning and her limbs getting heavy, “For humans it would usually be lethal but since you aren’t quite human it drags you down into a delirium where at first you have no control over your thoughts and your body is quite literally dead weight.”  

Natos was single-handedly holding Aradia up as she could no longer support herself. She could still feel everything but couldn’t move her limbs to save her life. Natos scooped her body up into his arms so he could set her down on the black couch against the back wall of his office. Once she was laying down he crouched beside her.

“After the first stage wears off and you regain control over your body you suddenly have the urge to tear apart the first thing you come across. And I’m not talking about tearing open pillows and bags of chips. You will want to rip apart flesh and bone. But that’s not even my favorite part.” Aradia’s vision swimmed in and out of focus but she could still make out Natos steel gray eyes and dark grin.

“The second to last phase is the absolute need to rip the clothes off of the first being of the opposite sex you see, but you’re already that way most of the time. Don’t worry, the amount of time each phase lasts varies depending on the person. Personally, I hope this first phase lasts forever so I never have to put up with that obnoxious mouth of yours ever again.”

Natos stood up from his crouched position and sighed. “I guess I should go ahead and tell you the last phase. It’s about as simple as this first phase. As your body is ridding itself of the poison your mind will force you into a deep sleep full of vivid dreams. Well, they’re more like nightmares, but who cares about the technicalities?”

Aradia watched as Natos’ blurry form walked out of the office before she was crushed under the weight of unconsciousness.