Chapter 18
18
Cool as a Cucumber
E va woke up at eight o’clock. She hadn’t had close to enough sleep, yet she felt strangely well rested. Her first thoughts were anxious, however. Why hadn’t anyone woken her up? Why hadn’t they left yet? Wasn’t anyone concerned about the Hunter coming after them?
Sitting up in bed, she clenched her fingers around the blankets and stared at the unfamiliar space. She told herself that the demons knew what they were doing, and if there was cause for concern, they would have woken her.
Then again, maybe not. She really hoped they’d come up with a plan by now, but something told her that was too much to ask.
Ash’s room was bare except for a dresser, a desk, and an upside-down milk crate that served as a nightstand. The speaker she’d lent him sat on top of the dresser, and there were a few items of black clothing discarded on the floor. The sheets were gray. One pillow.
A good night’s sleep was supposed to make everything better, and she could feel the truth in that. Yes, all of this still seemed impossible, but she wasn’t on the verge of a panic attack anymore, and the things that had felt so insurmountable last night were a little less daunting now.
Leaning over, she reached out and hauled her backpack into her lap, pulling her phone out of the front pocket. When the screen lit up, she swore loudly.
It had to be a record-setting number of missed calls. Most were from her dad, and a few were from her mom. She opened her texts and saw another gazillion unread messages there, and then cursed again when she remembered that she’d put her phone on silent last night before Mist showed up. Her dad’s call had been an unpleasant interruption after that amazing sex with Ash, and she’d slapped that sucker on silent so she’d never have to put the words “dad” and “sex” together in a sentence again.
Frowning, she suddenly recalled the subject of her dad’s call. At the time, he’d seemed irrational, but now it seemed eerily coincidental that he’d called and told her she was in danger right before Mist had shown up. But what would her dad know about any of this?
She needed to get up and make sure the demons had a proper game plan, but she couldn’t ignore her dad’s urgent messages, so she called him back.
“Nice one, Dad,” she grumbled when it went through to voicemail. All those missed calls, and he wasn’t even there when she finally got back to him.
She called her mom next. The phone rang only a few times before Jacqui picked up.
“Eva, honey! I’ve been trying to reach you all night.”
“Yeah, I left my phone on silent. Sorry about that.”
“Are you okay?”
“Um.” She didn’t know where to begin.
“What happened?”
“Well... a lot.”
“Honey, I need to tell you something.”
“Yeah, Mom. Me too.” She decided there was no way she was going through all this madness without telling her mom. “It’s about Ash.”
“Oh, good, because I wanted to tell you something about him too.”
“Last night, I— Wait, what do you want to tell me?”
“This is going to sound crazy.”
“Trust me, it won’t be as crazy as what I’ve seen.”
“Remember what you saw at that club shooting? Well, I’m not sure you hallucinated after all.”
“What? Why?”
“I think your boyfriend... I really don’t want to scare you, but I think your boyfriend might actually be— He might not—”
“Be human?”
Jacqui choked.
“He might not be human because he’s a demon?”
“How did you—?”
“How do I know?” Eva barked a bitter laugh. “Well, have I got a story for you! But first, how do you know?”
“It’s your dad.”
She squeezed her eyes shut. “Of course it is.”
“Last night, he came bursting into the room while I was reading and asked me where I heard the names of your boyfriend and his brothers. I tried to hold out for your sake, but I eventually cracked under pressure and told him. I didn’t mention what you saw at the club because I knew he’d really freak, but he still freaked quite a bit anyway. He said he was going out to his studio, and then he never came back. I went into his office to look for him even though we usually don’t disturb each other’s private work spaces. But I was knocking at the door, and he wasn’t answering, so I had to check and see—”
“And then what happened?”
“I found a book. I think it’s called a grimoire? In your dad’s office.”
Eva blinked. A grimoire in her dad’s office? Okay. Not at all what she was expecting to hear.
“It was written in Latin, I think, interspersed with some other language I didn’t recognize, and there were these symbols. Very complicated symbols, with circles and keys and squiggles, all intersecting.”
Oh god, that sounded a lot like the sigils Belial had described. What on earth was her dad doing with that? Was he trying to summon demons? Please god, don’t let him be that stupid.
