Good Side of Sin (31 page)

“True.” Fallis turned back to the monitor. “So, what’s her name, Romeo?”

Baddon grinned and scooted the chair closer. “Chelsea.”

Fallis frowned and waited for more, and then rolled his eyes and looked at Baddon. “Do you have any idea how many Chelseas are in the world? I’m gonna need a last name to narrow it down a bit.”

Baddon’s jaw fell open, and then he shut it, his brow drooping down in frustration. “I don’t know what her last name is.”

Fallis huffed. “I can’t help you then.”

Baddon’s eyes grew wide. “Wait right here. She left a small purse here in her haste to get away when Thoros came in and interrupted us. Maybe there is something in the purse with her name on it. I thought it would be rude to go through her things, but this is important. I’ll be right back.”

Instead of running, he fleeted to his room, grabbed the purse and fleeted back to Fallis. Sitting in his seat once again, he opened the gold-sequined clutch purse and dug through the contents until his fingers closed around a small wallet. Quickly unzipping it, he found several credit cards, some cash and a driver’s license.
Yes, she would need these valuables back,
he thought, and used that as an excuse of why he was contacting her. He didn’t want to seem desperate. “Chelsea Bynes, B-y-n-e-s. Try that.”

There happened to be three of them, but luckily her pretty face popped up as the second one.

“What now?” Baddon asked.

“We send her a friend request.” Fallis made the little arrow hover over the icon that said ‘Add friend’, and then clicked a button on his wireless mouse.

They waited a few minutes, and then a few more minutes. Baddon was just about to give up when an icon at the top lit up.

Fallis clicked on it, and it read,
“Chelsea Bynes accepted your friend request. Write on Chelsea’s wall.”
Fallis clicked the notification. “Here she is,” he said, and then pointed at the screen. “What do you want to say?”

“Um… Tell her that you are my friend and that I wanted to let her know she left her purse here, and—and that I would like to see her again. Also tell her that I am deeply sorry for the interruption. Yeah… yeah, tell her that.” Baddon grinned, his eyes lighting up in anticipation.

Fallis gave him a long look, and then snickered as he clicked the message button and typed away on the keys. He clicked send, and then crossed his arms over his chest as he leaned back and waited for her response.

After only half a minute, a brief message from her popped up below Fallis’ comment. “Tell him to come to my apartment. I’m alone. No interruptions.”

Baddon’s eyebrows shot up and he grinned as he jumped to his feet and headed for the door.

“Where’re you going?” Fallis asked, his voice full of anxiety with just a sliver of anger behind it. “Josselyn told us to stay here or travel in groups of three or more. You can’t just go to her and get a sexual reward for bringing her purse back to her, and I don’t want to wait around until you get your jollies off. We haven’t heard anything from the demon since before they left for Limbo. You know the demon isn’t going to give up that easily. It’s waiting for us to make a stupid mistake, and that’s what you’re about to do. I’m just going to tell your girl to come here. It’s safer for everyone.”

“No! If the demon is watching, Chelsea will be in danger until we figure a way to get rid of—”

Fallis stood and slammed his fist down on the surface of the desk. Not enough to break it, but hard enough to get Baddon’s attention. “And so will you be if you fleet to her. You know damn well that we are all being watched! Is a piece of ass really that important that you can’t wait until Josselyn returns with answers? If Thoros was reckless, the way you are being now, you would beat him and put him in the other set of silver shackles beside Lameria. You’re usually the most level-headed one of us, Baddon. Right now you are being very stupid.”

“I didn’t ask for your opinion of my IQ, Fallis.” He stared at his friend, refusing to back down on his decision no matter how
stupid
it was. “What is her address?”

Fallis glared at him a moment, gritting his teeth together so loudly that Baddon could hear it across the room, and then looked back down at the laptop. He typed a sentence or two, and then used the mouse briefly before closing the laptop. “You are more important to me than some human. We are in a damn war with Lucifer and he’s winning!” Fallis took in a deep breath through his nostrils, and then slowly exhaled through his mouth, trying to calm himself before he said something that would tear their friendship to shreds. “And all you can think about is getting laid.”

