Chapter Twenty-one
Drowning his sorrows in ale seemed like the best idea after Felipe left Jenny. Problem was Felipe didn’t think there was enough alcohol to make him forget that, in just a few hours, he’d find himself parted from her.
Which, as I told her, is for the best.
He wasn’t ready to settle down. Or was he? It hadn’t escaped his notice that since he’d met his enchanting half-mermaid, he’d not given another look or thought to another woman. The sirens, despite their beauty, did not attract him. The Amazons, with their openness about sex and their less-than-subtle offers to bed him, he’d ignored or outright refused. Hell, even the buxom blonde sashaying her way toward him with full lips and rounded hips stirred nothing in him other than annoyance. Did she not know he preferred his women with greenish-blonde curls, an impish smile, and a husky voice only he could tolerate?
Don’t they know Jenny’s the one?
Of course they didn’t because even he refused to accept it. His cat even now yowled in his head, a wordless noise that basically said, You’re a fucking idiot. Go and claim her.
Did the what-if’s really matter? If a womanizing demon like Remy could settle down with one woman and be happy, couldn’t he? If the devil could restrict himself to sex with one woman, wasn’t he capable? He could at least try instead of being such a fraidy cat, especially since yellow wasn’t his color.
He went through the reasons why he shouldn’t. What did he have to offer her? A small apartment? A dangerous job that saw him traveling for the Dark Lord? Petty excuses because he knew those were things Jenny didn’t give a flying fuck about.
He’d seen how her face lit up on their journey. After her exile on the isle, she’d probably appreciate getting out to explore the rings of Hell and the fucked-up wonders within. As for his living accommodations, he could always get a bigger place. They both could. Damn, we could share rent and an apartment. Imagine waking up beside her every day. To gaze into those stormy blue eyes every morning. To kiss and touch—
His reverie was rudely interrupted as a heavily perfumed body plopped itself in his lap. “Hello there, stranger,” hummed a low female voice. “What brings you here?”
“Sorry, darling, you’ll have to ply your wares elsewhere. I’m a taken man.” Look at that. Saying it aloud didn’t cause Hell to freeze over. On the contrary, the pit now appeared brighter to him than a moment ago. The depression within him eased.
What was he doing sitting here being an idiot when he had a ready-and-willing lover waiting upstairs?
“We’re in Hell. Cheating is expected and encouraged,” she said with a lick of her lips. She draped her arms around his neck, bringing her prodigious bosom almost eye level, but it left Felipe cold. She wasn’t Jenny, and for that matter, he could just imagine the jealous fit Jenny would throw if she caught him with this hussy on his lap. Good thing he’d told her to stay in the room. A room he’d shortly join her in.
“What part of not interested did you not grasp?” was his curt reply. His nose twitched, the heavy perfume bothering it, but it was more than that. He could scent a subtle undertone. A hint of—brine?
Cold clarity made him eye more keenly the less-than-subtle whore still draping him. A woman with extremely pale skin, bearing an almost green pallor. “Bloody mermaid.” He muttered it like a curse as he shoved her from his lap to the floor, knocking off in the process the blonde wig she wore to cover her true seaweed hair.
But where there was one mermaid…
It didn’t take the howl of his cat to realize that many of the cloaked figures in the room were the enemy. The flinging back of numerous hoods and the draw of weapons did that quite adequately.
However, it was the hint of movement beyond their menacing approach that drew his eye. Drew it, held it, and enraged the beast within. Jenny stood at the bottom of the stairs, one hand clutched to her neck, surrounded by dark armored troops, only they weren’t the Dark Lord’s guard because none of them would have torn off a mask to reveal their mermaid tresses while another used the hilt of her sword to bash his sweet Jenny on the skull.
Fuck.
This wasn’t good. Time to unleash his kitty.
With a mighty roar, his other shape burst free, shredding the clothes he wore. Fur bristling, teeth slavering, and his eyes promising some serious injury, he lunged in the direction of those holding Jenny and dragging her to the door. However, bodies got in his way, prey who thought to keep him from his mate.
