Before anybody could ask questions about that, Frost fixed Bad Mother with an especially intense stare and said, “Goodbye. Don’t come back.”
Then he disappeared.
~
Orion
As Rob and I walked with Bad Mother outside the DSA building, I was one incredibly grateful incubus. Grateful to our angelic allies and that we stopped Lex. Grateful my brother was not on Earth and that none of us had to give our lives to make that happen, especially the mage next to me.
I needed a wordbeyondgrateful for the other stuff.
My hesitation to harm my brother did not end up leading to Tommy’s death after all since it wasn’t him but the student he had already recruited who went after Rob. But there were still other mistakes Rob had every right to hold against me and yet he didn’t. Somehow he was still by my side. And I might be able to gain some control over my extra abilities if we took it slow and one step at a time.
My gratitude, however, had limits. There was none left for the demon in front of me. I tried not to glare at him as we lingered on the sidewalk together, not sure how to end things between us after everything that happened. Rob laughed under his breath when he glanced in my direction, so I probably failed at hiding my hostility.
"Getting to Earth from Hell isn’t easy,” Bad Mother said. “But it’s not impossible. We’ve prevented Taryn from returning here for the time being, and we’ll be watching him on our side. If he keeps trying, though, one of these days he may well get through."
"We’ll be ready," I assured. If it did not sound like I appreciated the warning, good. I already knew my brother wouldn’t give up and that we had to be ready for him.
"Thanks for helping," Rob said. The demon returned to help us in the end, which squared him with Rob. I was much less quick to forgive.
"It was your job," I added.
Bad Mother grinned. "Rob still promised me a favor anyway."
I turned the persistent glare I’d been sending at the other demon towards Rob at those words.
"Hey, we had to get him back here somehow!"
We’d been lucky when we were able to get in touch with Bad Mother again. Since he might have been in Hell at the time and no cell phone reception could be that good, he must have hoped we’d reach out and made it possible. Rob believed he wanted to do the right thing and help out all along. But he refused to justcome backand said something about not working for free. So, Rob offered him a favor and he agreed pretty quickly for a guy who thought all this wasn’t in his jurisdiction, like he just needed any reason at all to stay and see it through.
Rob might be right about the man’s motives. I still hated this situation and the mage being in the bounty hunter’s debt. It waspossiblethat last part was what caused all my hostility now.
"If Lex succeeded, this guy would be blamed back home.” My eyes narrowed at the demonic bounty hunter. “You’reluckyRob convinced you to come back and that we were all successful. This benefits you just as much as us.”
"And yet that doesn’t count as the favor!" the other demon informed us happily.
"You wanted to help,” Rob told Bad Mother. “I know it. You just needed a reason."
He tilted his chin up defiantly. "You have no proof of that."
"What, you got a reputation to uphold, tough guy?"
"Hell is a much different place than here,” he offered cryptically. “Caring is a luxury not everyone can afford."
“Wow,” Rob muttered. “Hell sucks worse than everybody on Earth thinks it does. Everybody on your planet is a bunch of assholes. And demons too, but they can’t help that part.”
“When is the last time you visited Earth?” I wondered.
"Before this?” Bad Mother thought about it. “The 70’s."
"Not too long ago," Rob commented.
"The 1770’s."
Oh. "So you won’t be back anytime soon to collect on your favor?” I aimed for a neutral tone, but this cheered me up considerably.
"True, I haven’t been here in centuries. Jobs like this only come around once or twice a millennium.” He sent us a sly grin. “But this is our fourth Earth callthis year.Demons are becoming interested in Earth again."
