“Fucking prick,” I growled to myself in reference to Lucifer. I'd just entered the central office area set up in typical corporate cubicle style and got several wary stares from the employees seated within. Even demons that talked to themselves were considered weird. I just couldn't get a break.
I didn't see the girl that had left me the papers, but what I did see thrilled me to the core. Genies. A whole lot of genies.
They were standing in a line, their selection of neon skin tones reflecting the white light in a rainbow sheen, as they waited to get into one of the corner rooms. They were mostly silent and were flanked by another line of humans. Guardians. More people like me. It was one of those moments in life where you should get to be excited but can't because of a little, nagging voice in the back of your mind that says, “Yeah, you've been waiting to meet another person like you your entire life and now that you finally have, they're a bunch of kidnappers. Sorry girl, but you're out of luck.”
The most disturbing part of my little, nagging voice was the fact that it sounded just like Dia.
“Yeah, girl. It's me. Thanks for fucking ditching me earlier.” If I'd had any telepathic abilities, I would have used them to reply that she was the one who had betrayed me first. The bitch.
“I'm in a holding cell in the basement. It's where they're putting all of us, Guardians included, while they figure out how to control us without the human's consent. It's a fucked up plan, girl. None of these idiots even know what they're in for until they get down the stairs and past the first set of guards. A Cerberus. Can you believe that? They're using a fucking Cerberus to keep us in line.” She stopped talking, and I had to wander over to the water cooler to pretend that I was actually there for a purpose while I waited for her to continue.
“Look,” she paused, her voice going soft. “I'm sorry about what happened earlier. He threatened me after you left the two of us alone together. I just want to set my people, free. You understand, right?” She waited for a moment as if expecting me to respond. I didn't know what I would say even if I had the ability to. She took my silence as acceptance. “Good. Then I need you to do exactly what I say ...”
The line at the bakery stretched out the door of the cafeteria and down a hall used only for food deliveries. Demons apparently had a real fetish for cakes and pies. I stood tapping my black kitten heels on the linoleum and doing my best to ignore the press of bodies in the enclosed space. Dia had been very, very specific in her request.
Honey cake.
I needed it to get past the three headed dog and get her out of there. Not that I was sure I even wanted to, but I was running out of options. It was already half past nine, and I had yet to make any other discovery worthy of pursuing. The Devil had said there was a good chance that I could keep up with this ruse for several days, but several days of clerical office work surrounded by demons was just a few too many.
As I waited in line, I did my best to try my hand at telepathy. I sent no less than three messages to Dia attempting to berate her for her attempted betrayal earlier. Why should I even save you? How do I know I can even trust you? What the hell is honey cake anyway? She didn't respond, and I just assumed the messages weren't getting through to her. I was really was an idiot if I thought trusting people who'd betrayed me was a good idea. It had been a mistake with Terrence. It could be a mistake with Dia.
I sighed and brushed a sweaty arm across my forehead. Why did it have to be so damned hot around here? Nobody else seemed to mind it though, and I tried to make myself a mental note to stop acting like I was in a sauna. It would only attract undue attention.
Finally, I reached the counter. The girl behind the glass partition had eye-blindingly bright yellow skin and a mean scowl. The perfect customer service representative.
“What do you want?” she snarled at me, as if I had just disturbed her at a very inopportune moment.
“I need to get an order of honey cake.” She stared at me, blinking with just one set of I-didn't-know-how-many eyelids. “Please.” Maybe a little added politeness would help. She still continued to stare.
“We don't have any honey cake,” she snapped back at me. I frowned.
“But it says right there on the menu that you do.”
“We're out. Next.” I slammed my hands onto the table and elicited several stares from my fellow employees. Don't piss off fairies. Don't piss off vampires. Don't piss off demons. I ignored myself.
“Check the case again.” She narrowed bright green eyes at me, and a frown pulled the corners of her black lips down. She bent down and rummaged around inside the display case for a moment. I felt a surge of triumph. I had stood up for myself and succeeded. Go Ginger. When she came back up however, she was grinning, the corners of her lips pulled back all of the way to her ears. Dia could say all she liked about demons being humans with a lot of magic, but I didn't believe it for a second. At least not that second anyway.
