Welcome to the Kali Sweet Chronicles. Sweet Malice is the fifth book in the Kali Sweet Urban Fantasy series and will be released to retailers in February 2025. I’ll release a chapter twice a month here in my Magic Bites Membership, and I look forward to reading your comments! *Please note that these are UNEDITED and some story elements may change before the official book release in February. Enjoy!
***
Sweet Malice, Kali Sweet Urban Fantasy Series
©2024 Misty Evans
Chapter One
Sometimes, it doesn’t pay to be a model employee.
In my case, you show up on your first day of work and end up stuck outside the gates of Hell because no one is there to let you in.
“Ding dong,” I yelled, eyeing the metal portal that exuded enough evil heat I could feel it on my face. There was no doorbell or security monitor. I’d expected a guard to keep out the riffraff, although it wasn’t exactly a vacation destination.
I should be able to waltz right in. I’m a demon, after all. Seems like I’d have easy access. Thanks to the fallen angel who now ruled this place, I was a ghost—able to travel between worlds with nothing more than a thought. The fact I couldn’t blow through the gates was…weird. My physical form was more substantial here, though, and not ghost-like at all.
I grabbed one of the horned goat handles. “Anyone home?” I jerked my away. “Ouch. What the…?”
It was hotter than, well, hell, no lie. The skin of my palm sizzled. I blew on it, shook it, cursed.
Beyond the massive gates that disappeared somewhere far, far above my head, tiny bits of ash hung in a supernatural fog so thick it wouldn’t let them fall to the ground. Although the dense air prevented me from seeing the ground, I knew it was moving and undulating—a constant shifting of ground, souls, and demons.
I sucked at the burned flesh, now healing thanks to my magic. Every so often, the sound of the undulating earth permeated the fog, and the ground trembled violently as if absorbing the aftershock of a quake.
The earth magic coursing through my body shuddered like I’d stuck my finger in a light socket. The demonic energy rising through my feet and legs tingled. The scent of the scorched landscape trickled through the gates’ bars, mixed with the disgusting odor of burnt hair and skin.
“Lucifer!” I’d made it a point to be on time, dammit, and I wasn’t happy to be kept waiting. Sliding on gloves to protect my hands, I grabbed the metal bars and tried to rattle them, getting a surge of back-the-hell-off fire that made me yelp. “Hey, come on! Are you going to let me in or what?”
As I rubbed my scorched palms together, a figure emerged from the darkness on my left. Height-challenged with a human-ish form bent at the waist, its stringy hair fell over its face. It shuffled toward the gates, smoke puffing from its feet with each step.
Definitely not Lucifer. Still, the magic coming from it made me instinctively move backward. It wasn’t a demon, and it wasn’t human. Whatever it was, it was dead and headed to the Pit. “Hi, um, are you…you know…going in? Is there like a key card or something?”
The thing lifted its head, nailing me with deep, beady eyes. The skin over the cheeks was wrinkled, the nose bulbous. The mouth opened, revealing rotting teeth. “You do not belong here, demon.”
The soft voice was unexpected and suggested a female. Self-preservation firmly in place, I touched my ring fingers to my thumbs, raising my protective shield. “Lucifer is waiting for me. Are you the welcoming committee?”
There was no welcome in her eyes. “It’s not your time.”
I looked at my watch, now wonky from the magic surge, showing it was a few minutes after two a.m. instead of midnight. “Actually, I’m late now that you’ve kept me waiting. Lucifer won’t be happy about that. If you’re the gatekeeper, open these things up.”
A prickle of magical needles sliced the back of my arms, my neck. I turned to see a new entity materializing on my right.
“Hecate?” Lucifer strode from the shadows, frowning at the ugly crone. “What are you doing? Why do you look like that?”
“I was on time,” I rushed to say, rubbing the prickles from my arms.
The crone morphed, her wrinkles disappearing, her hair becoming a lustrous black, and her physical frame growing taller. Within seconds, she went from caterpillar to butterfly. Goddess energy lashed out and smacked into mine.
“Hecate.” Of course. My mother had raised me on stories of Greek gods and goddesses. “Sorry, I should have known.”
The now beautiful female quirked her lips ever so slightly as if smirking at my dullness. “Yes, considering your lineage.”
My mother was a demon by nature but was born into a Greek family. She and my father fled the islands and ended up in Italy, changing their last names to Dulce. I only recently learned the whole story about their origins, and I had some profound respect for the goddess before me, seeing as how she’d helped Persephone find her daughter, Demeter. But honestly, I never would have imagined she would be literally standing guard at the gates. It was only a story, right?
Again, I should have known better. My best friend was the Goddess Aphrodite. I’d met a couple of Di’s friends, and believe me, they were very real.
“I wanted to see what you would do.” Her keen eyes dropped to my ruined gloves as she spoke to my new boss. “Are you sure this is who you want hunting for your brethren?”
Lucifer sniffed. “My choices are limited.”
“Hey,” I said, although as soon as I saw his face harden, I sucked in a lungful of air and quelled my flippant reply. “I’m here, and I’m damn good at what I do, so can we get on with it?”
