Tempting Christ

Longing

I stood in the depths of the darkest part of sheol in a long line of other demons. After what seemed and endless wait, I got to the front.

The guard was a burly creature, the size of a rhino, with scaly skin and massive horns like a deer. Both the chair he sat at and the desk he worked at were far too small for him.

"Who are you here to see?" The guard didn't look up at me from the thick codex open in front of him.

"I'm here to see Cassia."

He grunted and shook his head. "Sorry. She's already got a hundred years worth of demonic lovers waiting for a chance to torment her."

"Good," I said. "Put me down for a hundred years from now."

The guard pinched a pen in the fingers of his meaty hand and dipped it in ink well. "Name?"

"Darius."

He glanced up at me. "She keeps howling your name." He grunted out a laugh. "Seems you're the one who got her sent down here. If I were you, I'd wait a few extra hundred years before visiting."

The demon had a point. I stared at my feet, thinking about his suggestion. "No. I'll see her as soon as there's an opening. If anyone cancels, let me know."

"Rank?" Of course, if there was a cancelation, the next ranking demon would get the spot.

"Warlord of the Dark and the Deep."

On hearing that, he looked at me. I drew my sword and held it out for him, allowing it to gush with a little flame.

He let out a grunt of satisfaction, then nodded, squinted, and scanned the page in front of him. "You outrank everyone on the list. If you want, I could pound the next demon flat when he shows up and get you in in about a year."

To be honest, I liked a hundred years better. My Mikal would be dead by then, and I wouldn't have to worry about what was happening to her while I was with Cassia.

What had she said in that cave and Bethlehem? That I was the cause of the fear and anger she needed to bleed out of herself?

"Sounds good," I told the guard. "If you do that, I'll put in a word for you with the High Lords when next I'm called before them."

At this he grined, revealing a large set of yellow teeth. "Much obliged, my lord."

With that I nodded and left, drifting back up to find Jesus. Though I felt some gratitude toward him for healing Mikal, I knew that my job had no place for that sort of emotion. The High Lords would not be pleased if I didn't do my job.

I can't just locate any human whenever I want, but Jesus is special. Since my assignment to him, I can find his exact location whenever I want. Right now, he was in the wilderness, alone, praying. I found him near sunset, weary from his long day of preaching and healing. Clearly, he was on some kind of mission, visiting his people, performing these miracles, giving out all this cryptic advice. Whatever his purpose, he'd only started and seemed it was already getting to him.

This, of course, was an opportune time for temptation. I flew back to where he'd been preaching and scanned the house and people walking in the streets. Everyone was talking about Jesus and what he'd done. It didn't take more than a few minutes. Two beautiful young women, talking to each other as they carried laundry. The taller of the two caught my eye first--there was a glow to her expression as she spoke.

"I spent the whole day wishing I had some kind of sickness so I could have him lay his hands on me." She giggled.

The other girl laughed. "You're so goofy, Bethany."