Unholy | Chapter One

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve thought about what I plan to publish next. I’ve got several works in progress sitting in my writing folder, and a few finished novels that need some rewriting and a lot of revising. While looking over all of it, I found the first book I ever wrote to completion, Unholy.

It was 2016. The world was a (little) bit better than it is now, although still a dumpster fire. For me, I was becoming severely chronically ill with GERD, and eventually, I ended up mostly bedridden while fighting an illness no one would believe I had, and I struggled with anorexia made worse by GERD itself making it nearly impossible to eat due to the severity. Throughout that hell, I continued to create. It was all I had at the time, as well as the many conversations I had with my alters and other headmates while lying in bed late into the night.

I slowly wrote Unholy after the general premise came to me in a dream. I still have the original notes which spanned about two large paragraphs. It took me a year to finish it, and I grew discouraged halfway through because I’d never finished writing an entire novel before. I was preparing to get serious as an aspiring author though, so I knew I had to finish something. The first is always the hardest.

This was during a time when I wrote more adventurous things. Although still dark, a lot of my early stories were a bit… controversial. I still hadn’t confronted a certain trauma I’d buried, and it came out repeatedly in my writing; Unholy was one of those stories.

I’ve since rewritten a lot of it and removed and changed quite a few things to get rid of that personal ick that I just can’t write about anymore. The story is becoming much stronger now because of these rewrites, and it has again sparked a flame within me for creating. While editing, I remember the happiness I felt even during a time when I was lonely and extremely ill. I remember the endless energy and passion I had for creating things constantly. This book means a lot to me, and not just because it was my first.

I can’t wait to share it with everyone. For now, I leave you with the first chapter as a little tease.

It was late when Guthryn walked into one of the prestigious night clubs he managed. While it hosted musicians and celebrities that happened to be traveling through, he was a celebrity himself as people recognized him instantly. As much as he loved to party with the patrons, however, he had some late-night work he’d been neglecting.

“Guthryn!” A blond wearing a small pink dress latched onto his pale arm. “You have time for me, right?” She winked at him with clear intentions.

He smiled and turned to take her hands in his and kissed them both. “Darling, I would love more than anything, but I have some important business to attend to.”

She pouted. “You always seem to make time for everyone else!”

“Do I? I’ll have to fix that.” He smiled genuinely, regretful he’d have to turn her down for the time being. Duty called. “How about I buy you a drink later, sweetie? Will that make up for it?”

“It’s a start.” Her lips curved into a reluctant smile as he kissed her hand again and slid through the crowd.

He would never get to his office if that continued. Part of him wished he could use his horns — which he kept well-hidden with magic — as a disguise to ward people off when he had work to do, even if he did enjoy the company. He was definitely a social butterfly and the most promiscuous out of all of them, but work had to come first.

He managed to sneak into his office and locked the door behind him. Leaning back against it, the bass of the music reverberated throughout his body. He closed his eyes and let the muffled sounds sink into his very soul. Music was a perfect distraction when he was stressed out the most, and it was the only therapy he needed. It wasn’t that he was particularly anxious about having to work or the number of people pestering him; it was hard enough to not give in to their desires.

He felt the heat and depravity dripping from them. Even worse, his energy shifted the entire atmosphere unless he had a good grip on himself. Being a demon of lust left him in a perpetual state of frustration.

Guthryn opened his eyes and took a deep breath as he finally willed away the fire creeping up inside him. As he made his way to the desk that sat before a cityscape view, he remembered why he avoided going to the club unless he was truly in the mood to give in to his own whims. He only hoped he would be able to get some work done and make the calls that needed to be made. The end of the month approached fast, and it was time to complete the tedious reports that were due to those even higher than he was.

Guthryn was barely able to pull open his desk drawer before his phone went off. While it rang constantly and he had to screen his calls as necessary, it was his lawyer. He knew all too well to never miss her calls, lest he get an earful. “Hey, darling. What do you need?”

“Are you at the club tonight?”

“Yeah, I had some last minute work. Why?”

“You’d better not be late on your interim reports, Guthryn. I know you never are, but...”

He chuckled. “Honey, you know you don’t have to worry about me. I know you didn’t call me just for that.”

There was a moment of silence before she continued. “No, you’re right. I need you to come to my office tomorrow. There’s something important I need to discuss with you.”

