Hell Inc. (28 page)

“Lucky
for you, I have a sense of humor,” she purred in an accent I
couldn't quite place. “Since you're here, it means you know
how to do your homework. How do you know who I am?” She was
looking at me, but I had no answer for her. After a moment, she blew
smoke in my face and twirled, her purple skirts flowing around her
legs as she glided into her kitchen and began making a pot of tea. I
looked at Terrence, and he smiled cryptically. Either he wasn't
willing to say or he thought I should answer her.

“Um,
so you can reverse wishes as well as grant them, right?” I was
going off the information Terrence had given me in the car. I hoped
to high hell he was right and I wasn't just making an idiot out of
myself. Diamokina stared at me with her alien eyes: almond eyes with
all blue, no pupil, no white, just blue. She smiled again and rubbed
a hand over her nearly bald head.

“And
what obligation do I have to answer you?” she breathed,
leaning over her breakfast bar until our faces were only inches
apart. “Grant me a favor and I'll grant you one.” She
leaned back and cocked her head to one side as if listening for
something. I glanced at Terrence, but his expression told me he knew
little more than I did.

“What
do you want?” I asked, playing the ironic skeptic who sold her
soul for the damn wishes in the first place. Diamokina leaned her
head to the side again and satisfied with whatever it was that she
was looking for, leaned abruptly forward. Her eyes flashed with what
I thought might have been fear, but it came and went too quickly for
me to really tell.

“Get
my bottle, please,” she almost sounded as if she were begging
rather than bargaining. Her eyes darted to the doorway to what I
supposed was a bedroom and then locked onto mine. “Get the
bottle from that girl, and I'll do whatever it is that you want. It
can't be any worse than this.”

“The
thirteen year old is holding you captive?” The genie's hand
flew over my mouth and she curled her lip at me.

“Are
you trying to get us all killed?” I had no idea what she was
talking about so I just shrugged.

“What
the fucking hell do you think you're doing?” Thirteen-year-old
was holding a freaking pistol in her hands and glaring at the three
of us. “I leave the room for one fucking second and you start
making deals behind my back.” Somehow, I liked the sleepy,
stupid eyed version of this girl better. “What the fuck, Dia,
you don't like me anymore?” She fired a shot at the kitchen
cabinet and the wood exploded in a spray of debris and Cheerios.

“Ah,
Goddamn it.” I staggered back against the living room wall and
tried not to attract the girl's attention. Meanwhile, Terrence had
moved in the opposite direction, pinning himself against the living
room couch. We exchanged glances but the girl wasn't looking at us,
she was looking at the genie and while Diamokina couldn't die, she
could feel pain and obviously had no desire to be shot. I was hoping
the sphinx or the yetis might hear the commotion and come in before
the whole thing got ugly.

“There
was no bargaining going on, Leah. The idiot girl misunderstood what
I was saying,” Leah narrowed her eyes and lowered her gun a
couple of inches. I felt an itching at the edges of my thoughts and
when I tried to process it, I heard a voice.
The bottle is
in the bedroom in the nightstand. The fool doesn't keep it very well
hidden. If you can grab it, you will control me. It is as simple as
that.

I
wanted to ask her if she could take the gun away too but since I had
no idea how telepathy worked, there was really nothing I could do but
try to figure it out on my own. Leah was approaching the kitchen,
and she didn't look any less pissed.

“I'm
tired of your fucking lies, Dia. You tell me one thing and do
another. I'm sick of it. I'm fucking ending this now.” The
next thing I saw, I wish I hadn't. A gunshot wound to the head isn't
pretty, genie or no. I cringed and closed my eyes against the burst
of fluids that sprayed the white cabinets. I heard a thump as the
genie's body hit the floor and then another. I opened my eyes to see
Terrence wrestling with Leah and the gun. Another shot went off and
hit the ceiling covering us all in a layer of white dust.

Darting
around the scuffle, I hurried into the bedroom, tripping over a pile
of clothes in the process and landing with my face inches from the
nightstand. I flung open the bottom cabinet and started digging
through the contents. There were several bottles, any of which could
have been the one I was looking for. I gathered them up in my arms
and staggered back in the hallway. Terrence was standing over Leah.
Her eyes were wide with fear, and she was shaking.

