Ash swerved onto the wrong side of the road to dodge a slow-moving vehicle. “I have a theory.”
“What?”
He jerked the car back into his lane. “Demons are conscious. We’re not humans, and we don’t have souls. But we’re aware. So we have some kind of conscious life force animating us.”
He didn’t have a soul? That was so messed up on so many levels, she couldn’t try to count them.
“Conscious beings evolve. That’s how the universe works. You’re born, you fuck shit up, you learn your lesson, you evolve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a human, animal, or even a plant. You evolve, grow, or you decay and dissolve. So why not demons?”
“You think demons evolve. What’s your point?”
He slowed marginally at a stop sign and then gunned it through the intersection without stopping. “I’m old. Really old. I’m so old, I don’t remember how old I am. And I’ve done a lot of really bad shit. Please don’t ask me to tell you, because I really don’t want to. But just trust me when I say it was bad.”
Great. That wasn’t making her any more inclined to trust him driving her car.
A demand for him to pull over and let her flee was on the tip of her tongue, but another part of her was dying to hear more. How could she not be? She was sitting beside a real, live demon who was now giving her some kind of theology lesson. It was morbidly fascinating.
“A few thousand years ago, I was bound by Raphael after really fucking up.”
“You were what? By who? And did you say a fewthousand?”
He ignored the questions. “It was then things started to change for me. It was a slow process, and it was only in the last few hundred years I really felt different.”
“I don’t get it. You think you evolved? How?”
Ash actually stopped at the next red light. “I don’t know. But I do know I don’t belong in Hell anymore. I can feel it. My brothers too—they’re in the same boat as me. I knew that if we stayed there any longer, we were going to get found out and probably destroyed. Bel’s powerful, but even he couldn’t save our asses if everyone turned against us. Our only choice was to escape and try to hide on Earth. I made the colossally stupid mistake of thinking we’d have more time before Mist came after us, however, and now I’m paying the price. Or rather,you’repaying the price.”
He cast her another sideways glance, hands tightening on the steering wheel. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry. I never intended for you to get involved in this.”
That was nice and all—an apology from a demon was probably a rare thing—but it didn’t change her current, unbelievably messed up predicament.
In the meantime, she had a million more questions. “Who is Mist exactly? And who is Raphael, and how did he bind you? And what did you do that made him bind you? What is a binding? And why do they want you back in Hell so bad? And did you say they would destroy you? Destroy as in, kill you? Can demons die?”
Ash dragged a hand through his hair. She hated that she was still aware of how gorgeous that hair was. “That’s a lot of questions, Eva.”
“Then you’d better get started answering them.”
“Where do I begin?”
“Start with Mist.”
“All right.” The light turned green, and he slammed on the gas. The car swung around a sharp corner, no turn signal. “Mist is Hell’s best tracker. We call him the Hunter. His senses are heightened, even on Earth where our powers are dampened, and he’s a master of stealth. I’m sure you noticed his whole dissolve-into-mist trick.”
“Is that why he’s called Mist? Because he can become... mist?”
“Yeah, and because his full name is Mishetsumephtai. Mist is a nickname. Or Mishetsu.”
“Oh.”
Ash accelerated. They were pushing seventy kilometers an hour on a residential, one-way street.God help me.“Yeah. When someone reneges on a bargain, or a demon or a soul escapes Hell, Mist gets sent after them. But only in the most severe cases.”
“What happens if you get caught?”
“We’ll get the fuck tortured out of us and potentially be executed.”
Jesus.“What happens when you execute a demon? Can you even die?”
“This is getting really complicated, Eva. Are you sure you—”