Guthryn’s guard went up. “Can I have a hint?”

A shaky breath. “It’s family-related business.”

Guthryn fell into thought. The only family he had, that he knew of, were either dead or back in Hell as far from him as possible. He hoped his father hadn’t finally come up to meet him after all that time. He barely remembered the man from when he was a child — not even enough to conjure up any sort of image in his mind. The only faces he could remember were that of his little brother, Jaufree, and his adoptive mother, Mildred, who were both humans.

His chest clenched with emotion at the memories. Mildred was still as radiant in his mind as she had been before she’d died.

Guthryn realized his lawyer had been calling his name and came back to reality. He sighed and leaned back in his chair. There was simply no feasible reason anyone in his family would be there now. “Sorry, Cher.”

“My name isn’t Cher, Guthryn. I wish you’d stop that.”

“You’re her spitting image and you know it,” he teased.

“Stop deflecting! Get your ass in my office early tomorrow morning.” She hung up without another word and left Guthryn sitting with his phone in his lap.

He had to find space in his mind to concentrate on work after that, but the buzzing thoughts wouldn’t quiet. Had his father really come up from Hell to have a relationship with him? Probably not. He doubted the demon cared for him after what happened with Mildred. He couldn’t even blame his father for hating him entirely if the stories were true. On the bright side, however, Guthryn could put a face to the name instead of the hearsay from others.

He composed himself and focused on his work.

* * *

Sleep wasn’t really a necessity for Guthryn, otherwise he would have looked like death warmed over.

It was nearly impossible to leave the premises the previous night without entertaining someone — at one point, a few at the same time. It took him into the early hours of the morning, but the woman in the pink dress and her boyfriend had left his place before sunrise. It was always best that way. As much as he loved getting intimate with overnight guests, he couldn’t trust everyone who walked into his home. They knew how loaded he was and wouldn’t think twice before swiping one or two priceless objects on the way out.

The ride to his lawyer’s office was a tense one. Guthryn expected to open the doors to see a less-than-friendly demon staring back at him. He’d gone over the lines in his head a dozen times, but was there even a chance of starting over? People could change, so could other demons change as well? Guthryn had definitely spent his share of time in Hell, but he felt he understood humans more than his demonic brethren.

At least his secrets — his shame — were just that on earth. Secrets. They weren’t community knowledge that everyone used against him every time he walked into a room like they did downstairs. Sometimes he felt like he was public enemy number one, a demon who sinned even in Hell.

Guthryn pulled into the parking lot in record time and made his way inside and up the stairs. He straightened his blue and purple tie and smoothed his hands over his matching purple vest in front of the office. His nerves were so on edge that he’d forgotten to hide his horns again. He remedied that quickly.

A muffled voice met his ears as he hesitated outside. “I can hear you breathing from a mile away, Guthryn. Come in. No one else is here.”

Relief washed over him as he pushed open the doors. He was met with his lawyer standing in a brown pencil skirt and matching jacket in front of her desk. She’d been waiting for him, no doubt.

“You don’t have to hide in front of me, you know that,” she said. “Although I appreciate the caution.” She sat on the sofa in the middle of the room, patting for him to join her. “Just close the doors first.”

“Of course.” Guthryn let his guard down and his silver horns shined beneath the office lighting. He dropped onto the couch beside his lawyer and crossed his legs before throwing his arms across the back. “To be honest, I half expected to walk in on my dad.”

“Your father?” She huffed a laugh. “I’ve never met the guy. Not sure I’d want to, though. Demons still creep me out.”

“Except for me, of course.” Guthryn smiled flirtatiously and smoothed her shoulder-length brown hair out of her face.

She batted his hand away and stared at him with confidence. “I get that you have mommy issues, but that doesn’t make it okay for you to hit on a woman who’s almost old enough to be your mother.”

“Forty-five years young, Cher. You don’t age — just like her.”

“Cher has years of plastic surgery under her belt.” The woman turned red anyway and shook it off. “Can you please call me Karyn for once?”

“If that’s what pleases you.” Guthryn winked at her.

“Alright, enough. I’m getting too old for this.” Karyn waved him off and tried her best, as always, to avoid getting caught up in his aura. “I have something more serious to discuss with you.”

Guthryn dropped his carefree attitude and looked down at his lap. He could only avoid the subject of his family for so long. That kind of thing always followed you around no matter how badly you wanted to get away from it. “So if it isn’t my father, then what business do you have with my family?”

