by Мишель Роуэн
“You had me scared there for a minute.”
“You’re incredible, Valerie,” he said, and reached out to her. “Thank you—”
His face contorted and he screamed again, then vanished in a column of flame.
Chapter Nineteen
Val sat with her back against the bed, eyes wide and glassy, staring at the place Nathaniel had just been. She raised a trembling hand to pull her messy, tangled hair off her face.
What the hell just happened?
She took in a deep breath and heard it shudder through her chest.
Nathaniel.
Then she stood up and gathered her clothes, dressing quickly and methodically.
Punished. They were punishing him because of what just happened between them.
She looked at the bed and wrapped her arms around herself, trying to stop from shaking.
She wasn’t crying. Not yet, anyhow. She was in too much shock.
At her neck, she felt for the key on the gold chain. She took the stairs down two at a time and by the time she got to the front door it opened in front of her. Lloyd filled the doorway and looked at her with a strange expression on his one-eyed face.
“Lloyd!” she managed and her voice cracked on the word. “I need your help. There’s no time to waste. Nathaniel, he was here already . . . and we . . . well, never mind what we did, but I think he’s in huge trouble with the head office. I have to go back to the mansion and I need you to glam me up so I can get in without—” She stopped talking and stared at him for a moment. “Lloyd? Why are you looking at me like you just ran over my dog?”
His bottom lip quivered and a great big tear dropped from his great big eye. “I’m sorry, Valerie. I . . . I didn’t mean for anything like this to happen.”
“What are you talking about?”
Lloyd suddenly stumbled. As he fell to the floor in front of her, she saw that he was actually pushed.
Julian stood behind him. He stared at Val in silence for a moment, and then smiled widely.
Her stomach dropped.
“Nathaniel’s in trouble with the head office, is he?” he said. “Does that mean that I spy with my little eye . . . a big fat slut?”
Her jaw clenched. “I’m not fat.”
He chuckled. “Even after everything that has happened, she still has a way about her, a true je ne sais quoi, wouldn’t you say, Lloyd?”
Lloyd hadn’t risen yet from the floor. He said nothing, but glowered up at the blond demon.
Julian crossed his arms. “Now, Valerie, I believe we have a little unfinished business to take care of, don’t we?”
She didn’t make a move. “What are you talking about?”
“My key.”
“Your key? You know, I’d always heard the story that it was Lucifer’s key. I wonder what he’d have to say about you taking over ownership without even consulting Daddy first?”
Julian’s smile disappeared. “You should hope you never come face-to-face with him to find that out. Now kindly give it back to me.”
She frowned at him. “Why do you think I have it?”
He raised a blond eyebrow and said nothing. His foot begin to tap impatiently.
Val shrugged and tried to remain as calm as she could. “I don’t have it. The last time I saw it, it was around your neck. Now leave me alone.”
“I want my key.” He actually stamped his foot as he said it.
“I don’t have it.”
His eyes narrowed. “Nathaniel took it from me.”
“And that means what?”
“That he more than likely gave it to you, perhaps around the same time that your legs were tightly wrapped around his waist.”
She slapped him. She regretted it as soon as it happened, but couldn’t control herself. She would have rather beaten him into a pulp if she could, but a slap would have to do for the time being.
He pressed a hand to the side of his face. “Only a few short days is all it took to get you on your back? Sad, really. No wonder they were so eager to throw you out of Heaven.”
Lloyd had slowly gotten to his feet and listened to them in silence. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, Julian.”
“Is that so?” Julian snapped. “I’d advise you to shut your mouth. Seriously, Lloyd. I remember when you were once a fierce and loathsome demon. And now? You’re a writer of silly, meaningless stories.”
Lloyd frowned deeply. “They’re not silly. And they do have meaning. They’re about the power of love.”
