“I suppose for them it is a sort of heaven, and perhaps that’s why the soul-flow coordinators leave them alone. That, and I heard that when they last put a famous musician upstairs he caused complete upheaval. Perhaps Limbo is the heaven for wild children. It would certainly fit in my case,” she smirked.
Adam laughed. “You are definitely the original wild child, Pandora.”
She laughed merrily and then grabbed Adam’s hand. “I sense a fellow wild child in you, darling. Come and dance with me. You can wind your sexy Judge of the Damned up so he gives you exactly what you need later.” She winked at him, dragging him up and toward a throng of dancers. Minos scowled a little, but he didn’t object, so Adam was off and into the masses.
Pandora was right—Adam did have some wild child him, and the atmosphere and mood were nothing short of utterly amazing. Gyrating bodies and laughing and noise and lights, and yet somehow no one ventured too close or tried to cop a feel. He could see some couples, and in some cases groups, were doing quite a bit of feeling up—and he thought maybe there was actual sex taking place quite surreptitiously over to the side. Some people watched and danced, and some people steered clear totally. But no one hassled anyone.
It was like the most amazing dancing experience ever with all the positives and none of the creepy ick factor you always seemed to end up with.
“How do you do it?” Adam yelled over the music.
“What, darling?” Pandora mouthed back, and then she dragged him off away from the stage and dancing. They were headed away from Minos, but he saw his grumpy guy talking to a demon and keeping an eye on him, so he just gave a friendly wave. Minos scowled, but Adam recognized it as his ok-fine-don’t-go-far scowl, not his get-back-here scowl. (Yes, he was becoming an expert at reading scowls and chuckles and even eye rolls.)
They ended up next to a dark, polished, very fancy, very old-fashioned bar. Although he could see the dancers and the stage and Minos’ horns, the sound of the dancing and the stage was completely muted. It was like he had entered a whole different establishment.
“Woah,” he said, as a pale, human-looking bartender came over, placing two drinks in front of them. “This issotrippy. The dancers areright therebut it’s like they’re in a whole different building or something.”
Pandora laughed. “The magic of Limbo. I’m surprised Minos isn’t over here already—he much prefers this atmosphere to the clubby one, but Zaphrael was talking his ear off, and he is a top level punishment demon, so Minos might be a minute with him. His demons so rarely see him outside of work, and they love it when they do.”
She looked assessingly at Adam then. “You’ve been good for him. More than good for him. Transformative. All his demons do nothing but praise you.” She paused then, looking into the distance.
“Minos hasn’t been… himself. We all noticed it in the last decade or so. A disconnection. It was like he was fading away from us. Nothing seemed to work. But you”—she looked at Adam then—”seem to have rejuvenated him. You’ve brought him back to himself. No, you’ve made him better.”
She smiled then, laughing. “But enough melodrama and feelings. Yes, the club is amazing. We keep things tame there. There is a more wild area for those who are looking for something truly outrageous, but I certainly wouldn’t send you there without Minos. He’s liable to kill someone if he isn’t there to guard your virtue.” She smirked at that.
“People in Limbo find what they need. That was what you needed tonight. And now, apparently, we need some delicious drinks,” she said, taking a sip of her cocktail.
What happened next defied Adam’s understanding. Pandora was there, and then she wasn’t. Poof. “What the fuck?” he gaped, and then the pale bartender was standing in front of him at the bar. He swiveled in his seat, becauseno, thank you, he knew trouble when he saw it, and he wasoutof there.
But when he turned around there was a semicircle of three other pale, sort of colorless looking human-types blocking his exit, and in front of them, standing right behind his chair…
“Oh look, it’s Angel-duh,” he said, smirking a little at her. Because of course it was. The bitch. She was still wearing all white with perfect looking skin, but he had to admit her hair didn’t look quite as in place, and her outfit didn’t look quite so perfect.
“You,” she seethed.
“You know, if you keep frowning like that, you’re going to give that perfect skin wrinkles,” Adam drawled. He did a quick scan, but unfortunately, he couldn’t see Minos’ face, so he doubted Minos could see him. And Pandora was *poof* gone.
“What did you do with her anyway, you bitch?” he asked. Because he liked Pandora. A lot.
Bitch Lady (Adam decided that was her new official title) waved a hand gracefully. “She was portaled elsewhere. She’ll find her way back shortly. YOU, however, are another story. Do you haveanyidea what kind of trouble you’ve caused me?”
“Oh, I hope it’s heaps of trouble. Because you were a class A bitch when I was in your office.”
“You were being DIFFICULT!” she hissed, raising her voice. “You were in HEAVEN! You were supposed to be THANKFUL!”
She leaned forward, lowering her voice, and Adam backed up in his chair. Man, she was fired up. “I was demoted,” she breathed out harshly. “I wasonestep away from a promotion to being a soul-flow coordinator. You weresupposedto be sent back. You should have beengrateful. Instead, you disappear, and we get completely stonewalled down here by all the demons, and the soul-flow coordinators are onmyass.
“We are going to fix this, and we are going to fix itright now,” she insisted, grabbing Adam’s arm tightly in hers. “You are going back where you belong, and I am closing the ticket, and you will begratefulfor my assistance!”
Her hand tightened on Adam’s, and… nothing happened.
Like, nothing. She kind of looked at him, and he looked at her, and she looked at the people behind her, and they looked at her, then at him, and everyone just sort of stared at one another.
Then she tightened her arm again, and gave a very deliberate blink of her eyes, mumbling a little under her breath.
Adam thought he maybe felt… something. But nothing happened, again.
“What’s the matter, Angel-ughhhhhh,” he mocked, drawing out the last part of her name just to see her grimace. He cheered a little at pissing her off even more. “You all out of magic mojo or something?” He giggled at that, even though he realized even if she was out of mojo, there was probably someone who wasn’t.
