The Devil's Wife (17 page)

      Jayce was hiding in the spare room, crouched beside the bed, hiding.

      "What has that bitch told you?" a man's voice demanded, making me pause in my search.

      "What do you want, Jason?" Clarissa answered him.

      "Is that your ex?" I asked quietly.

      "Y-yes." Jayce sounded terrified.

      With a frown, I left the spare room and walked quickly back into the living room, making plans to deal with Jason. As I reached the hallway, I heard the smack of skin hitting skin. I stepped around the doorway into the hall to see Clarissa being held against the wall by her throat, a large man who stank of stale beer holding her there. Clarissa's right cheek was bright red, and she was gasping for air, her feet almost completely off the ground.

      I growled, a deep, dark sound reminiscent of a gorilla's battle snarl, and I grabbed the man. I hauled him from where he was accosting Clarissa, cornering him against the wall the same way he had been holding Clarissa.

      "Lucifer, don't!" Clarissa cried, holding her throat. "Not in my house."

      I growled again, making the man tremble with my ferocity. I dragged him into the living room, throwing him onto the couch. From the corner of my eye, I spied Jayce peering out from around the doorframe and I glared at the man in front of me.

      "You hit Clarissa, Jason." I stood in front of him. "And you and your thugs have been mistreating my new friend Jayce. That's a very serious crime."

      "Who do you think you are?" Jason spat at me. "You have nothing on me!" He sat up and tried to stand. I shoved him back down.

      I felt Clarissa standing behind me, her hands on my shoulders. Restraining me.

      "Wrong." I grabbed Clarissa's hands and pulled her around to lean against my chest. I still wasn't wearing my shirt, so I didn't have to remove it. "I know everything you have ever done, you sick, depraved bastard, and I'm here to punish you for it."

      "Fuck you." Jason laughed and moved to stand again.

      Clarissa pushed him back down on her couch again. "You're disgusting," she snarled. "I told Jayce over and over not to run back to you, and she never listened."

      "Because she loved me," Jason mocked, trying to stand again. "Pathetic little bitch. You might know some hand tricks, Clarissa, but you're just as weak as that bitch I use as a punching bag."

      I towered a foot over Jason, feeling my lips pull back from my teeth. Clarissa stepped behind me, her hands on my back. I wouldn't risk hurting her, so she was staying as close to me as she could to prevent me revealing myself to the human.

      "I am the most powerful person on Earth bar God, you pathetic lump of rat shit, and I say that you deserve worse than death for treating Jayce like a 'punching bag.' Touching a woman in anger means a sentence of a thousand years in the Frozen Lake of Hell, playing with Leviathan."

      Jason laughed, standing as well. He lured me out to the clear space near the kitchen, away from Clarissa, who was restraining me.

      "And what're you going to do about it? You aren't the Devil, you can't guarantee that. Even your mob power doesn't extend to the Underworld." He sneered at me. "No matter how much power you think you have on Earth, you can't guarantee I won't go to Heaven after I die!" He launched himself at me.

      I caught him and he landed a blow on my chin, the pain radiating through my skull. Although the pain stopped rather quickly, Jason had enough time to hit me in the stomach and draw a blade from somewhere, slicing at my chest. I seized his throat and he slammed his knife through my wrist, but I didn't let him go. There wasn't really any way that I would, not now.

      Jason screamed and I laughed, releasing my leathery wings, waiting for my tail to appear. Clarissa hurried from the room, presumably to see to Jayce, and I spread my wings. They were half-extended and touched the walls of the living room.

      "You see, I am the Devil." I flicked my tail, and it appeared over the top of my pants, twisting around in the air. "I can do anything I want to you, with no consequences." He stumbled backwards as I prowled toward him, drawing my wings in to hide them behind me. I continued to flick my tail. "And I'm guaranteeing you a thousand years of torture with Leviathan."

      I seized Jason's hair, making him scream and claw at my hand. "Look after the lasagna, Clarissa!" I called out to her as I dragged Jason out of the door, heading for the roof.

      There was no one out in the hallway now. It was one a.m. on a Monday. The humans were all rugged up in bed, asleep. Only one other person lived on Clarissa's floor anyway, Mrs. Dymin, and it was guaranteed she wouldn't hear Jason's screams, as deaf as she was.

      I dragged the protesting Jason out of the apartment building, hauling him up onto the roof. When he realized where I was taking him, he really fought me. I threw him out the door, listening to his shouts with apathy.

      "What are you going to do with me?" he whimpered, cowering at my feet.

      I was standing in front of the door, the only way down from the roof. He'd already checked out the four sides to the building to see if there was a way down. There wasn't.

      "You're going to jump," I said, releasing my wings and

stepping forward to back him into a corner. "Then I'm taking you to Hell."

      I spread my wings from one edge of the building to the other. It was hard, as they were built to have the weight of gravity spread evenly across their frames, not dragging them toward my feet. Whenever he made to pass me, I hit him with a wing and threw him a few feet closer to the edge.

      Jason took a step back and his heel hit the edge of the building, catching on the six-inch rise around the roof. He stumbled for a second and fell backwards, plummeting over the edge.

      With a sadistic smile, I flapped my wings and sprang after him, hanging back until I saw his body slam into the pavement a hundred floors below. I snatched his soul from the ground. His screams didn't let up as I adjusted our course, streaming out across the city's streets and heading toward one of the local Portals to Hell.

      "What the fuck!" Jason screamed, hitting me. "What the fuck are you?"

      I noticed the markers for the Portal and spiraled up into the air. "I'm the Devil," I said darkly, grinning at him, "and I am Death."

      I threw him from me, following him down. I kept him on the right path, and he was sucked into the Portal, screaming blue murder in the dead of night.

