by Мишель Роуэн
“No. It’s mine. Back off, bitch.”
She put a hand on her hip. “You’re such a self-involved idiot, Julian.”
He pouted. “Takes one to know one.”
Yasmeen glanced over at the mayor. “I have no time for this foolishness. At your leave, great one.”
The mayor looked at her for a moment, then nodded his head. “As you wish, my dear.”
She vanished in a column of fire.
“Come on,” Lisa whispered and grabbed Val’s arm to pull her outside, closer to the group of demons by the pool and stage.
“Are you crazy?”
“Probably. But I have a plan to get your key back.”
“You’re definitely crazy.”
She grinned. “Consider yourself lucky the key doesn’t work for Julian.”
“Is it his pronunciation?” Reggie asked. “I always thought incantations were in Latin. At least
Claire’s always sound Latin.” He sighed. “It’s all Greek to me.”
Lisa shook her head. “It’s a much older language, even older than Latin.”
Val frowned. “I don’t even remember telling you about the key before a minute ago. How do you know so much—”
“Shh.” She pulled Val down until they were completely hidden behind the pool bar. If Val stood up, Julian would be looking directly at her. Though, currently he was too busy staring angrily at the key in his hand to pay attention to anything else.
She glanced at Lisa. “If you’re such a surprise expert on the subject, then tell me, why isn’t it working for him?”
She licked her lips and smiled, but it looked more mischievous than genuine. “The Key to
Heaven will only work for a fallen angel, of course.”
“What?”
“It’s true. Haven’t you heard the stories?”
“Yeah, but not that one. I thought it was supposed to be an all-access pass. Anyone could use it.”
She shook her head. “Anyone can go through the doorway once it’s opened, yes. But the words must be spoken by a fallen one. Lucifer was originally a fallen angel, you know. And it is his key. Makes sense.”
Julian had just finished reading the incantation for the fourth time with zero success. His face flushed red with anger and flames danced in his eyes—and it was an unhappy dance.
Val frowned. “How long do you think it’ll be before he figures that little tidbit of information out?”
“With Julian? Could be a few centuries.”
“You know Julian?”
She shrugged. “Doesn’t everyone?”
“He told me that he’s Lucifer’s son. That he’s doing this to get Daddy’s love and approval. Or something like that.”
She almost laughed at that. “He should have just bought a card from Hallmark.”
Suddenly Julian yelled, and for a horrible moment Val was reminded of Nathaniel suffering on the floor of the bedroom before he was taken away from her. But Julian wasn’t being pulled anywhere. He wasn’t in any pain, at least not physical pain.
He was just frustrated.
“I don’t know what I’m doing wrong! This should work. I should be walking into the pristine palace as we speak.”
Val frowned. Pristine palace? What a dork.
In the meantime, a few more demons had made their excuses and wandered off. Time was precious, even in the Underworld.
The mayor looked extremely disappointed for a moment, but then he seemed to brighten slightly. “Let’s take a break and bring out the fallen angel for some entertainment, shall we? I need a good laugh. Plus, I’m a little bit hungry. Just don’t tell Sven that I cheated on my diet.”
“Not yet,” Julian whined. “Let me try one more time.”
The mayor sighed. “Very well.”
He tried. He failed. Val stifled a laugh at his obvious misery. Then he had a literal hissy fit and threw the key on the ground and made a big show of stepping on it and grinding it into the stage with his foot.
“Stupid key!”
“Let me down, Val,” Reggie whispered. “I think I have an idea.”
“That is never a good thing to hear.”
“Just let me down.”
She picked him gently off her shoulder and put him on the ground. He looked up at her.
“Wish me luck.”
Val opened her mouth to do anything but wish him luck, to stop him from whatever stupid idea had drifted into his gumball-sized brain, but he was gone. And he was headed for the stage.
“He’s very brave,” Lisa said. “For a talking rat.”
Val helplessly watched Reggie’s small, furry body dart from covering to covering, weaving in and out between lounge chair legs. If a demon glanced in his direction, he’d freeze in place until it was safe to move again. It was like watching a rodent version of Alias. She held her breath and clutched Lisa’s hand.
“Val,” Lisa whispered.
She didn’t tear her gaze from Reggie. “What?”
“If anything goes wrong here, promise me you won’t look back. That you’ll just run.”
“I promise. Same for you. But I’m not going anywhere without Reggie.”
She smiled. “You’re a good friend to him. And to Nathaniel. It’s so strange that you care for him despite what he is.”
“Nathaniel . . .” Val’s voice trailed off. “I’ll probably never see him again.”
“No. You probably won’t.”
She looked at Lisa sharply. “Not exactly helping.”
“You’d rather I lie to you? Trust me, the truth is always better than lies. Better than all these false surfaces.” She glanced around. “Like this ridiculous place. The truth is painful, it’s shocking, and it’s rarely easy . . . but it will open doors you never knew were there before.”
“Shh.”
Reggie slowly crawled up the steps to the stage. The key lay four feet away from where Julian stood talking to the mayor. The last couple of demons, and one angry-looking biker faery started to drift away.