“Inside the grimoire there were these loose-leaf sketches,” Jacqui continued. “Done recently, in your dad’s handwriting. They were the same symbol drawings, but very complex, more so than the others in the book. I was able to decipher the writing at the top of one of the drawings, and the same again interwoven into the design.”
“And?” Eva was gripping the phone so hard it nearly shot right out of her hand. “What did it say?”
“Honey... it said Asmodeus.”
Oh, shit.
“And there were three more papers underneath. Belial, Raum, Mephis— Mephistof— Mephi—”
“Just call him Meph,” she blurted.
“Meph. But honey, I think your dad is trying to...”—her voice dropped to a whisper—“summon demons .”
Eva paused. Waited for more.
And then realized she wasn’t going to get it.
“That’s it? Just the sight of a fancy book and you’re convinced demons are real?” She barked another laugh. “Do you know how crazy that sounds? Totally, completely—”
She stopped suddenly, rubbing her eyes until she saw stars.
“You’re right,” she finally said. “They are real.”
There was a pause.
“Eva, I want you to start at the beginning and tell me everything.”
“Mom? Hello? Are you still there or did your head explode the way mine’s been threatening to?”
“I’m here,” Jacqui said quietly.
Eva shifted on Ash’s bed, adjusting the pillow supporting her back where she leaned against the wall. “So... you don’t think I’m completely nutty?”
“Oh, I’ve always thought you were nutty, hon.”
“Mom.”
She sighed. “You know I believe you. It’s just... a lot to take in.”
“Trust me, I know.” Eva had spent the last ten minutes telling her mom everything. And by everything, she meant everything .
“I wish you hadn’t gotten tangled up in this,” Jacqui said. “I don’t like knowing you’re in danger.”
“I don’t like it either. I’m freaking out, and I have no idea what to do.”
“And I’m sorry about your boyfriend. It’s never fun to find out your trust in someone you care about was ill founded. I’m sorry you had to have your heart broken.”
“Yeah.”
Her mom hesitated. “You have broken up with him, right?”
Had she? “It’s not like we’ve really had time for that conversation yet.”
“But you’re going to, right?”
“I dunno,” she snapped, suddenly annoyed. “I’ve been a little too busy worrying about whether I’m going to survive the next ten minutes to spend time thinking about how to dump my demon boyfriend!”
“Okay, okay, I just want to make sure you’re okay, that’s all. I want you to make the right decisions.”
Eva sighed. “I know, I’m sorry. This is all a bit much for me. I mean, I don’t even know what to believe about demons, because nothing any of these guys do seems very demonic to me. I mean, they’re all kind of assholes, sure, but they take care of each other.”
“You said they escaped from Hell because they didn’t feel like they belonged there anymore. Maybe they have evolved, like Asmodeus said. Still, I don’t think it’s smart to get involved with him at such an unstable time in his life.”
Eva snorted. She made it sound like Ash was changing careers or moving to a new city. Then again, he kind of was.
“And then there’s the age difference to consider. He’s astronomically older than you.”
“I know.”
“That’s a little weird, isn’t it?”
She winced. “Yeah, I never really thought of it that way. He’s kind of immature in some ways, though. I think it’s because he’s just figuring out how to be a normal, functioning person and not evil and conniving, or whatever demons are.”
Jacqui snorted. “That’s not exactly a ringing endorsement.”
“I know.”
“And then there’s the obvious lifespan difference. I don’t see how you could ever be seriously involved with someone who is immortal.”
“Immortal... ?”
“If he’s as old as you say he is, that means he’s immortal. He’s never going to age. Even if he turned out to be the perfect man for you, twenty years down the line, there are going to be some serious challenges springing up in your relationship. Imagine if you married him, and then a few years later, people started asking if you were his mother. Then, his grandmother.”
A sickening feeling twisted up Eva’s stomach, but she brushed it off with a laugh. “God, Mom, I think it’s a little early to be thinking that far ahead.”
“I know, but you have to admit it’s a consideration. How can you start a serious relationship with someone when you know it can’t last forever?”
“I haven’t— I don’t—” She shook her head. “I never said I wasn’t breaking up with him. I just said I hadn’t had time to think about it. I mean, obviously I have to—”
The bedroom door burst open with a bang, the handle smacking the far wall. Belial ducked under the frame and entered the bedroom without waiting for an invitation.
