White Hot Kiss (40 page)

“Maybe,” he replied. “Depends on how happy you make me.”

“Yeah, you can go to Hell.”

Paimon turned his head away and then faced me again. His skin melted away, revealing a red skull and eye sockets full of flames. His mouth gaped open, long and distorted. The howling sound that came from him turned my soul cold. I screamed until my voice left me, unable to move more than an inch backward.

Then he was the handsome man again, smiling. “Darlin’, you’re a means to an end—an end that works wonderfully in my favor.” Paimon crouched beside me, tipping his head to the side. “Now, you can make this easy or very, very hard.”

I took a deep breath, but couldn’t seem to get enough air in my lungs. I was worried about Zayne and knew that if I let Paimon capture me, I’d never have a chance to get him help. “Okay. Can—can you get these creepy roots off my legs?”

Another brief smile and Paimon waved his hand. The roots trembled, withered up and became nothing more than ashes within seconds. “I’m so glad you’re going to ma—”

I swung my arm around with all my strength, slamming the rock into his temple. His head snapped in the other direction, but a second later he was looking at me and laughing.
Laughing.
Flames licked from the wound where blood should have flowed.

Paimon grabbed my arm in a viselike grip. “Now, that wasn’t very nice, darlin’.”

I stared at his burning head. “Jesus.”

“Not quite.” He hauled me to my feet. “Say good-night.”

I opened my mouth, but before I could make a sound, my world went dark.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Things pieced themselves back together slowly. Sensation led the way, which was the first indication that something was very wrong. I couldn’t move my arms or legs. They were bound to the cold floor, the rope tight and cutting into my wrists as I strained forward.

Oh, crap.

Smell came next. The moldy scent was familiar, poking around in my head, but I couldn’t wiggle an exact memory free. When I was able to pry my eyes open, I was staring up at exposed metal rafters.

Candles didn’t cast much light, but in the flickering dance of shadows I could make out a basketball hoop without a backboard. My gaze dropped and tracked the visible scuff marks until they disappeared in a white line drawn in chalk—a circle. Straight lines streaked out, meeting the circle. I turned my head, wincing at the dull ache in my temples. More lines on the other side of me.

A pentagram slightly crooked. Oh, this was bad.

I was in the old gymnasium on the lowest level of my school, tied down in the middle of a pentagram and
was that chanting?
God. Craning my neck, I tried to see beyond the hundreds of white candles following the circumference of the circle.

In the shadows, there were
things
moving. Their soft chattering and piglike squeals turned my insides cold. Rack demons.

“You’re awake. Good.” A deep Southern drawl came out from the shadows. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

My chin snapped down, to my toes. Paimon had removed the jacket and untucked the red shirt. He came to the edge of the circle, stopped and glanced down. He took a step back, and my suspicion soared. “You’re not going to come in here?” I asked.

Paimon tipped his head back and chuckled. “That pretty little lopsided pentagram can easily be converted into a devil’s trap, and my Hermès loafers are not going one inch beyond that chalk.”

My hands curled into fists and I could feel the ring biting into skin. “That’s going to make doing this incantation hard, isn’t it?”

“Not at all, darlin’,” he said, kneeling down. That Mohawk of his had to be at least two feet high. “That’s what lackeys are for. Oh, lackey!”

To my left, another form pulled free from the shadows. I hadn’t seen him before, but his smile was beyond creepy. I swallowed as my eyes darted between the two demons. No one was going to show up and save the day. I didn’t know if Zayne had survived the Hellion. Roth probably didn’t even know I’d been taken. And unless I could Houdini my way out of these ropes, I wasn’t going to be able to do much to defend myself. At that moment I knew three things. I was screwed. Mankind was screwed. The entire universe was screwed.

“I confess I’ve been disappointed with Naberius. He should’ve been able to retrieve you without me stepping in. Show her how displeased I was.”

The lackey waved his left hand. Four of his fingers were missing. Only the middle one remained. “They’ll grow back. Slowly.”

“Painfully,” Paimon added with a gleeful smile. He rose fluidly. “Anyway, Naberius, spill the blood of Lilith. I don’t have all night.”

Like a dutiful little tool, Naberius stepped carefully over the circle and knelt. My heart dropped. “Wait.” Naberius grabbed my hand with that one finger. Metal glinted in his other hand. “Wait, I said!”

