Witch Road to Take (5 page)

“Why?”

He still hadn’t turned to look at me and
instead continued to stare out the window. “Gavin, the alleged
wizard, is a statistical mess and the vampire is allergic to human
blood. I just got front-row seats to a circus-freak show.”

I waited for him to respond, but he said
nothing. My dear brother was beginning to frustrate me more than he
ever had. I was quite aware that he was a man of few words, but not
responding to me at all was pissing me off.

“Compassion, Dhellia.”

“What does that mean? Compassion. I’m
compassionate, but last I checked, I have Hell on my heels and a
father who will slice and dice me if he finds me. I’d like to think
that my protection is a little more on solid ground than a cloaking
spell and a bedroom in suburbia with two nerds protecting me. We
are one calamity short of a sitcom here.”

Damien turned on his heels and glared at me.
His head was slightly tilted down, his eyes narrowed and his mouth
in an enraged scowl. “I have put my life on the line to protect
you. Do you think I’m such a fool that I’d drop you off just
anywhere?”

I dropped my arms to my side. “No, of course
not. But they—” I pointed toward my bedroom door.

“They,” Damien growled, “Are far more
important than you acknowledge. That statistical mess has conjured
up a spell that no demon can penetrate, not even Father.”

I swallowed back my emotion of relief. “And
the vamp?”

“The vampire will teach you about
compassion, Dhellia.”

“A vampire is going to teach me about
compassion. Are you kidding?”

“Do I look like I’m kidding?”

I nervously glanced around my room. “No, you
look like you want to eat something or someone.” I tried to make
light of the situation, but my brother didn’t laugh.

“It’s time to grow up, Dhellia. You’ve been
running around upstairs like a child running away from home. You
wanted out from under Father’s grip…well, now you got it. But that
means you need to get a job and pay your own way. This is your life
and what you do with it will determine who you become.”

“Okay, Dr. Phil,” I pouted.

“Enough of the human remarks,” he
roared.

He took a step back. I could tell that he
was upset with himself for losing his cool with me. I could also
tell that something was seriously wrong. My inner gut never lied
and this time, it was sending out strong alerts.

“Sorry, Damien. I’ll make you proud.”

“You already make me proud, Dhellia. Just
blend in with the humans you adore so much and give us a break from
the drama. Once Father gets over the fact that you’re gone, the
dust will settle and you will finally have the opportunity to
pursue who you want to be.”

“And for that clean slate, I will be forever
grateful.”

Damien opened a small, nonaggressive portal
in my room. Before he left, he glanced back at me. “Take a second
look at your roommates. You’ll find two diamonds in the rough. They
need you as much as you need them. Embrace your humanity.” He
disappeared.

The entire conversation replayed in my mind.
My brother’s demeanor never changed, he had remained rigid and
uptight. He was definitely holding back something and I knew it was
something that pertained to me.

I sat on my
bed, with my
back against the wall, my knees pulled up to my chest and the
newspaper out in front of me opened to the “help wanted” ads.

Dhellia, the daughter of Satan, had to
find a job.
This was such a joke that I actually laughed
aloud.

Maybe I could be a stripper and anger my
brother into paying my way. And where was my dowry? Didn’t Satan’s
daughter come with some money, land, ownership to anything?

I was starting to think that my freedom was
too expensive. My birthday was in two weeks, I’d be twenty-one
years old, and I should be planning a big, crazy party rather than
sifting through clerical and food server jobs.

I wanted to do something bigger than make
french fries and wear a name tag. Not that there was anything wrong
with it, but I wanted to have a larger purpose than earning a
paycheck.

I sighed and put down the paper on my
bed.

When I heard a tap on my bedroom door, I
knew it was Beavis and Butthead and I wasn’t in the mood. Did that
stop them from opening my door? No! It did not.

“Hey, Dhellia, are you in there?” Gavin
asked through the crack in the door.

I didn’t say anything. I thought if I stayed
perfectly still, didn’t say a word, they’d get the hint and go
away. Did they? No.

“Dhell, it’s Gavin and Jonas. Are you in
there? Can you give us a second of your time?”

