Devil's Paw (Imp Book 4) (32 page)

With his free hand, he opened a messenger bag draped across one shoulder and pointed to a stack of papers inside. “I have drawings and notes on all the nefarious goings–on in this house. You can’t keep them, but I will let you look at them.”

I ushered him inside and was surprised when he pulled a shiny bowl from his bag and plopped it on his head. “I know better than to enter the house of Satan unprepared, so don’t even think of attacking me or stealing my soul. I have defenses that will melt you to a pool of liquid.”

Okaaaay.

Still avoiding my eyes and clutching his hammer, the man pulled out the stack of papers and handed them to me. I recognized Baphomet, identified as the primary resident, and Raim, who had been labeled his infernal lover. They were decent drawings. The man had some talent.

“He’d been over nearly every night in the last six years, four months, and twenty six days,” the man said, pointing at the drawing of Raim.

Other drawings showed a variety of demons, indicating that they had only been here a day or two at the most. I knew they were demons because the artist had added a pair of horns to each one and labeled them in capital letters. Two of them looked similar to the heads Gregory had brought to my house.

“They didn’t stay long before the angel took them.”

Ice ran through my veins. An
angel
took the demons?

“An angel? An angel came and took the other demons away?”

The man looked irritated. “Yes. I’d hoped at first he was here to kill them all, cleanse this home of their presence, but more demons kept arriving. I don’t think he was a particularly righteous angel.”

Demons weren’t the only ones who used sigils. Angels did too. We were all angels once, and things like our language, our naming conventions, and our signatures had remained virtually unaltered for the nearly three million years, since the split. I didn’t know every demon’s sigil, but the one on the page could just as easily have been an angel. Impossible as it sounded, I believed the third partner in Baphomet and Raim’s scheme had been an angel. He’d been the one who had received delivery of the demons. But was this angel still alive, or had he been the one found dead and drained in Mexico.

Angels. There were too many unexplained angels running around in this scenario. I’d had one chase me with intent to kill, one helpfully watched the Seattle gate while the guardian ran off for dinner. Were they all one and the same? Was I dealing with two or three, or more of the things? Why would Baphomet have cooperated with an angel, and what in the world was an angel doing that he needed a steady stream of demons to kill?

“Do you have a picture of the angel?”

He nodded, paging through the papers to pull one out of the stack. “There were two angels. One I only saw about a week ago. The one who usually came to pick up the demons was by this past Monday. He left with the guy who lived here and his buddy. I haven’t seen any of them since.”

Two angels. Well that answered a pressing question. One, perhaps, dead in Mexico, and another at large? I squinted at the pictures. They weren’t drawn as well as the demon ones, and I wasn’t able to determine if either of the angels was the one who’d attacked me.

“Do you have any idea where they were taking the demons?”

He shook his head. “I didn’t care where they went as long as they didn’t come back.”

“They went willingly with this angel?” The house didn’t appear to have seen any huge fights. Lows didn’t have much power, but there would have been at least some scorch marks on the walls.

“Yes. With the glowing necklaces, they behave. Even the two main ones.”

I caught my breath, remembering the silver collar around Raim’s bloody neck. “Baphomet and Raim were led away by an angel? With glowing necklaces on?”

He nodded happily, the metal bowl sliding around on top of his head. “Yes. I was glad to see them go. I don’t like angels much, but at least he finally got all of the devils out of my neighborhood.”

I felt a headache coming on. What the heck had Baphomet been doing? Whatever it was, it clearly hadn’t ended well for either him or Raim.

“Thanks.” I handed the papers back to the man and watched him stuff them into his bag. “As promised, I swear to you that no other demons will be residing in or visiting this house.”

“Not that wizard guy either,” he said over his shoulder as he made his way to the door. “He spelled me so I get horrible diarrhea if I eat dairy products. Then he threatened me. Told me he’d lock me up on Oak Island with the others if I didn’t stay away.”

“Wait! What wizard?” I ran after the man who was halfway down the porch steps by the time I’d caught up.

He paused and pulled a paper out of his messenger bag. “This one.”

