My mind raced with reasons that my brother could be at odds with me. Had Father found out about my disappearance and decided to take it out on him? Had he come with news that would pull me from this new home and put me back in the hollow of my dungeon room? Rather than jump to conclusions, I decided to wait until my brother was ready to confide in me—to share what was going on with him.
Damien was not one to rush into verbal communication. If someone sparked his anger, he’d tear into that person with all of his pent-up rage. Although I had never seen that side of him, I knew my brother, and I knew when to bide my time and let him process what he wanted to tell me.
I sat on the end of my bed and waited for him to talk. It must have taken ten minutes for him to absorb whatever energy he was absorbing before he finally said something. When he did finally speak, it wasn’t what I was expected.
“Were you shocked when you woke up here this morning?” His back was still toward me.
“Of course, I was.”
“I wanted to surprise you. I thought you might enjoy waking up to the sound of birds chirping and dogs barking, rather than dad’s hellhounds hissing and people screaming.”
“You were thoughtful in surprising me, brother.” I hesitated. “But why—”
“Because it’s the best place for you.” He read my mind.
I stood and crossed my arms over my chest. “Damien, these guys, these roommates, are…well…they’re just not right.”
“Why?”
He still hadn’t turned to look at me and instead continued to stare out the window. “Gavin, the alleged wizard, is a statistical mess and the vampire is allergic to human blood. I just got front-row seats to a circus-freak show.”
I waited for him to respond, but he said nothing. My dear brother was beginning to frustrate me more than he ever had. I was quite aware that he was a man of few words, but not responding to me at all was pissing me off.
“Compassion, Dhellia.”
“What does that mean? Compassion. I’m compassionate, but last I checked, I have Hell on my heels and a father who will slice and dice me if he finds me. I’d like to think that my protection is a little more on solid ground than a cloaking spell and a bedroom in suburbia with two nerds protecting me. We are one calamity short of a sitcom here.”
Damien turned on his heels and glared at me. His head was slightly tilted down, his eyes narrowed and his mouth in an enraged scowl. “I have put my life on the line to protect you. Do you think I’m such a fool that I’d drop you off just anywhere?”
I dropped my arms to my side. “No, of course not. But they—” I pointed toward my bedroom door.
“They,” Damien growled, “Are far more important than you acknowledge. That statistical mess has conjured up a spell that no demon can penetrate, not even Father.”
I swallowed back my emotion of relief. “And the vamp?”
“The vampire will teach you about compassion, Dhellia.”
“A vampire is going to teach me about compassion. Are you kidding?”
“Do I look like I’m kidding?”
I nervously glanced around my room. “No, you look like you want to eat something or someone.” I tried to make light of the situation, but my brother didn’t laugh.
“It’s time to grow up, Dhellia. You’ve been running around upstairs like a child running away from home. You wanted out from under Father’s grip…well, now you got it. But that means you need to get a job and pay your own way. This is your life and what you do with it will determine who you become.”
“Okay, Dr. Phil,” I pouted.
“Enough of the human remarks,” he roared.
He took a step back. I could tell that he was upset with himself for losing his cool with me. I could also tell that something was seriously wrong. My inner gut never lied and this time, it was sending out strong alerts.
“Sorry, Damien. I’ll make you proud.”
“You already make me proud, Dhellia. Just blend in with the humans you adore so much and give us a break from the drama. Once Father gets over the fact that you’re gone, the dust will settle and you will finally have the opportunity to pursue who you want to be.”
“And for that clean slate, I will be forever grateful.”
Damien opened a small, nonaggressive portal in my room. Before he left, he glanced back at me. “Take a second look at your roommates. You’ll find two diamonds in the rough. They need you as much as you need them. Embrace your humanity.” He disappeared.
The entire conversation replayed in my mind. My brother’s demeanor never changed, he had remained rigid and uptight. He was definitely holding back something and I knew it was something that pertained to me.
Chapter Six
I sat on my bed, with my back against the wall, my knees pulled up to my chest and the newspaper out in front of me opened to the “help wanted” ads.
Dhellia, the daughter of Satan, had to find a job. This was such a joke that I actually laughed aloud.
Maybe I could be a stripper and anger my brother into paying my way. And where was my dowry? Didn’t Satan’s daughter come with some money, land, ownership to anything?
I was starting to think that my freedom was too expensive. My birthday was in two weeks, I’d be twenty-one years old, and I should be planning a big, crazy party rather than sifting through clerical and food server jobs.
I wanted to do something bigger than make french fries and wear a name tag. Not that there was anything wrong with it, but I wanted to have a larger purpose than earning a paycheck.
I sighed and put down the paper on my bed.
When I heard a tap on my bedroom door, I knew it was Beavis and Butthead and I wasn’t in the mood. Did that stop them from opening my door? No! It did not.
“Hey, Dhellia, are you in there?” Gavin asked through the crack in the door.
I didn’t say anything. I thought if I stayed perfectly still, didn’t say a word, they’d get the hint and go away. Did they? No.
“Dhell, it’s Gavin and Jonas. Are you in there? Can you give us a second of your time?”
