return to his human form at dawn, and he won’t survive more than a couple seconds if you’re still in the Netherworld.” Lucas’s smile returned. “Again, you’re welcome.”
Eden hadn’t said thank you. She wasn’t prepared to say it yet, not with the heavy price tag associated with this literal deal with the devil.
Lucas walked toward the door and pushed it open.
“Wait!” Eden called after him. “How do I get there? Is there a gateway nearby?”
“You won’t need one. You already have the keys to my kingdom at your disposal. Darrak’s ultimate fate is in your hands now, and I suggest you don’t delay. I’ll be in touch soon to collect on our bargain. Good night, Eden.”
Before she could say another word, he left the office. She ran to the doorway and scanned the dark parking lot, but Lucas was nowhere to be seen.
Feeling completely stunned, Eden looked down at Andy the werehellhound.
“Don’t look at me,” he said, or thought, or however he was able to communicate with her. “I have no idea how to get there. Was that really Lucifer? He looked so . . . normal. Quite frankly, I’m really hoping this is all just a crazy dream.”
This was no dream.
“Keys to the kingdom,” she whispered, wracking her brain for the answer.
But then it came to her. Of course that was what Lucas had meant. What else?
She grabbed her coat and slid her hand into the pocket, pulling out the silver bracelet Lucas had given to her—the one he’d meant for her to put on Brenda that would have taken her to a job interview in Hell. She stared at the chain in stunned silence, feeling resolve fill her.
There was no time for regret or second thoughts. Now was the time for action.
She eyed Andy. “Are you ready?”
He cocked his head and stared up at her with those spooky red eyes. “I expect to wake up in my warm bed any moment. But until that happens, let’s go get your boyfriend and hope for the best.”
Eden had agreed to go to Hell itself to rescue the demon she loved. Hoping for the best sounded a bit presumptuous. “Fine. Let’s do this.”
She grabbed hold of Andy and slipped the chain over her wrist.
SIXTEEN
“Last call, demon. You want another drink, or what?”
Darrak raised his head off the hard wooden bar where he’d dozed off for a moment and eyed the empty shot glass in front of him. “No, no more.”
Where was he?
He glanced to his left around the dim interior of the empty bar. Looked like something out of an eighties sitcom. There was a lot of wood paneling and vinyl. Definitely the Netherworld, though. He ran a hand through his hair to check himself. No horns. He was in human form. At the moment, anyway.
He didn’t remember how he’d gotten here. Usually when he went to bars they were in the human world, not here. Why bother? Drunk humans were way more fun to play with than drunk demons.
Strange.
He wondered how long he’d been out. He’d had one hell of a dream—a long epiclike dream full of adventure and danger and . . . huh. It was already slipping away.
He wished he could write it off as nothing, but two things troubled him deeply.
First, demons didn’t dream.
Second, demons didn’t sleep.
It didn’t take a genius to notice that something was strange about that.
Maybe it wasn’t sleep. Maybe he’d just zoned out for a while. Yeah, that had to be it.
Funny, though. It had felt different than zoning.
“You sure you don’t want one last drink?”
He looked to his right to see his friend Theo sitting there, which struck Darrak as odd—on top of everything else—but he wasn’t sure why. He and Theo always hung out like this when business didn’t have to come first.
“Why did you let me drink so much?”
“Because it’s fun.”
Darrak eyed him. “You know, it feels like I haven’t seen you for a while.”
“Me?” Theo pointed at himself. “You really have had too much to drink, haven’t you?”
Theo had started his existence at almost exactly the same time as Darrak, created from hellfire by a very industrious Lucifer. Both had been incubi for centuries before their promotions to archdemon.
They’d scorched a path of destruction and good times across the human world in their day. Very few knew how to party as hard and as well as an archdemon with power to spare and the good looks of an ex-incubus. There were very few who could resist the pair of