“Holy shit!” The yeti moved out of my way as I rushed to untie him. His skin was sliced up a bit and there was an excessive amount of debris in his hair, but other than that, he looked okay. No missing fingertips or bamboo shoots under his nails. My conscious warned me to be careful around him, but I needed to ask about Erin. It was starting to look as if he might be telling the truth. The thought frightened me. If it really were true, then it meant that Levie could have been double crossing me. I didn't really believe it, but I couldn't rule out the possibility. As I peeled the tape off of Terrence's mouth, he let out a deep, gasping breath.
“You scared the shit out of me,” Terrence croaked. “But thank you,” he finished, struggling to stand up. I grabbed him by the elbow and helped him get his feet under him. “I thought a bomb was going off. The fairies did threaten me with one, after all.” As much as I wanted to ask Terrence about Erin, or about being an incubus, or maybe about trying to date rape me, the absence of the fairies was starting to get to me.
“Where did they go?” I asked him, hoping maybe one of the pixie dust carrying sadists had said something aloud. Terrence shook his head and pulled a piece of paper from his pocket.
“They just disappeared without a word. But I do have this for you.” I took the piece of paper from his hand and unfolded it. It wasn't in any language I could read, except for the address that Terrence had highlighted. “I wanted to give it to you before anything else happened. I think this could be the answer to all of your problems.”
I watched him suspiciously and backed towards the yetis. I was assuming that since they needed me to reverse my wish, they might protect me from a crazy incubus. “Where's my friend?” Terrence shook his head and brushed more drywall from his hair.
“She was here when they first tied me up but they took her away no less than an hour ago. Ginger,” he stepped towards me, voice silky smooth, and I retreated another step. I wasn't going to trust him as far as I could throw him.
“You're an incubus?” Terrence blinked surprised eyes at me.
“Who told you that?” he asked me, stepping over the chair. I backed into the female yeti. She clasped her massive hands on my shoulders. It hurt but I could tell she was at least trying to be gentle.
“You want me kill him?” she asked me, tightening her grip slightly. I tried to pry her fingers loose, but they wouldn't budge.
“That's quite alright,” I gasped. “At least not yet.” She released me, and I took a teensy step forward. Between a rock and a hard place had a new meaning for me. “It doesn't matter who told me that, Terrence. You tried to freaking date rape me. What the fuck is your problem?” Terrence shook his head.
“It was Levie, wasn't it.” I raised my eyebrows at him.
“How do you know his name?” I asked, trying to breathe through my mouth and ignore the smell of wet dog and plaster. Terrence met my eyes and for a moment, just a moment, I got a strong urge in my lower parts. Fucking incubus.
“He's the heir to Hell Inc. After Lunen left, he was the only remaining family member willing to comply with their rules.” Wow. This sure was news to me. At least it explained why Liam had referred to Levie as the CEO when he first saw him. “Everybody knows who he is.” I shook my head. Things were starting to make sense. And not in a good way. “Ginger, they hired me to put the Love Potion in your drink. I swear it. Because I'm an incubus, they wanted us to have sex so that I could drain your guardian energy but it had to be willing. They threatened me just like they sent the fairies to threaten you.” I shook my head. I still didn't trust Terrence, not one bit.
“I don't believe you.” Terrence rubbed a hand through his hair like he was the one who should be stressed out.
“I can prove it to you. We'll go to that address I gave you. I can help you get your friend and your life back, Ginger, if you'll let me.” I looked back at the yetis and shrugged. They seemed intent on kidnapping me anyway. They might as well bring Terrence along, and a lead was a lead. The sphinx finally decided to show itself and squeezed past the yeti into the room.
“An eye for an eye will ruin your depth perception.”
How helpful he was.
The yetis had been surprisingly gracious in their kidnapping of us (quite unlike the fairies, who had yet to be seen since their assault on me), and I was even starting to like the one named Gyiarava or whatever her name was. The sphinx on the other hand seemed downright delighted to have company in the guarding and harassment of one, Ginger Malloy.
