No wonder I’d been craving to touch that booty! I immediately stretched down again and squeezed both his cheeks with a delighted sigh. Hmmmmm.
“Zoe.” A strangled growl.
I fondled him some more. “You have the best ass. The. Best.” I emphasized the last two words with an affectionate slap on each cheek.
“Quit that,” he bit out.
I opened my mouth to give a retort, but the sudden jerking movement of Azazel cut me off. A slash, a grunt, and then something warm sprayed my face. I blinked, looked at the crumpling form of a demon as Azazel hurried past.
“Did you just stab that guy?”
“Yes.”
“You should chop off his wings!”
“No.”
“I could hold them, and we could take them back home, and I’ll hang them on your wall.”
Azazel’s answer was a muttered, “Hell give me patience,” to which I probably would haven taken great offense if the flying elephant hadn’t distracted me. I enthusiastically waved at it, but my gesture was lost as the throne room vanished out of sight. Azazel had just walked into a hallway off the big room, the sounds of the melee hushing when the door fell shut behind us.
“Awww,” I whined. “I was just making friends with Dumbo.”
I felt more than heard Azazel’s mighty sigh, his back muscles contracting and releasing under my hands. He seemed aggravated for some reason. Probably because he didn’t have time to rip off those wings. It would have soothed him.
The door opened again and in strode my sister-in-law.
“Azmodea!” I shouted with glee.
She’d somehow managed to change clothes. Her voluminous dress gone, she now wore tight-fitting leather pants and a black, steampunk-ish looking top that accentuated her fiery hair.
“I love your outfit!” I gave her two thumbs up.
“What took you so long?” Azazel grated as he rounded on her.
I didn’t see her anymore since Azazel had turned to her, but her voice held an edge that made me think she had at least one hand on her hip and a death glare on her face.
“Well, excuse you, because I know you didn’t just snap at me after I spent the last half hour planting the bombs around the hall while making sure none of the guards got wind of it. I think what you meant to say is thank you.”
“You tell him, girl!” I yelled.
“Where’s Mammon?” Azazel’s voice sounded clipped.
“Setting off the last of the glitter bombs and causing more havoc. He’ll meet us back home.”
“Glitter!” I cried and clapped my hands. “I love glitter!”
“What’s wrong with her?”
“Amrit,” Azazel growled.
“You let her drink that?”
“I didn’t!” he roared.
“Don’t you roar at me,” she hissed.
“Yeah,” I said, pinching his butt. “We don’t roar at people. That’s rude.”
Azazel turned on his heels and marched farther down the hallway. Bouncing with his every step, I glanced back at Azmodea, who jogged to catch up with him.
I grinned and waved at her. “Did you see the flying elephant?”
“Maybe we should knock her out,” Azmodea murmured as she fell into step next to him.
I jerked upright as much as possible. “What?”
“She’d be less of a liability,” she went on as if I hadn’t spoken.
“I can hear you!” I twisted to try to glower at her, but all I accomplished was to bump my butt against Azazel’s face.
“Good idea,” he ground out. “If we don’t, she’ll draw every damn guard’s attention.”
“I’m literally right here!” I wiggle-bumped his face some more for good measure.
Azmodea appeared in my line of vision. “Sorry, kiddo. Has to be done.”
And before I could protest more, she laid her fingers on my forehead and whispered, “Sleep.”
Darkness took me.
I came to with a pounding headache.
Pain throbbed inside my skull with the force of a jackhammer. I tried to open my eyes, but my lids wouldn’t move, as if they were glued shut. Sluggish, my thoughts were so sluggish. God, that freight train in my head, it just wouldn’t stop. What happened?
Voices drifted over to me. An argument in harsh whispers.
“I know this place,” Azazel snapped. “And if we go this way, we’ll avoid them.”
“That leads us deeper into the palace.” Azmodea’s taut voice. “At this rate, we’ll never get out of here. We have to go up and try to find a window that will open.”
“If we go up, we’ll run right into the fighting. We need to go down and around.”
“Through these awesome hidden pathways.” Her tone was dripping with acid.
“Yes. I used them all the time when I lived here.”