Page 49 of Devil Bound
I didn’t move.Maybe this was a trick?I considered running and giving up on the phone, but I got the feeling the angel was not to be messed with, candy-colored shorts or not.Also, all my contacts were in my phone.
“Okay.”
I walked past her, through the archway I might have called Mediterranean if not for the bone-white color theme.It should’ve made the house feel cold and unwelcoming, except it was airy and inviting instead, especially with the morning light coming in.
It shouldn’t have worked that way, should’ve looked like a slaughterhouse before the cattle shipment arrived.Perhaps it was magic that changed the ambience, because it sure as fuck wasn’t the Devil’s special touch, his overbearing presence, or the smugness he spread like bad cologne everywhere he went.
Not that I cared enough about the atmosphere or the Devil to stick around and wonder where he’d gone.Nope.
The kitchen continued the white color theme, but with paintings breaking up the monochrome look.One wall featured square ones of the severed, bleeding heads of various animals, or sliced-open fruit spilling dark red juice.I quickly decided that wasn’t my kind of art and kept my eyes focused on the corners of the counters and cabinets.I spotted my phone on the large kitchen island and went straight for it.
“Oh, fuck.”
I had half a dozen missed calls from Christine and several messages too.I was going to read through all of them once I was in my car and on my way far, far away from the Devil’s lair.
Metatron huffed.“What?I even charged it because I care.Do you want grapefruit in your juice?”
I turned to her, waving my phone.“Need to get to work.They called.”
She rolled her eyes and walked over to the refrigerator.“Fine.I’ll make it to go.Grapefruit, yes or no?”
“Thanks, but I—”
“Yeah, yeah, need to get to work.I get it.Not that what you’re getting calls about is going to get any deader.Answer about the grapefruit.”
Her tone of voice gave big fuckingor elsevibes, and she moved the produce out of the fridge with more force than was necessary.
“Uhm.Isn’t grapefruit super bitter?”
“It has antioxidants.I’m not an expert, but I think you need those.I’ll take it as a yes.”
Well, okay then.She sliced an apple into quarters and fed that to a juicer, then went on to feed it grapefruit chunks from a glass container.The juicer was noisy as it turned perfectly good fruit into flavored water.With antioxidants.
I cleared my throat.“I can’t not answer my phone though.They might need me for other stuff.”
She pushed a purple carrot down the juicer’s chute.“When you’re in Lucy’s bed, other stuff doesn’t matter.”
Oh, gods.Was she suggesting…?No.Soul, the best little cursed poodle ever, had undressed me.I pulled out one of the stools from under the island and sat so I wouldn’t pace.
“That’s not—”
“It is.”A bowl full of raspberries joined the purple carrot.
I needed to get out of the house and out of this conversation, but one problem at a time.Perhaps I could distract her while showing off my knowledge of obscure religious mythology.
I clutched my phone and tapped my finger on the island’s countertop.“So you aretheMetatron, voice of god?”
She looked over her shoulder and chopped two pears into chunks.“I’m not responsible for the gullible nature of some goatherds I appeared to once or twice in order to get a laugh during a few very boring centuries.The ability to infer and believe in the existence of nonexistent all-powerful and all-knowing beings is something you humans exceed at.”She shrugged.“Maybe it’s our fault.Not everyone has the time to devote to cultivating a following of zealous humans that will build you altars and strip naked to celebrate you, but perhaps we should designate some of us to make the time.”
She added cucumber.Ugh.
“Ah.That’s…okay.You’re already doing so much.Uhm.But you have wings?Like the cherubs?”
That earned me a withering look, although I wasn’t clear on which part had offended her.Maybe she just didn’t like that I was talking.After all, she was an immortal, much like the Devil, and I was human—inconsequential to them, easily forgotten and dismissed in the larger picture that was their immortal existence.
Metatron shook out her hair while pushing the entire cucumber into the juicer.
“Do I look like a fat baby to you?I’d show you the wings, but I like to keep them folded away in interdimensional space.Keeps the feathers neat and tidy.”
