“I will wait right here, thank you.” I sat down in the chair and crossed my legs, picking at the red nail polish that still painted my fingernails. I was thankful I had gotten a fresh manicure before I died since salons were not a thing in Hell.
His eyes slit into a glare. It wasn’t a glare of anger but more a glare as though he didn’t quite know how to respond to me not leaving after he had asked.
“Excuse me for a moment.” He left the room, returning a short time later.
“I have called for Roman to attend this meeting. He should arrive shortly.”
“Roman? What for?” All I needed was for him to get involved and tell me what I was doing was stupid and I should be thankful for being given grunt work for his almighty Satan.
Moments later Roman moseyed in with a smirk slapped across his face.
Lucifer took his seat again on his throne before motioning for Roman to take a seat next to me.
“Holland has presented me with a deal, Roman.”
“A deal huh?” He raised his eyebrows and looked at me shaking his head. I could tell he was stifling a laugh.
“She wants a different job and I have decided to honor her request.”
He looked back at Lucifer stunned at his agreement.
“I am sending you back to earth, Holland, to do what you do best – seduce men. You are to make them agree to sell their souls by following you to Hell.”
“I highly doubt anyone will willingly agree to follow me to Hell. I may be good at sex...” Roman looked towards me; his cheeks instantly flushed. “But I don’t think I’m that good.”
“Sexually frustrated men will agree to anything, and what better person to carry out this assignment than someone who lived every day in horny men’s company when she was alive? You are my newly found Lilith.”
“Please don’t compare me to her, we all know how that ended.”
“And why have you called me here, sir?”
“Because as Holland's watcher, you are going to accompany her while she’s on earth and make sure my conditions are very clear while she carries out her orders. You have to make sure she doesn’t get herself into trouble by her stubbornness and carelessness that always seems to impair her judgement.”
Roman held his chin in his hand, rubbing it in between his fingers. I could see the frustration in his face.
“Surely you can’t be serious? Sure, she’s a pain in the ass, but if she’s already dead how much trouble can she really get into? I think she will be just fine up there without me.”
“Her personality leads me to believe she could get into a lot.”
“Um, excuse me, but I am sitting right here and can hear everything you say about me, assholes.”
Roman smiled slyly knowing he was pushing my buttons. I looked at him rolling my eyes.
“There will be a car and an apartment waiting for your arrival and your stay. No one is to know you two have come from Hell.”
“How long do we have to be there?”
“I shall leave that up to you two. The moment anything goes awry, you are to return immediately.”
Roman sighed heavily. “Understood, sir.”
Lucifer stood from his throne and led us to the door.
“And Holland...” I turned to look back at him, “remember, the devil is in the details.” He winked at me, closing the door behind us.
I nodded, following closely behind Roman. He took long quick strides away from Lucifer’s. I could tell he was super pissed at me.
“I can’t believe you dragged me into this with you.”
“It’s earth, Roman, how bad can it be? It’s better than this place.”
“I am quite comfortable in this place. I have not been on earth for a very long time and I was not planning to ever have to go back there.”
“Well, at least one of us is comfortable here. You live in a penthouse, of course you’re happy.”
We walked for a while before Roman stopped at the area where I had awoken when I was first cast into Hell. Looking at it from the outside, it appeared to be a portal into Hell.
“This is it. Are you ready?”
I nodded, grabbing his hand he held out for me to take as we made our descent into the portal.
CHAPTER 4
My eyes opened to a bright ray of sunlight shining across my face from the window that was across from the huge, white linen covered bed that I was lying on.
Something stirred next to me. Roman was grumbling and shielding his eyes from the sun that was blasted across his gorgeous face. I jumped up and ran to the window.
“Look, Roman, daylight! I’ve missed you, sun, you beautiful bitch!”
Roman got up from the bed to join me at the window.
“Looking at the smog and a million cars down there, I’d say we are in LA. Perfect place to find sex-crazed idiots.”
“Well, it got us out of Hell for a short time so enjoy it while it lasts, and since we are out of that place and far away from Lucifer, we are going to find a way to stay out of there and win our way back into Heaven.”
“Lucifer is never far away. LA is a breeding ground for evil. What makes you think I want to go to Heaven? I am quite comfortable living by myself in my apartment...”
“Um, penthouse.”
He looked at me annoyed. “...with my expensive alcohol and Cuban cigars.”
“Why would you want to be in Hell? It’s dark 24/7, most people that arrive are disgusting, terrible people, and the living situation sucks. Unless they’re you of course, teacher’s pet.”
“Do I sense jealousy?” He smirked. “I’ve been there a long time, so I have become accustomed to the scenery. If you quit being such a pain in the ass, he could possibly promote you to being a watcher demon as well. Once you get past the beginning stages it gets better, but you have to stay on his good side for that to happen and you’re not doing a good job of it so far.”
“I don’t fucking care to be a watcher demon. I didn’t want to die, and I sure the hell didn’t want to end up in actual Hell. So as my watcher, help me get some of these souls to Lucifer, and I’ll figure out how to be sure I never have to go back there again.”
Regardless of what Roman said, Satan had another thing coming if he thought I was going to follow his orders exactly how he had laid them out. If I was going to be dead, then I did not want to spend all eternity in the dark underworld. I was going to figure out a way to get back into the good graces of God and hope Azriel would come for me to take me back to Heaven. Hopefully he would bring Roman too even though he acted like he was happy living in Hell. I could definitely spend eternity with that guy.
I decided to have a look around the magnificent apartment Roman and I got to share while we were on earth.
It had two master suites with an adjoining bathroom in between that had a beautiful clawed foot tub and shiny marble floors, a living room that overlooked the city from the solid glass windows that took up an entire wall, and a white stone fireplace against one of the other walls. The living room bled into a large open kitchen with white granite countertops and stainless-steel appliances. Oddly, everything was decorated in bland white furniture, but it felt crisp, clean, and high class. Sure, it wasn’t my incredible condo in the hills, but it was much better than the dark, dank room I had been living in as of late.