Sinful Things

11

All I can do is keep trying to win her back. I screwed up last year, but I'll make it up to her, somehow. And I think I have an idea how.Chapter Eight

Olivia

M

y first week of classes is pretty uneventful, other than the constant looks from other students. Most of them avoid me, which is fine by me. At least Araceli still treats me the same. It’s good to be living with her again, even if she insists on waking up at the c***k of dawn, something I doubt I’ll ever get used to.

On Friday, it’s time for my first demon lesson with Kassiel, and it’s held in his office in the professor’s building, with their housing on the floors above. I wonder what his apartment is like. Is it all organized and refined, like he is in class? Or is it super messy, a way of letting himself go in his own private space? I long to find out.

When I step into his office, he’s taking off his suit jacket and loosening his tie. I stop in the doorway to admire him as he relaxes a little. When he rolls up his sleeves, I have a hard time not unbuttoning his shirt one pearly white button at a time. I have a feeling these lessons are going to be even more torture than his classes.

Kassiel is off-limits, I remind myself.

“Hello, Olivia. How was your first week of school?” His voice is so formal. I might as well be any other student, not one who’s tasted him before.

“Fine,” I say, trying to keep my tone even too. I sit in the chair in front of his desk.

He sits across from me. "After what happened the other week, I thought I'd begin our lessons with a little about the Archdemons, starting with Baal."

"Probably a good idea. I know a little about them from Demon Studies already, but I’d like to hear your side of things.” Mother also told me about them, but she didn't spend much time talking about demonic history. She focused on how to be a succubus. How I would survive without getting caught and without killing anyone.

"As you probably know, Baal is the leader of the vampires and the headmaster of Hellspawn Academy. What you probably don't know is how well-respected he is among the demons.”

“I guess that makes sense, if they trust him to teach their children. Just like Uriel is well-respected among angels.”

“Exactly. Plus vampires are a charming bunch at their worst, and Baal is the most powerful vampire there is. He has the power to dominate entire groups of people and bend them to his will, and he's ruthless and determined. I can't be sure he doesn't want to supplant Lucifer as leader of the demons, but if so, he's got another think coming."

"It's ‘another thing coming,’" I mutter absently as I remember the darkness in Baal’s eyes.

Kassiel opens his mouth to continue talking, but then closes it and stares at me. "No, it's ‘another think.’"

I roll my eyes. "There's a whole song about it. It's ‘thing.’"

“I’ve been alive for more than a century, and you want to question me?” he asks, with a hint of teasing in his voice.

I tease him back, unable to stop myself. “This has nothing to do with age. I’ve lived among humans all my life. I know what I’m talking about.”

“Let’s find out.” He opens his laptop, presumably to search online for the answer. It doesn’t take him long to find it. "Ha! I was right."

He turns the screen toward me, and I read about the phrase, which has suddenly become the most important thing in the world.

The phrase was originally ‘think,’ but... "No.” I shake my head. "I'm right. Modern slang has changed the phrase to ‘thing.’ So there." I close his laptop with a click and cross my arms.

"Maybe we're both right, but I was right first because originally it was ‘think.’” He sits back in his desk chair and grins like he just ate a big canary.

I lean forward and grin even wider. “And I’m right now, because we live in this century and not the previous one.”

As we stare at each other, something shifts between us, and our fun argument seems more like verbal foreplay. His eyes drop down to my cleavage, which is on display as I lean forward on his desk. I sit up quickly, my cheeks flushed with heat.

He tugs on the collar of his shirt and looks away pointedly. "This is dangerous."

"It doesn't have to be.” I fold my hands in my lap like a proper student who is not thinking about banging her professor right here on his desk, nope, definitely not. “We got sidetracked by the argument. Tell me more about the Archdemons. What about the Fallen one?”

Kassiel clears his throat as he gets back into professor-mode. “The Fallen are technically led by Lucifer, but since he’s the leader of all demons, Samael acts as his second in command and handles most Fallen issues.”

“What’s Lucifer like?” I ask. “You must have met him before, since you’re here on a mission for him.”

“He’s…intense. It’s hard to say no to him.” He stares off into space, and then shakes himself and comes back to reality. “In Demon Studies, did they mention that Las Vegas is a hotbed of demon activity?” “Yes, and they said that Lucifer controls most of the casinos there.”

“He does. In Vegas, demons can feed without drawing too much attention to themselves. What they didn’t tell you is that Lucifer set everything up to take over the casinos almost immediately after the Earth Accords were signed. He'd been planning it for a while."