Demon Bound (Bound Series, Book One) (4 page)

The thought of spending the entire day with Roberta hovering over her shoulder makes Axelle rethink her devious plan. Nodding her head she mutters, “Understood.” How did that enormous wench even know what she was thinking? Or is she that transparently miserable and with her reputation as a havoc-wreaker it didn’t take a genius to put two and two together? Yeah, it is probably that and not some hellish power that she can only dream of having access to.

Roberta nods fiercely and vanishes, and Axelle has barely had time to turn back around when off the light goes again.

Man, what is going on today? Or is this a usual day and yesterday was, like, a painfully slow day at the office?

After the tenth soul has been shipped off to Assignments--all with their correct temperaments grudgingly recorded--Axelle asks the next Reaper what is going on.

“Was there, like, a train wreck or something?” she asks sardonically.

“Or something,” comes the menacing reply from deep within the hooded, black cloak.

Okay, fair enough
. Mental note: Reapers - not big talkers. Except when they are being jerks.

“Speaking of jerks,” Axelle drawls when she opens the door again to find herself looking at Evan again. He scowls at her and she scowls back.

“Hurry up, would you? I’ve been waiting ten minutes to get this one booked in already,” he says crossly.

“Geez, sorry,” she answers back sharply. “It’s been kind of busy today, if you hadn’t noticed.”

“No fucking kidding,” he replies. “I am making my quota for the week today. Well, I would if
you
would hurry the fuck up.”

“Attitude like that will only get me to slow down,” she says and deliberately picks up her stamp in slow motion.

Evan growls at her, but she takes her sweet time in neatly rolling up the scroll and sending it on its way.

“If you don’t like how I work, go to another Inbound Administrator,” she says crossing her arms.

“I am assigned to
this
desk. Trust me, if I didn’t have to report here you would never see me again,” he says, and off he goes with his soul in a foul temper. He needs to seriously lighten up.

Axelle sticks her tongue out at where he was standing a moment ago and closes the door. If only she never had to see him again. Although, his feisty attitude is kinda sexy. Not her usual thing, as she prefers her men weak and submissive, but at this point she wouldn’t turn down a roll in the sack with a man burning with passion. And he is cute, in a college boy kind of way. Not sensually, smolderingly, good-looking like Luc, she finds herself thinking, but hot all the same.

After two more hours of non-stop booking in, Axelle takes a breather and finds a coffee machine in the next “office”. She saw Evan two more times and both times he was just as nasty to her. She wonders what she did to bite him on the ass? She has to conclude though, that he is the only one of them that has spoken to her.

Although ‘spoken’ is probably being a bit nice about it. He growled at her more like. In spite of that, she kind of wishes that he would show up again just so she had someone to talk to. She has to admit to a secret part of herself, that she is quite enjoying their banter and she really enjoys watching his cheeks go red when she pisses him off. Not for the first time today she wonders if he would let her tie him up and whip him…

That wicked thought is interrupted by the light, and abandoning her coffee she goes back to work until five o’clock when she signs out.

As Axelle leaves her office, she wonders what happens after she leaves. Is there a night shift? Or do the souls only get reaped nine to five? Purgatory has to have a purpose, right? Perhaps a safe place to keep the souls until they get collected? It’s a theory.

As Axelle hits the escalator that leads to Apartment Block D, she decides that she doesn’t really care. She has to find a way to get out of Inbound and soon. It is just another prison that she has been shoved into and she can’t decide which one is worse.

To her surprise, the stunning red dress is waiting in her closet for her when she arrives home. She hesitates for only a second to wiggle out of her suit and to put it on, not even bothering to wash away the work day from her skin. If tonight is going to be anything like last night, then she is not making any effort to tidy up. All Axelle cares about is showing up and letting Luc have his way with her so she might start to figure out what he wants with her. He wouldn’t have pulled her out of her fiery cell for no reason, surely, and for the love of all things unholy it cannot be just to have crap sex with her.

As expected, once the dress and shoes are in place and she has fixed up her hair, this time coiling into a severe bun, she dematerializes and ends up directly in the dining hall.

