The Man Who Would Be King

"Stay awake, Calliope. Come on, push yourself up. Stay awake," Wrath encourages in her mind, but Calliope still feels herself slipping away, having no strength left. Her sonic shriek, along with the energy the lightning took, left the siren exhausted. She's helpless now, watching in defeat. She can see Asmodeus standing, casually using a napkin to wipe blood from his ears.

Wrath spreads her giant red and orange wings – spanning seven feet from the end of one to the other – in front of Calliope in an attempt to protect her. Her wings ignite, creating a wall of fire between Calliope and Asmodeus.

To Calliope's surprise, however, Asmodeus stops in front of the phoenix, letting the warmth wash over him and the light dance across his handsome face… Then he laughs, and Calliope snaps out of her trance from the sound of his cruel, mocking tone. "Really? Did you expect me to be afraid of a little fire? I am the Prince of Demons," he explains to her, exasperated, before ranting – half in English and half in Spanish. "Fire doesn't bother me a bit. It doesn't hurt me."

He disappears in the blink of an eye and reappears behind Calliope, reaching around to grab her by her throat before she, Thora, or Wrath have time to react. He squeezes, cutting off her airflow, then pulls her up so they're face to face, levitating – as a show of dominance, maybe?

The Thunderbird, Thora, steps forward, looking menacing. The massive "dinosaur" makes a low, rumbling sound in its chest, bellowing like an alligator, and tapping one of its long, sharp talons on the floor. Lightning starts to dance off its wings, and thunder shakes the building.

Asmodeus jerks when the first bolt of lightning hits him, traveling through them both and causing the siren even more discomfort and exhaustion. He throws Calliope into a wall as he teleports again, moving away from the next bolt of lightning.

Then he flits back to Calliope, grabbing her throat once more and sliding her up against the wall. "The lightning hurts you, too. Call them off." Calliope simply grunts in defiance, but her vision is once again fading as she struggles to breathe. "Call them off!" he commands a second time, pulling her toward him and then slamming her into the wall again, hard enough that part of the wall crumbles around her body.

"The lightning… does not hurt me... I am strong… I can take it…" Technically, this was a lie, but Asmodeus didn't know this, and Calliope doesn't want to let him off easily.

"Call them both off now… or let us both die here," he growls. "You say it doesn't hurt, but I have seen your pain… I will not repeat myself again, puta pequeña… Call. Them. Off. Now."

The siren is barely conscious, but she's able to clear her thoughts enough for her to think to her fierce protectors, 'Wrath… Thora… Thank you, but you must go… This battle is mine. Thor warned me my choices were mine alone, and that the consequences would be serious. This must be what he meant. Go now.'

The thunderbird, Thora, looks at her with her head cocked to the side, but the storm dies down. The phoenix nods once, letting the flames die on her wings, turning to ash.

Together, the two birds fly out of the building the way they came in, and Calliope hopes that Wrath will be able to find Nagaveni and tell her what's happening.

Just as her vision starts to fade completely… just as the panic sets in and her hands fly to her attacker's wrists, scratching at them… he drops her, letting her body crumple in a heap on the floor.

She struggles with herself when she looks at him, wondering if now is a good time to tell him how attracted to him she still is. Despite him beating the hell out of her, she wants nothing more than for him to kiss her. That feeling also disgusts her.

She barely manages to push herself into a sitting position, her back leaning against the wall and her legs shaking from even the smallest movements.

Asmodeus squats in front of her and lets out one short, bitter laugh. Then his gaze softens as he reaches his big, tan hand out to stroke her rosy cheek with his thumb, and he almost looks sorry for his actions.

Calliope flinches away from his touch, terrified, and lets out a short, quiet whimper. Asmodeus actually has the audacity to look hurt for a moment… and suddenly, she can feel the way he's been longing for her… needing her… but also hating her for it.

Then, the lust is gone – replaced with nothing more than a rage so terrifying to her, she's afraid to even look at him. Yet, she peeks up at his face from underneath her long lashes anyway. Asmodeus has long black hair with an undercut sporting flame designs on the back of his head, unnatural ocean-blue eyes that sometimes get dark and stormy when he's angry, and flawless tan skin accentuated by his full, pouty lips, high cheekbones, and sharply arched eyebrows – one with a thick, pale scar cutting through it.

'I remember that scar,' Calliope thinks. 'He had a party one night. Menoetius had tried to hit on me, grabbing me and bruising me when I turned him down... Then he tried to force himself on me… Asmodeus caught him, pulled him off me, started beating him… and his half-brother pulled a knife on him. Asmodeus got that scar disarming him… Wow, he's still so handsome – he looks almost exactly how I remember. So close to who I thought I knew… and yet, still a stranger to me.' Calliope stares up at his eyes, remembering the way he used to hypnotize her with that piercing gaze and the way she'd get lost in the ocean waves of his eyes…

She sits there, leaning heavily against the wall, her whole body aching, and searches the storm in his eyes for an answer to all of this, watching as his eyes change and turn darker…

Remembering the feelings he has for her, she takes advantage of it for a few moments, practically breathing in the anger he's feeling and using it little-by-little to try and heal her aching muscles. Anger doesn't work well for this, but it's the only emotion she has from him to work with at the moment.