Baddon gaped wide-eyed at the closed laptop in horror, and then back up to Fallis’ face as his neck and face turned crimson red in rage. “What have you done?” he choked out.

Fallis shrugged and walked around the desk. “I just told her that you couldn’t come, and that if she wanted her purse she would have to come get it. Don’t worry; she sent you her address and I put protection on her apartment. It will cover her even when she leaves so the demon won’t be able to sense her. I can do the same again before she leaves here. It’s our only option. Don’t fight me on this or you will find your wrists and ankles in the other set of silver shackles.” Baddon rolled his eyes, looking away from Fallis, uninterested. “I won’t lose you because you’re thinking with the wrong head, Baddon.”

Baddon covered his face with his hands and sighed. “You’re such an asshole.”

Fallis bumped Baddon’s arm roughly with his shoulder as he shoved past him at the bottom of the stairs. “I may be, but you know I’m right. You need to shower. Chelsea will be here soon and you’re starting to smell worse than the decaying corpses. I’ll keep an eye out for her and raise the protection until she gets in.”

Baddon lifted his arm and sniffed at his armpit, made a face and fleeted straight to his bathroom. He hated when Fallis was right. He got brutal strength from becoming one of Lucifer’s demons and Fallis got the IQ of a genius and the ability to make people see shit that wasn’t really there. He shook his head, knowing he’d gotten screwed the day Lucifer passed out the abilities.

He stepped under the hot water and sighed as he let his head fall back under the spray. He was worrying about Thoros and the others. What if they never came back? The thought almost brought him to his knees, because he hadn’t allowed himself to dwell on what could go wrong. Now, he realized that a lot could and it was killing him not knowing what was happening to his best friend. The son of a bitch had freed him from an eternity of pain and agony, and then just left him here.

He would do whatever he had to, to get them all back safely. The problem that was irritating the hell out of him, was he didn’t have a clue when to leave or how to find his group once he arrived. He wished Josselyn hadn’t refused his offer to accompany them. The human girl could have stayed. Aries could have stayed. Damien, Fallis and the other angels that had come with Josselyn would have protected them.

Baddon sighed in defeat and prayed for the best, prayed for the safe return of Thoros and his soulmate—Lord knew nobody would be able to be around the bastard if something happened to Josselyn—as well as the others that were with them, and he prayed he would never have to face Lucifer again. He seriously doubted all his prayers would be answered, though. Why would God listen to what a half-souled immortal wanted?

Baddon squeezed his eyes closed, trying to ignore the overwhelming images of the disaster he could foresee if only one of his prayers wasn’t answered, and then lied to himself that the tears streaming from his eyes were not tears, but the hot water coming from the shower head.

The lie was short lived as his long legs buckled and he unintentionally collapsed to the corner of the tiled shower. Trembling, he pulled his knees in close and tried desperately to gain back control of his body and thoughts. But the harder he tried, the more severe the racking sobs became. There was nobody else he trusted. Almost two days—two days not knowing anything. This was going to drive him crazy! He should have kept talking, kept begging until Josselyn agreed to let him go so he could protect them. He ran his fingers through his wet hair, his anguish turning quickly into fury as his elbows rested on his bare knees.

Baddon clenched his jaw and shouted out a curse as he jumped swiftly to his feet and punched his fist through the brown granite tile in front of him. Hopeless and breathing heavily, he let his forehead fall to his forearm that was rested against the shower wall. He felt something brush his hand softly and he jerked his arm back out of the arm-sized hole. Squatting a bit so he could peer through the hole, he discovered he had punched his fist all the way through to his walk-in closet, and his clothes were still rocking on their hangers from the disturbance. “Great,” he muttered to himself. “Something else to freaking fix. Isn’t saving the world good enough, God?”

“Baddon! You all right, dude?”

Thoros?
Eyes wide and disbelieving, Baddon rushed to peek around the tile wall. His face fell and he let his head fall back against the granite when he saw one of the angels Josselyn had brought with her—Marcus, he thought—standing in the door of his bathroom. It wasn’t Thoros.

He frowned as he pointed his thumb over his right shoulder at the hole in the tile and the crumbled stone and sheetrock under the spray of steaming water. “I’m good. Just doing a little redecorating, that’s all. I didn’t mean to make you think I was beating down a demon or anything.” Baddon gave a fake chuckle.

