Waltzing into Damnation (The Deception Dance Book 3)

by Rita Stradling

  Stalking forward, bones shift under his skin as he moves. Fur recedes into golden-bronze skin and white-blond hair until a gorgeous and, I’m pretty sure, fully naked man crouches on the floor down the hall. sea blue eyes look up and fix on Cassidy.

  “Hey there,” the man calls over.

  “Um . . . hello,” Cassidy says, sounding a little choked and very surprised.

  A strange hissing sound comes from Linnie, and we all look over to see Nicholas bunny bearing his little rabbit teeth at the Cheetah-man.

  “This way,” Buck growls, gesturing down another hall.

  We all turn, but I catch Cassidy glancing over her shoulder back toward the man with an amused twist to her lips.

  We pass floor A and are turning to the stairway to B when Buck growls, “Floor C is good. No windows. It’s good and dark for a bunny.”

  “Uh . . . Buck, is it?” Linnie asks as she rubs under Nicholas’ chin, which to my surprise Nicholas seems to be taking with no protest. “We sort of . . . like windows, and so does the bunny.”

  Buck halts and leers over at us slowly. “Rabbits live in burrows.”

  “This one has only ever lived in houses,” Linnie explains, as if to a young child.

  The meaty-looking demon grinds his sharp teeth before turning his course to walk down the hall on the A floor. The narrow hallway holds little decoration and many humanoid people.

  As we pass, women, men, creatures and a couple wolves in various stages of dress lean out of doorways. Chatting with each other, they track us with their gazes. Red lines many of their eyes, but no pair that I see hold that tell-tale glow of a demon.

  “In there,” Buck bellows, gesturing toward a door to one side of the hallway.

  “Not in here,” a tall, beautiful forest-green haired woman says as she leans next to the doorway. She looks Mexican or Central American, but her voice holds a strange, melodic tone, like her voice box is made up of flutes. Her deep green hair dances in a non-existent breeze. “We have seven in here. Tamara,” she rolls her ‘r’ as she calls out the name, “why don’t you come over to share a room on my side, so these girls can stay together?”

  “Oh, thank you!” Linnie exclaims.

  “It is best to stay with your friends on this boat,” the beautiful woman says with a graveness in her voice as she looks between Cassidy, Linnie and me.

  A long snout sticks out of the room across the hall, sniffs, and then the entirety of a half-human, half-wolf face pops out. Every visible part of her body is covered in a thick layer of golden hair. “What did you say, Theo?”

  The woman’s voice is more growl than words, but she doesn’t sound aggressive.

  “Come bunk next to mine so we can give these girls a chance to survive here,” the beautiful green-haired woman says.

  Glancing down, I can’t help noticing that instead of feet and shoes, long flipper-like webbed feet protrude out from under her uniform. She looks very like a mermaid with a split tail.

  The wolf-woman, Tamara, looks at us each for a prolonged couple of seconds with bright, blue eyes while a low rumble rattles from her chest before ducking back into the room.

  “Tamara,” Theo says as laughter plays in her aquamarine eyes.

  “Fine,” Tamara growls from within the room. A few seconds later, she comes out with a shoebox and pile of uniforms that look incredibly clean for how unkempt she is. “Take my home of seven years.”

  “Don’t take her bad mood personally,” the green-haired woman says with a smile before turning toward the open door of the room. A gill-like slit opens up on the side of her neck before closing. Turning back to us, she says, “I am Theo.”

  Theo missed her home so much some days, she thought it would kill her--the knowledge smashes into my head. As that feeling tickles up behind my ear, Theo’s pain pulses into my heart. If I had the ability to cry, tears would course down my face. Some circumstance brought this woman Theo here, and now she’s trapped for eternity. It’s knowledge I neither want nor can do anything about, so I just nod at the beautiful mermaid- woman and turn in to the crew quarters.

  A snoozing man occupies one bunk, two beds hold possessions, a thick layer of coarse flaxen hair coats a fourth, and two sit neatly made.

  Cassidy, Linnie and I all just stand in the cramped space, peering at the hair-covered bed.

