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Loud sniffing interrupted her mental babbling. How big was that demon’s nose that she could hear the air whistling through his nasal passages? “There is something else.”
Grunting and growling followed. “What is that?”
“I’m not sure.”
A low, rumbling growl made the hair on Eddie’s nape stand on end. “Hell hound,” a demon snarled. “Asmodeus’s vermin are near.”
Vermin? How dare they. I mean, the hell hounds wouldn’t win a beauty competition against a golden retriever, say, but she would hardly call them vermin. She gave Cronus a reassuring pat to let him know she didn’t consider him vermin at all.
“The opinion of a lower demon is nothing to me.” Warmth tingled in her mind, almost like he was trying to comfort her. “They are to me as what you would call a cockroach is to you.”
The need to peek burned in her. From the sounds of their voices and footsteps, those demons were big.
“Stay down.” Cronus stared at her. “They cannot know what you are.”
“We must tell him the hounds are here,” a demon said.
“Who’s he?” Eddie thought at Cronus.
“I am guessing Wrath.”
“If the hounds are near, then Shade must be,” another demon said.
A raspy-voiced demon said, “There is the scent of another. A scent I do not know. Could it be what the master seeks?”
Which meant they didn’t have Shade. And that, at least, was good news. Bad news was that last bit from the one who sounded like he smoked four packs a day.
“Could it be me they’re talking about Wrath looking for?” That time she’d dreamed of Wrath, he’d looked right at her, like Shade had.
Cronus pressed closer to her. “We cannot know for sure.”
“We also cannot afford to assume it is not,” Xerxes said.
Feet stomped, vegetation rustled, and the demons’ voices grew more distant.
Eddie risked a quick look. Naked, muscular backs were moving away from her. And that’s where the vaguely human thing ended. The demons’ bottom halves were a mix of hooves, claws, and flippers. Their skin colors ranged from dark gray to burgundy, with a disturbing mixture of scales, spikes, and feathers in some cases.
“They know we are here,” Xerxes said. “We will need to be more careful.”
“They know about him.” She jerked her thumb at Yesterday. The two of them were due for a little heart-to-heart. “And they know about you. And they could have picked up on me.”
Yesterday snorted. “Let’s not let them get any clearer on you.”
The inside of Xerxes and Cronus’s minds remained carefully blank.
Yeah, that was not good.
“There is another thing that is not good.” Cronus padded forward, his large muzzle swinging side to side. “This is Shade’s demesne, and Wrath’s demons should not be here.”
“We need to find Shade and get out of here.” Eddie dropped into step with Cronus.
“Agreed,” he said and nudged her to get her moving.
Turns out Cronus had all sorts of opinions, and now that she could hear his thoughts, was not shy to share them. Over the course of who knew how many hours, she learned that Wrath was an asshole, and he and Shade did not get on. If you could call routinely attempting to disembowel and or flay each other not getting on—and Eddie rather thought you could. However, Wrath’s latest attempt to win the never-ending war between the two demesnes had been particularly brutal, and Wrath appeared to be going for the no more Shade option, which was problematic for reasons Uriel had mentioned, and Cronus chose to repeat at length.
With Shade’s disappearance—cue him coming through the hell gate into her theatre—the violence had escalated, and Wrath’s demons were making a new home for themselves. Shade’s demons, including the hounds, were not at all happy about their new tenants and were looking to make them leave as soon and as violently as possible. Violence seemed to be a big thing here, and given that here was hell, it shouldn’t be at all surprising.
What did surprise her was the lack of brimstone, sulfur, and flaming tar pits.
