"So I've been told. Why . . . wait, de Marco? You're - " A shadow moved behind the man, coming forward and resolving itself. "Ulfur!"
"I am Alphonse de Marco, and you will give to me the Occio di Lucifer," Ulfur's boss said in a no-nonsense tone of voice that really just irritated me more than frightened me.
"The . . . oh. That." I wondered how he'd feel if he knew the Tool was broken, and that I was the designated hitter. I glanced at Ulfur, but his expression gave nothing away.
Ulfur hadn't told his boss what happened, I realized with a secret smile. Bless his heart, he used the fact that I had the Occio to convince his boss to pull me out of the Akasha.
Leaving Alec and Diamond behind.
"Do you have it? " de Marco asked, his expression darkening into anger.
"Yes." Hastily I assembled a plan that I hoped would rescue both Alec and Diamond. "I do."
"I have summoned you out of the Akasha. In gratitude, you will give it to me," he ordered, his bossy tone really starting to get under my skin.
I looked at the imperative hand he held out before me. "Well, you know, the Occio is a really big deal. It's one-third of the Tools of Dale."
"Bael," Noelle the Guardian corrected.
"Bael, sorry." De Marco's eyes narrowed on me suspiciously. I cleared my throat and said with what I hoped was convincing insouciance, "I call him Dale. It's a little thing we do."
Ulfur rubbed his hand over his eyes, but said nothing.
"But that's neither here nor there, and what is here is . . . well, actually, he's there, not here. If you know what I mean. Do you know what I mean?"
"No," de Marco growled.
"Oh. Well, it's Alec."
"Alec? Who is Alec?" De Marco was clearly getting angrier with each passing second.
Ulfur's eyes widened as he glanced between his boss and me. I had the feeling he was trying to tell me something, but I didn't know what it was.
"He's a friend," I said carefully, trying to suss what had Ulfur so agitated.
"I don't care about your friends. I just want the Occio, and I want it now. Hand over the payment for your removal from the Akasha, or I will have you returned there immediately."
"Hang on there, buster," I said, deciding that the best way to deal with people like him was to bluff my way through his demands. "I will make a deal with you - you spring my two friends from the Akasha, and I'll give you the Occio."
Ulfur's eyes just about bugged out of his head.
"You dare - " De Marco sucked in a huge amount of air just like he was inflatable or something. "You dare to defy me? Do you know who I am, mortal?"
"Yeah, you're Ulfur's boss, the guy who told him to steal the Tools from the frickin' king of hell!"
"Prince, not king," Noelle said, then looked away quickly, pretending interest in a picture on the wall.
"Dale likes me to call him king in our private moments," I lied, trying to look like someone who dated Satan. "So here's the thing, de Marco: You want Dale's Occio, you can have it . . . just as soon as you get Alec and Diamond out of the Akasha."
"I am not an Akashic removal service!" de Marco snarled, his black eyebrows pulled down to form a unibrow. I was tempted to tell him it wasn't a good look for him, but felt he wouldn't be receptive to such criticism. "You owe me, mortal, not the other way around. You will hand over the Occio now."
"Or what?" I said, buffing a fingernail on my jeans.
"Or I'll make you sorry you ever drew breath," he snarled.
"Hello? Who has the eyeball of Dale? That's right, I do, and that means you can't hurt me." I fervently prayed that was true.
Ulfur weaved a little, like he might pass out. Noelle looked startled.