Page 48 of All's Hell That Ends Well

“My lips are sealed.”

She relaxed, continuing to knead the air with her paws.Good. Proceed.

I bit back my grin and carefully stroked her plushy belly fur.

Eventually, she indicated that petting time was over, and I let up. She settled into a contented cat loaf, tucking her wings tightly against her body and purring.

“I was wondering,” I said, kneeling on the floor in front of her, “if you could deliver a message for me?”

I am not a?—

“Messenger bat, I know, I know.” She really was her father’s daughter. “It’s just…you’re the most trusted being for me hereright now. I know thatyouare honorable and responsible and loyal to the core.” Someone should give me a brush with all that buttering up I was doing here. “You are the only one I can trust to complete this task. And you’d do it so well!”

The tip of her tail flicked back and forth.How well?

“You’d be the best at it. Seriously, all the others suck in comparison to how thoroughly you’d deliver this message. No one flies like you! No one keeps secrets like you.”

I was half tempted to break into an adapted version of Gaston’s song fromBeauty and the Beastto drive the point home.

Fine, Purrsephone said.I shall do it. For the honor and glory of my name. None other rivals me in any endeavor I choose.

“That’s the spirit.” I clapped my hands and smiled at her. Ah, flattery. Always the best option when dealing with cats. That, and bribes.

Instead of giving her the letter I’d written, I simply told her the short message, and then she was on her way, flying up toward the gloom-veiled ceiling.

One of these days, I’d find out how exactly hellcats—who weren’t small—managed to slip in and out of rooms that were supposedly secure.

CHAPTER 14

Istepped out of the steaming hot bath water with a deep sigh.

It wasn’t that I’d gone three weeks without properly cleaning myself, but my bodily hygiene had definitely been reduced to a minimum while on Earth. Mostly, both Haniel and I had quickly washed up in the bathrooms of random apartments while the owners were out, and for vanity’s sake, we’d of course chosen the homes of the rich and famous in Manhattan. I’d also managed to regularly wash my clothes and then fast-dry them with a bit of conjured fire.

Okay, admittedly, I’d lost control of that fire on more than one occasion and had accidentally burned down half a bathroom—with my clothes thankfully untouched—so that Haniel had to barge in and tame the flames, but hey, it wasn’t like the wealthy people who owned these places didn’t have the best insurance available.

The most embarrassing part of those incidents was definitely that Haniel had seen me buck naked, which he’d ignored with his usual surliness. I wasn’t his type, he’d told me bluntly. Now Azazel, on the other hand, he would totally bang.

After which I had to make it very clear that my man was off-limits.

Once dressed, I walked out into the main room of the suite, where I stopped short at the small table laden with a three-course meal.

I squinted at Vengeance, who was lounging on her nest of blankets in the corner. “Who brought this? I didn’t order anything.”

Her middle head gave a quiet woof.

It shook the walls.

Right, then. Someone had apparently thought to provide something to eat for me, even though actual food was not essential to a demon’s health. It was more of a luxury, a pleasure, something to indulge in, like a fine liquor.

I went over to the table, picked up a plate, and sniffed at the pile of some elaborate rice dish.

What if it was poisoned? Were there even substances that could poison a demon? Amrit had a mind-altering effect, and, as I’d learned, its highly concentrated form could almost knock out an angel or demon. I wasn’t aware of any other toxins that could be dangerous to our kind, but I certainly didn’t know everything.

And without a clue who had sent this to me, I’d steer clear for now.

I set the plate back down just as a commotion from outside the door to the hallway sounded. Several voices overlapped in what seemed like agitated bickering.

“Shush,” one voice rang out above the others, definitely female. “I swear to Lucifer, I will slap you sideways if you go in first. Know your place.”

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