Hell Inc. (38 page)

When
Levie finally set me down, I turned and grasped him by the shoulders.

“Terrence,”
I said, my eyes focused on his. I would hold him in place there by
sheer strength of will until he told me what I needed to know. “Who
the fuck is he?” Levie sighed and exchanged a glance with the
sphinx.

“No,”
I said, lightly slapping his cheek and ignoring the stares of the
people around us. They may have only been able to see Levie and me,
but apparently, we were a sight to be stared at. “Look at me.
Who the fuck is he?”

“Terrence
is only a pseudonym. That is not his name. I will tell you
something, but you are not to ever let on to anyone that you heard it
from me. If my uncle were to find out, he would flay the flesh from
my bones.” I took a step back, arms crossed for him to
continue. Levie shook out his wings.

“Terrence
is the CEO of Infernix.” He stopped and waited, the sphinx and
yetis shifting nervously next to me. I had a feeling though, that
they had already known. “Infernix is Hell Inc.'s only rival in
the ... wishing business.” I frowned at him, reminded of
their true purpose.

“You
mean the mail order spouse business?” My voice was raw and
sarcastic, but I was still pissed. I couldn't help it. Levie
frowned but continued as if I hadn't spoken.

“They
sell monkey's paws to their clients in exchange for their souls. As
you have already witnessed, it takes quite the verbose arrangement to
be certain that the wish will not backfire as opposed to our
company's rather generous system.” Levie paused again as if
thinking and the tips of his wings twitched in concentration. “I
haven't the slightest clue as to why Terrence is so interested in
you. I assume it is because I have chosen you as my mate.” I
scowled at Levie.

“You've
chosen me,” I said. “But I haven't chosen you yet. Just
remember that.” There was a chorus of snickers from Gyiarava
and her husband-thing.

“Ginger
Malloy, you funny,” said the male, whose name I had yet to
learn. Levie glared at them.

“I
still do not understand what the two of you have to do with any of
this.” The furry, white giants exchanged an amused glance.

“We
just like Ginger,” they said together. “She dumb and kind
of funny.” That made me feel special.

“Great.
Thank you.” I took a deep, shuddering breath and tried to
organize my thoughts. It was certainly one of those, 'What now?'
sort of situations. I didn't know where to go from here. At least I
was one wish down, one to go. I was sort of regretting the whole
cell phone contract thing. It had terrible long distance prices
(anything on Earth was considered long distance), and at this point,
I just wanted to get rid of my last one and be done with the whole
situation. I looked down at the sphinx, his head tilted to the side,
as he waited for us to make our next move. One golden ear was
pressed flat against his head in impatience.

“Levie,
do you have any idea how to get to 3
^rd
Century Realty from
here?”

He
shook his head.

“I
am sorry, Ginger, but I was not paying attention to the surroundings.
Your buildings,” he glanced up at the library's gray stone
walls. “They all look the same to me.” I sighed and
rubbed a hand across my forehead.

“Well
then,” I said, giving the sphinx a look and hoping he'd
understand; he always seemed to. “Can you show us the way?”

“What
came first, the chicken or the egg?”

I
guess I was going to have to take that as a yes.

The
3
^rd
Century Realty office was a lot easier to find than I
had previously expected. With the bright sunshine to illuminate the
buildings and street signs, I realized that we really were no more
than a couple of miles from my apartment. It was an area made up
primarily of warehouses and old railroad tracks, but from the buzz of
people about the entrance, I guessed the supernaturals didn't have
much trouble finding the place. The sphinx showed the four of us
around to the back where we were greeted by a grinning Fuerella.

“Thanks
for coming,” she said sarcastically, picking at one of her
fangs with a toothpick. It came away red, and she frowned at it,
tossing it onto the ground. “Your friend is really starting to
drive Thomas nuts. I think he might just rip her open and eat her
heart if you don't take her away soon.”

“Well,
where is she?” I replied, refusing to take the bait. I heard
Levie huff behind me. At least one of us found this situation
amusing. Fuerella rolled her eyes at me and refocused on the two
yetis. She neglected to comment but shrugged as if their presence
deserved taking note of. She patted
the sphinx and stood up, stretching her arms above her head and
grinning at me. I couldn't keep my eyes off of her tiny tight laced
waist. It was really disturbing. I didn't know how she kept herself
standing upright. Truly, I didn't.

“Well,
go on,” she breathed, her tiny diaphragm contracting as she
breathed in. I looked towards the sphinx to avoid her, and he took
that as his cue to lead us into the back door and down a different
hall than the one that I'd been in before.

I
could hear Erin screaming before Thomas had even opened the door. He
tipped his hat with a scowl and motioned us into the room. He
reached out to grab me, but Levie intercepted him.

“Keep
your hands to yourself, vampire,” he snarled. I rolled my eyes
at the two bickering males and watched as Erin finally spotted me.
She stopped screaming momentarily, her face lighting up like I was
her saint come to earth to save her. The silence didn't last long.

“Ginger!”
she screeched at the top of her lungs, and the more sensitive
supernaturals in the room covered their ears as if in pain. “Help!
Ginger! Save me!” God. I hated her. I really did.

“Erin,
calm down. Geez.” I brushed my bangs off of my face only to
have them flop back into place a moment later. “Why didn't you
just gag her?” I whispered behind my hand to Thomas.

“We
did, but we were trying to be polite and give her a chance to eat.”
He motioned at the tray of food on the floor. I sighed and tried to
remember to have some empathy. This whole thing was sort of my
fault.

“How
did you find her?” I asked. Thomas sent Erin a look that
clearly said, 'I detest you.'

“We
had to repossess a condo for non-payment,” he ground out
between his teeth as Erin continued to screech in the background.