“Mayor Vaille,” Julian began. “Great one, I’m so, so sorry. I can’t tell you how much I wanted to make this work.”
“Maybe you were fooled. The key is a phony?”
Julian looked appalled by the suggestion, then thoughtful, then sheepish . . . and then back to being appalled. “No, it’s real. I can feel its power.”
“Then what you are saying is that you are a failure.”
He opened his mouth, then closed it. “No. I will figure out why it’s not working. Then I’ll open the doorway and go in myself. Once it’s open we can enter at our whim. It doesn’t need to be tonight.”
The mayor sighed. “But it would have been so cool for the party.”
“Another party, then.”
“Perhaps we should have waited for Nathaniel. He may have been a great assistance to us in this matter.”
Julian laughed. “Nathaniel is a fool. He’s the true failure. Such power at his grasp and he refuses to use it to his full potential. Such a waste. Especially now.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nathaniel has turned soft. He’s at the head office right now answering for his many shortcomings. The next time you see him, I doubt you’ll even recognize him. No”—he smiled—“I greatly anticipate seeing what they’ll do to him.”
The mayor shifted position on his chaise and yawned.
“Yes,” Julian continued with a gleam in his eye, “aside from his continual failure at tempting, he has allowed himself to be manipulated and seduced by his current assignment. And you know very well that is against the rules.”
The mayor smiled a bright fan of sharp teeth. “I came up with that rule myself. Originally it was only a little inside joke at the head office, but it seems to have stuck. And let me guess, he broke my rule with the fallen one he was with earlier? The one you have tied up as we speak?”
“Yes.”
The mayor grimaced. “But she was so . . . trampy. All that fake red hair, and the inch of m
akeup. Those large, unruly breasts. She didn’t seem that enticing to me.”
Julian shook his head. “That was only a glamour. Underneath she is as pure, as good, and as beautiful as any fallen angel I’ve ever seen.”
Aw, Val thought. That was actually kind of sweet.
“That is why I will take great pleasure eviscerating her. The screams of anguish I shall coax from her beautiful lips will be music to my ears.”
Not sweet.
The mayor chuckled. “So our boy Nathaniel finally indulged himself with a fallen one, did he? Good for him.”
“Good for him?” Julian huffed. “I bend over backward with this key and he gets a ‘good for him’?”
“This was only an amusement to me, anyhow. And I am no longer amused. Perhaps I’ll go plan my next party.” He looked thoughtful. “Though, another band next time. Today’s was somewhat . . . lacking. Their version of ‘La Bamba’ was so weak. I may have them vanquished for displeasing me.”
Julian just stared at the mayor blankly as he was all but dismissed from his presence. Val noticed with a sinking feeling that Reggie had finally reached the top step and was panting hard from the exertion. Then he darted across the stage toward the discarded key, picked it up gently between his little yellow teeth just as Julian turned around.
Reggie froze in place.
“I think I will try a couple more times,” Julian said.
The mayor sighed. “If only the key came with an instruction manual.”
“Yes, if only.” Julian glanced down to where he’d thrown the key. It was gone. His eyes widened and he scanned the area, but before his gaze could rest on the galloping rat, Val saw
Lisa rise up next to her and step out from behind their hiding place. She reached out a hand to stop the girl, but it was too late.
“Hey,” Lisa said. “Remember me, you little bastard?”
All Val could do was watch helplessly as Lisa stepped out fully from behind the bar. Julian stared at her also, the key momentarily forgotten.
“However could I forget?”
Lisa smiled.
“I’m pleased to see you.”
“Are you? And why’s that?”
“Because now I not only have one fallen one waiting in the wings for me to take out my frustrations on, I have a backup. Which is good since I’m extremely frustrated.”
Instead of cowering at the intensity of his slightly wordy threat, Lisa took a few steps closer to the stage. “Come and get me.”
Julian grinned, then leapt off the stage.
“Excellent.” The mayor clapped his flippers. “At last, some decent entertainment!”
Reggie finally reached Val and she took the key from between his teeth. The chain was long gone so she slid it under her tank top and into her bra for safekeeping. She picked Reggie up and stared at Lisa, who was standing in front of the extremely frustrated blond demon.
What could she do to help her?
There was too much to lose if she did something stupid. Well, stupider than normal, anyhow.
Too much. She had the key. Her only hope now was to go back to Lloyd and hope he had the power to open a portal for her to get back home.
“If anything goes wrong here,” Lisa had said only moments ago. “Promise me you won’t look back. That you’ll just run.”
Val had promised. But it still didn’t make it any easier.
Keeping as low to the ground as she could, she ran back to the mansion’s doorway and slipped inside. Turning her head one last time, she saw Julian standing only inches away from the girl who seemed so small and delicate in front of him. So brave. So foolish. But Val wasn’t going to let Lisa’s sacrifice go to waste.
“We’re out of here,” she told Reggie.
“Not a moment too soon.”
The key would only work for a fallen one? In that case, only a matter of minutes remained before Val could put the last two months behind her once and for all. Everything would be the way it was supposed to be. Barlow and herself officially out of danger’s way. A perfect ending.
She felt the tears on her cheeks. Yeah, really perfect. But she wouldn’t think about that right now.