Julian scoffed. “They have turned your brain to jam. Sweet, runny, useless jam.” He turned to stare at Val again. “But I’m getting off topic, aren’t I? I came here for the key. I have been very patient up till now, I think. Now, give it to me, fallen one . . .” He smiled cruelly. “Or else.”
“She doesn’t have it,” Lloyd said. “Just leave her alone, you impotent bastard.”
Julian turned his attention again to the one-eyed demon. Val thought he was going to say something, another dig, another insult, but instead he hit Lloyd, a blow so hard that it sent the demon flying across the room into the far wall, breaking one of his cherished framed book covers. Lloyd slid to the floor, unconscious.
Her gaze shot back to Julian as he closed the distance between them and pulled her firmly against him. He wasn’t as tall as Nathaniel, actually he was only a few inches taller than she was, so their eyes were close to the same level as he stared at her with his fiery gaze. He slid his hand down to squeeze her ass.
“So, Nathaniel wanted a piece of this, did he? I wonder why. Let’s have a quick taste, shall we?”
He crushed his lips to hers and she felt pain and revulsion all at once. When he backed away with a self-satisfied smile on his face, she hit him again, as hard as she could. He didn’t even flinch.
He licked his lips. “Not bad. However, I’ve never been one for sloppy seconds.”
Then he grabbed both her wrists in one hand so she couldn’t fight him and slid his other hand down the front of her tank top until his fingers curled around the key. He pulled it out and looked at it with a greedy gleam in his eye.
“Naughty little angel, you lied to me. You did have it.” He yanked it to break the chain, then slipped it into his pocket.
Val struggled against him, but considering he’d just launched Lloyd across the room with a single punch, she knew it was a lost cause. Still, she wasn’t about to make it easy for him.
“Now”—he still held her wrists effortlessly in his grasp—“whatever shall I do with you?”
She glowered at him but didn’t reply.
His smile widened. “I’m sure I’ll think of something suitable.”
He let her go, just long enough to strike her across the side of her head. She felt pain, saw stars explode, and then darkness spread across the world.
Val opened her eyes slowly, but it didn’t change anything. It was too dark to see. Where was she? She didn’t know, but she did know that she was tied up—her hands behind her back, feet bound at the ankles. She lay on a soft surface. A bed.
She tried to raise her head, but pain shot through her.
Not good.
“Hello?” Her voice cracked on the word. She wondered how long she’d been unconscious.
This was all wrong, she thought. It wasn’t supposed to go this way. She was supposed to come to the Underworld and easily get the key. Go back to the Paradise Inn and use it for her and Barlow, lickety-split. A to Z in a couple of hours. But everything had gone wrong.
Horribly, horribly wrong. And now she was just waiting there until Julian decided to kill her.
Like one of those stupid, big-haired bimbos who always got into trouble and needed Magnum
P.I. or the A-Team to come to her rescue.
But this was real life, not TV. And Julian was going to kill her.
Not that I have anything to live for anymore.
She snorted into the mattress. Could she be any more dramatic?
Her mild l
aughter turned to self-pitying sobs after a moment.
She was going to die. Slowly.
Then she heard a sound. A quiet click as the door behind her opened. It was Julian, she knew it. He was ready for her. She tried to pretend to be asleep, but her heart was beating like crazy, her breathing uneven. She’d never felt so helpless. Just like one of those lobsters staring plaintively out from the tank at Red Lobster—her favorite restaurant other than McDonald’s—begging not to be picked.
The floorboards creaked. Then there was no sound for a few moments. She strained her ears to hear anything, deciding that maybe it had only been her imagination. Maybe—
A hand clamped down over her mouth and she screamed against it, but the sound was muffled.
“Shh,” a familiar female voice said. “Be quiet, or they’ll hear you.”
She tried to turn around. “Lisa? Is that you?”
“In the flesh. Talk about déjà vu, huh?”
“Where the hell are we?”
She laughed softly. “Interesting choice of words. We’re in the mayor’s mansion.”
