“…/this little soul went to Heaven/ and this soul went on to the Gates of Hell/” I planted my palm against the lid of the glass jar, shaking off the excess soul residue and watched as the emerald green light hardened into a green and white perfectly round stone, clinking against others of its kind as it landed atop them.

“I hate that song…” My one and only friend, Kash, grimaced, a shiver running through his body. He sat in the chair usually occupied by my clients, his feet up on my desk, turning the edges of his chair in a slow motion.

I shrugged. “Mom sang it every time dad put a new soul away; it’s sort of stuck. Now, I’m due to have someone show up any minute, so get the hell out of here.” Kash created a less-than-professional environment when he hung around meetings, and it tended to make my possible clients tense up and leave because really, why would the Devil have a nineteen year-old pot head hanging around him if, in fact, he’s not really the Devil, but some random nutcase?

It was largely that exact reason that I kept Kash around. He was nice company, completely non-judgmental in the way people chose to live their lives- he happened to deal drugs and I happened to collect souls- and he was the only person I’d ever invited to dinner that hadn’t run off screaming.

Kash sighed, his longer than normal shaggy brown hair covering his eyes. “Guess I’ll just go see what’s goin’ on upstairs then. Because, really, everything’s more exciting than watching you seal a deal and utterly destroy someone from the inside without them realizing it.” His voice was completely void of emotion, but I caught the sarcasm and smirked. At least one person thought what I did completely kicked ass. He pushed himself out of the chair and walked towards the two oak finished doors, pulling them open with an air of grandeur. Dark, musty stairs greeted him and he flipped me off as he trudged up the stairs.

Flicking my hand, the doors closed without a sound, only to be opened right after by a pair of teenage boys. Ah, five bucks said that they were here to either learn of a secret cult that practiced the art of massive orgies, or to confess to a petty crime that they needed help getting out of.

“You’re Mr. Morningstar?” One of the boys asked, his face masked with uncertainty. He looked to be about sixteen, while his more sullen friend looked to be around eighteen. It wasn’t odd that people so young came looking to make deals.

I nodded, taking a seat at my desk and motioning for them to take a seat as well.

“This is Harold,” the kid said, jerking his thumb at the quiet one, who had opted to take a seat. “He really needs your help.”

“Steal a car, cheat on a test?” I asked, raising an eyebrow. Of course, I could learn their dark secrets, their worst fears, in a few seconds if I wanted to go to the trouble, but I rather liked setting up a business-like setting. It was different than what I’d done ten years ago. And different was always welcome when one lived for forever.

“I don’t even know why I’m here.” Harold grumbled. “I’m Buddhist. We don’t have a devil.” But the devil has you.

I waited. Harold eventually sighed and held his head in his hands.

“I want to bargain my soul for the release of my mother from prison.” He said in a quiet voice, although his shoulders visibly relaxed.

Now this was different. I cracked a smile.

“Interesting. You know what a bargain with the Devil entails, correct?”

Harold nodded while his friend visibly tensed. “Yes, I do.”

“Then you know that once the deal is Sealed, you have a number of years, which I decide, before your soul comes under the possession of Hell for time and all eternity. You’re willing to trade your very life for that of your mother’s freedom?” I raised an eyebrow. The young boy nodded his head stiffly, his eyes holding a steady gaze with mine.

“You understand the conditions of this bargain?” I asked slowly. Harold nodded again, this time quickly and I shrugged. If they claimed they knew, I felt no need to say anything to warn them against it. When they went out of the way to make a deal with the Devil, they had to have some idea of what they were getting themselves into. “Then, I give you twenty years to the end of this bargain and I will begin.”

I pressed my hand against his chest, feeling my eyes go hot, no doubt glowing with Hellfire. The other boy gasped and stumbled back, his eyes wide with terror, but I paid him no mind. If I activated the Seal and then didn’t go through with it- as in, got interrupted-, Harold would die, and although I wasn’t above killing, I liked to think I was above those lesser demons that killed just for the fun of it. At least this was part of my job.

“I mark thee, mortal human, by the power of the Devil bestowed upon me by my father and Seal this deal. May your soul find peace in the pits of Hell.” I drew back slowly, watching as the air around my palm shimmered and cast a light green glow, while Harold’s eyes rolled back and his body slumped in the chair. Once the soul was fully extradited from the mortal, a magnificent array of green and white and gold light barely able to hold a circular shape, a Mark appeared almost simultaneously beneath the kid’s left ear; the deformed sun that mirrored my own, but on a much smaller scale. The Mark of the Devil.

