Death Lord

8

“Actually, I’ll take care of the drinks,” Belial said. “Your shift is done. Go home, Yumi.”

Yumi hesitated, looking at me again. This time, I saw a small flicker of worry in her gaze, and wondered if the two of them were an item. The thought annoyed me more than it should. “Are you sure?”

“We’re just going to have a drink and talk.” Belial’s eyes slowly slid to mine. “Isn’t that right?”

I held up my cuffs and muttered, “Not much else I can do.”

Yumi just shrugged and set down the glasses. “Fine, but let me know if there’s any trouble and I’ll come right back.” She shot me a look of warning and then tossed down her towel. She obviously felt protective of Belial in some way, and the wolf inside me wanted to snap my teeth at her for some odd reason. Luckily she stalked away before I could act on the irrational urge. I had zero reason to feel jealous of her. Nope, none at all.

“What do you want to drink?” Belial asked, shaking me out of my thoughts. Was he really going to pour me a drink like we hadn’t been at each other’s throats less than an hour ago? What game was he playing? Was he going to poison me? I didn’t trust him at all. He had no reason to trust me either, or share a drink with me in his bar like we were old friends catching up after several years apart.

“I’ll take whatever you’re having,” I said, unable to focus enough to actually choose a drink. Belial stepped behind the bar, rolling up his black sleeves and revealing dark tattoos all along his forearms. I watched his chiseled face as he poured us two drinks, just some whiskey on the rocks. I couldn’t figure him out at all. What was his deal? Did he really want us to work together?

Was he as disturbed by the disappearances as much as I was, or was he the ultimate villain behind everything? It annoyed me beyond measure that I couldn’t trust my instincts on this, and all I could do was watch him closely and try to stay alive.

Once he’d poured us both some whiskey, he leaned against the bar and rested his heavy gaze on me again. “Tell me what you know about the missing shifters.”

“I thought you knew everything that happened in your city.” I carefully picked up my glass and eyed it, wondering if it was safe.

His broad shoulders moved in a lazy shrug. “I know a lot, but I’m not a shifter. Maybe you know something I don’t.”

I took a sip of my drink as a test, before telling him anything. I didn’t immediately fall to the ground, frothing at the mouth, so there was that at least. I set it down carefully on a coaster, still eyeing it like I was waiting for it to grow legs and walk away. But when the smart burn of the whiskey slid down my throat and I didn’t keel over, I decided he truly wasn’t going to kill me. At least not now.

I rested my elbows on the bar and met Belial’s steady gaze. “Over the last year, at least thirty shifters have gone missing, and all different kinds too. Some just vanished without a trace, but a few of them were last seen in or near New Orleans.”

“I had no idea it was that many.” He took a long swig of whiskey and then set his own glass down next to mine.

“We’ve been trying to keep this hidden for as long as we could, but then we learned that some imps have gone missing around here too.”

Belial rubbed the stubble on his chin. “I have noticed an increase in imps attacking humans too over the last few months.”

“And no doubt you decided to deal with them with your own vigilante justice,” I said dryly.

He gave me an evil grin. “I do what I must to protect my city.”

“Uh huh.” I shook my head, glaring down at my drink. A drop of condensation traced its way down the side of it and landed on the coaster.

“Archdemon Bastet wanted to investigate. She’s the current leader of the shifters, now that my father is dead,” I added, just in case Belial was completely out of touch with the world. “She called a meeting between shifters and imps, and Archdemon Loki, who leads the imps, decided that my brothers should be the ones to go to New Orleans to investigate.”

Belial leaned forward a bit. “Is there any particular reason he suggested them for the job?”

“Loki thought that if they took care of this problem, it might help the image of the wolf shifters. We’re trying to get back into good graces with Bastet and the other shifters after Fenrir’s uprising against Lucifer. You know, the one you were involved in?”

“Oh, right, that,” Belial said, sounding amused.

I gritted my teeth. How could he be so flippant about the thing that had caused my father’s death and the total disgrace of the wolf shifter demons?

“Why would Loki help you?” he asked a moment later, before I could snap something at him. “He’s a notorious trickster who cares for no one but himself. It could be a trick.”

“It’s not a trick,” I said through my clenched jaw. “Loki is my grandfather. He’s just looking out for us after you killed our father. His son.”

Belial leaned back but didn’t look convinced. Yes, Loki was known for tricking people, even those who thought they were close to him. But he wouldn’t do it to family. “Go on,” Belial said, motioning for me to continue.

“Skoll and Hati came to New Orleans to investigate two weeks ago. They told me they’d found something, but when I tried to reach out to them a couple of days later, there was no answer. They’d disappeared off the face of the earth, and no one has seen or heard from them since.”