Immortal Rider_ Lords of Deliverance Series_ - Larissa Ione [85]
Eventually, he’d learned the art of threats, too. If you make mom or Runa bleed again, I’ll go to the cops. And finally, after three days of no food in the house because their dad had spent all the money on booze, Arik had hit rock bottom too. Go to AA and clean up right now, or I swear, I’ll make you feel everything you’ve done to us.
That had led to a physical altercats mur, I’ll ion between the two of them that had ended in Arik’s broken arm and his father’s missing teeth. And nothing changed. Not until Arik went to the “weird guy” in school, the one who always wore black, sketched skulls and pentagrams on his notebook covers, and said he worshipped the devil.
Runa always believed that it was their mother who had given their father the ultimatum that made him get sober and become a model father, but no, it was Arik and the weird guy, who summoned a demon and made a deal that Arik had regretted with every fiber of his being.
“How did you get out of that situation?” Limos asked.
For a long moment, he lay there, listening to the sounds of the thunderstorm puttering out and a hellhound howling nearby. Who would ever have thought that the eerie sound of a hellhound would be a comfort? But that was the world he was in now, one that had changed radically in the last couple of years, and even more in the last few days. Especially for him.
“This is one of those questions you won’t answer, isn’t it?” Limos sighed. Limos, who had become the biggest part of his new world. And hell, since her brother had claimed his soul, he supposed it couldn’t hurt to tell her it wasn’t the first time that had happened.
“How did I get out of the situation? I sold my soul to a demon who promised to make my father go sober and straight.”
Limos shot straight up, her raven hair falling forward to cover her breasts, which was a shame. “You did what?”
“Yeah, it was stupid. But I was desperate. Convinced that the next time my old man got violent, he’d kill Runa or my mom.” He reached up to play with a strand of her silky hair. “It worked. He got sober and stopped beating the shit out of us and cheating on mom, but then he got lung cancer, and our mom committed suicide, so I sold my soul for nothing I guess.”
“How long?” Limos rasped.
“How long what? Until he died?”
“How long until the demon collects?”
“He already tried. Remember when I said I was bitten by a demon? That was his calling card. I was supposed to die, but Shade saved me.”
“What kind of demon?” She gripped his leg so fiercely he knew he’d have bruises by morning. “What species did you sell your soul to?”
“Charnel Apostle. Why?”
Limos jumped to her feet, startling him. “Get dressed.” She snatched her bikini top out of the sand. “Hurry. We have to find this demon.”
He tugged on his pants. “He failed to kill me. The contract is broken.”
“No,” she said, her voice laden with impatience, “it isn’t. Charnel Apostles never allow for out clauses.” She cursed in a few different demon languages. “Gah. That’s why Pestilence hasn’t killed you. I wondered about that, but now it makes sense.”
“Not to me.” He slipped on his shirt and helped her tie her bikini strings in the back while she lifted her hair. “Interesting tat.” He frowned at the set of scales, which he’d swear had been weighted differently the last time he saw it.
“We don’t have time for tats,” she said, spinning around to him. “My brother tethered your soul, but someone else has a claim on it. In order to get it for himself, he has to buy it from the other demon. Or, more likely, kill the dude. We have to get to that demon first.”
“How?”
She fiddled with her navel ring as she spoke, her words spilling like a dam had broken. “I’ve seen Gethel perform rituals to bargain for souls before. We need an angel. And some blood from everyone who participated in the summoning of the demon who took your soul.”
Arik