Fiends and Familiars - Debra Dunbar Page 0,57
door. I heard her sobs, but took my time getting out of the car. There was no one for me to battle, no one for me to kill. As I feared, we were too late.
The house…the house could be fixed, although I sensed that by breaking through her wards and damaging her sanctuary, Abraxas had wounded my beloved almost as much as if he’d hurt her physically. I followed her inside, watched as she searched the house, a singed vulture limping beside her.
“He’s not here. That asshole took him!” Addy turned to me, her hands in fists, her eyes full of fire. I saw three squirrels emerge from the rubble of her kitchen at her voice, tentatively making their way toward her.
I gathered her into my arms. “I know. I’m sorry, Addy. I’m so sorry.”
Her tears were a mixture of sorrow and anger. After a few seconds she pulled back, and looked up at me. “He killed Rhoid. He killed him so he could take his soul to hell and torture him. How can he do that, Ty? How?”
I knew how. “The contract says his soul belongs to hell once he’s dead. We’re demons, Addy. When faced with that sort of thing, our impulse is to immediately make Faust dead so we can collect what’s due to us. He’s avoided punishment for so long. It was bound to happen.”
I knew as soon as I’d said it that I should have just kept my mouth shut. She pounded her fists on my chest, shrieking in fury. “That’s wrong! He might have been clever enough to weasel out of his contract for hundreds of years, then to escape hell, but that’s no reason to kill him. Your co-worker terminated his life before it had run its course. That’s wrong!”
I held her tight, let her rage and punch until she just slumped against me and cried. It hurt—not her punches, but her sorrow. Faust was an absolute jerk, and I shouldn’t care one bit about whether Abraxas killed him or not, but I did.
I cared because Faust had been my soul to deal with, not that fuck head Abraxas. And I cared because Addy grieved over the loss of that annoying squirrel who’d once been a clever wizard.
I didn’t know what I could do. If I went to Lucien, I’d be a whiny demon ratting out a co-worker. If I went to Satan, he’d laugh at me and probably punish me for not being the one with enough balls to bring Faust back to hell.
There was only one thing I could do. So I kissed Addy on the forehead and left her in the rubble of her house to do it.
Chapter 16
Adrienne
Ty left and I immediately felt bereft at his absence. Rhoid was gone. Gone. Dead. I’d never see him again.
Ever since Cassie took up with Lucien, I’d had a different opinion of demons. Yes, they had their business, and I didn’t always approve of their methods, but who was I to criticize how God and Satan managed the afterlife of reward and punishment? Plus Lucien was nice. He adored Cassie. He went out of his way to make sure his infernal career didn’t interfere with their relationship. I knew he’d made huge sacrifices in both his reputation and in his business decisions to keep the peace with Cassie.
And then there had been Hadur, a warmonger who was so gentle and devoted to Bronwyn. And Nash, a reaper. Eshu, a sort-of demon, although I honestly thought he might be a demi-god. Then Xavier, a crossroads demon who bargained the sort of contracts that Rhoid had agreed to when he’d been Faust.
They were wonderful men, even though they were demons who had jobs that involved the punishment of wayward souls. They ate dinner with us every Sunday. They loved my sisters. I’d just assumed all demons were like them.
Then Ty had shaken my faith. And this Abraxas had completely broken it.
He’d smashed though my wards. He’d broken into my house and trashed it. He’d stolen a being that was under my protection, killed him, and taken him to hell. Me. A witch. The sister of the very witch who was mated to the son of Satan.
I didn’t feel safe. I didn’t feel powerful. I wasn’t sure how I was going to ever sit down to Sunday dinner with my sisters’ demon mates and make small talk with them when one of their own had done this to me.
I knelt in my trashed kitchen and