Free Wicked And Wilde: Immortal Vegas, Book 4 by Jenn Stark

with words that rang with absolute authenticity. Kreios wasn’t paying me. Which meant his assignment wasn’t a job. “I’m in and out on Soo’s dime, as fast as possible.
    “Perhaps we’ll hire you as well, then.”
    It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen that one coming. Add-ons weren’t unheard of in the world of arcane bounty hunting. But the rules were clear.
    “You want something and I can get it, I will. For a fee,” I said. “My loyalty is to Soo, though. That’s the way this works.”
    They nodded. “When do you leave?” the woman asked.
    I grimaced. I still needed to get the key out of the precinct house. “Tomorrow, the next day. Soon.”
    “You’ll have your commission before sunrise. We need time to discuss.”
    “Well, whatever you want, I need to be able to carry it with one hand, on the run if need be. Otherwise, no deal.”
    She inclined her head. “Agreed. In payment, you may ask your questions about Hell.” She noted my hardening jaw. “If the additional compensation we offer when we decide upon the artifact is not satisfactory, we can negotiate an equitable price.”
    “Fine.” Arrangements finalized, I didn’t waste any time. “You said a house full of rooms. Is it all indoors?”
    “No,” the older man spoke. “It has open spaces as well, empty vistas if that is what you conjure for yourself. It’s a house of the mind as much as anything, and the mind is a dangerous place.”
    “What sort of security is there? Any demon armies I need to know about? Three-headed dogs?”
    The woman managed a grudging smile. “Nothing like that in the upper realms. The lower realms have a demon host or angelic host, depending on your viewpoint. You shouldn’t run into those.”
    I frowned. “Why not?”
    “Because you’re searching for artifacts placed in Hell by human hands. There’s only so far a living soul can go into Hell. To go farther, you need to either be dead or be granted immortality from within.” The man’s eyes had taken on a strange fervency. “The ultimate gift of the masters.”
    Okeydokey. It occurred to me that getting travel advice from crazy people was perhaps not my best bet. “Why is it so hard to get out?”
    “You won’t want to leave.” The woman again. “The exits are not hidden if your eyes are clear and your mind focused. If you allow yourself to become clouded with that which appears to be real, however, you will lose your way.”
    “Eh, that sounds easy enough to remember,” I said. “What am I missing? Why hasn’t anyone returned?” At their blank stares, I rolled my eyes. “You seriously mean to tell me that all I have to do is stay focused and I’m good?” Kreios had said much the same thing, but I refused to believe it. “Okay, what else do I need to know?”
    They talked on then, but their answers had a clear pattern. Hell was deceptive and filled with misdirections. Hell was dangerous but not in any specific way. Hell required you to stay focused and solid or it would get the best of you. Like the ocean, it seemed, a mortal could fool Hell many times. But Hell only had to fool you once.
    Either way, I felt better, and if the Spinners ended up paying me to pick up something in Hell when I was already down there, then all the better.
    Eventually the cigars smoked down and the talk drifted to less interesting topics, allowing us to exit smoothly. With a promise to contact us by sunrise, the dark mages let us go.
    “That wasn’t as bad as I expected,” I murmured as Nikki steered me through the crowd. It was thick enough that tourists were cheek to jowl, and she simply grunted in response until we got into the elevator. Then the universal Law of Elevator Silence was invoked, and we didn’t breathe easy until we exited into the cool desert night.
    “It went about how I thought it would.” Nikki shrugged. “A little too easy, but we got ’em talking. We’ll see what happens tomorrow. Accept whatever they offer, then plan on renegotiating.