  Leaning in toward Cassidy, I whisper, “Will you look behind my ear and tell me if Barbas’ mark is there?”

  She bends over toward me but draws back quickly. “It looks like we now have matching tattoos.”

  “Great,” I mutter. “Well, thank you.”

  “Don’t thank me just yet. I’m about to tell you I’m likely to be allergic to all of that hair,” Cassidy mutters as she points down at the bed. She takes Nicholas from Linnie. “I may be allergic to him too, but I’m really hoping not. I’m sorry, ladies.”

  “It’s cool,” Linnie and I say out of sync.

  Linnie holds up her fist on top of her palm. “Best two out of three?”

  Five minutes later, I’m crouched on the floor attempting to scoop the mats of hair off my bottom bunk as my sister and Cassidy make nice with the crew members in the hallway.

  Honestly, I’m happy for the excuse not to be making stilted conversation with random people who may or may not attempt to kill us before we break our lifelong contract with the Sanctuary. From the little I can overhear in the hall though, Theo continues to seem kind and way happier than my insight into her secrets revealed.

  The woman who Theo calls Tamara remains gruff and unfriendly. A couple other voices chat pleasantly, and I just focus on scooping dander out of my new bunk when I feel someone looking at me.

  Slowly, I turn to look up into the top bunk on the other side of the cramped crew room. A young man with big ears peeks over the side of his bunk, blinking sleepily at me. The shape of his cheeks, nose and scrunched set of his chin immediately makes me think bat. A faint coating of dark hair covers the entirety of his face, standing out even more against his light-bronze complexion. The bat impression could also be from the giant protruding ears to either side of his head.

  “Whoa, where’s Tamara?” he asks before flipping down from his bunk. I’m not exactly sure how he manages it, as his bunk stretches to about three feet from the ceiling and there’s barely enough room to crouch down, let alone do acrobatics in the room, yet he manages a perfect and lithe flip, landing on hairy, bare feet.

  “Fine, she’s fine,” I say, hastening to stand. “Someone named Theo asked her to switch rooms so my friends and I could all stay together.”

  “Probably a good idea, though you’re lucky in where they put you.” His extremely upturned nose wrinkles. “What are you guys in, entertainment?” He looks over my shoulder to where Nicholas bunny glowers down from Cassidy’s tidy bunk.

  “Housekeeping,” I say.

  “Then you’re really lucky. Must be your rabbit, huh? Demons are so weird.” He says the words almost fondly.

  “Are you demon infected?” I ask slowly, as I’m not really sure of the etiquette on stuff like that.

  He chitters a laugh, his shoulders shaking. “No, I am what I am, same as Tamara. I was born this way, half-human, half-bat. Do not feel sorry for me. I don’t. We could look all human like you, but looking human won’t do you any favors on this ship.”

  He says it all good-naturedly, but I feel like I gave him the wrong impression.

  “I don’t feel sorry for you. And . . . what all of us have came from demons.” I nod to Nicholas. “Even him.”

  “Yes.” The young man leans in toward Nicholas. His back bends at an unnatural angle, exposing a protuberant spine. “He has a man’s spirit fighting against a very small vessel.” He titters another laugh. “Most of the time, people end up this way because they deserve it. How about him? Did he deserve it?”

  “Uh . . . no comment.” I hold up the giant ball of tan colored hair I gathered from the bed, very ready to change the subject. “Do you know where
a trash can is?”

  He scoops the golden hair straight out of my hand and takes it in long, spindly fingers before setting it on his bunk. “I’ll use it for something,” he says with a mischievous smile.

  That same pins-and-needles moves over the mark behind my ear, and another knowledge comes to me then. He’s going to split the seam on the blanket in the room of a demon guest going by the name of Conrad Flank, spread the itchy dog hair in a thin layer inside and sew it back up. He’ll do it all in the hopes that the coarse dog hair will poke through the blanket slowly throughout the night and make the allergic Mr. Conrad Flank itch like there’s no tomorrow.

  “My name is José,” the young bat-like man says, holding out a hairy hand.

  “Raven.” I shake his hand. The thick hair on his long fingers feels downy.

