by Ashlee Sinn
“Maybe,” Stefan mused. “But be careful anyway.”
I blew him a kiss. “I always am,” I said a second before I blinked out of his apartment.
The Chinese restaurant was packed. In fact, the servers and chefs were so busy, they barely acknowledged my existence as I sauntered inside. I’d made it almost entirely through the kitchen before anyone even offered me food.
“Here, take. Eel for you,” the head chef said, holding out a piece of meat dangling from the chopsticks. “Fresh.”
Fresh was correct. The critter wiggled freely back and forth as though it had just been yanked from the sea. I wrinkled my brow. “Bù, xièxiè,” I said with a nod, thanking him but refusing the offer. He muttered something behind me, but I kept moving forward, determined to get some answers from Mammon.
Ivan and Tore whimpered in excitement when they saw me coming down the stairs. I should have saved that live eel for them, but Mammon wasn’t a fan of feeding them any kind of human food. They could eat the actual humans, but not the table scraps. Ivan licked my hand as I stepped away and I had to force him to stay put while I searched for my sire.
“What do you want?” Echo asked in annoyance as I stepped inside the office space.
“For you to die a fiery death,” I quipped.
“Too late,” he sang while he continued shifting papers around on the desk.
“Where is she?” I asked.
He looked up at me with an evil smirk. “She’s in a very important meeting.”
I took the dagger out of my pocket and crossed my arms, tapping the blade against my bicep so Echo could see it. He watched me and smiled again—something was going on and he had too much information.
“How’d your collection go?” he asked with zero interest in his voice.
I tried to remember the great sex with Stefan so I wouldn’t lose my shit. But Echo was an Under, a lesser demon who’d sucked and clawed his way into Mammon’s favor at the expense of anyone who got in his way. And while I should have been proud of him for that kind of behavior, it wasn’t okay for him to do it to me. “What do you know about Jericho?”
“Jericho?” Echo’s voice squeaked.
“The angel protecting Otis.”
Echo’s jaw dropped open. “Ah, so it was true.”
“What?”
He shrugged and started organizing again. “Nothing.”
I blinked in behind him and held the knife to his throat. “I know you can’t die like this, but I could slice you over and over until you look like a cut up ham.”
Echo laughed, my blade puncturing a bit of skin. He bled black, reminding me that only Mammon could actually end his existence. “If I were you, I’d save your energy.”
His cryptic words sent shivers down my spine. Echo knew something that I didn’t and I had a feeling it was all about to come to a head.
“Ah, there’s our sire now,” Echo breathed.
I pushed the tiny man away from me and tucked the knife into my pocket again. Mammon sauntered into the room, surrounded by her body guards and followed by a man who made my demon heart flutter—and not in a good way. Leviathan, the Serpent of the Abyss and one of the most powerful archdemons, stood stoically behind Mammon. His golden, dragon-like eyes devoured me as they skimmed my form. His darker skin and chiseled face barely moved when a slight grin pulled at his mouth. The way he watched, no, hunted me with his gaze, sent chills down my spine. Echo stepped back behind the desk and I had to stop myself from joining him.
“You failed,” Mammon snapped at me.
“Excuse me?”
“Where’s the soul?” Her voice trembled in anger and something else I couldn’t quite place. It was important to her and I wondered just how right Stefan had been.
“There was an angel,” I whispered.
Mammon glanced over her shoulder at Leviathan, who stood still and smiled. “That’s not fair.”
He shrugged, a very small move, and continued to stare at me. “She had her chance.”
I looked at Echo, whose already pale face was now the lightest shade of white I’d ever witnessed. What was he so scared about? “Mammon,” I asked politely, “can we talk? In private?”
She glared at me several seconds before nodding. “Come.”
She motioned for me to follow her through a hidden door on the far side of the room. I walked past Leviathan, whose intimidating height and even scarier eyes still watched every move I made. I wanted to say something rude and inappropriate to him, but had a gut feeling now wasn’t the time.