I glared at the crack in the door. I could
see Gavin’s bottle-cap glasses staring right at me while he
questioned if I was in my room. I sighed and rolled my eyes.
“Dhellia left,” I said as I reclined on my stomach and spread the
newspaper out in front of me on the bed.

“Okay, when she gets back, will you let her
know that we stopped by.”

“Oh my dear Hell, are you kidding me?!”

He didn’t really think that another girl was
in my room that looked just like me with the same voice, telling
him that I wasn’t here? “Gavin, open the damn door and come
in.”

The door opened and my two goofball
roommates hesitantly walked in my room. “Hey, Dhellia, we didn’t
think you were here,” Gavin said.

I cocked my head to the side. “You knew damn
well I was here because your eyeball was looking right at me.”

Gavin shrugged, embarrassed. “I just figured
you didn’t want to be disturbed.”

“If you figured that, then why did you
disturb me?” I asked, keeping my eyes on the newspaper.

Jonas’s voice shocked me to look up. “You
know what? You’re not a very nice person. I know that you’re
Satan’s daughter and you might think that it’s okay to treat others
like a piece of gum on the bottom of your shoe, but honestly,
you’re a bitch.”

I glanced at Gavin. We both looked shocked.
“Did he just call me a bitch?” I looked back at Jonas. “Did you
just call me a bitch?” I jumped off my bed and landed in front of
him.

He seemed timid, uncertain if he should
admit that he did. “Well, Gavin is trying to be nice to you and
since you got up this morning, you’ve called us all kinds of names.
You’re a stranger in
our
home.”

I laughed hysterically. Then I grabbed
Jonas, pulled him into my arms, and tightly embraced him. “You
called me a bitch. Jonas, that’s the first thing I’ve heard you say
today that was genuine. Sincere and initiated by your own
accord.”

“You’re not mad at me?”

“Mad? I’m delighted. Actually, I’ll kick
your ass later for the remark, but right now, I want us to marvel
in your bravado. Bravo, vampire. You just grew a pair of balls.” I
smiled. “So, whatcha guys want?”

“Well,” Gavin said, “I heard it’s your
birthday in two weeks.”

I tilted my head. “How did you hear
that?”

“He can read minds,” Jonas spilled.

Gavin pushed Jonas in the arm. “Maybe it’s
best that you leave the talking to me.”

I walked over to Gavin and poked him in the
chest. “So, you can read minds and you thought it was okay to hang
out in my thoughts?”

“Ouch.”

“Stay out of my head, magic man. You are now
off-limits to my thoughts. Do you understand?”

He shrugged. “You can read mine, too.”

“I don’t read minds.”

“You could.”

“What do you mean, I could?”

“It’s a family trait,” Gavin smirked.

It took me a moment to understand what he
was telling me. When I did, I threw my open hand in his face. “Oh,
Hell to the no, you and I are not family?”

He gave me one quick nod, “Yes, we are.”

“From where? I don’t know anything about
you.”

“Do you know anything about your mother’s
side of the family, Dhellia?”

I hesitated. My mother had died when I was
five. I hardly remembered her, let alone her side of the family.
“Read my mind, you witch.”

“First, don’t call me names.”

“You’re a witch, aren’t you?”

“No, I’m a wizard.”

“To-ma-toes…tomah-toes…” I grinned.

“Second, I know your mother died when you
were five. Well, I heard about it. I also heard she was a powerful
witch.”

I shrugged. “Maybe. When she died, my father
whisked Damien and me downstairs to Hell. I never even had a chance
to take any of my things with me.”

“Then there’s a lot that you don’t know
about the family. Do you know what your powers are?”

“Powers? I know I’m fast and I don’t get
tired. I can run for a year straight around the world and never
stop to catch my breath.”

“Those are your father’s powers, not from
your mother. What else?” he asked me.

“That’s it, as far as I know.”

“Interesting. We should try to do a few
things that I think you might have, but are undiscovered
abilities.”

I nodded. “I’ll tell you what magic man. I
will be your guinea pig, if you help me get a job.”

“Do you have any skills?”

“What do you mean by skills?” I asked.

