Hell Inc. (29 page)

“You
can't leave,” I practically pleaded with him. “You just
can't.” Levie tore his eyes away from mine and looked down at
the sidewalk.

“I
am sorry but there is nothing that I can do at this moment. I cannot
go against my uncle's orders.” I stifled the urge to sob by
putting my fist in my mouth. It wouldn't help. It would only make
me seem weaker. I whirled around again to face the Devil, but Levie
spoke again before I could get anything out. “Though you know
she cannot take on another
caseworker,
Uncle.” I was
shocked to see that this was said with a slight sneer. The Devil
ignored him completely.

“Oh
and don't think I'm done with you,” he hissed pointing a nail
at me. “Your little escapades are becoming tiresome. If the
genies weren't on strike right now, I'd have your little wish undone
come morning.” I squeezed the bottle harder, the cool glass
offering hope where there really, truly hadn't been any before. I
guess Terrence had been good for something. “But you really
haven't broken any rules either so I suppose I must cut you a deal.”
I gulped but kept my mouth shut, no sense in interrupting this
particular train of thought. The Devil snapped his fingers. “That's
it. How about this,” he leaned his arms on the window seal as
if we weren't discussing a supernatural contract that bound my soul
to Hell. “You forfeit your last wishes, give us permission to
undue your last lapse of judgment and voilà,
your soul is yours again.” My heart leapt into my throat. A
second chance. Not that
I'd had much in the way of regrets about it before but ...

“Can
I add one more thing?” My voice came out squeakier than I
would have liked. “Let Levie stay as my caseworker.”
The Devil frowned.

“I
suppose I can withhold reassigning him to janitor, but what do you
care? He'll still be leaving today. You take this deal and your
contract with us is up. Done. Kaput. Finished. You understand
me?” I did, but I didn't want to. I turned around again, but
Levie was already gone. The sphinx cocked its head.

“Perhaps
a jewel is even more treasured at the bottom of the sea than atop
one's own finger.” I balked at the empty square of cement.
How could he have just left me here alone? And beyond the moral part
of it all, how was it even possible? I turned around slowly and
faced the smirking Devil who was, uncharacteristically, patiently
awaiting my answer. After another moment of my shocked silence, he
sighed irritably and took the bug-eye glasses off his face.

“Is
it a deal or not?” It was hard to think beyond my emotions,
but I needed to.
Get a grip on yourself, Ginger.
I shook my
head to clear the cobwebs and tried to look at the situation from a
rational angle. He would undue the wish. Just what I wanted. And
then what? Was I off the hook? With the vampires, the fairies, and
the yetis? Would the Devil even know?

“Fine.
We have a deal but will this, uh, you know clear everything up?”
The Devil raised his eyebrows, and the smirk returned to his lips.

“Oh,
you should know that better than I would. Once people want to see
something, who can stop them? We're just undoing the wish and
limiting our liability in the whole situation.” The window
began to roll back up, and I grasped the edge of the glass.

“What
do you mean by that?” The Devil removed his hand from the
button and stared me straight in the face, irritation building to
anger.

“I
mean, you stupid fool, that this problem is still yours to deal with
and yours alone. Now, if you won't take your hand off my window, I'm
afraid that I'll be procuring your permission to cut it off.”
I snatched my hand back and watched as the window continued to close.
“I'll have someone swing by with the papers later today.
Don't worry about a meeting place; we'll find you.”

The
rain had increased from a light drizzle into an all out pour as the
limo sped away from the curb. I pulled my coat tighter around me and
stood stone still as people shouted and ran for cover around me.
Misery set in like a black cloud around my heart, and I felt the urge
to sob even stronger than before. I put my hand to my mouth again
and stifled back a cry. The situation hadn't gotten much better; it
actually seemed to have gotten much worse. Sure, my soul was mine
again which if I had really given it much thought should have been a
joyous ending to an ill thought out plan to make my life more
interesting. I still had all of my previous problems to worry about
but this time, I would be doing it alone. No Levie to catch me
before I fell. I kicked an empty beer can into the middle of the
street and watched as the wheel of a car crushed it almost
immediately. I didn't think much of it until I realized that the car
had stopped moving.

It
was another fucking limo. I rolled my eyes and tried to pretend that
I hadn't noticed it. I glanced down at the sphinx who stared back at
me with its usual blank expression. Strengthened by the resolve that
at least someone – or something I suppose – had stuck
around with me, I lifted my head back up to the car. The door opened
and I was greeted to a very long, very pale expanse of thigh in a
shiny pump. I raised my eyebrows and watched as the figure of Helena
stepped out at me.

“Well
hello there,” she said with a grin, her fangs a stark white
against the blood red of her lipstick. “Now, tell me this,
what on Earth would possess Leviathan to leave a little bird like you
all alone in the rain?”

“He
went back to Hell,” I said simply. Not that I owed her an
explanation, but I needed to hear it from my own lips. Her mouth
turned down at the corners and she sauntered across the street, heels
splashing in the newly formed puddles. She took my chin in her hand
and studied my face. I didn't resist, and I found myself wondering
if her glamour would work on me now that I wasn't under the
protection of the Devil's magic anymore. I had to admit I was rather
relieved when it didn't.

“You're
leaving out the little details, and it's the little details that make
the story.” She released my chin and gestured at the limo
which the sphinx was already in the process of climbing into. “Come
with me. I'll take you somewhere nice, and you can tell me all about
it.” I wasn't about to climb in the back of a car with a
vampire that was part of a group that was giving me death threats.

