I lunged toward her, but the man in the suit pulled me back. “Ah, ah, ah. She’s not going to wake up until our evening’s over. And whether she wakes up is entirely up to you.”
I gave him a not-so-nice look. What he meant was that she’d only wake up if I gave him my soul.
His eyes sparkled with unholy light. He thinks he’s already won. From the surety in his eyes, I was surprised he hadn’t already demanded that I trade my soul for her life. Why would he need a whole evening to convince me?
“You have to give me your word that she’ll be safe.”
“You don’t trust me?”
I gave him an incredulous look. “You’re the devil. Your reputation precedes you.”
He turned from me and made an announcement to the deserted cathedral. “Hear me one and all.”
I glanced around. Who was he talking to? There was no one in the room. However, as my gaze scoured the unholy church, I began to second guess that assumption.
The shadows moved. At first I assumed the torchlight was responsible for the movement, but a closer inspection revealed something more insidious: the shadows moved independently.
“What are those things?”
Though his head didn’t move, the devil’s eyes flicked to me. “My minions.” He managed to say that with a straight face. He also managed to not answer my question at all. I was sort of hoping for an answer along the lines of shadows, people, demons, or damned souls. I held my tongue, however, so that the man in the suit could finish his speech.
“No one is to lay a finger on the girl—”
Well, I held my tongue for a little bit at least. “Leanne,” I clarified, “the girl resting on the altar right there.” I pointed to my friend.
The devil flashed me a dark look. “That’s what I was saying.”
I shook my head. “No. You said girl, but that could mean me or Leanne.”
The sly grin that spread across the devil’s mouth unnerved me. He’d been deliberately vague, and the fact that my clarification only managed to amuse him was not comforting. He glanced back at the room of shadows. “You are not to lay a finger on Leanne, the girl on the altar.”
“Or hurt her in any other manner, including both physical and mental harm,” I added.
Now the devil looked displeased. “You forget your place, consort.” The name he used froze the blood in my veins. “It is you who are my prisoner; you have no power here.”
His eyes dropped from my face, down my body, and back up. The sensation felt a whole lot like bugs crawling along my skin. If I made it out alive, I was going to need at least five showers before I felt better. “However, I will entertain your demands . . . for now.”
He turned and repeated my addendum to his minions. The shadows seemed to shudder. I guess it was tough for the minions of hell to hold themselves back from maiming humans.
The devil took my hand, and unease oozed through me. “It’s time to go,” he said.
I twisted my head to face him. “Go where?”
“My home.”
I swallowed. I knew exactly where he meant. Hell.
***
One moment we stood in the cathedral, the next we were in the woods. This was hell? That couldn’t be right.
Around us the land remained eerily silent. Nothing moved, nothing breathed. The animals that should’ve made this place their home were gone.
But as we walked through the woods, I noticed the sound of wood creaking. My eyes followed the sound, and I watched, transfixed, as the trees bent away from us. I looked over my shoulder and saw that they straightened as soon as we passed. They couldn’t move, but they did what they could to keep as much distance between them and the devil as possible.
The woods opened up, revealing a large stone castle, and beyond it, a lake. “That’s your house?” I asked. I found it hard to believe that the devil actually had a house or, for that matter, the down time and desire needed to enjoy a home.
“You are surprised?”
“A bit.” That was an understatement.
Next to me the devil strolled. So far he’d been nothing like I’d imagined he’d be since he took me. Well, that’s not entirely true. Deceptive? Yes. Interested in my immortal soul? Yes. But the whole evil incarnate business? I hadn’t seen as much of that as I would’ve thought. And he seemed interested in . . . physical things, for lack of a better word. I’d never heard of the devil actually being interested in women or real estate. Then again, I wasn’t exactly well versed on the devil.
However, I could say that my modern take on the devil had got something wrong about him. He wasn’t just the embodiment of evil. He was also Loki, Hades—all those mischievous, pagan gods that had human needs and material desires.