Being a three-hundred-year-old vengeance demon who worked for The Bridge Institute for the past few decades to save humans from unscrupulous supernaturals, I had a list of accomplishments and unique experiences on my side. They more than qualified me for this task. Lucifer knew that, yet he hesitated long enough to raise my hackles even more. “While I appreciate your impatience—”
I raised a hand. Surprisingly, he didn’t burn it off for my impertinence. “I prefer eagerness. You know I’m every bit as good as Damon at tracking your angel friends, or you wouldn’t have traded me for him. Standing here jawing isn’t accomplishing that task,”—and we had over one hundred and thirty thousand of them to find—“and I’m sure you have better things to do with your time. Amy and the baby come to mind.”
Damon was my boss at the Bridge, and Amy was Lucifer’s wife—another Fallen who had been incarnated as a powerful witch. The two of them had a young daughter who was believed to be the most powerful of all—a supernatural who would restore the peace between heaven and earth.
Another theory floating around, and that sent most of us demons into fits of unholy panic, was that if God and Lucifer reconciled and humankind was freed of sin, what need would there be for hell and all of us?
Lucifer was a touchy tyrant and bristled anytime Amy or Azaria’s names crossed my tongue. His shoulders stiffened. He motioned at the male hanging around behind him. “Zayfeer will accompany you.”
“Your nanny?”
“Manny,” the flippant angel said. “Man…nanny… You get the idea. Since Michael is protecting the prize, I have time on my hands.”
An angel looking over my shoulder? “Hard pass. I don’t work well with others.” Especially those sporting wings.
Zeph looked about as happy as I was concerning our new partnership. “Yeah, well, I don’t work with your kind.”
“Enough.” The word was spoken softly, but its power made my bones tremble. Lucifer locked his steely gaze on me. “You have enjoyed a long working relationship with the Warrior demon, Cole.”
“That’s different. He’s no angel, and yes, he’s the best I’ve found to watch my back. Damon assigned him to me.”
“And I’m assigning Zayfeer.” The edge to his voice strongly suggested I keep my mouth shut. “Your first assignment is north of Chicago. The address is on your phone.”
Zayfeer perked up. “Wisconsin? It’s on my bucket list. I love cheese.”
Was I in some horrible 80s sitcom? “Where do you want me to bring him or her once I find them?” It was subtle, but using me instead of we was intentional. I would ditch Zayfeer—I was sure he’d be happy to go off on his cheese tour while I did the hunting—and bag this Fallen on my own.
“That address is also on your phone. You are now renting an apartment near Eden, where you’ll be allowed to rest and feed when needed.”
Feed? Like I was a vampire? “Aw, you didn’t have to do that.”
“I did.”
Because he didn’t want me to hang out here? He wanted to keep me close, but not too close. “Afraid your big brother will use me again to get to you?”
“I have no doubts about that.”
Neither did I. The thought of going up against Michael made me swallow hard. I covered it with bravado. “Give me the entire list of Fallen so I won’t need to check in between each one. That will only slow me down.”
Lucifer was silent for so long, gauging my intentions, I struggled not to fidget. “No. I want a report of every retrieval in person.”
The sitcom had turned into a horror flick. “Perfect. I was just going to suggest that.” Not. I eyed Zayfeer. “May I speak to you alone, boss?”
Surprise, surprise, Lucifer glanced at Hecate and then at his kid’s nanny. “Leave us.”
The two of them disappeared, Zayfeer sending me a scowl.
No time like the present to fall on my sword. “Thank you for this.”
Nothing I could have said or done would have shocked the king of Hell more. I waited for him to recover and say something, but he didn’t.
Go me. I’d rendered Lucifer Morningstar speechless.
“Don’t get me wrong,” I continued. “Working for you is a—” Nightmare of epic proportions. “I mean, I know it’s no picnic for you to replace an archdemon like Damon with a lowly one like me, but my friends will be safer with me not there. I had planned to leave the Institute in order to protect them from your brother, but Cole, Dru, and Rad were onto me.”
“Figured that out, did you?” He stood unmoving, his face unreadable.
At least he wasn’t smug about it, which surprised me. Lucifer was always smug. “I’m relieved.” I’d do anything to keep them out of Michael’s clutches, and he currently had a hard-on to make my life, well, hell, because of how I’d tricked him a few days prior. “I’ll do a good job for you.”
“Yes, well, I’ll throw in a bone to sweeten the pot.”
There was that famed smugness. I had a creeping sensation along the back of my neck. Making deals with the devil was a bad idea. Show no fear. “Super. What is that?”
He pinned me with knowing eyes. “Do this for me, and I’ll release your parents and sister from here.”
My gut twisted. I nearly staggered. My family was on the other side of the gates behind him. When I wanted to torture myself, I thought about them. About what they were enduring.
The Devil had turned the tides on me—I was now speechless.
He nodded as if I’d accepted the offer. “Good. Your first Fallen awaits.”
Before I could blink, he waved a hand, and I was transported through space.
My ass hit the ground a heartbeat later, sending up a plume of dust. In front of me, a deserted and dilapidated amusement park splayed out like another horror movie scene.
***
Comment and let me know what you liked about this chapter! And don’t miss what happens next!