His hair was still miraculously long, and the platinum-blond strands hung past his wide shoulders to his broad chest. Combined with those sky-blue eyes, he really did look more like an angel than a devil. After last night’s little outburst, however, there was no way Eva would ever make the mistake of forgetting what he was.
And then there was the smile on his face. It was malevolent and slightly terrifying: the furthest thing from friendly.
She stared at his imposing form, half wanting to shout at him for barging into the bedroom, half wanting to crawl into the closet and hide.
“I couldn’t help but overhear the entire conversation with your mother,” he said.
“Oh. Shit.”
Ash had told her demons had heightened senses, but she’d forgotten. How much had they heard? Probably everything. Oh god, had Ash woken up and heard her talking about breaking up with him?
“Asmodeus is on the balcony,” Bel said, answering her unspoken question. “So you’ll have to dump him in person later.” He glared at her a little, and she winced.
“Who are you talking to?” Jacqui asked into the phone.
“Belial,” Eva replied.
“If you’d allow me to speak to your mother,” Bel said, “I think I’ve figured out where we can go.”
She frowned. “Where—?” And then it dawned on her. “No way. I don’t want her involved in any of this.”
“It’s the perfect solution. No one would suspect we would visit a human’s mother. And, even better, it’s a place we’ve never been before.”
“I don’t want her in danger.”
“Honey, let me talk to him,” Jacqui said, obviously overhearing the exchange.
Bel held out a hand for the phone. “She wants to talk to me.”
Damn, he really could hear everything. “I really don’t think—”
“Let me talk to him!” Jacqui said louder.
Bel wiggled his fingers.
“No!” Eva was quickly losing control of the situation. “She’smymother, and I don’t want her involv—”
Faster than eyes could track, Belial crossed the room, ripped the phone from her hand, and held it to his own ear.
“Good morning, ma’am,” he said, smirking in triumph at Eva.
“You asshole!” she snapped. “Give that back!”
“Yes, my name is Belial, and yes, I really am a demon.”
Eva scrambled out of bed and tried to snatch her phone back, only to realize she wore nothing but Ash’s oversized T-shirt and her underwear. The shirt was large enough that it fell to mid-thigh, but it rode up precariously when she reached up and tried to snatch her phone back from Bel’s grip.
Unfortunately, he was too damned tall, and she couldn’t reach it even standing on her tiptoes and jumping. And he was fast, too. He twisted out of her reach every time she got close, until she was dancing all around the room—one hand awkwardly pulling the bottom of the T-shirt down to keep herself covered—while he remained cool as a cucumber.
“I can assure you we mean your daughter no harm.” His voice was smooth as silk. “In fact, we seek to protect her at all costs. You see, my brother Asmodeus is quite taken with her. She’s the first human to pay him any interest in three thousand years, and he’s become attached.”
Belial started describing how hellgates worked while Eva continued her fruitless battle to regain possession of the phone. He was oozing charm, putting on his best show for her mother, and she could tell Jacqui was eating it right up.
“Of course I would walk you through the process of drawing the sigil,” Bel said smoothly. “And I will take care of activating it, so that’s all you’ll have to do. Once we arrive, I’ll put wards up around your house to ensure Eva’s continued safety.”
There was a pause while Jacqui replied in which Bel grinned smugly at Eva.
“Excellent. If you would give me one moment, Mrs. Gregory.”
