“Nice to meet you.” Di smiled at him and answered before I could say something.
My blood was boiling. I didn’t like him talking to this fucking demon.
“Do you want something to drink? I could get you-”
I cut him off before he could finish, “No. We’re here for business. The sooner we get to the point, the better.”
I could feel how cold my voice was, but there was no way I could soften it. Joshua stiffened at my words but nodded and sat in the chair. I was glad I sat close to it so Di could be on my other side.
“Our father told us you can help us somehow,” I said.
“Yes. Your father’s friend and I are old acquaintances.”
“Can we get to the point?”
Was King’s angel friend acquainted with a demon? What the fuck? I wasn’t going to worry about that now. I had to focus on getting Di away from this demon.
“Dagon.” The warning in Di’s voice was evident, but I could detect the fear too, so I tried to calm down. To my surprise, Joshua laughed.
“Of course, we will get to the point. What do you know about the object?”
He looked at Di, and my body tensed again. First, I didn’t like him looking and talking to him. Second, he saidthe object. This caught my attention. How much did he know? Did he know more than us?
“The object? Our father said you’ll tell us.”
Well played, Di.
“Well, the object you’re searching for is bound to you. That much you know. When you get close to it, you'll feel it. Your body will react in a way that alerts you to where exactly it is. The closest I can describe it is with intuition and fire.”
“Fire?” I asked.
“It will feel like your blood is boiling. The object will reach out to you and warm your skin, your blood, your being.” There was an excited gleam in his eyes that I didn’t like at all. “At least, those were the rumors.”
“What else can you tell us? This doesn’t answer the question of how to find it.”
“Not far from here, maybe two days by car, there’s a deserted town. As far as I know, no one has lived there for the past fifty years. It has an apocalyptic vibe. One of my neighbors passed close to it a week ago and sensed something compelling, something wrong there.”
Was he fucking kidding me right now? My face was a mask of interest, but my blood was boiling from the inside. Something powerful? Was he stupid, or did he think I was? There were tons of things that could be powerful out there.
"I think it's that object because my neighbor described it as a heavy feeling in the air that suffocates you, fogs up your brain, makes you dissociate from the present, and most importantly, he saw a red-white light there."
Now, that was something. But it wasn’t concrete either. There was no guarantee it was the object. I waited for Joshua to continue, but he just stared at us.
“Is this all?” I wasn’t going to ask him for more information. It would be the wrong choice.
“Only one more thing.” He looked toward Di again, “What will you do with the object when you find it?”
Di appeared thoughtful for a second before shrugging. “Who knows? I mean, I don’t care about it, so I’ll see what happens.”
Di smirked, obviously trying to let Joshua think whatever he wanted. It was a success. Joshua smiled and nodded.
I got up and drew Di up with me. “We'll be leaving now.”
We started walking toward the door when he interrupted us. “You can stay for the night. It's already dark out there.”
“Thank you for your kind offer, but I want to get this over with and go party somewhere.” Di grinned wildly.
The demon smiled, nodded, and opened the door for us.
