Page 23 of Legendary

“You make me want to like demons just a fraction more than I did before,” he continued.

I rolled my eyes. “Baby steps I presume.”

“Exactly.” He patted me on the back.

Beetee looked over her shoulder at us to make sure we were following. I noticed a tattoo on her back peeking out from under her sundress. From what I could see it looked like the tail of a snake, but I wasn’t quite sure, and the rest of it was covered by her clothes.

“So Beetee, let me ask you…you don’t happen to have a tail, do you?” Reese asked, curiosity and a little bit of nervousness in his tone.

Beetee stopped in front of a door and let out a loud belly laugh as she dug in her pocket to dig out the key. She unlocked the door and pushed it open. She ducked her head inside and tossed the key onto a desk, or it looked like a desk from what I could see. The sunshine demon rapped her knuckles on the door’s threshold and gave us a bright smile, her freckles wildly displayed on her face. She walked past us back down the hallway, ignoring Reese’s question all together.

DANI

Ilanded on the bed with a solid thud, letting all the exhaustion I felt leave my body slowly. It was an odd feeling being back here, in this place I knew all too well. I heard Nick and Reese walk away from the door and at that moment I could let the much needed very long sigh leave my lips. Weakness in Purgatory was hardly tolerated, especially when you were brought up at the hand of Lilith. I didn’t bother scooting back and getting more comfortable, even if the mattress underneath me felt incredible.

How in the fuck did Beetee swing for top tier sheets?

The pink-haired demon seemed sweet. Way too sweet to be so close to the lying heathen across the hall from me. I could sense something different about her though, nothing that alarmed me and made me question her helpfulness, but just something that told me her undying sweet demeanor could be morphed into something terrifying. She was good at letting it sit right under the surface of the face she put on for all her patrons. I let out a small chuckle thinking about her wreaking havoc, and itmade my blood pump harder thinking about being a complete menace.

I opened my palm out in front of me and dark shadows and wisps formed allowing my dagger to manifest and appear before me. It settled into my hand, the familiar weight somehow easing but also increasing the blood boiling inside of me. I had been in Purgatory less than an hour and I was already feeling the effects. The dagger spoke to me in a way I couldn’t really explain. There were no words, but it had a language all on its own. I had already gathered that it was very happy to be home.

Home. Fuck thatfuckingword.

I flipped the dagger over and over again in my palm. My name glinted off the silver from the small lamp that created light throughout the room. I gripped the hilt in my hand, hard, so hard that I felt my fingers becoming numb. I threw my weapon across the room, not looking at where it went, but I heard when it connected with the wall. While it was out of my hands, I took a moment to inspect the room I was in.

It was larger than I expected, although I didn’t expect much when we had ended up on this side of the portal. When Elise had offered a place she knew, I would have bet my left tit that she was having us stay in some rat-infested shack. This was— surprising. The bed was queen- sized with a black cotton headboard and matching black comforter and sheets. There was a daybed in the far-left corner, an antique dresser facing the bed and a simple desk near the door. I noticed the makings of a linoleum floor behind a door near the corner of the room, telling me there was a bathroom hidden there. The walls were a simple beige, but they were lined with artwork. Each framed piece was splatters of different colors meshed together to make some unknown color that I’m sure didn’t have a name. There were no windows, but that didn’t really matter, seeing as Purgatory never really saw real sunlight.

That was one thing I severely missed about Heaven’s Gate. The natural sunlight. It was much harder to tell the time here than it was in Nicholas’s precious home. I slid off the bed and walked over to one of the pieces of art on the wall. I ran my index finger over the parts where the paint splatters were dense and heavy. A small knock had me looking towards the door. I waited for a moment, hoping that whoever it was would just go away.

Knock, knock.

“Hmm, yes?” I answered, hesitantly.

“It’s just me.” Beetee’s voice was small and had so much hesitation that I could practically taste it.

I ran my tongue along my front teeth. “Come in.”

She turned the knob and tentatively peeked her head into the room. Her lilac eyes looked a little stunned to see me so close to the door, but herexpression quickly changed to apologetic. “Um, I just wanted to say I am so sorry again. I didn’t want any of this to get out of hand.”

I kept my face neutral, letting her speak.

“I haven’t seen Ellie in so long and I just sometimes let my mouth run and my brain just can’t keep up.” She chewed the side of her lip as she stood in the doorway. She was holding something close to her chest.

I cocked my head to the side, leaning against the desk. “I’m not upset with you, Beetee.”

Her face instantly relaxed. “Oh good. I was worried I had made an enemy of you, Soul Seether.”

“Just call me Dani. That kind of formality in this place makes me want to barf.” I rolled my shoulders.

She nodded vigorously. “I should have asked! I’ll make sure everyone who’s here knows to just address you as Dani or just not speak. Or do you prefer one over the other?” She blinked her cute little doe eyes at me.

I narrowed my eyes at this demon and then my shoulders were shaking from laughing. “Beetee, I don’t know. I just got here. Why don’t you just let me decide what I want myself, no need to announce it. I’m not royalty alright.”

She tapped her multicolored fingernails against the items in her hands that were still held close to her chest. “You are here to end this whole fucked up mess, right? I think that makes you pretty special in my eyes. You won’t find many that disagree. Royalty or not, you are something special.”

I scoffed, “So I keep getting told.” Beetee hummed a bit before looking at my face and realizing I was staring at her. She seemed a bit startled at my blatant eye contact, but I waited for her to say anything else. I nodded towards the items in her hand. “Are those for me?”

She looked down and snorted. Her wide smile claimed her whole face. “Oh my god! Of course! A change of clothes. I mean unless you love the clothes you have on now. I just assumed you would want some choices.” She handed me the neatly folded clothes and I took them, feeling the soft material against my fingers.

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