Free Fashionably Dead Down Under by Robyn Peterman Page B

had to struggle to breathe. His
allure was alarming—not sexual, but addictive. He picked up a
shocked Myrtle in his huge hands and kissed her. First her left
cheek and then her right. She blushed a furious red and looked down
at the floor.
    “Yes,” he said, his melodic voice still
coated with mirth. “You are right, Myrtle, Keeper of Secrets. You,
Carl the Destroyer and Janet the Atrocity Maker will go with my
child. Kneel to me,” he commanded and they did. He laid his hands
on each of them and they shuddered as a glittering black mist
wafted over them.
    “What just happened?” I asked Envy.
    “He made them stronger,” she replied.
    Satan glanced over and crooked his finger at
me. His charm was magnetic and I drifted to him in the same way
Dixie had. The crowd began to murmur with fear and displeasure as I
approached my uncle. I held my head high and ignored the dissent
around me.
    “This is my niece, Astrid,” Satan bellowed,
effectively ending the chatter. Every eye in the house was trained
on me. “She is a Demon and a Vampyre. She is the Chosen One of the
Vampyre lore. She is my guest and will be treated with utmost
respect. She has the ability to kill and has done us a great
service.”
    Oh shit, did they not know that I killed my
daddy? How was that going to go over?
    “She has eliminated my brother and for that I
am most grateful.”
    The crowd gasped and dropped to their knees.
If this was for me, Satan or my dead evil pappy, I was unsure.
    “Is he gone for good?” A Demon yelled from
the crowd.
    “Oh, yes.” Satan laughed and embraced me. “He
was eaten.”
    “She ate her father?” someone else
yelled.
    I gagged and almost threw up in my mouth a
bit at the thought.
    “No, she did not, but that is her story to
tell if she wishes.”
    I glanced at my uncle, grateful that he
didn’t out my Baby Demons. I was sure that if he knew my dad had
been eaten, he was aware I had instructed my Baby Demons to do it.
I did not want them to be a target. The applause started slowly,
but crescendoed into a deafening roar. Well, my dad definitely
didn’t have any friends in Hell. Nice.
    “I think it’s an abomination to host a
bloodsucker,” Amanda said, stepping forward. She held her head high
and her bulbous lips settled in an unattractive sneer.
    “Is that so, my consort?” Satan asked,
enjoying her hostility. His arm tightened around me, but for all
intents and purposes he looked completely relaxed to the crowd.
    “Yes,” she said and coyly batted her
eyelashes at him. “She is below us and doesn’t belong here.”
    “Interesting. Would you like to challenge
her?” he asked.
    Challenge me to what?
    Amanda blanched and glanced around the room
looking for support. A fairly large number of Demons clapped, the
rest watched warily. I tried to catalog some of her supporters.
They were possibly the ones who would happily lead me to a portal
if my presence was such a blight on the community.
    “If I wasn’t with child, I would destroy
her,” she hissed.
    I’d had enough between Lust and the cheap
silicone floozy insulting me. I didn’t want to be here and it was
quite obvious I wasn’t wanted. There was no way in hell I would
reveal that I was with child too, but her cakehole needed to be
shut. “Well first of all, Pamela . . . whoops, I meant Donkey
Nipples, although I could level your ass with my eyes shut I don’t
think I’d have too much fun, but I’d love to take you out after you
give birth, so please by all means pencil me in.”
    “My name is Amanda,” she ground out through
clenched teeth.
    “That’s what I said.” I grinned when I saw
all my cousins from Hell giving me the thumbs up.
    “Enough,” Satan insisted, but his eyes
glittered with amusement. “My consort shouldn’t be upset.” He
released me and took her in his arms. She melted into him and he
whispered something in her ear that made her purr like a kitten.
She sauntered back and took her place near Cole smiling