“It or them?” Bambi’s brows jiggled.
Did they know something? My gut told me not to fear them, but I was in Hell where nothing was as it seemed. “Them,” I told her. I was at a dead end. I could feel my little monsters slightly, but it had faded. “My Demon Babies.”
“Are you speaking of Abe, Beyonce, Rachel and Ross?” General George’s waggly eyebrows inquired with great fondness. Hopefully it wasn’t because he’d just eaten them as an afternoon snack.
“Maybe,” I answered. “Have you seen them?”
“Oh yes, my dear,” he said. “Abe was quite sure you’d be coming. We’ve been waiting for you.”
“You have?”
“Yes.” Bambi giggled, if you could call a snort that spewed slobber a giggle. “We are here to guide you.”
“Why would you help me?” For the second time in less than ten minutes I wondered if this was a trap.
“Something is afoot and it’s wrong,” General George grunted, shaking his ginormous furry head.
“I thought you guys were okay with evil stuff.”
“Oh, we are, but this goes far beyond evil,” Bambi added.
“Are my babies okay?” I asked, heading for the door to go find them. I was going to kill those little shits if they weren’t already dead.
“For now,” Bambi assured me, stepping into my path. “Tell me what you’re feeling.”
I halted and again I considered lying, but something stopped me. They were trying to help me. They said they were my guides. Maybe they would be flattered if they knew I thought they were hot . . . but I didn’t think they were hot at all. I just had a disgusting compulsion to scratch my itch, so to speak.
“Well,” I hedged. “I’m not sure and I’m actually mortified to say this, but I might be just the tiniest weeniest bit, um . . . ”
“Attracted to us?” George asked, his eyebrows dancing a jig.
“Possibly,” I muttered almost inaudibly. How was I going to live this one down?
“Excellent,” Bambi screeched. “The little Demons were correct. Let’s go.”
“Wait,” I yelled. “You’re just going to let that slide?”
“Yes, we are,” General George said, avoiding eye contact.
As grossed out as I was with myself, I was also completely insulted. Clearly they weren’t attracted to me and I wanted to know why. But how in the world did I broach that one?
“It’s your chest bumps and your stench,” he said, intently examining his hooves.
“Can you read my mind?” I snapped. Wait. Did he actually just refer to my boobs as chest bumps and call me stinky?
“You need to shut your brain doors,” Bambi told me sweetly. “And you do smell odd, but so do all Vampyres.”
“Chest bumps?” I pointed to my offensive mammaries.
“Yes, dear.” She giggled as her brows shimmied on her forehead. “Do you find us attractive?”
“Well, um . . . no, not exactly.”
“We find each other very appealing,” she cooed, nudging a now embarrassed General. “You are not attracted to us and we are not attracted to you. You are attracted to something behind the door.”
“Thank Satan,” the General snorted. The ego part of me wanted to smack him and the sane part of me wanted to laugh. The laugh won out.
What was behind the door? As relieved as I was that I didn’t really want to get down on it with General George and Bambi, I wondered if the alternative was worse. Enough about my libido. I didn’t plan to satisfy it no matter how horny I was. My mate was on Earth and I was a one Vamp girl. Period.
“Are my Babies behind the door?”
“Not directly,” Bambi explained, moving her huge hairy body to the left of the door.
“But they did go in there?”
“Yes.” George shook his head sadly. “I begged them to wait till you came and we could all search together, but they insisted.”
“Why?”
They were silent. Not gonna work for me. Had they lied to me? Did they eat them?
“Why?” I demanded.
The Hell Hounds exchanged furtive glances and Bambi sighed dramatically. “They said he needed to eat. They were going in there to sacrifice themselves.”
“What?” I shouted, grabbed the handle and tried to push the door open. “To who? Who in the Hell are they going to sacrifice themselves to?”
“I think the name they used was Ethan.”
My world spun and I landed hard on the ground. The Hounds got me back on my feet, but the ringing in my ears was deafening and I wouldn’t have known if they had taken a big chunk out of me. My body shook and real fear grabbed hold of me and held on tight. Why was he here and why was he behind this door?
“Where does this door lead?” I asked, wanting to know yet dreading the answer.
“To all the other levels of Hell.”
“Can you take me to Ethan?”
“That is why we are here. Is he important to you?” General George asked.
“He’s my world—my entire world.”
Chapter 12
The door was locked.
“What the hell?” I groaned and rattled the diamond and ruby covered knob. “It’s locked.”
“Do you trust us?” General George asked, watching me with a thoughtful expression.
Did I? Kind of . . . I didn’t really have much of a choice. They knew where Ethan and my Baby Demons were. I needed them. Staring at his bulbous head and hairy body, I made a decision to throw my normal caution to the wind and go with it.