“You won't have to worry about a thing,” I lied smoothly. Or at least, I thought it was a lie. It seemed too easy to believe what Terrence had told me. Really. Far too easy. But I was going along with it for Erin's sake. In the long run, it was death by vampires, death by fairies, or death by yetis. None of which sounded particularly appealing, even if the yetis happened to be very polite. And the cherry on top of my shit sundae was the fact that I was going to be the Devil's bitch for an untold number of centuries after said death occurred. So of course my hopes were up as high as they could possibly get given the situation, and I was feeling almost cheerful.
We found the address easily (don't you just love GPS?) and rode in Terrence's Mercedes, the sphinx and the yetis easily keeping up alongside, and I was knocking on the door before I had a chance to reconsider. “You want me knock it down?” Gyiarava asked just as the door was opened by an anorexic thirteen year old with a noticeable absence of breast development. Or she could have been a Victoria's Secret model. Either way, she smiled coyly at us.
“There something I can help y'all with?” she drawled in a very rehearsed sounding southern accent. Terrence cleared his throat, but I beat him to it.
“Is,” I had to pause a moment to reread the name on the printout Terrence had given me. “Is Diamokina here?” The girl blinked stupid sleepy eyes at me and then pulled the door open and gestured Terrence and me in, leaving the yetis and the sphinx to stand watch.
“Just wait right here,” she whispered, shuffling slippered feet across the burnt orange linoleum. The house smelt like patchouli and pot, and I stifled the urge to cover my nose while Terrence shifted and leaned closer to me.
“You know,” he said softly. “I was hoping you'd come to my rescue. I really do like you, you know.” Ah, one of the last things I was in the mood to talk about.
“Yeah, well, that's just great. You might've thought about that before drugging me.” It sounded overly bitter, but that's how I felt. Bitter and pissed off. I ignored the hurt look on Terrence's face (I didn't buy it for a second) and focused on the orange skinned creature that was now swaying towards us. She held a pipe in her hand and smiled wickedly at me, revealing a rather nasty looking row of sharp teeth.
“You a shark or a genie?” I blurted out of nervousness. Goddess knows only a moron would say something that stupid to an immortal, supernatural being, but hell, maybe I really was a moron and I just hadn't realized it yet. The genie laughed and the bells and jewels displayed prominently on her wrists, ankles, and ears tinkled merrily.
“Lucky for you, I have a sense of humor,” she purred in an accent I couldn't quite place. “Since you're here, it means you know how to do your homework. How do you know who I am?” She was looking at me, but I had no answer for her. After a moment, she blew smoke in my face and twirled, her purple skirts flowing around her legs as she glided into her kitchen and began making a pot of tea. I looked at Terrence, and he smiled cryptically. Either he wasn't willing to say or he thought I should answer her.
“Um, so you can reverse wishes as well as grant them, right?” I was going off the information Terrence had given me in the car. I hoped to high hell he was right and I wasn't just making an idiot out of myself. Diamokina stared at me with her alien eyes: almond eyes with all blue, no pupil, no white, just blue. She smiled again and rubbed a hand over her nearly bald head.
“And what obligation do I have to answer you?” she breathed, leaning over her breakfast bar until our faces were only inches apart.
“Grant me a favor and I'll grant you one.” She leaned back and cocked her head to one side as if listening for something. I glanced at Terrence, but his expression told me he knew little more than I did.
“What do you want?” I asked, playing the ironic skeptic who sold her soul for the damn wishes in the first place. Diamokina leaned her head to the side again and satisfied with whatever it was that she was looking for, leaned abruptly forward. Her eyes flashed with what I thought might have been fear, but it came and went too quickly for me to really tell.
“Get my bottle, please,” she almost sounded as if she were begging rather than bargaining. Her eyes darted to the doorway to what I supposed was a bedroom and then locked onto mine. “Get the bottle from that girl, and I'll do whatever it is that you want. It can't be any worse than this.”
“The thirteen year old is holding you captive?” The genie's hand flew over my mouth and she curled her lip at me.
