Page 25 of Anarchy
Shit. Ripley always had her phone in her pocket. It wasn’t in the lobby. I looked before Kaine, and his agents showed up and started processing evidence.
Our only way of getting to Ripley was through Bram, who hadn’t seemed to have checked his phone yet, and now the only person who had Bram’s number had been kidnapped.
19
Ripley
My eyes and lungs were burning. My entire mouth tasted like I drank a home perm. When I cracked my eyes open, I had no idea where Dorian had taken me. They propped me up against a cage with my hands behind my back and duct tape over my mouth. Dorian was making damned sure I couldn’t use magic against him, but he clearly didn’t know everything about magic.
My battle magic teacher at the academy was a former agent with the Paranormal Investigation Bureau. He was a hard ass and just as famous as Kaine was. He prepared us to fight our way out of any situation, even one like this.
I heard a noise behind me and tried to turn around.
“Before you think of using your magic on me, know you can’t kill me, and you’re safer in here than out there. You’re in Hell, Ripley Bell, and they don’t take kindly to outsiders here. They don’t know we’re in this little estate, but not all Hellhounds are like your Bram. They’ll rip you apart before you can even ask for help. They know their place and are proper guard dogs.”
Oh, fuck no. If I could see him, I was going to make his entire body break out into boils. Kidnapping me and bringing me to Hell aside, that was just a shitty thing to say.
“I have no desire to hurt you, Ripley. It’s in my best interest not to. If I remove your gag, can we have a civilized conversation?”
I nodded. I could wait with the boils. I learned a good bit from the movies Felix enjoyed watching. If the evil villain wanted to talk, keep them talking. They always launched into some sort of maniacal monologue that revealed their plans and was the key to beating them. Dorian was a vain motherfucker. I’ll bet he’d already written and rehearsed his villain monologue in front of a mirror. He probably filmed it and intended on posting it to social media when he was sure he’d won.
Dorian opened my cage and stepped inside. He didn’t just take the duct tape off my face. He untied my hands too. He was deranged enough to think whatever he was about to tell me, and the fact that I was in Hell meant I wouldn’t fight back. He locked the cage and pulled a chair up.
“I’d love to move you somewhere more comfortable, but I need you to cooperate with me, Ripley. You’re vital to my plans.”
“I thought Reyson was vital to your plans. So what can a witch do to get you out of your fucking deal?”
“We need Reyson to get us out of our deals. You’re vital to controlling Reyson.”
Shit. All this time, we were worried Dorian had something magical up his sleeve that wouldn’t work on Reyson. But, just like the gas at the library, Dorian took a very human approach to this. There wasn’t any magic in this world to force a god to do what you wanted. Dorian knew that when he was making those promises. So, he kidnapped someone Reyson cared about.
“Oh, man, did you fuck up, Dorian Gray. Reyson doesn’t need your painting to kill you. He’s possessive of the family we’ve built since you tricked me into raising him. He’s going to bepissedyou kidnapped me and stuck me in a cage.”
“Not if he just hears me out. He can save a ton of lives by helping us.”
“Why should he? No onemadeany of you summon and demon and ask for anything. No one forced you into manipulating a witch into doing it for you. Honestly, the supernatural community should have made your corpse disappear as soon as you made it known you knew about us. You’re a shit lay. If I were that witch, I would have killed you myself.”
“You’re missing the point, Ripley. It’s demons that are the real villains here. Men are flawed. You can’t put that kind of temptation in front of us and expect us not to take it.”
“You sound like every rapist who ever ended up in court and didn’t feel sorry about it. It’s not our clothes or what we drank that night, and just because the demons are offering doesn’t mean youhaveto take them up on it. You made your deal. You had a good run, and you had an entire book about you. Pay up, buttercup. No one likes cheaters, whether it involves your dick or payment.”
“I really do hate this decade,” Dorian groaned. “Things were so much easier before women’s rights and feminism.”
“You’re batting really low on me, not cursing your dick, and there’s no witch here to remove it.”
“I’ve hadzerocomplaints in that department. Maybe you’re just frigid.”
“Okay, asshole, I would have given you half a bonus point for rubbing my left labia lip for two minutes because you were at least in the vicinity of my clit and made an attempt. You’re old enough to have figured out how vaginas work by now, Dorian. They even do it in porn.”
“Shut up, Ripley. I said I didn’t want to hurt you, but you are trying my patience. I had hoped you’d at least be a little sympathetic for your fellow supernaturals on Earth.”
“What’s your end goal here, champ? Even if Reyson somehow agrees to kill Talvath and get you out of your deal, how do you intend to stay safe from Reyson? You can’t exactly hole up in Hell. They are going to have big opinions on what you did to get out of your deal. Many people hate you right now across two realms, and you didn’t exactly ask for magical powers with your deal.”
“You let me worry about that. You’ve been useful to me without knowing it, and now I need you to earn your keep. I grabbed your cellphone when it fell out of your pocket. My demon compatriot used your fingerprint when you were passed out to unlock it and download an app that will allow you to make phone calls between realms.
“I need you to call your boyfriend and tell him where you are. Tell him you are unharmed and will remain that way as long as you both cooperate. Talk him out of doing anything stupid. Soothe his rage at losing. Once he’s onboard, everything else will be done by text message. I’ll get him the exact ritual to summon Talvath and force him to Earth. Reyson doesn’thaveto kill him. He just needs to get him to tear up my contract.”
“You don’t care who you fuck over, do you? You knew Silvaria was going to go down for that warehouse eventually, but you still had her keep your demon there, knowing she put her name on it. I don’t know for sure, but I’m guessing the demon that is helping you don’t have a problem with all demons, just Talvath.”
