Page 11 of Cry for Help

He pulled the key from his pocket, somehow managing my weight on his shoulder as if I were an oddly shaped rucksack.

My black skirt had ridden up. My skin was covered in gooseflesh.

It had been years since I had been around a man in years without a cattle prod on their belt.

There were no rules with demons. Nothing to stop Stolas from doing what he wanted—that thought kept rearing its ugly head like a prairie dog.

Stolas interrupted my fugue, lowering me to the ground before he unlocked the car and opened the door for me.

I didn’t say thank you, mainly because I didn’t speak, and I didn’t know if demons spoke ASL—instead, I gave a robotic nod and slipped into the passenger seat in silence.

Stolas looked entirely out of place behind the wheel of the ancient mom-mobile. Based on his clothing choices, I would have guessed he didn’t know how to drive at all.

As we pulled away, I rested my forehead against the glass, leaving the auction house behind.

Though Stolas didn’t seem like the kind of person...man...demon...to avoid awkward silences, it wasn’t long until he began to speak. Gesturing to the pink streetlights as we glided through the city.

“There are several sectors in the Red City. Each one belongs to a Sin, or rather, a Circle.” Stolas kept his eyes on the road. “Pink is Lust. The Seventh Circle. Incubi, succubae, and the like. Each human's sigil marking takes on the color of the magic used to bind them.”

I rubbed my thumb over the red tattoo, trying to think of a sin associated with red. I’d have guessed Lust, but it wasn’tthat.

Wrath, maybe?

Stolas didn’t strike me as the angry type. He seemed level-headed. Eerily calm, like a bird of prey watching the ground for his next meal.

“Green is Envy. The Fourth Circle. And so on and so forth.” He continued, his voice a bored drawl. “Most demons have no issues crossing into different sectors, but humans don’t generally like to leave their neighborhoods. From what I have observed.”

I pressed my lips together. Though Stolas clearly didn’t think much of a human’s desire to stay close to home, I understood it. Protection. Safety.

Portland had skyscrapers, but nothing like this. Wall-to-wall glass and steel stretching into the sky. No wonder the wall surrounding the city had been so tall—to hide the modern utopia the demons had stolen from humanity.

We drove several blocks, and the street lights changed colors twice. Purple, and then yellow.

Pride and Sloth, Stolas explained.

Though I would have guessed, given enough time. Pride was entirely mirrored and had nightclubs with lines around the block. Sloth was teeming with people lying on the street, ignored as others walked over them as if they weren’t there.

The glitz and glam dissolved. We stopped at a rail crossing, and flashing red lights strobed through the windscreen of the SUV. Stolas drove over the tracks in silence.

No skyscrapers, the change so abrupt it was jarring. Squat warehouses with graffiti and broken windows. Boxy apartment buildings and red bricks faded with years of grime. Cracked roads. No street signs or traffic lights. No cars on the road, save for a few parked haphazardly on the sidewalk. Their paint faded and peeling from the sun. Their windscreens were covered withprotective fabric.

“This is the human district of the Red City,” Stolas explained.

My brow pinched. Why had he brought mehere? Was it to show me where he’d throw me if I didn’t live up to his ideal?

A swarm of bees churned my stomach and vibrated against the inside of my skin. I took a shaky breath, but it did little to calm me. My arms and legs felt too far away.

Stolas pulled down a narrow street, parking behind a dumpster. He opened the door for me, and I debated running, though I knew I wouldn’t get far.

Nerves and hunger caught up to me, and the moment I stood up, my mouth filled with bile.

The demon cursed as I hunched over and retched onto the floor of the alley. Vomiting yellow saliva onto the filthy ground. I wiped my mouth with the back of my wrist, closing my eyes.

“This way.” Stolas put his hand on my back.

My heart leaped to my throat, and I jumped a foot in the air. I hadn’t heard him move.

I couldn’t tell, but the demon seemed to be almost... Comforting me?

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