Interlude
Beelzebub sat in an armchair in his living room and stared at the dog. The dog stared back at him. Its tail gave a single wag and then went still, as if it didn’t know for sure whether or not that had been the proper response.
To be honest, Beelzebub didn’t know, either. He knew next to nothing about dogs. Or rather, of course he understood what they were and their place in the world and their role as humanity’s companions, but spending millennia as one of Hell’s gatekeepers didn’t provide much opportunity for spending time with canines.
Actually, he was wondering why in the world he’d agreed to this arrangement in the first place. Surely there was no reason for him to do his new neighbor any favors. True, she’d been in something of a bind, but she could have kept Rufus with h