With a snarl, he tore into them, and blood flowed. However, it wasn’t just the essence of his enemy that painted the inn’s floor but his own as the aquatic females drew their blades to hack at him. He did his best to dodge and eliminate the threats. Each step he managed to take forward cost him, though, in strength and injury. He drew upon all his skill as a hunter and fighter to stay alive, to reach Jenny to save her, to—
He blinked his eyes open and stared at the frescoed ceiling. The images of woodland nymphs cavorting made for an interesting, if disturbing, view. Disturbing because he had no recollection of ever seeing them before.
How did I get here? And where is here? The last thing he recalled…
“Fuck!” As memories of the battle unfolded, including his sudden blackout, he sprang to his feet on the soft bed he found himself in, naked and, as he noted in that same instant, uninjured. Hands slapping at his flesh, he noted new scars, healed ones. He did a quick mental check and growled as he noted he’d lost a life. That didn’t leave him with many. Damn those mermaids.
“I see you’re finally awake.”
The feminine voice came from beyond the filmy curtains hiding the bed. Batting them aside, he hopped to the stone floor and faced his boss’s girlfriend, Mother Earth.
“Goodness, I see now why you’re so popular with the ladies.” Gaia’s gaze perused him from head to toe, a smile curving her lips.
Not good because her interest was sure to put a scowl on Lucifer’s face and probably end up with him spending a few centuries paying for it. The sin of jealousy was one the Dark Lord particularly enjoyed. “I don’t suppose I could have some privacy, ma’am.”
“How about a pair of pants instead,” she compromised, snapping her fingers.
Felipe didn’t yelp as fabric suddenly covered his man parts, but it was close. “Thank you, my lady.” He sketched a quick bow.
“No need for such formalities. You may call me Gaia.”
Yeah, no. He’d prefer to keep his limbs. “Where am I, and what happened? Last thing I remember, I was fighting mermaids in the bar.”
“Yes, and you acquitted yourself quite well, especially given the number thrown against you. Alas, it wasn’t enough, and by the time the guard arrived, you’d spent a life, and Jenny was gone.”
“Gone?” Cold dread formed a pit in his stomach.
“Kidnapped by those cold-blooded fish and taken to the Styx, where they dove into the waves. We lost track of her at that point.”
“We?”
“Yes. My Lord and I have been tracking your progress. Or at least I was. Lucifer was otherwise occupied last night, else the skirmish might have ended quite differently. As to where you are, given the gravity of your injuries, I removed you to my castle where I could tend to you.”
“How long have I been here?”
“Time flows differently here. Suffice it to say, you’ve been here a while, but you’ll return in time.”
“Time for what?”
“To rescue her of course. You do plan to get her back?”
No hesitation. “Well duh. If I don’t, Lucifer will string me up and rip out my entrails.”
“And is that the only reason you want to find her?”
For a moment, Felipe almost lied. However, caught by the swirling green gaze of Mother Earth, he couldn’t. “No. Even if he ordered me to forget Jenny, I would still go to her rescue.”
Apparently, that was the correct answer because a smile bloomed across Gaia’s face, a blinding one. If it weren’t for his affection for a certain lady, he might have fallen prisoner to its captivating spell. “I see my Lord was right once again in his pairing. Who knew he had such a knack?”
Words that made no sense to Felipe, but Gaia didn’t bother to explain.
She clapped her hands. “Well then, if we are to mount an effective rescue, you must make haste. The mermaids and their prize are hours ahead of you at the moment.”
“I thought time had no meaning.”
“No, it still passes, just not at the same rate. When I return you, only a few hours shall have passed.”
“So, they don’t have much of a head start, but the bigger dilemma is how to catch them. According to your spies, they entered the Styx, which places them underwater. I want to save her, but how?” The hopelessness of the task hit him like a well-aimed imp tossed in a game of Dodgeskull. If the mermaids had taken her to the Darkling Sea, how would he find her, let alone rescue her?
“What’s with the sad face?”
“The task is impossible.”
“Is it? Have you so little faith in your Lord and his abilities? Lucifer will give you the tools needed to help you in your quest.”
“If he doesn’t kill me for failing in the first place,” he muttered. But if it took facing the wrath of his boss to save the woman he loved—and by all his whiskers he did love Jenny—then off to the castle he’d go. He still had a few lives to spare.