Page 54 of Client from Hell

Well, at least Jonas asked for the possible rather than the impossible. “Yes, I can. That will be more of a permanent thing, and it’ll result in people not wanting to park near the car. They’ll understand a car is here so they won’t hit it, but they’ll have an aversion to getting close to it. It’s not really my forte, but I did learn how to do aversions to keep unwanted suitors at a distance. I really, really do not want to become a statistic.”

“You learned how to create aversions because you were wary of predators?” Jonas blurted.

“Yeah. I had friends who were raped in high school. Both suicided in our senior year. Their rapists went around spreading rumors about them, and they figured death was better than torment,” I whispered. “It is part of why I want to become an attorney.”

“I’m sorry. I’ll have a chat with Lucifer, and those fucking assholes will be all yours when they make their way to his many hells. That won’t bring your friends back, but they’ll get justice after the grave.”

“I’d like to get them justice here, too.” I wrinkled my nose. “But that’s not a possibility.”

Jonas finished moving our stuff to the trunk and shook his head. “Don’t write it off as an impossibility yet. Do you know what it’s called when someone is driven to suicide?”

“It should be murder, but everyone will just say they were sluts and deserved it.”

“If an angel brings the case up for trial, and the angel testifies they were driven to suicide to cover the crime of their rape, it’s murder—and there’s little Lucifer loves more than bringing rapists down to their knees. You let me handle that. You won’t be able to be directly involved in the case, but justice will be acquired. Not only will justice be acquired, Diana and Darlene would be absolutely thrilled to help teach you the fine art of soul rehabilitation.”

“Do you think it will work out that way?”

“Absolutely. All I’ll have to do is tell Lucifer you lost two friends due to suicide following rape, and he’ll begin his hunt. Sure, sex demons like me test human morality, but we never force a human to indulge with us. We use magic that tests them, but they ultimately make the decision. We’re wired to seduce and enjoy our conquests. We’re often called rapists because we activate a human’s sex drive. But they’re ultimately the ones who take their clothes off and beg us for it. Humans can and do walk away from our power. But most don’t cling to their moralities in the face of arousal. And anyway, Lucifer made us well. We don’t like screams of pain or fear, only pleasure—and terror repulses us entirely. Where mortal rapists live for the hunt and thrive on the terror. Therein the difference lies.”

I’d never put much thought into society’s inclination to forgive people who dallied with sex demons, but Jonas’s words would give me a lot to think about. “I never thought about it that way before.”

“You never needed to, and humans are very good at putting the blame on somebody else, as you well know.” Jonas closed the trunk and gave Lucille a fond pat. “Shall we get this show on the road?”

I nodded and went to work putting the finishing touches on the runes to create our shrouds, and all I could do was hope the illusions meant for the security cameras would do their part. To make certain the aversion on our precious car stuck, I drew the rune under the bumper using my blood, which would either require my blood to break or a divine with stronger magic than mine. “Let’s go.”

Thirteen

Intent mattered with my magic.

As the illusions barred us from seeing each other, Jonas suggested I prowl around the outside and entry of the warehouse while he handled the interior, stealing anything of importance while I handled scouting and listening in on anyone making a visit to the place. With his ability to teleport, I supported his idea as safer than the original plan to knock on the door and turn myself into a target.

We wanted information, and we might learn something if we kept quiet, lurked around the complex, and listened.

Within ten minutes, I regretted having free will and opting to use it.

The place absolutely reeked, and while they’d opened shop near a newly constructed sewage treatment plant, the smells coming from around the building implied they had a lot of animals. A dumpster located in a nearby alley confirmed my suspicions, as it was loaded to the brim with soiled cat litter and little bags inevitably filled with the pungent offerings from large dogs.

I gave the operation credit; they cleaned up after the animals, but the stench would do me in given time.

Annoyed at the evidence of either a severe case of animal hoarding or a lab, I began checking windows. To my annoyance, someone had worked magic to prevent anyone from peeking inside.

Well, if they wanted to play, I’d play. I ran my fingers over the wall, pleased to discover it was a dusty, filthy mess, and smeared a circle onto the glass before slicing through it with my finger. The magic barring me from looking inside shattered with a crackle, and the obscuration faded to reveal a ground-level lab filled with cages. Like the home in John’s Creek, the lab contained non-domestic species, ranging from cheetahs to wolves to odd, oversized rodents with a side dish of more otters.

Fuckers.

I considered the situation, determined I had dodged a potentially ugly situation by not going inside, and considered how I could empty the lab to get to the animals—or make it so Lucifer could empty the lab of animals.

The answer, courtesy of Jonas, would earn him one hell of a kiss later, although I’d have to apologize to the incubus for the aversion he’d get smacked with before I paid out.

Without him being nearby, I wouldn’t be able to work the magic and avoid catching him in its influence.

Long before the aversion wore off, I’d be out of the area and giving the Devil a call to sneak the animals out before making use of a few other illusions to make them believe the animals were in their cages where they belonged.

I’d use blood on those runes to make sure they lasted, and I’d borrow the same tricks I used on the Devil’s mansion to cover my tracks. But rather than make them think a man with glasses had done it, I would dig through mythology and bring out a terror, something warning them of a very brutal demise if they didn’t change their course.

As Christianity’s big baddie didn’t offer much in the way of true terror, especially since I’d gotten to know the bastard, I dug into Asian folklore, which included various demons, spirits, and other nasties. One breed of vampire was a being consisting of a head and the spine only, which detached from the body in order to feed. As a floating spinal cord with a fanged maw in an almost-human head would scare the piss out of me on a good day, I fashioned the aversion to include the illusion that one—or more—of these beasties hunted those within the building. And since I could, I made the damned things whisper sweet nothings in the ears of anyone foolish enough to remain once I activated my magic.

The tricky part would be making certain the aversion didn’t catch any of the imprisoned animals within. Discerning between various species took a lot of work, complicated the runes required to a ridiculous degree, and would require something a little more precise than a bloody finger to draw.