I glared at the crack in the door. I could see Gavin’s bottle-cap glasses staring right at me while he questioned if I was in my room. I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Dhellia left,” I said as I reclined on my stomach and spread the newspaper out in front of me on the bed.
“Okay, when she gets back, will you let her know that we stopped by.”
“Oh my dear Hell, are you kidding me?!”
He didn’t really think that another girl was in my room that looked just like me with the same voice, telling him that I wasn’t here? “Gavin, open the damn door and come in.”
The door opened and my two goofball roommates hesitantly walked in my room. “Hey, Dhellia, we didn’t think you were here,” Gavin said.
I cocked my head to the side. “You knew damn well I was here because your eyeball was looking right at me.”
Gavin shrugged, embarrassed. “I just figured you didn’t want to be disturbed.”
“If you figured that, then why did you disturb me?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the newspaper.
Jonas’s voice shocked me to look up. “You know what? You’re not a very nice person. I know that you’re Satan’s daughter and you might think that it’s okay to treat others like a piece of gum on the bottom of your shoe, but honestly, you’re a bitch.”
I glanced at Gavin. We both looked shocked. “Did he just call me a bitch?” I looked back at Jonas. “Did you just call me a bitch?” I jumped off my bed and landed in front of him.
He seemed timid, uncertain if he should admit that he did. “Well, Gavin is trying to be nice to you and since you got up this morning, you’ve called us all kinds of names. You’re a stranger in our home.”
I laughed hysterically. Then I grabbed Jonas, pulled him into my arms, and tightly embraced him. “You called me a bitch. Jonas, that’s the first thing I’ve heard you say today that was genuine. Sincere and initiated by your own accord.”
; “You’re not mad at me?”
“Mad? I’m delighted. Actually, I’ll kick your ass later for the remark, but right now, I want us to marvel in your bravado. Bravo, vampire. You just grew a pair of balls.” I smiled. “So, whatcha guys want?”
“Well,” Gavin said, “I heard it’s your birthday in two weeks.”
I tilted my head. “How did you hear that?”
“He can read minds,” Jonas spilled.
Gavin pushed Jonas in the arm. “Maybe it’s best that you leave the talking to me.”
I walked over to Gavin and poked him in the chest. “So, you can read minds and you thought it was okay to hang out in my thoughts?”
“Ouch.”
“Stay out of my head, magic man. You are now off-limits to my thoughts. Do you understand?”
He shrugged. “You can read mine, too.”
“I don’t read minds.”
“You could.”
“What do you mean, I could?”
“It’s a family trait,” Gavin smirked.
It took me a moment to understand what he was telling me. When I did, I threw my open hand in his face. “Oh, Hell to the no, you and I are not family?”
He gave me one quick nod, “Yes, we are.”
“From where? I don’t know anything about you.”
“Do you know anything about your mother’s side of the family, Dhellia?”
I hesitated. My mother had died when I was five. I hardly remembered her, let alone her side of the family. “Read my mind, you witch.”
“First, don’t call me names.”
“You’re a witch, aren’t you?”
“No, I’m a wizard.”
“To-ma-toes…tomah-toes…” I grinned.
“Second, I know your mother died when you were five. Well, I heard about it. I also heard she was a powerful witch.”
I shrugged. “Maybe. When she died, my father whisked Damien and me downstairs to Hell. I never even had a chance to take any of my things with me.”
“Then there’s a lot that you don’t know about the family. Do you know what your powers are?”
“Powers? I know I’m fast and I don’t get tired. I can run for a year straight around the world and never stop to catch my breath.”
“Those are your father’s powers, not from your mother. What else?” he asked me.
“That’s it, as far as I know.”
“Interesting. We should try to do a few things that I think you might have, but are undiscovered abilities.”
I nodded. “I’ll tell you what magic man. I will be your guinea pig, if you help me get a job.”
“Do you have any skills?”
“What do you mean by skills?” I asked.
“We really have our work cut out for us, don’t we, Dhellia? You haven’t harnessed your gifts yet and you have no skills that you can think of.”
“I have skills! I just didn’t understand what you were referring to.”
“Okay, what are your skills?”
“I can… well… I can…” my frustration was building. I hated trick questions. “I can put together a mean ensemble for any occasion.”
“Clothes. Are you talking about dressing yourself?”
“Hey, it’s an art!”
“What else have you got?”
“I can talk on the phone with perfect etiquette.”
Gavin glanced at Jonas and they both smiled. “We have the perfect job for you.”
“Oh, really? And what would be the perfect job for me?”
Chapter Seven
I slid my finger underneath the collar of my button-down blouse and groaned when the phone rang. “You’ve reached the law offices of Birch, Weaver and Isenberg. This is Dhellia, how may I help you?”
“I’m looking for the empress of Hell to represent my case of mistaken identity,” the caller said. “I never actually killed that woman at the bus stop.” Gavin and Jonas both laughed into the phone.
“You guys are nerds, prank-calling me at work. You just wait. One day, you two will stand judgment before my father during your trial by fire and you’ll wish…” I hesitated.
“Wait!” A brilliant thought crossed my mind. “Guys, you both are geniuses. I’ve got to go.”
