The Darkest Joy by Dahlia Rose Read Free Book Online

better or tried to save their families were used as fodder, and their suffering was great.
     
    “Something wrong, fallen one?” Qemuel sneered. “Is the job too much for you? Belial said you were having a hard time of it. Maybe a few thousand years chained to my walls would help harden you up.”
     
    “I’m fine. Take your new charge, demon, and stay out of my way.” Caim’s tone was neutral as ever. He could never let them see how this place affected him.
     
    Qemuel’s big hands gripped the head of his new soul. His talons dug into the tender flesh of his scalp, which caused the man to scream in pain and blood to drip from the wounds as he was dragged across the floor. Caim watched this new soul be taken for processing and then an eternity of damnation. He knew eventually the man would become as sick and dark as the place he dwelled. The filth and the degrading acts of the Devil’s home would seep into him. Whatever love he claimed he would hold on to for his wife would be lost. Caim had watched it all happen before, and it never got easier. It was happening to him as well. He fought a never-ending internal battle to retain the spark of good left in him and to not let it be corroded by the vileness of hell. He left the underworld, the smell of sulfur, rot, and death, and went back topside to gulp in the fresh, clean air. While he was gone, the rain had begun to fall in Merry. He sank to the wet earth, and his fingers dug through the grass, into the soil.
     
    He looked up to the heavens with tears streaming down his face. “Why! Please, why can’t you see that I am sorry? I ask for your forgiveness!”
     
      But he knew that there would be no answer. In a thousand years, there never was. Caim slapped his hands down into the soft earth over and over while sobbing for all the souls he had taken to hell, sobbing for the tears he had seen people shed. In the darkness, he heard a voice say one thing that helped him regain part of his composure. The tears you shed help you keep your soul alive. Find your joy in the darkness, Caim . It is your only hope. His joy in the darkness, his Bliss. Caim got up from the sodden earth and began to walk to the one place that could bring him comfort in the turmoil. He didn’t need directions. She was like a homing beacon, a light that always drew him to her. He knocked on her door a minute later. She opened the door with the chain still attached.
     
    “ Caim !” Her eyes widened when she saw him standing there in the rain.
     
    “I need . . . I need you, Bliss.” His voice was broken with emotion. “Please.”
     
    She closed the door, and he heard the chain slide from the latch. The door opened quickly, and she pulled him inside and into her arms even though he was dripping wet from the rain.
     
    “Oh, Caim , you’re shivering, baby. Come on.” She pulled him along into her bedroom, and Caim looked down to see that he was leaving a wet trail on her hardwood floor. She said nothing as she undressed him, and he let her. She dried his skin and seated him down on her bed before she climbed behind him to dry his hair. His nakedness was not a concern at that point. He could feel her wanting to soothe what hurt inside him.
     
    “I’m so tired, my love, so very tired,” Caim said softly under her ministrations. Bliss murmured words of comfort as she let her fingers and the towel do the work. Caim felt his shoulders relax, and Bliss gently pushed him back onto the bed. He didn’t protest. She pulled the blankets out from under him and covered him up to his neck before she climbed in beside him and brought him into the cradle of her arms once more.
     
    He let his hands wrap around the curves of her body, her warmth seeping into him, taking away the cold of the rain and in his heart. “I can’t do it anymore, Bliss. I need to escape the darkness. Please help me. I can’t do it without you.”
     
    “ Shh , darling, just sleep now. We’ll figure it out tomorrow.”