As Mammon closed the door behind her, she spun on her heel and grabbed me by the throat. My legs dangled beneath me as she held me in the air. “Why didn’t you beat him?”
“The angel?” I pushed out with what little air I had left. “He used an incantation and blocked me.”
Mammon threw me down and walked away. My ass hit the ground and a jolt of pain rushed through my wrist as I landed. She swore under her breath while I tried to pull myself back up to my feet. We were in her private quarters where the fire in the fireplace burned up from the ground and a single rocking chair in front of the flame was the only piece of furniture in the room.
“He spelled the antique shop, see?” I held out my hands, showing Mammon the burned crosses on my palms.
She shook her head and started to pace. “That piece of shit,” she spat. “I should have known he’d use trickery.”
“Mammon? What’s going on?” I hated the way my voice shook and I really hated the hint of fear wafting over my sire’s face.
“A war is coming, Arabella, and I need to be on the right side of it.”
“Are you talking about the reveal?” I probably shouldn’t have said anything, especially with the angry red glowing eyes that glared back at me when I spoke.
“How do you know?” she shouted. “How do you know?” A second later, I was dangling in the air again, this time with just one of Mammon’s hands holding me up.
I wrapped my fingers around her wrist and tried to relieve the pressure. “Stefan…Stefan told me.”
She set me down and swore again. “They’re all idiots if they think revealing themselves to the humans is going to lead to anything good.” Spinning on her heel, she pushed her index finger against my chest. “What do you think will happen to our businesses? Our properties? The shifters are treated like second-class citizens now. They’re being shot at. Tortured. Killed for what they are. How the fuck does Lucifer think our revelation would be any different?”
My legs sank into the ground. “Lucifer wants this?”
Mammon huffed a laugh. “He thinks he does. But it’s not going to happen.” While Lucifer may have been the original archdemon, Mammon and the others were equal in power and typically ruled as one. But if Lucifer wanted to be exposed, it would be hard to stop him. “I really needed you to kill that angel,” she said with a sigh.
“Why?” I stepped in front of her to make her look at me. She whipped her head around, the long, leather duster hitting me in the legs as she spun. “Why was Otis so important?”
“It’s not about Otis, you fool,” she spat. “It’s about you and your abilities.”
“My abilities? To collect souls?”
“Exactly,” she said as though that answered all my questions.
“Mammon, I don’t understand.”
Running her hands through her slicked-backed hair, she ground her jaw together. “Leviathan wants to take you as his mistress.”
“What?” My stomach dropped in fear. I only belonged to Mammon.
“He’s powerful and I need him on my side if we’re going to beat Lucifer and his—”
“Wait, what? You’re going against Lucifer?” I hated the squeak in my voice, but Lucifer wasn’t a demon you fucked with. “Mammon, what are you thinking?”
She grabbed my shoulders and shook them hard. “I’m thinking about our future, Arabella. We would lose everything we worked so hard for if the humans knew what we really are. The govern
ment would sieze our property, close our businesses, and every piece of the human world we owned would be gone in an instant.”
“Mammon, I agree with you. But…Lucifer?”
“I am not alone in this fight,” she said, resuming her pacing. “Asmodeus and Beelzebub are against him too. Belphegor wants nothing to do with any of us.”
I had to smile a little at that. The Demon of Sloth rarely cared to get himself involved in any kind of politics. “So, what does Leviathan have to do with this?”
“His vote can be bought…and he’s offered it to me for a price.”
“Me?” I whispered, and when my sire nodded, I felt the tears brewing in my eyes. “I belong to you, Mammon. You are the only master I have ever known.”
She bit her lips and shook her head. “Believe me, I tried that argument. He said I still have your sister.”
“But she’s living like a human now. She won’t be around that much.”
“That’s what I told him.”
“And you need me to collect the souls for you.”
She grimaced. “I told him that too. I reminded him of your importance as a Soul Snatcher, telling him you were the best I’d ever seen.”
