by Jayce Carter
I saw no reason to act shy now—Hunter had just been inside me—so I dropped the towel to pull on the clothing. A pair of basic slacks and a white button-up top that still managed to drop low in the front. I added a vest to it, which I had to admit made me look like one bad bitch.
“Well don’t you look ready for battle?” Hunter’s eyebrow hiked, the ends of his long, reddish hair curling more than usual since they’d gotten wet.
I smoothed my hands down the front of the vest, and even I couldn’t deny that it accentuated me in a way that made me feel more in control. “So what are you doing for the rest of the night?”
“I can move around a bit easier than the others because of the whole smoke thing. Well, and because I know the palace. I wanted to check in on your first, so now I’m going to go off a few of our competitors.”
The words took a moment to process as I braided my hair back. “Wait, what? That’s horrible.”
“It’s the way the games work. Anyone who waits around for someone to show up and kill them is foolish.”
“What about being fair?” The moment I said it, I realized how stupid that was. We were in hell. Nothing was fair. Beyond that, if it really came down to it…I was pretty sure I’d throw fair out the window for their safety.
I had bargained with Lucifer in order to get them a win, so what did fair matter?
“Fair didn’t mean much to the member of green who snuck into our room and tried to decapitate Grant.” When I stood up straighter, he grinned. “That mage is tougher than you think. The man who tried to get the jump of him is nothing but a scorch mark on the floor, now. So, I figured I’d repay the favor.”
“I don’t like this,” I admitted. When he looked at me, I went on. “It feels like I’m waiting, like I’m just having to sit back and see what happens. I hate it.”
Hunter came up and caught my chin. “Last I checked, you’re dressed in a ball-buster suit and getting ready to go interrogate the devil. Doesn’t seem like sitting back and doing nothing.” His fingers were strong against my chin.
“I promised to answer his questions, so I think I’m the one being interrogated, not the other way around.”
He chuckled and shook his head. “You know, every damned time I deal with you, I think I’m in charge. Kase sure as hell thought that, too, yet somehow you keep turning things around on us. I’ve got no doubt you can pull that on Lucifer himself, shadow-girl.” He dropped his gaze down my body, his lips pulling into a smirk. “And looking like this? He won’t know what the fuck hit him.”
Chapter Sixteen
Lucifer’s quarters were a stereotype. Dark, full of silvers, black, reds and expensive-looking furniture.
It was similar to the room I’d been given, in terms of layout and size, though it had no bed in the main room and had an additional door to the side that probably led to a sleeping area. Instead, it had more seating, set up like a living room rather than a hotel.
Lucifer still wore the slacks from before but had lost the jacket and tie. It didn’t stop the way he appeared entirely in control. “Are you pleased with your team’s treatment?”
“How would I know?” My heels clicked against the floor, and I prayed I didn’t fall. Somehow, I was pretty sure my tough chick act would go by the wayside if I took a tumble.
“Because the hellhound came to see you. Do you really believe I don’t know what is going on in my own palace?”
I pressed my lips together, choosing to look around the room instead of at him. “They’re fine. Well, I mean, someone tried to kill them.”
“If that ever didn’t happen, I’d worry about people working together against me.” He stopped by a large bar against the wall. “Would you like a real drink or water?”
I thought back to how those drinks were made and shuddered. “I am never going to touch that stuff again. It’s like seeing sausage made. It ruins it.”
Lucifer shrugged as he poured himself a drink from a large silver bottle with intricate designs engraved. “Your loss. Also mine, since in hell, clean water is far more expensive than any other drink.” He grabbed another bottle from the shelf, one that looked just like the ones in my room.
When he handed it to me, the bottle chilled my palm. While I could have worried about being drugged, the truth was that he could have done that at any time. He could have killed me whenever he wanted, so I sipped the water without worry.
Lucifer took a drink of what he’d poured himself, then strolled over to another large cabinet. It was strange how much different he seemed.
Then again, he was the king of hell. I suppose out there, in the center of a party like that, it made sense that he might have to play a part.
Not that it made me trust him. Just because someone acted differently in public and private didn’t mean either were good.
When he turned from the cabinet, he held a bracelet in his hand.
“I’m not a jewelry sort of girl,” I said.
“You promised me four truthful answers. I’ve lived far too long to take anyone at their word.”
“Is it true you can’t lie?”
He nodded as he gestured toward the couch. “That is correct—I cannot lie.”
“Aren’t you the father of lies?”
“The stories are quite often twisted. What I suggest to people is to never believe a story, because the real ones are rarely interesting enough to last.” He set his drink on the table in front of the couch as I sat down beside him. “Hold out your arm.”
I let out a long sigh before giving him my wrist. His fingers were strong but thin, and he opened the hinged bracelet, then clasped it around my wrist.
A quick burn happened, one that made me hiss and jerk backward.
Lucifer released me right away, his hand up. “Try to relax and breathe slowly.”
“What the hell is this? Why does it hurt?”
“It is enchanted and will cause pain when you lie.”
“I’m not doing anything so why does it feel like my arm is on fire?”
