16 Ariuk #2
I looked between them and suddenly understood why this had hit Luc harder than Nick. Nick was angry because Dante had manipulated us. Luc was angry because Dante had done it right in front of him and he hadn’t seen it coming.
That realization seemed to settle over the room before Luc turned and stalked toward his bedroom. The door slammed hard enough to shake one of the pictures on the wall, but Dante watched it happen without so much as flinching.
I glared back at him, my irritation flaring all over again. “I can’t meet all your sins in one fucking week.”
“I told you the task could be completed within a week.”
“That is not the same sentence.”
His smile came back, and I wanted to throw something at him.
“If you complete what I asked,” Dante said, “our arrangement ends and what Heaven claims belongs to me will no longer be my concern.”
The wording caught me hard enough that I stopped breathing for a second. Not my soul. What Heaven claims belongs to him. Another carefully constructed sentence. Before I could question him, Dante headed for the door.
“Wait. Who am I supposed to find next?”
He opened it and glanced over his shoulder. “Check your phone.”
Then he walked out, leaving like he hadn’t detonated the entire fucking apartment on his way through.
Silence settled behind him. Nick stayed where he was for several seconds, staring at the closed door. His claws slowly receded, but his tail remained wrapped around my ankle as if that part of him had decided I wasn’t going anywhere.
I stepped around the edge of the counter and stopped near him. “Nick.” His gaze lifted to mine, some of the darkness in his eyes receding almost immediately. I glanced toward Luc’s closed bedroom door. “Is he okay?”
“No.”
The answer came so fast I nearly laughed, except there wasn’t anything remotely funny about the way Nick was looking at that door. “What happens when he gets like this?”
Nick rubbed both palms over his face before leaning back. “Usually? He disappears until he figures out how to put everything back where it belongs.”
I frowned. “What does that mean?”
“It means Luc hates being blindsided more than almost anything.” Nick’s mouth twisted. “Dante just made him feel stupid.”
I looked toward the door again, remembering how still Luc had gone before he walked away. “Because he’s Pride.”
“Exactly.”
I came closer, stopping in front of Nick because every instinct in my body wanted to crawl directly into his lap and I didn’t think any of us needed that problem right now. His tail tightened once around my ankle when I stopped.
“Can we just not go find them?”
Nick’s expression shifted, some of the fury disappearing.
“If we don’t give Dante whatever result he’s looking for, then he gets to keep dangling this deal over my head.” I wrapped my arms around myself, hating how small my voice sounded. “Which means I’m still tied to him instead of being able to decide what I want.”
Nick leaned forward again, forearms resting against his thighs as he looked up at me. “He doesn’t own you.”
“Tell him that.”
His mouth twitched at that, but the humor didn’t last as the bedroom door opened behind us. Luc stepped back into the room, his expression calmer than it had been before, although that meant absolutely nothing when it came to Luc.
If anything, the calmness looked worse. His hair was slightly disheveled from dragging his hands through it, but otherwise he had put himself back together so completely that if I hadn’t watched him leave, I might have thought nothing happened.
“I’ve also never heard of Dante changing the terms of a deal,” I said as he approached. “But I’m starting to wonder how much he can hide inside the wording without technically changing anything.”
“He didn’t change it,” Luc said as his jaw flexed again before he stopped beside the couch, one hand settling against the back of it rather than reaching for me. “That’s why I’m pissed.”
Nick let out a bitter laugh. “Dante has always preached about honesty. Trickery, misdirection, technicalities? Fine. But altering a deal would go against everything he’s ever taught us.”
“And he didn’t alter it,” Luc added. “He let all three of us assume he meant something else.”
“That’s worse.”
“For Pride?” Nick looked toward his brother. “Yeah. Probably.”
Luc flipped him off without looking, and despite everything, I snorted. Some of the tension finally broke, just enough for me to breathe again before my phone vibrated inside my pocket and all three of us went still.
“Oh, fuck off.” I dragged it out and stared at the unknown number on the screen. Of course. The message was short.
The Devil
GLUTTONY.
PINK FLAMINGO.
TONIGHT.
BACK ENTRANCE.
I stared at the screen long enough that the words started to blur. “You have got to be fucking kidding me.”