“Nng…” Harold muttered, his eyes repeatedly blinking. “This is the worst headache of my life.”

“Take him away. I have fulfilled my end of the bargain and, in due time, your friend will fulfill his.” I said, holding a steady gaze to the boy that cowered in the corner. He nodded once and scrambled up, urging Harold to get out of his seat quickly and they were out of the room quicker than most.

I didn’t worry about them squealing to authorities or anything; anyone that actually had the nerve to look for me, and then find me, was serious with whatever it was that they wanted from me.

I added the soul to the others I had and counted the full jars that covered two of my three shelves. Fifteen jars full for two and a half months? Not bad. But God knows dad would have a fit about the souls and his precious kingdom. Hopefully, I could get them shipped off with one of the guardian demons that watched over me at the behest of my father, before he decided to come here himself and have a cow.

Five souls and three hours later, I was walking with Kash along a road not often traveled, out in the countryside rather than the main hub of the city, ready to crash at his place for the night.

“So, how about that girl with the pink-”

“Demon.” I said before he could finish. He sighed loudly and went onto the next one.

“How about the owner of the Pizza Hut?”

I tilted my head, thinking back to the last time I had seen the old geezer that worked there. “Half-demon. His father is the one that’s human. I’m guessing the mother was a succubus.”

“Dammit!” Kash explained, narrowing his eyes. This was a game he enjoyed, trying to see if he could find someone that could stump me. Where I’d finally give in and say I didn’t know if the person was demon or a human or, god forbid, an angel. But it was impossible. Unlike humans and regular lower-class demons, I could clearly see the transparent energy that surrounded humans and the hazy silver energy that surrounded demons. I could even tell what sort of demon it was because, after all, I was a prince of Hell. It was my duty to know.

“Better luck next time.” I said, noticing out of the corner of my eye an ominous shadow that moved once for every five steps I took. Another guardian. I swear. If the guardians weren’t the offspring of Death, and weren’t the only things that instilled even an ounce of fear into me, I would have told them off eons ago.

At the edge of Kash’s farmhouse, which he was living in with his older brother while his parents were away for a few years in India, I stopped. “Hayden’s not home.” I said in reference to Kash’s brother, who was almost always gone-an ideal situation, since it gave me a place to spend the night or hang around when I got tired of trafficking souls-though the lights in what seemed to be the entire house were on.

“Nope.” Kash said, giving me a look. I felt a cloud of dread settling over me. The power coming from the house was one I’d felt many times, and the person inside was not someone I wanted to see.

“Jesus Christ…” I groaned and thought of all the ways I could kill myself.

“Isn’t that sort of, I don’t know, sacrilegious?” Kash asked, hands in his pockets.

“No,” I said, shooting him a look. “And you’re not even religious, so you have no say in anything that I say.”

“Who says I’m not religious?” Kash argued, walking towards the house, ignoring my wary looks.

“You did.”

“Lies. So, any idea who’s here?” He motioned to the house as he walked up the steps of the porch. I think being friends with me had desensitized him to things he normally would have cowered from if he had not chanced upon me. And I could never decide if it was a bad thing or not, but at this moment, I decided on the former.

“Astarte.” I said grimly. Saying her name would alert her to my presence; saying the name of any demon of the Inner Circle instantly alerted them to your presence and your location. Since I happened to be in the Inner Circle, the same was true for me, both in the sense of my temporary job as the ‘Devil’ and as my role as a Prince, though the latter didn’t happen very often because only a select few actually knew my real demonic ‘Princely’ name. “We should really just turn around right now.”

“Alright, whatever. Who is this Astarte? Is she a recurring client? I didn’t think you could do that…” Kash mused, narrowing his eyes in concentration. Not wanting him to overexert the mind power it would take for him to think logically, I answered his unspoken question.

“You can, you just shorten the amount of time you have left before ol’ Midday comes to collect.” I said, thinking how foolish these humans were to try and make deals with the Devil. They had no idea what they were doing to themselves. “She’s an old flame by the way…”

“Flame? You mean… you’ve actually dated people…?”

“Yes.”

“So is she… human or demon?”

“She’s not just a demon, Kash, she’s one of the demons. She was around when Babylon was. One of the gods they worshipped. She fell out of favor after Jesus though, but now she goes by so many different names, she has enough power to exist.” Because really, any sort of sex god or goddess was going to stick around for a while.