Lucifer shrugged before picking up his drink again as if my issue wasn’t his problem. “Sometimes it can react that way when people are particularly conflicted.”
I clawed at it, though the longer it was on, the more the pain evened out. It didn’t go away, but it wasn’t so localized or intense. “You could have mentioned this first.”
“I saw no reason to. Besides, this doesn’t usually happen. You must be extraordinarily at odds with yourself for such a reaction. I wonder what exactly is going on in that head to cause this.”
I hissed at the burn when I went to tell him he was wrong. It was like a warning not to let the lie leave my lips. So, instead, I swallowed then clenched my fist. “What are your questions?”
“Right to it, then?” He leaned back on the couch and put his arm not holding the drink over the back of the couch. “What are you?”
I didn’t answer right away, the burning of the bracelet enough to make me wary. “What if I don’t know the answer?”
“Then say you don’t know, and so long as that is truthful, it still takes one of my questions.” When I didn’t speak, he lifted an eyebrow. “I play these games better than you do, mortal. You didn’t actually answer.”
That was when I realized that Hunter hadn’t been kidding. Lucifer might just be more difficult to deal with than I’d thought.
I went to tell him I didn’t know what I was, but a burning in my wrist said that wasn’t an honest answer. So it seemed time for the entire truth… “I don’t know what I am, exactly. My parents abandoned me when I was a kid, and I don’t who they were. I’ve never met anyone quite like me, and no one has been able to tell me what I am.” The burn remained at that low level, telling me the answer was acceptable.
Lucifer took a sip of his drink, staring at me carefully. “That was less helpful than I had hoped.”
“I’m so sorry.” The words flew from my mouth at the speed of sass, and right away, a stabbing pain burrowed into my arm,
making me feel as if flames licked across the skin, as if it seared down to the bone.
I bent forward, gasping at the pain until it finally faded, leaving me sweating and shaking.
The entire time, Lucifer hadn’t moved, watching impassively. “The bracelet doesn’t speak sarcasm.”
I kept myself from speaking again, from adding anything else because I wasn’t sure what would come out of my mouth. Instead, I narrowed my eyes. “Three more questions.”
Lucifer quirked his lips into a smile, as if that charmed him. “Question two—where are the spirits that haven’t arrived in hell?”
The memory of the pain, the way my hand still felt as if an electrical charge ran through it, made me answer carefully. “I don’t know where they are, only that they aren’t in the afterworld, and that they were torn free of the tether that connected them to the body.”
The liquid in Lucifer’s glass swirled as he twisted his wrist. “So the spirits are taken before they would naturally move on. Interesting.” He crossed one ankle over the opposite knee, making me notice just how shiny his black shoes were. “Question three. Who is behind it?”
“A shadow.”
He gestured for me to go on. “That is not a full answer.”
“Well, it is all I have for you. I don’t know who or what the shadow is. I don’t know how it is doing any of it.” I blew out a breath, still shaky from the last shock, and leaned forward. “Someone was driving immortals crazy, making them kill. I felt the presence of this shadow. It attacked me once in a dream of mine.” I lifted my arm to show the scar that still sat there. “It also showed up in a pocket universe with the elder ones, when they were looking for the spirits.”
“But no idea who that shadow actually is?”
I shook my head. “It smelled of brimstone, so honestly, I thought it was you…”
He made a soft sound but didn’t say it wasn’t.
“You get one more question,” I told him.
He didn’t ask it right away, pausing as if reading me while he decided. Finally, he leaned forward. “What is it you really want?”
I frowned. “What sort of question is that?”
“An important one. There is no better way to size up an enemy than to understand what they truly want. That truth is at the core of everything they do. If all I get is one last question, that will tell me more than anything else could.”
“What do you really want?” I asked with a snarky tone.
“I am wise enough to know better than to answer that one, at least not without a price, and I doubt it is one you would care to pay. You, however, owe me the answer.”
I procrastinated by taking a drink of water, holding it in my mouth for a long moment before swallowing. What did I really want?
I wanted to find the missing spirits. I wanted to know who was behind this. I wanted to keep Troy, Kase, Hunter and Grunt safe. I wanted to be normal.
My arm burned, a warning that perhaps that last one wasn’t true.
But wasn’t that what I’d always wanted? To be normal, to fit in, to be like everyone else?
I set the glass down, afraid if I didn’t answer it right, I’d end up in pain again. “I want to feel like I belong somewhere.”
No pain seared through me, letting me blow out the breath I’d been holding. It seemed I’d been truthful, even if not entirely sure about it.
“A romantic, are you?” Lucifer shook his head as if disappointed. “I had hoped for so much more from you when I heard of the mortal who seemed to be at the center of this.”
“Are we done?”
Lucifer nodded. “For now. We do have a few more rounds of competition left, so I suspect we will have plenty to bargain with later.”
I took a large gulp to finish off the water, then rose.
“Hell is a very dangerous place, Ms. Harlin, and you seem to want to keep your team alive.”
I pointed my finger at him, narrowing my eyes. “Don’t you threaten them.”
“It was an observation, not a threat. I am curious, though—how far would you go? What would you do to keep them safe?”