“We really have our work cut out for us,
don’t we, Dhellia? You haven’t harnessed your gifts yet and you
have no skills that you can think of.”

“I have skills! I just didn’t understand
what you were referring to.”

“Okay, what are your skills?”

“I can… well… I can…” my frustration was
building. I hated trick questions. “I can put together a mean
ensemble for any occasion.”

“Clothes. Are you talking about dressing
yourself?”

“Hey, it’s an art!”

“What else have you got?”

“I can talk on the phone with perfect
etiquette.”

Gavin glanced at Jonas and they both smiled.
“We have the perfect job for you.”

“Oh, really? And what would be the perfect
job for me?”

I slid my finger
underneath the collar of my button-down blouse and groaned when the
phone rang. “You’ve reached the law offices of Birch, Weaver and
Isenberg. This is Dhellia, how may I help you?”

“I’m looking for the empress of Hell to
represent my case of mistaken identity,” the caller said. “I never
actually killed that woman at the bus stop.” Gavin and Jonas both
laughed into the phone.

“You guys are nerds, prank-calling me at
work. You just wait. One day, you two will stand judgment before my
father during your trial by fire and you’ll wish…” I hesitated.

“Wait!” A brilliant thought crossed my mind.
“Guys, you both are geniuses. I’ve got to go.”

As I started to hang up the phone, I heard
Jonas tell Gavin, “Did she call us geniuses?” and Gavin remarked,
“Statistically, I didn’t see that happening for another four
months. My math is…” and the phone hit the receiver.

I couldn’t help but laugh at them. In an odd
way, those two had grown on me in the past week. They were actually
cool people in a timid-nerdy-and-in-serious-lack-of-swag sort of
way.

Their prank call provoked a brilliant
thought. I grabbed a notebook and a pencil and started for the
library of law books in the back room of the law office.

“Dhellia,” my boss called out to me.

I rolled my eyes and turned to face him.
“Yes, Dick?”

“It’s Richard,” he said, shrugging with
embarrassment at his client standing next to him. “She’s new,” he
whispered.

Richard’s client stood erect, his suit
crisply dry-cleaned and pressed, his black hair spiked on top with
it slightly longer in back and the bottom of his hair flipped up in
soft curls. His eyes were dark and mysterious.

This client caught my eye. An odd sensation
rumbled around at the pit of my stomach. I moved my attention from
the client to my boss. “Richard, what can I do for you?”

“This is a very important client, Mr.
Quintus Sable.”

I shook his hand with a sweaty palm.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Sable.” Something
about this man made me feel uneasy, yet excited.

“This is our clerk, Dhellia Hunt. She will
be happy to help you find the book that I told you about.”

He continued to hold my hand firmly as he
stared into my eyes. My nerves were scrambling in disarray around
the pit of my stomach—an odd sensation to say the least. I finally
found my voice and addressed Mr. Sable. “I can show you to the
library. I was just going that way.” I pulled my hand from his.

He nodded and grinned. Those soft full lips
parted to reveal the whitest teeth I’d ever seen. It took a moment
to pull my eyes from that region of his face.

Mr. Sable was a man who was barely
twenty-five years old. Yet he had perfect confidence that would
make even the president take notice. Oh, yes, he made me
nervous.

“So, Ms. Hunt—”

I quickly corrected him. “You can call me
Dhellia.” I didn’t want him to address me by my mother’s surname
because it sounded too formal.

“Okay, Dhellia, have you worked here
long?”

“Three days.” I glanced back at him. He
strolled slightly behind me. I figured it was so he could check out
my tight ass and long legs, but who really knew why men did what
they did?

“Oh, you’re new—new. What did you do before
you started here?”

I shrugged. “Spent Daddy’s money.”

“I figured you as the type.”

I swung around. “What does that mean?”

He laughed and walked past me, leaving my
question unanswered. Mr. Chatty Cathy just angered me. Upsetting me
when he needed my help was not a good idea.

We walked into the huge law library and I
turned around and sweetly asked, “Which book did I need to help you
find, Mr. Sable?”

He raised his eyebrows. I guessed because he
could hear the twinge of sarcasm in my voice.

“My father recently passed away. He owned a
construction company.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.”