  Something about the mischievous nature of José’s secret makes me trust him a little bit, and that’s why I take a chance and ask, “Do you know Santiago, the hypnotist?”

  He doesn't answer for a second, leaning in to stare at my eyes. I can't help noticing the irises of his eyes are as black as his pupils. It only adds to how bat-like he looks.

  “Are you a fan of Santiago Diaz Martin’s show?” He says it with what I assume is the correct accent for the name.

  “Not exactly a fan,” I admit. “I've never actually seen the show, but I'm hoping to as soon as possible.”

  “Good luck with that,” he says, bringing me no comfort at all from his tone. “His shows are for guests only on pain of death—almost everything here is on pain of death.”

  Shrugging, he heads for the door but pauses before exiting. “You will want to eat before your dinner shift cleaning starts to have a lot of energy. Housekeeping cleans all the rooms while the guests are at dinner, which means you have to do it very, very fast. You don't want to be caught in the room when a demon returns drunk on human blood.”

  With that ominous warning, he leaves.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Three Days Before

  Cassidy heaves a bucket full of cleaners onto the raised bathroom floor of the third demon room we've cleaned tonight. Since the weasel-faced cleaning crew overlord doesn’t tell us otherwise, Linnie, Cassidy and I stick together, cleaning each room. Aside from that one little concession, our demon shift-tyrant has been on our case every couple of seconds since we started this job.

  “He’s not in the hall right now, so I think I’m going to go for it,” Cassidy says in a whisper.

  I peer up at her while scrubbing the drain of the shower on my knees. As the bathroom is by far the most disgusting part of this job, we decided to rotate the task. Linnie and Cassidy took first shifts with the shower, likely feeling bad that I got the short end of the stick in the sleeping arrangements. Unfortunately for me, the third shower stall seems to be the charm with demon nastiness.

  A thick greenish paste rings the entire drain and just will not scrub off no matter how much bleach cleaner I pour on it. “Ugh. What type of creature would even leave such an odd—”

  “Ectoplasm?” Cassidy supplies as she leans into the room. Her gaze clearly tells me she’s back to business. Right now is probably the closest we’re ever going to get to privacy. But likely to further discourage us from pocketing anything, all doors need to remain open for the entirety of the cleaning. It's also ensures we haven't had a moment to discuss the ever-increasing danger we’re in. “If we get off this shift at midnight,” she whispers, “I believe there is a chance we can sneak into this hypnotist show, but I need to do a recce first.” She hands me a can of powdered bleach cleaner.

  “José said ‘on pain of death’—it seems like a big thing to risk when it’s unnecessary. We should just find this Santiago Diaz Martin guy outside of one of his shows,” I tell her for the third time before upturning the bottle on the green slime. A strange hissing sound emits from the mess, and a noxious odor and sickly smoke rise.

  “My god, that reeks.”

  I wave my hand in the air to try to waft it away. “And I’m guessing that's probably not good for our lungs,” I cough out as I go back to scrubbing the mess. “Anyway, it's not going to do us much good watching the show. I need to talk to them.”

  “Well, it's going to be hard to talk to him if we don't even know what he looks like,” she says. “You know you only have two days left, right?”

  Like I need the reminder. I understood the reason behind making such a hasty, reckless move. I had literally two days to get information from someone I didn’t know, or I’d be dragged to hell by my hair.

  I get it.

  The clock ticks closer to doom every passing second, and I’m screwed with a capital ‘S.’

  But sneaking into the show gets us no closer.

  Linnie pops her head in, obviously hearing our conversation in the stateroom, which isn’t a good sign. “And tomorrow, that woman Theo tells me we land in Puerto Vallarta. She also told me the entertainment crew gets off at every landfall—”

  “We’re in Mexico?” I suppose our destination makes sense, as the music, food, and a good percentage of the staff and passengers seem to be coming from Latin America.

  Also, the heat this time of year means we’re likely getting closer to the equator.

  “It’s kind of sad to think we’re traveling in a place we’ve talked about going our entire lives,” Linnie sighs, “—and all we’re probably going to see is a shoreline from the cabin windows while we clean them.”

