Ruby Shadows Read online

  How do they survive in this horrible city? I wondered. How do they keep from being grabbed and murdered or worse in those awful crowds we passed through? Maybe they stuck together, taking care of each other and avoided the central square of Baator. Maybe the older ones took care of the little ones? I hoped it was something like that although it would be better if they had an adult to care for them.

  I wished I could do something for them. If I’d been back home, I would have called somebody and reported the situation at the very least. But it wasn’t like I could call Children’s Services in Hell.

  We passed by them and the little cherub-looking boy with the blond curls stared after me until they were out of sight.

  When we got to the huge front door of the vast black spire Laish had called the Hotel Infernal, two red skinned demons with sharp, crooked teeth and doormen’s coats hastily came to attention.

  “Who asks entrance?” one demanded, eyeing Laish uncertainly.

  “Laish, Lord of Hades,” he said in a cool, controlled voice. “Open the door before I flay the flesh from your bones.”

  The demons sprung to attention at once.

  “My Lord Laish—forgive us! We are but lesser demons—we did not know!”

  Laish said a single word in that harsh language I was beginning to think of as “Hell Speak” and they silenced at once. As one, they gripped the enormous door handles and pulled, revealing a vast lobby that seemed to be carved entirely of black marble.

  The opening the doors made was plenty big enough for Kurex to walk through with us still sitting on his back. Which in fact, is what we did. If the minor demons had a problem with Laish riding a huge demon horse into their hotel lobby, they didn’t say anything about it. But the way they were looking at him from the corners of their yellow eyes made me think they wouldn’t have said anything if he’d decided to bring a whole herd of horses with him into the hotel.

  “So, ‘Lord of Hades’ is it?” I murmured, turning my head to give him a sidelong glance as Kurex’s hooves echoed on the black marble. “That’s pretty major I’d say.”

  He shrugged laconically.

  “As to that, who can say? Some are more impressed by titles than others.”

  “Titles or threats?” I asked. “And by the way those two jumped to attention, I’d say you must have the power to back up your threats.”

  “Possibly.” He was still playing dumb which was really irritating. I wanted to know exactly how important and powerful he was. Back when I’d first worked my spell, I had been trying to get the most minor demon I could but I was beginning to believe I had brought over Hell’s version of a powerful CEO—or I’d brought over a general when I was trying for a private, if you prefer a military analogy.

  “Could you really, uh, flay the flesh from their bones if you wanted to?” I asked him, trying to read the look in those ruby red eyes. “I mean, don’t you need a whip for that?”

  “I could do it with a single word of power which I will not utter here,” he remarked. “It might cause you discomfort even if it was not directed at you and I would not wish to do that.”

  “Thanks so much,” I said dryly. “But it’s discomforting enough to know I’m with someone who can strip people’s flesh from their bones just by saying the right thing. Or the wrong thing, I guess.”

  “You should feel reassured, Gwendolyn,” he murmured, pulling me back against him. “That you are with someone who can protect you.”

  I straightened my spine, refusing to melt against him but I had to admit he was right. He’d certainly protected me when the demon had grabbed me in the crowd. I’d felt myself sliding from the horse’s back and had seen the gleaming eyes and sharp teeth of the demon who wanted me all in one frantic instant. Then Laish had kicked the creature in the face and pulled me back to safety.

  If I had been with a lesser demon, would they have been able to save me? I thought not. Maybe it was good I’d gotten the CEO when I cast my spell rather than the guy who worked in the mail room, although it was irritating that he still wouldn’t admit outright to me who and what he was.

  Kurex clopped towards the vast black marble desk that ran the length of one whole wall. It was so long I couldn’t see either end of it—we appeared to be headed to somewhere in the middle. The ceiling was far above us, when I looked up I could barely see it. A gleaming crystal chandelier a big as small house hung suspended above us and cast its cold, silvery light over the lobby. Here and there, small groupings of furniture were scattered, mostly upholstered in red and black leather.

  Several of the chairs held well-dressed demons or other creatures who were drinking and talking quietly—just as if they were businessmen discussing deals. Well, maybe they were. Only they were more likely to be selling and buying souls than stocks and bonds. I shivered. Several of them glanced at us as we rode the huge horse through the vast black lobby but none seemed to think us worth a second look.

  “Wow, it’s huge in here,” I remarked softly. “I mean, the outside is really big but the inside—”

  “Is infinite,” Laish murmured in my ear, finishing my thought. “Literally. There are said to be an infinite number of rooms within these walls—enough for all who have the means to stay here.”

  “Guess they don’t have to invest in a ‘no vacancy’ sign then,” I said. Not that I could see a place like this having a blinking neon sign anywhere on the premises. The Hotel Infernal was hands down the most imposing and expensive hotel I’d ever been in and that included the Safety Harbor Spa and Resort where my friend, Amanda had married her fiancée who was a very well to do cardiac surgeon.

  When we reached the marble desk a demon with pale blue skin looked up and nodded at us. He had elegant spiral horns like an antelope’s on either side of his head.

  “Good evening, Sir, Maaadam,” he murmured in a low, polite voice that was only slightly spoiled by sounding like a goat’s bleat. “How may I aaaccommodate you today?”

  “We’ll need your finest suite for the night,” Laish said crisply. “And I do mean the finest—one here on the first floor will do.”

  The pale blue antelope demon gave him a haughty look.

  “The first floor suites aaare reserved for the lords of the realm—the Great Demons. Only a Prince of Night and Shadow may reserve one. I caaannot—”

  “Did the doormen not tell you who I am?” Laish’s voice was silky smooth and very, very dangerous. “If you have doubts as to my right to take a first floor suite, please call your master, Druaga.”

  “Aaas you wish, Sir. But I warn you—if you do not have the proper staaatus to disturb him, my maaaster will be most displeased.”

  “Just call him,” Laish said. “Now.”

  The demonic desk clerk picked up a big, old fashioned looking phone and put the heavy black receiver to his ear. It reminded me of Gram’s old house phone—the one I finally convinced her to replace because it had a rotary dial.

  The demon spoke softly into the receiver and then nodded once before replacing it.

  “My maaaster is on his way, Sir.”

  “Very good.” Laish nodded.

  I sat quietly in front of him, wondering what was going to happen next. Was he really one of the Great Demons—the seven lords of Hell that answered only to Lucifer himself? If so, I was so completely outmatched that my own magical talents must seem laughable to him. I wondered why he hadn’t told me at once—and why he hadn’t blasted me when I had mouthed off to him on numerous occasions. After all, anyone who can flay demons alive with a single word would have no problem punishing a mouthy witch.

  After a long moment in which the demonic desk clerk pretended to be busy with paperwork while watching us from the corner of his yellow eye, a huge creature in a mustard colored hounds-tooth suit suddenly appeared in front of us. I say creature because though he had the body of a man, he certainly wasn’t human.

  The head of a wild boar with long, curving tusks poked out of the neck of his immaculate white collar. The tu