The Department of Hate - A Love Story (31 page)

"Someone go fetch that treacherous slave girl bitch Cassandra
." Several of the lesser demons rushed to comply.

A few minutes later one of the lesser demons returned with Cassandra - holding her by the elbow and leading her into the Great Hall. She was dressed in a skimpy red silken skirt - a tight metal collar locked around her neck. But her eyes were still shining brightly and her spirit was still strong and defiant.  He realised with utter shock that despite having reverted to his true demonic form and despite having accomplished all of his goals exactly to plan he was still just dazzled by her. He knew with absolute certainty that this would never do. She came up to him, looking at him carefully. She could see the rapidly fading resemblance. Was there still some small chance? She called out

"Jarrod? Is that you?"
But even as she said it she realised sadly that it was already far too late. Jarrod was gone. She knew also that somehow she'd been used and betrayed.

Beelzebub stared back at her. It occurred to him that he'd never actually seen her naked. He growled at her

"Strip, bitch!
Now!"  She undressed quickly and stood there naked before him. Despite all that happened she still felt awkward and self conscious. Beelzebub just looked at her and then grunted

"Hmph, nice tits!
” He stared at her for some time, collecting his thoughts, recalling their experiences together, recalling her whole life as seen by him through the eyes of the gnome.  She was certainly beguiling!  What was it about her? But he could not allow any form of sentiment – he could not and would not feel that way about anyone. Having used her to defeat Lucifer, now he was about to fight the Gods. But he continued to stare at her. He almost sighed. Finally he spoke to her, slowly and harshly with irreversible and irredeemable malice.

"Get on your knees, you fucking cunt
." Cassandra had had enough. In a burst of rage she reached up and slapped him across the face as hard as she could, screaming out

“Asshole
." Then she stormed out of the hall. Beelzebub watched her go with open mouthed astonishment. The other demons also watched her go not daring to intervene. He found her incomprehensible. His power was absolute. He called to mind all relevant data from his recent lifetime as Jarrod, and then slowly shook his head, laughing darkly

"Fucking Women!"
He would keep her for a while though, what harm could possibly come of that?