Hell Inc. (15 page)

“Quit
speaking nonsense, you worthless imbecile. Shut your mouth and
listen here: a man never forces a lady against her will, and only a
man who has less worth than the flea on the back of a diseased rodent
would even consider it.” He tucked his wings in tight, as if
making sure they were as protected as possible. Levie was preparing
for a fight.

Before
I could even blink the two of them had moved away from the sofa, and
Levie had Liam's back smashed against the Art Deco laden wall. My
demon rescuer slammed his nails into the vampire's chest with a burst
of gore that made my stomach churn. The scariest part of it all was
that Liam didn't look worried, just amused.
You should incinerate
him,
I thought angrily as I watched Liam attempt to forcibly
remove Levie's arm. It was like, excuse the stereotyping, watching
A.J. from the Backstreet Boys duke it out with a 19
^th
century librarian with wings. Kinda funky.

Levie's
other hand was locked with one of Liam's own, and I watched in horror
as Liam pulled a knife from somewhere in his ugly, puffy pants so
quickly that it was just a flash of silver to my eyes. I wanted to
scream as he plunged it deep into Levie's gut, but my head was on
fire and my throat was bruised as hell so I just laid there feeling
weak and miserably useless. Levie grunted, but that was the extent
of his acknowledgment of the pain.
Just burn him already!

As
if the situation couldn't get any worse, Old Dude entered the room in
his wheelchair. His power swept in and over me like a tornado,
threatening to tear me from the cushions and fling me across the
office. Levie's eyes widened when he saw him, and he released Liam
abruptly, his body slamming against the wall and splattering blood
everywhere.

“Daddy
– I mean, Nathaniel,” Liam stood up and wiped some blood
from the corner of his lips. “I was hoping you'd show up. Our
colleague here seems to be hiding some rather pertinent information.”
Nathaniel smiled, and it wasn't pretty. He looked like a corpse,
pale and bloodless with lips that were almost blue and high
cheekbones sunk deep into the wrinkles on his face, leaving his
cheeks hollow and filled with shadows. Levie backed carefully
towards the bed until he was within arm's length. If my hands hadn't
been bound, I would have reached out and grabbed onto him for the
promise of safety he offered, whether it would hold true or not.

Levie
turned carefully, as if Nathaniel might let him go if he moved slowly
enough, and grasped me about the waist, pulling me against him. “I'm
afraid that you'll have to find someone else from whom to glean your
information,” Levie said quietly, hoisting me into his arms.
Liam moved to intercept him, but Levie reached out and slammed his
elbow into Liam's goatee with a satisfying crack.

“Son.”
The word was a warning in and of itself. Liam pouted (yes, pouted
like a whiny, little baby) and crossed his arms over his sparkly
shirt. “Let him go. We don't play games with the Devil's
advocate.” As if to reassure us of the power we felt rolling
off of him in waves, Nathaniel wheeled his chair in front of us,
blocking our escape route. It would've been funny if I hadn't just
been bitten by a murderer/rapist/Daddy's boy.

“Take
your client and leave,” he said simply, a stiff smile still
frozen on his face like he had rigor mortis. “I have all of
the information that I need.” As Levie sidestepped around him,
he continued talking. “And please, accept my condolences for
the loss of your mother, dear girl. My son can be hotheaded at
times. He reacts without thinking.” I turned my head away
from him and tried to block out his words.
This is ridiculous.
They're just going to let us go after all of that?

Levie,
on the other hand, didn't seem to share my suspicions. He climbed
onto the windowsill and paused. I closed my eyes as I saw how far
below the ground was. We were at least four stories up. In the back
of my mind, I knew Levie had wings, but I couldn't even begin to
figure out how he could get enough air in them to keep us afloat. I
felt more than saw them stretch to their full length and swell with
air like a parachute. Then he jumped. That time, I did scream. We
hit the ground hard but not hard enough to hurt, and I shut my mouth.
Levie quickly adjusted me in his arms and took off running. Luckily,
we didn't have to go far. Apparently, the seedy vampire drug house
was located centrally downtown. Thanks for the zoning laws, City of
Everett. At least there weren't people around at this hour to see
Levie carrying me, arms still bound behind my back, both of us
covered in blood.

Once
we were far enough away that Levie felt safe to stop, he set me down
on a bus stop bench and untied my arms. I tried rubbing them
together, but they were so numb that I ended up just fumbling around
stupidly for several moments before Levie grasped my hands in his.
The unnatural warmth of his skin was a welcome reprieve to the cold
stiffness of my fingers.

“What
took you so long?” I mumbled, voice scratchy and barely
audible, as soon as I felt well enough to speak. Levie sat down next
to me and rubbed at the puce stain on his shirt.

“I
am sorry.” It was all he said, no explanation. Typical.

“But
– ” Levie turned and glared at me, stopping me in mid
speech.

“I
came as soon as I found out where you were. Perhaps you should not
run off on your own. I told you that was ill advised.” It
wasn't a good explanation. Hell, it wasn't any explanation at all,
but I didn't much feel like arguing. I felt like curling into a ball
on my own bed and falling asleep. Levie stood up and winced in pain.

“Levie,
are you alright?” I asked, watching as he cradled a hand
against his stomach gingerly. He
was
a demon so I figured it
probably wouldn't be fatal, but that didn't mean it hurt any less.
He ignored my question and reached down to help me to my feet. This
time it was my turn to cringe in pain. My head felt like I'd been
hit by a freight train, my back was stinging something fierce, and
I'd been punched full force in the sternum. Not a good combo. I
rubbed at the lump on my skull and hoped I didn't have a concussion.
Levie took my arms firmly but gently and spun me around. He lifted
up the back of my shirt and ran gentle fingers over the wound. It
hurt but not a lot. At least he hadn't seen the vampire bite yet.

