Page 38 of Housesitter

“You’re the Madden heir,” he said.

Kel pulled a face. “You know I’m not,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter what I know,” Shepherd said. “The devil’s in the details, Kel, and the devil loves a legal document.”

Chapter Ten

Hell House Client Brief: Always be back at the House by 11pm. It doesn't like to be alone in the dark.

Call Kel old-fashioned, but he thought that finding out Hell was a real and present problem—for him, specifically—warranted some sort of somber pause to absorb the information. Shepherd, it turned out, disagreed.

If Kel wanted to be read in on his new reality, he’d need to hobble along while Shepherd did his chores. So far, he’d snaked the drains, fed the plants, and now he was outside trying to paint-match the fence.

Apparently being a servant of Hell involved an early start to the day. That was one strike against it.

“Are you sure I don’t need some sort of jab?” Kel asked dubiously as he hiked the leg of his jeans up to check out his ankle. The scratches had been doused with hydrogen peroxide and covered with Band-Aids—there were cartoon dogs printed on them—but that didn’t seem like enough. “Tetanus or rabies or…the black plague?”

Shepherd sat back on his heels and looked up at Kel. “They’re fully vaccinated,” he said. “It’s a condition in the contract with Renfields.”

“That sounds like a lie,” Kel said.

“If it was a lie, it wouldn’t,” Shepherd said. He screenshot the paint swatch and pushed himself back to his feet. “Stop trying to change the subject.”

Kel sighed.

“Fine,” he said. “You were telling me about the house.”

“It’s cursed,” Shepherd said. “And it looks like that’s your problem now.”

They looked at each other. After a second, Shepherd shrugged and pulled the list of HOA violations out of his pocket to consult the next item on his list. He started to walk away. Kel grabbed him by the back of the collar and yanked him back before he had to bully his aching knee back into a limp.

“That’s it?” Kel said. “That’s the big, So You Made a Deal with the Devil, Now What playlist?”

“Hey, I’m doing my best,” Shepherd said. “You want the liturgy and Grandier Examen from the guy who waters the plants and checks the mail?”

“Hell plants,” Kel pointed out. “Hell mail—”

“Actually it’s mostly just flyers.”

Kel ignored the interruption. “What I’m saying is that you know more than me.”

“I don’t even know what you don’t know,” Shepherd objected.

“The Baptist Church on Granville sees me twice a year, and if someone dies,” Kel said. “I’ve seen a lot of horror movies!”

Shepherd looked exasperated.

“That’s…” he stopped himself as he thought about it, and reluctantly conceded, “OK, that probably does give me an idea of where to start.”

He squirmed out of Kel’s grip and leaned back against the fence, arms crossed over his chest.

“You brought this on yourself,” he said.

Kel glared at him. “Thanks,” he said flatly. “That’s new information.”

“Hey, you said it,” Shepherd said. “You made a deal with the devil.”

“I tried to con a dead man.”