Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Daruka
I had to know. About the hellmouth. Did it really exist?
Did Dad know it had been opened? Selina had said something that implied it was still open, somewhat.
Somewhat was all Dad needed. If he were so inclined, he could turn himself into a mouse to sneak through the smallest of crevices.
Or, more likely, a cockroach.
On one hand, it was kind of cool that my father was so powerful. On the other, that was far too high of a standard for me to live up to. I was generally happy being somewhere in the vicinity of average.
If I took over Hell, the other demons would be laughing at me in no time. And then they’d knock me off that throne and chaos would ensue.
Chaos always ensued down in Hell, according to my mother, but if Hell’s demons were left unchecked, that chaos would spill over into this world, and, frankly, this world was doing a fine job of creating its own chaos. It did not need a bunch of demons leveling up.
Which meant I needed to stay out of Dad’s clutches.
I could run, like I’ve been doing for eight years. Just turn on my heel and hurry those few blocks to where my stolen Buick was parked, hop into the driver’s seat, and continue on my quest to stay at least half a step ahead of Dad—and be ready to change course at a moment’s notice.
I was so tired of running. And while I’d only been in this quirky small town for a few hours, I was already feeling comfortable here, if you could believe it.
Selina’s presence notwithstanding, of course.
And Asmoday. Although, honestly, the only thing annoying about Asmoday was my attraction to him.
Take that out of the picture and the guy was, well, pretty darn nice.
He gave me a place to stay, he bought me a coffee and pastry, he introduced me to Queenie, who set me up with a brand-new wardrobe that was pretty similar to the wardrobe I’d left behind in Maryland.
And now that I thought about it, she hadn’t asked me for payment, so he must have covered that too.
Not that paying for everything was the way to my heart. Far from it.
It was more that I couldn’t come up with a reason to dislike him.
Other than my own annoying attraction to him.
I understood enough about witches and the spells they were able to cast to know that I should be covered by that pheromone-smothering spell Selina had worked up.
But I wasn’t. And I didn’t want to think about why.
“Because I’m pretty sure you’re my fated mate.”
It was preposterous. And most importantly, not correct.
Demons didn’t have fated mates. It wasn’t a thing. And okay, yes, I was part mermaid, and yes, Mom told me about plenty of mermaids she knew who had found their fated mate and were living happily ever after. But that didn’t count.
Because I was half demon.
And Asmoday was…shit. Elf and lust demon?
There was no room for fated mates in that matchup.
And anyway, it didn’t matter. I wasn’t a lifer in this town. Especially not if there was a hellmouth here and it was even a smidge open…
No. Didn’t matter. Because demons didn’t do fated mates.
I kicked up the pace, heading away from the cluster of storefronts, Asmoday’s hotel, and my escape route, a.k.a. the stolen Buick.
While Queenie had tried to outfit me in every color under the sun—“Ohh, lavender would look lovely with your hair, sweetie. No? Definitely salmon, then. White? Spring green? Pale blue?”—she also peppered in information about the town.
And the hellmouth’s location.
I’d finally allowed her to dress me in a deep purple hoodie, although I’d insisted on my tried-and-true black leggings. So she’d given me five pair, plus a couple of relaxed fit yoga pants and five hoodies in varying shades of purple. Oh, and one in medium blue, which I grudgingly admitted I liked.
And then I left it all in a pile just inside the door and slipped out while Asmoday was otherwise occupied at the tattoo parlor across the street. The tattoo parlor that, I couldn’t help but notice, didn’t have a piercer on duty.
Not that I was looking for a new gig.
As I walked past Asmoday’s hotel, a short, stocky guy with dusky skin and a mop of curly hair fell into place beside me. While he had the face of a twelve-year-old, he also had practically a full beard and a tuft of dark hair sticking out of the collar of his shirt.
He didn’t say a word, but he did keep sniffing in my general direction. I was pretty sure he thought he was being stealthy about it, but his flaring nostrils and the constant sniff, sniff noises were a dead giveaway.
“Dude, stop,” I finally snapped.
“I’m trying to figure out what you are,” he replied in a voice that hadn’t quite hit puberty yet.
I gave him the side-eye. “Just use your senses, man. That’s what they’re there for. If you trust them, they usually won’t let you down.”
“Use my senses…” He said it like he was having an epiphany, which was strange because the dude was a werewolf, the species at the top of the senses food chain.
