Pomegranate Parfait

Chapter 8-Part 1

Apparently, demons like to squat in style. Korey nearly dropped her knock-off designer tote when she realized where they expected to hide-out.

"The Four Seasons? Are you kidding me?" she cried as the odd group crossed the street. (Korey had to fling out her arms to keep the immortals from plowing into traffic. Apparently 'cars' were not invented the last time they were there.)

"As homely as your closet was," said Cate. "I would rather go back to Hell than spend another second cramped between your mismatched furniture."

"Fine, whatever." Korey was more concerned with the impending glass doors with enough gold to buy her apartment building. "You know we can't just... walk in there," she began.

"Why not?"

"I don't know how it works where you're from, but in New York, you need money. And not the kind you might have used the last time you were here." Marvin made a choking noise that might have been interpreted as a snort. "And you certainly can't bring a... a Marvin in there."

"Relax, Rodi. Notice how no one has noticed him yet?" Korey blinked. He was right; the pedestrians swerved around Marvin without a second glance. "The zoi see what is easiest for their puny minds to understand. You can only see him because you know he is there."

"So what do they see?"

Jax considered it a moment. He snorted. "A little kid on a scooter."

"Do you want to see?" asked Aides softly. They were almost at the Four Seasons. Korey nodded her head. A warm, tattooed hand rested on her shoulder. "Close your eyes and open your mind. You need to accept the glamour if it is to work."

Korey obeyed. Heat coursed through her veins with something more. Something intoxicating. Something that woke a deeply controlled part of herself. Like breaking through the glass.

Korey blinked her olive eyes. It was like looking through water. She knew the demonic trio was there, but whenever she tried to focus on their faces, her attention slipped away. Korey looked around for the Hellhound. Marvin was nowhere to be seen.

Breath rasped against her leg. She yelped, jumping back, breaking Aides' touch. The little boy on the scooter morphed back into the Hellhound's mismatched face. Korey gave Marvin a shaky pat on the head. "Never change, buddy."

Marvin barked. Cate laughed, "He says, 'touché'."

"I thought Hellhounds couldn't speak."

Cate shrugged. "Words are crutches for simple minds." The doorman pulled open the intricate glasswork, and, without a second glance, allowed the group inside.

***

Knowing a Dark Lord had benefits. All Aides had to do was walk to the front desk, and the clerk gave him the penthouse suite, a month's worth of complementary breakfasts, and her wallet - without batting an eye.

Cate brushed past her with a smug grin, letting the ends of her hair whip Korey in the face. Korey growled, hoisting her faux-Vuitton bag higher up her shoulder. She had enough to worry about without a petty-bitch-contest.

***

The penthouse was the size of an indoor soccer field, the like known only to reality-TV and vision boards. There were five bedrooms, each with a king bed, en-suite, walk-in closet, and small sitting area. The closet alone was double her apartment's square footage. The bedrooms converged on a living room with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the city below. A small kitchen burrowed into the area beside the front door. It was untouched.

"Now what," asked Korey, dropping her bag on the plush couch. Even the air felt expensive.

Aides strode to the windows. "We still don't know if this was a Reaper working alone, or if it was in cahoots with others. If we find the stray, it might lead us to whoever is behind all of this."

"You mean the Rifts."

He paused for a moment, then nodded. "Someone – something – is purposefully breaking the balance. If we do not stop them from making portals to our world, mortal and immortal will collide, and there will be nothing we can do to return the peace."

"If the realities collide, the First Realm will be the first to fall." Cate climbed onto the kitchen island, and folded her legs into her lap. "Myriad souls will escape back to the living realm. The unjudged will plunder the mortal world."

"Okay, got it – we win, everything stays the same. We lose, and it's the end of worlds." Korey received only bland looks. "But what could a Reaper possibly want with Sabrina? Why kidnap her in the first place?"

Uncertainty stumbled into every expression. Even Aides had no answers.

"I believe there is much more going on here than meets the eye," he said eventually. "Keep your guards up."

**

Korey drifted into one of the bedrooms, claiming it as her own. But even surrounded by comfort, Korey could not shake her growing unease. As she stared out the windows at the calamitous city below, three simple words burned their way into her mind. She already knew there was more to this than the immortals were letting on. Still, they did not trust her. That was fine. Because all Korey could think, bathed in a luxury that was not her own, was the last piece of advice Sabrina gave her. Three inescapable words. Don't. Trust. Them.