Pandora's Demon Book Two

By Odette C. Bell

Blake can’t get rid of Ruby. Yet. But time is running out. The descended gather, the exorcists helping them at every turn.
And as for Blake, give it enough time, and that treacherous heart of his might change its mind. For every time he’s thrust together with Ruby, they get closer. And there are only so many times a demon lord can sweep someone off their feet before it’s no longer fun – it’s fate.
They’ll have to move quickly. For soon Ruby will learn the dark secret at the heart of her family. A treacherous mystery reaching back through the ages with a frozen grip that can’t be broken.
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A light-romance urban fantasy, Pandora’s Demon follows a prince and a half-breed battling to save the universe. If you crave your fiction with action, humor, romance, and fun, grab Pandora’s Demon Book Two today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.
Pandora’s Demon is the 2nd My Better Devil series. A witty, action-packed, light romance world where Satan’s sons must find love, but only after it sticks a ring on their finger. If you like your urban fantasies packed full of charming smiles, arrogant demons, and sprinkles of romance, dive in today.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Nov 13, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005054267

Book preview

Chapter 1

Blake

Technically, it was over. Technically, we’d survived. That was a lot of technically’s. Once upon a time, I hadn’t cared about that word. You could technically have had a wall between me and your sins – I would’ve broken it down. You could’ve technically been stronger – I would’ve proved my superior worth in under a second. Now?

Ruby threatened to close her eyes again. We still weren’t out of the basement. I jostled her hard. You will open your eyes, Ruby, I said in a very strict tone. Or at least, I tried to make it strict. I honestly called on my vocal cords like I had for the rest of my life. This was the me who’d boomed across the parapets and commanded his demon army. This was the me who’d proclaimed a sinner’s worth to my father. And yet, even though it was the same voice, the same man, the same throat, and the same sentiment, it slipped out of my lips in a kind whisper.

She opened one eye. She looked tired. I could tell why. She’d used a tremendous amount of power. Worse? That fragment of ice was still there. I’d hoped it had thawed by now. It had not.

Now Ruby had more decorations to adorn her once plain human form. But while her two ghastly horns were from Hell, the fragment in her eye belonged to something… else.

Ruby?

I’m going to sleep now, Dad, she whispered.

I jostled her, jaw hardening. I’m not your father, my voice finally got a little pluck. And, Ruby, you will not sleep. Because I’m afraid if you fall asleep in my arms, you’ll have a Hell of a dream.

Either she really was becoming delusional, or she took something out of that statement I didn’t intend. One side of her lips plucked up into a wistful smile. Then her head tipped back.

Dammit, I spat.

She started to slip under.

Perhaps you’d think it was a good time. She’d assisted me to defeat a true descended infection. She was safe in my arms. The ring would ensure that. So why not allow her to get a little bit of shuteye?

When you had something like that in your eye, that was the reason why not.

Dammit, Ruby, I spat again.

I sounded like a broken record, like some officious British lieutenant from a past war. I said dammit, but trust me, I meant something much worse. I shot up through the void space protecting this basement from the rest of the catacombs below the cathedral. I had one goal. Red. I could only assume he was still alive. He was a very intelligent demon.

But I had forgotten something.

Her Ring of Satan suddenly jostled. I knew that, because as it moved, it felt like something rammed me, grabbed my guts, and jiggled them all around. It was a decidedly less pleasant sensation than when Ruby stroked the ring. And I didn’t have the time nor brain power to mention what occurred when she kissed it.

Red soon kicked his way out of the top of the ring.

He went to pull down on an imaginary jacket. The second time he’d done that. It was one thing for me to do it – I wore lapels. This was a creature who’d always been naked, presumably.

Perhaps this was an indication he hadn’t always been naked in the past, however. And I was thinking about this why?

Wake her up, I snapped. Much has happened—

You’re telling me. It’s finally come out then, has it? He fluttered over, gently grabbed her eye, and opened it. Then he yelped, let go of his fingers, shook them out, and looked at me. You let her do all the fighting, didn’t you? Aren’t you meant to be Satan’s worst son?

I am— I smartly stopped myself in time, realizing that would have two meanings. Just wake her up. You’re connected to her—

He shoved his hands on his hips and looked at me. We both know I’m not that connected to her.

