Steal the Day (Thieves #2)(12)

Oliver scowled but held his tongue.

I’d had enough of the introductory chatter. I was anxious to get to the meat of the matter. “The priest said you could handle my little problem. My question is how do you even know about my little problem?”

I’d been extraordinarily careful in my investigations. I put everything in hypotheticals, and even then they weren’t hypotheticals that anyone could trace back to the reality of the situation. I hadn’t walked around asking for a guide to Hell. The last thing I needed was someone talking about the crazy chick who was planning a heist on the Hell plane. I wasn’t interested in warning Halfer of my half-baked plans. As it was, my plan was probably doomed to fail spectacularly even without the mark finding out I was coming.

“I’m very well informed,” she stated simply.

“I doubt that.”

She chuckled a little. “Correct me if I am wrong. You lost a very close friend to a demon contract a little over seven months ago. A witch named Sarah Tucker. Her contract was written as a legacy. She was the daughter of a witch who was heavily into dark magic. To strengthen their coven, Sarah and her sister, Lily, were given as offerings to the Hell Lord Brixalnax. The Tucker sisters were conceived with the help of demon kind, making them extremely strong in certain forms of magic. The contract was due to be active on the girls’ twenty-fifth birthdays, but Sarah made a contract of her own to try to save her sister. She was contracted by Brixalnax to ensure you failed in completing your own contract. But the demon wasn’t really interested in you. He needed you to get around the Vampire Council and force the king to be his willing assassin. When you very cleverly managed to find a way to fulfill your obligation, the demon took your friend. Now you wish to get her back. Please feel free to fill in any details I might have missed.”

Fine. She knew a little bit. Maybe she knew way more about certain parts of the episode than I did since the information about Sarah being part demon was news to me. It didn’t put me at ease. It just made me wonder. How did Felicity know everything? And why the hell did she need me? “You have your facts correct. Sarah Tucker is my friend. She was a member of my crew and that makes me responsible for her. I want to break into Hell and bust Sarah out.”

“By the way, we were very pleased you didn’t end up on Halfer’s leash, Mr. Donovan,” the blonde said. “It would have gone poorly for all of us. He had certain plans for you that would have been counterproductive. It was good that your companion was so quick-witted. It is this cleverness that I wish to use. I think you’ll find that my brother and I are also facing a dilemma. But if we put our particular talents together, I believe you’ll discover we can all get what we want.”

“And what is your particular dilemma?” This had to be interesting.

Even Oliver managed to look a little sad as Felicity began her tale. “Our brother, my twin, Felix, was also taken by Halfer. He went missing over six months ago, and it has taken a while to discover exactly what happened. You must understand that Felix is very special.”

My eyebrows rose because “special” made me think not politically correct things.

Felicity sighed. “It’s not that. He’s a kind soul. He loves the world around him, and that is possibly his downfall.”

“Was it a contract?” Daniel asked.

Oliver laughed, an ugly sound. “Halfer wouldn’t dare try to contract with Felix. It was a weakness that left Felix vulnerable. He was always too concerned about the beings on this plane, and it cost him mightily.”

Felicity placed a hand on Oliver’s shoulder. “What Oliver is trying to say is Felix was kidnapped by Halfer and taken to the Hell plane where he is being held and, I fear, tortured.”

“Do not fear it, sister. Fear the unknown. Avenge what we know is happening,” Oliver swore. “Felix is being tortured by the demon. There is no other reason for him to have been taken from us. The demon is feasting on his blood. He’s is gaining strength by draining our brother.”

“So you want us to get Felix when we pick up Sarah,” I surmised. “Not really seeing the upside for us. I mean, I’m sorry about your brother and all, but it’s going to be hard enough to get one person out of Hell. If I start trying to fill a truck and cross the border, I’m going to get caught. I mean, in this case, one really is easier.”

“And how do you mean to get to the Hell plane?” Felicity asked.

That was something that had figured itself out. In one of those wonderful coincidences, this was the year that demon kind and the Vampire Council renewed their treaties. Like anything involved with the two tribes, there were many rituals that took place as the contracts were renegotiated. There was a particular clause that would come up about uninitiated companions, and I really hoped they called it the Zoey Clause. Apparently after several days of arguing, all the demons and all the vampires got together to party. The party was held on the Hell plane, since reality didn’t really have to come into play there. It was a no-holds-barred free-for-all, and this year Zoey Wharton would be attending.

“Let’s say I have an invitation,” was all I offered.

“Of course, the vampire king would be invited to the ball,” Felicity reasoned. “It’s a way onto the Hell plane, but once you’re on there, how do you intend to navigate?”

And so the blonde woman neatly summed up problem number one with my whacked out plan. Hell isn’t some city laid out with neat roads and street signs. And I was pretty sure that no GPS would lead me to the building where Lucas Halfer was most likely to house his bitches.