1 Straight to Hell (32 page)

My client dithered by the Ship-It-Yourself machine.  There was something in that package making him very nervous.  Although it wasn’t in my best interest to overthink the assignment, I couldn’t help but be curious.  What was inside that brown, cardboard box?  Explosives?  Contraband drugs?  Or just a gift for a mistress?  For my own peace of mind, I hoped that it was the last one.

One of the hardest things about my job was to summon the will to tempt.  Because my determination to do the Devil’s work was what fueled my succubus, her powers dwindled when I didn’t buy into my job 100%.  Every time I got an assignment, I had to shut down my conscience and go into demon mode.  This was almost an impossible task, but a necessary form of survival all the same.  So instead of dwelling on what might be in my client’s box, I focused on what would make him want to mail his package.  Which, judging from the way he was acting, could prove to be difficult.

My succubus advised me that the direct approach would be best, so I walked over to my client and put my hand on the Ship-It-Yourself machine like I was a store employee trying to make a sale.  “This is really easy to use.  You put your package there and follow the directions on the computer screen.”

He muttered ‘thanks’ but didn’t make a move to do it.

“Would you like me to help you?”

His eyebrows shot up.  “No.  I got it.”

Okay, he was going to be difficult.  Unfortunately, this job wasn’t about sticking a few stamps on a box and sending it off.  If it had been, I would have grabbed the thing out of his hands and done it myself.  No, this was about making my victim
want
to mail the package.  That was much, much harder.

My devilish instincts told me that if I didn’t get to this guy within the next few seconds, he’d leave the post office altogether.  It was time to quit fooling around and go into full glamour mode.  I let my inner-demon take over, radiating that irresistible charm that we succubi are famous for.

I gave him a killer smile.  “If this is an urgent package, you could opt for the ‘overnight’ delivery.  It costs a little more, but it’s worth it.”  Okay, maybe that wasn’t the sexiest thing for me to say, but in the mouth of my demon, those words were like an invitation to an orgy of supermodels.  Trust me.  Once, I was almost seduced by an incubus, and I know how it is.

My client’s steely eyes softened a little, but he still clutched his package against his stomach.  “Okay, thanks.  It isn’t urgent, though.”

“Is it a present for someone special?”  I gave a throaty laugh and moved in a little closer. 
I even risked touching his wrist.  The ordinary, human me could have never gotten away with something like this, but I was no longer human.  I was a seductress.  “Or maybe it has some important information?  Overdue taxes?  License plate renewals?”

The man looked ready to escape out the door.  I had to find a way past his moral barricades, or I’d lose him.  Then he shifted the package he held, and I realized that the box had no return address.  No wonder he’d driven so far from home to mail it.  He wanted to remain anonymous.

My inner demon crowed.  Finally, a foothold!  “This machine takes cash,” I told him.  “If you don’t use a credit card to pay for delivery, no one will ever know it was you.”  I pressed a finger to my lips and winked conspiratorially.

Instead of agreeing, he backed away from me.  Although it was quite chilly in the post office lobby, he’d broken out in a sweat that drenched his white t-shirt.  Even the brim of his baseball cap had darkened.  “Never mind,” he said.  “I’ll mail this later.”

Damn!  The guy looked tough, but he had the moral conviction of a Puritan.  Seeing that he was about three steps from the door, I knew I had to act fast.  Miss Spry had already stolen my precious daughter once because I’d refused to do her bidding, and I wasn’t about to let it happen again.

If only I knew what was inside that package!  Being fully informed would have made my job much easier.  But Miss Spry insisted that I knew as little as possible about my assignments.

Refusing to give up, I took another stab.  “Look at it this way,” I said.  “The payoff for mailing it will be so worth it.  Am I right?”  At this, he finally nodded.  I didn’t have him yet, but I was close.  “Just think of the reward.”  I was speaking as softly as a lover.  “And all you have to do is mail that package to make it happen.”

I held my breath, hoping I’d finally struck him in the right place.  To my delight, he returned to the machine, set the box on the scanner and began using the keypad to enter the shipping information.

Before he could finish the transaction, however, the elderly lady with the walker bumbled back into the lobby.  “Young man!  Young man!  I think you left your headlights on.”

The sound of her voice broke my spell.  My client blinked, and I watched all my hard work fall to pieces.  Damn it!  As I fumed, the old woman smiled sweetly at me, flashing the most brilliantly blue eyes I’d ever seen.

My client hurried out of the post office, and I followed him to his truck.  The angle of the sun made the headlights look like they’d been left on, but on closer inspection, it was clear they weren’t.  “I guess she was wrong,” I said.  “Your lights aren’t on.”

Ignoring me, he unlocked the driver’s side door.  Frantically, I ran around to the passenger’s side.  I needed to get inside the truck and keep talking to him.  I yanked on the door’s handle, but it was locked.  My client started the engine.

“Wait,” I said.  I pounded on the window.  “Hold on!”  I cast about for a reason that would make him stay.  “Can you give me a ride to the bus stop?” I asked.  “My car’s in the shop, and – ”

He looked over at me with a mixture of fear and disgust.  Apparently, I’d gone from a seductress to a crazy, desperate woman.  Which, of course, I was.  When he pulled the truck out of the parking space, I had to quickly step backwards to keep my foot from being run over.  Then, before I could catch up to him, his pick-up squealed out of the parking lot.

Damn.

Well, I’d tried my best.

Or at least that’s what I told myself as I entered the doorway that led from the human world to the supernatural one.  Miss Spry couldn’t hold one failed temptation against me.  Could she?  Unfortunately, experience told me that she would.

