The Ripple Effect (Rhiannon's Law #3)(82)
I shivered at the thought.
“Do you honestly think I’d risk Revenald’s wrath by answering that question?” Victoria scoffed, her glossy red lips thinning. “You’ve lost your mind.”
“Not yet, but I’m getting there.” I bent down and removed the patent leather heels from Victoria’s feet. Her toenails matched her fingernails, painted bright cherry red. It was a shame I was resorting to torture tactics, but she wasn’t leaving me much choice.
Sucker buzzed in my hand when I removed it from its sheath, hungry for more blood. Victoria must have had a clue what I was up to, because she balled up her toes. Oh well, that just meant I couldn’t take her little piggies one at a time. I decided to cut past the final knuckles of her foot, so that it took off a quarter of her tootsie. This time, she did scream, so loudly my ears rang.
“We don’t have to do this,” I reminded her, moving to her other foot, wishing she would just tell me what I wanted so I could end this. Even though she’d hurt Jenny, torture wasn’t my thing. “All you have to do is tell me where they are.”
“Fuck you,” she snarled, a wild beast now, feral and out of control.
“Sorry, I don’t swing that way. But thanks for the offer.”
I wished I’d had the foresight to bring earplugs. When Victoria screamed, she really screamed. The sound seemed to go on and on, echoing loudly inside the room.
“Answer my question.”
“Fuck you,” she repeated, huffing through heavy tears.
I was plotting my next move when I heard heavy footsteps behind me. Instinct told me to move, but I didn’t have time. I was sent across the room, thrust away from Victoria. I rolled when I hit the ground, trying to get my bearings as I went to my hands and knees and lifted my head.
I could have slapped myself. Stupid is as stupid does.
A facepalm was definitely in order.
For some reason I hadn’t paid full attention, otherwise I’d have noticed a necromancer had snuck from the room—Victoria’s familiar, Dimitri. The son of a bitch had managed to get me away from his mistress, but that was small potatoes in the larger scheme of things. It was what was standing beside Dimitri that made my holy-shit-o-meter shrill like an old-fashioned alarm clock.
The largest demon I’d ever seen studied me, standing at least seven feet tall. Like all demons, its features were androgynous. Its long, dark red hair flowed down its back, and it was dressed in a cloak straight out of Star Wars.
Oh shit.
“End her life, Labre, and I will consider our debt paid,” Victoria said, her voice a shriek of anguish. “Kill her for me.”
“Why would I want to do that?” the demon chided, clucking its tongue. “It’s obvious she’s about to end your life, thereby nullifying our debt. I gain nothing in the exchange.”
Victoria panicked, realizing her mistake. “Name your price!” she squawked, moving her hands trapped by the blades stuck to the chair, her fingers wriggling.
“A child, Victoria Delcroix. You will come to me each night until you conceive. The fruit of our union will then be given to me.”
Victoria balked at the notion, the color in her face draining away. “You expect me to have a child with you?”
“No, I expect you to give me a child. You will serve no purpose aside from carrying my son or daughter and giving birth. I have no patience for your foolish games. You are nothing more than a means to an end.”
I managed to scrounge up the empathy to feel sorry for Victoria, bitch though she was. Her baby, plucked from her arms like a puppy taken from its litter.
Jesus. Spoken like a true demon.
I didn’t bother going for my Brownings this time, removing the vial of salt from a pouch in my belt. I quickly poured the contents around me, keeping my hand steady. My brain went into overdrive as I tried to piece together a plan. Demons could only travel to our plane with a summoning and would only return to Hell once they were dismissed or forced to the other side. I hadn’t brought any special tools of the trade, so if Victoria accepted the deal I’d be forced to fight the damned thing and pray I survived.
Sucker wasn’t the best option for cutting into my palm, but since my trusty butterfly knives were currently embedded in Victoria’s hands, I made do with what I had. I made a thick cut at the base of my hand and pulled the edge of the blade away before it soaked up the blood, allowing the warm, red liquid to drip to the ground, spinning in a circle to bind the salt to my lifeforce.
“I bind this circle with my blood and will,” I whispered, pouring all of my energy into the spell and using the amulet to fortify my words. Latin would have been better, putting more oomph into the magic, but I was untrained with the language, which was something I had to rectify if I lived to see another day. “This place belongs to me. Those who enter it answer to me. If I will it, once inside none shall escape.”
Who was I kidding? Goose and I just tried this same thing with a poltergeist and failed. I said a silent prayer, hoping God would hear me, that He’d find it in His heart to forgive me of my sins and give me the chance to redeem myself at some point in the future.
Not that I deserved it, considering all I’d done.
Victoria took a deep breath, released it, and nodded. It was obvious she didn’t want to agree to the deal. But the importance of a child didn’t mean much when her life was on the line. I remembered her treatment of her daughter, Isabella McDaniel. So unlike her mother, a pawn forced back and forth between her parents. Victoria had tricked Goose to get pregnant. Then she had used their child as a tool to keep him under her control. The Victoria of the future was becoming the one of the present, only this child wouldn’t follow her orders. It would thrive under the rule of a demon father.