“Good morning, Eva.”
His hair was still miraculously long, and the platinum--blond strands hung past his wide shoulders to his broad chest. Combined with those sky-blue eyes, he really did look more like an angel than a devil. After last night’s little outburst, however, there was no way Eva would ever make the mistake of forgetting what he was.
And then there was the smile on his face. It was malevolent and slightly terrifying: the furthest thing from friendly.
She stared at his imposing form, half wanting to shout at him for barging into the bedroom, half wanting to crawl into the closet and hide.
“I couldn’t help but overhear the entire conversation with your mother,” he said.
“Oh. Shit.”
Ash had told her demons had heightened senses, but she’d forgotten. How much had they heard? Probably everything. Oh god, had Ash woken up and heard her talking about breaking up with him?
“Asmodeus is on the balcony,” Bel said, answering her unspoken question. “So you’ll have to dump him in person later.” He glared at her a little, and she winced.
“Who are you talking to?” Jacqui asked into the phone.
“Belial,” Eva replied.
“If you’d allow me to speak to your mother,” Bel said, “I think I’ve figured out where we can go.”
She frowned. “Where—?” And then it dawned on her. “No way. I don’t want her involved in any of this.”
“It’s the perfect solution. No one would suspect we would visit a human’s mother. And, even better, it’s a place we’ve never been before.”
“I don’t want her in danger.”
“Honey, let me talk to him,” Jacqui said, obviously overhearing the exchange.
Bel held out a hand for the phone. “She wants to talk to me.”
Damn, he really could hear everything. “I really don’t think—”
“Let me talk to him!” Jacqui said louder.
Bel wiggled his fingers.
“No!” Eva was quickly losing control of the situation. “She’s my mother, and I don’t want her involv—”
Faster than eyes could track, Belial crossed the room, ripped the phone from her hand, and held it to his own ear.
“Good morning, ma’am,” he said, smirking in triumph at Eva.
“You asshole!” she snapped. “Give that back!”
“Yes, my name is Belial, and yes, I really am a demon.”
Eva scrambled out of bed and tried to snatch her phone back, only to realize she wore nothing but Ash’s oversized T-shirt and her underwear. The shirt was large enough that it fell to mid-thigh, but it rode up precariously when she reached up and tried to snatch her phone back from Bel’s grip.
Unfortunately, he was too damned tall, and she couldn’t reach it even standing on her tiptoes and jumping. And he was fast, too. He twisted out of her reach every time she got close, until she was dancing all around the room—one hand awkwardly pulling the bottom of the T-shirt down to keep herself covered—while he remained cool as a cucumber.
“I can assure you we mean your daughter no harm.” His voice was smooth as silk. “In fact, we seek to protect her at all costs. You see, my brother Asmodeus is quite taken with her. She’s the first human to pay him any interest in three thousand years, and he’s become attached.”
Belial started describing how hellgates worked while Eva continued her fruitless battle to regain possession of the phone. He was oozing charm, putting on his best show for her mother, and she could tell Jacqui was eating it right up.
“Of course I would walk you through the process of drawing the sigil,” Bel said smoothly. “And I will take care of activating it, so that’s all you’ll have to do. Once we arrive, I’ll put wards up around your house to ensure Eva’s continued safety.”
There was a pause while Jacqui replied in which Bel grinned smugly at Eva.
“Excellent. If you would give me one moment, Mrs. Gregory.”
He held the phone away from his ear and looked down at Eva. The urge to wither under his piercing blue stare was hard to fight, and she found herself shrinking back a little.
Gritting her teeth, she fought her wariness and tried to grab the phone again, but he held it aloft. His hand touched the ceiling without his arm being fully straight. There was no way she could reach it.
“I made you some breakfast, Eva. It’s waiting on the kitchen counter, so help yourself. I’ll return your phone as soon as I’ve finished talking to your mother.”
“Damn it, Belial, this isn’t funny! Give it back—”
“I beg your pardon, Mrs. Gregory— Yes, it would be my pleasure to call you Jacqui.” He turned and strode out of the bedroom without a backward glance. “I did make her breakfast. She is my guest, after all.” The door closed firmly behind him.
“Manipulative bastard!” Eva hissed under her breath.