Page 4 of Signed in Blood

“Well, it’s a rock concert, isn’t it?”

“They’re alternative,” she corrects me.

The band is Wreckage Rebellion, and although they’re indie, they’ve been playing nonstop on the radios here on campus. Sabrina is mildly obsessed. I only know the one song and if I’m honest, I only want to get out and have fun with my bestie.

“We’re going; it’s just a matter of what we’re wearing,” she says like it’s a question she’s pondering and doesn’t need me to respond.

“You pick it then,” I tell her. “Just no high heels.”

“You got it, love,” she says as we pull down the street to the dorms. “We’re going to this concert, and we can do the wishing well.” She’s excited, although I’m thrown off.

“The wishing well?” I ask her. I don’t remember her telling me anything about that.

“I’ve had it on my list for forever. There's a friendship bridge where you put a lock with your names on it,” she tells me, and finally the car is warm enough for the two of us to start thawing.

“Pretty sure that’s for couples,” I tell her, raising my brow.

“Well, neither of us are dating so…it’s a friend’s bridge while we’re there,” she says with a smile and I smile back.

I might be single and in the midst of figuring out what I’m going to do with the rest of my life, but at least I have a partner in crime I can rely on. Life might beat us up, but we always have each other. Which is good, because we’re all we’ve got.

And it’s been that way since we were kids.

Chapter Two

Lucifer

* * *

For the last few days of December, the corner bar is extremely lively. Families are celebrating the holidays and the New Year is just around the corner. Bad decisions will be made, including lost souls waiting to make a deal with the devil. Believe it or not, it’s my favorite time of the year. Souls for the taking.

Drinks flow easily, laughter gets louder, as does the rumble of chatter each time the old stained glass door opens.

With a wave of my hand, a series of events occur. A waitress drops the tray of beers. A husband jumps back with profanity, dropping his phone into his wife’s lap and she catches it. She sees the screen, looking at the message from his mistress.

The wicked grin grows on my face as I stand outside in the freezing cold, taking a puff of my cigarette and politely smiling at a group of women traveling down the street.

Adultery has always been one of my favorite sins, temptation is one hell of a beast, and I have no problem adding fuel to the fire. It’s what I do best.

His wife’s screams and the chaos ensues inside the bar. “You cheating bastard!”

Perhaps I shouldn’t have intervened but the sight of her storming out, the anger suffocating the air while he follows in tow, screaming at her to give him his phone back is far too delightful.

“Toss it in the gutter,” I whisper the spell and the woman turns to face the man right at the curb of the road.

The grate is in perfect place as he screams in her face that she’s insane and it’s not what it looks like.

“But oh, it is,” I whisper to myself. “It’s exactly what it looks like.” She deserves to know and he deserves what comes after: a life of hell on earth for his deceit.

The air is crisp and the wind picks up her hair. I watch as her husband continues to rattle and gaslight her. They’re both wearing expensive clothes, her fur coat keeps her warm as her husband won’t stop belittling her. He’s dressed like he’s making up for the size of his cock, and by the look of his quarter of a million dollar car, he is.

Following my orders, she walks his cellphone over to the drain and tosses it in without second guessing herself. The clunk is drowned out by his scream, and yet, it makes it that much more satisfying.

No one knows the devil walks among them. Aiding in the finality of sin and chaos. Well, some humans make claims, but no one knows it’s me who’s watching them. No one ever truly sees me. I sit in the shadows, enjoying my favorite show: torment and agony. Just as one of my crows caws and I peer up to see three perched on the catenary wire to the street light, a voice catches my attention.

Something strikes within me, something I’ve not felt for far too long.

I hear her first but can’t see her from where I stand. She walks up the sidewalk from the other side of the bar to the corner of the intersection.