Sinners' Kingdom #1: The Book of Lust (Complete)

75

ASMODEUS

I called to her too many times to count.

Sable. Sable. Sable.

Her name became a song in my bones. There was no need to know anything more, only the echoes of her soul beyond the rift that I opened up. The taste of her every emotion from within the belly of the beast, fear and confusion and panic, a whirlwind tempest — but threaded most intensely with longing.

But not longing for me. A longing for something she couldn't reach, something unearthed that I couldn't touch. It was beyond me. When I reached for her, my power curling forward as I tore open the beast's regenerating flesh over and over to force my way inside, her soul pulled away, clinging to whatever it was she had found in its depths.

But I wouldn't let it take her from me. Even if she begged for it, I would never let her go.

I had made my vow. Not even the fall of Hell itself could break it.

Asmodeus!

And finally, she called.

For me.

I'm here, I answered. I will always find you.

Don't be afraid, love.

Think only of me. Nothing else.

Asmodeus!

I tore open the divide and stared into the yawning abyss beyond it, the endless, lightless sea of darkness inside the beast. It was impossibly cavernous, extending beyond the bounds of the physical boundaries enclosing it, but it was no surprise. This abominable miscreation had power beyond the ordinary. Manipulation of a mundane thing like space was hardly unexpected, and something like this could never slow me down. I held open the sides of the gaping wound, securing my grip against the thick, clinging fluid that passed so poorly for blood, and wrenched them open wider. The gash tore, the reforming threads of healing flesh snapping all over again at the corners.

Sable.

There.

Beyond, in the heart of all the dead darkness, her soul sang to me.

It wasn't alone. She wasn't alone. Something else was with her, the tendrils of their power a glimmer in the distance, too far to make out even with my acute senses. Heat raged out of me, boiling out of my skin as my tail lashed around me, ready to maim, tear, kill whoever dared to touch my queen. They would die a repulsive death, gasping and thrashing in a pool of their blood under my very eyes, with Sable in my arms. The last thing they ever saw would be me feasting on her, partaking in a meal they were unfit for and would never be worthy of even in their wildest dreams—

With no warning, Sable came hurtling out of the darkness.

There was no time to think, but I had no need for either. Catching her was all that gave my existence meaning, protecting her, saving her, gathering her back to me and feeling the warmth of her body and soul melting into mine. I let instinct guide me: with clawed grips drawing ever more blood, I wrenched wider the gaping tear into the strange, arcane space long enough for Sable to reach me. Then I released it, just as her presence materialized and solidified inches from me, the void-like matter comprising the deep darkness seeping away at breakneck speed from her as her body emerged. Face. Neck. Shoulders. The rest of her body followed, swiftly throwing off the last of the dark vine-like tendrils.

I pulled her towards me as I fell away, wrapping my arms around her back and waist and locking her body against mine. Safe. Returned — no blood, no wounds, not a hint of pain. But there was a crease in her brow as her eyelashes fluttered, signs of a turbulent return to wakefulness. What had happened to her when she was trapped inside the beast? The darkness that had pulled away from her had done so willingly, delivering her to me before withdrawing back into the void. What was it that lay in the center of it? What had taken my Sable from me, even if it had returned her in the end? Who dared?