“You are such a loser, Krishna,” someone called out from the other side of the street. I did not even need to glance up to know who it was. Selina the Bad Witch’s voice was permanently burned into my brain.
I shouldn’t give two shits about the clueless werewolf by my side.
But.
I really, really disliked bullies.
“Shut the fuck up, Selina,” I bellowed.
Far, far too loudly.
As if my shout had summoned everyone to a town meeting, the sidewalk on both sides of the street suddenly was full of creatures.
A dragon, a hydra, genie, other werewolves.
I noted a minotaur, a centaur, the yeti from the ice cream store.
There was Queenie…and of course, Asmoday, who was jogging toward us with a pinched look on his face.
No, wait. He was jogging toward—“What the hell is he running to her for?” I muttered, forgetting for a moment that a tiny werewolf named Krishna was standing next to me.
“Because Selina tends to cause trouble, and Asmoday is pretty much the only guy in town who can talk her out of whatever shenanigans she’s up to,” Krishna replied matter-of-factly.
Yes, the word shenanigans sounded weird coming out of the mouth of someone who looked like a twelve-year-old dressed up for Halloween as an old hairy guy.
I stalked across the street, heading toward Selina and Asmoday, even as I tried to will my legs to not do this.
While checking out the hellmouth right now did not seem like a wise option with all these people staring at us, neither did striding toward the man who turned my insides to molten lava and the woman who’d decided to hate me on sight.
Krishna trotted along beside me.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“I haven’t figured out what you are yet.”
I sighed. “Mermaid.”
I caught his frown out of the corner of my eye. “You smell like incense.”
“What?” I yelped, sniffing at my pit. I’d bathed, and Asmoday hadn’t been close enough for long enough to make me sweat recently. Until I’d landed in this town, I’d had no issue keeping the incense scent hidden away, courtesy of my shifter side.
But Krishna was a werewolf, and while he clearly didn’t understand how his own senses worked, they just as clearly did.
Through gritted teeth, I ground out, “I’m part demon.”
“Really?” Krishna’s ears perked up, like a dog’s would when someone said, “Good boy.”
“Did you know Asmoday is a demon too?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“But you don’t have wings,” Krishna noted. “I thought all demons had wings.”
“Not all,” I said, although most did. In fact, less than one percent of that population did not.
Another reason to stay the hell out of Hell. For my entire life, I’d tried everything in my power to not be the center of attention. I’d only ever wanted to grow up and just, oh, you know, be happy. Was that really too much to ask?
“So what kind of demon are you?” Krishna asked.
I was saved from coming up with an answer by the fact that we’d reached Asmoday and Selina, who were bickering like brother and sister.
Or lovers.
Selina noted my presence—the moment she did, she curled her arm around Asmoday’s neck, tugging him close and licking his cheek.
My eyes narrowed to slits while I mentally sifted through every curse that had been stocked in my brain, courtesy of my father.
Asmoday squirmed and twisted, ducking out of her embrace and lunging for me as if he knew exactly my intention. As he was a demon, too, he probably did.
Selina was faster—or more determined—because her hand landed smartly on Asmoday’s junk. I caught his eyes widening right before she squeezed. Once, twice.
“Oh,” Selina practically purred. “I didn’t see you over there.” She gave me a toothy smile.
Asmoday brushed her hand away. “Daruka—”
“Maybe you should get your eyes checked,” Krishna quipped in a ridiculously misplaced attempt to be brave.
Asmoday closed his eyes and shook his head. I glared at Selina, silently daring her to respond to Krishna’s silly comment.
She did. By curling her hand around Asmoday’s hip.
Before I could react, he snatched it and forcibly shoved it down to her side.
“The message he’s trying to send is pretty clear,” I coolly noted.
“What message is that?” Selina asked, sugar sweet.
“Keep your hands to yourself. It’s obvious he’s not interested.”
Selina gave him the side-eye. “Oh, trust me, he’s interested.” She tucked a lock of hair behind his ear, which twitched in response.
What the hell? Was he attracted to her? He’d insisted—whether I believed in it or not hardly mattered when—
“This is the game we play,” Selina said in that same overly gooey tone. “Isn’t it, sweetie pie?”
She leaned toward him and licked his ear.
I was pretty sure there was steam pouring from my ears.
Krishna, in a moment of sharp observation I suspected was entirely out of character, said, “Whoa. Did you hook up with Selina?”
What?
“Son of a—”
No idea if Asmoday finished that sentence. I wasn’t in the frame of mind to stick around to find out.
I bolted.