“He
isn't what – ” She never finished her sentence because
Terrence shot her. Right in the center of her forehead. It was one
of those moments in life where time stops. I didn't know what to do.
I just stood there, some of the bottles slipping from my arms and
falling to the shaggy carpet that covered most of the hall floor. He
lowered his arm and slipped the gun into his coat pocket. His face
never changed. He still looked trustworthy, the kind of person you
want to bring home to mom. Not someone who would just shoot a young
girl, no matter how fucked up she might be.

“Did
I miss something here?” My attempt at humor fell flat as I
stared down at the pool of red leaking out from underneath Leah's
bleach blonde hair. “Was she still a danger to us in some
way?” Terrence sighed and glanced over at the kitchen. A
rather disturbing slurping sound was emanating from the area where
Dia's body lay. I assumed she was probably regenerating. It would
have shocked most people, but well, I had seen a lot of shit lately.

“She
wasn't what she appeared to be, Ginger. There are things in this
world that even you don't know about.” Okay, now I was really
confused.

“Pardon
me?” I asked incredulously, bending down to scoop up the
dropped bottles before the pool of blood reached them. “Are
you fucking insane?” Terrence smiled sadly and shook his head.

“That's
a tale best left for later.” Wow. I had been right not to
trust him. He was a nut among nuts.

“You
just killed a teenager, Terrence. Am I supposed to just ignore that
fact and move on?”

“Don't
listen to him.” Diamokina was staggering around the corner of
the kitchen and into the living room, the hole in the side of her
cheek filling in even as she spoke to me in a slurred voice. “Leah
was nothing but a spoiled rotten imbecile. She knows I can't die;
that's why she shot me. She would never have hurt either of you.”
I gulped as Terrence turned a rather fiery gaze to the genie. “He's
the one you should be worried about.” I looked between the two
of them and took a step back.

“What
the hell is going on here?” Terrence turned to me and smiled.

“It's
okay, Ginger. I would never hurt you. There's nothing for you to
fear. She's doing what genies do, trying to convince you not to use
her services. It's in her nature; she can do no less than lie.” I started backing towards
the front door. No sense in
not
using caution here. I mean Terrence was obviously fucked in the
head; he'd proven that. And I didn't know shit about genies. My
eyes darted to the doorknob. Would the yetis help me in a pinch? Or
maybe the sphinx? Maybe. Or maybe not. My stomach twisted and I
squeezed the bottles tighter.

“I'm
going to leave now, Terrence. I don't really know what to think
right now, but I'm kind of an accessory to a homicide and you're kind
of a murderer so just let me have a day or two to process things and
– ”

“Give
me the order!” Diamokina shouted, her cheek now completely
healed. “And I'll destroy him for you!”

“No,
no, that's okay. Really. I just need time to think. You stay here
and when I figure out what I need to do, I'll be back.”
Terrence opened his mouth to speak but then closed it abruptly, his
eyes going wide and then he just collapsed. My first urge was to run
over to see if he was okay, but I felt what was now a familiar
pressure on my shoulders.

“Do
not touch him. He is like a possum, only playing dead.”

Levie
was squeezing me a little harder than I would have liked, but the
relief I felt when I looked up and saw his orange eyes glaring down
at me was immense. I almost smiled. Almost. But then there was the
little issue of the dead girl lying not three feet away from me.

“Levie.”
His name came out like a breath, and I yelped when he scooped me up.
His lip was curled but not at me, thankfully. At least, not yet. I
was assuming I would get mine later. He was staring at the genie
intently. His eyes never left her face as he reached behind us and
opened the front door. The yetis were nowhere to be seen, but the
sphinx was sitting with its tail wrapped around its front legs.

“Who
is more likely to step off the edge of a cliff, a blind man or a
fool?” That hurt, but okay, I deserved it. Levie shut the
front door to the apartment quietly and then proceeded down the
walkway and the stairs, all without putting me down.

