15. Adam

Adam was… restless. The firefall picnic and hot springs and the hike through the labyrinth had all been totally amazing, and he looked forward to going back to all those places and visiting all the other hot spots in hell. Hot spots—hee hee. He'd have to use that one with Minos. His demon always appreciated his silly humor.

Minos had even mentioned that a visit "topside" would be possible if Adam really wanted, and that sounded super fun, but he didn't think he was quite ready for that yet. Maybe in a few years. Or decades. He wasn't sure he wanted to see what people he used to know were up to. He loved his life (death?) down here, and he didn't really want to revisit the one he'd had before.

What he was ready for, though, was some people time. Sure, he got lots of demon time, and for demons, they were really totally cool and nice—definitely nicer than the one angel he'd met, that was for sure. But Adam was an extrovert with a capital E, and he was ready to get out and meet and mingle. Maybe party a little. And since his last party time had been cut short, it wasn't too hard to convince Minos to take a trip to Limbo.

Yes, he knew his big guy wasn't thrilled with the idea of all those people. But he also knew Minos would do just about anything to make him happy, which was sort of amazing and trippy and mind-boggling all at once. And he also knew he'd make sure Minos had a good time. He could do all the talking for both of them, and his introverted sexy guy could just sit there looking foreboding and hot. He figured it would work out well for both of them, and they'd get nice and worked up dancing and flirting and come home and have a fantastic fuck afterwards. Which was usually what happened, anyway.

Because gah, the sex. Adam had never had such good sex. It wasn't getting old, either, and Adam couldn't imagine that ever happening. He knew Minos would be up for just about anything that Adam enjoyed. And Adam was finding he enjoyed just about anything Minos was up for. Hee hee. Pun intended again.

So Adam was absolutely giddy with fun, and with Minos looking all sexy in his black breeches, and Adam looking pretty hot himself if the look in Minos' eyes could be trusted, they made their way through the judgment room and into Limbo.

He didn't know if Pandora had some notification system or what, but not two minutes after they'd stepped through the door of the nightclub atmosphere and found exceptional seats (Minos might have growled a bit), she appeared at their table and sat down with them.

"Holy shit," Adam gushed, looking at the stage that they had a prime view of. "Is that….?" he trailed off, mouth open. "And playing with him, is that…?" He was at a loss for words. "Like seriously, holy shit! Talk about a mix of musical decades! They sound freaking amazing though!"

Pandora laughed merrily. "We get all the best musicians, darling. They're too bad for upstairs, but most are not depraved enough for downstairs. Few choose reincarnation, afraid they'll lose their gifts. So they live on, as it were, here in Limbo, doing what they love.

"I suppose for them it is a sort of heaven, and perhaps that's why the soul-flow coordinators leave them alone. That, and I heard that when they last put a famous musician upstairs he caused complete upheaval. Perhaps Limbo is the heaven for wild children. It would certainly fit in my case," she smirked.

Adam laughed. "You are definitely the original wild child, Pandora."

She laughed merrily and then grabbed Adam's hand. "I sense a fellow wild child in you, darling. Come and dance with me. You can wind your sexy Judge of the Damned up so he gives you exactly what you need later." She winked at him, dragging him up and toward a throng of dancers. Minos scowled a little, but he didn't object, so Adam was off and into the masses.

Pandora was right—Adam did have some wild child him, and the atmosphere and mood were nothing short of utterly amazing. Gyrating bodies and laughing and noise and lights, and yet somehow no one ventured too close or tried to cop a feel. He could see some couples, and in some cases groups, were doing quite a bit of feeling up—and he thought maybe there was actual sex taking place quite surreptitiously over to the side. Some people watched and danced, and some people steered clear totally. But no one hassled anyone.

It was like the most amazing dancing experience ever with all the positives and none of the creepy ick factor you always seemed to end up with.

"How do you do it?" Adam yelled over the music.

"What, darling?" Pandora mouthed back, and then she dragged him off away from the stage and dancing. They were headed away from Minos, but he saw his grumpy guy talking to a demon and keeping an eye on him, so he just gave a friendly wave. Minos scowled, but Adam recognized it as his ok-fine-don't-go-far scowl, not his get-back-here scowl. (Yes, he was becoming an expert at reading scowls and chuckles and even eye rolls.)

They ended up next to a dark, polished, very fancy, very old-fashioned bar. Although he could see the dancers and the stage and Minos' horns, the sound of the dancing and the stage was completely muted. It was like he had entered a whole different establishment.

"Woah," he said, as a pale, human-looking bartender came over, placing two drinks in front of them. "This is so trippy. The dancers are right there but it's like they're in a whole different building or something."

