Page 7 of Another Underworld (Good To The Last Demon #6)

CHAPTER SEVEN

West had been correct. I found the camp with little problem. It was atrociously dismal and held at least a thousand of my people. The state of the Demons was deplorable. We were hidden up a hill about half a football field away behind shrub-covered boulders. We had an excellent view, but were concealed from the guards below.

“I’m a malicious bitch, but that’s disgusting,” Pandora hissed as we watched a group of ten female Demons being harshly lashed.

Their backs were bleeding profusely and the sound of the whip connecting to the bare skin was far worse than Candy Vargo gutting Shiva and Dagon. The Keeper of Fate had been saving my friends. The guards in the camp would be delighted to see the Demons dead.

“How many guards do you see?” Pandora asked, all business. Her voice was tight with fury.

“At least twenty,” Abaddon replied as he scanned the scene. “Soon to be twenty dead guards.”

“Oh yes,” Fifi snarled softly. “Dead, dead, dead.”

The fences were high and electric. They sizzled and popped in warning when anyone got too close. Rolls of jagged barbed wire edged the tops. An enormous statue of what appeared to be a masked, naked, male God dominated the center of the camp. I almost laughed at the absurd muscles and the massive size of the junk on the sculpture. Somebody was compensating for something…

“That cock can’t be accurate,” Cher muttered. “If it is, that wank is so big, it’s got investors.”

“I’d have to add that the salami is so large, it possesses its own area code,” Fifi announced.

I choked back a laugh. It wasn’t the time for dick jokes… or maybe it was.

Cher giggled. “That pecker is so big it came in first, second and third in a weenie contest.”

Abaddon scrubbed his hand over his face and tried not to smile. He only partially succeeded. “Seriously? Dick jokes?”

Cher patted him on the head. “I always find laughing relaxes me before battle. Good for the soul.”

“Oh yes,” Fifi agreed. “And I’d like to say, no matter where you take that statue, the joy stick always arrives first! Your turn Pandora.”

Pandora gave her a blank stare. “I don’t do jokes.”

“No time to start like the present,” Cher told her. “Wouldn’t want anyone to think you were a narcissistic fucking psychopath.”

Pandora rolled her eyes so hard they should have gotten stuck in the back of her head. “Fine. That shlong is so big, it has to use a hula hoop as a cock ring.”

I slapped my hand over my mouth so I didn’t cackle. It wouldn’t do to get discovered. However, a dick joke coming from Pandora was unexpectedly hilarious. Everyone’s eyes were wide and we all softly laughed. The shocked surprise and delight from Pandora made my heart hurt. It was probably the first time, in a very long time, she’d been accepted by others. It was insane that it took a dick joke, but whatever worked.

“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” I asked her.

She flipped me off.

Good times. However, the time for jokes was over.

There was no shelter for the prisoners. The only building was a one-story guard hut at the only entrance and exit to the camp. My loyal Demons were emaciated, weakened and downtrodden. I felt sick to my stomach.

“They treat the innocent like animals,” Fifi growled.

“I will destroy them,” I ground out through clenched teeth as I zoned in on the Demon who appeared to be in charge. The guards weren’t in human form. In human form, a Demon looked like a regular person. In Demon form, not so much. The searing heat coming from their hulking eight-foot bodies stank like sulfur that was pungent even at a distance. The green fire with icy blue sparks that covered their bodies danced on their skin like snakes. They were hideous. “Good thing is that it’s easy to delineate the bad guys from the good ones.”

I was fully aware that good Demons was a relative term, but I firmly stood by my statement.

“True,” Pandora said. “Unfortunately, or possibly fortunately, I know most of the evil bastards down there. They used to be loyal to me.”

It appeared that Pandora’s Demons who didn’t shift their fealty to me had gone with the well-hung God. Stupid choice. If you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes—like death for example.

“I have an idea,” Pandora said with a smile that made me a little itchy. It reminded me too much of the woman I’d gone up against in the past.

But the past was the past. I’d carried her inside me and went toe to toe with the Higher Power to save both of us. She’d offered to stay on that horrible plane and let me leave. Granted, I’d done the same for her. I’d seen the hope in her eyes. She’d absorbed it from the box. Pandora was as aware as I was that if there weren’t two Goddesses of the Darkness, the end would come. I was going to choose to believe that we were fighting for the same cause.

I just hoped my choice didn’t get us killed.

“Tell me,” I said.

I listened and agreed without hesitation. I may be crazy. But in the words of the brilliant Billy Joel, it just may be a lunatic I was looking for. I wasn’t sure if I was the lunatic or if it was Pandora. However, it was safe to say we were both in the running for the title.

As we made sure we were all armed and ready, Abaddon leaned in. “You trust her?”