The answer came from me without having to think about it, without question. “Anything.”
His gaze dropped to my wrist, to the bracelet still there, and I realized he’d gotten more answers from me without me realizing it.
Sneaky bastard.
Lucifer reached out and unclasped the bracelet. “Well, finally you show some backbone. Maybe you aren’t quite as dull as I’d assumed.”
Instead of arguing with him—what was the point?—I crossed my arms. “Can I go?”
He waved me off. “Go and get some sleep, Ms. Harlin, because I suspect tomorrow’s competition will be even more taxing. And, Ms. Harlin?”
I faced him once more.
“I will give you a piece of good advice. Do not think about betraying me, plotting against me or otherwise working against me. People who cross me do not last long—especially mortals.”
I thought back to the shadow, to the man who had tried to chop me into pieces, to Jerrod and Olin and the poltergeist. I met Lucifer’s gaze head-on, met his not-so-subtle threat without flinching with a fact of my own. “And you should know, I’m a lot harder to kill than I look.”
* * * *
I woke, jerking upright. The mist stuck in my throat and lungs from the dream wasn’t easy to forget, to push away even if it hadn’t been real.
The dreams felt worse in hell, more real, more all-consuming. It made me miss the ambrosia, that short burst of blissful, easy sleep I’d managed after drinking myself into a stupor.
I rolled over, trying to pull real air in, to reassure me that I wasn’t in that damned dream. Funny that I’d be happier to find myself in hell.
“No wonder you never had a long-term boyfriend. I don’t think anyone is sticking around if they wake up to that.”
I wiped my mouth before turning to find Gran standing beside the bed, two cups in her hands. “Why are the dreams worse here?”
“Because you’re closer to death here.” She sat on the edge of the bed, then held one of the cups out to me. “Drink that. Don’t just hold it.”
The heat seeped into my palms, and I forced myself to sip the bitter tea. After I swallowed it, I shifted to get more comfortable. “What are you doing here?”
“You slept late, and I got tired of waiting around. Hell is far more boring than you’d expect.”
“I never would have expected that.”
“I’ve complained to Lucifer about it before, but he never does anything. He is one stubborn man. He used to be more fun, though. He’s gotten worse the last few years.”
“I can’t imagine him ever being fun.”
“Maybe you’re right,” Gran said, frowning as if trying to remember. “We’re down to two teams.”
Fear gripped my chest at that.
Gran patted my leg. “Unclench, dear. Your boy toys are just fine. Green and orange lost their last members, leaving only blue and black, both at full strength.
A pride that was probably totally inappropriate hit me at the fact that my boys had done so well. Maybe I didn’t need to worry quite so much, but I couldn’t help it. My words to Lucifer were true.
I’d do whatever it took.
This whole thing might have started out with me caring only about the shadow, about the spirits, but somewhere along the way those idiot men had become just as important.
Which was beyond stupid, because none of them had proven they wouldn’t break my heart just as soon as it was in their best interest.
“Lucifer isn’t behind this, is he?” When she looked at me with her eyebrow lifted, I took another drink. “Why would he call me, then?”
“Despite what Lucifer might claim, he isn’t all powerful. His lines of communication are a little thin, these days.”
“These days?”
Gran smiled, one that spoke volumes about what she didn’t say. “Let’s just say he has a little less movement than
he used to. I wouldn’t suggest you ask him, though. He’s touchy about his shortcomings.”
I didn’t bother to ask her how she knew. Gran rarely offered real information to me, but she was always right. “So we have another party?”
“Given there are so few teams left, I’m going to guess we only have another two. Tonight, blue or black will be taken out, leaving tomorrow for the big event.”
“Any idea what they’re up against?”
Gran shrugged. “The first few rounds are usually boring. Normally there are more of them, but your team didn’t seem like they wanted to drag this out. In fact, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it so short.”
“You know, this tea isn’t that bad.” I frowned, staring down at it. “Please tell me this doesn’t have any of that weird plant in it?”
“Ambrosia?” Gran shuddered. “No, never. Have you seen that stuff being grown?”
Thank fuck.
“So why is it better than usual?”
“Probably because you miss it. A week in hell will do that to a person. I was stuck here for a few weeks years ago, and by the end of it, black gas station coffee was orgasmic. Sort of like how after a few centuries of abstinence, even a lousy lay is great.” She offered me a smile. “Not that I think you have that problem.”
I thought back to Hunter, to how he’d taken me the night before, and took another drink of my tea to hide my reaction.
I might be willing to kiss Hunter and the others in front of an entire party, but actually talking about sex was too far.
A sound from the courtyard rang through the room, something like a bell.
Gran turned to peer that way. “That means we have about two hours before the party starts.”
“Will they be there?”
I didn’t need to specify who they were.
“Oh, I suspect your boys will be the belles of the ball. It’s been a while since we’ve had a show as good as they put on. In fact, I bet we’ll have a few extra people who didn’t feel the first night was worth attending. Then again, Hunter always draws a good crowd.”
I could see that. Hunter was nice to look at, and he sure managed to make things interesting.