Page 51

Chapter 50

My Heroic Devil

Jemma

I wasn’t afraid of the dark anymore.

Well, I was, but it had dulled enough that it wasn’t my biggest fear. No, that was reserved for what would happen when Dad woke up. When Hellen returned. When his nightmare started from the top all over again.

I didn’t think I could live through that a second time. How had he managed for eighteen years?

I wiped my face of the remnants of tears, sitting up. I kept one hand on the lump that was Dad. He was still out cold—well, as out cold as a corporeal soul could be, I supposed. He felt real enough to me, although bone-thin, and the smell was … he smelled like decomposition …

How long did we have before he roused and the cycle started again?

Don’t just sit there, Bliss! Get your shit together and figure out how to wiggle yourself out of this mess before she comes back!

If I could follow the wall, around the edge, until I hit the doorway Hellen had come through earlier … I didn’t trust the empty blackness in the middle of the room, but with a solid wall of rock under my palm, I thought I could do it.

But what then? If I found the door, it would be locked. It wasn’t going to unlock until Hellen checked on me again, which might not even be for hours yet. I was getting thirsty. And man, did I need to pee!

I could drink my pee—that was what survivors did, wasn’t it? Two birds, one stone? The thought turned my stomach. I wasn’t desperate enough to pee myself, or drink it, just yet.

So, the plan was, get to the door, wait there until Hellen let herself in to gloat … and then, what? Did I clobber her over the head with my shoe? Crash tackle the demon outside? If he was anything like that one I’d spat on in the tunnel, he was far too big for me to take on.

And I needed to take Dad with me. No way was I leaving him to his fate in this Hellhole …

A muffled roar from outside had my heart leaping into my throat. Because I knew that voice, even though I’d never heard it sound so … ragey … before.

“SJ?” I breathed, barely daring to hope. But it blossomed inside me anyway, blooming in my chest until I could barely breathe and I was stepping away from the wall.

“Yer ‘Ighness!” The words were a shocked, stifled gasp. “Yer sister wouldn’t— gak !” A heavy thud shook the room. I scrambled backwards just as Dad stirred behind me.

“Elsie?” he coughed, and I wrapped an arm around him.

“No, Dad,” I whispered raggedly. “It’s Jemma.”

“Noooo,” he whimpered, just as the slab of rock that was the door ground open, silhouetting the most wonderful devil ever born.

And I burst into tears all over again.

“Hello, Mouse,” he crooned, taking a tentative step towards me. The coppery tang of blood hit my nostrils, but nothing was going to stop me from lurching towards him, flinging myself into his arms.

“You came,” I blubbered, clinging desperately to him, climbing his body like a tree. His arms wrapped around me, pulling me into the warm safety of his embrace.

“Of course I did,” he replied softly, his nose in my hair, inhaling deeply. Then he pressed me back. I whimpered, dissatisfied, but he was firm.

“I am covered in blood, Mouse, and … we must make haste.” He turned from me, raising his hand. A portal sprang to life, blindingly bright in the dark room. It glimmered with reds, and pinks, and … blues? I’d never seen that colour in his portals before. It was … beautiful.

“Oh! Crap! Joe!”

I grabbed at SJ’s arm, my chest constricting. “My brother, he was … Hellen … and?—”

“He’s already back in your apartment,” SJ assured me, his mouth tight as he peered past me to the trembling bundle that was Dad. “And … I assume we are taking your father with us, too?” Without waiting for a response, he moved around me, gently stooping to scoop up Dad, who whimpered fitfully, his body quaking.

“It’s alright, Mr Bliss,” SJ murmured. “No one will hurt you like that again.”

He stood, turning to me. His eyes were glistening with unshed tears.

“I love you,” I blurted.

His lips twitched. “Let’s get you home.” He strode towards the portal, the track of a tear meandering down his red cheek. I stepped in front of him, reaching up to catch that tear with my thumb, gently swiping it away. His lips parted as I cupped his cheek.

“Let’s get us home.”

* * *

“Omigod, Jemma, you scared the absolute shit out of me!” Ezra leapt at me as I stepped from the portal into the living room. “I thought you … I thought …” He pulled back, fanning his flushed face and blinking frantically.

“I’m okay,” I reassured him with a squeeze to his bicep. It wasn’t entirely a lie. But my eyes scanned the room until they fell on Joe.

“Well!” Joe blustered, stepping forwards, rubbing his hands on his trousers. “That was quite an adventure!”

I threw myself at him, sobs building in my throat, clamouring to be let out. “Joe … Dad, he was … he’s?—”

“I know,” Joe murmured against my ear, squeezing me tight. “It’s okay.”

“No!” I argued. “I mean, he’s here!” I turned to SJ, who was just stepping out of the portal. “We brought him … wait. Where’s Dad?”

I peered at SJ, whose arms were still in position as if carrying Dad, but there was just … nothing.

“He was … we brought him. We rescued him! SJ, what’s going on?” I squeaked.

SJ smiled sadly. “Deceased souls can’t maintain corporeality in the Human Realm. He’s right here. I can feel him in my arms, he’s just …”

“A ghost!” Humphrey piped up from the corner near my bookshelf.

I think that was when I hit my limit. I collapsed onto the lounge, burying my face in my hands.

“No!” I shouted through fingers that shook. “It’s not fair! He deserves … something, after all he’s been through!” Every muscle in me felt wound tight like a spring, but my eyes were dry when I looked up at Joe.

