“So you’re speaking to me now?” I asked Tommy tartly.
He dropped his eyes. “You’re right; I acted like a jerk this morning. I was pissed at myself more than at you.”
His humble expression immediately melted me. “It’s okay.” If anyone had a right to be cranky, it was he. “Are you feeling better?”
He shrugged. “Not really. I’m hoping a night out with Ariel will improve my mood.”
“How did you get here?” I asked. “I thought the doctor told you not to drive until the pain was gone.”
“Neil let me borrow his car tonight. I guess he figured it was a chance for me to get out of Sam’s hair.” Tommy put his hands to his stomach as if gauging his pain. “It was weird to drive after all this time, but it felt pretty good. Normal, you know?” He took a seat on the couch, bracing his hand against the armrest as he lowered himself. “Jas isn’t here, is she?”
So that was the real reason for his visit. I raised my eyebrows. “What do you think?”
His shoulders sagged. “I guess not.”
From down the hallway, my niece’s cheerful singing rose above the white noise of the shower. Her sweet, childish voice turned the heavy metal song into a hymn. I worried that as depressed as he was, Tommy would try to talk to Ariel about Jasmine or his mother or even the two of us. “You can take Ariel out, but don’t lay anything heavy on her, got it?” I said. “She’s only eleven.”
“I’d never do that! Adult problems are for adults. We’ll stick to discussing
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
.”
No doubt about it, someday, this man would make an excellent father. I smiled. “Then, okay. She’s yours. And if I’m away when you get back, would you mind staying with Ari until I get home?”
“Do you have a job tonight?” he asked lightly.
I sighed. “I wish it was only one.”
“I sometimes forget how hard working for the Devil must be on you,” he said. “How do you manage to hold up?”
“Having a supportive friend helps,” I said.
He managed a smile. “Of course I’ll watch Ari.”
When my niece finished showering and dressing, she ran into the living room and pulled Tommy off the couch. “Let’s go!” Her tangled hair was still dripping wet, but she was so eager that I didn’t make her dry it.
If I could bottle that kind of love and sell it off, Hell would never stand a chance.
After Tommy and Ariel left, dull pain throbbed between my temples, and my stomach pitched. I hadn’t had a migraine since college, but my huge workload was catching up to me. Even my inner demon was limp with exhaustion and begging for a break. I wanted to draw the shades in my room and lay down, but my terrible list beckoned.
Harmony was so lucky, I mused bitterly. Her jobs left her invigorated while mine left me feeling sick and dirty. I longed to be the good guy for once. I wondered if doing an act of charity, like serving meals to the homeless or donating a kidney, would negate some of my crimes.
I sighed. Who was I kidding? My fantasies of being a hero would have to wait. At least until that list was finished. If I hurried, I could cross off another six names before Ari and Tommy came home.
Tommy. The name rang my heart like a bell. Of all people on Earth, he deserved a break. I glanced at my watch. Maybe I
did
have time for one, small act of charity before continuing on with my list.
Doris struggled to make her way across a deadfall of trash as she crossed from her hidey hole in the living room to another part of the house. When she slipped and nearly fell, my heart skipped a beat. Luckily, she caught herself in time and remained upright.
I’d called Doris a couple of times to see if I could persuade her to move out of the house, but she hadn’t picked up. My guess was she
couldn’t
answer the phone because she’d lost it somewhere in all the garbage. And I couldn’t get into the house on my own without being torn apart by the effects of the nexus. It was a dicey situation.
Doris shuffled back into the living room. Once again, she lost her balance. When she put her hand out to steady herself, she dislodged a tall stack of magazines which slid over with a sudden whoosh. My stomach clenched. It was like watching a coal miner being buried in a cave-in. I had to get her to safety!
I decided that my only option was to drag her into the corridor with me, and then relocate her to my apartment. Once I got her there, I could use my demon on her. Perhaps it wasn’t the best plan, but at least it would get her out of that disaster area.
Grabbing onto the door frame, I leaned as far as I could into Doris’s living room. Immediately, the crosscurrents between Heaven and Hell buffeted me. Magazines flapped their pages, and cobwebs trembled. The whirlwind flung bits of tissue and candy wrappers at Doris who shrieked and clutched her mattress.
“Doris! This way!” I shouted above the wind. “Over here!”
Doris squeezed her eyes shut and hung on. The stacks of garbage surrounding her trembled ominously in the increasing wind.
I stretched further into the room, but still couldn’t reach her. My fingers clinging to the doorframe cramped, and my shoulder felt like it would pop from its socket. “Doris!” I frantically waved my hand at her, but she continued to ignore me.
My demon, horrified by the ruckus, dug her claws into my brain. The pain blinded me.
Let go!
I demanded. But as the suction from Heaven continued to yank us forward, she hung on even tighter. If I didn’t reach Tommy’s mother soon, my succubus would shred my brain.
“Doris!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
Doris clamped her hands over her ears. “Go away! Leave me alone!”
The storm intensified. A paperback bounced from a pile and ricocheted off her head. A lid from a plastic bowl whirled like a Frisbee. The gale drove a steak knife into the drywall.