      I laughed and darted through the air after him, pulling my wings in three feet from the Portal. I laughed as I was sucked in, and used my magic to keep me from scraping along the sides. Ahead, I could hear Jason hitting every turn in the Portal, and I smiled to myself in satisfaction

~ * ~

      I snapped my wings open as I emerged in Hell, taking a deep breath. The air felt clean and fresh, better than the air on Earth, and lighter as it rushed past me.

      "Hey, the boss is back!" I heard Beelzebub cry, pointing up at me.

      There was a disco happening out behind Throne Hill, and I headed for it, dragging Jason along behind me with my magic. I wasn't as careful with him as I would have been with Clarissa, or even my new friend, Jayce. He plowed into the ceiling, smashed into the ground and bounced off my

throne.

"Hey, Bee. I've got a new inmate for you."

      Bee frowned as I landed beside him with a couple of flaps of my wings. Jason collapsed on the ground next to me, crying, broken and bleeding. He caught sight of Bee's red skin and his glowing red eyes; he even sported horns, for the effect on new arrivals.

      Jason screamed, trying to scramble away from Bee. I grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him up, holding him by me. He was terrified out of his mind.

      "Inmate?" Beelzebub asked, surprised. I didn't usually bring the dark souls down to Hell in person.

      "Yeah. He's earned a thousand years running with Levi."

      "What'd he do, boss?"

      "He dared to slap my Clarissa and hurt her best friend repeatedly." I picked Jason up and handed him to a couple of Demons who were standing with Bee.

      Jason screamed louder and more hysterically when he saw all the Demons around him.

      "No, please!" Jason begged, "God sent me to do His work! I was doing His sacred work!" He struggled. "No! Please, listen to me! God sent me to do it!"

      I bared my teeth at him. "If you knew what was good for you, you wouldn't mention Him here, boy. Throw him to Leviathan," I ordered the Demons staring, disgusted, at him. "And tell Levi that he's to prolong this pervert's suffering as long as he can."

      The Demons bowed, forcing Jason down between them. They dragged at his shirt and hair, and his screams echoed around Hell again. I watched with an evil smile and a sense of satisfaction as they carried Jason out to the middle of the Frozen Lake and forced him under the ice.

      "You're becoming very...devilish, boss," Bee said, watching the Demons head back to the party. "What made you decide to turn to the ways of the Bible's Devil?"

      I frowned, looking at Bee. "Am I taking it too far? I mean, I've pretty much ignored you all for five thousand years, and now I'm stepping in on you."

      Bee relaxed. "I'm sure that no one will mind, boss, as long as you don't do that—" he pointed to the Lake "—to any

of us."

      I laughed, clapping him on the shoulder. "It's great having a nephew like you, Bee. I can always depend on you."

      Bee laughed, pretending to be embarrassed. "Aw, thanks, Luce. Tell you what, though, you'd better get back to your missus."

      I frowned, and a clock appeared in my hand. "You're right. The lasagna might burn if I don't leave now." I smiled at Bee, shaking his hand. "Keep up the good work, mate. Oh, and when I phone, lower the volume of the damn music! I could barely hear myself talk last time!"

      Bee laughed and waved as I flew up to the Portal.

      "Don't forget to bring Clarissa next time!" he yelled as I vanished into the earthy ceiling.

Clarissa Avario

      It was harder to calm Jayce down than I thought it would be. Her hands shook and her teeth chattered. She stuttered almost every second word. Jayce was terrified of Jason and how close he'd come to her again.

      She had good reason to be terrified of him, though. He was more abusive than a football player called on a foul, and he even scared me with the damage he did to the woman he supposedly cared about.

      His Hellraisers were no better, modeled after him and claiming they were on speaking terms with God.

      Jayce was far more terrified now than I had ever seen her. I thought I knew what had caused it, too. Jayce had seen Lucifer's wings and tail.

      Seeing the Devil standing in my living room, threatening the man who had been assaulting her for the last three years, was too much for her shattered nerves. She'd freaked completely, and I was trying to talk to her as she hid in the corner of my room farthest from the door.

      My only way of calming her down was Aspen. The cat was happy to be out of the bathroom, and was content enough that Lucifer was defending Jayce and me rather than being contrary to Aspen's wishes. When I'd looked out the window and seen Lucifer fly across the city, I found Jayce in my bedroom, cowering behind the bed with Aspen on her lap. He was purring, talking to her gently. I was sure she couldn't understand Aspen, or she would have been far more afraid than she was now.

      "Jayce?" I called, crawling over the bed to her. "Jayce, honey, are you okay?"

      She turned frightened eyes to me, hugging Aspen. My normally fickle cat was happy to sit in her arms, rubbing his head along her jaw. His ginger fur was shining slightly in the strong light from the bathroom.

      "Clarissa?" she whispered. "What's going on?"

      I sighed, lying on the bed by Jayce with my head over the edge, watching her. The apartment was silent around us. "Why don't we go out into the living room? Lucifer's getting rid of Jason for good, and the lasagna smells delicious."

      She started to tremble. I sighed, grabbing her hand and pulling her to her feet.

      "Come on, Jayce. Lucifer wouldn't hurt you any more than he would me."

      "How can you say that?" she demanded in a whisper, fighting my pull. "He's the Devil, Clarissa! Even you bow to his will!"

      "And he's saved my life, cooked me dinner twice, healed me, told me about Heaven, and defended both you and me from the man I repeatedly told you to run away from. He deserves your trust, Jayce."

      "But trusting the Devil...Didn't you listen to the priest every time you went to church?"

      I laughed, succeeding in dragging her out to the living room. The scent of the lasagna in the oven was making my mouth water. I was hungry.