There was a man, face contorted with a scream, who had no skin left on his body. There was another man who appeared to be flogging himself with his own severed arm. There was a monster with a huge open mouth eating the face off another. There was a man with his limbs broken at horrific angles, bones stabbing through the flesh. There was a man screaming in abject terror as he was flogged by a whip that hovered in space with no one at the other end.
Val did what you do to any wild creature you want to train: He broke him.
Iris stared at the graphic sculptures and had a pretty good idea where Meph had gotten the inspiration for them. The thought that she’d ever accused him of lacking substance burned a pit of guilt into her stomach.
She spun around to face Jacqui. “I have to find him.” At this point, she didn’t care about hiding her vulnerabilities. She let her conviction shine in her eyes, letting the other woman see how much this meant to her.
Jacqui nodded eagerly. “Go on, then. Go and get him.” She practically shooed Iris toward the office she’d come from. “And tell him I want to speak to him when you do! He was so reluctant to agree to the art show, and I’m not letting him back out now.”
“There’s no way he’s backing out,” Iris said vehemently, staring at Jacqui and seeing the same impassioned look reflected in her eyes. “I will drag him there if it’s the last thing I do.”
Jacqui smiled. “It was nice to meet you, honey.”
“You too.”
“Now, go get your man!”
Iris turned and ran.
15
TO HELL IN A HANDBASKET
WHENIRIS CAME BACK THROUGH THE HELLGATE INTOMeph’s bedroom, she found the door open and Raum standing there, Faust asleep in his arms. “So?”
She froze guiltily, wondering how to explain herself.
“Was he at Jacqui’s?”
“He... You know?”
“That he goes to Jacqui’s studio and does art every day?
Yeah, I know. We all know.”
But Jacqui had made it seem like Meph was keeping it a secret. “Does Meph know you know?”
Raum shook his head.
“But...”
“He’s pretty terrible at hiding it. He comes back every day with paint and shit all over him, and Jacqui’s always calling him. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out what he’s doing.”
“But... why don’t you tell him that you know?”
Raum shrugged. “He’ll tell us when he’s ready.”
That was kinda... sweet. God damn, these demon brothers made her feel like her head was in a blender sometimes.
“He wasn’t there,” Iris said. “Jacqui didn’t know where he was.”
Raum’s mouth tightened, but a moment later he said, “I’m sure he’ll turn up. He disappears a lot. Sometimes he goes binge-partying, and we don’t see him for days.”
Was that what had happened? After Iris had rejected him, had Meph gone out to party and sleep with a bunch of different women to get her out of his system? Her stomach flipped over, and she felt nauseous. She could see it. She wouldn’t even blame him if he had.
Raum must have interpreted her expression correctly because he said, “He hasn’t done that in a while though. Not since... yeah.”
Not since he’s been coming to my place every night.“I gotta go.” She would wander the streets and check every bar and back alley. No, that was stupid. But she had to do something.
