A Hand in Hell

Chapter 11

The bar was packed, the massive bodies of demons and the sweating bodies of their little kitties and puppies blocking the way to the bar as they stood swaying on the dance floor or crowded around the tables. I took Lauren's hand in a firm grip that she didn't bother to return and starting pushing my way through the throng of creatures. Half of them didn't even look human anymore — dangerous, considering that this was still a public place and anyone could enter.

"'Scuse me!" I called over the crowd, leveling a particularly balky male with a fang-baring sneer when he opened his mouth to protest. A rough shove sent his broad body lilting sideways, into his terrified human companion, and I continued forward, bellowing all the while. "Two pretty girls, coming through! Move your ass if you want it to remain attached!" Finally, I broke free of the crowd, pulling Lauren to my side with a tug and a relieved sigh. "Phew. That was fun, wasn't it?" I asked dryly, and she nodded in agreement, eyeing the mass of shifting bodies with a frown.

"Are all of them demons?" she asked, shouting over the bass-heavy music.

"No," I answered, leaning in close to her ear so that I didn't have to shout. "Many of them are, especially the giant things with horns, but a lot of them are just humans like you."

She turned to me, eyes wide in alarm. "They've all been kidnapped?"

I shrugged and turned toward the bar, bored with her goody-goody nature for the night. "I don't know the details, but I'm sure some of them were obtained through less than commendable means." My eyes finally found the bartender, his scruffy face peeking through a pair of chunky men, and I started forward, dragging Lauren along behind me. "There he is, the asshole."

Shoving my way between the two men, I slapped a palm on the counter and smiled cheerfully when the bartender jumped, startled. "Heya, barkeep! I sure hope you have something for me."

"Ah, Vera," Lauren muttered in warning, and I glanced up to find one of the men I'd shoved aside glowering at me and the other eyeing the human appraisingly.

I grinned. "Walk away or die," I said brightly, guiding Lauren quickly and gently to the safe space between my front and the bar, finally releasing her hand to place a palm on the counter to either side of her, making my possession of her as plain as possible. "Your choice, boys."

"Stop it," the bartender snapped when one of the men opened his mouth to speak, an unkind glint to his dark eyes. "I don't want to have to throw anyone out tonight. We're up to one month free of incidents, and I'd really like to keep it that way."

"Whatever," the man sneered, then he and his buddy lumbered away, each growing a pair of bone-white horns even as I watched. I snickered.

"Look at how tiny those things are!" I cackled, turning away from the two sets of stick-straight, two-inch-long nubs to face the bar. "They're not actually trying to show off, are they?" I watched over Lauren's head as the bartender rolled his eyes, and the girl twisted to look up at me in wonder.

"How big are your horns?"

I answered her with a wink and a wicked smile, then turned my attention to the bartender. "So, barkeep, it's been a while since we last talked." I leaned to one side to rest my elbow on the counter around Lauren, pouting at him from my chin's new perch upon my palm. "Why haven't you called? Do you not love me anymore?"

He rolled his eyes again, and I smirked. "It hasn't even been a day. Or do you not understand how information gathering works?"

"I need to know where to find these pricks, like, yesterday," I said lightly, pulling Lauren closer to me for no reason other than because I could. "I had enough faith in your abilities to think that you'd be ringing me up by five o'clock tonight with a list of haunts and homes, but alas, it seems I may have put my faith in the wrong man."