Death Lord

24

Loki stood too and his green eyes glowed slightly. “You’d better be sure Eira does, or I will destroy you,” he said in a low, dangerous voice. “I don’t care if you’re an Elder God. I’ll find a way.”

Interesting. It seemed the self-serving imp actually cared for his granddaughter. Not enough to come with us, of course, but enough to throw idle threats my way.

Eira rose to her feet and tucked the map into her luggage. “I’ll be fine. I can take care of myself, you know.”

“I know you can, darling.” Loki gave her a warm smile. “After all, you were trained by the best. Me.”

I rolled my eyes so hard it almost hurt, then grabbed Eira’s arm and practically dragged her out of there. She called out a ‘thanks’ to Loki as we headed outside, and then she glared at me, no doubt annoyed by my rudeness. Like I gave a f**k. I wasn’t spending one more second in that trickster’s presence if I could help it.

“See, I told you he wasn’t so bad,” Eira said, while I flagged down the valet.

“You call that ‘not bad?’” I asked with a snort.

“For Loki, yeah. Trust me, he can be so much worse.”

“I’m familiar,” I said dryly. “We go way back.”

“Right. I forget you’re an old man sometimes. Must be the tattoos.”

The valet brought my car around in record time, making me wonder if he knew who I was. Probably. Many people said I looked like a rougher, more muscular version of my father. I didn’t see it though. I preferred to think I took after Eve in most ways. Except for my pride—that was all Lucifer.

I put Eira’s luggage in the trunk and opened the door for her, before getting in myself. Night had fallen across the city, and this would normally be when my intense hunger to steal souls from the living rose up and became unbearable. Yet ever since meeting Eira it had lain dormant, or been replaced by hunger for her. The relief was palpable, but I wondered how long it would last.

“We should wait until the morning to go to Faerie,” Eira said, while I drove. “It’ll be a bit of a journey through Faerie to get to the cave.”

I nodded. “You’ll stay at the bar or my apartment tonight. I have some things to do.”

“Like roaming the streets as a vigilante?”

“Maybe.” That shifter from last night was still out there, though I was less excited about killing him now that I knew he was being controlled by the Furies. That had to be why more and more people were being attacked throughout the city—the Furies were inciting anger and jealousy, first in shifters and imps, and then in other people too. Stopping them would end a lot of the violence in New Orleans.

“I’m coming with you,” she said.

“No.” I wanted to test what happened if I put some distance between us. Would my hunger for death return? “I need to be alone tonight. And I think you do too. You learned a lot today about your father and you need time to process it all.” I looked over at her, but she was staring out the window, her pretty little chin jutted forward stubbornly. “Grieve tonight, fight tomorrow.”

She drew in a long breath and met my eyes, then nodded. “Grieve tonight. Fight tomorrow.”

12

EIRA

B

elial abandoned me in his bar, and though I was tempted to go after him, his words about needing to be alone had struck a chord in me. I decided to give him some space, partly because I needed it too. When I was around him my emotions were too raw and my head spun with conflicting thoughts. He’d killed my father—he’d admitted as much, and even said he’d had no regrets about it. I tried to be mad about that, to hold onto the simmering anger inside me, but it sounded like my father had lost himself to Death by that point. By defeating him, Belial had helped stop the fourth Horseman from going all apocalyptic on the world. I would always miss my father and wish he were still alive now, but I also had to accept that he had gone too far and needed to be stopped. I only wished my brothers had been more honest about what had happened.

Of course, Belial could be lying, but somehow I knew in my gut he wasn’t. His story matched up with bits and pieces I’d seen and heard myself, and had filled in a lot of holes in my knowledge about what had happened. As much as I hated trusting him, something inside me told me he was telling the truth.

But where did we go from here?

“What’ll it be?” Yumi asked, bringing me out of my thoughts.

When Belial had left me in the bar, he’d told Yumi I could order any food and drinks on the house. Then he’d warned me not to leave the building, if I wanted to get my cuffs off. Proving he was still an asshole.

“Rum and coke, please.” I stared down at the menu in front of me. “And the Cajun pizza.”

“Good choice,” Yumi said.

She put in my order and then went to make my drink, while I watched her. She moved with the grace of a supernatural, and I wondered what exactly she was and how she’d come to work here for Belial.

“Do you have any idea where Belial went?” I asked, as she slid the drink toward me.

“It’s better not to ask,” Yumi said with a wry grin.

“Does he do this a lot?”