“We're out.” The next customer in line elbowed me rudely out of the way, and I stood, stunned for a moment.
“Crap.” At first I thought it was just my inner monologue, but when it kept going unbidden, I realized that it was actually Dia. My friend, Liberswek, is here. I didn't comment on the name, but wow. “He says he's been down here for three weeks. Can you believe that? So it's not like Liam and Nathaniel were alone in their whole kidnap the genies routine. Terrence got started even before they did. All of this just to drive Hell Inc. out of business. Gods, businesses sure are corrupt nowadays, girl. I remember back when I was just a kitten, we – ” Dia paused, and I waited, hoping she'd lost her nostalgic train of thought. “You get that honey cake yet, girl?” I couldn't respond so I waited. I don't how Dia knew what she knew, but I could hear her frown when she next spoke. “Well, you're just going to have to fight your way down? You got a weapon on you?”
I did. Levie had given me a replacement dagger, twin to the one that had been blown up in the limo with me. But I wasn't going to use it. Not against a Cerberus. Not unless I wanted to die. “I can't get out of here without you, girl. There's some sort of spell on the cells that's keeping me in. I can't even access your magic. You have to get down here. You don't want to fight, you figure out your own way. Got it?” Silence.
“Dia?” I whispered aloud, once again eliciting strange stares. These coming from people whose eyes took up half their face or who were sporting racks of antlers bigger than my entire body. Go figure.
I retreated back to my office for a planning session. Nothing ever seemed to go right with me. If it could go wrong, it would go wrong. Such was my pathetic excuse for a life. I leaned my butt against my desk, ignoring the three new stacks of profile papers, and tried to think.
I could try to find Terrence's office. What? And try to fight him off with the dagger instead. I think not. My legs and arms were already moving on their own, scooping up a giant stack of papers and hustling them out the door and back into the main office. It only took me a moment to find Teranopolopalis printed on a plaque next to the door. I wasn't going to fight, just observe. I opened the door slowly, using my hip to keep it moving as I struggled to maintain my grasp on the pile of paper.
The man sitting behind the desk was Terrence alright. Albeit a gray skinned, winged, red eyed version of him. My body reacted instantly to the unleashed power in the room. Luckily for me, I was being politely ignored. Terrence was on a phone call.
“Absolutely. Certainly. Of course.” This was the same man who'd shot an innocent girl in the head. And stolen a boatload of genies. Of whom Levie was afraid of, even if he wouldn't admit it. And I wanted to leap on him right then and there. It was rather disconcerting. I ignored my pulsing girl parts and stacked the papers onto the corner of his desk. He smiled at me, and it was still the same, pleasant, nice guy smile. Creepy.
I took a quick survey of the room, but it was basically the same as my office, if a bit fancier. There was a rounded, black desk carved at the corners to look like weeping maidens and bookshelves jam pac
ked with the same sort of expensive tomes that the Devil had in his office. The pictures on the wall were the same, too: folks being tortured. How nice.
I was so busy studying the décor that I didn't see Terrence reach for the top paper on the stack. And then the next. And the next. I didn't notice until he grabbed my shirt and jerked me forward against his desk.
“You're the new girl, aren't you?” he asked, voice dripping with malice. It certainly was a 360 from his attitude a moment ago. I swallowed and tried to nod. “Well, new girl, what is this?” He released me and snatched one of the printouts. He gestured it around in the air in front of me like a flag.
“These applications haven't been approved. Have you even looked at them? Why on earth would you bring them to me if you haven't even looked at them.” I waited patiently while he ranted, trying desperately to play off his already firmly held notion that I was an idiot. Meanwhile, my right hand crept down to my left side, my fingers sliding just an inch or so beneath my jacket. I didn't think the dagger would really do much, but if it came down to a fight, I would at least attempt to give him one.