Calliope opens up her mind a little more to allow Asmodeus to feel everything she's feeling as well. She sends him the physical pain – from the ache in her muscles to the sharp pain that comes from trying to breathe using her swollen and bruised throat – the sadness and the hurt. Then she sends him the longing she's felt for him in the time they've been apart and the terror mixed with the excitement of all the possibilities tonight… Abruptly, she closes herself off again, cruelly no longer allowing him to feel her emotions.

Asmodeus jerks back as if Calliope just slapped him when he stops feeling their connection. He looks sad for a second, but then his face contorts into a murderous rage. And as his mood changes, so do his eyes – darker and darker until both are entirely black…

"Finally! The demon comes out to play," Calliope sings, then laughs. "But you weren't even really trying to hurt me before, were you? Well, I can't wait to see what you do next."

"I don't know who you think you are, or what you did to me, but I can't do this! ¡Maldita perra!" he hisses through gritted teeth, a vicious snarl stuck on his face. "I used to feel nothing for anyone. I was smart and I was a great leader for the demons. Then you came along and I started… feeling things… I cared about you… I loved you… but the moment that you saw the demon side of me, you dropped me and ruined everything!"

"You and your pathetic friends were hurting people and destroying their lives for fun, 'Deus. I couldn't be a part of that. And you know what? It fucking sucked, dude, because I wanted better for you. Even knowing that you're a cambion and the literal Prince of Demons, I still cared about you so fucking much…" She forces a shaky arm up and brushes her fingers delicately along his strong jawline. She catches him admiring the way her small hand and sharp turquoise nails look gliding along his chiseled jawline. She feels his muscles tense. He's expecting her to slap him, or to do something cruel, the way he would… but she doesn't. He shudders under her touch and she can feel desire flare inside him.

However, he stops, grabbing her hand and yanking it off him, holding it a few inches away from his face tight enough that Calliope watches as her skin starts bruising underneath his fingertips. She can feel the pain of her bones crunching as he squeezes tighter. When he finally releases his grip, her hand drops like a weight. She tries to lift it up, her muscles in her arm screaming at her. She can only lift it up enough to see that her hand is bruised badly – dark purple, blue, and black all over.

'Great, he broke it,' she pouts. But Asmodeus leans in close to her, one hand coming up to stroke her cheek while his other hand slides up her knee until he rests it on her thigh.

She pulls in one sharp, shaky breath – scared and excited at the same time. He moves in, his lips ghosting over hers, taking the hand he's resting on her leg and running it up to the inside of her thigh. His oceanic eyes are back, trained on her face. He takes a bit of delight in the way her face contorts with emotion as she tries to hold herself back. Asmodeus thinks that he's once again at the mercy of Calliope's self-restraint, because he knows the moment she gives in and admits that she wants him, there's nothing he wouldn't give her.

Calliope's legs tremble under his touch and she bites her lip as his lips pass over, barely a breath away. A tear falls out of her eye and she lets out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. She leans back against the wall, away from his touch, then looks at him, struggling to find something to say. When she finally speaks again, her voice wavers.

"I… I'm sorry. It was… amazing… being with you." She watches as his face goes from longing to confusion, then settling on a stormy expression as he listens. "I never wanted to hurt you," Calliope almost whispers. "I never should have let myself get attached to you. I swear, it was supposed to only be one night… But… you kept inviting me out and that one night stand turned into a whole thing…" Her eyes droop, her energy officially running out with nothing left for her to take it from. "I didn't mean to hurt you, but I guess I did. I guess I turned you into…"

"Into what?" He questions, challenging her, his voice dripping with malice. "If I were you, I would choose my next words very carefully."

"Does it even really matter, 'Deus? You're just gonna believe whatever you want anyway. You're so goddamn stubborn and cruel! It must be my fault... I'm a siren, after all… like a parasite, just living off other people's emotions. Look, I know you still have feelings for me… I can feel you fighting with yourself over this… I'm sorry."

She looks down, a guilty expression on her face. Her face twists with emotions, and she uses her left hand to pull her broken right hand up, into her lap. For a moment, she forgets to keep her mental walls up, and Asmodeus can feel her emotions inside changing with her facial expressions – from a wave of sadness to a fiery pit of anger that she's desperately trying to keep down. All this does is make Asmodeus even more attracted to her, especially the anger.

"Asmodeus… Prince of Demons: half-human, half-demon, and both halves stuck at war with each other. Sometimes, I fucking swear, you are so… goddamn… stupid!" She screams at him, spitting the last words out like venom.