Pandora laughed. "The magic of Limbo. I'm surprised Minos isn't over here already—he much prefers this atmosphere to the clubby one, but Zaphrael was talking his ear off, and he is a top level punishment demon, so Minos might be a minute with him. His demons so rarely see him outside of work, and they love it when they do."

She looked assessingly at Adam then. "You've been good for him. More than good for him. Transformative. All his demons do nothing but praise you." She paused then, looking into the distance.

"Minos hasn't been… himself. We all noticed it in the last decade or so. A disconnection. It was like he was fading away from us. Nothing seemed to work. But you"—she looked at Adam then—"seem to have rejuvenated him. You've brought him back to himself. No, you've made him better."

She smiled then, laughing. "But enough melodrama and feelings. Yes, the club is amazing. We keep things tame there. There is a more wild area for those who are looking for something truly outrageous, but I certainly wouldn't send you there without Minos. He's liable to kill someone if he isn't there to guard your virtue." She smirked at that.

"People in Limbo find what they need. That was what you needed tonight. And now, apparently, we need some delicious drinks," she said, taking a sip of her cocktail.

What happened next defied Adam's understanding. Pandora was there, and then she wasn't. Poof. "What the fuck?" he gaped, and then the pale bartender was standing in front of him at the bar. He swiveled in his seat, because no, thank you, he knew trouble when he saw it, and he was out of there.

But when he turned around there was a semicircle of three other pale, sort of colorless looking human-types blocking his exit, and in front of them, standing right behind his chair…

"Oh look, it's Angel-duh," he said, smirking a little at her. Because of course it was. The bitch. She was still wearing all white with perfect looking skin, but he had to admit her hair didn't look quite as in place, and her outfit didn't look quite so perfect.

"You," she seethed.

"You know, if you keep frowning like that, you're going to give that perfect skin wrinkles," Adam drawled. He did a quick scan, but unfortunately, he couldn't see Minos' face, so he doubted Minos could see him. And Pandora was *poof* gone.

"What did you do with her anyway, you bitch?" he asked. Because he liked Pandora. A lot.

Bitch Lady (Adam decided that was her new official title) waved a hand gracefully. "She was portaled elsewhere. She'll find her way back shortly. YOU, however, are another story. Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you've caused me?"

"Oh, I hope it's heaps of trouble. Because you were a class A bitch when I was in your office."

"You were being DIFFICULT!" she hissed, raising her voice. "You were in HEAVEN! You were supposed to be THANKFUL!"

She leaned forward, lowering her voice, and Adam backed up in his chair. Man, she was fired up. "I was demoted," she breathed out harshly. "I was one step away from a promotion to being a soul-flow coordinator. You were supposed to be sent back. You should have been grateful. Instead, you disappear, and we get completely stonewalled down here by all the demons, and the soul-flow coordinators are on my ass.

"We are going to fix this, and we are going to fix it right now," she insisted, grabbing Adam's arm tightly in hers. "You are going back where you belong, and I am closing the ticket, and you will be grateful for my assistance!"

Her hand tightened on Adam's, and… nothing happened.

Like, nothing. She kind of looked at him, and he looked at her, and she looked at the people behind her, and they looked at her, then at him, and everyone just sort of stared at one another.

Then she tightened her arm again, and gave a very deliberate blink of her eyes, mumbling a little under her breath.

Adam thought he maybe felt… something. But nothing happened, again.

"What's the matter, Angel-ughhhhhh," he mocked, drawing out the last part of her name just to see her grimace. He cheered a little at pissing her off even more. "You all out of magic mojo or something?" He giggled at that, even though he realized even if she was out of mojo, there was probably someone who wasn't.

He had no doubt whatsoever his Minos would come for him, even if he was upstairs. But he was also a very firm believer in the statement that god helps those who help themselves. He had seen Yah, after all, and they looked pretty overworked, so he figured helping himself was probably in everyone's best interest. He had no desire to be stuck anywhere for any period of time waiting to be rescued. He liked romances, but he was not a damsel in distress.

So when Bitch Lady turned back toward her minions to apparently confer with them, her hand got looser on his arm, and Adam took the opportunity to shoot out of his seat and out of her grasp, heading along the bar as quickly as he could. Yes, he wasn't heading toward Minos, but at this point anything away from her was a plus in his book.

One glance back showed them hot on his trail, which is exactly when he started running through the throngs of people surrounding the bar, headed as far away from Bitch Lady as possible. The bar was probably round, right? Or a big square? Eventually he'd get back around to Minos.

At least that's what Adam hoped, even though a niggling doubt reminded him that he really didn't understand how Limbo was structured. Oops.