Paimon sighed. “Are you going to beg now? Come over to the dark side? You already had your chance, darlin’. When I get done, I’m going to kill you. Well, I’ll probably have a little fun with you first, but I will kill you.”

Panic clawed its way up my throat, but I knew if I caved to it, that would be the end. Heart pounding, I tried to tug the arm closest to Naberius, but the rope gave no slack. “Why?”

“Why?” He mimicked my voice.

“Why do you want to do this?” My mouth was dry. “Do you really want to start the apocalypse? Do you really think this is going to work?”

Paimon tipped his head to the side. “The apocalypse?” His laugh was deep and it echoed through the gymnasium. “Oh, darlin’, is that what the Wardens think?”

“It’s what Hell thinks, too.”

“The Boss thinks that? Fabulous. While the apocalypse sounds like a good time, I could give a flying rat’s ass about that.”

Surprise shot through me. “You...you don’t want out of Hell?”

“Oh, what demon doesn’t want out of Hell? Take me, for example. I’ve served the Boss for over two thousand years. I’d like nothing more than to say au revoir to that life, but I’m not here because of what I want. I’m here for what I need. Just like you, another means to an end.”

“I—I don’t understand.” I really didn’t.

His lips, wide and expressive, twisted into a smirk. “It’s rather ironic that you don’t. Kind of sad, too.”

“Is it?” Naberius was messing with my hand, trying to turn the ring around. “Then explain it to me? If I’m going to die, I’d like to know the real reason behind it.”

Paimon looked over his shoulder and then his gaze slid back to me. “Have you ever been in love?”

“What?” I so wasn’t expecting that question.

“I said, have you ever been in love?”

“I...” I didn’t know. I loved Zayne, but I didn’t know what kind of love that was, and Roth... I thought I could be in love with him, if given time. Or maybe I already was, in a little way. “I don’t know.”

“Interesting,” the demon answered. “When you’re in love, you’d risk anything to ensure your loved one’s happiness. Even the end of the world.” He shrugged. “When you’re separated from the one you love, you’d do anything to be reacquainted with that person. Anything. What? You look so shocked. Did you think demons couldn’t fall in love? We can. Our love is a little dark and twisted. We love until death. Most wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of our affections, but we feel what we feel all the same.”

I had no idea what him being in love had to do with raising the Lilin, unless he thought his lover would be reincarnated into one.

His eyes rolled. “I can tell you still haven’t figured it out. It’s your mother, darlin’. That’s why it’s ironic.”

“Lilith?” I squeaked.

“You can’t call her Mother? I’m sure that would warm her cold heart.”

“No. No, I cannot.”

He prowled along the chalk circle. “Your mother is being kept in the fiery pits—exactly where a devil’s trap will send a demon. With the Boss in Hell, no one goes near the pits or gets out. And the only way I can get her out is to lure the Boss topside. Apocalypse now or later, the Boss will venture topside if the Lilin are there. And a minute with my beloved is worth the risk of an eternity without her.”

“Which leaves the pits unguarded,” I finished. When Paimon clapped his approval, I was stunned. All of this had been to free Lilith because he
loved
her? That was so twisted and...

“Naberius?”

“Wait!” Terror was starting to overcome the panic, which was way worse. “How do you know the incantation will work? You don’t even have the
Lesser Key.
”

Paimon frowned. “Like I need the
Lesser Key.
I had Lilith—I helped her get free so she could have you.”

“You love her, so you helped her get knocked up by someone else?”

“It’s the only way that we can truly be together.” He shrugged. “And you’re ready. I can see the taint of your soul.”

I didn’t know what surprised me more: that the demon could see my soul,
that I had a soul
or that he thought it was tainted. I just stared at him as I continued to twist the wrist of my left hand, hoping to slide it free.

“When I learned that the Boss was sending Astaroth topside, I was sure it was my birthday. Obviously the Boss thought I needed the
Lesser Key
and he sent him to help me obtain it.” He threw his head back and laughed loudly. “Can it get any easier for me? All I needed was time for Roth to get in your pants. And it really was only a matter of time. He is a demon, after all. I can smell your carnal sin, Layla.”

I didn’t know what carnal sin he was smelling, but it wasn’t that. I started to point that out, because that put a major kink in his plans. My
status
was intact, and if he figured it out, there was no stopping him from remedying the problem himself.