He reels back, looking at her like she's a stranger to him – his eyes flicking blue for a moment. But her words invoke the anger in him and before he can even think, his eyes turn black again, he pulls back his fist, and punches her. Her head snaps to the side from the force and blood drips out of her mouth.

She looks to him again, smiling in a way he's never seen before. Then she laughs, letting blood fall out of her mouth... "Just fucking kill me already… I know you, Asmodeus. I know all your desires, your lust, your pain, your anger… Go ahead and have your fun with me, asshole... But please hurry up and fucking kill me."

"Shut up!" he hits her again, slicing open a long line across her cheek. Part of him hates himself for reacting this way. "¡Cállate! This… is not you," he says. "I don't know what's happening or why… but I'm not wasting any more time. Your little friends are probably already coming back to help you. You've decided to fight back, so I've decided… voy a maldito disfrutar de esto. Puta."

Calliope takes a breath, calming herself. "I think I turned you into someone who's cold-hearted and closed off. You used to be so fun and happy, even if you did bad things now and then… I think I'm the reason you changed… I… must have taken all your affection and left you with nothing. I'm sorry..."

She's struggling to stay awake and keep her eyes open, but she can vaguely hear the sound of Asmodeus's laughter in front of her.

"You think you made me a monster? Oh, give me a break. You were always so perfect…" Asmodeus says the word 'perfect' with a lot of disdain in his voice. "So nice to everyone. The other guys… they always wondered what it would take to break you. And I guess now we know…" He laughs harder, and as her vision darkens, she hears Amadeo stirring awake in the middle of the destroyed dance floor. Asmodeus makes a small, sort of satisfied noise in his throat that sends a shiver of dread down her spine. "Our mutual friend is waking up, it seems... Hey, do you remember the very first time Amadeo introduced you to me? He asked me to break you. He wanted to watch you break. He thought it was hilarious to watch, and I was the best at breaking people. That's why he introduced us. Hell, the other guys begged me to destroy you in every possible way. I welcomed the challenge with others, but with you..." He trails off, looking dejected for a moment, his eyes flickering blue like a lightbulb turning on with his emotions – longing for Calliope, hating both her and Amadeo, wanting them both dead, and wanting Calliope out of his life for good while also wanting to keep her all to himself.

"There was a time when every demon and cambion here wanted you… There was a time when every man here begged me to let them take turns with you. I mean, a beautiful siren in a house full of demons? You can only imagine what they would have done to you if I had allowed them to. And your little friend, Amadeo? He begged more than anyone. He was convinced that if he could just get you to himself, somehow it would make you love him. I mean, it was pathetic – his weird little fantasy – it was disgusting, even by a demon's standards. Besides, I loved having you to myself. No one ever tried to challenge me for you, other than Menoetius… Seeing him forcing you down that night, seeing how you struggled, and the way he beat you for it… Your whole body was bruised… Yet you continued to fight…" He sounds sad as he talks about it. "What have you done to me, Calli? I never cared about anyone enough to stop these fuckers from doing any awful things they wanted to do. The only rule was that we don't break contracts. Then you came along, and I couldn't let the shit they did happen anymore," he says, brushing his fingers over her cheek. "I told myself it was because I just didn't want to share you with anyone, but honestly, it was because I was scared of what would happen to you. I wanted to protect you, but I guess it doesn't matter much now… I don't know how I'm supposed to kill you…"

She jerks away from his touch and manages to open her eyes long enough to give him a look of pure hate, one that she knows will hurt. "You wanted to protect me? Is that what you told yourself when you got rid of all my friends? My brother? Tell me, were you always a monster? I tried to be careful, but if I had known what you were capable of, I would never have even touched someone as repulsive-"

He pulls her up by her throat with one hand, lifting her off the ground. She doesn't struggle this time. She just smiles at him and spits her blood in his face. Angry, he hits her as hard as he can, knocking her out and leaving her body to fall to the ground.

'How is there so much blood?' he questions himself, dropping to the floor gracefully to check on her. '…Her forehead got cracked on the floor… ¡Maldito idiota!' He curses himself internally for getting carried away. Then he kneels before her and scoops her into his strong arms, bridal style. If he had known things would end up this way, he would have carried her like this when she was his… he would have made more of an effort…

'Too late now,' the demon voice says before laughing.

He walks out of the club with Calliope unconscious in his arms, and calls someone else to get Amadeo. In the alley near the exit, he spots two ruby-red eyes shining at him in a darkness so vast, it's impossible for him to see into it. 'Nanook…' He looks toward the giant hellhound, which he had given to Calliope when they were together three years ago. He whispers, "Go home…"

The hellhound whines like a puppy – a sound that hellhounds almost never make – and nudges Calliope's arm, which has fallen like a dead weight to the side, being careful not to touch Calliope's horribly bruised and swollen hand. Calliope stirs as if waking up, but when pain shoots through her again, she makes a small, strangled cry, blood bubbling out from between her now-pale lips, and she falls back into her trauma-induced sleep.