“Are you trying to get us all killed?” I had no idea what she was talking about so I just shrugged.
“What the fucking hell do you think you're doing?” Thirteen-year-old was holding a freaking pistol in her hands and glaring at the three of us. “I leave the room for one fucking second and you start making deals behind my back.” Somehow, I liked the sleepy, stupid eyed version of this girl better. “What the fuck, Dia, you don't like me anymore?” She fired a shot at the kitchen cabinet and the wood exploded in a spray of debris and Cheerios.
“Ah, Goddamn it.” I staggered back against the living room wall and tried not to attract the girl's attention. Meanwhile, Terrence had moved in the opposite direction, pinning himself against the living room couch. We exchanged glances but the girl wasn't looking at us, she was looking at the genie and while Diamokina couldn't die, she could feel pain and obviously had no desire to be shot. I was hoping the sphinx or the yetis might hear the commotion and come in before the whole thing got ugly.
“There was no bargaining going on, Leah. The idiot girl misunderstood what I was saying,” Leah narrowed her eyes and lowered her gun a couple of inches. I felt an itching at the edges of my thoughts and when I tried to process it, I heard a voice. The bottle is in the bedroom in the nightstand. The fool doesn't keep it very well hidden. If you can grab it, you will control me. It is as simple as that.
I wanted to ask her if she could take the gun away too but since I had no idea how telepathy worked, there was really nothing I could do but try to figure it out on my own. Leah was approaching the kitchen, and she didn't look any less pissed.
“I'm tired of your fucking lies, Dia. You tell me one thing and do another. I'm sick of it. I'm fucking ending this now.” The next thing I saw, I wish I hadn't. A gunshot wound to the head isn't pretty, genie or no. I cringed and closed my eyes against the burst of fluids that sprayed the white cabinets. I heard a thump as the genie's body hit the floor and then another. I opened my eyes to see Terrence wrestling with Leah and the gun. Another shot went off and hit the ceiling covering us all in a layer of white dust.
Darting around the scuffle, I hurried into the bedroom, tripping over a pile of clothes in the process and landing with my face inches from the nightstand. I flung open the bottom cabinet and started digging through the contents. There were several bottles, any of which could have been the one I was looking for. I gathered them up in my arms and staggered back in the hallway. Terrence was standing over Leah. Her eyes were wide with fear, and she was shaking.
“He isn't what – ” She never finished her sentence because Terrence shot her. Right in the center of her forehead. It was one of those moments in life where time stops. I didn't know what to do. I just stood there, some of the bottles slipping from my arms and falling to the shaggy carpet that covered most of the hall floor. He lowered his arm and slipped the gun into his coat pocket. His face never changed. He still looked trustworthy, the kind of person you want to bring home to mom. Not someone who would just shoot a young girl, no matter how fucked up she might be.
“Did I miss something here?” My attempt at humor fell flat as I stared down at the pool of red leaking out from underneath Leah's bleach blonde hair. “Was she still a danger to us in some way?” Terrence sighed and glanced over at the kitchen. A rather disturbing slurping sound was emanating from the area where Dia's body lay. I assumed she was probably regenerating. It would have shocked most people, but well, I had seen a lot of shit lately.
“She wasn't what she appeared to be, Ginger. There are things in this world that even you don't know about.” Okay, now I was really confused.
“Pardon me?” I asked incredulously, bending down to scoop up the dropped bottles before the pool of blood reached them. “Are you fucking insane?” Terrence smiled sadly and shook his head.
“That's a tale best left for later.” Wow. I had been right not to trust him. He was a nut among nuts.
“You just killed a teenager, Terrence. Am I supposed to just ignore that fact and move on?”
“Don't listen to him.” Diamokina was staggering around the corner of the kitchen and into the living room, the hole in the side of her cheek filling in even as she spoke to me in a slurred voice. “Leah was nothing but a spoiled rotten imbecile. She knows I can't die; that's why she shot me. She would never have hurt either of you.” I gulped as Terrence turned a rather fiery gaze to the genie. “He's the one you should be worried about.” I looked between the two of them and took a step back.
