me to a stop. My upper body hurled forward with the momentum while my legs skidded back. I barely avoided a full face plant with my arms thrown out. They broke the fall, and something nearly broke inside them.
I yelped. Bolts of pain shot through my hands, wrists, and arms, reverberated in my shoulders and chest.
Fucking hell.
And then they were on me. Snarling, the demon underlings swarmed me like a pack of feral toddlers raiding my pockets for candy. Tiny hands grabbed me from all sides, turned me around. My arms still hurt like hell, but I flailed anyway, trying to dislodge them. I wanted to move my legs, found I couldn’t. One look down confirmed some form of lasso thing held them together at the ankles.
Great. I’d been brought down by a group of miniature demon cowboys.
“Let me go,” I growled.
They growled right back and grabbed me even tighter, the fiends.
Next thing I knew, they bound my wrists in front of my chest with the same rope that secured my legs.
“Hey!” I yelled.
With barely a grunt, they lifted me up. Held above their heads, I watched the hallway walls bounce by as they carried me back the way I’d come. No, no, no.
Seriously? I was going to be bested by this horde of grumpy goblins? Not even a full-grown demon like Azazel? I’d have accepted him throwing me over his shoulder to dump me back in the room, what with him being a scary-ass demon almost twice my size and all.
But this? How fucking humiliating.
“Oy!” someone called out.
Someone not me.
The gremlins stopped as one, and I almost bit my tongue from the abrupt halt.
“Now what do we have here?” a female voice purred from behind me.
I tried to crane my neck to see who was talking, but all I managed was to pull a muscle.
“Set her down.” The voice moved closer.
Unceremoniously, the goblin goons dumped me on the floor. Ouch. I’d barely avoided hitting my head.
The group of tiny gremlins shuffled back, bowing low, almost prostrating themselves. Okay, whoever had arrived was someone high-ranking like Azazel then.
The click-clack of heels on the stone stopped right next to me. Twisting my neck, I peered up...at the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen. Flawless golden cream skin, auburn hair tumbling about her shoulders in waves that seemed natural and artistically layered at the same time, not a strand out of place. Sensual, full lips, pert little nose, elegantly swung eyebrows, and those eyes...I’d seen that exact color before.
“Well, hell-o,” she crooned. “I knew he was hiding something.” She waved her hands, and the bonds around my wrists and ankles turned to ash. “Come on, darling, let’s get you up and talking.”
Leaning down, she offered me her hand. I stared at it for a second. There was no doubt she was a demon like Azazel. One who knew him. And walked freely in his house. Was it safe to chat with her?
Was it safe not to?
Biting my lip, I took her hand, and she pulled me up to standing completely on her own, with a move so smooth and easy, it spoke of leashed strength and power. Still holding on to my hand, she leaned in, sniffed at me.
“Hmm.” Her eyes roamed my face, dipped lower. “So fresh and alive. Gorgeous. What’s your name?”
“Z-zoe.”
She made a sound of delight. “How fitting. Now, Zoe dear, come, come, I want to hear all about how you got here.” She pulled me along the hallway toward the open door to my rooms, snapping her fingers at the tiny terribles. “Disperse.”
They scrambled to get out of her way.
“You see,” she said, leading me back into the room, “when I received the report from my gate master, I knew he was lying, so I poked him a bit, and wouldn’t you know, he suddenly had this interesting story about how my dear brother came back from Earth—with a human. He couldn’t tell me who—apparently Az was quite secretive—only that it looked like a woman, and that he forbade them to speak a word of it under threat of torture. Threatening my people, can you believe it?”
She tsked and sat me down on one of the sofas, settling in next to me and propping her head up in her hand, elbow on the backrest, luminous lightning gray eyes focused on me.
“To think he actually thought he could order my guys to keep this from me.” She flicked her hair over her shoulder. “The nerve.”