Chapter 84

Red flames licked out from the hell pit, sampling the air, and then flickering to almost nothing as if even fire couldn't survive Paul's presence. I ticked my gaze from the fire to the mausoleum, not daring to blink, but the insane heat boiling up from the ground forced me backward - and right over a low headstone. I went sprawling.

"Dumbass piece of shit," I hissed as I scrambled upright. And then nearly tripped again.

The red-eyed demon hovered over the hell pit, flames barely reaching up to the soles of his black shiny shoes. The demon, as in the very same one I'd stabbed, punched, and sent back to hell with my hell-no answer to his boss's marriage proposal. Judging from his impressive sneer wrinkling his nearly seared-off nose, he didn't appear to have missed me.

"Oh. It's you." His velvet voice, dripping with sarcasm, wrapped around the night, but not me.