A human. Well, a human with an absurd pointy hat. From the picture, he looked to be about fifty with dark skin and a black, neatly trimmed, curly beard. He was bald around the edges of the hat, and his eyes looked fierce as they shot little flames across the page. Clearly the man had taken some artistic liberties with this one. Either way, I recognized a human depiction of a mage when I saw one. Demons making deals with angels. Angels and mages.

A human, an angel and a mage walked into a bar….

That last demon had been found practically in my back yard, and I’d been chased soon thereafter by a gang of humans, a mage and an angel, all working together. Suddenly major pieces began to click. I wondered if all the devoured demons had been offered the same “comfortable two–week–long death” that I had been. Either way, I had a feeling I might need to delay my flight yet again. Maybe there was more to be found in Raim’s house.

“Do you know anything about a house in Fremont? This other demon, the ‘lover’ of the one who lived here, had a place in Fremont.”

He gave me a wary look, fingering the metal bowl still on his head before putting the picture away and pulling out a scrap of paper. He wrote a name and an address on it and thrust it toward me.

“Here. Wayne keeps track of all the evil in the Fremont area. This is where you can find him. If there’s a demon in Fremont, he’ll know about it. And he might talk to you if you promise to get rid of the thing for him.”

I watched him walk down the sidewalk and across the street toward the floating houses, before I turned to lock the door. Outside of Baphomet’s log, there was nothing here that could help me further. With any luck this Wayne guy had seen who’d been coming and going at Raim’s house. I hoped his information would provide more clarity.

~28~

D
emons, mages, and angels working together? I mused over the concept as I drove my little rental car toward Fremont. It fit together, but I couldn’t see what an angel or a mage would get out of that scheme. Why would they want a bunch of demons?

I pulled up to the crossroads in Freemont that had been written on my slip of paper and looked around for the kebab place. I was only two blocks from Raim’s house. If this Wayne guy was half the neighborhood watch the other guy had been, I’d be ecstatic. Of course, he’d have to actually agree to speak to me.

I walked behind the kebab place and peered in the spot between the dumpster and a large cardboard box. “Are you Wayne?” I asked the man huddled there. He stared at me, his eyes huge, before spitting and pelting me with stale corn chips. I backed away, frantically swatting.

“I banish you to whence you came, foul demon! Return to your infernal home.”

“That would be Maryland,” I replied, shielding my face from further attack. “And I’d be happy to return there if you’d only answer a few questions I have about a nearby house and the demon who lived there.”

“He’s gone!” Wayne shouted. I felt more chips bounce off my arm. They stung with their sharp points and salt–encrusted edges. “I hope he’s dead. I hope he never walks the earth again. You and your kind belong in hell.”

“Yes. He’s dead. Would you stop with the fucking corn chips for a moment and let me talk. I’m not going to hurt you. I just want to find out some information about who came and went in the demon’s house before he left.”

I peeked over my arm and saw a young man, beard practically covering his entire face, glaring at me from beside the cardboard box. Brown eyes bored into mine from a tanned background. He fingered another chip menacingly.

“I vow on all the souls I Own that the demon is dead. I promise you no other demons will be coming to that house as long as I get the information I need.”

He hesitated, his beard bouncing as he chewed on a lip. “All right. But you stand over there, by the fence. Come any closer and I’m going to be forced to use my magic.”

I tried to look properly intimidated as I backed up until my rear end hit the chain–link fence. He crawled out from his hidey–hole, watching me the entire time.

“That demon wasn’t there all too much.” He waved a chip at me. “He’d come in every few days then leave again. Haven’t seen him for weeks. Another demon went there twice in the last year to see him, but never stayed long. They usually left together.”

I nodded. “There was a dead demon found there a few days ago. Do you know what happened? Was there a fight?”

He barked out a short laugh, showing a general lack of front teeth. “Nah. That was the visitor demon. Some angel dumped his body and took off.”

I stared, my mouth hanging open. An angel dumped Baphomet’s body in Raim’s house? What the fuck was going on? Had the angel killed Baphomet? I’d originally thought Raim was lying or delusional when he’d claimed to think Baphomet was still alive, now I wondered if he wasn’t telling the truth. A sick feeling filled me — had I killed the wrong guy? Raim was an asshole, and he’d admitted to killing the one angel, and having a part in the death of the other demons, but I was beginning to think there was an angel behind this whole thing.

