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Tiki torches light the alcove in a sickly reddish light, a parody of what was waiting for her. Before her, Cole and Phoebe clung to one another, knowing that Bee isn’t a threat, that despite all she’s done, she is there for them. This time, this one time, she’s doing the right thing. She has a choice, a small one, but it’s not a choice she can make.
If she doesn’t drink from the chalice, if she doesn’t let the tainted blood claim her, then two years from now they would all come back, hunting down Cole again, and now Phoebe as well. They wouldn’t stop until they had finished the cycle of the ritual. If she didn’t drink from the chalice, it would never end.
She lifted the metal cup to her lips, taking a sip. The blood of the sacrifice, the blood of the innocent, her own tears.
There was pain. Her soul was wrenched down to hell while her body became no more than a billion tiny particles on that beach. A week from now someone would collect sand from this beach, a souvenir, and with those tiny particles they would gather up bits of a cult leader and a babysitter and never know the magic that sand possessed.
It should have been the end. She should have spent eternity being tortured, burning in lakes, or being reincarnated. She wasn’t sure but it shouldn’t have been finding herself called back up from her eternity and finding herself in a small apartment with a folder on the table before her. Within is information about a young girl with no family, someone in the system that needed someone to love her. It wasn’t her name on the documents, but it was definitely her face in every picture.
“What in literal Hell is this?” Bee muttered, flipping through the folder.
“That is your new name,” Sonya said, standing in the doorway to the bedroom, all sleek black clothes and a crisp white shirt. Her bangs were perfect, her nails sharpened, and she looked as much like an anime schoolgirl as she did a deadly panther.
“Right. So I’m what? Back to recruiting little girls like you, Sonya, and pretending I care about you so that you sign your soul in the book? Someone else found the book. It’s on them now.”
“You’re right, it is,” Sonya said with a sharp, humorless smile. It was like seeing a shark pleased at seeing a surfer. “He’s got other work for you. Did you really think you could betray him and he’d just ignore it? Really?”
“I betrayed no one. I drank the blood flavored Kool-Aid just like everybody else.”
“Bee. My sweet, sweet Bee,’ Sonya cooed, strolling closer in her kitten heeled Mary Janes. “Do you really think he doesn’t know what you did?”
“I did what I was told!” Bee pushed to her feet, facing off against Sonya across the table. “I brought in souls.”
“You did. You also delivered a white rabbit, didn’t you?”
Bee tensed, eyes widening a tiny bit as her skin paled, lower lip nearly trembling. Sonya caught every sign, and she laughed.
“Did you really think he wouldn’t know about that? If you hadn’t ruined his game with you, he might have been proud. Ruining his innocence like you did. Cole and the girl? They’ll never be the same again.”
“Shut up! Shut up, or I’ll…”
“You’ll what? A snap of my fingers and you’re back to your own personal hell.” She held up her hand, fingers against one another. “Is that what you want?”
Bee thought about her hell. That constantly repeating nightmare where Cole dies over and over again. Hung from a tree. Gutted in the crawlspace. A bullet exploding his head. Over and over again where they did catch him that night, where she hadn’t been able to distract the others. Time and again where she couldn’t do anything for him but to watch him die.
“Fine. Whatever.” Anything was better than that. “So what the hell am I supposed to do?”
“Tomorrow you’re going to seek out your target. You know, like me and the others, and then you’re going to seduce him.”
“That’s it?”
“No, that’s not it. Guess what, Bee, you’re going to get a chance to marry. Rich. Handsome. Old money. His old money, but old money.”
Bee frowned, her brow furrowing. “Wait, he’s one of us?”
Sonya waved a hand dismissively. “In a way. A different deal, a different manner of fulfilling it. He wants to ensure the newest generation stays the course and keeps paying the debt. That’s where you come in.”
“If their name is already in the book, what am I supposed to do?”
“It’s not that hard, Bee. Seduce him. Marry him. Then play a game.”
“Play a game?” She rolled her eyes, folding her arms over her chest. “Really? That’s all?”
“That’s all.”
“And?”
“And if you win the game, you’re done. You get your life back.”
Bee jerked like she’s been slapped. “What?!”
“He says that if you win the game, you get your life back. Your soul. All of it. You get whatever remains of your life, without a debt.”
“Bullshit.”
There was no way the Devil was giving her back her life, that he would free her from her contract. Especially if he knew about her saving Cole as well.
“The last page is a new contract.”
Sonya reached between them flipping to the last page, a contract waiting to be signed. It was already signed by the Devil.
“You sign it, you do this, and you’re free.”
“And all I have to do is get married and play a game?”
“That’s all. Well, you have to do it within a year. One day over a year without a marriage license and the game and you go back to Hell. You lose the game, you go back to Hell.”
Bee chewed at her bottom lip, considering her options. What downfalls were there. What ways this could be used against her, everything that could go wrong.
And everything she could gain.
“Come on now, Bee. Sign your name or not. You don’t have all day.”
“Shut up. Let me think.”
“Tick tock. Tick tock. He’s not a patient man. You want a chance, or not?”
Bee snatched up the pen next to the folder, signing her name on the dotted line.
“There. Now what?”
Sonya gathered up the signed contract, leaving the dossier on who Bee was about to become. “Now you find your beloved and figure out a way to get him to marry you. Love. Romance. Sex. Living together. None of that is enough. You have to marry him and you have to play the game.”
“Fine. Fine. Whatever. I’ll do it. You know me. You know I’ll get it done.”
Sonya laughed, giving her a look. “I know Bee could have gotten it done. Grace though? I’m not so sure about her. Have fun,” she cooed, waggling her fingers at Bee before she vanished in a column of smoke and flames.
“Goddamn dramatic bitch,” she muttered, picking up a pack of cigarettes and lighting one. Taking a drag, she exhaled slowly.
“How damn hard could this be?”