“Oh no. Not again.”
“Yeah. Just when you think you’re out . . . they pull you back in.”
Val brightened. “Godfather quote. Nice.”
“Now hold still and I’ll undo these ropes.”
She heard another voice. “Val? You okay?”
Val tried to turn around again. “Reggie?”
“In the fur.”
The ropes slipped off her hands and Lisa started to untie the ones at her feet. Val’s eyes were adjusting to the dim lighting enough to see the outlines of bodies. Lisa’s small, shapely one, and Reggie’s small rat one sitting proudly on her shoulder.
“You’re not dead!”
“Shh!” His tail twitched. “We’ll all be dead if you keep screaming.”
She lowered her voice. “I’m not screaming. I’m just so happy to see you.”
“There,” Lisa announced. “You’re free.”
Val rubbed her sore wrists. “What are you doing here at the mansion again? I thought you would have been long gone by now.”
She shrugged. “I had a little unfinished business to take care of. I sneaked back and saw Julian drop you off earlier. I’ve been waiting for everyone to clear out so I could come in and repay you for saving my ass earlier. Are you complaining?”
“Not in the slightest.” Val slipped off the bed and stood on shaky legs. Her head throbbed from the hit she’d taken earlier from Julian.
“Come on.” Lisa grabbed her rope-burned wrist and pulled her toward the door. Before Val had a chance to gather her thoughts, she’d opened it, and they were making their way down an abandoned hallway.
Val asked, “Where are we going?”
“Oh, I guess I should give him back to you now.” Lisa stopped and gently picked Reggie off her shoulder before placing him on Val’s.
“Thanks for the ride, sweetheart,” Reggie said.
“Anytime.”
“Really, you mean that? Because I just might be in the market for a new girlfriend soon. It would be a rebound thing, but I don’t see why we couldn’t make it work.”
“I don’t date outside my species.”
Reggie nodded. “Can I get your number anyhow?”
Lisa rolled her eyes. “Is he always like this?”
Val managed to grin at that. “Pretty much. But you didn’t answer me. Are we getting out of here?”
“Soon. Like I said, I’ve got a little business to take care of.”
“And that would mean—?”
Lisa shushed her again and started walking, keeping close to the wall, ready at any moment to slip inside a room if someone started coming their way.
“So, Val,” Reggie said, “last time I saw you, you were hot-tailing it out of here and Nathaniel was giving Julian a ride on the pain train. You probably didn’t see me.”
Her heart sank at hearing Nathaniel’s name.
Reggie continued, “I hung out under a potted plant for a while, then slipped out. I’ve been checking this place out ever since. It’s big. Especially at my current size. Even if I was normal-sized I think it would still seem huge. Anyhow, I wasn’t panicking. I knew you’d come back for me. Of course, I thought you’d come back of your own free will, not trussed up like a Thanksgiving turkey, but I’m not complaining. I’m just happy to see that you’re okay.”
He paused. “So where’s tall, dark, and gruesome?”
She swallowed hard.
“Val? Where’s Mr. Moody? He-who-hates-the-rat? Demon-boy? Hello?”
She swallowed again and tried to find her voice. “He’s gone.”
“Do you know where he went? I thought he was bound to us. Well, to you, anyhow.”
“He was. I released him.”
She saw his whiskers twitch out of the corner of her eye. “You released him? Why?”
“Just had to.”
“You just had to release him? But he’s our ticket out of this hole.” His voice had gotten pitchy. “Remember? The whole bookcase-turns-into-dimensional portal deal? I kind of wanted it to be a two-way ride. It’s one thing to be stuck as a rat. I have to say I’m actually starting to enjoy it a little, especially the riding around on gorgeous women’s shoulders part.
The view from up here is spectacular, if you know what I mean. And I mean cleavage city.
But I’d rather be a rat at home, than a rat in the Underworld. Hey, maybe that will be the title of my autobiography. I like it. It’s catchy. Val?”
