Page 7 of Generally Hospitable (Good To The Last Demon #7)

It happened without any thought. My mouth moved before my brain had the sense to stop it. “Cat. Cat not cut. It’s curiosity killed the cat,” I corrected him.

Pandora groaned. I just closed my eyes and pretended that if I couldn’t see anyone, then no one could see me. It didn’t work when I was a child, and it damn sure didn’t work now.

“And YOU,” Chub Chub bellowed. “You must die.”

“Hold on a moment,” Pandora said while yawning in boredom. “I say we leave her alive. I did kill her mother, after all. I’d hate to be responsible for killing the child.”

“ You wouldn’t be killing her,” Decatalian pointed out.

Pandora shrugged. “True, but I’d be indirectly involved. It would be a real turn-off for me to know that you ended her. I wouldn’t even be able to consider blowing you for centuries.”

That got his attention.

“Centuries?” he asked, horrified.

“Centuries. Multiple centuries,” she confirmed.

I couldn’t believe the direction the conversation had taken. She had said I wasn’t going to enjoy what was coming, but that had been an understatement.

“But… but,” he stammered. “She’s a Goddess.”

“Is she?” Pandora asked with an arched brow and a derisive laugh.

“She’s a half breed. You said it yourself.

A half-human has no right to the throne of the Darkness.

She’s not a threat. In fact, she was born with mental deficiencies—as you can probably tell.

The BBL story alone confirms that. The date with Blood Eagle and his mother is another example of her lack of mental fortitude.

Any Demon in their right mind would have decapitated both Blood Eagle and his mother within ten seconds of the insulting date.

I know I would have. This further proves my point, darling.

Cecily doesn’t have the respect of the Demons.

She has their pity. In fact, it might backfire if you end her.

She’s all they have left of Lilith—stupid or not. ”

“Dude. Seriously? You missed your calling,” I said. “He seems to be buying what you’re selling.”

“You’re not the only actress in the room,” she shot back with a light chuckle. “And the Golden Globe goes to...”

If the circumstances weren’t so dire, I would have laughed at her statement. If we lived… and we would, I was so going to cast her in Ass the World Turns .

“I do see your point,” Decatalian said, pondering the conundrum. Without making eye contact with Pandora, he shrugged. “As you wish.”

His lack of eye contact was a clear sign he was lying. Or mostly lying. While he wasn’t going to end me, it was obvious that he would send someone else to do the deed. Or… even worse, a whole bunch of someones.

“Before we retire to the boudoir,” Pandora said, eyeing him like he was a tasty piece of meat and she was starving. “Tell me about your power. It’s incredibly sexy. I don’t recall you being so superior back in the day.”

The cretin puffed out his chest. “I have friends in high places. Very high.”

Pandora laughed. To anyone else it would sound like she was amused. To me… not so much. She was pissed. “Is this the same friend who taught you the use of death magic?”

The dolt looked wildly confused. He wasn’t a good actor, so it was real. I wondered if death magic went by another name.

“What is this death magic you speak of?” Chub Chub demanded. “Who owns this? No Demon in the Universe is allowed to have something I don’t have. You tell me about this death magic. NOW.”

“My mistake,” she said with a careless laugh, but I could hear her confusion because it matched my own. “It’s just a rumor on the streets,” she continued. “And I was hoping you knew how to create it. But it seems it was just a rumor. If you don’t have it, then no one does, sweetheart.”

Chub Chub wasn’t completely convinced. But I was pretty damned convinced he had no clue about the death magic. This was terrible news. If he didn’t know, then he wasn’t our biggest problem, and that had me scared as hell.

“I think he’s serious,” I told her. “He has no idea what it is. Is it possible death magic has another name?”

“No. It’s death magic. And I agree that he’s clueless,” she replied through gritted teeth. “So, if the slimy fuck isn’t using it, that means someone else is behind this shitshow.”

Again, my gut dropped. I wasn’t sure how much more my gut could take without literally falling out of my body.

That would be bad. I had a baby in there.

It didn’t take a rocket science degree to figure out who the puppet master was in this scenario.

Chub Chub Wang had literally given us the clue, I can’t believe I’d initially missed it—"I have friends in high places. Very high.” He really was as stupid as Pandora said.

“Phyllis,” I said immediately. “It has to be the Higher Power. It made it very clear the last time we faced It that It was coming for us.”

“Makes little to no sense,” Pandora said. “Would It punish us? Absolutely. But It knows that killing either one of us ends the entire Universe.”

“Is it true that the pair can be a man and a woman?” I questioned.

“No. It’s a matriarchal society. It always has been and always will be,” she said with absolute certainty. “It’s possible It knows you carry a Goddess inside you and wants me dead.”

I didn’t buy it. “It wasn’t you she was after. It was me. Wanting you dead makes even less sense.”

“Sense can’t be made out of insanity,” she said in a clipped tone. “The only way to beat Phyllis at her game is for you and your daughter to live. The balance will be preserved. I believe It is testing us.”

“The Higher Power can take this test and fuck itself with it. And I don’t believe Chub Chub Wang has any intention of letting me live,” I pointed out.

“I agree,” she said. “Give me your hand.”

“What?”

“Your fucking hand,” she hissed . “Give it to me.”

With a quick glance up at the dais, I realized Decatalian wasn’t paying us a lick of attention.

He was back on his phone, trying to figure out if death magic was a rumor or real.

It occurred to me that the bastard was probably texting with Phyllis.

It didn’t really matter. I did as Pandora asked.

She leaned forward and pulled a round brass furniture tack out of the white pleather chair.

Without missing a beat, she pressed the sharp point into her palm, drawing blood.

Then quickly repeated the action on me. Grabbing my hand tightly, she pressed our palms together and chanted softly.

I felt it before I realized what the insane Demon was doing. Trying to pull my hand away was impossible. Pandora’s grip was rock solid. The magic that she’d regained flowed through my body while depleting hers. This was all kinds of wrong.

“No,” I screamed in my mind. “STOP.”

Pandora slowly let go of my hand. I was at full strength now. I could feel it… and she was once again on empty.

“This is the way it has to be, Bitch Goddess Cecily.” Her voice was resigned, but there was a calm serenity about her that I’d never witnessed.

Goddess Pandora seemed happy. “This will be the way my story ends, and I am at peace with it. Use my magic wisely. Save yourself and your daughter. It’s the only way to beat the Higher Power.

However, I would like your word that the bitch will pay. ”

“You have my word ,” I promised. All of the emotions rioting inside me made my head spin.

This wasn’t a happily ever after in any way.

The sitcom of our lives was ending with the demise of one of the main characters.

That wasn’t how I rolled. I despised those kinds of shows.

“However, make me this promise, Pandora. Hang on long enough to give me the chance to come back for you. You have to promise me that or I’ll take my best shot at Chub Chub Wang right now. ”

“That would be foolish. While you might be a bitch, you are not a fool,” she said with a hint of a smile pulling at her lips.

“While Phyllis might be running the show, It has given Decatalian an absurd amount of power to play with. Going against him could end everything. Think hard about that, Cecily. Very hard.”

I hated that she was right. But I wasn’t Chub Chub Wang. I was not stupid. In order to save the universe… and Pandora, I had to live.

Holding back a primal scream, I simply nodded. “I won’t do that, but I need your word that you’ll hang on until I come back.”

Pandora paused. I knew she didn’t want to give me her word. Her word was good. We both knew that.

“Fine,” she said after a full minute. “I shall hang on as long as I can.”

It wasn’t the promise I’d asked for, but it was as good as she was going to give me right now. I only hoped I could get back in time to save her, to save all of us, before the final curtain call.