Hell Inc. (19 page)

“That
dagger,” he said, coming around to stand next to me. “Is
spelled. It will guide you in combat.” His eyes landed on the
pile of underwear and he smirked then retreated towards the door,
pausing with his hand on the doorknob. “And hurry up, I don't
wish to dally here any longer than necessary.” He closed the
door behind him before I had a chance to respond.

I
slammed the drawer shut in irritation and put the dagger into its
sheath, laying it on the bed. It might not be a bad idea to carry it
around. At the very least, it wouldn't hurt. I could always use it
on Levie the next time he pissed me off. I raided the top drawer of
my dresser where I'd had to keep my secret stash of chocolate lest
the gnomes find it and hide it somewhere strange. Thankfully, I
didn't have to deal with them anymore although I did feel somewhat
sorry for getting them charred to a crisp. I snapped off a large
piece of chocolate with my teeth to calm my nerves and finished my
underwear selection. The sphinx yawned and swished its tail back and
forth.

“I
hate him, you know.” I gestured at it with the chocolate as if
trying to convince it and myself that I was telling the truth. “I
really do. He's just kind of cute.” I chewed another square
and swallowed it, savoring the rich taste. “Actually, he's
really cute,” I admitted and checked out the clock. It was
getting late. I sighed and grabbed a pair of jeans and a T-shirt to
wear for the rest of the evening, stopping briefly to smile at the
outfit already packed in my suitcase. “But then so is
Terrence.” The sphinx said nothing, which was actually kind of
nice. No smart aleck remarks from the peanut gallery.

After
I was dressed and had spent half an hour fussing with hair that
wouldn't listen, makeup that I didn't know how to use, and brushing
my teeth, I figured I'd made Levie wait long enough. I examined
myself in the mirror, admiring the deep curves of a woman's body and
wondering why the modeling industry was so obsessed with stick
figures. If they liked the bodies of teenage boys so much, they
might as well hire some. I turned and smiled at the sphinx who was
staring at me, if not approvingly, then certainly not judgmentally
either. “Are you coming with?” It stared at me blankly,
head cocked slightly to the side. One rounded, golden furred ear
twitched and the sphinx stood, backing from the room slowly and
turning to trot ahead of me down the hall.

I
followed it into the living room and found Levie reading a Blaze
novel, his spectacles sitting halfway down the bridge of his nose.
“You ready to go?” I asked him, feeling annoyed as I
remembered our little bedroom romp. He didn't look at me, just
licked the tip of his finger and turned the page. Apparently, my
dallying hadn't bothered him a bit. I rolled my eyes and went to the
door, dragging my suitcase along with me.

The
sphinx bounded outside ahead of me and down the stairs, his tail
swishing. It ran right through my surly neighbor, Gene, causing her
to trip and flail on the upper stair, grocery bags tumbling to the
ground. I dropped my suitcase and raced forward, grasping her wrist
and pulling her up to the landing. She patted her gray curls with
one hand and jerked her other wrist out of my grasp. Apparently,
saving her life wasn't worth a thank you. She stared at me for a
moment before bending down and collecting her groceries.

“That
sure was a close one,” I snapped, hoping she'd say something,
anything to me. Gene picked up her apples and iceberg lettuce,
jamming them into the paper sack with a sniff and sauntered down the
hallway. “Bitch,” I mumbled under my breath as Levie
joined me in the hall, his own suitcase clutched in his left hand.
He shut the door slowly, glaring at Gene's back as she unlocked her
own apartment.

“How
ungrateful. Perhaps you should have allowed her to break her
worthless neck. She wasn't worth your valuable time, Ginger.”
Gene huffed and pursed her lips at us, retreating into her unit and
slamming the door behind her. I smiled sadly up at him.

“Thanks.”
I wasn't really sure what I was thanking him for, but he smiled back
at me, and we shared a moment of companionable silence. I shook my
head to clear it and started down the stairs, trying not to focus too
much on my ever expanding repertoire of feelings towards the
unattainable demon.

The
sphinx had disappeared in the few moments I had been assisting Gene.
I looked up and down the street as I unlocked my truck, but I didn't
see hide nor golden hair of it. Levie opened the back door and
pushed both of our suitcases inside. “Are you going to ride
with me this time?” I asked him. Levie closed the door slowly
and shook his head.

“I
will fly. I have been too cooped up here; I must get into the sky.”
I watched him spread his wings wide, admiring the stretching of skin
over bone. They were beautiful, and I couldn't help but feel a
warming in the pit of my stomach when I thought about how excited he
had gotten when I had touched them. God help me, I wanted to touch
them again. I whirled around and made my way around the front of the
truck, digging the spare key out of my pocket. It was best to keep
my distance. I'd already come close to sleeping with him. I wasn't
in my right mind.

“How
will I know how to get there? I don't have a GPS.” I paused.
“Or a fancy phone.” I turned back around and was
presented with Levie's outstretched hand, clutching a piece of paper.
I took it from him slowly, suspiciously and gazed down at the
familiar logo of Mapquest. What the heck? “Demons use
Mapquest?” I asked, incredulous. Levie narrowed his dark brows
at me, once again making me feel stupid although I wasn't sure why.
I was too self conscious around him.

“Hell
Incorporated invented the Internet, you silly girl.” His chest puffed up with hubris, and his orange eyes zoned in on me, daring me to question him. I had
no idea who had invented the Internet so I supposed it really wasn't
too far of a stretch. Demons were tech moguls. I could believe
that. I'd seen more unbelievable things with my own eyes lately.

“Sure
... ” I held up the directions gratefully and climbed into
the driver's seat. I put the keys in the ignition and looked up at
Levie again, but he was already gone. I still didn't understand how
a man that large could get airborne so quickly but then again, magic
wasn't easily explainable.