She shook her head. “We’re going to have to find another way out, I think.”
Lisa touched her shoulder. “Are you okay?”
Val felt a hot tear slip down her right cheek. That’s where it had been. Just building itself up until she had an audience for her eventual blubbering. Great.
“He’s gone.”
“Where did he go?”
“They summoned him back to . . . to Hell. And since he was still bound to me it was tearing him up—causing him major pain being pulled in two different directions. So I . . . had to release him. I had no choice.”
Lisa frowned. “I don’t understand. Punished for what?”
“Nathaniel’s been a bad boy, I guess,” Reggie said. “Geez, Val, what did you do, sleep with him, or something?” He laughed.
Val didn’t.
Reggie stopped, “Oh shit. You slept with him. Val! I’m shocked. And incredibly turned on at the same time.”
“Me, too,” Lisa said, then frowned. “The shocked part. I’m in no way turned on by imagining you having sex. Seriously. I draw the line at Angelina Jolie.”
“Oooh. Angelina Jolie,” Reggie murmured. “But, back on subject. What happened? You’ve only known him for a few days, right?”
She shrugged. “I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Did he force himself on you?” Lisa asked.
“No. If anything, I may have forced myself on him a little bit.” She almost smiled. “I’m not normally so . . .”
“Experimental?” Reggie offered.
“No.”
“Erotically inclined?”
“Reggie—”
“A naughty little monkey?”
“Could you please not help me? I’m happy you’re alive Reggie, but please be quiet.”
“Sorry.”
Her head ached. “Look, he said things to me. I said things to him. He told me that he loves me.”
Lisa’s eyebrows shot up. “He said that? And you believed him?”
Val frowned. “This subject is officially closed. I don’t want to discuss it any further with either of you. Got it?”
“It’s gotten,” Lisa said.
She waited for a response from the rat before she turned her head to try to look at him.
“Beyond gotten,” he said, raising a paw. “But for the record, I don’t think he was lying. Who could possibly know you and not love you?”
Val’s eyes brimmed with tears at that. “Th
at is the nicest thing I think anyone’s ever said to me.”
“I know, I’ve used that line before. Works like a charm.”
She sighed. “You are a rat.”
“A rat who loves you.”
Val continued to follow Lisa through the hallways of the mansion. “I got the key, you know.
Nathaniel gave it to me.”
“You did?” Reggie said. “That’s great. And furthermore, then what the hell are we still doing here if we have the Key to Heaven?”
“You have the Key to Heaven?” Lisa repeated with surprise.
“I did, but Julian took it again. If it’s here in the mansion we have to get it back.”
“I’m getting sick of this stupid key,” Reggie said.
“Shhh,” Lisa commanded from over her shoulder. “Be quiet you two. We can’t let them know we’re here.”
“Who’s they?”
She stopped walking and Val practically slammed into the back of her. They were near a set of glass doors that looked out at the area where earlier Val had been drinking piña coladas and pushing Nathaniel into the pool.
Good times.
There was a small gathering of demons and other strange beings on the patio. Julian stood on the stage and he didn’t look happy.
“Why?” he was saying into the microphone, but it sounded like he was mostly talking to himself. “Why isn’t it working?”
Val gasped as she saw the golden key catch the light from the patio lanterns. Julian was trying to use the key to enter Heaven.
Right now.
Chapter Twenty
Val watched with horror as the mayor waved a flipper-like appendage at Julian. “Try again. I’ve always found incantations to be particularly tricky.”
Julian sighed. “Perhaps you’re right. I’ll give it another shot.” He brought the key closer to his face and read the ancient incomprehensible words etched into its surface. When he was done, he looked up expectantly. Nothing happened. He stamped his foot like a little boy who didn’t get his lollipop.
Yasmeen approached the stage. “Perhaps your pronunciation is off. Let me try.” She reached for the key but Julian held it out of her reach.