Focus. Have to focus.
She turned the next corner and skidded to a halt.
Nathaniel leaned against the wall, smoking a cigarette.
Val’s mouth dropped open.
He smiled. “Miss me?”
She just stared at him. “Nathaniel, is it really you? I thought . . . that you were . . .”
“In trouble?”
“Well, yeah.”
He shrugged.
She exhaled deeply, feeling a huge weight lift from her shoulders, leaving behind a giddy lightness. “I didn’t know what happened to you. But you’re here. You’re okay. And you look .
. .” She smiled at him. “You look great.”
“Thanks.” He flicked his cigarette away.
She moved closer to him. “I was so worried. But I should have known you’d handle yourself just fine. Now, we’re getting out of here. I’ll explain everything later.”
Nathaniel glanced at Reggie, then back at Val. “Where are we going?”
“Home. And we’re going, like, now. Come on.” She reached for his hand, but he pulled away and crossed his arms.
“Aren’t you going to command me to come with you?”
“Huh?”
His eyes narrowed. “Command me. Like the well-trained puppy you’re used to. Or perhaps you’d prefer to force me to tell you the truth?”
Val blinked. “We don’t have time for this—”
“Did you happen to know that every time you commanded me to do something it caused me pain? And you want to know something? I don’t care too much for pain, angel.”
Uneasiness settled over her. “Yeah, well, I promise to make it up to you.”
He smiled thinly. “Yes, I just bet you would.”
“Remember that thing I just said about no time? I kind of meant it. Now come on. Don’t be difficult.” She tried to grab his wrist but he twisted away from her
“I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Val glanced nervously over her shoulder. There was only a matter of minutes, if that, before somebody would be along the hallway. “Excuse me?”
“It’s over.” He smiled and cocked his head to the side. “But it was fun while it lasted. For, oh, ten minutes or so.”
She frowned. “What—?”
His gaze moved to the rat. “Reggie, you would have been so proud of me. All it took was a few flowery words and—well, let’s just say she’s certainly no angel underneath it all.”
Val’s mouth opened but she couldn’t find the words to speak.
“Don’t talk about her that way,” Reggie said, low and edgy.
“What way? I’m only speaking the truth. So typical. Honestly, they’re all the same. Women.
When a man tells her what they want to hear, they’ll give it up. Anything. Cease being themselves and become a plaything.” He shrugged. “Not that I’m complaining, of course.”
Val’s jaw was clenched so tightly that it hurt. “What did they do to you at head office?”
“I can’t wait to tell Yasmeen all about it. Now, there’s a woman who knows exactly what I want. A little risk, a little unpredictability, and might I add . . . amazing in bed. Not all timid and inexperienced like you were, angel. Amusing, but in the end, a waste of my precious time.”
“I said,” Reggie spoke louder, “don’t talk about her that way. You don’t deserve to be breathing the same air as her, you pathetic demon piece of shit.”
Nathaniel cocked his head to the other side, looked at the rat for a moment, then in one motion flicked him off Val’s shoulder. Reggie fell to the floor with a painful sounding “ooof.”
She turned her stunned gaze to the demon. “I don’t care what they tried to do to you down there. You need to fight it. They’ve messed with your mind. Lloyd told me about it. It’s . . . mind manipulation. Like
brainwashing. This isn’t really you.”
“But it is me, angel. I thought you always wanted the truth? Or was it only the truth you wanted to hear? Too bad. You let me tempt you. And it was so easy. Admit it.” He grinned.
“Don’t try to tell me you didn’t enjoy it. I know you did.”
“Shut up.”
“Make me. I don’t love you. Never did. It was all a ruse to get you to say yes to me. Got it?
Do my words sting, angel? The truth hurts.”
Val stared at him. Then she gathered Reggie, now limping and staring daggers at Nathaniel, in her arms and stood tall to face her Tempter. She tried to summon something within herself, channel her hurt feelings into rage, bring fire into her own eyes to stare him and his razor-
sharp words down. To hurt him back.
But she couldn’t.
A tear slipped down her cheek. “I don’t believe you.”
He frowned at her. And his expression softened for a split second before tensing again. He straightened his back and raised a dark eyebrow.
“Well, that’s your problem, isn’t it?” His eyes narrowed. “Now I believe I gave you something earlier to hold on to for safekeeping? The key? Forgive me, but I’ll need to take it back before I go ahead and take you to Hell.”
She stiffened. “Forget it.”
“The head office wants it. I’m now compelled to obey them, and only them. Got it?”
“Oh, I got it all right.”
“Now.” He stepped closer. “The key?”
“No.”
His expression darkened. “Give the key to me.”
“Nope.”
“Give it to me.”
“No.”
He sighed, and grabbed her upper arm tightly. “I’m sick of playing these games. I won’t ask you again. Give it to me now.”
“Okay.”
Val kneed him hard in the groin as Lisa did earlier. As she’d done to Julian. Practice made perfect. He immediately released her. Then she lashed out with her fingernails, the best weapon she had available—other then her lethal knee—to slash at his perfect face. Then, one hand pressing Reggie protectively against her chest, she started to run.