“Thank you—”
Mammon held up her hand and cut me off. “But you just failed his test.”
“His test?”
“Otis. And the angel. He made a deal with me that if you could bring Otis’ soul to Hell, that he would help us in our fight against Lucifer without requiring you as an exchange.”
“Oh.”
“Yeah. Oh,” she snapped. “And you let that bastard prove me a liar.”
I dropped to my knees and held Mammon’s hands between us. “Please. Please give me another chance. What if I can kill that angel? What if I can find Jericho and send him down below?”
“His name is Jericho?” Mammon asked with a growl.
“It’s not important. Please, you can’t just give me to Leviathan. I’m yours. I serve you and only you.” I didn’t like to beg, unless Stefan was on the receiving end of it, but this situation had me worried more than I wanted to admit.
“He might not let us try again.”
“Please, Mammon. You are the Demon of Persuasion. Surely you can find a way to let Leviathan gives us one more chance.” An idea sparked in my brain. “Didn’t you say he cheated? That he didn’t tell you it was an angel?”
“I suspected he was which is why I gave you the dagger.” Her voice hardened. “We both cheated.”
I jumped to my feet. “Perfect. Then the deal is void. Make a new deal. Tell him that if I kill Jericho, he will have to go looking elsewhere for his demon mistress.” In my head, it sounded like a great plan. But based on the look on Mammon’s face, I wondered if she even heard me.
Without saying another word, she dragged me by the arm back into the office where Leviathan waited patiently and Echo had moved on to organizing the bookshelves just to avoid a conversation with the serpent demon.
“Our deal is void. But I’d like to offer you a new one.”
The man raised a dark brow, looking out from underneath his shaggy hair with one dragon eye. “Void?” he asked, his voice as smooth as molasses.
“You sent an angel, not simply a protector, and I gave Arabella a dagger. We both broke the rules.”
He said nothing as he watched us both with a steel glare through his slit pupils. Finally, he tilted his head and ground his jaw together. “What is this new deal you’d like to propose?”
Mammon yanked me forward until I was standing between them. “Arabella will kill your angel. If she does, I get your support and she stays with me. And if she doesn’t, you may have her and choose which side to back.”
Echo sucked in a quick breath and I briefly made eye contact with him. The lesser demon actually looked scared for me. Mammon glowered at him until he turned back around to face the shelves. “Do we have a deal?”
Leviathan took way too long to answer. Once again, is serpentine nature snaked its way under my skin, making me quiver with fear and annoyance. He didn’t get to look at me like that way. “He is not my angel. And she has two days.”
“Two days?” I shouted, but Mammon quickly silenced me with her grip on my arm.
“Fine.”
Leviathan disappeared from the room in an instant, leaving behind a reddish smoke that I swear formed the shape of a snake before disintegrating completely.
“Fucking demon,” Mammon growled. She stomped over to her desk and threw one of her knives into the wall behind the bodyguards. They only flinched a little. She spun around and glared at me. “You have to kill that angel, Arabella.”
“I know,” I whispered.
“I mean it! I don’t like Leviathan having the upper hand in this arrangement. It’s not a position I’m accustomed to.”
“I know,” I said a little louder. “But how am I supposed to find Jericho?” And kill him? I didn’t ask that last part.
“I don’t know. Figure it out. I’m going downstairs.” Mammon flicked her wrist and the two bodyguards disappeared. She stomped past her hounds, calling them to her side, and entered her private chambers. Going downstairs meant she was going to Hell for a visit. I’d always suspected that reverse fireplace was her portal to the Underworld. And when she slammed the door and her frustrated scream faded into a quiet shout, I envisioned her falling through the fiery abyss.
Echo and I stared at the door in silence for a few minutes. “I can’t believe this,” I whispered. “My existence depends on whether or not I kill this angel?”
Echo stepped closer to me and held out his hand with a folded sheet of paper in it. “Our entire existence depends on you, Arabella. If you fail, Lucifer will win.”
