8. CHAPTER
CHAPTER
EIGHT
Mr. Heiss had the limo drive them back to his home as opposed to teleporting, so maybe he wasn’t the only one concerned for Indy’s potential brain damage.
From the outside, it was a simple condo.
Brick, old, boring.
Indy caught a glimpse of an equally boring and surprisingly empty foyer as they stepped through the front door.
Indy only saw it for a blink before it vanished.
There was obviously a portal to the actual place Mr. Heiss called home, and Indy suspected the condo he’d seen was merely a front.
They now stood in the living room, where King still sat on the coffee table and Gammy…
Well, she had been busy.
Every conceivable surface was covered in strange symbols and complex circles. Candles had been found and lit, and there were so many it had to be some sort of fire hazard.
Gammy had changed into a black nightgown patterned with skulls that had pink mohawks, and she had added black fuzzy slippers with the same skulls to her ghostly wardrobe.
Her hair remained a shocking shade of purple.
She’d been in the middle of finishing another series of symbols when she saw them, and she squealed.
Mr. Heiss appeared mildly concerned. “What in the fuck—”
“My sweetie cakes!” Gammy threw herself at Indy and hugged him tight, nearly physical from head to toe. “You’re all right!” She shot Mr. Heiss a hateful glare. “Where have you been? Hmm?”
“Sorry it took a while,” Indy soothed. “We had to go see a fae for—”
“A fae?”
“—the sap stuff. But here, look! Look! We got everything, okay?” Indy looked her over. “You must be feeling better. You’re hard as a damn rock.”
“Isn’t that what you usually say to the fellas?” Gammy teased, her hand cupping Indy’s cheek and then giving it a pinch.
Indy laughed, swatting her away.
“What in the fuck is this?” Mr. Heiss barked, glaring at them both and waving toward the mess around them.
“Oh, isn’t it obvious?” Gammy blinked. “You two were gone for so long, and I was getting worried. So, I was busy preparing a banishment.”
King beamed. “I helped!”
Mr. Heiss rubbed his hands together and clapped.
The candles and symbols vanished, the entire room shuddering from the flex of power it took to remove everything in an instant.
King was also now absent.
“So you know, I can easily do that again!” Gammy wagged a finger at Mr. Heiss. “Now, do you have a kitchen I can use, hmm? I need to get to conjuring as soon as possible.”
“Yes, please.” Indy turned to Mr. Heiss. “Do you have a kitchen?”
Of the many rooms Indy had found before, he hadn’t seen one.
Maybe that’s what was behind that locked door.
“Yes.” Mr. Heiss waved back toward the hallway.
Indy could see a new doorway that hadn’t been there before which led to a sleek kitchen with black-and-gold appliances. He carried the bag there with Gammy right behind him. He placed it on the marble counter of a large island, asking, “Okay! What do we do?”
“You sit back and relax,” Gammy said firmly. “I’ve got this.”
“What are you—” Indy looked over his shoulder to talk to Mr. Heiss, but he was gone.
Of course.
He shouldn’t have been surprised, but it stung unexpectedly.
Gross.
“Okay, hugs and kisses! Gonna miss you! Not!” Indy rolled his eyes and then draped himself over the counter with a loud groan. This was the most exhausted he’d ever been without a monster orgy being responsible. “Ugh. Holy shit, this has been a fucking day.”
“Are you all right?” Gammy asked softly, pulling the ingredients out from the bag.
“Fine. The whole murder trial thing was such bullshit.” Indy snorted a laugh into the counter.
“It was all just to make sure Mr. Heiss could get control of Mr. Kalt’s money and crap.
Did meet another demon. Yay. But he helped us meet the fae who had the sap.
So, I guess he was all right. For a demon. ”
“I don’t suppose there’s been any progress about, well, you know.” Gammy eyed Indy’s hand.
“Nope.” Indy shook his head. “Dill and his girlfriend are still stuck with me. If Mr. Heiss has any other bright ideas, he hasn’t shared them with me.”
“How are you doing?” Gammy coughed. “With your, uh, lack of prep?”
“Got a little scary earlier,” Indy admitted. “Was hurting kinda? Like, so bad. But then, like, I thought it might actually be a panic attack and that just made it worse.”
“Oh, sweetie cakes. What happened?”
“I honestly don’t know.” Indy turned his head to watch her. “It came out of nowhere. Mr. Heiss calmed me down and then it stopped, but I have no idea what set it off. It was hell. Like, just literally hell. Really thought it was my ticket about to get punched.”
“Don’t worry,” Gammy soothed. “We’re going to take care of it. We can fix it. Ish. Mostly. Yes. Okay!” She took a deep breath. “Can you find me a big, big pot?”
