What Price To Release The Women?

The reporter's face burned with shame. She hated the intrusion into her private life, the demon forcing the reporter to show this side of herself. But she was determined now to see those women free...whatever the price.

Blaze's nostrils flared, although her face became a mask. Lois Lane noticed. By asking the price, Lois had begun to bargain with her, and now she felt she would see a different side of the demon.

"Four souls at my service," the pure white eyes sat unblinking. "I'm not sure you could afford it."

"That's not an answer," Lois pressed. "Certainly there are some services I could provide that the others couldn't."

It was a statement, not a question. The reporter knew from the trend of Blaze's question that the demon wanted her—or wanted something from her. It was only a question of what.

The demon steepled her fingers. "Services. Four services for four souls. You would need to complete them all tonight, before the break of dawn. Do this, and I will release them from my care."

Lois straightened her back, felt a stiffness in her shoulders. "No ****."

Blaze raised an eyebrow. "Setting conditions?"

"I could call a bunch of superheroes to gang-cape you," the reporter said levelly. "But I'm willing to play it your way, so long as nobody gets hurt."

The demon tilted her head...and then the eyes vanished, two empty pools of darkness where they should be...and they came back. Lois realized that Blaze had just blinked.

"I cannot promise you it will be painless for you," the demon said. "But do as I bid, and no one else shall be harmed."

"Deal?" she extended her hand. Lois felt the compulsion of the game, demanding an answer. Stomach churning, suddenly aware she was sweating, Lois stepped forward and took the devil's hand.

"Ow!" she hissed, not from the red fingers closing around her own, but from a sudden sharp prick. She turned her arm up...and saw a faint red pentagram on the inside of her right wrist, like a tattoo.

"A mark of our pact," Blaze said, and turned her arm to show a black pentagram on her own wrist. "Now, for your first assignment..."