Marcus frowned and nodded once as if he didn’t believe one thing that came out of the half-souled immortal’s mouth.

Baddon lost his smile, his brow furrowing with the quickly approaching ill mood coming on. He pointed a long finger at the angel. “Look, I didn’t ask you to butt your way into my business, holy boy, so just keep your nose—”

“You seem troubled. We’re all going through a lot right now. I’m here if you need someone to listen. It’s not like I have anything else to do. The demon hasn’t shown its face in over two days.”

Baddon sighed, then paused and looked away for a few moments, trying to decide whether to burden anyone with his troubles. Chelsea would help when she got here. He would make sure there was an impression of her back and ass in his mattress when he got done with her. He finally looked back at the angel. The guy hadn’t moved an inch. “I’m upset.”

Marcus nodded. “That’s obvious. What’s doing? Maybe I can help.”

“I’m worried. Why have they been gone for so long?”

Marcus sniggered, like he had a secret.

“Never mind, asshole. You don’t want to help; you want to piss me off. Get out of here and let me finish washing my ass.”

“I’m sorry. I don’t suppose anyone has informed you of the time frame difference between Earth and Limbo, have they?”

Baddon put a large squeeze of body wash on the shower puff and froze. He looked around the wall again and frowned at Marcus. “Explain. And do it fast. I’m about to have company, and you’re not invited… unless she’s into that.”

Marcus smirked and leaned his shoulder against the wall next to the door, arms crossed casually across his chest. The guy looked more relaxed having a conversation with a naked man taking a shower than he should. “They’ve only been in Limbo about five or six hours.” He shrugged. “Maybe less. Three hours there is the equivalent of about a day here. One twenty-four hour day in Limbo is over a week for us. They’ve not been there long at all. We thought everyone knew or we would have said something. I’m positive they’re fine, Baddon. You can start worrying when you have slept four weeks and they still have not returned. That would be about four days to them.

Baddon’s eyes popped open wide and his heart gave several hard kicks against his ribs. “Four freaking weeks!?”

“Maybe more. Could be less.” Marcus shrugged again. “Who knows? All I’m saying is, it’s way too early to start worrying. You’ll drive yourself crazy, dude.”

Baddon stared off in a daze as Marcus turned and left him in privacy. “I think I already have.”

The atmosphere was mild, no harsh winds or extreme temperatures to slow them down. The farther they traveled from the acid lake, the more beautiful their surroundings became. Sweet fragrances—floral, with maybe a hint of baking bread—wafted by Thoros’ nose, making his mouth water. He knew he couldn’t taste anything, because he had given that sense up to the ferry, and that tortured him even more.

There was light, but no source for it, and no shadows were thrown from any trees, huts or moving objects. Thoros didn’t dwell on it much; Hell was the same, and he had heard a rumor that Heaven was, too.

In only a few short miles, their borrowed horses had carried them through every sort of terrain imaginable. From the murky acid lake, Omega had guided them around a snow-capped mountain, through a dense, dark forest, across cracked soil flatlands, and then down a steep, rocky embankment into a valley of bright green pastures that smelled like daisies and sunshine.

Not knowing what this world had in store for them, Thoros tried to be aware of everything all at once. It was a little overwhelming with so much to see, but he knew Josselyn was doing the same from where she sat, behind him.

With her arms locked loosely around his waist, Thoros led their horse a few paces behind Isaiah and Omega’s steeds. Because of her sightless condition, Isaiah had volunteered to let Aries ride with him. Trembling in fear of what she could not see, she clung to his back like a scared little monkey.

Thoros craned his neck in their direction, listening intently to the conversation between the archangel and their guide. He didn’t think of it as eavesdropping. It was only eavesdropping if the people talking didn’t know you were listening to what they were saying, and it wasn’t like they were whispering or anything.

Isaiah had asked how big Limbo was. Thoros found that he was leaning even closer, pretending to pet the slick coat of the mare, to better hear Omega’s answer.

“It goes on indefinitely in all directions—”

“Unlike Hell then?” Thoros interrupted without thinking.