I should've known he would've been here. He never had much of a social life because you needed friends to have that. Training was Maximus' sole purpose and I was pretty sure he didn't miss a day of it. 

Which was one of the reasons why, at the time, I was glad to quit as an instructor...

Nevertheless, I had to admit that the rigorous exercise had done him good. He was a massive guy: a few inches shorter than me but with a huge, brick-wall like build that intimidated many. In his tight black t-shirt he looked like a steroid-obsessed Grizzly bear that was ready to maul you up in one second flat, his predatory gaze adding to his intimidating and frankly supernatural image. 

Undercover work was not Maximus' forte as even in his human form, he didn't look remotely like anyone you would find down on the Earth. He was a complete waste of space and an utter annoyance to anyone who was unfortunate enough to find themselves in a situation with him. I didn't know why Satan hadn't just disposed of him when he was always the one to mess up and cause trouble. Just seeing his face made my veins burn with a destructive rage that threatened to be released as a scorching fire, burning all within its path. 

But it was time to practice restraint. A reaction would only urge him on.

Besides, seeing him after all of this time was a bit of an amusing situation anyway. Despite of his massive build, Maximus wasn't very popular with the ladies. He was too big to be considered attractive and had a strangely formed face containing huge ears and a crooked nose. His head was completely shaved and covered in unsightly scars and bruises, formed from the amount of times he used his skull in brutal confrontations instead of his fists.

Maximus also was not a man of wisdom or even knowledge in general. Once he almost ruined my connections with the L.A mafia by getting in a fight with a powerful and influential leader of the modern gang scene, a friend of mine who went by the name of Spence. He was close to beating Spence to a pulp after he made a silly joke that the far-too sensitive demon took as a challenge on his masculinity. I was pretty sure he would have killed him if I didn't intervene, somehow managing to restrain the Hulk of a man. We were meant to be working with the L.A mafia together but after that incident everyone agreed that he should be banished from California, so they shoved him over to the East Coast to mess up in New York.

We'd never liked each other beforehand anyway (he thought of me as a pretentious arsehole and was jealous of my enhanced power and respect) but after that incident we had a massive argument and refused to have anything to do with each other again, let alone work together. 

But that happened five years ago. Who knew what he wanted now. Maybe he missed annoying the hell out of me, in that sick and twisted mind of his. 

"What do you want, Maximus?" I asked, exasperated. I wanted to go home and drown my sorrows with a whiskey bottle, maybe have a fag or two to go with it. I didn't want to deal with his crap right now. 

"Is that how you greet an old friend, Roman?" He almost cackled, his deep, raspy voice bringing me closer to the realms of irritation. "I just wanted to catch up, see how the 'Lord of the Warriors' was doing." 

I rolled my eyes at his thinly-veiled mocking. He was obviously still jealous of me after all this time and I couldn't be asked to respond to it. "I'm doing fine, thank you." 

"Really?" He raised his voice, sarcasm dripping from every word he spoke. "I'm surprised to hear that. I got the impression from the behaviour of your minions- running about the place like the Apocalypse had come- and the," he paused, gesturing towards the remains of the target practise area. "Raging destruction you have just left behind, that maybe you were feeling a bit...stressed." 

And there it was. The purpose to this pointless conversation was revealed. That didn't take long at all. Honestly this man had the subtlety of a brick: he couldn't be deceptive or sneaky to save his life. 

"Stop trying to dig, Maximus," I said, making my way towards the lift which would take me away from this bullshit. "You won't find anything and even if there was something to find, you wouldn't get it out of me." 

"No, you're right, I wouldn't. But I have eyes and ears and I can smell that something is going on. You may have banned me from the entire west coast of America, but that doesn't mean I won't discover what you're up to." 

His threats didn't bother me, so I continued on my way and pressed the call button on the side of the lift. "In case you didn't notice you smell with your nose, not your eyes. Detective work really isn't your forte. Leave that to educated beings and not the brainless, demonic scum you are." 

He let out a furious growl, fragile temper rising, and I turned around with an answering smirk that pissed him off even more. "This scum knows that you and your lick arse assistant are concentrating all your efforts on one, single human because you're scared of something. And I'm going to find out what it is." 

His words his a nerve, but I didn't let the shock register on my face. How the hell did Maximus know about Mrs Robbins? There was no way that Dev would've told him: he hated the guy more than I do! To this day he will still insult him after a few drinks on a night out, and he doesn't appear to be relenting on his loathing anytime soon. The lucky bastard must have listened in to some of our conversation in my office in Hell, or managed to get a look at the Darcy Robbins folder Dev had before giving it to me. 

But Maximus wasn't observant or particularly clever enough to piece together vague bits of information, such as the examples I had thought of, like he was doing now. Something didn't feel right. Something felt off about this.

I decided to entertain him before the lift arrived. "And where would you have got this bullshit from?" 

Instead of huffing and puffing like I had expected the ogre-of-a-man to do, a devilish and frankly disturbing smirk broke across his face with sinister energy. "Wouldn't you like to know, Mr Warrior King?" 

I frowned deeply at Maximus, a strange sense of dread weighing down my gut as I stared into the eyes of a mad-man, a mad-man who knew something. Something that gave him power. Power I couldn't afford him to have.

The lift doors opened behind me suddenly and I turned away from him, the bad feeling in my stomach still firmly present and alarming. 

I pressed the ground floor button, ready to get out of this bizarre situation, and faced Maximus one more time. 

"I will see you soon," he promised me, the dark smile still stuck on his threatening face. "And I will take back my crown." 

The doors closed. 

The air around me was suddenly filled with a deafening silence, as tension, suspicion and fear wrapped themselves around my stomach and began to apply a pressure, a pressure that I could not shake off. 

Maximus was mad. There was no denying that. But there was something disturbing about his tone, his knowledge, and his vague but somewhat determined threats, which had me feeling worried. I didn't appreciate the whole mysterious thing that he had going on, because that wasn't like him: most of the time he couldn't keep his damn mouth shut. Maximus had a secret and it was obviously a pretty big secret, because he wasn't shouting about it like he usually did. 

And I wanted to find out what that secret was. But I couldn't afford to have him sniffing around whilst Darcy Robbins was a problem. We needed action. Right now. 

The lift doors opened and I strode out of the building, yanking my phone out of my pocket and dialling immediately.   

Dev picked up after two beeps. "What's up boss?" 

I was tense and curt with him, too stressed to deal with formalities. "I need you to find Robbins' address and hire two hunting demons to search her house. We need this book found and quickly." 

"Y...yes Sir," he seemed taken aback, but I ended the call before he could ask any more questions. Il Libro Dei Demoni was such a dangerous weapon and we needed to hide it from those who wished to destroy the demonic world. 

Yet it had now come to my attention that Mrs Robbins wasn't the only threat we were facing. We needed to be more cautious than ever...Maximus could never get his hands on the book. 

Because then we would all perish under the unrestrained power he would gain. And I knew that I would be the first to go. 

And I refused to die now.