Thanks to a dare gone wrong, Maggie Brumfield finds out the hard way that Heaven and Hell are real.
Prince Laudon, Lucifer's son and the current ruler of Hell, has locked Maggie into a sinister deal that grants him temporary ownership of her soul...
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LAUDON'S POV
"Please excuse me for a moment."
Laudon exits the cave to get some fresh air. He leans against a nearby tree and closes his eyes, inhaling deeply, then exhaling slowly. He does this repeatedly until his nerves eventually settle, his pulse no longer racing. All of this because Maggie is around.
When Laudon opens his eyes again, he internally scolds himself for the conversation that had just taken place between him and Maggie. He scolds himself for having gotten too comfortable being in her presence. He scolds himself for having told her stories that not even Hell's most trustworthy know. If Lucifer were around, he would do more than give Laudon a lecture about why it is dangerous to let your guard down when interacting with humans.
Laudon refuses to admit it out loud, but from the moment that Maggie struck him with her powers, he has felt... different. His thoughts, his actions, his emotions—they have all changed after meeting the not-so-human girl. He has secretly contemplated booking an appointment with the specialist to get checked out as well, just to make sure that everything is still working how it should. Better to be safe than sorry and dead from negligence.
"Nice to know you didn't run off and leave me here alone," Maggie says after Laudon returns. This time, he puts more distance between them. "I still have questions for you to answer."
"You always have questions for me to answer." Laudon rolls his eyes. "What now?"
"You know, it's really fucking irritating how you have an attitude with me. I'm in Hell having a conversation with Satan's spawn while waiting for a 'specialist' to show up to 'examine' my soul for defects," Maggie says, looking exasperated. "Of course I'm going to have questions! Better get used to it since I'm apparently stuck here for the rest of eternity."
"Respectfully," Laudon mutters, "I don't think I'll ever get used to you."
He gives Maggie his signature cold stare, wondering if all humans talk this much. Or maybe this is simply how Maggie responds when nervous and upset. Unlike Lucifer, Laudon has not had the opportunity to be around humans long enough to study them and how they might react when put in such a complex situation. Though, thus far, Maggie has proven to be wildly entertaining. Laudon has never been attacked by a human before. His time spent with Maggie has been both frustrating and exciting, another fact he refuses to speak out loud.
"And I'm pretty sure I'll never get used to you either," Maggie retorts, matching Laudon's attitude. "Back to the exam. For the thousandth time, what do you plan on doing to me and how bad is it going to hurt?"
"I'm going to have your blood drawn and tested. If you are something other than human, the blood will tell me everything that I need to know," Laudon answers. "Whether the test hurts or not, that all depends on how well you behave with the specialist. The more compliant you are, the quicker the test will be over. The less compliant you are, the longer we'll be here."