Karyn held her silence before continuing carefully. “I was with a client who’s looking to invest in building some condos in an older area of the city, to glow it up some. A lot of the homes there are either derelict or just not worth fixing up. It’s been long overdue, anyway.”

She glanced at the clock, and then turned back to Guthryn. She caught herself leaning into him and pulled back. Sometimes even she couldn’t resist his seductive aura, but she’d been around him long enough to notice it and pull herself away. She liked to think his charms didn’t work on her at all anymore, but there was that risk being around him. He made her feel certain things again she’d rather forget.

She shook it off and continued. “We inspected some of the older buildings to survey what would need to be done, but one of the houses was unexpectedly occupied.”

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Guthryn said. “There’s still a large homeless population in that part of the city, regardless of what’s been done to try to solve the problem.”

“Guthryn, I couldn’t believe it.” Karyn’s gaze shifted to look at the coffee table before them. She realized that in her haste to get to business, she’d forgotten to offer him coffee or tea. There wasn’t time now. “He looked a bit like you, and his eyes... They seemed to glow.”

Guthryn’s heart leaped into his throat. “A demon?”

“His eyes weren’t red like yours and he didn’t have horns. They weren’t a color that would happen in any circumstance known to man.” She sighed. “In fact, all the descriptions of Mildred came to mind. You’ve practically embedded her image into my memory, after all.” Karyn smiled. “Unless you forgot about using me as your personal therapist for a while.”

Guthryn grew uneasy. He didn’t have anyone else in his immediate family, and he was certain Mildred only had one child with his father. His biological mother hadn’t survived his birth, and she’d only carried Guthryn. “It’s just not possible. My father only had two of us.”

Karyn furrowed her brow. “Is it so far-fetched to think that your brother might still be out there? He did come from a demon, regardless of how he appeared to you.”

Guthryn swallowed hard as reality hit him. He had a feeling he knew exactly who he was about to meet and if it was the case, he hadn’t seen his brother in so long he’d nearly forgotten about him. In fact, he’d left him for dead because of the way the kid had just disappeared. “My brother was human, though. At least, I thought he was human. He didn’t turn out like me.”

“If that was the case,” Karyn continued, “he would have died a long time ago, but this person was not human. I could feel it.” While it was possible Guthryn had been wrong about his brother, she may have jumped to conclusions from seeing something that appeared to be supernatural. But Guthryn was the only demon she knew, and from what he’d mentioned, this person definitely fit the bill for his brother based on the long talks they’d had.

A centuries’-old guilt crept into Guthryn’s stomach. “I stopped looking a long time ago. Humans only live for so long.”

“You needn’t remind me.” Karyn smiled affectionately before standing and approaching her desk. She dug around in the middle drawer and fished out a piece of paper with a hastily scribbled address on it. “Here.” She held it out for him.

He approached her and looked it over and instantly recognized the area. He knew the city like the back of his hand and it was only a short drive from where they were now.

“I could be wrong,” she said, “but that kid isn’t human either way you look at him. I’ve been around you long enough to know what a human doesn’t feel like.”

Guthryn shook his head. “I really don’t think it’s him.”

“Just go see for yourself. If I’m wrong, then we’ll have to figure out what to do with him anyway.” Karyn sat back in her chair and stared up at him. She knew this was going to shake him and she would have to be there for him later. He didn’t really have anyone else, but if she was right this would be good for him. At least he’d have another chance at having any sort of family. Superficial popularity and one night stands didn’t provide any kind of meaningful companionship. He wouldn’t admit it to her, but he had to be lonely deep down.

“If I’m right,” Karyn continued, “please don’t hesitate to call me. You know I’m here for you as a friend above all else.”

“Thanks, Karyn. I’ll talk to you later.” Guthryn turned to leave but stopped as his lawyer laughed behind him.

“No kiss on the cheek goodbye this time?” she teased.

Guthryn huffed a laugh and turned around. “I’ll make up for it next time, darling. Maybe you’ll let me taste those beautiful lips at last.” He winked as she rolled her eyes and then finally left her office.

He dropped the playful mood just as quickly while walking to his car. It was the first time he’d been truly anxious in quite a while.

Thanks for reading! If you made it this far, here’s a link to the book’s page. There’s more than one chapter there, maybe…