It wasn't until my fingers brushed the skin-warmed metal that the enchantment took hold of me. Levie had said the dagger was spelled to assist me in combat. I just didn't realize exactly what that had meant. I had never before tried to touch it with my hand while in a sticky situation. That's all it took.
My fingers clamped around the hilt of the knife of their own accord, and I flew at Terrence. He seemed just as shocked as I was. Shocked enough that when I crashed through the mountain of papers and landed on him, my knife found purchase in his throat. Hot demon blood spurted out across my face as my arm slashed back and forth, completely unrestrained by me. It was too much to ask though that he would be knocked down by such a minor wound as having his throat slit.
Teranopolopalis (it was getting harder and harder to still think of him as Terrence) grabbed my wrist with crushing force and flung me across the room. I hit the wall hard, my breath escaping me in a sibilant hiss. I attempted to push myself to my feet, only to be stopped by an absolute searing agony in my wrist. From the way it was flopping around, I was pretty sure it was broken.
The incubus stood up, wings stretching wide, the tips knocking the portraits off the wall, and sniffed his hand. His face broke into a grin.
“Ginger, is that you?” he asked, as if we were long lost friends having a chance meeting on the street somewhere. “My, my, that is one powerful glamour.” He sniffed his hand again and then wiped it along the smooth lines of his black slacks. “I can't believe Hell Inc. is so desperate that they're relying on a human to infiltrate my place of business. Don't you think that's pathetic?” he asked me as I cradled my arm and tried to catch a breath. The knife was lying about three feet from me, but I neglected to pick it up. I didn't want my body to fling itself at him again.
The door opened and we were both greeted by the Hanes girl, a cup of coffee in one hand an orange folder in the other. I decided it was a now or never sort of a moment and snatched the knife. The demon girl froze for a moment as she took in the scene, and I forced my aching body up and out the door. Terrence's laughter followed behind and gave me the very disturbing feeling that I was working on borrowed time.
The rainbow line of genies parted easily for the bloody girl with the floppy wrist as I staggered and tripped my way down a narrow hall and a short flight of stairs.
The Cerberus wasn't exactly what I had expected. From the legends, I'd thought he'd be eight feet tall with black wiry hair, red eyes smoldering with an inner rage, six inch fangs glimmering with saliva. He wasn't. Not even close.
The Cerberus of legend was actually just a three headed white poodle.
To be fair, it was a mean looking poodle, despite the little poofs of white at its ankles and sides. It glared at me with its soft, brown eyes and bared teeny, tiny fangs.
“What the fuck?” I said it without thinking and was greeted to a triple scowl.
“What's your problem?” they snapped in unison. “You look like you've been through the wringer once or twice.” I stared back and did the only thing my pain riddled mind could think of. I pulled a pack of spearmint gum from my pocket and flung it at it. Honey cake. Spearmint gum. Same difference.
The poodles glanced down at the white and green packet with disinterest and maybe just a hint of annoyance. I made as if to run past them when they stood and slammed into my knees with an intensity that I couldn't quite believe, given their size. I fell to the floor hard amidst a chorus of snickers from the milling genies and their kidnappers/Guardians. The Cerberus stood over me growling.
“Look,” I said, attempting to appeal to its sensitive side. If it had one. “I'm being chased by a crazy incubus and – ” The head on the far right, the one with the biggest, most sensitive eyes, yipped, causing the other two to pause and turn to look.
“Teranopolopalis?” it asked. “The Big Boss?” I hadn't yet heard him referred to by that term, but I nodded. The heads looked at one another and then back to me. They stamped their tiny, left front paw at me causing the black chain around their ankle to jangle. The center head leaned down next to my ear. Her breath smelt like grass and kibble. Dogs will be dogs, I guess.
“Listen here, little human girl.” I was ready to protest and pretend that my facade was real, even if Terrence already knew that it wasn't, but the dog shook her head. “Oh come now, you can't fool a dog's nose. Now listen to me, I'm making you an offer.” They stamped their foot again, drawing my attention first to their pink painted toenails and then again to the black chain. “Just cut the chain off and we'll let you pass. You scratch my rump and I'll scratch yours.” Their poof ball tail wagged ecstatically.