“Ginger!
Run! They're vampires! They're going to kill you!” Levie
snarled and little flames began to dance along the sleeves of Erin's
white and pink floral blouse. Her screeching intensified by several
decibels as I leapt forward and threw Marji's coat over the flames to
put them out. “Oh! My! God!” she screamed. “You
saved my life!”

“Erin.”
I grasped her shoulders firmly and shook her. “You need to
calm down. Everything is going to be okay. I swear.” Erin
nodded, fat tears streaming down her plump cheeks. “Can you
untie her please?” Levie stepped forward, and Erin opened her
mouth to scream again. I clamped a hand over it. “Shh. It's
okay. He's my ... ” I paused and looked back at Levie.
His chest puffed out and a smirk fluttered over his features.
“Friend.” Levie's face turned back into an angry,
arrogant scowl. He stalked forward and with a wave of his hand,
burnt away the ropes. Erin yelped in pain, but when I checked her
skin, there wasn't any sign of a burn. “Thanks,” I said
to Levie as I helped Erin out of the chair.

Thomas
opened the door and hurried us out before slamming it behind us. The
yetis, sphinx, and Levie's wings were obviously still not in Erin's
repertoire of sight. I was surprised that as dense as she was that
she was able to recognize the vampires as what they were. They must
have done something truly horrendous in front of her. I avoided
asking. I didn't want to know.

Helena
and Lunen were waiting in the hall for us, and I felt a tiny thrill
of fear. Who knew what had happened to Dia? Now it was more
important than ever that we find Terrence and free the remaining
genies. There didn't seem to be any other logical option. Levie and
his cousin greeted each other cordially. Helena smiled at me.

“Nice
to see you're all back in one piece,” she said kindly, giving
my shoulder a squeeze. At least it was pretty obvious that she felt
bad about the whole thing. It made me like her.

“Helena,
look, I,” she held up a hand.

“Don't
worry about it. You still have a while to go on the time line,
Ginger. You and I don't have a problem until then, okay?” I
smiled back at her and tried to ignore Erin's blubbering.

“Thanks
Helena.” Lunen glanced up at the yetis, and a grin broke over
all three faces.

“Hey
there, Gyiarava, Donalondalin!” Levie gave his cousin a raised
eyebrow.

“I
sold these two their condo. How's that working out for you?”
Before either yeti had a chance to answer, Levie interrupted them.

“Shouldn't
you be doing your father's work? The family business is far more
important than your little side jobs.” Lunen frowned at Levie,
and the air in the hall became cloying and sticky with heat. Helena
rolled her eyes and waved at me as she made her exit.

“Just
because I'm not willing to give into Dad's prejudices and breed like
a good little boy, doesn't give you the right to come and harp at me.
I'm only back with Hell Inc. part time, Levie. It's your life, not
mine.” The two demons snarled at each other.

“Hey
Lunen,” I asked, drawing the men's attention to me. “Helena
told me that you guys were kind of having it out with Nathaniel and
Liam ... ” I trailed off and tried to prompt him to
continue. Everything was happening sort of fast. If I could take a
moment, slow down, and collect some information, then maybe all of
this would work out okay. I glanced at Levie.
Or work out great,
if you're lucky.
Lunen adjusted his hood around his face and
thought for a moment.

“They
were kidnapping some of our clients. Specifically, our genies. We
tried to warn Hell Inc. awhile ago but they ignored us. I
suppose you've decided to take up my father's banner for him?”
I nodded. He glanced up at the yetis and smiled again. “You
two are here to help?” They nodded, as did the sphinx, which
was surprising. More than just a kidnapper, now he was a friend? “Well,
we've been looking, but we haven't found anything.”

I
nibbled my lip and tried to give Levie a surreptitious glance, but he
was too busy glaring at his cousin's face to notice. Dia had said
that the old building had been Liam and Nathaniel's office, but she
could've been lying. I decided to ask without giving anything away.
This was my mission now, and I was determined to fulfill it. Even if
the genie I had been doing it for had betrayed me, I was going to
uphold my end of the bargain. She had, in the end, upheld hers.
Sort of. Besides, I had kind of sent her on a suicide mission after
Terrence. I had said 'get rid of,' but that could be interpreted in
many different ways. I just hoped she'd make the right decision and
that she'd be okay. I did not want the title of murderer along with
everything else.

“Do
you where their office is? I'd like to check around, see if there
are any clues.” Lunen nodded, but he didn't look hopeful.

“We
burned it to the ground, but if you want to go, we can drop you off
there.” I looked at Levie, and he nodded. This was his
business, too, I guess.

Then
I remembered Erin. Shit.

I
turned to her shaking form and confused expression.

“Hey
Erin,” I said. “You feeling okay?” She shook her
head and whimpered. I paused and thought about what to do. I sort
of owed her, so dumping her was kind of screwed up. Not to mention
the fact that everyone would think she was nuts. I released her and
turned to Levie. I leaned close to his ear. “Do you have any
money?” He frowned and produced a small, black leather wallet
from inside the pocket of his slacks. He had six hundred dollars in
hundred dollar bills inside. Where the fuck did he get all of that
money? The bastard. I pushed aside my envy and yanked the bills out
of the wallet. It wasn't much considering the circumstances, but it
was the best that I could do.

“Erin,”
I said, snapping my fingers to draw her attention away from Lunen's
retreating back. “Here.” I placed the money in her
hand. She looked down at it and back up at me, eyes questioning.

“What
is this? Hush money? Do you work for them?” She was
screeching again. I placed a hand on her arm and squeezed just a
little too hard. It worked and she shut up.

“No.
I'm just giving this to you as an ... apology. You were never
meant to be kidnapped.”