Page 103 of Infernal

I mean, seriously, hadn’t he noticed something was off about his two bosses? Or did they just continue to run the bar as though it were business as usual?

Before I could put the obvious pieces together in my mind, Zane cocked his head so far to the side that it no longer looked human. Unease zipped down my back as I gave him a second, more thorough look. His eyes were as black as the night and were fixed on me in the most peculiar way. It made my entire body feel as though a million scurrying insects were crawling underneath my skin.

“Zane isn’t available at the moment,” he said. “But if you leave him a message, I’ll be sure to pass it along for you.” A cruel smile crept across Zane’s face as I realized it wasn’t Zane at all.

It was some demon imposter squatting in his body.

My stomach twisted as I shuffled back from the bar counter. And then I smelt it. The faint smell of brimstone in the air. The calling card of all demons. God only knew how many more of them were in here…

In this town.

How many people had Lucifer possessed? And would I be able to save any of them?

Probably not…

“Where is he?” I scowled, my hands unconsciously clenching and unclenching at my side. I could feel the anger rocking my body, feel the adrenaline rushing away from my extremities as it hollowed out my limbs and turned my legs to jelly.

“Where are any of us, really?” answered demon-Zane, making no sense whatsoever. “That is the real question, isn’t it?”

I blinked a few times, waiting for the punchline, because this was obviously some kind of underworld joke.

Silence was followed by more silence.

Okay, it wasn’t a joke.

“Riiight.” I dragged the word out nice and slow for the weirdo. “So, he’s not here then?” I verified, secretly hoping that he wasn’t. Not because I hadn’t already resigned myself to doing this, because I had—I would give my life a thousand times over to save Trace’s. But being here in the moment, so close to my end, I couldn’t help but want for one more day to do the things I never had a chance to do. To watch one more sunset before I had to say goodbye to it all.

I wasn’t sure if that made me selfish or not.

“He’s wherever you want him to be,” he drawled, spreading his arms out wide, with a glass in one hand and the rag in the other, gesturing around us as though Lucifer were some invisible summer breeze.

More like an air-born plague.

I’d had enough of this idiot.

“Look, pal, the only place I want Lucifer to be is in Hell,” I barked back, growing exceedingly annoyed by his complete lack of sense. “And last I checked, he wasn’t there, so either point me in the right direction or go find a dark corner to exorcise yourself in.”

The sound of a tongue clicking reverberated in my head like a gunshot.

“Well, that’s not very nice now, is it, Daughter?”

My face blanched at the sound of Trace’s deep baritone voice. Still frozen and facing forward, I watched Zane’s lip hike itself all the way up into his golden cheek as he continued wiping water spots from the glassware.

Thanks for the heads up, mother fudger.

“Leave us, Malphas,” said Lucifer from behind my shoulder.

I still hadn’t summoned enough courage to turn. I was too busy trying to get my damn legs to stop shaking.

“Of course, my liege.” Demon-Zane, a.k.a. Malphas, bowed his head and then disappeared in a murky cloud of smoke. A cloud of smoke that reeked of sulfur and burnt flesh.

I resisted the urge to fan the fumes away with my hands.

“Alone again,” said Lucifer, hissing out the words like a promise of vengeance, and my heart responded by stopping cold in my chest.

Everything inside of me was screaming at me to run. To run so damn fast and far away that no one in this world or beyond would ever be able to find me. My legs were damn-near quaking for it, and I couldn’t even blame them for it. This wasn’t some run-of-the-mill demon or Revenant that I was up against. This was Lucifer, the first and most powerful fallen angel, the one and only reigning King of Hell.

And I was a high school kid.

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