“She’s hot right?” This time Kash raised an eyebrow. Was it really that hard to believe that I could get a hot demoness? Maybe to Kash, who had never even seen me take an interest in any of the mortal girls he’d try to introduce to me. But that was only because my mother had tried to eat the last human girlfriend I’d had, just to have a little snack before dinner, and that ended relationships amongst the human race for me.

I smirked, “You have no idea-”

The door to Kash’s home opened abruptly, cutting me off and revealing only the most attractive women there was to meet on Earth. Maybe in Hell too, but no one would ever tell my mother that. Unless they wanted to get served for breakfast to bloodthirsty hellhounds.

She was bathed in a silvery light that only I could see, and her perfect female form captivated all who looked at her. With her flowing, seemingly never-ending, black tresses and eyes that mirrored the Milky Way galaxy, it was no wonder.

I swallowed bile and cleared my throat. “Astarte, what a… surprise.”

“A pleasant one, no doubt.” She said, glancing at the slack-jawed Kash. “I’m here on official business from your mother. She said it was strictly professional, but a little philandering wouldn’t hurt anyone would it?” She winked, and her words slurred over me like thick syrup. If I had been anyone but the Prince of Hell, her words would have hooked and sunk me. But, I shrugged off her power and sighed heavily.

“As much fun as that sounds, Astarte, and it does, trust me, I ended our relationship a long time ago and feel no need to relive any past memories. And Kash here is not going to be participating in any of your ideals either. State your business and leave.”

She clicked her tongue, placing her hands on her hips. “Oh, poor baby Kaleb, still so hurt over what happened decades ago.” She walked towards me, her feet bare, and ran a slender finger down my face, studying the scars that were there. “Even now, you are more of a catch for any mortal girl here. But, there is only one that exceeds my standards. And, we both know you cannot reject my advances for long. Now, then, business. Lady Lilith comes with news. You are to accompany her to the Pedestal to make arrangements with the angels.”

“The Pedestal?” I asked, my eyebrows shooting up. That was the official no man’s land between Heaven and Hell where either my father or mother or both traveled to make deals, so to

speak, with the representatives of Heaven, which usually happened to be either Eve or Michael. I had tagged along only a few times, but they had been cringe-worthy memories, the lot of them.

“Yes.” Astarte sighed, running a hand down Kash’s in a seductive manner. He was powerless against her, but I smacked his face and he grunted, turning away to massage what I suspected was a severe headache from the touch of two high demonic powers. “Sounds so very dull, doesn’t it? Angels. We should have destroyed them when we had the chance…” Her eyes flashed a blood-red.

I shared her anger but I kept it under control. The Battle of Scourge was a sore subject for any demon. “She didn’t give you specifics on this, did she?”

“No, the Lady Lilith did not.” Astarte smiled, her face lighting up, making her seem more beautiful. “I believe that means that she wants you to visit. The only way for you to get the information you need on this is to talk to her, and I do think that if the Lady were to go by herself that would be more catastrophic than if you were to have a… small family reunion.”

Astarte was perhaps the only person in the world that knew what an event it was when I visited the family, as she was an old family friend, and my mother had been trying for centuries to set me up with her, completely overlooking the fact, that we had been in a relationship and that relationship had ended on rather difficult circumstances.

“Not that I don’t love them or anything, but I think I’d rather pass.” I said. Astarte frowned.

“But, Lucifer,” she bowed her head reverently at the name of my father, “will be occupied with business with the Fallen and cannot go. You would not let Lady Lilith travel alone, to surely be attacked by any heavenly creature, when you, her own son, could go and protect her?”

I was sure my mother could handle anything that crossed her path, but I shrugged my shoulders in defeat. I was a family guy after all; sue me. Astarte laughed. “She is clever, your mother. She told me you would give in if I used the right words. Well then, my love, I am off to seduce and destroy the young mortals of this beautiful planet. Come and visit me sometime, won’t you?” She winked and kissed me before she blinked into non-existence.

“How you got someone like that… I will never know.” Kash mumbled beside me after a few moments of silence while I tried to get my bearings in check. Part because Astarte was so damn good at what she did, that I couldn’t help but feel something at that kiss, and the other part was because I knew I’d be getting a calling card from my mother soon. And no one refused a dinner invite from the demoness Lilith.

“Shut up.” I rolled my eyes, making my way into Kash’s house. He rubbed his temples with his forefingers and followed as I slid my hand along the walls and furniture to dispel any

lingering demonic energy. It would be a pain if I had to fight off any wandering demons. “Hey, Kash, ever put up a pentacle?”