We were betrayed.

Raim and Baphomet were taken out by the angel or angels they’d worked with. Baphomet was killed, and Raim seriously wounded before he managed to kill the one angel and get away. I’d killed him. He’d be a victim — although a rather un–innocent one — and I’d killed him. Guilt washed over me. I needed to find a way to make this right. But how? I had no idea where to find this other angel, or even who the fuck he was. And I wasn’t sure I could involve Gregory at this point. Everything I had was too flimsy. He’d shit a brick to find out angels were running some kind of scheme in partnership with demons, but I needed to have more proof before I went to him.

“Do you have any idea what this angel looked like?”

He shook his head. “Blond, kinda shimmery. You, know — an angel.”

Great. I thanked Wayne for his time and headed back to my car. I’d just need to puzzle this all out from home. All the major players were dead, and I doubted this guy would make a move anytime soon. Plenty of time to figure it out before he managed to obtain other demon partners, if that was his goal. Everything made sense except for the motive. Why would an angel want a bunch of demons? And why would he be working with demons and a mage?

If I hustled, I could still make my flight into Baltimore. I picked up the pace and headed toward my rental, answering my cell phone as it rang. A high–pitched shriek filled my ear, oddly echoed by an equally high–pitched shriek from the background.

“Sam! Sam! Get over here! There’s a demon outside my mother’s house trying to get in!”

Amber. My adrenaline spiked, remembering all the demon hit–men Haagenti had sent to Wyatt’s house in the not–so–distant past. Shit! Amber was in Maryland at her mother’s house for the evening with Nyalla. They were under attack, and here I was, on the opposite end of the country and completely unable to help.

“Call Wyatt,” I shouted to be heard over the screaming. “Have him come shoot it.”

The screaming increased, reaching a note that I’m certain only dogs could hear. “No, Mom! Don’t let him in! Don’t let him in!”

I paced, the girls’ panic sending my own into overdrive. Wyatt’s sisters, my girls, mine! They were helpless, facing a demon attacker, and I could do nothing to help.

“Blast it with your lightning. Aim for the head.”

I heard a distant female voice calling Amber and entreating her to come down for her date with this Irix man.

Irix. Holy shit on a stick; I’d forgotten to tell Amber about the Incubus that Leethu was sending over.

“Wait, wait,” I shouted. “Don’t shoot him.”

Too late. I heard a riot of thumping sounds that could only be Amber’s foosteps on the stairs, then a quick intake of breath.

“Wow, that is truly the most attractive demon I have ever seen.” Nyalla’s voice was breathless on Amber’s cell phone. The half–elf must have shoved the phone at her before charging down the steps.

“Tell her not to shoot. Don’t shoot.” I was shouting, but all I could hear from the phone was a sizzle of electricity, a yelp, and a masculine curse followed by more high–pitched screaming.

“What’s happened?” I asked Nyalla. “Is Amber okay?”

“Oh my. He grabbed her by the wrists and has her across his shoulders, pinning her knees to his chest. She is kicking him in the side, but cannot seem to produce more lightning. The demon is looking …irritated. Should I do something to help?”

“No, just stay out of the way and tell Amber to calm down. It’s all a misunderstanding. Her demon sire, Leethu, sent Irix over to give her some training.”

“Amber! Sam is telling that you must lower your temper and submit to lessons.”

In the background I heard Amber’s shriek of rage, followed by a chain of imaginative curse words. There was a laugh then a deep male voice.

“You may look like an elf, but you’ve got a mouth on you worse than the oldest demon.” I heard him catch his breath in a pained grunt. “Kick me there again, girl, and I’ll chain you to the wall and turn my pheromones up to eleven.”

Shit; although, the proposed idea was somewhat turning me on. “Nyalla, what is going on? Can’t you get Amber to calm down? Where the fuck is her mother?”

“Mrs. Lowry looks rather like she wishes she were the one across the demon’s shoulders.” The girl’s voice was breathy and light. “You know, I think I might like to be the one across this demon’s shoulders, too.”