Page 60 of I Hope This Email Finds You in Hell

I’m mid-gulp, still trying to cool my horny head, when someone sits on the stool beside me.

“You know,” I say, tossing my braid over my shoulder and baring my neck to Tatianna. “If you want to, you can take a sip.”

She glances at me with amused amber eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

“I’m sure whatever you have on draft is better than what I’ve got.”

“That we can agree on.” The bartender slides a glass her way and she catches it. Her pointy black nails are like tiny stakes and make a tinkling sound when she taps them against the glass. “I don’t know what I admire more about you. Your bravery or stupidity.”

“Why not both?”

She takes a sip of her drink and grins at me. Her teeth are coated in red and her canines come to lethal points. “Luke tells me you were Beliar’s next target. You must not be as innocent as those little pigtails suggest to have a greater demon after you.”

The mention of Beliar makes a cold fear resurface that drowns out some of the heat I fled in the motel room with Luke. “Yeah, well, not everything is as it appears. Especially here.”

“Astute observation.”

For a few long drags, it’s just the two of us sipping our respective beverages. The cold beer is tart and slides down my throat, bringing both clarity and not. I down half the glass in seconds, which is the only excuse for the question that shoots out of my mouth. “Are you the one who betrayed him?”

Tatianna pauses, glass halfway to her lips. “Be more specific.”

She knows what I’m talking about. I can see it in the spark in her eyes. But I give her what she wants. “He said someone betrayed him, which led to him moving to the overworld. Was it you?”

Her expression shifts while I speak, just a slight narrowing of her eyes, but I can’t tell what it’s in response to. “While I’d love to think our lost love is what led him on his current path of destruction, that’d be giving myself a bit too much credit.” She smiles, but the amusement is gone. “He and I were lovers long before he left hell. Toward the end, we weren’t very kind. But I never betrayed him. The thing with Luke is he wants to be the hero when he’s destined to play the villain. That’s the real reason we didn’t work. I didn’t give him anything to save.”

Her words strike me. Whether she knows they’re blows or not, they hit to bruise. “I didn’t know he had a savior complex,” I tell her, trying not to seem as frazzled as I feel.

“I’m not sure I’d call it that. It’s more like Luke always has an ulterior motive. I didn’t like spending so much time in the dark.”

“Maybe whoever betrayed him didn’t, either,” I suggest.

Tatianna grins with her gleaming red teeth again. “I think that may have been the only time poor Lukey was the one in the dark.”

Lukey. I’d never call him that.

“Aside from being on the run from Beliar, what’s your relationship to him? I can’t imagine he’d bring a mortal to the underworld for fun.” She snorts into her glass of blood.

“We’re coworkers,” I answer, though it doesn’t feel as true as it would have a week ago. Moments from the past few days flash before my eyes. Him bandaging my knee. His hand in mine, tugging me through the Night Market. The warmth of his palm on my back, pulling me off the brink of a panic attack. All very un-coworker things to do. As if to convince myself, I add, “Just coworkers.”

She nods at the hilt of the dagger strapped to my thigh. “That’s a very nice blade you have. From him, I assume?”

“Yes,” I say. And just in case she gets any ideas— “It’s obsidian.”

“I can tell from a mile away. He has the match?”

“Yep.”

“Hmm.”

I can’t tell what kind of hmm that is. Perhaps a slight air of judgment. I reach for the closest reason I can find that she’d react that way. “Did Luke give it to you when you were together?”

I picture him suddenly as a frat boy with a smattering of girlfriends, giving each a coveted hoodie, just to take it back and pass it to the next after the relationship burns.

“Oh no, not me. His brother always had it. Twin blades for twin boys. If you want to talk about betrayal, you should ask him about his brother. That might get you somewhere.” Tatianna pauses as if, for the first time, she’s wondering if she’s said too much. But she must remember that Luke is her ex, and he’s sleeping on her territory. She owes him nothing. “I never wanted the blade. As you can imagine, I don’t get along well with obsidian.”

She drains the last dregs of her blood, slamming the glass down on the counter. Sliding off the stool, she leans over my shoulder so her breath whispers across my neck.

“Take a word of advice.” Her lips brush the shell of my ear. I suppress a shudder of discomfort and, horribly, a bit of pleasure. “The storm’s coming, and it’s a big one. Don’t get caught in the eye.”