to me. "I do like the rat. She's a tough little thing. I'm keeping an eye on her."
"And, Glory, don't dismiss our proposition out of hand. You don't have to harvest souls from your friends, you know. Just from the people you meet who you think deserve hell. You'd be doing a public service." Caryon smiled, giving me another glimpse of jagged fangs that made me shudder. "Simon Destiny ring a bell?"
"Simon? I figured he was already marked for hell." He served a goddess who came from down there, so it was a no-brainer.
"Oh, he is. But he's playing for the wrong team. Lucifer wants him on ours. We have kind of a competition going on down there. Each god and goddess in the Underworld has its own turf. And collects its own, um, victims." Big smile from Spyte. "Nobody trusts each other on the accounting thing so we have a scorekeeper. He posts quarterly stats. Right now, well, let's just say Luc doesn't like to fall behind and leave it at that." He and Cary shuddered and didn't that make me wonder how Lucifer expressed displeasure.
"It spices up what could be a rather dull existence." Caryon sighed. "You know roasting, filleting, slicing and dicing. And the screams are endless." He arched a brow at Spyte. "Some of us have started to tune it out."
"Can I help it if I got caught with my iPod during playtime? Drawing and quartering is so archaic. And when they get out the cattle prods . . . I mean who wouldn't yawn? Get over it, Cary." Spyte huffed.
"I'll get over it when the job's done. We're working off seventy demerits here. Demerits you got us, Spyte." Caryon turned his back on his cohort. "New recruits give us some bragging rights, points."
"And entertainment," Spyte added.
"Exactly." Caryon rested his hand on Spyte's shoulder. "Simon's so deliciously bad. Worth a bundle to Luc. All the Energy Vampires are. And we have a feeling you could recruit Simon for us, Glory. You know you'd love to bring him down." He winked. "And I do mean down."
"Not denying that. But why do you want immortals anyway? Seems like you'd have a long wait. Like forever." I dropped my arm so Penny could scurry down my leg and into the brush again. She could hide there until these yahoos left. If they ever did. I glanced at the sky again.
"You know as well as I do that immortals bite the big one all the time. Like Miss Penny's sire did the other night. He's down there serving time right now." Caryon raised his voice. "Bet that makes your undead heart sing, doesn't it, furry one?"
Penny walked out from behind a bush, back in human form again but obviously shaken. She sucked it up though and actually walked right up to stand next to me and squeezed my hand.
"Sure does. Tell me he's roasting over a pit or something."
"Or something." Spyte smiled and looked her over with that nasty X-ray vision of his. Oh, how I wanted to rip out his throat. I'd even risk sucking in some demon blood to do it.
"We don't share all the details of the joys of hell with potential, um, members, Penny, dear." Caryon whipped a black card with gold letters out of his breast pocket. "Here's my number. Call if you wish to talk. About anything."
"Don't touch that!" I strained against the freeze that kept me glued to the ground. But Penny just grabbed the card and stuck it in her pocket.
"I have a question for you." Penny glanced at me. "Why bother Glory here? Why don't you just recruit this Simon character yourself?"
"Hmm. Good question. She's a smart one." Caryon glanced at Spyte. "It's like this. We can't steal players from another team directly, you see. Stupid rule, but it's one we can't go around."
"That's right. So we have to get insignificants like Glory here to do the dirty work, so to speak. Leaves our hands clean." Spyte's laugh sent chills down my spine. "As if that concept matters down there. But somehow fair play is the one thing Luc insists on. Can you believe it?"
"No." I didn't believe any of this. "You're wasting your time here. I am not working for the Devil. Period."
Spyte laughed again. "We'll see. Oh, yes, we'll see." He looked down and set my favorite boots on fire. I felt the heat lick at my toes and bit my lips to hold back a scream.