The knife was still clutched in my one good hand. I pushed myself up to a sitting position and turned to look back at the stairs. The genies looked pissed. Apparently they were about as happy to be here as I was. Nobody moved to stop me. Not even the Guardians whom I had expected were all in on the operation. Maybe we'd been wrong, maybe they were captives just as much as their counterparts. Either way, I still saw no sign of Terrence, and it was only a matter of time. He wasn't going to let me just run around his place of business causing mayhem. The fact that he hadn't come looking for me yet spoke volumes about how threatening he thought I was. Which is to say, not at all.
I grasped the knife as tightly as I could and wedged the blade behind the chain, being careful not to cut the delicate looking little leg behind it.
“Don't worry about us,” said the third head. “A little cut won't make the difference. Just get the damned chain off.”
I jerked the knife forward with all of the strength I had in my arm. It wasn't much, but the chain fell away as if it were as thin as cloth. A magical knife is a magical knife I supposed. I definitely needed to thank Levie for this later. The three heads yipped in unison, and I was subjected to thrice the usual amount of doggy saliva as they licked my face in gratitude.
“Thank you,” they said together as they gave me one last sloppy kiss and resumed their seated position several feet closer to the stairs. I took that as my cue to leave and used the cement walls to stand up. My hand had gone completely numb. I had a thought that maybe I was in shock, but it didn't really matter. If I didn't get my ass moving, I'd have bigger things to worry about.
The cells were really just cushy hotel rooms with bars separating them instead of walls. The genies inside didn't look all that unhappy. Just bored. I passed several rooms where the pairs inside were uh, getting to know each other better. I blushed and tried not to look as I stumbled down the walkway. Dia wasn't far down and was sitting on the edge of a queen sized bed, filing her nails. She grinned one of her shark-toothed grins when she saw me.
“Girl!” she shouted, apparently still unable to remember my name or at least unwilling to use it. She stood up sauntered over to the bars. Her roommate, the aforementioned Liberswek, didn't even budge. He lay silently on the bed reading a copy of some weir
d genie magazine that this time featured two half naked guys. Once again, I pretended not to notice. “I didn't think you were gutsy enough to get yourself down here. I was half expecting you were dead by now.”
“Wow, Dia,” I said, surprising myself with how ragged and tired my voice sounded. “You sure are full of compliments today.” Dia ignored my sarcasm and gestured at the iron bars with her hand.
“What are you waiting for, girl. Get me out of here.” I raised the knife to the bars, and Dia's white eyebrows raised in surprise as a gasp escaped her lips. Either it was a really amazing piece of weaponry, or there was someone behind me. I was betting on the latter.
I didn't get the chance to turn around and check because Terrence's hand was already wrapped around my throat. He wasn't at all gentle about it when he pulled me away from Dia and slammed me into the wall. The knife fell from my hands and clattered across the floor.
“You,” he growled moving his grip from my neck to my chin. “I was interested in you. You have more power than any other Guardian I've ever met, even more than some demons, and yet you remain human. Not to mention the fact that you tamed that pompous, overweening brat, Leviathan. How did you ever manage that?” He turned my face roughly to the wall and grasped my damaged wrist in his hand. Terrence squeezed it just hard enough to make me come close to the bliss of passing out, but stopped just in time so that I remained awake and in agony. A master of torture. I couldn't believe I'd ever liked the sick fuck.
“If you're going to kill me, just do it,” I said, applauding myself for sounding much braver than I felt. Terrence laughed.
“Oh, I'm not going to kill you and have you report what you've learned back to your new in-laws. You'll stay here with me.” He released my face and grabbed my good wrist, jerking me back towards the exit. And right into the Cerberus. The three heads launched themselves at Terrence in a flurry of nails and white fluff. They may not have looked particularly scary, but Terrence took them seriously. There must have been something to their reputation.
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