Nick pushed to his feet and came over, leaning just enough to read over my shoulder. His tail finally slipped away from my ankle as he moved, though he stayed close enough that his arm brushed mine. “Huh.”
I turned my head toward him. “What does huh mean?”
“Zel.”
I blinked, waiting for more. When none came, I frowned. “Who the fuck is Zel?”
“Beelzebub.”
My eyes widened as I looked between him and Luc. “Beelzebub?”
Luc moved closer and took the phone from my hand before I could stop him, reading the message for himself. His expression changed almost immediately, recognition passing across his face. “Gluttony.”
“Yes, I gathered that part.” I snatched my phone back. “Why is he at Pink Flamingo?”
Nick snorted and moved toward the kitchen, opening the refrigerator like we weren’t discussing another living impossibility I might somehow end up bonded to by tomorrow. “Because Dante has a sense of humor.”
“That explains nothing.”
“It explains a lot if you know Dante.”
I stared at the back of his head until Luc sighed and shifted his weight against the counter.
“Pink Flamingo is Zel’s placement.” When I frowned, Luc continued.
“Same principle as school for us.” Luc nodded toward the phone still clutched in my hand.
“Dante puts everyone somewhere that forces them to deal with the worst parts of their essence without losing control.”
I glanced down at the message again, thinking about the club in an entirely different way now. Pink Flamingo was all loud music, bodies, alcohol, food, lust, people spending too much money and wanting more of everything. Oh. Gluttony suddenly made a hell of a lot more sense.
Nick came back with a bottle of water and twisted the cap off. “Food. Booze. Sex. Attention. Too much of everything in one building.”
“And Dante thought that was a good place to put him?”
Luc gave me a flat look. “Dante put Pride and Wrath in college.”
“Fair.” I tucked my phone against my chest and looked between them. “So, you know him?”
Nick took a long drink before answering. “Know of him. Met him a few times. We’re not friends.”
Luc’s mouth twitched. “None of us are particularly close.”
That fit with what they had already told me. The seven were real, but Dante hadn’t raised them like one giant fucked-up family. They knew of each other, crossed paths occasionally, and apparently that was about as warm and fuzzy as demon siblinghood got. “Alright. Then what’s he like?”
Nick lowered the bottle and glanced toward Luc, leaving the explanation to him.
“Relaxed,” Luc said. When I kept waiting, he pushed away from the counter and added, “Which is the first mistake people make with him. Zel’s easy to talk to. Easier than most of us, probably. That doesn’t make him safe.”
My thumb stopped against the edge of my phone case. “Why?”
“Because Gluttony isn’t just about food.” Luc’s expression grew more serious as he studied me. “It’s appetite. Whatever feels good, whatever someone wants more of. Food, sex, attention, power. Zel doesn’t struggle with knowing what he wants. He struggles with stopping once he has it.”
Nick leaned his hip against the counter beside him. “He’s not going to jump you in the parking lot, if that’s what you’re picturing.”
I stared at him. “That was weirdly specific.”
“It was supposed to be reassuring.”
Luc cut his brother a look. “Your standards for reassurance are fucking terrible.”
I rubbed my thumb over the edge of my phone case again, trying not to build some ridiculous picture of the demon Dante had decided belonged in the middle of one of the most indulgent places in the city. “Does he at least look like you two?”
Nick laughed hard enough that I got my answer before he spoke. “No.”
“Not remotely,” Luc added, and the hint of amusement returning to his face told me both of them were enjoying how little information they were giving me.
I narrowed my eyes. “You two are assholes.”
Luc ignored him and nodded toward the phone still in my hand. “You’ll see Zel tonight. Just remember what we told you. Friendly doesn’t mean harmless.”
“And don’t let him take your drink,” Nick added.
My head turned sharply toward him. “Why?”
Luc sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “What Nick is trying to say is that Zel has a habit of sampling whatever catches his interest. Don’t hand him something unless you’re prepared for him to decide he wants the rest of it too.”
That explanation was somehow worse.
I looked back down at Dante’s message. Pink Flamingo was painfully familiar. I knew the entrance, the smell of fried food that always clung to the hallway, the ridiculous neon bird above the bar, the music loud enough to vibrate through the floor. Somehow that made the whole thing stranger.
Gluttony was at one of the few places on Earth I had always liked, and according to Luc and Nick, his biggest problem was knowing when to stop once he wanted something.