swiftly replaced. It’s a bit lonely in this area, but the pay is excellent.”
Darrak covered his abdomen with his hand. The burning sensation had increased, and now he felt a strange pull toward the hole in the ground. “So let me guess, I’m next up on the list to take a dive?”
“You are.”
It was as if he’d known this from the moment he woke up in the bar, but had been trying to repress it. After all, this wasn’t exactly good news. There was no news he could think of worse than this.
“Well, shit,” he said. “This sure hasn’t been my lucky day, has it?”
Then he remembered something and glanced away from the abyss to look at Theo. “You said you have a proposition for me. Does that include an option of not heading down there?”
“That’s up to you.”
The cryptic statements were grating, but currently his only chance. He knew that strength or smarts weren’t enough to get out of this particular pickle. He’d never heard of anyone who’d survived a trip to the Void. Then again, his memories were currently shaky at best. Maybe he was forgetting something.
“Tell me,” he said.
“Do you want another chance?” Theo asked.
“Of course.” A demon’s first defense was self-preservation. It was also his second and third. Whatever happened, he would put himself first. This was the perfect example of that. At this very moment, Darrak was willing to promise anything in order to walk away from this in one solid piece.
“There is a job opportunity that’s just opened up. It would be a demotion from archdemon, I’m afraid, but these things happen.”
Darrak resisted the urge to protest. “Keep talking.”
“It would involve you going to the human world and doing some reaping of human souls.”
“You mean I’d be an incubus again.” The thought did not appeal, but it was better than the Void.
“No, not quite as pleasant as that. In order for an incubus to take a soul, that soul needs to be willing to be taken. This job requires a bit more stealth work. You would target specific humans, kill them, and tear the souls from their bodies. As you can see things are a bit on the downtrodden side around here, especially in outlying areas like this. With a fresh influx of positive energy we’d be able to do a nice upgrade.”
“Positive energy,” Darrak repeated. “So they would have to be clean souls. Not evil, not corrupt, not dark at all.”
“The cleaner the better.”
“And I’d have to kill them.”
“How else do you suggest reaping a soul?” Theo grinned. “It’ll be fun, I’ll even help you out for a bit like the good old days.”
If this was actually Theo and not some trickster demon, Darrak might find that amusing. “So what’s my first assignment?”
“A private school in England. A bunch of adorable schoolboys. Think
An image flitted through Darrak’s head. A school in London consumed by a fire that he’d set with his own power. Kids screaming, trying to run, but he was blocking the door, snatching them, trapping them. Them begging for his help, pleading, crying, but he wouldn’t help. They had something he needed. Souls, white, shiny, almost silvery souls filled with energy and power. Mothers and fathers consumed with grief when they found out they’d lost their children in such a horrible tragedy…
Definitely not Hufflepuff in any way, shape, or form.
The pain in Darrak’s gut grew more intense and his throat suddenly felt tight. “Sounds… interesting. So what’s behind door number two?”
Theo nodded at the Void. “That.”
Darrak laughed, and it sounded sharp and unpleasant, even to himself. What was wrong with him? Why was he even giving this a second thought? He was a demon. They weren’t your friendly neighborhood superheroes that saved kids from fires and certain death. They
He definitely had memories of merry carnage dancing from his many years of existence.
So why wasn’t he dancing right now?
“Problem?” Theo asked.
“No. Of course not.”
“You should know this is a limited time offer.”
“How long do I have?”
“Ten minutes. No, actually make that nine minutes and six seconds.”
“So let me get this straight. I either agree to be a murderer and reaper of innocent human kids with shiny souls or I forfeit my entire existence and get sucked into that Void right there. Is that right?”
“You’re paying attention. I appreciate that. Makes things much simpler.”
“Awesome.”
Damn it. What was his problem? Anything was better than his own destruction. He felt the clock ticking down his remaining minutes. The fire in his gut was getting more intense. And the Void had some sort of strong pull on him — like a hellish vacuum cleaner — which was drawing him ever closer to his ultimate fate. He couldn’t seem to move away from the edge.
Unless he said the word, accepted this deal, then he was minutes away from being cast into the Void.
Kill kids for a living or allow himself to be destroyed forever.
He really wished there was a door number three.
TWENTY
This wasn’t good.
Eden had the best of intentions at marching out of the demon market and searching the surrounding area for Darrak, but she’d started going in circles. Just when she thought she’d found the end of the market, it was as if it folded back onto itself.
She could tell because they kept passing that dragon for sale, a thin, sickly-looking little green thing that coughed up a fireball every thirty seconds as if it had hiccups from Hell.
“It’s like some sort of a trap,” she said. “I don’t know what to do. And we’re running out of time.”
“Damn it, why did Lucas do this? Why didn’t he help me? I promised him my angel side. You’d think that might earn me a little help here.”
Andy kept pace with her, his large paws padding on the pavement as they continued to work their way through the thick crowd. Eden tried her best not to touch anyone directly.
He was right, of course. Not about the dreaming, unfortunately, but about how she looked at Lucas. It showed in her continuing insistence to call him something other than what he was. She needed to face reality and clue in to the fact that he wasn’t trying to help anybody but himself. And she’d already agreed to give him what he wanted whether or not she found Darrak.
Lucas wasn’t a nice guy she could count on in her time of need. He was a self-involved fallen angel who wanted to go back to Heaven at any cost.
And that just made her mad.
He’d given her as little help as possible, without getting his hands dirty. And here she was. She had to stop
