Hell High

by Cindi Madsen

  The muscles around his jaw tightened. “I told you I never meant to hurt her. If she would’ve just come to live with me when you were born like I asked her to, you wouldn’t be separated right now.” His nostrils flared, and his skin flushed red. “This is why I didn’t want you talking to her. She poisons you against me.”

  I shot out of my chair, leaving it spinning. “Oh, you can do that all by yourself.”

  A low growl emanated from him. “I thought we were past this.”

  “I thought we were, too.” Frustration spiked, sending more toxic emotions through me. Now I was picking a fight, in spite of the fact that it wouldn’t do any good. Dad would never change, and that made me wonder if anyone was capable of change.

  Because of what I’d seen on Tristan’s profile, I needed to believe they could.

  I’d always sworn to myself I’d be more careful than Mom was. That I’d be smart enough to see through a guy’s charms to the person inside. Dominic proved my instincts about that weren’t great. I wanted to believe Tristan was different, but like a neon sign, his weaknesses and mine flashed together over and over again.

  I was too trusting and had a weakness for bad boys, and he was a con man.

  In other words, I was a sucker. And he knew how to find an easy mark.

  Twenty-Seven

  I paced back and forth, waiting for Tristan, wondering what I was going to say to him when I saw him.

  I need to be strong. I cannot make the same mistakes Mom did. I repeated that thought over and over so I wouldn’t forget it.

  But then Tristan stepped through the trees and smiled at me, and I didn’t want to be strong. I wanted to run up to him and hug him.

  My skin hummed in anticipation as he neared. He slipped his hand behind my neck, and my thoughts turned fuzzy.

  Then he lowered his mouth to mine, and I decided our conversation could wait until later. After all, we’d already agreed that we’d just enjoy this thing between us while it lasted. Con man or not, I wasn’t ready to put an end to kissing him.

  A crow cawed and circled overhead, dropping lower and lower with each pass. Tristan tucked me under his arm and swatted at the bird. “Damn, the crows have been aggressive lately.”

  “I know,” I said. “They’re undeterred by swatting and yelling, too.”

  Tristan intertwined our fingers and took off for the thicker part of the woods. Eventually the crow backed off a bit, allowing us to slow our pace. I battled back and forth between saying something about what I’d found out, and not saying anything.

  What can I say? Curiosity was one of my weaknesses—my profile even said so.

  We hiked up a hill, and Tristan stopped at the top. Below us was the River Styx. “If you squint just right, it looks like the Mississippi,” Tristan said. “This little spot reminds me of home.”

  “Which was where exactly?”

  “Memphis, Tennessee.”

  Where you pulled off cons and made a deal of some kind with the devil. “Explains the charming Southern accent.”

  He grinned. “My accent’s charmin’?”

  “Like you don’t know,” I said, and his grin—which was pretty damn charming as well—grew.

  We settled on a flat spot free of gnarled roots and stared out at the water. Luckily we were far enough away I didn’t feel panicky. The red sky reflected off the surface, tinting it a glittery pink, and from up here the river was actually rather beautiful.

  As long as I didn’t think about what I’d find if I peered into its depths.

  Tristan bumped his shoulder against mine. “What’s up?”

  I hugged my knees to my chest. “Nothing.”

  He draped his arm around my legs, his hand coming to rest on my knee. “You’re quiet, and you seem stressed. And you won’t look me in the eye.”

  “You certainly notice everything, don’t you?”

  He brushed his thumb over my knee, leaving a tingly line of heat. “When it comes to you, yes.”

  My heart skipped a beat, and I twisted to look him in the eyes.

  And remembered why I’d been avoiding them in the first place—I couldn’t think clearly when he stared back at me like that. “Are you doing your calming thing right now?” I asked.

  “No.”

  “Did you ever use it back on Earth, like how I used my influence despite not realizing I was doing it?”

  Tristan’s gaze returned to the river, so I’d hit a sore spot. “I did a lot of things I’m not proud of. Like you, I didn’t realize I could do it for a long time. But when I did realize it…”

  Seconds stretched into minutes.