You share her blood—

He shook his head. That was a convenient lie at the time. Do you think it was me that shared my blood with Ruby to keep her alive? Or do you think it was something deep from within Pandora’s box?

My lips shifted. They just hung there as if someone had shoved them onto butcher’s hooks. And then they’d set up wind machines in the cold room for added punch. A rather involved image? Trust me, it was a rather involved proposition. I’d forgotten this, for I’d been distracted.

This, however, seemed rather important. I looked down at her. Then what exactly shared its blood with her?

Beats me. It was right at the bottom of the box, though.

You are still connected to her through a contract. If she dies—

I die. True. I can’t wake her up, though. She needs something stronger.

What?

As I continued to fly, a section of the ceiling above loosened. Perhaps the exorcists had realized I’d dealt with their descended, and they were running amok like headless chickens. The point was, I had to dodge. I couldn’t dodge everything. A few little scraps of stone tumbled down, but they couldn’t do any damage. One of them struck my ring. I shivered.

So did Ruby.

It was the first movement she’d made since falling asleep. It was the first promise that I could wake her up out of her nightmare.

I looked down at her ring. If I gave it enough of a shock – if I imparted a strong enough sensation – it would wake her up.

It was just the same as what happened with my ring.

I plucked up her hand.

Red floated there, arms crossed. You need to interact with your own ring. What exactly are you gonna do, out of interest? He ticked his head to the side.

My lips formed an oh.

I squeezed them in.

I grabbed my ring and rubbed it as hard as I could. Then I hissed at it.

Ruby stirred slightly. She didn’t wake.

We were running out of space. Soon we’d reach the rest of the cathedral, and there the fight would begin anew. I hadn’t forgotten we still hadn’t claimed the contract cutter.

We’re waiting, Demon Lord. Especially Ruby. Lord knows what she’s dreaming of now.

She’s your mistress, I growled. You’re bound to protect her. You—

I don’t have quite as much on the line as you do. Whatever you do, just hurry up and do it.

I didn’t want witnesses. I also didn’t want to do this. Strenuously. Or at least that’s what I told myself.

I had no choice.

I plucked up my ring. My hand became frozen and stiff. I felt like I was back there with the descended. That would’ve been preferable.

Preferable to… this.

I winced my eyes closed. I acted like this was my first time. And finally, I kissed my ring.

Red spluttered. He laughed so hard, I thought he’d choke, swallow his tonsils, and shoot them out of his butt. I opened one eye. I clenched my teeth. I went to snarl at him that it hadn’t worked. Ruby hadn’t even moved. In fact, she was moving less. Why didn’t it work? I demanded.

Red leaned in and whacked me on the shoulder. It was too hard to be a respectful move. I was too distracted to care.

Why didn’t it work? I bellowed.

You didn’t breathe hard enough. The ring doesn’t want your lips, Demon Lord, and I imagine neither does Ruby. Lips aren’t what keep people alive, what keeps them moving, are they?

It all struck me at once. Of course. Ruby had fallen asleep in part because of what was in her eye, but primarily because of the descended she’d faced and all that cold. It was still in her on the inside. Now what moves somebody? I’m not talking about their hearts. I’m talking about the one thing you need to do to keep living. Breath. Many ancient cultures associated it with the very lifeblood of existence. Breath, to some, is the universe exchanging awareness with you.

And breath, theoretically, could save Ruby now.

I brought my ring up. I was still carrying her. It wasn’t exactly a complex maneuver. She was light, and even if she’d weighed as much as a truck, it wouldn’t have taxed my muscles. It was still awkward as I pushed her against my chest, awkward in the fact that her sleeping face drew close to mine. And awkward as I lifted my ring, hesitated longer than I had before I’d kissed it, closed one eye, and breathed.

There are different ways to breathe. One can do so shallowly while screaming or running for their life. One can do so with as much force as they can. Then one can do so completely. They can have a breath just to remind themselves they can still breathe. You might think a demon lord would never think of such a poetic, foolish concept. You’d be wrong. For breathing just to prove you can still breathe is precisely what Hell would recommend. You don’t do it for God or some other heavenly creature. You do it to affirm existence on whatever plane you happen to be on.

