Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
D evlyn’s warehouse parking lot was deserted, which was great because I was not up to dealing with the monstrous-mother again and/or saving/not saving Wald’s life.
But before the car even stopped, my stomach recoiled, recalling the stench of the pit.
“The warehouse smell, what the hell is it? When we got into the pit, it didn’t smell bad. ”
“It’s an illusion. Devlyn is quite accomplished and likes his privacy.” Wald rubbed his fingers along his chin as if contemplating my question.
“Yeah, I bet he gets lots of privacy and police cars.”
Wald opened the door and climbed out. “It’s keyed to who comes in. Your own worst nightmare kind of thing.”
“You mean rotting meat and graveyard dirt is my nightmare?” I asked, but he hadn’t heard, leaving me wondering if I could tweak it. What did I hate more than rotten meat and dead things crawling out of a pit? Hmm… My mind wandered to mutilation, rape, torture. Maybe I was getting off easy.
Wald had the trunk open and the box out before I made it out of the car. I tugged the dress down. The material was thin, but the spaghetti-strapped bodice was stretchy and had a tendency to move northward.
I held my breath and opened the door as he moved toward me with the box in his arms, like it was takeout Chinese food. Poor Agatha. I’d liked her strong, alternative take on the world. I needed more people like her in my life.
I already had my arm across my nose and mouth, but the stink was something out of nightmares—my own nightmares apparently, and that made it even worse.
I retched, stumbling after Wald, halting at the tracery.
The kind of dread—where you don’t dare look behind you, and you clamp your eyes shut because if you can’t see it, then it can’t hurt you—froze me.
“If you use the marble, you can follow me down but put it away before we get to the bottom.”
With shaking hands, I dug into my pocket. My fingers connected with the smoothness, and the stench and fear disappeared.
“You could have told me this thing would fix the stench before,” I snarled.
He grinned.
Keeping my side to the inner wall, I walked down the stairs. The right-hand side was a sheer drop into the pit. Somehow, Wald was managing not to fall into it carrying the massive box. A railing would have been a nice addition.
By the time we’d gotten part way down, Devlyn had appeared below, and I figured that was a good time to be visible again. The dread slammed into me, but as I had realized before, the closer to the floor of the pit, the closer I was to not feeling it.
Wald set the box down between him and Devlyn, who gave me a cursory glance, his lips tightening in disapproval as his eyes moved over the filmy dress. He looked behind me, as if expecting someone else to have come down the stairs. He grimaced as his eyes returned to the stainless-steel box.
“Where is Sert?”
“He’s in there.”
“How dare you. Open it now!” Devlyn waved a hand menacingly.
“You open it,” Wald said, shoving his hands into his pockets and taking a step back.
It did not escape me that he’d put his body between me and the box.
I craned my neck to see around him but didn’t dare step into the direct line of sight.
At this point, I had faith that Wald would at least keep me alive.
Nah, if I was telling the truth, I fricking trusted him.
We were way past the point of being new friends, but my eyes were wide open. He was dangerous as fuck.
Devlyn flipped the latches on the box, and Sert kicked the top open with his bound feet.
“My Gods, what has he done to you, my love?” Devlyn asked, bending over as waves of something, I guess you could call it power, rippled through the air.
Well, not visibly. The air became hard to breathe for a second as if the oxygen was low, and my body vibrated with something like music I couldn’t hear.
I edged toward the stairs. Fuzzy handcuffs or not, whatever was in that box wasn’t your normal human, and I wasn’t into being in the same room with it.
“Key?” Devlyn asked. I peeked around again.
He was indicating the handcuffs, which were linked to the lock on the leather ball gag.
The man was sitting up. He looked familiar but nothing like the mannequin: stringy black hair, white skin, and a hard angular face with eyes the blackest black of hell, eyes like Devlyn’s mother. He was staring right at me .
I stepped back behind Wald, hoping he knew what the hell he was doing.
Wald handed Devlyn a key, and Devlyn removed the ball gag.
Sert coughed, then spat on the floor. “Oh, you have no idea how many ways I will enjoy sending you to another plane.” The handcuffs dropped, hitting the side of the box with a clang as Sert stood up.
He was taller than Devlyn but shorter than me.
The purple pajamas did nothing to enhance the waxy whiteness of his skin, and the color made his deeply shadowed, almond-shaped eyes sink into his face.
His lips were pressed together in a hard set line.
“Now let’s get that first level of death under way,” he said, rolling one hand over the other with a sneer.
“Hold on a moment. I appreciate your anger, but your release had strings, dear cousin,” Devlyn interrupted.
“Cousin?” I asked. Oh God, I’d said it out loud. The reveal that we were dealing with a string of twisted relations sleeping with each other was a bit much. Come on, you would have reacted too.
All eyes focused on me, and I raised my chin and faced them down, my teeth clamped hard, bracing for another jaunt across the pit on a wall of air, which didn’t come. Wald moved in front of me again.
“Devlyn,” he said as if calling him to help.
Sert took a shaky step sideways and looked me over. “What a lovely opportunity.”
“You can’t, Sert, I promised,” Devlyn said, waggling a hand at me.
Sert whirled on Devlyn with what could be a pout if men with that much obvious power pouted.
I mean I supposed they might, but on any TV show I’d ever seen, the child-like thing turned out sinister.
I choked back a chuckle, covering it with a cough.
Sert glared at me, and it was like the depths of hell poured out of his eyes.
“Sert!” Devlyn snapped.
“Fine. Let me know when I can have my fun,” he said, storming past Devlyn and disappearing through the door.
Devlyn grimaced. “You’ll pay for that, you know. All this actually,” he said with a wave toward the now-closed door.
“Your anger is expected, but if you recall, this was payment for your own attack,” Wald replied, with a voice so smooth you could skate on it.
“Well, yes, if we are keeping track.”
“I am keeping track.” Wald’s coldness shivered down my neck. Why was I crushing on a fricking monster? Oh yeah, he was hot, like beyond hot.
Okay, some nice quick sex at the end of the day should get him out of my system. I held on to that thought, hoping I’d survive all this insanity to find out how good that sex might be.