  Finally I put my hand on his arm. “Tristan?”

  “I can’t tell you what you want to hear, Lily.” He lifted his hand off my knee and raked his fingers through his hair, mussing the waves into an irresistible mess I wanted to drive my fingers through myself. “I told you this was a bad idea—that it would never work—but you didn’t listen.” He exhaled and scuffed the ground with his foot. “I thought we were just going to enjoy the here and now and not get into all this other stuff.”

  The words slammed into my chest, radiating pain. “I thought that…” I clenched my jaw in an attempt to remain in control. “You’re right. It’s none of my business. I’m just here for the kissing.”

  I tried to smile but couldn’t pull it off, and I could tell by the way his face fell, he’d noticed. Afraid he’d tell me we needed to stop seeing each other, I grabbed his hand. “I can do the casual thing, I swear. Your past is your business, and if you don’t want to tell me, then—”

  “I don’t want to tell you. Because while the kissing is amazing, this thing between us is more than that.” He lifted my hand and pressed his lips to the back of it. “You make me smile when I never thought I would again. There’s nothing casual about how I feel about you. I’ve never felt anything like it in my life.”

  Sadness flickered through his expression and then settled into his pursed lips. “Or my death. And thinking about my past reminds me that I’m not good enough for you.”

  “Good enough for me? I manipulate people and keep using my powers even though I keep swearing I’m going to stop. Hell, I’m the freakin’ spawn of Satan.”

  “I don’t care about that, and you shouldn’t let it hold you back. You shouldn’t let me hold you back either.” He began to pull his hand away, and I gripped it like a lifeline, too worried to play it cool.

  Tristan stroked his thumb across my cheek, that infectiously sad smile curving his mouth. “Do you really think I would’ve made the deal if I was completely innocent?”

  “I don’t care,” I said, reaching up and flattening his palm to my cheek. “I should’ve kept my mouth shut, but news flash, I have a problem with that. I just had a momentary freak-out because I talked to my mom last night, and I kept thinking about all that she went through because she fell for the wrong guy. Just tell me you never killed anyone, and that you won’t stomp on my heart, and I can deal with anything else.”

  The deep breath he took, as if preparing for war, sent my anxiety into hyperdrive. Oh my gosh, he killed someone. I don’t even know if that’s enough to make me not want to be with him. I am just like Mom.

  Wait. How would that make him a con man?

  “I had a problem with the eighth commandment,” he finally said.

  “Adultery?” Okay, not exactly what a girl wants to hear but—

  “That’s seven. Eight is stealing. Don’t you ever listen in class?”

  “As little as possible.” I squeezed his hand. “Okay, so you stole. Not the best thing to do, but that’s not so bad.”

  “It is when you do enough of it.” He winced. “And drag your little sister into it. We study people’s weaknesses in class, but I’ve always been able to pick up on them. Plus, I’ve got that calming thing going for me.”

  “So you’d trick people out of their money?”

  Tristan reluctantly nodded. “That’s how it started. Doing minor cons. G
oing around to neighborhoods and telling people I installed security systems. They’d give me money for a deposit, and I’d…” He rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not sure why I did it. I mean, yeah, there was money, but mostly I just wanted to know if I could pull it off.”

  Even after reading his profile, the news shocked me. I couldn’t imagine him taking advantage of people like that. He had one of those trustworthy faces, and his manners only backed that assumption up. Which was probably why it had been so easy for him. Especially with his adorable accent, his charming smile, and the calming thing that always put me totally at ease.

  Still, a little thievery? I should probably be more appalled, but it seemed so minor. Definitely not worth being forced to endure eternity in Hell. “That’s it? I mean, yeah, stealing a couple bucks here and there isn’t the best thing to do, but I don’t understand how that’d be enough for you to end up here. And what does this have to do with making a deal?”

