Page 49 of Chaos
A very entrepreneurial demon came up with a solution the gods there couldn’t argue with. She turned it into a business transaction. A demon would grant something that was asked for, and in turn, Hell would get the soul. People ate it up, even if they didn’t know what Hell was really like.
Some people fought payment, but they never won. The soul was harvested and brought back to Hell to power our sun. Something went wrong when Talvath went to collect Dorian’s payment. He should have been back by now. He liked to dally on Earth just as much as I did. He’d never been gone this long before.
It wasn’t like he was up there partying with Dorian either. Talvath talked to me like I was an actual person instead of his pet. He didn’t like Dorian. Dorian wasn’t the one who summoned him. It was a witch. Talvath didn’t like that Dorian didn’t do any of the work and that what he asked for was so vapid and self-centered. He granted it because a soul was a soul, but he really didn’t like Dorian.
I went to Earth to find my master and spy on Dorian Gray. Talvath was nowhere to be found, and that was frightening. No one on Earth was supposed to have the knowledge to kill a demon. Many had tried, and none succeeded. Demons granted almost every deal, but they wouldn’t have given out that ability.
What was more than that, Dorian was up to something. I saw him meeting with two women.
There was a haughty woman whose payment would come due soon and a plain looking hedge witch who was head over heels in love with him.
I followed him to the Library of the Profane. We knew of it, even in Hell. We had our own libraries there, but we weren’t so stingy with knowledge like they were on Earth. Anyone could access it. I knew the library had this vetting process and shouldn’t have allowed anyone who was demon touched access to the books, even if it was a deal for vanity.
I needed to see what he was researching, so I strolled in and applied for a card. I didn’t think I’d be granted a card, given that I was a Hell pet. I don’t know who was more surprised—that insanely hot librarian or me. Hell librarians were nowhere near that sexy.
Dorian was looking up gods, and that didn’t bode well for Hell. Demons only feared one thing on Earth, and that was the gods. Yeah, they may have gotten a little lax with granting nearly everything that was asked because the gods were all gone. He was explicitly researching summoning them back.
One in particular. The God of Chaos. I read what Dorian read about him. He’d gone by many names and was generally feared by everyone. They had tricked him into a tomb and he disappeared. We did not need Dorian summoning Chaos to get out of his payment. And how had a human killed Talvath?
And just like that, Dorian stopped going to the library. He abandoned his research and flew to Paris. He seemed to try to make allies with several people who had made deals. I could kill Dorian easily and bring his soul back to Hell.
Something bigger was going on. Talvath was missing, and Dorian was amassing an army.
It looked like he wanted a god to head it. So, I was back in Hell visiting with Talvath’s seer.
Visions couldn’t be forced and I was just sitting around doing nothing while Dorian had time to gather more people and possibly raise a god. Hell was vast, but I already knew how this was going to play out. Hellhounds were soldiers. We would be the ones sent to die in this war.
They had separated me from my siblings when I was just a pup. I didn’t know them as an adult. But I was friends with a lot of Hellhounds. A lot of us were beaten, abused, and treated as disposable. Demons wouldn’t go out and fight a god if Dorian succeeded. They would send their pets. I needed to stop it before it got that bad.
Anod, Talvath’s seer, burst into my bedroom.
“A vision came.”
“Did you find Talvath?”
“No. You have allies. You need to go back to the Library of the Profane. The librarian there is a friend, and she’s called help to her side. You’re a part of that. The god is with her, and he’s a friend. They can help you stop this before it turns into an all-out war.”
“Does killing Dorian Gray stop this?”
“Not anymore. He has his own allies, and he’s been making promises he can’t keep. You need to find his painting.”
I nodded. Next stop—the Library of the Profane. I wouldn’t mind making friends with that sexy librarian while I was there.
Chapter 39
Ripley
I
usually loved my job but it seemed so fucked up to be sitting at work while Dorian and Silvaria built an army to provoke a war with Hell. Still, we had more resources here than anywhere else. Felix, Gabriel, and I were reading every book on demons the library had. Balthazar had his laptop out, trying to figure out Silvaria’s next move. Reyson was spying on Dorian and trying to find Bram. Hell was apparently off-limits to Gods.
Demon lore was hazy at best. There were several theories about how to contain one for a period of time, but I doubted those actually worked, or more people would be bragged about getting out of their deals, and we wouldn’t be in this mess with Dorian.
Reyson finally jumped up and hollered. This was a quiet place, and we all jumped. I shushed him out of instinct.
“The Hellhound has left Hell! Give men ten minutes, and I can contact him.”
Reyson didn’t even get that chance. Bram walked in the front door and strolled right up to my desk with a smirk on his face.