I
pulled away from the curb and glanced down at the sheet of paper. I
had only looked away for a second, but when I turned back to the
road, I had to slam on the brakes abruptly, causing me to jerk
forward against my seat belt. It cut into my chest, and I cursed,
straining my eyes to try and see the small rounded shape rise out of
the darkness. When it took a few steps closer I realized that the
creature standing in the middle of the road was the sphinx.

At
about that same moment, I realized that there were no other cars
passing by. There should have been at least a few by now. There
wasn't even anyone walking by on the sidewalks. A chill went down my
spine as the sphinx arched its back and stretched. There was
something weird going on. “Drive,” my conscious warned
me along with the creepy feeling in my gut. My leg tensed as I
pushed down on the gas pedal. The wheels of the car squealed as they
tried to accelerate and failed. Something was holding the car in
place.

I
turned around slowly, feeling like a hapless heroine in a horror
movie, and looked out the back window. A vampire was holding onto
the car by the bumper and grinning. Oh shit. At least this time,
Levie knew where I was and was hopefully nearby. I looked back out
the front window at the sphinx, and my heart jumped into my throat.

I
almost screamed when I saw the scene in front of us. Levie was
standing bloody and seething with anger between two vampires. Not
Liam or his cronies, which was good, but then again, they had subdued
Levie. Did that mean that they were more powerful than the others?

The
female vampire on Levie's right leered at me, revealing her fangs.
Her skin was completely colorless and made the fact that her entirely
dilated pupils were bleeding black into the whites of her eyes all
the more obvious. Her waist was insufferably tiny, and I realized
that she must actually practice tight lacing. She was wearing a hat
covered in bird feathers with tight blonde ringlets hanging over her
shoulders and a very period emerald green dress and gloves. What was
it with these vampires and human era costuming?

The
male vampire holding Levie's other arm was just as pale, but his eyes
remained normal and were a startlingly bright blue. He looked more
somber and in control and was wearing a top hat and suit with coat
tails. His outfit reminded me of the butler's uniform that Vae had
been wearing.

A
knock on my window startled me out of my observations. “Miss
Malloy,” she said, her smooth voice muffled through the glass.
“If you would exit the vehicle without issue, we would be most
pleased.” I turned back to look at Levie. He was pissed but
determined.

“I
guess we're not going to make it to your parents house tonight,”
I said softly, more to myself than to Levie, as I opened my door and
prepared myself for my second vampire kidnapping in as many days.

The
vampires took the keys from me and asked, rather cordially, if we
might accompany them in their limo. I followed them, just glad that
they weren't trying to touch me. I couldn't help but stare at Levie
though. There was so much blood down the front of his clothes and on
the side of his face, and all of it was his. The trio of vampires
looked utterly unscathed. They hustled us both into the limo,
ushering me in ahead of them. I scooted down the posh leather seats
and ended up next to a fourth person in a hooded cloak. With the
poor lighting in the limo, I could only make out his lips. They were
soft and rounded and vaguely familiar. I stared at them for a moment
before he turned towards me, flashing white teeth. No fangs. A
chill ran up my spine. There was no way that this guy was a vampire.
There was a sense of barely controlled passion around him. Heat.
Like Levie, like the Devil. Demon.

I
turned away from him and tried to catch Levie's eyes. It wasn't
difficult; he was already looking at me. He was sitting in the
center of the same two vampires that had held him on the street, his
wings smashed between them. As
sensitive as they were, I couldn't imagine he was comfortable, but I
also doubted that his captors would care enough to allow him to use
his spell either. I tried to take stock of his wounds, but
the sheer amount of red on his face and chest made it difficult to
tell. What I could see however was a particularly gruesome looking
gash on his neck that was bleeding profusely. The cut was pumping
blood in little spurts that made me feel absolutely nauseous. His
face was calm, but he could have been dying for all that I could see.
I'm going to throw up.
My stomach spasmed, and I leaned
forward, intending to empty my stomach onto the floor of the limo.
God Ginger, how attractive.
The vampire sitting on the center
bench seat, dressed oddly enough in jeans and a faded yellow T-shirt
that said 'Bite Me,' leaned over and grasped my shoulder.

“Hey
there cupcake, can you keep it in for awhile?” She said, her
lip raised at the corner with disgust. I sat back, trying to reign
in the contents of my stomach.
Try not to piss off vampires. Or
demons. Try very, very hard.
I nodded, irritated at the fact
that they didn't seem to mind the excessive amounts of blood that
Levie was leaking all over their leather seats.

“You're
not going to let him die, are you?” I asked, trying to keep my
voice casual, though there might have been a slight waver or two in
there. The female vampire in the feather hat laughed a low, wicked
laugh that reminded me of having gravel rubbed into an open wound. I
purposely avoided her eyes by focusing on her hat instead and was
surprised to see that it wasn't just feathers that adorned the brim
but rather an entire bird. A dove if I wasn't mistaken. How nice.

“I
haven't had demon blood in such a long time. The smell is just
driving me crazy,” she cooed, and I got the feeling she was
trying to taunt me. Not wanting to rise to the bait, I turned my
gaze to the vampire in the top hat. His pinched face and beady eyes
made him appear not only bored but mildly irritated.
I'm
the one that should be irritated, thank you very much.
I frowned at him, but he wasn't looking at me, his gaze was fixed on
the bird hat vampire whose waist couldn't have been more than
eighteen inches around. She would have put any runway model to
shame.

“Don't
be ridiculous,” he snapped. “You know demon blood gives
you heartburn.” I almost laughed before I realized that it
wasn't actually a joke.