  “Like I said, that’s how I got started. The more little cons I pulled off, the less bad it seemed. Plus, there was the rush that came along with it. Then my mom got really sick, the hospital bills were piling up, and I watched my dad basically fall apart. We needed money—more money than I could get from a minor scam.

  “I tried to go straight. Did yard work and every odd job I could find and that kind of thing, but it wasn’t enough. Jimmy, this guy I knew from school, heard about a guy who’d pay big money for people to boost cars. I was desperate for cash, plus my dad was a mechanic so I could hot-wire vehicles and use all sorts of tricks to disable them for long enough to steal them.”

  Tristan glanced at me as if he’d expected me to bolt any moment. When I motioned for him to go on, he ran his palms down his jeans. “Jimmy and I met up with Turbo—”

  “Turbo?” I asked. “Seriously?”

  “Not his real name, of course.”

  “’Cause who would name a kid Turbo? He should be slapped upside the head for picking the nickname.”

  The corners of Tristan’s mouth quivered, but the smile didn’t fully catch. “I’m pouring out my soul here, you know.”

  “Sorry. Go on. Tell me more about this Turbo guy and his obvious geniusness.”

  “Well, we met him, I proved to him I knew what I was doing, and just like that, we were in. The money was good. We were offered more and more jobs, and in order to keep up, we needed another driver.” Tristan ran a finger across the dusty toes of his shoes. “Savannah’s my twin sister. She knew a lot about cars, too, and I knew I could trust her, so I…” His voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “I pulled her in.”

  He squirmed, obviously uncomfortable. “Trust me, all the money we made doesn’t seem worth it now that I’m here.”

  “So you became a professional car thief who didn’t care about the people you were stealing from?”

  He hung his head.

  “Sorry, that came out more judgmental than it was supposed to.” I grabbed his hand and sandwiched it between both of mine. “If my mom was sick and I needed money, I’m sure I’d do whatever it took.”

  “I was going to stop. With Mom out of work, I thought we’d just go for a little while longer. But then…” His voice cracked, and he brought a shaky hand to his forehead. “Savannah and I were on our way home from school. We were fighting because I’d found out she and Jimmy were dating. In addition to being a thief, he was mixed up with drugs. I’d also seen him with enough girls to be sure that I didn’t want Savannah dating him.

  “We bickered back and forth, and I was getting louder and angrier, driving way too fast. I swore the light had just been green. But when I looked up, it was already red. I punched it, thinking I could make it through the intersection.” He swallowed hard. “I didn’t. A truck barreled into our car. It was so fast. Crushing metal, glass shattering, blips of images. Then nothing.”

  That nothing he’d mentioned filled the air now, crowding and suffocating.

  “There was blood everywhere,” Tristan said. “I yanked at my seat belt, trying to get free so I could get to Savannah. I heard footsteps, and I was relieved someone was coming to help. Then a man in a dark suit crouched down, looked in at me, and flashed me a cruel smile, and I didn’t feel so relieved anymore.”

  Vitriol slithered through me, sending poison into my bloodstream. “Let me guess. The devil came to make you a deal.”

  An angry muscle flexed Tristan’s jaw. “He glanced across the car at Savannah, and I had this urge to slug the guy. Then he told me that I’d taught her to steal well, and that thanks to the guy I’d introduced her to, she was now helping him deal drugs. To children. He told me that she was going to die, and he’d come to take her soul, unless…” He pressed his lips together, and his face paled.

  “Unless you took her place,” I filled in for him.

  A storm of emotions roiled beneath the surface of Tristan’s features, and I could tell he was working hard to keep them in. “I was the one responsible for getting her into stealing cars. Even the drugs thing was because of that prick I introduced her to. Our parents weren’t just not religious; they were anti-religion. Savannah tried to get my dad to pray for my mom when she was in the hospital, and he wouldn’t…” His gaze drifted back to the river, although I had a feeling it was traveling much farther than the river, back to the past. “My sister deserved a second chance.”

