Page 26 of Devils and the Dead
One I immediately recognized as Xavier, my sister Glenda’s boyfriend. It was the other guy who really caught my attention, though.
Tall. Thin, but in that strong-and-lean kind of way. Hair black as a moonless night. Eyes equally dark. Those eyes swept the room as if they were seeing every floor joist and beam, then settled on me.
Heat sizzled through me, and I nearly dropped the mug I’d been filling with beer.
My sisters’ boyfriends were all demons, or kinda-demons, and they didn’t often party outside of Accident that I was aware of. Hadur, Nash, and Ty were not the extroverted types and rarely even went to the bars inside the boundaries of Accident. Eshu pretty much thought every day was a cause for drunken celebration, but he didn’t need to go to a bar to get his freak on. Lucien was either consumed by his duties as the son of Lucifer, or spending evenings with Cassie. Xavier was a crossroads demon and had a hedonistic appreciation for the good things in life, but there were better places to find those than in a little human bar. He certainly wasn’t here to make a deal as there were no crossroads for half a mile. Was here to claim a soul? Or had he come specifically to hear the band and brought a friend?
I hoped it was the latter. And I really hoped he sat up at the bar and introduced me to his friend.
I finished pouring the beers and set the tray at the section of the bar reserved for waitstaff pick up. Two women waved me down and I got them another round. As I headed to the other side of the bar, I saw Xavier and his friend sitting on two barstools near the far corner. I ignored a man who really needed to wait a bit before having his fourth beer, and went to greet the demon who was probably soon going to be a brother-in-law.
“Hey Xavier. Who’s your friend?” I was going to ask him what he wanted to drink, but the hot guy sitting next to him was staring at me, and honestly I felt drawn to do the same.
“Hades, meet Babylon.” Xavier gestured toward me.
He said it as if he’d been talking about me with this man. I hoped it had been good things. Xavier was pretty skilled when it came to communication, so I doubt he would have told his hot friend anything embarrassing. If this was Eshu sitting next to Hades, then the guy would have known all sorts of humiliating things—that sometimes I snored in my sleep, that every time the ragweed bloomed my nose ran nonstop, or that I was wearing a bra I purchased six years ago that was a few threads from snapping because I hated shopping for underclothes. I had no idea how Eshu knew these things about everyone, but he did. And he wasn’t shy about telling secrets either.
“You’re a necromancer?”
I winced at Hades’s incredulous tone, rethinking my opinion of Xavier. Clearly he was just as bad as Eshu. Why for once couldn’t I have a chance to make a good impression on a guy I was attracted to before he found out all the gross things about me?
I glared at Xavier before forcing an awkward smile for Hades. “Yes, my magical ability is necromancy.”
His gaze swept me again and I knew what he was thinking. Goth girl with red hair that I accented monthly with a box of Fire Engine Red to give it that special color-not-found-in-nature. I looked nothing like my sisters. Iwasnothing like my sisters. And I was so used to seeing surprise and discomfort in people’s expressions.
“The only necromancers I have ever met were old, ugly men,” Hades commented.
I held my breath, tensing for some sort of backhanded compliment or downright insult that he’d laugh off as “just kidding.”
“I didn’t expect I’d ever meet a woman necromancer. I especially didn’t expect to meet one so beautiful as you.”
I felt the red creeping up my cheeks, pretty sure that my face was now the same color as my hair. “Uh…thank you.”
I knew I wasn’t ugly. Human men found me attractive and interesting. It was the supernatural beings of Accident that tended to regard me with wary caution. That witch-who-animates-the-dead was a label more known than my own name.
“Babylon. That’s an interesting name.” He smiled at me and my heart about galloped out of my chest.
That had been another sore spot in my life. Everyone assumed I’d been named after the Whore of Babylon, who actually was a goddess of sexuality and not the mythical figure this repressed culture saw as a person to be pitied and despised. My mother had actually named me after the city itself. A place of many languages, where people from all cultures came together to trade and live. She’d had hopes that I’d be another Cassie, a witch who had mastery over many different magical abilities.
Instead I’d animated the neighbor’s dead cat before I could even walk.
“Lonnie,” I corrected him. “Please call me Lonnie.” It was easier, and less fraught with misunderstandings.
“I prefer Babylon.”
Once more I tensed.
“I was there, you know. It was a marvel of architectural design, an amazing city of beauty and culture. I wish I could claim such an incredible work of art as my own. One day I aspire to create something as close to perfect as that city.”
Suddenly I loved my name and didn’t mind at all if he called me Babylon.
“So…what do you do? Do you work for Lucifer in hell? Are you a messenger like Eshu? A reaper?” I asked.
Hades. Wasn’t he the mythical king of the underworld in the Greek pantheon? As I’d met the men who’d fallen in love with my sisters, I’d learned that reality was often a mix of myths and something a bit different.
“I am the architect.” He waved his hand with a false modesty that made me smile. “I’ve created nothing you’d recognize while among the living, though. I’ve designed heaven, hell, and purgatory, and often am commissioned for other afterlives as well. Most of my business tends to be in hell as they are experiencing a rapid expansion and are struggling to accommodate the influx of new souls.”
Nowthiswas fascinating. I leaned my elbows on the bar, cradling my chin in my hands, and prepared to settle in for a good conversation.