Alone.

She blinks a couple of times to get her eyes adjusted to the dimness of the candle-lit room and then shrugs and takes her place where she sat last night to wait.

Axelle drums her fingers on the table waiting for something to happen, when all of a sudden, Luc appears at the other end looking a bit flustered.

“Apologies,” he murmurs. “I was held up.”

“No worries,” Axelle murmurs back avoiding his gaze, suddenly feeling shy after the weirdness of yesterday.

Luc takes his seat and picks up his goblet, all the while regarding her. “Are you hungry?” he asks.

Axelle just nods and a plate of food appears in front of her, this time a piece of salmon. Where does all of this food come from? Not down here, that’s for damn sure.

“No twins?” Axelle mumbles around a mouthful of food, anxious to say something in the awkward silence.

“Not right now,” Luc answers. “I want you alone.”

“Why?” she asks, putting down her fork. She is desperate to keep shoveling food into her mouth, but the opportunity to find out something has just arisen.

“You are special, Axelle. Strong,” Luc says and that’s all.

“That’s not very helpful,” Axelle remarks annoyed. “I already know how strong I am.”

“Arrogant as well,” Luc murmurs. “I have a great plan for you, Axelle, but you need to show me you are up for the challenge. I need to know you have what it takes.”

“To do what?” she asks intrigued. She
knew
he was up to something. Maybe she isn’t destined to be an Admin bitch for long.

“That I cannot reveal to you just yet,” Luc says, taking a sip of his wine. “I do not want your head filled with those thoughts until you have shown me what you are made of.”

“I already have,” she snaps. “I crawled out of this pit after I was sent back. Tell me how many others have done that,
Luc
?”

His eyes flash with a warning and she picks up her fork again to fill her mouth with food instead of her foot.

“A tremendous feat, of course,” he says in a dark tone that she doesn’t care for. “But all that shows me is that you have a lack of respect for authority and the rules.”

“Hm,” Axelle says and ponders his words. “Are you seeking my respect, Luc?” she asks brazenly.

“The last Demon who disrespected me isn’t around to tell their tale,” Luc says mildly, but the threat is implicit. “You would do well to learn from their mistake.”

“Show me the real you and maybe I will start to respect you,” Axelle challenges him, gripping the handle of her fork in case she has to gouge his eyes out with it if he attacks her.

Luc just chuckles. “You aren’t ready,” he says and stands up. He walks over to the door that they went through last night and opens it. He waits for her to stand up and walk over to him.

“Does that mean that one day I will see your true form?” she asks him quietly as she passes him and enters the bedroom.

“If you prove yourself worthy enough,” he replies quietly and she shivers.

“All I needed was an incentive,” Axelle says giving him her most sultry look that has swayed a thousand men. “Tell me how to prove my worth.”

“This is show, not tell,” he chides her and pushes her over to the chaise where twin number two is already waiting for her.

Axelle heaves a sigh. It appears that they are going to go through the same process as yesterday. She strips off before the woman can touch her and she sits her ass down on the chaise and opens her legs, fixing Luc with a steady look.

He chuckles at her again. “You are learning,” he says as ‘his’ twin starts to remove his clothes. “I like that in a bitch.”

“Never let it be said that I was slow on the uptake,” Axelle drawls and drops her gaze to Luc’s cock which is currently being placed in the twin’s mouth. She licks her lips and casts her eyes back up to his. She sees a quick flash of lust in his eyes before he drops his gaze to ‘her’ twin.

“Get her ready,” he growls and turns away from her.

Axelle narrows her eyes at him and his change in attitude. It has suddenly gone icy cold in here and her nipples respond to the chill air. She tweaks them as the twin concentrates her efforts lower down and after a few minutes of intense tongue-fucking, Axelle feels her orgasm pump through her. She clamps her lips shut and makes no sound, deciding not to give anything away to Luc now. The only sound in the room is twin number one’s slurping and then the clack of Axelle’s heels on the floor as she is escorted to the bed.