“He’s been down there, reliving the night of his murder, for eighteen years! All because he got tricked into selling his soul!” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “And now he just gets to … what? Float around up here forever? He’s traumatised! He needs help!”

I turned to SJ, the only person in the room who might have a chance of doing something … anything … for him.

“Can you …?” I pleaded.

SJ watched me warily, his jaw twitching. “I … there might be something I can do to fix this.”

“Please!” I begged. “Whatever it is, please just … do it.”

He knelt, his arms still cradling an invisible weight. His eyes searched mine, the warmth of him so close, so comforting. “I … I do not wish to leave you …” He sighed. “I … have much to atone for.”

My heart leapt at those words, and I longed to reassure him that I knew, I knew everything he’d done was all for me. But the thought of Dad, incorporeal and confused, and probably stuck in an endless loop of violence and death after eighteen years of it.

I had to make Dad the priority.

“ Please , SJ.”

He moved his arm as if resettling the weight of Dad’s spirit. “Very well.”

He stood, turning away, his shoulders lifting and falling with a huge breath. With his free hand, he conjured another one of his newly multicoloured portals.

“Wait, Boss!” Beezle barked, galloping up to him. “You can’t go back there alone!”

“Go back where?” I asked faintly.

SJ turned, his expression unreadable. “Back to Heaven. I’ll explain everything … after.” My jaw dropped, but his eyes fell on Beezle. “I can, and I will, go alone. Besides, you need to stay here, guard Jemma … in case Hellen realises she’s missing and comes looking for her.”

With that bombshell dropped, he stepped into the portal and disappeared. Beezle stared at the spot where he’d been for a moment, then sat, ears pricked and alert.

“ Will she try to come and find me?” I murmured shakily. Beezle tilted his head in my direction. “She … she was waiting for Dad to wake again before she returned. Maybe she’s gotten distracted by something?” The hope in my voice was thick.

“I will keep you safe, Jemma Bliss. Until Boss returns. Boss will have a plan.” He turned back to his guard duty.

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to them talking,” Ezra grumbled, collapsing onto the lounge beside me. “And I feel like I’m missing huge chunks of backstory here.”

I couldn’t speak. SJ had just said … Heaven, hadn’t he? And that he was going back there?

“I think I’m missing some, too,” I breathed, squirming slightly. There was something lodged between my backside and the lounge cushion. “Seems like we’ll have to wait until he gets back from … Heaven … to have any answers.”

“And … are we confident he will come back?” Ezra asked tentatively as I lifted one butt cheek—the thing I was sitting on was very stuck. “Last time I saw the two of you together, it was the worst breakup in the history of breakups, and I know he just said he’d be back to explain, but … are we trusting him?”

I nodded firmly. “We are. I was right, about everything.”

Ezra raised a disbelieving eyebrow. “ Everything ?”

I sighed. “Well, about him trying to protect me. Ez, you have no idea what she was like.” I turned to Joe, who looked grim, staring out the window at the evening skyline. “She was … it was terrifying . She had powers … she was controlling the air! And she said that she’d made a deal with him, that I was collateral in the deal. That she was supposed to leave me alone, but then he … disappeared …”

I gasped. “Heaven! That’s where he was for those six days he went missing!”

Beezle’s tail twitched, which I took as confirmation. My heart thundered. Why had he been there? It made no sense—from everything he’d told me, his family were sworn enemies with God.

“So, he’s coming back,” Ezra muttered. “And … is he forgiven?”

I nodded vigorously. “I’m not even going to make him grovel.” I reached behind me, fishing between my butt and the lounge cushion. “That letter, from the university? It was SJ who made it happen. After the breakup to end all breakups. Not to mention he literally just saved me from Hell. And killed at least one of his own kind to do it. He’s well and truly grand gestured his way back into my heart.”

Humphrey snorted gently. “Don’t kid yourself—he never left your heart, Jemma.”

Even though he was totally right, I pulled a face at him. Finally, I got a grip on the lump stuck under my butt, and I tugged. Out popped a ferret toy.

“Luci!” I screeched, leaping to my feet. I’d forgotten all about her in the wild events since Hellen had kidnapped me. My head jerked in the direction of the wall I’d last seen her teeny body sliding down. Nothing. I turned to Ezra, flapping my hands. “Where’s Luci?”

Ezra’s eyes flitted towards the laundry. Heart in my throat, I raced in that direction.

“What the …?” My hand flew to my heart as I took in the scene.

“Apparently, Hell Hound … ferret … things have some wicked healing mojo when it comes to the ones they love,” Ezra explained, coming up behind me and resting his chin on my shoulder.

I gaped down at my white ferret, happy and healthy and healed, snuggled in her hammock, twined very intimately around a grinning black ferret with red eyes and a small white dot on his snout.

“I think they exhausted themselves trying to make baby Luci-Furs,” Ezra confessed in an undertone. A wet, manic giggle burst out of me.

“Good luck to them!” I said through a thick throat. “Luci’s desexed, so they can enjoy all the ferrety fornication risk-free!”

Ezra nudged my shoulder. “Speaking of fornication … is there a chance we’ll end up with half-human, half-devil toddlers terrorising us at some point? Maybe we need to think about desexing you .”

I knew he was trying to joke, trying to keep my mind off everything, but I turned away from him, heat filling my lungs, tears blurring my vision. I wanted that. Maybe not right away, but oh, I wanted a whole gaggle of little SJ’s.

I wanted everything with my heroic devil.