“What the hell is going on here?” Terrence turned to me and smiled.
“It's okay, Ginger. I would never hurt you. There's nothing for you to fear. She's doing what genies do, trying to convince you not to use her services. It's in her nature; she can do no less than lie.” I started backing towards the front door. No sense in not using caution here. I mean Terrence was obviously fucked in the head; he'd proven that. And I didn't know shit about genies. My eyes darted to the doorknob. Would the yetis help me in a pinch? Or maybe the sphinx? Maybe. Or maybe not. My stomach twisted and I squeezed the bottles tighter.
“I'm going to leave now, Terrence. I don't really know what to think right now, but I'm kind of an accessory to a homicide and you're kind of a murderer so just let me have a day or two to process things and – ”
“Give me the order!” Diamokina shouted, her cheek now completely healed. “And I'll destroy him for you!”
“No, no, that's okay. Really. I just need time to think. You stay here and when I figure out what I need to do, I'll be back.” Terrence opened his mouth to speak but then closed it abruptly, his eyes going wide and then he just collapsed. My first urge was to run over to see if he was okay, but I felt what was now a familiar pressure on my shoulders.
“Do not touch him. He is like a possum, only playing dead.”
Levie was squeezing me a little harder than I would have liked, but the relief I felt when I looked up and saw his orange eyes glaring down at me was immense. I almost smiled. Almost. But then there was the little issue of the dead girl lying not three feet away from me.
“Levie.” His name came out like a breath, and I yelped when he scooped me up. His lip was curled but not at me, thankfully. At least, not yet. I was assuming I would get mine later. He was staring at the genie intently. His eyes never left her face as he reached behind us and opened the front door. The yetis were nowhere to be seen, but the sphinx was sitting with its tail wrapped around its front legs.
“Who is more likely to step off the edge of a cliff, a blind man or a fool?” That hurt, but okay, I deserved it. Levie shut the front door to the apartment quietly and then proceeded down the walkway and the stairs, all without putting me down.
“Is it okay if I walk now? I'd prefer not to have people staring at us.” All I got was a glare. I shut my mouth and waited. And waited. We were several blocks away before I tried talking again. “Really, it's okay. I can walk.” I was still holding the bottles and my arms were starting to ache, but I didn't know what else to do with them. Without knowing which bottle controlled the
genie, I was sort of obligated to keep them all. Levie set me down, hard. His anger was apparent but understandable. I put both of our lives at risk by compromising his ability to do his job. If anything happened to me, his uncle wouldn't be happy. “Can you hold some of these?” I asked, nodding towards my armful of bottles. Levie scowled and then smacked my arm hard enough that I dropped them all. They shattered across the pavement and I looked up at him, aghast. “What the hell?” There was smoke emanating from his hands and the garbage in a nearby trash can burst into flames. “Um, Levie?”
“Stupid girl,” he snarled. “Stupid fucking girl.” Um. I glanced at the sphinx, but it was no help. It cocked its head to the side and said nothing. Trying to avoid Levie's gaze, I bent down and picked up the only unbroken bottle. “A genie's bottle can never break.” Oh. I flushed as I picked up the pink tinted bottle and cradled it in my hands. That may not have been the reason he was calling me stupid, but I still felt kind of dumb.
“I'm sorry, Levie,” I said, my eyes following a group of ants as they wound their way around a telephone pole and continued their path towards the now flaming trash can. People were staring and gossiping, but no one was really doing anything about it. “But my friend's been kidnapped. I didn't have time to wait for you.” I couldn't forget Terrence's accusations, but I didn't believe them either. He'd shot that girl in the head with little thought or remorse. He was the bad guy. Not Levie. The stench of the garbage was starting to get to me, so I covered my nose with my shirt sleeve and took off down the sidewalk. It wouldn't do me any good; he would still follow, but at least I could pretend that I was running away.
Hell Inc. Page 19