I was screwed, but mankind and Earth weren’t if I let him believe this. The incantation wouldn’t work. The Lilin wouldn’t be reborn and he wouldn’t get to free Lilith. Numbness settled into my bones as I stared at the demon. I was most likely going to die, but there was the bigger picture. Maybe it was the Warden blood in me that made my fate easier to accept, because I wasn’t ready to die. There was so much of life I hadn’t experienced. It wasn’t fair.

Or maybe it was the humanity I’d picked up from Stacey and Sam.

Letting my head fall back against the cold floor, I stared up into the dark rafters. Beside me, Naberius finally got the jeweled part of the ring to face the right way. He brought the blunt edge of the knife down, cracking its surface.

I bit down as pain exploded along my hand and then cool, sticky wetness spilled across my fingers. The moment the liquid dripped onto the floor inside the circle, the candles flickered.

The chattering and chanting stopped.

“The dead blood of Lilith,” Paimon said. “The live blood of Lilith’s child.”

A quick flick of Naberius’s hand, and a sting sliced over my wrist. The cut wasn’t deep at all. Really just a pinprick as tiny beads of blood flowed. A thin stream ran down my arm, pooling in the fleshy part of my elbow.

“Now,” Paimon said. “There’s just the question of your taking a soul.”

He didn’t know that had already happened? I opened my eyes as a new anxiety burst through me. Paimon yelled something in a coarse, deep language. Movement followed, and I strained to see behind me.

Shadows broke free, and as they came closer to the candlelight, I cried out.
No. No. No.
This couldn’t be happening. I struggled wildly against the ropes.

Four Rack demons approached, two sets each carrying a hunched-over body. One set held Zayne and the other set held Roth. Both guys looked as if they’d played kissy face with a meat grinder. Their clothing was torn. Blood streaked their necks and chests.

Paimon smiled like a pleased parent. “Are you wondering how I got the Rack demons to do my bidding?”

“No,” I said hoarsely.

“Think about all the suffering they’ll be able to feed on once the Lilin turn Earth into a playground,” he said anyway. “Naberius?”

Standing, the demon backed out of the circle, careful not to disturb the chalk or candles. In his hand, that knife...

The candles flickered again, and my gaze darted to my arm. One drop of my blood had hit the floor and burned through it like acid. There was no time to wonder why.

“Let’s go back to my question about love,” Paimon said, coming to stand behind the Rack demons that held Roth and Zayne. “Do you love them? What if I wanted you to take the Warden’s soul?”

A low buzzing picked up in my ears as I met the blatant cruelty in Paimon’s eyes. “No.”

“I didn’t think you would agree so easily.” Paimon watched Naberius walk around Roth. His dark head was bowed and his shoulders barely moving. There wasn’t even a reaction as Naberius slipped the knife under Roth’s still chin. “They caught him coming to the Warden’s rescue. How utterly ridiculous is that? A demon helping out a Warden? Then again, he was probably coming to save you.”

I pulled on the ropes until my skin and muscles burned. “Let them go.”

“Oh, I plan to.” Paimon smiled. “If you don’t take the Warden’s soul, then Naberius here will gladly cut the Crown Prince’s head right off.”

“And I really, really want to do that,” Naberius added.

A pounding heart joined the buzzing in my ears. Horror poured into me. “No. You can’t—you can’t do this.”

Paimon laughed. “I can and I will. Either you take the Warden’s soul or I kill Roth. Now, I know how incredibly naive and stupid teenage girls are. But surely you’re not going to want to watch your first get beheaded, are you?”

Roth wasn’t my first—no one was my first, but that didn’t mean I could allow this to happen. Potent, helpless fury rolled through me, stretching my skin tight.

“And he won’t just die,” Paimon continued. “Oh, he’ll feel it.” Moving lightning quick, he grabbed a handful of Roth’s hair and yanked his head back. “Won’t you, Your Highness?”

A shudder rolled through Roth’s body and his eyes opened. “Screw you,” he spat.

“How terribly boring.” Paimon let go of Roth’s head, but it didn’t fall back. His eyes met mine. They were surprisingly alert for someone who looked like he was in such bad shape. Paimon glanced at Zayne. “Roth will end up in the fiery pits, which is worse than death.”