Hell Inc. (42 page)

“Wow, Dia,” I said, surprising myself with
how ragged and tired my voice sounded. “You sure are full of
compliments today.” Dia ignored my sarcasm and gestured at the
iron bars with her hand.

“What are you waiting for, girl. Get me out of
here.” I raised the knife to the bars, and Dia's white eyebrows
raised in surprise as a gasp escaped her lips. Either it was a
really amazing piece of weaponry, or there was someone behind me. I
was betting on the latter.

I didn't get the chance to turn around and check because
Terrence's hand was already wrapped around my throat. He wasn't at
all gentle about it when he pulled me away from Dia and slammed me
into the wall. The knife fell from my hands and clattered across the
floor.

“You,” he growled moving his grip from my
neck to my chin. “I was interested in you. You have more
power than any other Guardian I've ever met, even more than some
demons, and yet you remain human. Not to mention the fact that you
tamed that pompous, overweening brat, Leviathan. How did you ever
manage that?” He turned my face roughly to the wall and
grasped my damaged wrist in his hand. Terrence squeezed it just hard
enough to make me come close to the bliss of passing out, but stopped
just in time so that I remained awake and in agony. A master of
torture. I couldn't believe I'd ever liked the sick fuck.

“If you're going to kill me, just do it,” I
said, applauding myself for sounding much braver than I felt.
Terrence laughed.

“Oh, I'm not going to kill you and have you report
what you've learned back to your new in-laws. You'll stay here with
me.” He released my face and grabbed my good wrist, jerking me
back towards the exit. And right into the Cerberus. The three heads
launched themselves at Terrence in a flurry of nails and white fluff.
They may not have looked particularly scary, but Terrence took them
seriously. There must have been something to their reputation.

In the mess of movement, he had dropped my wrist. I
threw myself to the floor, ignoring the pain as I hit the ground.
Blinking away stars, I grasped the knife in my good hand and swung
out blindly at the bars. Just like with the Cerberus' chain, the
metal parted easily enough. I cut a small square out from my
position on the ground and waited as Dia crawled through. She gasped
in relief as the enchantment of the cell dropped away and immediately
flew at Terrence's back.

My spell was still active. She could do no less than
try to 'get rid' of him. This time, I was hoping that meant dead.
With the Cerberus at his front, he didn't notice her until she had
wrapped her own hand around his throat. Her orange muscles flexed as
she squeezed. I looked away; I didn't want to see the spray of gore
when she finally succeeded in completing her task. I'd seen enough
lately.

When the scuffle went on longer than I'd expected, I
turned and saw the two of them grappling together. Dia wasn't faring
as well as I'd hoped. Apparently being immortal doesn't necessarily
mean that you're strong. I felt a pang of sadness when I saw the
Cerberus lying still on the ground several feet away from the two of
them. I sort of owed them for me even getting this far. Maybe they
were just playing dead 'cause that's what dogs do, right?

Then an idea struck me. I raised myself to my feet and
ran as close to the cells as I could. Terrence's eyes caught on me,
but he was too engaged with Dia to be able to do much of anything as
I passed him by. When I came around the corner, the genies were
milling about in confusion. The Guardians weren't much better. I
supposed they were just normal humans after all. Normal people, just
like me.

“Hey!” I shouted, trying to garner as much
attention as possible. “Why are you just standing here? Your
chance to escape is right in front of you.” I gestured around
the corner. A few curious faces glanced at the scuffle between Dia
and Terrence, but when they passed this information on to the others,
they looked completely uninterested.

“Who cares?” asked one particularly pastel
blue genie woman. “Here or Hell Incorporated. It's all the
same. We're slaves, plain and simple. Why even bother to fight?”
I looked at the milling humans. They were looking at their genies
as if they were the masters now and not the other way around.
Whatever happened to good old fashioned thinking for yourself? I
growled to myself in frustration. Essentially, they were right. It
seemed as if they'd been used and abused for so long that they'd
grown apathetic to their situation. There was one thing though ...

“How about you help Dia and me get rid of
Terrence, we'll break everyone out of here, and you can all come back
to Hell Inc.?” There was mumbled disapproval, but I wasn't
finished. “And we'll give you prescription drug coverage and
double the sick days.” It had worked for the Devil, why
couldn't it work for me? This time, the mumbles were tinted with
just a hint of excitement.

“And vision coverage?” mouthed a cornflower
blue genie with thick lenses situated in his skinny metal frames.

“Uh, sure,” I said, not really caring what
they wanted so long as they helped me out. Besides, it wasn't like
their requests were particularly unreasonable.

“And dental?” asked one of the humans. Do I
really need to describe his smile? I'd rather not.

“S-sure.”

“And can we get an espresso machine in the break
room?”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you want.” I paused.
I had learned my lesson on the power of words. “Within
reason.”

“Who are you anyway?” The pastel genie asked
snootily, hip thrust out in defiance. I took a deep breath and tried
to prepare myself for what I was about to say.

“I'm ... I'm
Leviathan's new ...
wife.
”
I wasn't sure if I was technically his bride yet or not, but the word
mate just sounded obscene. I gushed on, just in case they were
unsure of who Levie was. “The uh, heir, I guess, to the
company. I'm his new wife.”

“We know who Leviathan is,” the pastel genie
snapped, apparently deciding that she was now the leader and voice of
the entire group. She exchanged a glance with a tiny, blonde woman,
her hands quivering around the violet bottle that she was clutching
against her chest. “Okay, I'll help. I just need my human to
– ”

“I don't know what to do!” the woman
shouted, throwing the bottle onto the floor. It bounced and clanged
across the stone. “First, I get kidnapped by vampires, and now
there's this weird place. I don't even really understand what's
going on here.”