Taking the paper, I looked down at Mammon’s servant. “This isn’t fair.”
“Since when is Hell ever fair?” he teased. “Find this man and he can help.”
I opened the note and read the name scribbled on the front. “Flint Meadowdash? What the fuck is this?”
“It’s a who. And he might be able to help you track down the angel.”
Flint Meadowdash. Seriously? Yet when I looked back at the eyes of Echo, I sensed the sincerity in there. Maybe he didn’t want me to be sold to another demon. Or maybe he didn’t want all of us to be forced to reveal ourselves to the humans. A man of little compassion, I figured it was the latter, but still, he was helping me.
“Thanks,” I grumbled, readying myself to go home.
“Please don’t fail us, Arabella.” Echo walked into the back part of the basement where Mammon and Leviathan had met earlier.
Don’t fail us. How about I don’t fail me? I didn’t want to live as a mistress to a serpent demon, and if that meant killing an angel called Jericho, then that’s what I would do.
I had no choice in the matter.
Later that evening, I got to work on my mission. Through a quick search with a demon friend of mine at the IRS, I found Flint Meadowdash’s place of work. And as I appeared in the alley next to the gay strip club, I realized I’d never been in this establishment before. “Maybe it was new,” I said to myself, adjusting the miniskirt to make sure most of my ass was covered.
Strutting around to the front entrance, I bypassed the line of men waiting to get inside and stepped up in front of the bouncer. He was a Praetorian—built from lava and ash and created solely to serve as a protector. I outranked him quite a bit and that was going to help get me inside. “Hello,” I cooed.
He stared down at me from his seven-foot height and grunted. “Why are you walking through the door?”
Referring to me not blinking into an unknown building, I simply smiled. “Because I wanted a chance to meet you,” I said, rubbing my hand along his chest.
Several men in line started complaining. But the Praetorian ignored them and gently removed my fingers from his muscles. “You’re not my type,” he whispered with a small smirk.
I followed his eyes over toward the other men and shr
ugged. “You’re not mine either,” I said. “May I?”
He nodded at my question, allowing me to pass by without paying a cover, despite the complaints from the humans stuck outside. I climbed the stairs and sauntered past a few men and women standing near the entrance. The strip club advertised itself as high-end and classy, and my first impression agreed with that statement. I’d spent many years of my life dancing in these places and this one was by far one of the cleanest. The ceiling was three floors high with balconies lining the ramp that circled down to the main stage. Shaped like a catwalk, the dancer’s floor stretched out at least a hundred feet from the entrance, leaving enough space for three poles and multiple strippers to perform at once.
I weaved my way through the packed crowd, trying to reach one of the many bars along the edges. Once I finally got my drink in hand, I turned back toward the stage just in time to hear, “He’s the man with a plan. The master of pleasure. And the one that keeps you coming back for more. It’s Fliiiint.” The announcer shouted his name like he was a WWE wrestler and the crowd went crazy. Dollar bills flew through the air. Men pushed each other trying to get closer to the stage. And as soon as the lights went out, a sharp beat started thumping. Dancing to a song called Chocolate, the spotlight illuminated the man who’d just stepped through the curtain.
Flint Meadowdash.
The faerie who had a spell to track angels.
As the men cheered and threw their money on the stage, Flint owned the entire catwalk by himself. His dark skin, shaved head, and stunning cheekbones were highlighted by the eyeliner and glittering eyeshadow he’d added to his face. Fit as a professional dancer, only a pair of sequenced suspenders covered his chest and held up the gold booty shorts that showed every single one of his defined muscles. He must have been wearing contacts, as his purple fae eyes now looked like the yellow of a tiger’s. In a pair of clear platform boots, Flint danced his heart out. One pole after another faced his assault while the men admired his amazing flexibility. A part of me was jealous for his moves and wished I’d looked that good. But the other part of me simply stood there and enjoyed his awesome performance.