Chapter 13
Chapter Thirteen
Asmoday
“Spawn?” I repeated, canting my head while I continued to study the man standing in front of my bed and breakfast, preening like he’d just won the mayoral election. “Is that…?”
“The devil?” Daruka said on an aggravated sigh. “Yes.”
My head whipped around, my stare shifting to her. “You’re the spawn of Satan? Literally?”
Daruka grimaced and made a half-ass wave toward the guy standing on the sidewalk. “Meet my dad.”
Satan wiggled his fingers.
“Hello, sir,” I said, bowing my head. What the hell else was I supposed to do? It was the freaking devil—I was part demon, so I technically was one of his minions.
And also, I’d just banged his daughter less than twenty-four hours ago, and I not only wanted to do it again, I wanted to do it on the regular for the rest of our lives.
Yikes. Would we be obligated to visit Hell for family gatherings? Would he expect to give her away at our mating ceremony? Pretty sure the elves would not appreciate me inviting Satan to the elfin woods.
“How did you figure out I was here?” Daruka demanded, glaring at the freaking devil. “Mom told me this was the one place you’d never find me.”
“And she would have been right. Except…” He plucked a phone with a heavy-duty bright red case out of an interior pocket and waved it.
“Social media.” He tapped the screen, his gaze scanning it for a moment before adding, “Someone named WolfBoy posted about this cool new chick in town with blue hair who was a total badass and a mermaid to boot. Couldn’t imagine that could be anyone other than my dear daughter. ”
“WolfBoy?” Daruka repeated, her gaze swinging Krishna’s way.
He lifted his hands, palms facing out. “I had no idea the actual devil was following me,” he protested. “There are dozens of profiles with that name.”
“Mine says ‘the real deal’ though,” Satan pointed out.
Daruka smacked her forehead.
“It’s time to go, Daruka,” the devil called out, his tone suddenly serious.
Every creature within sight shifted their gaze to Daruka, standing in the doorway, hands curled into fists, knuckles white. She was probably drawing blood with her nails and didn’t even realize it.
“I thought you’d changed your mind,” she said, her voice wavering only a little. “The last minions you sent after me tried to kill me.”
“What?” Satan yelped, swinging around to face the cluster of demons at his back. “Anwir, Dagon, where are you?”
Two demons slowly raised their hands.
Satan pointed at them with the cane, and a moment later, two curls of smoke drifted on the wind and there were two scorch marks on the asphalt. And two fewer demons in the world.
“That wasn’t my intent,” he said calmly, turning back to us while brushing imaginary lint from his shirt. “I can assure you.”
“I’m not going,” Daruka said, far more clearly and concisely than I was pretty sure literally anyone else would. But I guess if you were the daughter of the devil, you probably had a lot more confidence than the rest of us when dealing with the most powerful demon in the world.
“It’s time to take on your responsibilities,” the devil said, eyeing the exterior of the old home I’d carefully restored and put my mark on. The business I’d chosen to cultivate over doing what my father expected of me.
“Responsibilities?” I repeated. “What responsibilities?”
“Running the family business, of course.” He chuckled and pressed his fingers to his chest. “Well, not running it, running it. That’s my job. She’ll be assigned a small faction at first, to get her feet wet. Or hot, as the case may be.”
“A small faction…” I continued to stare at Daruka. “Definitely some steep expectations,” I echoed her earlier comment.
I shook my head, struggling with this news. “You’re going to Hell?” Well, hell. Here I thought we could figure out a way to live happily ever after. But nobody lived happily ever after in Hell.
“Not if I can help it,” Daruka muttered and then abruptly turned on her heel and rushed through the house toward the back. Toward the kitchen entrance if I had to guess. She was planning to run.
Again.
Satan’s face contorted, his gaze tracking her until she disappeared from view. He lifted his arms, hands curled like claws, and started chanting. The building shook with even more vigor than before.
Guess we knew what was causing it now.
That realization wasn’t comforting. How the hell were we supposed to defeat the devil?
“I will bring this house down around your ears if you do not come out here and talk to me, young lady.” His voice amplified like he was using a microphone.
Oh shit! I lifted a single, shaky finger. “Be right back.” And then I bolted after Daruka.
I caught up to her on the back porch.
“I know, I know,” she said before I could even open my mouth. “I need to get out there before he hurts anyone, but I’d rather do it on my own terms.”
“Do you have a plan?”
“I’m making it up as I go along.”
“How about giving me the gist?”
Her gaze darted to the west, to the east, and back west again. “Lure him back to the hellmouth. That has to be how he was able to get into town.”
“Agreed.”
“And somehow figure out how to get him and all of his minions—except you and I, of course—back to Hell.”
I waited, in case there was more. As far as plans went, it was a pretty flimsy one so far.
“And then I’ll run back to my car and hightail it out of town.”
There it was. I shook my head. “No. Come up with a better plan.”
She ground her teeth and shot me a frustrated glare.
