Visitors

Chapter Three - Visitors

Balor's POV

I stepped out of my car into the empty parking garage. To be at the top of the food chain, you have to show power. And to establish dominance in the human world is to flaunt how much money you have. So I built my way up, bought the biggest building in the centre of the city and turned it into my penthouse and business front. Not everything I ran was illegal or involved cutting of body parts and collecting debts.

This level was my personal parking space. I had the nicest cars and bikes—the best security system and cameras to catch anyone who tried to enter. I also put wards in place, but unfortunately, that wouldn't hold up in a mortal courtroom. Nevertheless, I had learned how to adapt to this realm. I Glamoured myself when I needed to, use magic without giving myself away.

Humans weren't stupid. They knew magic existed, but not all did. Those who knew were dangerous, and I had to keep up regular appearances to make sure they stayed away and didn't figure out what I was. So a few agonizingly slow drives to certain places were what I had to endure on days I didn't use magic to travel—a small price to pay.

I stepped into the elevator and headed to the business floor. I had another meeting with the mayor. One of the fronts of the business was the security we offered. I had contracts with almost all of the companies in the city, clubs, restaurants, banks, wherever security is needed to uphold the abiding citizen front. Also, it made it easier to do my work through the shipyards and distribution companies. My guys help smuggle stuff in, and nobody knows the difference. No extra people were brought in because the people dealing with the shipments are already there and work for me.

I adjusted the cuffs of my jacket and straightened my tie. I removed the hair tie and let my shoulder-length hair fall loose. I looked my shirt over, making sure no blood had made its way onto the fabric. My fingers felt bare without my rings, but I didn't have time to put them on and didn't wear them when I went to deal with under appreciative clients. I found it was hard to clean blood out of the intricate designs.

The elevators dinged as the doors opened, and I stepped out. My secretary sat at her desk typing away on her computer. She was a cute woman. Something about the thick brimmed glasses and how her blonde hair was always up in a perfect bun did things to me. She wore a blue satin blouse that revealed her breast nicely, and as she stood to greet me I couldn't stop myself from trailing my eyes down her body taking in the way her tight pencil skirt hugged her form perfectly.

"Mr. Bloodstone. Mayor Fredrick is already in your office. I tried to have him wait in the seating area, but he insisted on waiting for you in there instead." I let out an annoyed growl. I hated having to play nice with the bastard. He was the worst for working the black market.

At least I knew I was doing shady things that would damn my soul. I knew it was for my own sadistic needs to prove I could make my own name good or bad. But Fredrick believed that he was doing the people of the city a service by scamming them and taking money without the whole city knowing. He didn't fully understand what I did. He just knew that I made problems appear so he could send the cops out to make them disappear. He said, 'it strengthens our front and allows me to come off as a hero.' like the lie made him a saint when he set up the crimes and paid the police to ignore it until he could swoop in and stop it.

"It's alright. I'll remind him of my rules." I stuck my hand in my pocket, looking up at the clock. It was three in the morning that always seemed to be when I made the shadiest of deals or met with the worst of humanity. I turned back to my secretary. She had returned to typing on her computer.

"Why don't you call it a night. I'll have Jackie cover for you until noon. We don't need to add dark circles under those beautiful eyes of yours." Her cheeks brightened as she looked up at me and nodded.

"Of course, Mr. Bloodstone." I held up my hand.

"Just Balor is fine."

"Of course, Balor. I will see you tomorrow." She looked over to my office and then back to me.

"He seemed to be in a mood, just a heads up." She warned. I gave her a half-grin and nodded.

"Thank you. Have a good night, Sophia."

"Goodnight." She said as I turned away and headed towards my office. As I got closer, I could sense my wards around the building were off. I cautiously opened my office door to see Mayor Fredrick sitting in my chair.

"The nerves of this guy." My wolf growled.

"I see you've made yourself comfortable." My voice was full of annoyance.

Fredrick turned to face me. His onyx hair slicked back. His beady hazel eyes narrowed at me. He looked at me as if my presence annoyed him as if him waiting for me wasted his time. His little mole above his right eye twitched, and I fought the urge to cut it off. But there was something different about him. Something different about his aura. He seemed to perfect, his face a little too smooth and his hair a little too shiny.

"Well, of course. You work for me, remember not the other way around, Mr. Bloodstone." I let out a low laugh. Warning bells sounded as I took this imposter in Fredrick, and I were on a first-name basis, and even that bastard wasn't dumb enough to sit in my chair and speak to me with such disrespect.

I undid my jacket button and walked over and poured myself a cup of scotch, doing the same for my little guest. I added a little spell to his glass to make it taste like piss for anyone who was glamoured. A little trick I picked up in Gardenia while dealing with merchants and pranking a few assholes, like the Jinx family.