“Thanks
but no thanks, I'll call a cab.” I turned as if to walk away
when I saw the yeti couple pounding down the sidewalk towards me.
They both had identical clubs gripped in their massive furry hands,
and they didn't look happy. I didn't know what Levie did to get them
out of his way outside the genie's house, but I didn't want to find
out. “Ah, actually, that'll be just fine.”

The
sphinx and I didn't waste any time finding my own way into the limo.
It took me a second to realize that it was the very same one that I
had ridden in only days earlier. There was still a small blood stain
on the carpet. I tried not to stare at it as Helena gracefully
folded herself in next to me. With her fingers resting on the door
handle, she froze. She did it the way that only vampires can do.
They don't breathe; they don't blink. There is nothing about them
that looks alive. Helena became like a statue, pale and frozen. The
only movement about her entire frame was a light breeze ruffling the
tips of her hair. Vampires are scary when they do that. It's that
point in time in which you can't just pretend they're people with
fangs. It's the moment that you realize that they are a different
species entirely.

My
stress level was skyrocketing. I could feel my throat constricting
and my flight or fight response kicking in. It wasn't just Helena
but the two yetis. They would be on us any minute if we didn't get
moving. “I don't mean to intrude, Helena, but we need to go.”

The
words had barely made it past my lips when the sphinx let out a
scream like a wounded house cat and started to hiss. The window
between us and the driver's seat burst inwards in a spray of glass
and blood, and I found myself clutching at my neck. A piece of glass
had sliced along the side of my throat. It wasn't incredibly deep,
but it hurt like hell. Red was starting to soak into the collar of
my shirt. The sphinx was climbing out of the vehicle, shaking its
fur to rid itself of the shards of glass, and Helena was nowhere to
be seen. I turned towards the open door and made as if to leave the
car.

I
never got the chance.

I
didn't see the explosion. Not really. Because by the time I
realized what was going on, I was already dead.

Dying
by explosion doesn't hurt, not really. My body was already
incinerated by the time I noticed anything had happened. I was
standing outside the burning ball of metal, wondering what the hell
was going on when I finally realized it. The water in the puddle I
was standing in wasn't pooling around my ankles; it was going through
them. I stared at it for several moments not quite understanding
what I was seeing, and before I got the opportunity to really process
this newest bit of information, a crash drew my attention elsewhere.

Helena's
body smashed into the window of a nearby boutique, sending mannequin
parts flying in all directions. She snatched a bright yellow T-shirt
covered in peace signs from her face and snarled at the man who was
stalking patiently towards her.

It
was Liam with his goatee freshly shaved, a single gold earring
glinting in his left ear, and a sequined shirt that would have been
more at home on a twelve year old girl. He was smiling an oily smile
at her as he stepped over the threshold of the shattered window.
Helena scrambled up quickly and took up a defensive crouching
position. Liam paused next to a rack of women's shoes. He glanced
back at the flaming limo, and his smile turned into an all out grin.

“I
can see that we caught you off guard.” Liam took another step
forward, and Helena pulled a gun from her boot.

“Don't
move, you piece of trailer trash shit,” she said as Liam
growled low in his throat and slammed his fist into the shoe rack.
Heels went flying everywhere. One particularly ugly blue wedge came
flying right at me. I ducked out of reflex (which was entirely
unnecessary since a second shoe passed directly through my left
shoulder). I didn't feel a thing. At least, not shoe related. My
stomach (at least it felt like my stomach) was flip-flopping
nervously, and I could feel my emotions beginning to close in on me.
I tried to push them aside, at least for the moment, so I could
concentrate on what was going on in front of me. If I was still
standing here, that meant that I was at the very least a ghost and
from personal experience, I knew that Helena would still be able to
see me. She could help me work through this. She had to. Someone
had to. “And how's your father?” she chuckled, sneering.
“Enjoy his flight down the stairs did he?”

“Daddy
– er, Nathaniel, left the business to me. I'm the boss now.
You think you have the right to speak to me with that kind of
disrespect? Is there no honor in the world anymore?” All this
coming from the man who had decapitated my mother and tried to rape
me. It would have been almost funny if I hadn't been near hysteria
from finding out that I was dead.

“Fuck
you.” Helena fired the gun at Liam. Unfortunately, his vampire
reflexes made it simple for him to dodge the bullet which ended up
lodged several feet behind him in the wall. She acted like she had
expected just that and grinned as the sphinx leapt out from behind
the checkout counter. It landed atop Liam with lightning speed,
knocking him to his back and proceeding to go straight for his
throat. Liam grasped the sphinx by its lion's mane and tossed it
aside as if it weighed nothing.

The
sphinx skidded across the rubble strewn floor and dug its claws in
for support. It crouched, golden fur sliding over its muscles as
they gathered for another attack. Liam was already up, his attention
focused on the sphinx when Helena appeared at his side. She moved so
quickly that I didn't even see her until she had the gun pressed to
his temple.

“Nice
try,” she whispered against his ear, and I jumped as the gun
went off. The bullet went straight through his brain, and I cringed
as I watched, for the third time that day, someone's head getting
blown off. If I could have vomited, I would have. The combination
of my nerves and the gore right in front of my face was a bit much.
Helena's head jerked in my direction, and I watched her brown eyes
grow round with surprise.

“What
the hell?” Exactly what I was thinking.

“Can
you help me?” I choked out, my hand going to my throat in a
nervous gesture. Helena glanced down at the sphinx and then back at
me. The sphinx sat and licked some of the blood from its mane. She
raised her gaze back to mine.