Axelle crawls onto the huge bed and holds her position on her hands and knees. If Luc wants her, he can take her this way tonight. She feels the sharp sting as her ass is slapped hard and she wiggles in rapture. Oh yes! Now this is more like it.

“Turn around,” ‘her’ twin says and when Axelle looks over her shoulder she sees it wasn’t Luc who slapped her, but the woman. Luc is waiting impatiently for her to comply, giving her a menacing stare.

Axelle thinks briefly about telling them “no”, but the air of danger is currently really high, and she is a survivor at heart. She turns around reluctantly and flops back to the bed, bracing herself. She feels Luc enter her and pump away inside her, but this time the twins have her ankles held and Luc has his hands loosely at his sides. He couldn’t be touching her less if he tried.

This is just getting weirder.

Before Axelle can even warm up, Luc is pulling out of her and splashing his black cum on her stomach before he pulls on his robe and exits the room.

“What is this?” Axelle demands of her twin as she sits up. “Why is he doing this to me?” She feels used tonight and that is a feeling that Axelle is not used to. She is the user. She uses men to satisfy her depraved appetite, reveling in their weakness. Now she is the weak one, her body being taken to service another.

The woman just ignores her as she cleans her up and as soon as she leaves, Axelle throws her dress back on and fighting back her frustration she vanishes back to her apartment even more confused than she was last night. So much for finding anything out. The mystery of Luc and his actions has just doubled and now Axelle wishes she was back in her prison cell, where she at least knew her place if nothing else.

Axelle yanks off the dress and lets out a roar of rage. She has no idea what Luc’s game is with her, but she hopes that it ends soon so she can get out of here. She places her hand on her naked stomach and she can feel the evil still coating her skin from his cum. She shudders as she takes stock of everything that happened tonight, and decides if that dress shows up tomorrow, she isn’t putting it on. With that decision made, she screws it up into a tight ball and shoves it at the back of the closet, heading straight for the shower so she can wash away the darkness that is starting to scare her. She is in way over her head here and not knowing what to expect around the next corner is an unnerving one. She doesn’t like feeling so vulnerable and exposed. As she ducks her head under the pitiful water stream she wonders why he would want her to feel this way. Unfortunately, the possibilities are endless and every single one of them makes her skin want to crawl off her body so her essence can go on the run, never to be seen again.

The next day, Axelle has gotten over her little pansy-ass feeling of being used and afraid, and has found her anger. Luc doesn’t get to treat her this way without telling her why he is doing it. If that fucking red dress shows up tonight, she is going to go and find out what the hell is going on and if he doesn’t tell her, then she will tell him to fuck off and find some other demon whore to play with.

Her bad temper travels with her to work like a black cloud over her head. The only thing that puts a smile on her face is the fear emanating from the souls as they come face-to-face with her wrath. She ticks the “terrified” box time after time, getting even more on the bad side of the Reapers who wish to stay away from the fearful. An amused soul collects many more brownie points down here and the feeling that she is destroying quotas left and right makes her feel empowered.

This is more like it
. She has missed the stink of fear and it is not a stench she wishes to ever smell on herself again.

“A word,” Roberta suddenly snaps right next to her ear the second she slams the little door so hard it shakes the wall it is attached to.

Axelle turns her head and eyeballs Roberta from millimeters away. “What?” she snaps back.

“What do you think you are doing scaring the souls?” Roberta yells at her. “My ass is on the line now after today.”

“That’s nineteen words,” Axelle remarks, “and it’s not my fault your Reapers are bringing in the scaredy-cats.”

Roberta gapes at her in a very unflattering way, her big lips parted in shock. “Why you little bitch!” she screams. “How dare you talk back to me?”

“Whatever,” Axelle says breezily, really not scared of this female, and turning back to face her door.

“I--I--,” Roberta stutters and then slams her rubber lips shut with a narrow-eyed look. She leans down to hiss in Axelle’s ear. “Do not make the mistake of thinking my lord has an affection for you just because he let you go and gave you a body. Your ass is mine, bitch.”