Page 37 of Hopelessly Teavoted
Lex rummaged around in his pocket, pointedly ignoring the question.
Sighing, he pulled a star-shaped box the size of a fist from deep within his pocket, which had to be magical. His pants were snug, and he’d reached his hand far enough down that he ought not to have been able to fit it. The box glowed, a cool copper that radiated death.
“A soul prison,” said Azrael, snapping his fingers and muttering. Warmth buzzed across her skin, and Vickie knew Az had cast a protective spell over her. Lex’s eyes narrowed, and he growled, the rumble of it low in his throat.
Fear gripped her now. She remembered the day she’d taken over the shop.
Three souls, he’d said. Three souls would be the cost of her freedom from the contract her parents had entered into without her consent, and, however accidentally, severed legally. Devils did honor contracts. Her power was hers to keep, but the debt was also hers to pay.
She worried about the catch she had yet to suss out.
“You’re here to collect on the first soul,” she whispered.
Lex set the pear down and she glared at him. Holding hishand up in apology, he put it daintily in the trash can. When he saw her scowl at the sticky, juicy spot on the marble, Lex shook his head, but waved his hand and the surface was immediately spotless and pristine.
“Yes, I need you to collect someone,pet.” His voice drawled across the word indulgently, and she didn’t miss the way Azrael frowned at that. Lex’s eyes danced between the two of them, his face offering a bemused smile. “Azrael, you handsome doll, you can leave, though I certainly don’t mind if we see you later.” He paused, eyes tracing Azrael’s frame, and as she tracked them, she couldn’t help but remember how much broader he was now. Her face felt hot, and Lex caught her in the hunger of the look, winking and waggling his eyebrows. “I’m sorry it couldn’t wait longer, Victoria, but I have need of your power. This particular soul has tried to evade me.”
“I’m coming with you,” said Azrael, crossing his arms.
Lex shrugged. “Have it your way,” he drawled. “But I warn you, the soul we go to reap now is unpleasant, to say the least.”
He looked uncomfortable. What could be bad enough to discomfort an actual devil?
“Victoria, my luscious treat, do put a jacket on. It’s a tad chilly.”
Swallowing, she nodded, and slipped her cell phone and her keys into the pocket of her pink puffy coat. Not the best outfit for reaping souls, but then again, there was nothing perfect to wear for the purpose of capturing a being’s immortal essence.
“Explain the box.” Vickie followed Lex into the night. Azrael never left her side, and the pull of both, the man named for devils and the devil himself, was dizzying. She blushed, hoping the dim night covered it. To one side, Lex radiated devilish temptation; to the other, Azrael called forth a similar lust, with the added jumble of emotion that threatened to distract her from their goal.
“It’s an arcane puzzle box. A soul prison, and a rather complicated one too. Typically, as you must have deduced, souls goon to their final plane of existence when you reap them. But when I collect, I get to have my way with them for a few hundred years until they learn a lesson. I trap them. The soul I need to you to collect today has slipped out of my grasp for some time now, and he’s a particularly nasty shade of evil.”
Lex grinned, but now it was the grimace of a creature tasked with torturing the wicked.
Azrael reached for her hand, but she shook her head. She had a soul to reap, and she wasn’t about to do it without being certain that this person deserved such a thing.
“A few hundred years trapped alone in a box will be a good start, and then I will submerge him in the same hell he made for others for all of eternity,” said Lex.
“Fuck me, he must have done something terrible. Is this the one you said was a lobbyist?”
A peculiar expression crossed Lex’s face.
“You know, I wouldn’t mind that first part, should you offer in earnest.”
Bristling, Azrael interjected, “Let’s just stay on topic here, shall we?”
Lex winked at her and then turned and stared at Azrael. She didn’t miss the sharpness in the devil’s violet gaze. “And yes, the lobbyist. He’s a dreadful soul. The worst of the worst.”
They walked past taller trees now, past the well-lit shops and into the more quiet, residential parts of town.
“What did he do? Was he some sort of murderer? A serial killer, maybe?”
Lex shook his head. “Quite worse. Donovan Wagner. He was a gun lobbyist.”
Her stomach turned. She knew that name.
“Wait,” said Azrael. “The man who said school shootings were not about the guns, but the people?” He looked horrified.
“Precisely,” said Lex, a dark glint shining in his eye. “He also said that a few dozen dead children were not that many in the grand scheme of things.” Lex stopped and turned to her, the smile curdling into something truly horrific. “I shall enjoypulling his entrails out with the tip of one of his rifles, and then forcing him to relive the hellscape of pain he created.”