My demon redoubled her effort to hang onto me, and I grit my teeth against the pain. I stretched even farther, my wrist and shoulder screaming in protest. When my fingertips finally touched Doris’s hand, she howled and scrambled, crab like, out of the living room.
Something small and sharp hit me in the forehead. My hand slipped from the doorway, and I tumbled headlong into the maelstrom. The rushing air was a solid wall crushing my ribs and driving the breath from my body. I was drowning in air. My eyes bulging, I struggled to inhale.
As I tried to crawl back into Hell, an immense gust of wind blew through the house with a sound like a rushing locomotive. It pinned me flat against the filthy mattress. A shower of paperbacks thumped against my neck and shoulders. An immense, wooden bookcase teetered ominously. I closed my eyes and braced myself for its fall, hoping I wouldn’t end up in the casket wearing my string of akoya pearls after all.
A moment before the bookcase toppled, I was yanked backwards into the quiet safety of Hell where I landed with a grunt.
“Didn’t I tell you to stay away from there?” William demanded. “What the
hell
were you doing?”
I gently touched my forehead. My fingers came away bloody. “I’m trying to rescue Doris. What are
you
doing here?”
He crouched next to me and dabbed at the cut above my eye with his handkerchief. “I sensed that you were in danger.”
Annoyed, I pushed his hand away and got to my feet. I had thought those intuitions only came when a loved one was in trouble, not a she-demon coworker. “What do you mean you
sensed
that I was in danger?”
“My incubus told me that you were in trouble.” Then he glared at me. “And it’s a good thing he did! I thought I told you to stay away from the nexus!”
“I had to rescue Tommy’s mother,” I said, “and if I’d been a few inches taller, I could have done it.” I rubbed my shoulder. “The next time I try this…”
William’s jaw muscles bulged. “Get this through your head, Lil. There won’t
be
any next time!”
I put my hands on my hips. “Oh, really?”
“Really! I never thought I’d say this, but let the human authorities deal with it. Call the police or whomever you need to and let them tackle the situation. Face it. You’ve done everything you could.”
I touched the cut on my forehead again, wincing at the pain, and glanced into the junk heap that was Doris’s living room. William was right. As much as I wanted to, I couldn’t help Tommy’s mother. I sagged against the wall. Once again, I’d failed.
William’s voice softened. “Don’t feel too badly,” he said. “You tried your best.”
My face tightened as I struggled not to cry. For once, I wanted ‘trying my best’ not to feel so much like failure. “But what good has trying done? Doris is still in her rat hole, and I’m still bound to my damned contract! I thought for sure that, this time, I had found a way out of it.” I put my hands to my face to cover my tears.
William pulled me into his arms. I resisted for a moment before laying my head on his chest. I cried until his shirt was damp, and my face was hot. He rested his cheek against my head and rubbed my back.
When I finally quieted, he asked, “Do you feel better?”
I pulled away and wiped my face on my sleeve. “I won’t feel better until I’m free of Helen.” Especially now that she was demanding that I get pregnant.
“How long do you think I have?” I asked. “Before Helen comes after me, that is?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean how much time do I have to get pregnant before Helen orders someone to do the job?” The worry had been lying heavily on my mind for days. “How long did she give Carrie?”
William frowned. “Wait. Helen told you to have a child or…” His eyes widened in horror.
“Or, yes, she’ll find a way to get the job done. With or without my consent.” I glared at him. “Why did you think
my mother was so focused on finding a sperm donor?”
His face paled, and he stared at me in stunned disbelief. “I’ve been in Hell so long that I sometimes forget how depraved it is. I’ve actually grown accustomed to its horror.” He had the look of a man who’s discovered the lump on his neck was really end-stage cancer. “I should have realized Helen would be that monstrous.”
“Yes, you should have,” I said.
I started back towards home, and he hurried after me. “Lil, wait.”
I kept walking.
“Lilith! I’m sorry. I had it all wrong.”
“I’ll say you did.” I turned and glared at him. “But you know what
really
hurts? The fact that you didn’t trust me.”
His eyes were full of pain. “You’re right. I should have trusted you.” He reached out as if to touch my cheek, but then thought better of it. “You have so much courage,” he said. “Not once in over a hundred years have I had the strength to stand up to Helen.”
“Not that it matters, of course. She still won.” I looked away. “Just like she always will.”
“Come with me,” William said. “I want to show you something.”
“Not now.”
“Please? It will only take a minute, and I think it will do you some good.”
With a sigh, I followed him down the hallway and around a few corners.
“It’s been my plan to show you all my favorite places in the world. That mountaintop we visited together was one of them, but this place is even more special. I was saving it for last, but I believe you could use it right now.”
He stopped in front of a door with an Employees Only sign mounted on it. Above it was a red light bulb in a cage. Although my succubus told me this wasn’t the same door that I’d tried to enter when I was looking for Patrick, she began to fret and warned me that we were
not
to enter it. I hung back, afraid to go closer. “What’s in there?”