“We don’t have time to argue over this. My being here puts every single resident in danger.
Even if I can convince him to return to Hell, now that he knows my location, he’ll keep coming back.
He won’t relent until I go with him. So either I go to Hell or I go…
someplace else.” She shook her head. “My mother said this was the safest place for me. That he’d never find me here.
I can’t believe a stupid post on social media gave me away. ”
“Sorry,” Krishna muttered, gaze downcast. If he’d been in wolf form, his tail would have been tucked between his legs. I hadn’t even realized the young werewolf followed me, although I wasn’t the least bit surprised.
“Maybe set your social media posts to private,” I suggested before refocusing on Daruka.
She was losing her cool, and fast. I needed to distract her, help her find her balance again. And I could not let her leave me.
I dropped my hands onto her shoulders, gave them a squeeze. “Daruka, I need you to understand that what I feel for you, it’s not just sex. It’s—”
“Seriously, Asmoday? Right now? You want to have a heart-to-heart while the freaking devil is trying to destroy the life you built for yourself?” She narrowed her eyes. “Yeah, I see you. You’re hiding, too, but you’re happy. And your family isn’t going to destroy the town to get to you.”
My family wouldn’t even leave the elfin forest to search for me, but that was a point for another day.
“I just want to tell you that I’m in it for the long haul,” I hurried to say. “Whatever happens. If you need to take over Hell, I’m going with you.”
“I’m not taking over Hell. That’s not in the cards for me.
” She pulled out of my grip and strode to the edge of the patio.
“You don’t think you belong in the elfin forest?
Well, I sure as heck don’t belong in Hell.
Why do our fathers insist upon forcing their own ideals onto us? Why can’t we just live our own lives?”
I stepped up behind her and smoothed my palm up her spine to cup her neck. “I lo—”
She spun around and slapped her hand over my mouth. “Do not say it.”
I licked her palm. She jerked it away, scowling. “Gross.”
“Fine, I won’t say it. Not right now, anyway. But you’re not getting rid of me, Daruka. I hate to break it to you, but if you run away without me, I will come after you even if that puts me right in Satan’s path.”
“He’ll kill you.” Her eyes widened. “He wouldn’t even hesitate.”
“Then I suggest you not leave me behind.”
Her eyes narrowed to slits. “You play dirty pool.”
“I promise to spend as much time as you can handle making it up to you.” I slipped out my two-pronged tongue and licked my lips.
Her mouth fell open while a flush crept up her chest. After a couple of heartbeats, she shook her head. “Fine. Let’s lead them back to the hellmouth without getting ourselves—or any of the other residents—killed in the process.”
Smiling smugly, I twined our fingers together. “Let’s go.”
Hand in hand, we darted through the alley behind the businesses lining Main Street, heading toward the outskirts, to where the hellmouth sat, normally dormant and unobtrusive.
One of these days, we needed to figure out how to keep it that way, permanently. Clearly, building a moat around it was not the answer.
“Are demons able to walk on water?” I asked when we reached the end of Main Street. “How did they get past the moat?”
“Most of us have wings,” she reminded me with a scowl.
Right. Dumb question.
Also, poor choice of protective layer between town and the hellmouth. Definitely needed to revisit that. Assuming we all survived this.
I could see the cluster of unwanted visitors in the distance, filling Main Street but staying in the road, while the local monsters were all hovering on the sidewalk. The two groups eyed each other, but no one seemed inclined to make a move.
I was glad for that. I wasn’t keen on one of my friends getting hurt. Or worse.
“Stay here,” I heard from behind me. Swinging around, I caught Selina as she tossed a fluffy wolf to the ground.
Courtesy of the moment Daruka and I just shared on the back porch of my bed and breakfast, I’d momentarily forgotten about the little werewolf, and somehow, he’d ended up in Selina’s clutches.
“Hey,” Daruka said, stalking toward her. “What are you doing with Krishna?”
“Saving him, obviously,” Selina said.
Krishna wagged his tail and let his tongue loll out of his mouth. The young werewolf looked like a lapdog. If he were smaller, he’d be the sort that wealthy human women liked to tuck into their purses while they went shopping.
“Saving him?” Daruka repeated, shaking her head. “I don’t buy it.”
Selina rolled her eyes and cocked a hip. “Fine. I planned to use him as bait if necessary.”
Krishna gave a startled yelp and scurried over to cower between Daruka’s legs.
“For what?” Daruka demanded.
Selina flapped her hand at the cluster of demons. “I just want to meet him. The head of all the demons.”
Daruka’s mouth fell open. “You want to meet the devil?”
Selina crossed her arms and thrust her nose in the air.
We didn’t have time for this. Satan was going to destroy the place if we didn’t get him back to Hell, pronto. “Go back to your coffee shop and stay out of sight,” I said sternly. “It’s too dangerous out here.”
I clasped Daruka’s hand again, gave it a squeeze.
“Come on. Let’s go kick some Satan ass.”