"What's the proposition?" I didn't want to hear it. Would never do anything for the Devil or Lucifer or whoever was calling the shots down there. But I'd play along for Penny's sake.
"Lucifer. Lucifer sent us." Spyte smiled. "You know we can read your thoughts, don't you? Your puny vampire mind blocks don't work on us so don't even try it."
"Whatever. Just spill it." I feigned a yawn. "Is there anything more boring than carrying on over a lost cause? Just release Rafe from that stupid freeze thing and let Penny go so she can shift back. She's new and now I'm afraid you've traumatized her for the rest of her immortal life." At least they'd left my arms and head loose from the freeze. I glanced back at Rafe and gave him an encouraging smile. Then I put my hands on my hips to show I still had attitude. "Well?"
"You're all about others, aren't you?" Caryon shook his head. "This may not work, Spyte. If she's really"-he shuddered-"good, how can she do the job?"
"There's only one way to find out. Tell her." Spyte dragged Penny out of his pocket. "This damned rat is showing potential. She actually gnawed a hole in my pocket and broke skin." His black eyes twinkled. "She was going for my family jewels."
"That's my girl. She probably thought that ripping them off and tossing them to me would be a nice parting gift." I nodded at her proudly. "Since you seem to be determined to keep her."
Caryon laughed. "Glory, Glory, you are such a hoot. Do you think we'd ever be afraid of you or your little fledgling?"
"You know, I'm thinking. If Glory won't do this job, maybe Miss Penny here will. I would like to keep her. You should hear her vocabulary. And she bit me, Car. Me! I'm really impressed." Spyte's gruesome mouth was a perfect O of surprise.
"It's an idea. A backup plan." Caryon studied Penny with an interest that made me desperate to snatch her away. If I could only move.
"Back up to this shoe, Caryon, and I'll shove it up your backside when you have the guts to unfreeze me." I gave him my best snarl. "Leave. Penny. Alone."
Caryon just smiled as he focused on me again. "I will if you take our deal. Lucifer wants you to gather souls for him. You know so many interesting people. Alesa gave him quite a list of potential donors. And he thinks you're in a good position to be a harvester for us."
"You're out of your freaking mind." I watched Penny lying in Spyte's hand as he stroked her between her ears. She was shivering. "Never."
"We can't make you do it." Caryon looked up at the night sky. "There are these aggravating rules in place. But we can bribe you, and Alesa suggested a really good one."
"I can't imagine what you could offer me that would tempt me to lure my friends and acquaintances over to the dark side." I wasn't really listening. I was trying to keep my mind blank since I knew they could read it, though I desperately wanted to get us out of there.
"Gloriana St. Clair," Caryon intoned with the voice of an announcer on a quiz show. "How would you like to be a size six?"
Five
"You have got to be kidding me. That's your bribe?" I stared at Spyte.
"Yes." He frowned down at Penny, who was gnawing on his thumb. "Alesa assured me that was one of your heart's desires. That's how we get people on the give-up-your-soul train. Dangle something they really, really want in front of them and-bam!-they're ours. Ouch?" Black blood began to ooze from the wound Penny had made.
"Penny! Don't drink a demon's blood. I'm here to tell you it can have bad consequences." I was relieved when I saw her back away from the droplets. Spyte tossed her to his other hand with a grimace.
"That wasn't nice, Glory. Demon blood is delicious." He sniffed, then stuck his thumb in his mouth to lick off the blood.
"Nice? You expect me to be nice to you? I've been a size six before, for about five minutes. It was nice. I even loved it. But I won't sacrifice my friends for it. No thanks." I put out my hand and realized I could almost reach Rafe's arm. "Please let us go now." I looked up at the sky. We had a few hours before dawn, but not so much that it didn't occur to me that these demons could leave me like this to fry when the sun came up. And Penny. What would happen to her? Fear slammed into me like a stake in the heart.
Caryon smiled. "Aw, Glory, don't worry. We aren't here to terminate you." He exchanged glances with Spyte. "Yet."
"You said you can't force the issue." I hated that my voice quavered.