“Look,” I said, holding out a hand in
placation. “I know this is a little bit weird, but if you all
just repeat after me, then you can get the hell out of here and wish
for money or good skin or bigger boobs.” It was the humans'
turn to mumble in pleasure. “Okay, so we're in agreement?”
Nods. “Good. Now all you need to say is ... ” I
wasn't sure if I should utter the beginning of the phrase. “The
words 'I' and 'wish' followed by, you to help Ginger and Dia kill
Terrence without harming me or anyone else in this room.” I
took a deep rush of breath. I was going out on a limb here. I
really had no experience in 'wish phrasing,' and I didn't think I'd
be very good at it anyway, but Terrence had just thrown Dia across
the room and into the iron bars. I was running out of time.

There was a moment of silence before a few of the
Guardians mumbled the phrase. Their genies immediately took up the
cause and were around the corner and on Terrence before I could
blink. There were several people who either were too scared to try
or didn't believe a word I'd said. I couldn't blame them, but I also
couldn't waste anymore time trying to convince them (they so weren't
getting to use the espresso machine).

I stumbled back around the corner and drew my knife out
from where I'd replaced it in the sheath inside my jacket. I began
to cut away at the bars of the cells. Maybe a little gratitude would
inspire some of these genies to help me out. I noticed most of them
had bottles in their cell so either Infernix had managed to capture
free genies or they were somehow separating them from their Guardians
after they were locked up. Most of the genies ignored me and kept on
doing whatever it was that they'd been doing before the action
started, but a few, like Liberswek, flashed me pointy grins and
joined in the fray.

The hallway was a mess of bright skin against gray,
wings and smoke, blood and shouts. I slumped against the wall and
waited. It was a little anticlimactic, but I was no fighter, though
I could feel Dia pulling magic from me. I'd never sensed it before,
but I could understand. Killing a demon business mogul had to be
tough work. It was like an IV except instead of pumping cold liquid
into my veins, it was pulling it out. It was a lot like giving blood
actually, including the weak and shaky part. My eyes fluttered and
my vision began to fade to white sparkles, but I refused to pass out,
not until I was sure it was over. Not until I was out of there. I
promised myself that I'd stay awake.

I was never very good at keeping promises to myself.

I'd been doing an awful lot of passing out lately, and
it was really starting to get old. This time, when I woke up, I was
in a king sized canopy bed. The curtains above my head were a
luscious black silk with little burgundy whorls of color. I sat up
abruptly, clutching the sheets to my chest. My right wrist was
bandaged with a splint, and I was dressed in nothing but a white silk
slip. I couldn't see the rest of the room because the curtains were
down and tied. I eased forward on the bed, attempting to make as
little noise as possible. I had no idea if the genies had been able
to subdue Terrence or if I was in some freakish bed chamber of his
just waiting to be ravaged. My mind was so busy working up potential
scenarios that when the curtains next to me were flung open with
force, I screamed.

It was Levie.

As soon as he saw that I was awake, he reached down and
gathered me into his arms. His body was almost stifling in its heat
as he pressed my head against the bit of his chest that wasn't
covered by the black terrycloth robe that he was wearing. I sat
there for a moment, slightly confused, before reaching out and
pushing him back.

“What happened?” I asked him. I scooted
over so that he could sit next to me. “And where am I?”

“You are in my
house,” Levie said simply. I waited for him to continue. He
didn't, just stroked back a strand of my sweat soaked hair. I batted
his hand away. “Or
our
house I should say.” He said this with pride as if it were
something that he had been working towards for ages and had finally
achieved.

“Stop it,”
I snapped, a little more rudely than I'd meant to. “This is
not
our
house. Not
yet. I'm still pissed at you.” I pointed a finger at his
chest. He grabbed it and pulled it to his mouth. I shuddered as he
proceeded to suck on it. “What is your problem, Levie? I'm
trying to have a conversation with you. What happened to Terrence?”
A flicker of annoyance crossed Levie's face for a moment before he
released my hand with a sigh.

“You are a difficult girl,” he said.

“And you're a difficult demon,” I replied.
Levie smiled a bit and relaxed into the pillows.

“I suppose you are right. I can be difficult at
times. What do you want to know, stupid girl?”

“What happened with Terrence and Dia and all the
other genies?” Levie gave me a look that was part amusement,
part fear.

“My uncle was not pleased at your business
offerings. These new services will cost Hell Inc. quite a bit more
money.” I frowned at Levie. Stupid fucking Devil. I go and
save his employees from certain doom and that's the thanks I get?
Before I could protest though, Levie threw me a bone. “But the
Recall and Collections department is back up and running and you ...
” Levie brushed one of my nipples through the shift. I
shuddered but refused to give in to his demands. At least not yet.

“Stop it! I mean it, Levie!” Levie rolled
onto his side playfully.

“Your silly wish was reversed and all seems well.
Humans are far too ignorant to let such a small percentage of their
population change them overly much. Our business is safe and
Infernix is down one CEO.” I felt ill for a moment, just a
moment, that I had basically caused Terrence's demise. But he had
killed Leah. And tried to date rape me.

“He's dead?” I asked, my heart thumping
against my ribcage as I waited for Levie to answer. He shook his
head.

“No, just demoted.” I stared at him

“Demoted?” My voice came out in a squeak.
Levie nodded.

“But my uncle's ... ” He paused, trying
to select the right word. Never a good sign. “People are
looking for him. Don't fret.” When somebody has
people
at their back, you know it's time to be scared. I figured there
wasn't much else I could do at that point and tried to be grateful
that I was still alive and no longer a target for supernatural
animosity.