  I nod, but I can’t help thinking that in forty-eight hours, I’m either going to be taken by Andras or head straight to Hell. So, my impending demise makes scrubbing demon waste off this shower stall seem kind of like a vacation. I shrug. “At least we’re cleaning a window off the coast of Mexico—it kind of counts, right?”

  “Sure. And tomorrow is the last stop in Mexico,” Linnie whispers. “I guess we’re going around the Panama Canal.”

  Cassidy glares between Linnie and me, probably aware that we’re attempting to use mundane conversation to distract her.

  “And I’m going to run out right now, check it out and be right back,” Cassidy adds. “If that demon pops his head in, remember just to tell him I’m using the crew toilets.”

  “Ugh, Cassidy,” I call as she disappears around the corner.

  When she pops her head back in, I ask, “What do you think this stuff is anyway?” I hold up the green goo-covered sponge. “I’m thinking it might be infectious.”

  “Raven,” she growls quietly, “we're going to have to come up with a very quick plan, or we’ll all end up dying here. Who knows how long Nicholas has until he turns human again? The last time Barbas was summoned, he turned a Leijonskjöld soldier into a pig, and it lasted only twenty minutes. What do you think the demons will do if they discover a Tapper brother on their boat?”

  “Yeah, about that . . .” I lean in toward Cassidy. “I've been meaning to ask you something.”

  She takes the clean rag that was in her hand and hits me gently in the face with it. “The answer is no.”

  “Ugh, what?” I cover my face to ward off future attack. “You don't even know what I'm going to ask.”

  “Yes, I do, and the answer is no. I will not get Nicholas and your sister off the boat when we land tomorrow and leave you here alone on the ship. Just forget it.”

  With that, she turns and heads straight out the door, heading into the hall.

  “Cassidy,” I hiss out just as Nicholas hops by and out of the door after Cassidy, but neither comes back.

  “And the bunny leaves, too. This feels like a really bad plan,” Linnie echoes my thoughts exactly as she rushes back into the cabin room. It’s half the size of a regular bedroom but feels huge compared to our new, six-to-a-room accommodations.

  Not even ten seconds later, the weasel-faced demon-shift overlord with glowing red eyes ducks his head into the room and growls in a thick Texan drawl, “Y’all better stop talking to each other. This ain’t gossip hour, you hear me?”

 
He’s said this exact same thing every time he checks in on us, even though at that moment we’re not talking for once. He glowers at me and then Linnie each once before stalking back out of the room. A second later, he stalks right back in.

  “Where’s that there third girl and the bunny?”

  “Bathroom,” I say just as the demon ectoplasm finally gives way under my vicious scrubbing. “She’ll be right back.” I pull off my rubber gloves to find they've partially dissolved. Thankfully, not down to my fingers.

  “It’s not break time, and you’re not good workers,” he says before spitting what looks like blood on the floor and storming out. “I’m going off to find her,” he calls in a sing-song voice from just beyond the door.

  Damn it, Cassidy.

  I crawl into the hallway, scrubbing the blood on the floor just as someone in uniform passes by our room and whispers in a warning hiss, “Your passengers are heading back to this room, and I wouldn't be stuck in here if I were you.”

  “Shit,” Linnie says as she straightens the comforter and rushes to gather her rags.

  Chucking my now bloody and gooey sponge into the bucket of cleaners, I stand just as two demons fill the doorway.

  “Oh my goodness, humans,” the woman demon says as she strides in through door, forcing me to back deeper into the stateroom toward my sister. The reek of what smells like tangy blood and acidic alcohol mixed together fills the space as they stare at us hungrily.

  “I’ll kill you if you’ve touched my jewels,” the tall, willowy blonde demon whispers as she leans in towards me. Hot sulfur breath coats up my neck, and I stay very still.

  On my other side, the tall, dark-haired male demon stops and lifts my hair. “I don’t see your jewels on her neck, Drew.”

  “But there’s so many places she could be hiding them,” the girl demon responds as sharpened teeth elongate from her mouth.

  “Oh, hell no,” my sister whispers from behind me. “Let go of her, now.”