“Perhaps
we should get you to a human hospital,” he replied wearily. I
shook my head and turned back to face him.

“I
just want to go home, Levie. Do you have any money for us to call a
cab?”

“We
don't need a cab,” he said simply, reaching under my knees and
scooping me into his arms. I could feel his muscles bunching beneath
him. With a rush of magic, like flames dancing lightly across my
skin, we were airborne.

I
wanted to look. Trust me, I did. How often does a person get to
fly? Instead, I squeezed my eyes shut and held back tears for a
mother I would never know. I prayed that Levie wouldn't notice. I
wasn't ready to share my feelings with anyone, especially not him.
If he noticed anything, he said nothing the entire way back.

As
we traveled, I pretended that he wasn't a stranger, that his warm
skin and steady arms were mine and that I belonged in them. It felt
good, comforting, and I needed that more in those moments than ever
before. Mom had kidnapped me. Mom had the sight. Mom was dead. It
was a lot to take in.

When
we arrived at the apartment, I realized that I didn't have my keys or
wallet anymore. The creeps had obviously removed them while I'd been
knocked out. Somehow, he was able to open the door anyway and place
me on my bed. I fell asleep immediately and had a nightmare of being
raped by a faceless vampire with a really bad goatee. So much for
sweet dreams.

I
woke the next day to the sphinx licking my cheek. It would have been
cute had it not had the face of an androgynous human. “What
inspires a starving father to give his last scrap of food to his
child?” it riddled. I groaned and turned away from the edge of
the bed only to roll into Levie. He opened his eyes immediately and
sat up, removing an arm from underneath me.

“I
apologize,” he said, still managing to sound arrogant. “I
decided to sleep in here to make sure that you were safe.” I
didn't really care that he'd slept next to me. In fact, I was
grateful for it. He had just saved me from a fate worse than death.
The thought of Liam's hairy chest pressed into my cheek made me
shiver with disgust. I forced myself to take a deep breath and tried
to relax into the pillows.

For
the time being, I was safe. I checked for my watch but realized the
vampires had taken it, too. Sitting up, I tried not to let the pain
I was feeling in my back show on my face while I checked the clock on
my nightstand. It was three fifteen. I groaned and fell back into
the headboard.

I
had a date in less than four hours. Somehow, I didn't feel like
going on one anymore; the death of a parent will do that to a person.
But then again, it would be nice to see Terrence. I needed to see a
friendly face. Levie always looked so arrogant. He never smiled at
me, and the sphinx always just came across as expressionless. I
sniffled and tried not to cry again. Tears just didn't suit me.
Ginger Malloy does not cry
. Besides, it seemed silly to ball
my eyes out with the sunlight streaming in the window and across my
bedspread like liquid gold. Everything in my room just looked so
cheerful that it sort of made me feel ill.

What
I hadn't expected and what shocked me into jumping were the gentle
arms that wrapped around my shoulders and pulled me close. I felt
Levie's breath in my hair, warm and comforting. Muscles in my lower
belly tightened, and I was ashamed at myself for having even one iota
of sexual thought when all I really felt like I should be doing
was
crying.

“I
am sorry about your mother,” Levie said softly, the haughtiness
in his voice reduced to almost nothing, like the glimmer of city
stars behind the smog; they were always there, even if you couldn't
see them. “I was too late to save her. Can you forgive me?”
Forgive him? What on earth was he talking about? He didn't need to be
asking for my forgiveness, Liam did. He needed to beg for it and
then die a horrible death. That was what I wanted, and I told Levie
so.

“I
want Liam to pay, Levie. Not just for what he did to my mother, but
also for what he was trying to do to me. Did to me.” I touched
fingers to my neck and felt yet another wave of nausea at my own
wretchedness. The bite still felt good, like that last packet of Ho
Hos that you know you shouldn't eat, a guilty pleasure. Only Ho Hos
don't have breath that smells like rotten onions and decomposing
apricots. Plus, they don't try to rape you. I looked up at Levie.
His face was thoughtful. “That's what I'm going to use my last
wish for. I want to destroy Liam. And maybe Nathaniel, too. Can
you help me phrase it just right? I'm sort of tired of screwing
things up.” Levie shook his head, and my heart sank.

“You
do not need to waste your last wish on that. I will take care of
them for you. Men such as that worthless lump of coal, Liam, deserve
to be castrated and then killed.” He said it with such
ferocity that I felt heat rise in his skin. Fearing flames would
engulf my entire bed, I sat up and turned to face him.

“There's
no way that you could take out both of those guys, Levie. Look at
you,” I gestured at his stomach wound. “You're hurt
enough as it is.” Levie scowled.

“That
was an unfortunate accident. I was careless.” I looked at him
skeptically.

“Then
why did you run away?” I asked. “From a
senior
.”
Levie rolled his eyes.

“That
man is powerful, despite his age. And I did not run away as you so
poorly phrased it. I was removing you from the situation. I could
have killed both of those fools but feared what they might do to you
when I was otherwise occupied.”

“Why
didn't you incinerate them then?” I asked. Levie blushed.

“They
were resistant to my magics. Both will require more forceful means
of elimination.” Forceful means? I decided it was probably
better not to ask. Either I really was calling him on his bluff, or
there was something more deadly than incineration. Whatever the
truth was, I was not in a place to want to know.

“Well,
it doesn't really matter anyway. I'm just glad that you got there
when you did. I don't know if I could have stayed sane if he'd gone
through with ... with
that
.” I shivered again and
fought back the tears that threatened to overwhelm me.

Since
when was I ever this pathetic? I hadn't cried in front of anyone
since I was a kid and now the waterworks wanted to start again. In
front of this arrogant demon no less? Fantastic. I rubbed at my
eyes frantically.