As I started to hang up the phone, I heard Jonas tell Gavin, “Did she call us geniuses?” and Gavin remarked, “Statistically, I didn’t see that happening for another four months. My math is…” and the phone hit the receiver.
I couldn’t help but laugh at them. In an odd way, those two had grown on me in the past week. They were actually cool people in a timid-nerdy-and-in-serious-lack-of-swag sort of way.
Their prank call provoked a brilliant thought. I grabbed a notebook and a pencil and started for the library of law books in the back room of the law office.
“Dhellia,” my boss called out to me.
I rolled my eyes and turned to face him. “Yes, Dick?”
“It’s Richard,” he said, shrugging with embarrassment at his client standing next to him. “She’s new,” he whispered.
Richard’s client stood erect, his suit crisply dry-cleaned and pressed, his black hair spiked on top with it slightly longer in back and the bottom of his hair flipped up in soft curls. His eyes were dark and mysterious.
This client caught my eye. An odd sensation rumbled around at the pit of my stomach. I moved my attention from the client to my boss. “Richard, what can I do for you?”
“This is a very important client, Mr. Quintus Sable.”
I shook his hand with a sweaty palm.
“Nice to meet you, Mr. Sable.” Something about this man made me feel uneasy, yet excited.
“This is our clerk, Dhellia Hunt. She will be happy to help you find the book that I told you about.”
He continued to hold my hand firmly as he stared into my eyes. My nerves were scrambling in disarray around the pit of my stomach—an odd sensation to say the least. I finally found my voice and addressed Mr. Sable. “I can show you to the library. I was just going that way.” I pulled my hand from his.
He nodded and grinned. Those soft full lips parted to reveal the whitest teeth I’d ever seen. It took a moment to pull my eyes from that region of his face.
Mr. Sable was a man who was barely twenty-five years old. Yet he had perfect confidence that would make even the president take notice. Oh, yes, he made me nervous.
“So, Ms. Hunt—”
I quickly corrected him. “You can call me Dhellia.” I didn’t want him to address me by my mother’s surname because it sounded too formal.
“Okay, Dhellia, have you worked here long?”
“Three days.” I glanced back at him. He strolled slightly behind me. I figured it was so he could check out my tight ass and long legs, but who really knew why men did what they did?
“Oh, you’re new—new. What did you do before you started here?”
I shrugged. “Spent Daddy’s money.”
“I figured you as the type.”
I swung around. “What does that mean?”
He laughed and walked past me, leaving my question unanswered. Mr. Chatty Cathy just angered me. Upsetting me when he needed my help was not a good idea.
We walked into the huge law library and I turned around and sweetly asked, “Which book did I need to help you find, Mr. Sable?”
He raised his eyebrows. I guessed because he could hear the twinge of sarcasm in my voice.
“My father recently passed away. He owned a construction company.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.”
“Sickness,” he explained. “We expected it, so we were partially prepared. However, he left the business to me and now the committee wants to kick me off the board of directors.”
I narrowed my eyes. “I’ve been here three days, Mr. Sable. I don’t need the history…I just need the book name.”
He nodded and bit his lip. “Feisty, aren’t you? Your boss asked me to bring back this book.” He handed me a post-it note with the name scribbl
ed on it.
“Give me one second, and I’ll get that for you.”
“I can help you look for it.”
“No, you can’t. I actually want to keep my job. You relax and let me look for the book that will help you continue to ride on Daddy’s coattails while you spend his money.” I winked.
The look on his face was priceless. If I could rewind that very moment and watch it repeatedly, I’d do it a hundred times over with a bowl of popcorn in my lap.
When I returned with his book, I handed it to him—my eyes cast down on my notebook of notes. Something about this man made my stomach tie in knots and that was an uncomfortable, unfamiliar place for me.
“Thanks?” I could tell that he was baffled at my sudden lack of interest in him. Oh, I was interested, but he didn’t need to know that.
“No problem, Mr. Sable. Have a wonderful day.” I waved at him but kept my eyes cast down on my blank notebook, scribbling nothing in a particular.
When I thought he had gone, I looked up and released a breath of stale air I had been holding inside my lungs. Finally, my body relaxed.
The sensation of warm air brushed my ear and sent shivers through my body. I jumped, but his hand was on my arm and his body pressed against my back.
I froze.
“Before I left,” Quinn whispered in my ear. “I thought I’d give you this.”
He slid a business card under the hand that was holding me up. Hell knows my legs weren’t doing a good job of it. They were weak and as wobbly as a preteen girl meeting Justin Bieber for the first time.
My eyes were fixated on the business card, my body frozen between him and the countertop. His tight stomach pressed against my back. I was breathless.
When he spoke again, his warm breath touched every nerve ending in my body. “I could use someone like you to keep my affairs in order.”
He knew what he was doing to me both physically and emotionally. I couldn’t even respond to his statement, although my mind was processing a thousand different things: kiss me, touch me, move my hair and ravage my neck.
His left hand reached forward and toyed with my fingers as he moved his strong, warm hand up my arm. His heart beat as fast as mine, putting me in some kind of Quintus Sable trance.
Witch Road to Take Page 4
