“Ouch!” I yelled, trying to punch Sally when she slammed me against the back of the elevator, throwing Ulfur in after me. “You son of a bitch! I’ll get you for this!”
I lunged at her, unable to get up with Ulfur lying across my legs, but I did try to bite her. She waved a hand and I hit the floor again.
“Oh, please,” she said, making a gesture that had me frozen to the floor, Ulfur lying half on top of me.
She stepped across our bodies, pressing a button and humming softly along with the elevator music as we began to descend.
“I knew it! I knew a demon lord couldn’t be good!” Alec!
Beloved, are you all right? Where are you?
In an elevator, lying on the floor. Alec, the wrath demons . . . Sally is evil! I knew she was evil! She took us all in!
Why are you—sins of the saints!
What’s wrong?
Other than the fact that Kristoff and I are trying to keep from being beheaded by two wrath demons, you mean?
Oh. Am I distracting you?
Are you harmed?
No.
Then you are distracting me. I will come to you as soon as we destroy these demons’ forms.
“Good, bad . . . that’s so black-and-white when there are so many shades of gray that are far more interesting,” Sally said complacently.
“Oh, you think you’re so smart,” I growled. “Just you wait until Alec takes care of your demon minions! Then we’ll show you what’s what. Right, Ulfur?”
“Urgh,” he groaned.
“Exactly. You’ll be one sorry chickie, and I just can’t wait to tell your boyfriend about you.”
Sally continued humming for a few seconds as a horrible thought occurred to me.
“Merciful Mary! He’s in it with you, isn’t he? Oh! And to think I believed him when he said the Sovereign recommended you. What bull! Well, I can tell you, we will be having a little chat with this Sovereign dude, and telling him . . . it . . . all about you and Terrin!”
Sally was about to reply when the elevator opened to reveal a couple with a small child in hand. “I’m sorry, but would you mind waiting? My friends here are about to threaten me with untold torments, and I’m very curious to see what exactly those will be. I hope they include thumbscrews. I love thumbscrews. They look so innocuous, and yet can give you such marvelous results, don’t you think?”
The couple fled toward the stairs, the small child in the man’s arms.
“That’s just one more thing I’m going to mention to the Sovereign,” I told Sally’s ankle.
“Tattletales never end up good,” was all she said as we descended again.
“What are you going to do with us?” I tried very hard not to let even so much as a hint of a quaver taint my voice.
“A friend has badly wanted to see you, and I am obliging him.”
“Friend? You have a friend? I thought people like you just used others.”
“Such ingratitude,” Sally said, buffing a nail with absolute lack of concern about anything I said. “And to think I’ve gone to so much trouble about you. Ah, here we are.”
We hadn’t descended to the basement, or some dank lower floor that only hotel employees used; no, the doors slid open to reveal another cream-and-gold-colored hallway, and three pairs of legs. Men’s legs, two pairs in black pants, one in jeans. I couldn’t move my head to look up and see who they were, but I knew without a single shred of doubt that Sally was about to hand Ulfur and me over to Bael.
“I’ll get you, too,” I told the pair of feet nearest me. His shoes were expensive-looking, the kind you see on billionaire businessmen as they step out of their limos. “And if I don’t, I know a vamp who will!”
“Why is it mortals insist on believing they have the least amount of power against me?” a plummy English voice asked as the expensive shoes stepped to the side. “What did you do to them, Sally?”
I wondered if I should let Alec know that Sally had grabbed Ulfur and me, but decided that distracting him with that information now could have deadly consequences. I’d wait until he gave me the all clear; then I’d tattle on Sally like she’d never been tattled on before.
“Damn you!” I snarled at the shoes, struggling to force my body upright. It was no use—whatever Sally had done to us held me to the floor like I was nailed there.
“Just a simple immobility spell, my prince. She was getting a bit difficult. Well, you know how mortals are—they can raise such a fuss over the most trivial of things.”
“Trivial like betraying us when we trusted you?” I gasped, outraged at her callousness.
“Bring both the woman and the lich. It will be my pleasure to show them both what my wrath truly consists of.”
I did not like the sound of that. Maybe now would be a good time to tell Alec what was going on. Then again, if he was still battling with Bael’s wrath demons, it might make things worse.
Much worse.
“Be careful,” Sally advised. “The female bites.”
No, I had better take care of this myself, at least until Alec was free to help Ulfur and me.
“Damned straight I do!” I glared at the pair of shoes nearest me as two hands hefted me up, slinging me facedown across a man’s shoulder. I growled as my face was buried in his suit coat, blinding me to everything but a narrow slice of floor visible when I rolled my eyes to the top of my head. “I swear by all that’s holy, you’ll pay for this! You all will!”
“She’s also fairly antagonistic, although that probably is to be expected,” I heard Sally say as she followed behind us.
“Where are you taking us?” I demanded to know of the man’s back.
Bael wasn’t hauling me around, but it was he who answered . . . in a bland voice that nonetheless left my skin crawling. “I do not recall giving you leave to speak, woman.”
“And I don’t recall giving you the right to make me your Tool, and yet here I am!” I snapped in return.
“Cora, Cora, Cora,” Sally said in a disapproving tone. “Dear one, I realize you are not versed in the etiquette of Abaddon, but surely even you must realize that one simply does not snarl at Lord Bael without suffering the consequences.”
I had a horrible feeling that the word “suffering” was going to take on a very real meaning, one I was pretty darned desperate to avoid, so despite my desire to do otherwise, I kept the string of abuse I wished to hurl at everyone’s heads behind my teeth.
“Silence the woman if she continues,” Bael said in an offhand voice as a door was opened and I was tossed onto a bed, Ulfur dumped next to me. We were still immobile, so I couldn’t even roll over or shove Ulfur’s torso off my legs, but I could see Sally as she faced Bael near the doorway of the hotel room.
“Oh, I will, naturally, because you know, life is just too short to put up with people lipping off to you. Well, not my life,” Sally said with a giggle. I ground my teeth and wished I could fire some of Bael’s power right at her. “But you know what I mean—life in general. In fact, I had better silence her now, because she’s sure to scream and beg and plead and generally carry on, and I wouldn’t want to disturb you.”
“The day will never come when begging and pleading disturbs me,” Bael said with a gesture that had his two companions dissolving into nothing. “But you may silence the woman if you desire. She will not need to have a mouth in order to be unmade.”
“Hey!” I said, my skin crawling again at the casual way they both talked about what could only be torture. “I am right here! And I like my mouth! Sally, for the love of all that’s holy . . . er . . . for the love of . . . crap! All I can think of are appeals to your goodness, and you’re so utterly not good, the comparison would be obscene. I don’t know why you’re doing this, but I should point out that Alec will not tolerate you abusing me in any way, shape, or form. And I know Pia won’t let you do anything to Ulfur, either. What . . . er . . . what did you mean we would be unmade?” The last bit was directed at Bael, who ignored me to consult his cell phone.