Page 26 of Devoted in the Midlife
A weak cry answered from a back room. We surged forward and found her in a bare bedroom, wrists and ankles zip-tied to a metal bedframe. Pale and gaunt, her hair a rampant bird's nest, eyes glassy. But alive. Blessedly alive.
"Janice, thank frick." I crouched to saw at the zip ties with a pocketknife, freeing her with shaking hands. "I'm so sorry it took us this long to figure it out."
She tried for a smile but ended up with a grimace. "I knew you'd come. But can we eat like as soon as we get out of here? I'm starving."
Half-hysterical laughter bubbled out of me. "You got it."
Later, ensconced on her own couch with a fleece blanket and the remains of three Big Macs, Janice told us what happened. How Vaelog had appeared out of nowhere, his charm like cloying honey in her mind. How he had commanded her to go to the empty house and tie herself up, then left her there, helpless and alone. Confused and ashamed tears dampened her cheeks as she spoke.
Kendra put a gentle hand on her arm, sympathy in every line of her face. I perched on the armrest beside Janice, stomach churning with guilt and anger.
We filled in the gaps for her, explaining how Vaelog had been impersonating her. How we hadn't realized at first, how he'd been manipulating us all. How close we came to disaster before finally seeing through his ruse.
Janice shook her head, disbelief and horror warring across her exhausted features.
Once Janice was a little steadier on her feet and her belly was full, we converged on the backyard again to stare at the giant portal in the sky.
Kendra said it first. "We're going in there, right?"
It wasn't really a question. I met her gaze as a slow smile spread across my face. "Hell yes, we are." The words came out savage and clipped.
On the heels of my pronouncement, the air beside me shivered and Lucifer materialized as if summoned by my vehemence. He had a knack for dramatic entrances.
Speak of the devil, as they say.
Immaculately dressed as always in a dark suit that probably cost more than my car, he regarded us with hooded eyes. I waited for a trademark quip, some flippant comment about our bedraggled state.
But he didn't spare us a hello. His attention turned to the portal, hawklike intensity in every line of his too-perfect face. "Finally," he murmured with dark satisfaction.
Then he strode forward and jumped, flying high in the air and going into the portal without hesitation, the shimmering surface parting around him like a curtain of light before knitting closed once more.
"That's… not good." Lucifer's interest in the portal could be a good omen or a very, very bad one. You never knew which way the coin would land with him.
Only one way to find out.