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“Yeah,” Billy said, sounding suddenly annoyed. “And don’t get that look.”
“What look?”
“That I’m-gonna-go-ask-Mom-how-to-get-my-buddy-Pritkin-back look. It’s not that easy!”
“Tell me about it.” But that didn’t matter, because if anyone knew how to get me out of this mess, it would be her.
Remember how I said the gods had different names in different places? Well, she’d been worshipped by the Norse as Hel, their goddess of death. Who, among other things, had been in charge of the regions that bore her name. And right now I really needed to know about those regions.
Because Pritkin had traded his life for mine, but not in the conventional sense. Of course not—when did he ever do the conventional thing? No, he’d had to get fancy with it.
By giving me energy when I was all but out, he’d saved my life. But he’d also broken a taboo that was the only thing allowing him to remain on earth. That had resulted in him being kidnapped by his bastard of a father, who had been waiting for something like a century for an excuse to put his only child back where he thought he belonged—on a throne in hell.
Or, more likely, in a bedroom, since Pritkin’s father was Rosier, Lord of the Incubi. That made Pritkin a powerful half incubus who had been, in his father’s warped view, playing about on earth long enough. It was time for him to take up his birthright and help the family by whoring himself out to the highest bidders.
The fact that that sort of existence would be worse than death to someone like Pritkin, who hated the demon half of himself and everything that went with it, was irrelevant to Rosier. He’d spent centuries trying to get a corporeal son to use as a bargaining chip, and he wasn’t about to lose him now. And unlike Persephone, Pritkin wasn’t even allowed visitation rights on earth.
Rosier had him and he planned on keeping him.
As if.
“Why are you looking like that?” Billy asked warily.
“Like what?”
“Like you’re about to cut a bitch.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said, and shoved the rest of the cards back into place.
“Okaaaaay. But before you run off for a family reunion, there’s one other thing you might want to know.”
“Such as?”
“Such as, if your parents were hoping for privacy in their cottage, they got it. Laura said nobody went out there—not even the other ghosts. Demons can feed off ghost energy even easier than human—there’s no body to get through first, you know? And they weren’t taking chances.”
“So? I’m not a ghost.”
“I said easier. Demons feed off humans just fine if they want to put in the effort, and there’s a crap ton of them out there.”
I frowned. “How many?”
“Laura didn’t know. She never went there herself, not being stupid. But some of the vamps came back spooked as hell, telling stories about hearing what had to be hundreds of demons, seeing crazy lights, feeling space warp around them, the whole nine yards. They were scared shitless.”
I frowned harder. “What kind of demons?”
“What difference does it make? The moral of the story is, if the scary-ass bastards at Tony’s were afraid of that cottage, maybe you should be, too!”
“My mother is in there,” I reminded him. And it wasn’t like she couldn’t handle demons. From what I understood of the old legends, she’d practically ruled them at one point.
“Yeah, sometimes,” Billy said, sounding crabby. “But what if she’s off somewhere when you pop in? And how exactly are you gonna do that when you don’t know the layout of the place? You’ll have to show up outside, where you can see where you’re going, and that means getting through the woods to the front door. And then waiting for somebody to let you in—assuming somebody’s home to start with. And that whole time, you’ll be a sitting duck for a bunch of hungry demons. ’Cause you know as well as I do that you don’t know how to fight ’em off—”
“Stop it.”
“Okay, sure. I’ll stop it. Just as soon as you tell me how you plan to get in.”
I didn’t say anything for a minute. “Jonas knows about demons.”
“Yeah. And I’m sure he’ll be thrilled about making another trip to Tony’s right now. And even if so, he wouldn’t be happy about helping you do something that could change your whole existence—”
