Secondhand Devil

Chapter one

Aradia continued through the city till she reached the Tower of Eris, a building dedicated to holding meetings and filing records. The entire thing is owned by her boss, Natos. A complete ass who finds enjoyment in pressing all Aradia's buttons until she lashes out and causes fatal damage to nearby employees.

Tall archways of marble rose high above Aradia and her heels echoed off the large, empty hallway leading to the meeting room. She stopped in front of the door and took a deep breath then pulled open the tall, wooden door.

The meeting room was smaller than the usual rooms they held meetings in and for obvious reason seeing as only four people sat at the oval, mahogany table.

"Glad you could join us, Miss Hale." Natos' gray eyes leveled with Aradia's green ones as everyone's attention snapped in her direction.

"Who decides to hold a meeting at midnight?" she snapped in return.

"Yes, i'm sure by the looks of your attire you were sound asleep at home." Natos' eyes scraped over Aradia's body obviously liking what he saw as did the other three men at the table.

Aradia strode over to the table but didn't make a move to sit down. As she did the four sitting at the table rose to their feet, including Natos.

"Well, we will collect the information and get back to you, Mr. Vise." A man in a deep scarlet button down shirt said to Natos and the three left the room swiftly.

"Are you serious?" Aradia turned on him as soon as the men left the room. She cocked a hand on the curve of her hip and narrowed her eyes on him.

"What are you bitching about now?"

"You called me to this meeting in the middle of the night just for it to end as soon I get here?"

"How is it my fault you weren't here at the appointed time?" Aradia just looked out the large window at the back of the room, refusing to look at the man in front of her. She might've been more attracted to him if it wasn't for him always pissing her off. Natos had black hair that curled around his ears and never looked groomed, slate gray eyes, and was easily a head taller than her.

When he realized she wasn't going to respond Natos stepped closer to Aradia till he was about two inches from her ear. "Maybe if you hadn't wasted your time killing that human in the alley way you would've made it to the meeting."

At that she turned her head to look him in the eye. She was used to him knowing her kills, hell most of them he ordered himself. It was her job to collect lives for him. For what? She didn't know, yet. But this irked Aradia, who was he to watch her every move?

"Who cares if I killed that human, what's it to you?"

"You're a bloodthirsty little thing aren't you?" he smirked. "You didn't have to kill him. He didn't pose a threat to you, Arie."

"Maybe I wanted to kill him." she hissed back.

"That's my point, darling. But why? Why would you care about what a human drunk said to you?"

Aradia turned towards the door and started to leave but Natos' strong hand gripped her upper arm. She didn't turn back to look at him so he pulled her back towards him abruptly forcing her to look him in the eye.

"Could it be because he reminded you of your father? Or because your mother was the type of whore he was implying you are?" Natos fully expected Aradia to pull back and deck him in the face but instead she just smiled sweetly and yanked her arm out of his grip.

He watched the swish of her long black hair as she strutted out of the room. The heat of her anger burned up his spine as he sensed the emotions she wouldn't let show. He could care less if she was pissed at him, he knew exactly what she had been doing when he called in the meeting. Sitting in the middle of the Wakefield Public Library researching demonic bonds. Trying to figure out how she had gotten to this point.

Oh yes, Aradia was confused as to why the day both her parents died she went from having nothing to having the world in her hands. The day she turned eighteen the entire universe shifted.

And now she found herself wandering the back roads of Wakefield to find someone to suffer the wrath she so wished unleash upon Natos' sorry ass. But of course she kept herself in check because she knew just how much that sick man got a kick out of her uncontrollable rage. Aradia didn't even put it past him to enjoy her losing control and hitting him.

The only problem with hurting Natos is that that's all she could do to him. Aradia knew well that he didn't die and spent most of his time trafficking the land of the dead. And not the all-is-love-and-happiness-side either. Speaking of...

In all her wandering Aradia had ended up in front of the Wakefield Cathedrel. The large church rose high in the sky with it's old Elizabethian architechure style walls. The stone was a deep grey and looked invulnerable. Aradia just stood observing the iron gates and stained window panes before deciding to ascend the steps that looked like no one had walked up them in years, covered in leaves and spider webs.

After nearly tearing the door off its hinges in her efforts Aradia managed to open the tall, decorative door that led inside the front room of the church. Everything about the place screamed abandonment, salvation was a lost concept in the town of Wakefield the past decade or so and this Cathedrel was a prime example. No one had touched the place in who knows how long and it was quite literally the only church within a hundred miles.

Luckily Aradia's eyes didn't haven't any trouble adjusting to the scarce lighting. Scarce was actually an understatement. Nevertheless, she strode down the aisle till she reached the back wall that was lined with layers upon layers of used candles, their off-white wax having dripped onto the dust covered red carpet.

With a single wave of her hand every candle lit and threw light across the entire building. Satisfied with her work Aradia walked over to one of the pews in the front row and admired the beauty that was so long forgotten.

For the most part, Aradia found irony in her sitting the abandoned church. There was always an undeniable darkness that loomed within her somewhere regardless of how hard she tried to push it away. But still she found herself filled with the hunger and need to find her way out of the dark only to be dragged back in by the whispers in her head telling her she's damned and must continue her work for Natos and possibly she'll find rank among the fallen.