ThatnightTallykepthis promise of three times. Sam gasped for breath, his whole body shuddering as Tally jumped off of him to lie down beside him on the bed.
Sam hadn’t been convinced he could manage a third time, but he had. With shaking hands, he pulled off the condom, tied it and chucked it in the bin by the bed.
“Very nice performance. Ten out of ten.” said a rich voice by the foot of the bed.
Sam shrieked a very high pitched unmanly shriek and scrambled to a sitting position.
The stranger smiled benevolently at him. Long golden hair flowed down past slender shoulders to curl against a sapphire blue frock coat, of all things. The stranger’s eyes were emerald green and just as bright as the jewels they resembled.
“Zeph! Were you perving again?” grumbled Tally.
The stranger laughed, a musical enticing sound. “I am only teasing. I saw nothing. I just arrived.”
Tally crossed his arms and glared. “What do you want?”
“You.” said the stranger with a sweet smile, but Sam felt a prickle of unease.
“Who are you?” Sam asked.
Dazzling emerald eyes turned to him, and the stranger smiled. “How rude of me, I do beg your pardon. I’m Zephaniah, Prince of Hell.”
Sam blinked. The words rolled around his mind whilst his eyes were transfixed by the man’s snow white ruffly shirt. Who dresses like that? Who dresses like that and appears in people’s bedrooms in the middle of the night?
“You do know it’s not the seventeenth century anymore?” Sam heard himself say.
Under the covers, Tally kicked him, but Zephaniah merely sighed sadly and said, “Unfortunately. Fashion has only gone downhill since then.”
Sam didn’t know which was crazier, that either Tally had a lot of crazy friends who liked breaking into his bedroom, or it was all true. At this moment, his mind was struggling to accept either option. Sam knew he had seen Jinx appear out of the shadows. He knew he had seen the Hell hound, but somehow it still seemed abstract. His resistant mind was slowly digesting everything Tally had told him, but suddenly faced with something tangible and not merely an idea, his brain was throwing a rebellion.
Sam’s mind backtracked to the man’s introduction. “Prince of Hell? So you are Lucifer’s son?”
Zephaniah wrinkled his perfect nose. “No, that would be ridiculous.”
That made Sam feel better. Perhaps there was a rational explanation after all.
“I am Lucifer’s consort,” said Zephaniah proudly.
“You are married to the devil?” spluttered Sam.
Zephaniah grinned, “Precisely.”
Sam’s mind gave up then. It was too much. It was far too surreal and if it was real, he had just insulted Satan’s husband’s dress sense. His stomach roiled. He clutched it desperately, suddenly pretty certain vomiting everywhere was not going to improve the situation.
Luckily, Zephaniah turned his attention back to Tally. “You are not supposed to be here.”
Tally scowled. “I’m not doing any harm.”
“You are supposed to be in hell.”
“So is your little brother.”
“He was summoned, it’s not his fault. Whereas you hijacked a summoning, it’s entirely different.”
Were they talking about Jinx? Was Jinx the brother-in-law of Satan? Sam couldn’t keep up with all the new information.
“I’m not going back!” exclaimed Tally.
Zephaniah sighed wearily. Sam’s mind slowly caught up with the conversation.
