Unwrapped had one hell of a bad connotation then.
He shifted, his hand turning to smoke before his body transformed into that huge beast. He barely fit in the room, his scales dark without any real light to reflect off them. His muzzle was large enough that he could have bitten down on my head in a single bite.
That gaping maw of his opened, teeth sharp and long, breath like fire, before he was slammed backward, regaining his human form in the blink of an eye as his body fell to the ground.
“You failed to invite me to dinner? That’s just rude.”
I turned and scooted away when a new man stood in the small room, someone I hadn’t seen enter. He wore a black suit with pin stripes and a red tie. His hair was black and smoothed backward, with large horns that left his temples and curled back.
He looked like another other citizen but…better, as if hell hadn’t shifted him into a monster but somehow only made him more handsome. His eye were red, like Kase’s when he lost control, but this man showed no lack of control.
Jerrod pushed himself up weakly, and with one look at who was there, dropped to his knees. “I didn’t mean to—”
Again the man flicked his fingers and Jerrod slammed against the wall. Blood leaked from the corner of his mouth when he hit the ground.
“I have few rules here, and even fewer for beasts like yourself. My one consistent, however, is to not meddle in my affairs.”
“I didn’t—” Again, his explanation was cut short, this time when the man lifted his hand and Jerrod’s body hovered as if held aloft by some invisible grip. His toes brushed the dirt as he was pulled closer to the man.
“You did. You hoped I wouldn’t notice, believed yourself too smart, but you chose to insert yourself into something you had no business in. I have few rules and even fewer consequences.”
Jerrod’s eyes widened, and he kicked his feet. Nothing could shake whatever held him, though, and the tattoos that wound around his body, just like Hunter’s, pulsed. They shifted, until the black gave way to red, until the smoke marks turned to flames.
Seconds later, he combusted, all that pale skin turning black and charred until ash rained down into a small pile, all that was left of the hellhound.
The man brushed his hands against each other as if to clear the dust despite not having touched Jerrod directly. He turned toward me, and I struggled to my feet beneath his gaze.
The enemy of my enemy had never been my favorite saying, probably because I’d had too many enemies for it to make sense.
“You’re late,” he said, censure in his tone.
“I’m…sorry?”
“No, you’re not. Still, when you failed to show, I had to venture out. You should be appreciative—I don’t do that for many.”
I had a sinking suspicion, but I asked the question anyway. “Who are you?”
He straightened his suit jacket, then the cuffs of his shirt. “Introductions, then? Very well. Welcome to hell, Ms. Harlin. I’m Lucifer.”
Yep. Never should have followed that kid…
* * * *
The palace made the rest of hell look like…well…hell, I guess.
While it kept that creepy tone and the green and red lighting, it was spotless and modern.
I didn’t follow Lucifer so much as he snapped his fingers, and we were suddenly somewhere else. A moment of panic struck me, but there wasn’t much to be done.
I brushed my fingers against the strings at my throat and could only hope they were still able to follow.
“You haven’t told me why you called me here,” I said as I walked beside Lucifer.
His words were careful and polite to an almost uncomfortable point. He folded his hands at the small of his back. “That will come in time.”
In his time, he meant.
“I was here with others,” I said. “They won’t know where I am.”
“They are of no importance to me. I summoned you, not a rag-tag team of misfits.”
“Well, that team of misfits is the only reason I reached here, since someone dropped me off at the boundary.”
“You seem to confound good travel magic. The mix-up was hardly my fault. And them keeping you alive is why I won’t kill them. However, I have learned that when men with designs are involved, plans tend not to go so smoothly.”
“Are you talking about them or yourself?”
He stopped in the center of the hallway and turned toward me, his eyebrow lifted. “Few speak to me that way.”
“I’m new here. I don’t know the rules, yet.” I tried to pair the words with a confident smile I was sure I missed the mark on.
“Perhaps you will prove yourself useful,” he said.
“Useful for what?”
“All in good time, my darling.” He waved his hand toward a door that opened without him touching it. “This room is yours for your stay. There will be guards posted at the doors, but you are safe.”
“Are the guards to keep me here or to keep me safe?”
“Yes.”
I sighed before walking into the room, him on my heels. “Are you going to remove the tracers on me?”
“Not until our business is concluded. It would be foolish to give you a way to escape before then.” He gestured around the room.
A large balcony sat at the other side of the massive space, and it overlooked an open courtyard. In the center of the courtyard towered a tree with an archway in the center. “The bridge,” he said from so close behind me, I jumped.
“It’s a tree, not a bridge. They’re not that similar, you know?”
He shook his head and pointed toward it. “That is the point where this level of the afterlife connects with the others. It is the passageway between levels, and the center of the power here.”
I thought back to what Hunter had said. “I was told
