Page 22 of All's Hell That Ends Well

I bared my teeth at him. “I am not in the mood to play games, cat. Tell me who claimed her.”

You are no fun, he said with an audible note of sulking in his voice.

Before I could utter any of the fun ways in which I wanted to make him tell me what he knew, Azmodea smiled at Mephistopheles and said, “But you know his mood is so shitty precisely because Zoe is not here. Do you remember how much more agreeable he was when she was living here? He even gave you more treats, right? Well, the sooner you tell us where she is, the quicker we can start getting her back home, and then dear grumpy Azazel here will cheer up and be less of a cantankerous curmudgeon and more fun again.”

I pivoted slowly and speared my sister with a properly ill-tempered look.

“What?” she asked with a shrug. “It’s perfectly true. You are much more pleasant company with Zoe in your life.”

I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction of agreeing with her, though of course I did.

Well,Mephistopheles said with a sniff,in the interest of remedying this untenable situation, I shall tell you what I found.

“Thank you,” I bit out.

This kind of information is, of course, worth something.His tail flicked back and forth.I expect adequate compensation for my troubles.

Instead of telling him that sparing his life would be considered adequate compensation indeed, I said with the last shreds of patience available to me, “I will provide you with a year’s worth of the best cat treats from Earth.”

I accept, he purred. Then, without further ado, he dropped the bomb that dispersed all of my neatly ordered thoughts.She has been claimed by Lucifer.

Beside me, Azmodea sucked in a harsh breath.

I stared at the shadowy outline of the cat high up in the gloom. “What?”

She is at his palace, under his direct authority. I located her in her rooms. She said to tell you that Lucifer wants her to do something for him, though it will not involve torture this time. She is about to leave for Earth on a mission for him, and she will be back in three weeks. Lucifer seems to be restricting whom she can meet with, but she said she’ll work on finding a way to see you.

I slumped on the nearest sofa as if the heavy weight that had dropped on my chest physically dragged me down. “Lucifer has her?”

Is that an error in processing or an auditory ailment?Mephistopheles asked.Zoe seems to suffer from the same condition. She keeps repeating what I told her in a question. Do you need to have your hearing checked?

I ignored the feline’s sass in favor of mulling over the upsetting turn of events. Though, the storm of emotions broiling inside me made it hard to focus on pulling apart the tangles of this situation. With my skin on fire, my stomach in knots, and fear and rage fraying my nerves, I shot up from the sofa and marched toward the doors to the balcony.

“Where are you going?” Azmodea called out.

“To see her,” I growled.

“Do you think that’s wise?”

“I don’t give a flying fuck.”

I reached the doors and threw them open, stepping into the hot, whirring air of Hell.

“Maybe you should strategize a bit more about this, Az,” my sister hollered from inside.

She was right. The way she usually was. But where she was able to keep a cool head when it came to Zoe, I found myself reduced to the basest instincts and impulsive behavior.

“I don’t have the mind for strategy right now,” I snapped, then extended my wings with a whoosh and launched myself into the air.

CHAPTER 8

Zoe

After I’d made it back to my suite unbothered—probably due in large part to the giant hellhound trotting at my side—I’d called for some refreshments, set up a corner in the main room with fluffy blankets for Vengeance, fed her a good, hearty meal, and then made a beeline straight for the bathroom. I hadn’t taken a shower since before I’d gone on the mission to free Azazel, and given that I’d been fighting, sweating, bleeding, beaten up, dragged around, crashed down on Earth, and then hauled into Hell and subsequently slobbered by a hellhound, I was horribly filthy.

God, I couldn’t believe all of that had only happened over the last day or two. It seemed like it’d been at least a week since I’d started the prison break, but no, it had been barely more than twenty-four hours or so.

No wonder my soul ached with exhaustion. It wasn’t a physical tiredness but one of the mind. Too much had occurred in too little time.

---