Once I stepped into the otherworld, the strip mall and post office disappeared.  Instead, I faced a labyrinth of hallways with doors that led to every conceivable place in my world.  To my surprise, William Darcy, my incubus counterpart, was waiting for me.  I hadn’t seen him in weeks since he generally kept his distance.  Not only did Miss Spry discourage us from ‘keeping company’, but William didn’t like my uncanny ability to bring out his human side since it made him emotionally vulnerable.  Being emotionally vulnerable was not a quality that a successful tempter wanted to nurture.

The problem for me was that William was nearly impossible to keep away from.  He embodied every fantasy I’d ever had.  He was well muscled with a chiseled chin and jaw, yet his pouty lips and dark, slightly bewildered, eyes appealed to my softer side.  He managed to be both a bad boy and a sexy nerd.  Superman and Clark Kent.  Although these contradictions were impossible for a human, William’s demon pulled them off.  If it weren’t for the supernatural protection provided by my own inner demon, I would have been at William’s mercy.  Which had almost happened before.

William had been leaning against the wall, and he stood up straight when he saw me.  “That didn’t go well, did it?”

He’d witnessed my epic failure.  Terrific.  “Things were going fine until that woman got in the way,” I said.  Curse that interfering old lady!  Now Miss Spry would be furious with me.  I resumed nibbling my cuticle.

“An old lady?  Is that what you saw?”  William laughed.  “That, my dear Lilith, was a guardian angel.”

Guardian angel?  I replayed the events in my mind, suddenly realizing how easily the old lady with the walker had thwarted my attempts to tempt my client.  Her timing had been perfect, and those piercing, blue eyes had been supernatural.  “No one told me there would be an angel involved,” I said.

“Angels can be a nuisance, especially if they’re assigned to your client.  They may work for Heaven, but they know as many dirty tricks as we do.”

“So they’ve given you trouble before, too?” I asked hopefully.

“Don’t be ridiculous,” he said.  “I’ve never once let an angel stop me from tempting a client.”

I should have guessed.  William had a perfect track record which made him a favorite of Miss Spry’s.  “How did you manage that?” I asked him.

He gave me a knowing smile.  “It’s the easiest thing in the world.  I seduced them.”

I rolled my eyes at him.  William loved to brag and most of the time I tuned him out, but this whopper was over the top even for him.  Seduce an angel?  Yeah, right.

William followed me as I started walking towards my house.  Hell’s hallways were painted institutional gray and laid with industrial carpeting.  Fluorescent lights flickered overhead.  There were doors and cross hallways everywhere I looked.  The sheer scope of the place terrified me, but my demon assured me she could get me safely home before my daughter and niece returned from arts and crafts camp.  Sure enough, within a minute, my demon told me that I’d reached the doorway that led to my bedroom.  I went through it, and William followed uninvited.

“Do you think Miss Spry is going to steal Grace again?” I asked.  My cuticle was bloody, but I couldn’t stop tearing at it.  “I mean, it’s not like I didn’t
try,
and I’ve been doing really well.  I haven’t lost a single client since January.”   Now that I was home, the full weight of my failure hit me, and I started to panic.  Miss Spry was not a patient or understanding woman.  One disastrous temptation could mean my demise.  Suddenly, the walls to my bedroom closed in on me, and there wasn’t enough air to breathe.  My vision grayed at the edges.

“Lilith, relax!”  William put his arms around me and held me.  “Deep breaths.  Slow and deep.”

“But what if she takes Grace?” I said.  I couldn’t stop shaking.

“Listen.  Helen was trying to make a point: that you belong to her in body and soul.  She wanted you completely terrified, so that you’d never consider defying her again.”  He held me a little tighter.  “I think she got the message across, don’t you?”

Boy, had she ever.

He pressed his cheek against my hair.  “Now that she knows you’ll always do what she says, she’ll be more understanding.  Everyone makes mistakes.  Besides, a grown woman is more useful to her than a child.”

William continued to murmur assurances while I clung to him.  Eventually, my anxiety attack ebbed.  “I don’t know how much longer I can stand this,” I confessed.  “I don’t dare not follow orders, but when I start thinking about all the terrible things I’ve done, I get sick.”  Which accounted for all the acid-reducing medicines in my cabinet.

“So don’t think about it,” he said.

That might work for William, but it would never work for me.  “I can’t forget what I’ve done,” I argued.  “I’ve hurt too many people I love.”

He let go of me.  “Stop wallowing in your guilt, Lil.  Wallowing is never good for the likes of us.”

I sank down on my bed and put my head in my hands.   I couldn’t help but wallow.  Especially after what I’d done to my stepsister and her boyfriend, Tommy Lefevre, quite possibly the most innocent soul on the planet.  In order to rescue Grace, I’d handed Tommy to Miss Spry on a silver platter.  I’d used his religious belief against him by convincing him that there was no higher power of the universe.  Then, once his faith had been destroyed, I’d seduced him.  Not only had I gotten him to break his vow of celibacy, I’d made sure that my sister knew the man she loved had cheated on her.  As a result, I’d gotten my daughter back, but at the same time, I’d betrayed my stepsister and a man I loved like a member of my own family.

William sat next to me on the bed, and when I didn’t move, he bounced up and down a little to get my attention.  “Neutral walls, no-nonsense bedding, not even a romantic fireplace or a TV with dirty movies.  This is the un-sexiest bedroom I’ve ever encountered.”  He winked.  “It’s like all you do in here is sleep.”