Free Holy Socks And Dirtier Demons by J.A. Kazimer Page B

eye. Yep, one eye, dead center of her pale forehead.
    “Do you know where she went?”
    The demon-girl laughed. “Where do you think?”
    Blood pounded inside my head. “Forget it. Demons don’t know shit
    anyway. Satan doesn’t trust your kind.” I started to walk away.
    “I know more than you think.” Her tail swished, kicking up a cloud
    of dust and smoke. “I know where the prize you seek is kept.”
    I stopped and turned to her. “We’re not talking about a hamburger,
    right?
    Her brow furrowed. “Why would you seek a hamburger?”
    “Long story.” I flexed my fingers on the nine-millimeter. “Tell me.”
    “No, you tell me. What is the going rate for betrayal?”
    “What are you talking about?”
    The demon shifted into the beautiful body of the murderous Lilith.
    She smiled, and slapped the gun in my hand away at the same time I pulled
    the trigger. The shot went wide, but her fist didn’t. It caught me right above
    the eye, and sent my nine-millimeter and me spiraling to the floor.
    Hades jumped to my aid, but Lilith froze him in place with a glare.
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    “This is his fight,” she said, pointing a talon-like finger at me. Hades blinked
    in acknowledgement.
    I slowly got to my feet, wiped the blood from my eye, and smiled.
    “Is that all you got?”
    She laughed. “What do you think?”
    The next punch rattled my ribs, cracking a few. At least this time, I
    stayed on my feet and even landed a blow of my own. Too bad, it glanced off
    her right shoulder, not doing any real damage.
    “You shouldn’t have come here.” She wrapped her arms around me,
    squeezing the breath from my lungs.
    “You shouldn’t have betrayed me.” I broke the chokehold with an
    elbow to her mid-section, and stepped back a few steps.
    “Believe what you will, but you will die a believer.” She vanished in
    a plume of steam, only to reappear thirty feet away, her arms pressed into the
    flesh of Samuel.
    I clutched my ribs and laughed. “If it isn’t the pretty-boy. Guess I
    should’ve shot you a few more times.”
    Samuel growled, lunging forward like a junkyard dog.
    “Don’t.” Lilith put a hand on his arm. “He is my toy.”
    “Then be done with it,” he ordered, his fingers digging into Lilith’s
    skin. Trails of blood leaked from her arm. Tiny demons danced around the
    raining blood, evil glowing in their yellowed eyes.
    “Come.” Lilith flicked her wrist, and in a daze, I followed. She led
    me through the club, down a flight of stairs, and into a dungeon. Screams of
    the innocents echoed from the stonewalls. People had died here. Painfully. I
    swallowed, ready to face whatever evil she had in mind.
    Blood still seeped from the claw marks on her arm, and for some
    reason her grimace of pain snapped me from my trance. I shook my head.
    “Great relationship you and Sam have.”
    Her face tightened. “Like you know anything about it. Three ex-
    wives and an STD.”
    I laughed, but sobered when she paused outside of a steel door. The
    stink of burning flesh drifted from underneath it, as did screams of the
    dammed.
    “Any chance we can talk about this?” I motioned to the door.
    Her smile tilted wickedly at the corners. “No, but I’ll give you one
    last request.”
    “But will you grant it?” I took a step closer, captivated by the vein
    pulsing in her neck.
    “Probably not.”
    “Then I don’t feel quite so bad.” I reached into my pocket and pulled
    out a vial filled with clear liquid. Before she could stop me, I tossed the
    substance in her lying face.
    She screeched, clawing at her skin for a second and then let out a
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    laugh. “Holy water doesn’t work, Jace. You should have studied the demon
    manual a little harder.”
    “You’re right. Holy water alone doesn’t work, but holy water and
    sugar…”
    Her cry was real this time as the water crystallized against her demon
    flesh, turning her into a big stick of rock candy.
    “Damn you. We are not enemi—” Her lips froze,