“Why are you loyal to Asmodeus?” Dan spat. “He betrayed you. He escaped from Hell.”
“I have no loyalty to anyone other than my mistress, and I would kill her in a second if I could.”
Dan rolled his eyes.Demons.It was amazing they managed to get anything done when they were so busy stabbing each other in the backs.
“Asmodeus broke the rules,” Dan said. “He must be punished. You of all people should respect that.”
The Hunter’s unbending adherence to the laws followed by demons and angels on Earth was well known, and considering he was usually here collecting rogues and rule breakers, he was one of the few demons Heaven held in relative esteem.
Turning his head, Mishetsumephtai grinned, showcasing a mouth full of pointed teeth. “I am learning how to be a rebel.”
Great. So much for “unbending adherence.” Biting back his frustrated growl, Dan yanked his sword out of the demon’s back. “Why are you protecting him?”
Mishetsumephtai rolled away, crumpled wings folding under his enormous ash-gray body. “I want what he has.” He blinked his eerie yellow eyes slowly as if the confession was as much a revelation to him as it was to Dan.
“What does he have?”
“Freedom. A human pet.”
Dan roared at hearing his daughter being referred to as a “pet” and stabbed the goddamned demon yet again.
“I’ll let you destroy me before I give up Asmodeus and end his fun,” the Hunter hissed through the agony.
“You’re here to take him back to Hell!” Dan shouted, unable to believe he could be facing off yet another defector. What was going on down there? Was the underworld facing some kind of uprising? “Youare here to end his fun!”
“I’ve been watching him.” The demon’s spine arched as another wave of white light cascaded over him. “He doesn’t know. He thinks he’s safe from me, but I know exactly where he is.”
Dan jerked the sword. “Tell me!”
“I’ll never tell.” He laughed maniacally and said in a singsong voice, “I’ll never tell, I’ll never tell!”
Dan’s cell phone began to vibrate in his pocket.
Growling in frustration, he struck the demon upside the head with the flat side of his sword. He collapsed unconscious.
Dan yanked the phone out, hoping it would be Eva. He’d called her over and over last night without her answering, and they’d been playing phone tag ever since.
But it was Jacqui’s number on the screen.
He grimaced. He had no clue how he was going to explain any of this to his wife, but when the time came, he knew it was going to be ugly. His heart ached at the thought of losing her, but it was an all too likely outcome. And he would deserve it, too.
He couldn’t ignore her calls any longer, though he wanted to. She deserved better. “Hey, honey.”
“Dan! I’ve been calling you all morning!”
“I know.” He winced. He should have picked up sooner, but he’d been futilely trying to delay the inevitable.
“Where are you?”
“I’m, um...” He looked around Eva’s apartment. “It’s a long story. Hon, have you heard from Eva?”
“Yes! That’s why I’ve been calling you all morning.”
“You have?”
“Yes! She’s here now.”
He blinked. “She’s... with you?” But her energy was all over the apartment, and it was recent. There was no way she would have had time to fly home between then and now. “But how?”