“You got it.” Indy dragged himself off the counter to pick through cabinets. Most of them were empty, but he was able to find one lone pot large enough to have given King his own hot tub. He set it on the stove, asking, “Anything else?”
“No, no, I’ve got this.” Gammy was busy grinding the herbs up with a mortar and pestle. “Anything else exciting happen, hmm?” She smirked. “Mr. Heiss seems to be warming up to you.”
“Ha, like a penguin.”
“You said he calmed you down when you were panicking.”
“Yeah, I guess he did. But he’s still an asshole.”
“Oh, of course.” Gammy grinned. “If he had a drag house, it would be the Fabulous Gaping Assholes.”
“Ah, yes! Here we have Mr. Heiss walking in the bastard category. Oh, look at him go. Serving fresh asshole boots the house down.” Indy chuckled as he snapped his fingers, thinking about how Mr. Heiss had held his hand and how he’d snapped off at Misingno and called him his mortal so possessively.
Fuck, why was some demon asshole in a suit so hot?
It really wasn’t fair.
Indy stirred from the memories and caught Gammy still grinning at him. “What?”
“Nothing, sweetie cakes. Nothing at all.” Gammy hummed as she threw some of the herbs into the pot. “Why don’t you go rest, hmm? It’ll be a few hours before it’s ready, and you should save your strength.”
“Yeah, no. Not doing that until you tell me why you’re being weird.”
“Me?”
“Yeah, you! Weird. Weirder than usual. Which is saying a lot with the whole undead thing.”
“Go rest. Have a nice nap, hmm?”
“Uh-huh.” Indy remained suspicious, but he couldn’t argue that a nap actually sounded really nice. “Just come find me when the caboose juice is ready, okay?”
“Of course, sweetie cakes. Love you.”
“Love you too.” Indy headed back into the hallway, deciding to help himself to Mr. Heiss’s bedroom. He didn’t want to crash on the couch when there was a perfectly good bed not being used. Having a few hours to doze and not worry about any monster bullshit sounded amazing.
Even if certain monsters were surprisingly funny, protective, and maybe even thoughtful.
Okay, the fucking my mortal thing should not have been as hot as it was.
Dammit!
Had Mr. Heiss been a human being, it would have been a huge red flag. But for a demon, a merciless monstrosity whose entire race was defined by its fantastical and often clever cruelty, it was kind of sweet.
Then again, Mr. Heiss had also tried to cut his hand off.
So, yeah, fuck him.
Indy removed his shoes so he could crawl into the big bed with a loud groan. He kicked back the covers and buried himself in the army of pillows. He closed his eyes, his body sore and bones heavy. He’d been going hard for so long all day that he hadn’t fully processed how exhausted he was.
Found a magical ring, kidnapped by a demon, kidnapped by more monsters, and oh yeah, might be fucking dying.
Except there was no might be.
He was dying.
Actively.
And there was nothing he could do about it right now except wait and hope.
Hope was something he’d given up when he first received his terminal diagnosis. There was no hope to be had when his life literally had an expiration date on it like he was a bottle of fucking milk. It was why he’d chosen to live to the fullest, excessively so, to make the most of what he had left.
Because hope was stupid.
So fucking stupid.
But then why had he gone looking for Gammy’s books…?
Why had he tried so hard to find a way to keep living a little longer? Wasn’t his search in itself a form of hope because he’d been hoping to not die so young? Maybe it was the idea that people used hope as an excuse instead of actively doing something to get whatever it was they wanted.
Sitting around and hoping for good things to happen was dumb.
Going out and fighting for them was everything.
Indy had been willing to sell his soul to keep himself from dying.
There wasn’t much he wouldn’t do, which made the current situation with Mr. Heiss especially dangerous.
He could not like that asshole. Nope. Not even a little.
It didn’t matter if hanging out with Mr. Heiss today had been the longest amount of time that he’d spent with anyone not Gammy in years or that he had actually enjoyed parts of it.
It was totally inconsequential that Mr. Heiss was really fun to talk shit with or that thinking about his sharp smile or his hot touch sent shivers down Indy’s spine.
If Indy let his guard down, he could lose it all.
His home, his future, his life.
Lonely as it was, it was still his.
And it was all he had.
“And Tanze?”
“Refusing to leave Underwood’s side. But good.”
“If he can get out of bed to watch over him, then he can work.”
“I’ll… I’ll see what I can do.”
“Now.”
“Yes, boss.”
Indy woke to the soft sounds of voices in another room. He recognized them as Mr. Heiss and Azazel. He didn’t open his eyes yet, far too comfortable to move or give any indication he was awake. He wasn’t sure exactly where the two demons were, but it seemed like they were close.
Maybe over in the living room or that weird library room.
“Any progress with Mr. Kalt’s properties?” Mr. Heiss asked. He sounded tired.