"A technicality. Unfortunately." Spyte frowned when Penny began to dig her claws into his palm. "But we can offer incentives. You'll see. The first one is a surprise. Next time you're in your shop, or even at home, look around. You might see something unexpected." Spyte handed Penny to me. "I do like the rat. She's a tough little thing. I'm keeping an eye on her."
"And, Glory, don't dismiss our proposition out of hand. You don't have to harvest souls from your friends, you know. Just from the people you meet who you think deserve hell. You'd be doing a public service." Caryon smiled, giving me another glimpse of jagged fangs that made me shudder. "Simon Destiny ring a bell?"
"Simon? I figured he was already marked for hell." He served a goddess who came from down there, so it was a no-brainer.
"Oh, he is. But he's playing for the wrong team. Lucifer wants him on ours. We have kind of a competition going on down there. Each god and goddess in the Underworld has its own turf. And collects its own, um, victims." Big smile from Spyte. "Nobody trusts each other on the accounting thing so we have a scorekeeper. He posts quarterly stats. Right now, well, let's just say Luc doesn't like to fall behind and leave it at that." He and Cary shuddered and didn't that make me wonder how Lucifer expressed displeasure.
"It spices up what could be a rather dull existence." Caryon sighed. "You know roasting, filleting, slicing and dicing. And the screams are endless." He arched a brow at Spyte. "Some of us have started to tune it out."
"Can I help it if I got caught with my iPod during playtime? Drawing and quartering is so archaic. And when they get out the cattle prods . . . I mean who wouldn't yawn? Get over it, Cary." Spyte huffed.
"I'll get over it when the job's done. We're working off seventy demerits here. Demerits you got us, Spyte." Caryon turned his back on his cohort. "New recruits give us some bragging rights, points."
"And entertainment," Spyte added.
"Exactly." Caryon rested his hand on Spyte's shoulder. "Simon's so deliciously bad. Worth a bundle to Luc. All the Energy Vampires are. And we have a feeling you could recruit Simon for us, Glory. You know you'd love to bring him down." He winked. "And I do mean down."
"Not denying that. But why do you want immortals anyway? Seems like you'd have a long wait. Like forever." I dropped my arm so Penny could scurry down my leg and into the brush again. She could hide there until these yahoos left. If they ever did. I glanced at the sky again.
"You know as well as I do that immortals bite the big one all the time. Like Miss Penny's sire did the other night. He's down there serving time right now." Caryon raised his voice. "Bet that makes your undead heart sing, doesn't it, furry one?"
Penny walked out from behind a bush, back in human form again but obviously shaken. She sucked it up though and actually walked right up to stand next to me and squeezed my hand.
"Sure does. Tell me he's roasting over a pit or something."
"Or something." Spyte smiled and looked her over with that nasty X-ray vision of his. Oh, how I wanted to rip out his throat. I'd even risk sucking in some demon blood to do it.
"We don't share all the details of the joys of hell with potential, um, members, Penny, dear." Caryon whipped a black card with gold letters out of his breast pocket. "Here's my number. Call if you wish to talk. About anything."
"Don't touch that!" I strained against the freeze that kept me glued to the ground. But Penny just grabbed the card and stuck it in her pocket.
"I have a question for you." Penny glanced at me. "Why bother Glory here? Why don't you just recruit this Simon character yourself?"
"Hmm. Good question. She's a smart one." Caryon glanced at Spyte. "It's like this. We can't steal players from another team directly, you see. Stupid rule, but it's one we can't go around."
"That's right. So we have to get insignificants like Glory here to do the dirty work, so to speak. Leaves our hands clean." Spyte's laugh sent chills down my spine. "As if that concept matters down there. But somehow fair play is the one thing Luc insists on. Can you believe it?"
"No." I didn't believe any of this. "You're wasting your time here. I am not working for the Devil. Period."
Spyte laughed again. "We'll see. Oh, yes, we'll see." He looked down and set my favorite boots on fire. I felt the heat lick at my toes and bit my lips to hold back a scream.
Penny did screech and pulled off my jacket to smother the flames. "You creeps! What was that for?"