Page 3 of Interior Design for Demons
I’ve barely taken five steps when muscled arms close around me like bands of unbreakable steel. I shriek, but the arms shift and a warm palm smashes across my open lips, gripping the lower half of my face painfully tight.
“So you’re not stupid, then.” Rath’s breath scorches my ear. “Good. The smart ones are always more fun.”
He drags me to the car, while I kick as fiercely as I can—but I can’t do any serious damage in my current position. All I manage to do is kick off both my sandals. This guy is stronger than anyone I’ve ever met, as strong as I’d imagine Thor to be. In fact, with his wavy blond hair he could make a decent Thor doppelganger—
What is wrong with me? Why am I thinking about freaking Thor? I buck and twist, trying to wrench my body free, but it’s no use. Rath bundles me into the back seat of his car and slams the door. I dive for the handle immediately, but it’s already locked. There’s a metal grate between the back and front seats, and the window glass back here looks unusually thick. I kick it anyway, so hard that my little toe crunches and I scream with the pain.
Rath slides into the driver’s seat and shuts the door just in time to keep my scream from reaching beyond the confines of the car.
“If you will shut up for five minutes, I’ll explain what’s happening,” he says.
“No amount of explanation could possibly make this okay,” I bellow, kicking at the metal grate with my undamaged foot.
“That back-seat cage was built to contain low-level demons,” he says. “There’s no way a hundred-thirty pounds of soft flesh like you can break out.”
Demons. He just saiddemons. Okay. He’s insane. “You’re insane.”
“As I told you earlier, I don’t have time for this,” Rath replies. “I’m on a deadline. So here’s a demonstration.” He twists around to face the metal grate between us, and his form flickers—alternating to a version of him with enormous amber eyes, spiraling golden horns, and a grin full of serrated teeth. The immense shadows of two ashy wings fill the car.
I clap both hands over my mouth; but when I blink, the vision is gone. It’s just Rath Edwards, T.A. for my philosophy class, looking at me with serious dark eyes.
“Do you need to see it again?” he says calmly.
“No,” I squeak.
“Wonderful. Then we’ll be on our way.” He throws the car into drive, and we move along the street at a leisurely pace, within the campus speed limit.
“You’re a demon.” My voice rasps through my constricted throat. My brain feels sort of paralyzed, like it’s glitching and trying to compute this new reality. If itisreality, and I’m not going insane.
“Yes, I’m a demon,” he replies.
“But—you’re a teacher’s assistant.”
“Also true.”
“How—why—”
“The position of T.A. is one I’ve held many times, in many different colleges and universities. It gives me access to young souls when they’re at their most vulnerable.”
I lean my forehead against the window glass. “Oh god.”
“God exists. Mind-blowing, isn’t it? Take a minute to process.”
“Look, just tell me why I’m here, and what you want from me. Do you want to eat me? Torture me?”
“Not at all!” He looks at me in the rearview mirror. “Eat you? Lucifer’s bones—why would I want to eat you? Unless you meant...” His voice trails off, and his neatly shaped eyebrows arch suggestively.
“I meant ‘eat’ as in bite and chew,” I mutter.
“Some demons might be into that, but fortunately for you, we are merely in need of your professional expertise.”
“My—my professional—but I’m a student!”
“A student of interior design.”
“Y-yes, but—”
“They’ll explain everything in orientation. For now, let’s just say that Hell could use a redesign, and you’re one of the competitors for the privilege. It’s the career-making opportunity of the millennium, Grace. You’d be a fool to turn it down. Beside which, youcan’tturn it down. The deadline is midnight tonight, and we need a thirteenth contestant. Ishtar has this thing about the number thirteen—I think it’s silly, personally, but I’m not going to argue with the lady. She could melt me into goo in half a second. Little tip—be polite to her when you meet her.”