“Is
it okay if I walk now? I'd prefer not to have people staring at us.”
All I got was a glare. I shut my mouth and waited. And waited. We
were several blocks away before I tried talking again. “Really,
it's okay. I can walk.” I was still holding the bottles and
my arms were starting to ache, but I didn't know what else to do with
them. Without knowing which bottle controlled the genie, I was sort
of obligated to keep them all. Levie set me down, hard. His anger
was apparent but understandable. I put both of our lives at risk by
compromising his ability to do his job. If anything happened to me,
his uncle wouldn't be happy. “Can you hold some of these?”
I asked, nodding towards my armful of bottles. Levie scowled and
then smacked my arm hard enough that I dropped them all. They
shattered across the pavement and I looked up at him, aghast. “What
the hell?” There was smoke emanating from his hands and the
garbage in a nearby trash can burst into flames. “Um, Levie?”

“Stupid
girl,” he snarled. “Stupid fucking girl.” Um. I
glanced at the sphinx, but it was no help. It cocked its head to the
side and said nothing. Trying to avoid Levie's gaze, I bent down and
picked up the only unbroken bottle. “A genie's bottle can
never break.” Oh. I flushed as I picked up the pink tinted
bottle and cradled it in my hands. That may not have been the reason
he was calling me stupid, but I still felt kind of dumb.

“I'm
sorry, Levie,” I said, my eyes following a group of ants as
they wound their way around a telephone pole and continued their path
towards the now flaming trash can. People were staring and
gossiping, but no one was really doing anything about it. “But
my friend's been kidnapped. I didn't have time to wait for you.”
I couldn't forget Terrence's accusations, but I didn't believe them
either. He'd shot that girl in the head with little thought or
remorse. He was the bad guy. Not Levie. The stench of the garbage
was starting to get to me, so I covered my nose with my shirt sleeve
and took off down the sidewalk. It wouldn't do me any good; he would
still follow, but at least I could pretend that I was running away.

“What
on earth were you thinking? Do you desire death?” I rolled my
eyes.

“Oh
yeah Levie, I
want
to die.” He narrowed his eyes at me.

“It
was all for that fop, wasn't it? You desire him.” I coughed
on my own spit and tried not to scoff. Hell hath no fury like a
demon lover scorned ... or something like that I guess. As much
as I would have liked to dwell on the thought that maybe, just maybe
Levie had some genuine feelings for me, I wasn't going to get a
chance to. At that moment a rather ostentatious limousine pulled up
to the curb.

I
should have known the white, Hummer-fronted monstrosity could have
harbored nothing short of the Devil himself. The tinted back window
rolled down with an expensive purr, and Lucifer stared out at me over
the tops of his enormous sunglasses. Vae sat next to him, white
gloved hands clasped on her lap, and gave me an almost apologetic
smile. Great.

Levie
slunk in behind me and stood cowering, wings over his head like some
enormous leather umbrella as droplets started to fall, rhythmically
hitting the roof of the overpriced piece of vainglory. I moved my
right hand in what I hoped was a surreptitious manner behind my back
in an attempt to hide the genie's bottle. The Devil sighed and ran a
hand through his hair.

“This
latest wish of yours is becoming a PR disaster and much as I would
like to think my nephew has been doing his job, I highly doubt that
fact. Therefore, Levie,” Levie cringed as if he'd already
been dealt a blow, and I fleetingly wondered what on Earth the people
walking by were thinking. I did notice that the fire in the trash
can had been put out which was good, but the stench still clung to
the air making the gray overcast day even gloomier with the smell of
toasted, rotted garbage. Yum. “I'm reassigning you.”
Now it was my turn to act like I'd been struck.

“Wait,
what do you mean 'reassigning'?” I practically yelped.
Without Levie, I was surely going to get myself killed, not to
mention Erin. Plus, there was that whole 'losing my virginity to the
guy' thing to deal with. “I can't handle this situation on my
own!”

“Precisely,”
the Devil said, sneering. “Which is why I'm going to assign
you a new and hopefully this time, semi-competent caseworker. Levie,
I want to see you in a janitor's uniform sometime in the next fifteen
minutes.” He narrowed his eyes and the flames that danced
there reflected back at me from his sunglasses. “There was a
little incident in one of the storerooms today and there's a lot of
blood to clean up. Now, hurry up.” I was shocked, stunned
even. This, I hadn't expected, though I should have. My mouth
opened but no sound came out. I tried to meet Vae's eyes in the
hopes of finding some support, but the slender elf wouldn't even look
at me. I turned around and saw the same horror reflected in Levie's
eyes.