You do it, in other words, because you can. And I’d made a life out of doing that.

Finally Ruby stirred.

She didn’t jolt, though that would of course have brought her right up close against my ring and face. One eye slid open. It was the same eye infected by that shard of ice. I could still see it there, but it seemed trapped for now.

I sighed, released some of the tension wrapped around my shoulders, then looked across at Red. I was about to ask what now. Yes, that’s right, I, the demon lord, was about to defer to the tiny fool. But Ruby reminded me anyway. The contract cutter, she said as she slapped a hand on her heart.

We haven’t got it yet—

The contract cutter, she repeated breathlessly as she slapped her chest again.

I know, Ruby, we need to find the contract cutter before our enemies do—

I don’t think that’s what she’s trying to say, Red whispered uncharacteristically quietly as he moved ever so slightly closer. Ah, Mistress?

The contract… the contract cutter is in my chest, Ruby admitted. She slapped a hand down on her chest once more, palm and fingers shivering.

Though she couldn’t do any damage, I grabbed her hand and held it back. The old me would have laughed. Do you remember the old Ruby? Do you remember that wide-eyed, crying idiot? I’d forgotten her. And that’s why I didn’t laugh. I no longer assumed she knew less about this world than a baby.

I peered at her chest using my every demon sense.

She went a little red cheeked. If the situation hadn’t been this important, maybe… just maybe… I might’ve done the same. Instead, I stared through her chest.

I couldn’t see her pure heart. Pure hearts didn’t work like that. It wasn’t as if the actual organ beating in her chest was somehow a brighter color than everyone else’s, or, if taken out and set alight, it would burn with more force. Pure hearts manifested through the actions of the owner.

But the contract cutter—

There, Red got there first, getting as close as he could to her chest before I yanked him back. He was invading her personal space.

How… did it get stuck inside her? I clenched my teeth. There would’ve been a time when I would’ve asked Red nothing. Now I didn’t care. Now I wanted answers.

Red appeared mildly panicked. Then mildly soon gave way to real panic. He fidgeted there in the air. We’d smartly paused before heading up into the rest of the cathedral. The last thing I needed was for burly exorcists with fantastic weapons to interrupt this conversation. I had to understand what was going on first. Then I glanced down at Ruby’s chest, and I reminded myself that wouldn’t happen. With every turn in this twisted tale, there was a new surprise. With every second, the mystery that was Ruby Whittle got far more complex.

I don’t really know what happened down in the true basement, Red began.

I did. Partially. I’d been blacking out and dying for most of it. I did, however, remember when Ruby had found the power to blast past the descended’s control by triumphantly screaming that I was wrapped around her little finger. That was a conversation for later.

I sorted through that fragmented memory, and though it was hard, I had to shift past the emotional content. Remember it now, and all my lips would want to do was scream her name.

Stop wasting time, Red spat at me. I thought he’d actually slap me. But he restrained himself. How—

It must have happened when the descended grabbed her by the throat, I said.

Though I really had been on the edge of unconsciousness at the time, I had felt specific Hell energies rise. As I’d already told you, the descended could control Hell creatures.

Though Hell energies were not creatures, descended could wield them anyway.

It was its breath, Ruby shuddered as she whispered that through pale lips.

She went to touch her heart but chickened out. Maybe this was significant, maybe it was just my imagination, but she placed her hand on my chest instead. Why, would she prefer my heart over hers? Or was she simply getting more comfortable in my strong arms?

She stared up into my eyes, and terror beset her.

The old me would’ve laughed. Finally, the weak woman was back. The new me stiffened even more, wondering just how hard I could get before I cracked.

She’s right. It wasn’t Hell energies. Of course it would be the descended’s breath. Do tell me it didn’t breathe into your mouth, Red asked, far after the fact.

Ruby screwed her lips shut and nodded.

I didn’t chide myself for not having figured this out earlier. I paused. I had flown a little further up. If the contract cutter is in Ruby—

We can leave – if that’s what you were going to say. But I really don’t think getting home and resting before dawn is your priority now, Demon Lord, Red snarled.

Don’t worry – I have a plan. Why didn’t