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“Irma Fucking Stoutwagon it is!” she shouted.
Cher elbowed Candy in the gut so hard the toothpick flew out of her mouth and across the room. She glared at Cher, but got the message.
“Just Irma Stoutwagon,” Candy corrected herself much to Cher’s relief. “The f-bomb will limit your potential for Hallmark movies.”
“I love Hallmark movies,” Irma gushed. “They’re brilliant, deep and they make me horny. I would be perfect as city girl high-powered CEO who inherits a Christmas tree farm from a long-lost relative, so I decide to sell it off and put all the farmhands out of work until I fall in love with the grumpy caretaker and, finally, fulfilled as a woman, I quit my high profile, high paying job with a pension and benefits that I went to six years of college and ten years of hard work to earn so that I can bake sugar cookies and pop out babies for the rest of my life with the man I love.”
My eyes widened. “Moving on,” I said, before we began to debate Irma’s very specific love of cheesy romance. “Somebody help me understand the layout of the Darkness. Are Lilith’s and Pandora’s castles close to each other?”
“It’s not that simple,” Abaddon said. “You can’t think in a linear way or with human logic.”
“Not helping,” I told him.
Abaddon stood as still as a statue. His body went rigid, and shimmering black sparkles popped and crackled around him. For a hot sec, I wondered if he was still alive. When he finally moved, everyone in the room except Candy jumped.
The man kept talking as if he hadn’t just seemingly turned to stone. “Figuring out the geography of a place that’s an illusion of sorts is an exercise in futility.”
“Same with the Light,” Cher commented.
Abaddon took my hand and led me to the couch. I refused to sit on it. He realized why immediately and grinned. I loved his smile. He smiled more now than when I’d met him. There was still pain in his eyes, but I liked thinking I made it easier for him. It was kind of bold since we were just dating… but we were both aware it was far more than that.
We’d get to us eventually. I led him to an overstuffed chair, pushed him down and sat on his lap. “Explain it to me in a way I can understand.”
He nodded and pulled me close. His scent was delicious and made me lightheaded. For a beat, I forgot we weren’t alone. The Demon could make me forget my own name.
“In the Darkness, you go by what your gut tells you. I’ll be by your side, but it’s a matriarchal society. Only you will matter to them.”
“How will we gather everyone so I can stake my claim?” I asked, then made a face. “And how exactly do I stake my claim?”
“It’s never been done, so I’m not sure,” he replied. “You just go with your gut. It’s worked for you so far. As to how you get your people there… you’ll call to them, and they will come.”
I groaned. “I’m more of a rehearsal kind of gal. Improv isn’t my thing.”
“Make it your thing, motherfucker,” Candy Vargo said. “We need to get that evil Demon into her box. I figure if we lock her up for a few hundred fucking centuries, she’ll have some time to think about the crimes she’s committed. The sooner, the better.”
Sushi walked over to the chair and sat on the arm. I’d known Sushi for decades. We’d worked together multiple times. She was a top-notch costumer in the biz. Her impeccable wardrobe design had won her a few Emmys and an Oscar nomination.
My friend was blunt with a sarcastic sense of humor and crazily talented, but I recently learned she was also the ten-thousand-year-old Queen of the Succubi. The species of Immortals who, when having sex, ended the lives of their paramours.
To say that was shocking was an understatement. The Succubi under her reign were working on celibacy. Sushi had sworn off sex nine centuries ago. She’d gotten depressed about killing all her lovers. She traveled with a vibrator to take the edge off.
She grimaced. “While I’ll go on record and say that Moon Sunny Swartz is batshit nuts…”
“Thank you,” Moon said in all seriousness.
“Welcome,” Sushi replied. “I think she might be onto something by having my people help you.”
I squinted at her. “You’re cool with your people banging Pandora’s people into oblivion?”
She shook her head. “No. Not at all. It would set us back hundreds of years. However, one of the points Lilith made was to accept change. You have to accept change and so do your people. You can be the Goddess who brings together all the species.”
“Still not following,” I told her. “Are you there as backup to screw the lifeforce out of Demons if they’re not into change?”
“I don’t think it will come to that,” she said with a chuckle. “Just the sight of a thousand or so Succubi standing with you might encourage them to behave.”
I mulled it over. Something didn’t sit right. Abaddon’s body tensed beneath mine, but he didn’t say a word. Slowly, I slid off his lap and circled the room. The scene wasn’t going to work as written. If I went to the people who were supposed to trust and follow me with an army of another species ready to fornicate them into nonexistence, that would end in chaos and fury. My gut told me so, and apparently, I was supposed to listen to it. Lilith only threatened her people when they defied her. I wanted them to love and trust me like they did my mother.
However…