  Silence stretched between us for the second time since he’d begun his story. Unsure of what else I could do, I pushed to my knees and kissed his cheek. He closed his eyes for a moment and then pulled me onto his lap and wrapped his arms around me as if he was afraid I might float away.

  I wasn’t sure how long we sat there, staring out at the river full of endlessly drifting souls.

  But it could’ve gone on forever and it still wouldn’t have been long enough.

  Twenty-Eight

  “Are you sure?” Tristan asked, his hesitation written on his face. “That dude’s so creepy.”

  Grim’s dark figure passed the lit-up window of his house, and I’d bet money he’d walked across the living room to flop into his recliner. For some reason Tristan was having a hard time believing I wanted to be dropped off at the ferryman’s house.

  “He’s not creepy once you get to know him,” I said.

  Tristan squeezed my hand. “And here I thought I was special. Turns out you’ve just got a soft spot for hopeless guys.”

  It even says so in my profile.

  Tristan tugged me closer and brushed his lips over mine, once, twice… On the third pass he parted my lips with his. The kiss burned through me, searing a path from my mouth to my toes. “I’ll catch you tomorrow at school,” he whispered, a husky edge to the promise.

  “I assume you mean you’ll pointedly ignore me tomorrow at school.”

  He flashed me a devastatingly handsome grin. “Very pointedly. Just know that I’ll secretly be counting down the hours till we can be alone again.” He backed away, our intertwined fingers slowly pulling apart.

  I held on until the last possible second.

  The warm fuzzies remained as I watched him disappear into the trees, and then I practically floated to Grim’s door and knocked.

  The door cracked open, and Grim stuck his face out. He didn’t have his cloak up, and blue veins stood out on his bald head. With a sigh that made me rethink how sure I was about this plan, he gestured me inside.

  My gaze shot to the spot I’d fought Ratman. The cuts on my side throbbed to life at the memory even though they were finally fading. I forced away the horrific image of the beast and how close his teeth had been to my neck, and spun to Grim. “Can we skip to the part where we’re friends again? Baal didn’t tell on us.”

  Grim reached up and scratched at his peeling cheek. “I was wondering why I hadn’t gotten an earful yet—or whatever you call it when you don’t have ears left.”

  Of course I had to look. Sure enough, just holes, no earlobes. Keep it together. Don’t show any signs that you’re grossed o
ut.

  Either I didn’t do a good job or Grim felt self-conscious, because he put his hood up. “How’d you swing that?” he asked.

  I bit my thumbnail. “I may or may not have used my influence.”

  A slow grin curled Grim’s mouth before he regained his composure. “I should still report it.”

  I clasped my hands. “Please don’t. I don’t want you to get into trouble, and I’ll never run away from you again, I promise, cross my heart.”

  “Never again, I mean it. If you need space, you tell me, and we’ll work something out.” Talk about a glare—Grim’s made me stand straighter, like a soldier reporting for duty. “You hear me?”

  I nodded. Then I threw my arms around his neck and gave him a giant bear hug. “Thank you, Grim. So we’re cool, right?”

  He ruffled my hair, the tips of his fingers lightly scraping my scalp. “I can’t stay mad at you. Plus, you’re using your influence—that’s good.”

  “Actually, it was bad and I shouldn’t have done it and I’m never doing it again. But I’m still kind of glad I did it.” I sighed. “I better get home.”

  “You need me to call for someone to walk you?” Grim asked as he stepped onto the porch with me. “Or I can at least walk you halfway.”

  “It’s not far. You go rest while you can.”

  Grim hesitated, then waved and called out another goodbye before heading back inside. Finally, all felt right with the world. Well, not all, because location, location, location, but Grim and I had smoothed things over and Tristan had disclosed his past to me and we were still okay. When it came to the underworld, it was important to celebrate every win you could get.

  Halfway home, an eerie sensation pricked my skin. I spun around and squinted through the trees. I didn’t see anything but darkness stretching out for miles, an endless ocean of black.

  But I felt someone—or something—watching me.

  Icy fingers drifted across my neck and I whirred around, so fast I nearly fell on my butt.