Chapter Nine
Sam
The gym was finally empty, my shift was finally over, and the day was coming to an end. Now all I had to do was figure out what to do with the dead body stashed in my truck.
When I got close to my truck I realized I wasn’t alone and I stopped, waiting for whatever was there to appear. As if on cue, a large figure began to rise out of the bed. It was hunched over so all I could see was the curve of a back and slowly… the set of wide shoulders… the light skin against the dim lighting.
And then the person shot up the rest of the way, leaping out of the back and landing on the pavement with a thud.
I reacted, leaping forward, grabbing them and executing the perfect headlock. As I was about to bring up the pointed end of my key into the person’s face, I heard a laugh.
He was very full of himself.
I shoved the figure to the ground and crossed my arms over my chest. “Riley.”
He laughed and got to his feet, turning to face me. “In the flesh,” he quipped.
I knew he couldn’t resist a dead body. He was twisted. “Long time no see,” I said.
“Awww, did ya miss me?”
“Don’t you ever check your phone?”
“About that.” He began. “You really need to talk to Heven. All those messages are starting to sound a little des-per-ate.” He sang the last part.
Did he ever have a conversation without inserting high doses of jackass?
When I didn’t reply, he sighed dramatically. “Fine. Sorry I didn’t call you back. Reception in hell is a real bitch.”
Okay, I’d give him that.
“And finding a charger is even worse,” he added.
“You must come up here sometimes. Can’t you check them then?”
“I haven’t been up for a while,” he said vaguely.
“Define a while.”
“Week and a half.”
I was surprised. I figured he’d be up here more than that, barely able to stand being down there. Maybe hell agreed with him. He certainly didn’t look like it’d been a rough stay so far.
“Have you found the Soul Graveyard?”
“Yeah… no.”
I knew counting on him was a waste. “What have you been doing all this time?”
“A little of this, a little of that.”
“Riley.” I growled.
“It’s not that easy, okay? Turns out those Princes don’t want anyone to know where they stash their power.”
“You’ve seen them?”
“Not all of them. Mainly just the one. Don’t even ask me how to say his name. Dudes down there have the longest names.”
“What happened?”
“We had tea and cake. It was a lovely visit.” I stared at him and waited. “He invaded my castle with demons and broke my back.” He admitted. I waited some more and he went on. “So I returned the favor.”
“What does that mean?”
“Never mind. It doesn’t have anything to do with your souls.”
“If you aren’t going to keep us informed on what goes on down there, then there’s no point to you being there.”
He glanced at me. I wished Heven were here. She was good at reading people, and in that moment I knew there was something to be read from Riley. I swear it almost seemed he wanted to be down in hell. But that was crazy. Why on Earth would he want to be there?
“I’ve been looking. Hell’s a lot bigger than we realized. Each of the seven Princes has their own kind of… kingdom. Some of their lands have homes and electricity. They actually look civilized.”
“Are they?” I asked.
“Of course not. They’re filled with demons.”
“How did they manage all that?” I murmured, trying to wrap my head around actual civilization in hell. “And why haven’t we seen any of it before?”
“I guess you could say each Prince has his own way of ruling his land.” Riley went on. “Apparently all those luxuries like heat and electricity are options to everyone down there. Beelzebub must not have wanted it.”
“But how is it possible?”
He shrugged. “Magic.”
I scoffed. “Magic? More like power from the stolen souls.”
“That too,” Riley allowed.
I wondered how much of that power would be diminished when we released the souls. I also wondered after we did it if we would have all seven Princes after us instead of just one.
“So what’s this about a dead body?”
I walked over to my truck and pulled open the door, motioning inside. He came over and saw, then looked at me. “Sam. You really should clean out your truck more often.”
“Someone left it in Heven’s car.”
Riley glanced at me sharply.
“Be straight with me. Is Beelzebub still trapped in the dungeon?”
“Yes.”
But he didn’t seem that confident in his reply.
“Riley…” I warned.
“He was there last time I looked,” he said.
“Which was?”
“Two days ago…”
I swore. “So you don’t know.”
“Uh, I think I’d know if someone stormed my castle in an angry rage because they wanted it back.”
“Your castle?”
“Possession is nine-tenths of the law.”
“There is no law in hell.”
He made a face. “Let’s just dump this body and go eat. I’m starving. I haven’t had real food in days.”
We argued for ten minutes about where we should take it. All Riley’s ideas were strange and twisted and he said all of mine were boring. Finally, he sighed. “Let’s just go dump it in the lake.”
“No,” I said. Visions of Andi and her remains at the bottom of the lake flashed before me. I glanced back at the man in my truck. I didn’t kill him (at least I didn’t think so) and there was no sign of foul play on him (except for the fact he was in my girlfriend’s car), so I decided to take a risk. “Come on,” I told Riley and climbed in, leaving the body where it was and fitting my feet around it.
When Riley was in, I pointed the truck toward the alley behind the gym and stopped a couple buildings down beside a very large dumpster. I left the engine running and then yanked him out by the coat and set him beside the trash bin against the wall of the building. Then I stripped him of his coat (it had my fingerprints on it) and tossed it behind the seats inside the cab.
I could feel Riley’s stare when I climbed back in and shut the door. I glanced over at him. “Are you serious?” he demanded.