Page 17 of Another Underworld

“Specifics?” I asked flatly. Checking my watch, we had about ten more minutes before Candy Vargo did surgery—for lack of a better word.

“Camps,” Dagon said, looking utterly defeated. “Camps all over the Darkness.”

“Camps?” Abaddon asked.

“Detention camps. Work camps. Sky high electric fences,” he clarified. “If a Demon still worships the Bitch Goddess Cecily, they are sent to hard labor.”

“Hard labor hardly does what’s happening to our most loyal justice,” Shiva said with tears rolling down her cheeks. “Demons can be violent and unreasonable people, but what we saw was beyond inhumane.”

Pandora was beginning to glow again. Not a good sign. “And if they worship me?” she asked.

“No one worships you anymore,” Shiva told her. “No one.”

Walking over to the wall, I put my fist through it.

“Feel better?” Cher asked.

“A little,” I told the Angel. Getting Pandora accepted again had already been a hard ask, but now it would be next to impossible. Dealing with a male Demon who decided he was a God was dangerous—very dangerous. Especially if the asshole had death magic.

I walked over to Candy Vargo and took her hands in mine. “Is there an antidote to this death magic?”

She squeezed my hands and gave me a lopsided grin. “Best antidote is to avoid that shit, but if you get hit chew on one of these fuckers.” She reached into the pocket of her ratty sweatpants and pulled out a glowing box of toothpicks.

Was I being punked? “Seriously?” I asked.

“Deadly,” she said, producing four more boxes and tossing one each to Abaddon, Fifi, Pandora and Cher. “You get hit, chomp on the pick. It’ll burn your mouth like you chewed up a bushel of ghost peppers, but it gets the fuckin’ job done.”

“Candy Vargo, do you carry those around with you all the time?” Cher asked, tucking her box into the cleavage.

Candy chuckled. “You’d be surprised at what I have in my pockets.”

“You’re a good girl,” Cher told her buddy. “But if those chew picks have the antidote, then why aren’t you having Dagon and Shiva use them as condiments for their sandwiches?”

“It’s everywhere inside them now.” Candy Vargo shook her head. “It will only work if you get the antidote in you immediately after you come in contact with the death magic.”

I gave Cher a nod of thanks. “Good question.”

“Time,” Abaddon said, reminding me we were running out of it.

He was correct. “Anything else you can tell us?” I asked Dagon and Shiva.

More blood ran from Dagon’s wound, and his voice had grown weaker. “If I were in charge, which I am not, I wouldfind a way to release your loyal worshipers from the camps. I’d assess the situation at the castle then attack.”

“And Pandora?” I asked. “Do you have any thoughts on how we can make our people accept her again?”

The look Dagon gave me was what I would have to describe as constipated. It was not reassuring.

“I’m sorry, Bitch Goddess Cecily. For that, you are on your own. And I wish you more luck than has ever been granted to anyone.”

“Well, fuck,” I muttered.

“And on that vote of confidence, it’s time to carve up some fuckin’ Demons,” Candy Vargo announced, pulling a dagger from the back of her sweatpants. The hilt was jeweled. The blade was vicious, and the damn thing glowed so bright I had to shield my eyes.

“You fuckers ready?” she asked.

Shiva was as pale as Uncle Joe and simply nodded her head.

Dagon answered. “No, but let’s do it.” Dagon saluted the Keeper of Fate.