Sucking my bottom lip into my mouth, I nodded. “My first and only instinct was to say yes to the plan. Candy Vargo told me not to overthink the fuck out of everything. I’m not going to look a gift horse in the mouth.”

Abaddon raised a brow. “It’s about to get very ugly.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”

Ugly was an understatement.

Pandora did not screw around. Her plan was dangerous—mostly for her. When I’d battled the Goddess in the past, she’d had others do her dirty work while she’d escaped the fight. When she had tried to kill me, she’d ended up killing my mother. To say her aim was good was misleading. I hoped to hell and back that she could truly fight. I was about to find out. What I knew was that I would cover her like all our lives depended on it—which they did. There had to be two of us, and we had to be worshiped, or we’d cease to exist. If she pulled this off, she’d be on her way to redeeming herself. My fingers were crossed hard.

We split up. Abaddon and Cher covertly went down the hill on the left side. They were crouched and waiting. Cher’s downy white wings had burst from her back in excitement when Pandora had explained the plan. Thankfully, their arrival was silent. Of course, her power-suit jacket, silk shirt and bra had been shredded in the process, so she was silicone tits to the wind. No one cared, and no one commented.

Fifi and I approached from the right. Pandora stayed in the middle. Fifi had bolt cutters in her coat and gloves that would keep her from getting electrocuted when she disabled the fence. Her coat was kind of like Cher’s bottomless Prada bag and Candy Vargo’s pockets. The discovery of the bolt cutters had been music to Pandora’s ears when she’d laid out her plan. It solved a multitude of issues—like all of us getting fried.

The next phase of the plan was for me to speak to my people and get them to move to the back of the camp. I could protect them if they were together. Abaddon was going to fly over the camp and fire bomb it with Cher after Pandora made her grand entrance. It was a surprise to no one but me that he could fly. I made a mental note to ask him to share all of his talents with me at a later date. Simultaneously, Fifi would throw a few grenades to cover herself while she was disabling the fence. I was tasked with double fire-swording it and lopping off heads with Pandora.

According to Robert Burn, even the best-laid plans of mice and men often go awry. We couldn’t let those words become our fate. If a curve ball came at us, I was determined to hit that sucker out of the park.

“My Liege Bitch Goddess Cecily,” Fifi whispered as Pandora gave us a wave. “It’s time to warn your people of what is to come.”

I nodded and took a deep breath. “Demons, it’s Bitch Goddess Cecily speaking to you. I’m here. Do not react to my words. Go about what you are doing.” I saw many of their bodies shift and a few glanced around in alarm. “I beg of you, do not give my presence away. We’re here to break you out.” A few of the women grabbed each other’s hands. It was fine. The guards noticed nothing. “Go to the back of the camp. When the attack begins, I’ll drop a ward around you for protection. You must—and I stress must—huddle together. Make sure to bring the injured with you. No Demon who is loyal to me can be left behind. If you can hear me, answer me.”

The chorus of a thousand murmured yeses was a glorious sound.

“When Pandora approaches the guards, you move. Am I clear?”

The chorus of yesses turned into frantic shouts. Their hatred of Pandora made them fearful and furious.

“STOP,” I shouted. “You will trust me. I am your Bitch Goddess Cecily—daughter of Lilith and ruler of the Darkness. This is my order. It’s not a request. If you want your freedom and your lives, you will do as I say. Pandora is with me. I vouch for her.”

The chaos calmed a bit, but the wariness remained. While I couldn’t blame them, I didn’t have time for this shit. I gave it one last shot.

“If you do not follow my orders, you will not be protected. It’s about to get ugly and none of you are strong enough to defend yourselves. Am I clear?”

This time the chorus of yesses was more subdued. However, I heard no dissent. It would have to suffice.

I motioned up the hill to Pandora that phase one of the plan had been implemented. Fifi, Cher and Abaddon already knew since they could hear me in their minds. I couldn’t see Abaddon and Cher, but Pandora had a clear view of all of us.

“Are you scared?” I whispered to FiFi.

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, My Liege Bitch Goddess Cecily,” she said.

I knew the author of the quote. “Franklin D. Roosevelt.”

She gave me a thumbs up with her grenade-free hand. “Paralyzing fear is the greatest obstacle we face. I have fear every time I go into battle. It keeps me sharp. The day I don’t have a healthy dose of fear, is the day I will die.”

It was a crazy analogy, but the first thing that came to mind was having butterflies before I performed. I’d always told myself it was because I cared about being an actress and that the day I no longer cared was the day I would stop acting. My new butterflies would be replaced with a healthy dose of fear. There were no plans of stopping, and I did not want to die today.

When Pandora marched down the hill to the gate, I was so close to a panic attack that I could taste it. However, there was no time to indulge in a nervous breakdown.

It was showtime.