"Scotch?" I asked, holding up the glass. He nodded as I walked over and handed it to him, taking a seat in a leather chair I had set up across from my desk. I held up my glass and took a gulp. Fredrick doing the same, only to spit it out everywhere.

"Good God, what is this?" Fredrick hissed.

"Tell me, did my sister force you, or do you make it a habit to ignore explicit order to leave me the fuck alone." My voice was cold as I set my glass down on the table and arched my brow as I looked at him. Immediately he shifted in the chair and morphed back into himself, letting out an amused laugh.

"Well, when my brother-in-law is only a few kills away from damming his soul, I take it upon myself to see why."

"And I didn't force him to do anything, Balor. We're concerned about you." I spun around to see my sister leaning against the entranceway, looking at her nails like she was bored. Now I understood why my wards were down. She couldn't sheer in with them up, sneaky bastard. I turned back to Balthazar.

He wore a black suit, and his blonde hair was pushed back nicely. His blue eyes swirled as he looked at me and then my sister. It has been five years since I had seen either of them, and it could have been a hundred, and it would still be too soon.

"What I do or don't do is none of your concern or business," I muttered.

"When you become the talk of the Underworld, you make it my business, dear brother." I grimaced at him, calling me that.

"I'm not your brother Balthazar." I snapped. He placed a hand over his heart, or where it should be, fake pain crossing his face.

"Oh, you wound me." He teased, giving me a smirk.

"Enough of this back and forth. We are here to stop this." Imelda cut in, gesturing towards me.

I hadn't looked at her since she arrived. Her onyx hair was longer now, reaching her waist, and she wore clothes similar to the human realm, leather pants and a strapless black shirt to match. Her face was brighter, and she looked happy. Well, minus the scowl she was giving me. I don't know why but seeing her happy pissed me off. I ground my teeth as I turned from her.

"I'm perfectly fine how I am, thank you very much. So now you've seen me. So you can show yourselves out."

"No, you need to stop what you're doing, Bal.

You're going to damn your soul, and there is no coming back from that." I could hear the pleading tone in her voice. I spun around and walked towards her. My wolf was growing annoyed.

"Who's to say I want to come back from that. Who's to say that's not where I want to end up. Once I'm damned, I can make any deal I want. I'm going to hell either way. Maybe then I'll see what was so great about it that you had to throw away any chance you had at a bright future, any chance you had at a family." I snapped. I could feel my wolf urging me to come forward. But Imelda didn't flinch, didn't even bat an eye. If anything, she looked just as pissed off as I felt.

"Now you've done it," Balthazar muttered from behind me.

Before I had a chance to register what was happening, I was thrown across the room and slammed into my desk, caving it underneath me. I went to move, but my body was locked; I looked at Balthazar, and he just held up his hands in surrender.

"It's not me. So you can thank your sister for this little timeout." I looked back at her to see blue flames dancing in her emerald eyes.

"Now listen and listen good, Balor. If you refuse to stop this act of rebellion because that's what this is. A little tantrum because you think you know the truth, know what I decided to give up and live with for the rest of my life." She snapped as she got closer to me.

"You want a demon to come to make a deal with you so badly. Then here's my deal, little brother." I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Mel," Balthazar warned.

"I'm not making a deal with you." I hissed. I suddenly felt extremely hot, like I was burning from the inside out. Sweat beaded on my brow.

"Mel, stop," Balthazar shouted as he gripped her arm and pulled her back into him. The heat disappeared, and so did the hold on my body. I sat up and looked at her, my eyes wide.

"What because I don't want to make a deal with you. You were going to burn me alive?" I shouted.

"She didn't mean to do it. She's still learning how to control her powers. When she's angry, they manifest on their own. It's something we're working on."

"I think it's time you both leave," I ran my hand through my hair and then adjusted my suit.

"Balor, please." Imelda pleaded

"No, leave." I couldn't bring myself to look at Imelda as I felt her presence leave.

"You know, there is a lot more to it than you think, Balor. She's made something for herself in the Underworld, and if you took the time to read her letters instead of burning them, then maybe you wouldn't be so angry anymore. Maybe you would understand why us not being able to have the choice to have our own kid was more a blessing than a curse."

"I said leave." I snapped. I felt his presence disappear as I took in my destroyed office. My desk was broken in two. My favourite chair's arm was hanging off the side.

"God damn it," I shouted as I grabbed my chair and whipped it across the room shatter the glass wall. Another mess that someone else made, and I was stuck cleaning it up.

"Leave it for the staff. I think it's time we went for a run," My wolf suggested, his voice low.

"I couldn't agree more, Flint." I stormed out of my office and used my magic to bring us to the forest line. Without a second thought, I let Flint step forward and take complete control. Their words racing through my head.