The Night Beat, From the Necropolis Enforcement Files (54 page)

The natural human and demon reaction when a projectile is heading towards them is to duck or catch it. Since most undeads had been human or demon, that instinct remained.

The natural werewolf reaction is to catch it in your mouth.

Experienced werewolves either ducked or turned into a form that could catch. But Jack wasn’t experienced.

He also wasn’t very good at reacting now. If we hadn’t been in the Ultimate Undead Standoff, it would have been pretty comical to watch his body fight with itself. And because he didn’t know whether he had hands or paws, he caught it in his mouth.

“Good boy!”

Jack managed to turn into human form and spat Adlet’s totem into his hands. “How stupid are you?”

“I’m wondering that myself,” I heard Benny mutter behind me.

“Adlet, got a deal for you!”

“He’s dead,” Jack said, derision clear.

“Adlet, there are four werewolves who just don’t know what to do with themselves. They’re all connected to the one who bit you -- and they’re also all connected to the being who caged you, Black Wolf. I wonder -- if you drew their powers, could you break free of your bonds?”

“Vic, seriously, what are you doing?” Ralph hissed.

What I was doing now was praying. To Yahweh, to Usen, to all the Gods and Monsters. Because I could see Adlet’s totem -- and it was moving on its own.

The totem wrenched out of Jack’s hand and floated in the air, high above Jack’s head. “Destroy it!” Lucifer thundered.

It was small, and the minions were quite large, but I’d judged Adlet right -- he wanted the chance to get out of his cage.

There was another positive, of course. All the minions, major and minor, were now trying to catch or hit a small object that was, as near as I could tell, having fun being close to impossible
to
hit or catch.

I focused all my mental energy on one thought. Surely at least one of our angels was monitoring me, right? Jude, at least, should be. I also said it aloud, in that no-lips-moving undertone way, to save time. “Attack all but Lucifer now. Leave him to me.”

Ralph lunged silently at Jack. I didn’t think she heard me, but Sexy Cindy followed Ralph’s lead and took the chick combo of my mother and Susan. Freddy, showing real guts or real insanity, or both, joined the fray and slammed into the Adversary. Abaddon and Apollyon looked like they were going to get a free ride, but then Dirt Corps arrived, Monty in the lead. They swarmed over the Three A’s.

That was the frontal attack. The rear attack was everybody else.

Adlet was still bounding around in his cage, making things confusing and hard for the minions. Lucifer had given them a direct command, and that meant it was their prime objective. To make sure Lucifer couldn’t give them another, smarter objective, I turned to werewolf form and jumped him.

I knocked him down -- a feint on his part I was sure, because he felt strong, stronger than the Adversary. We rolled around on the ground, but I didn’t bite. We were in a rather intimate position when he reared up and locked eyes with mine.
Make it real. Try to kill me. I must try to kill you. Or we both die, and everything else with us.
He’d said it in my head, in a way I was pretty sure no other angel could have heard.

I reminded myself that, in the grand scheme of things, Lucifer was technically my superior officer. So, I chose to follow two centuries of training and do what the boss-man said. I lunged up and bit his throat. Hard.

As we flailed around, this time, fighting much harder and more realistically, I did get a glimpse of the rest of the activity. Mostly because Lucifer kicked me off him and it’s easy to take in the scene when you’re airborne.

Ralph and Jack were still going at it, though it looked like Ralph had the upper paw. I hoped this meant Adlet was taking my suggestion and draining the werewolf out of Jack. Sexy Cindy was beating the crap out of my mother, then Susan, then my mother. They kept changing on her, but they didn’t seem clear on the fact that no regular white chick has a prayer against a really pissed off street hooker.

Hansel finished off a fallen angel and leaped onto Jack to give Ralph an assist. Gretel did the same and joined Sexy Cindy. Ken, Amanda and Maurice focused on the Adversary. The three of them were in full Nosferatu mode, and doing some damage. I really hoped this meant Adlet was doing the draining thing on not just Jack but the rest of my “extended family”.

There was a risk Adlet would try to drain me, too. But, as with any other choice, if it saved all the planes of existence, I’d find a way to deal with it later. I was the only other being at risk, though -- Black Wolf’s were-line had been wiped out with the exception of me. And if it was going to go on, I didn’t want that to happen through the Prince’s minions.

I landed back on Lucifer -- because he conveniently rolled in the way so I hit him, not street -- and had to turn my attention back to survival. He hadn’t been joking -- he was fighting for real. I got onto his back and tried to shred his wings.

The chanting was still going on -- the humans weren’t getting into the physical fighting, other than some of the cops, and clearly some of our troops were spending their time keeping the Bard’s spell going.

A shriek worthy of any banshee cut through the air. But it had come from my mother. She dropped to the ground, moaning and rolling. I noted that the totem of Adlet was bigger. Not by a lot, but enough to notice.

It made sense, he’d drained the werewolf out of the newest and weakest option. Hopefully that meant Jack was next, because this had caused him to fight back harder than ever. Ralph went flying into the convergence chasm.

I didn’t hesitate. I leaped off of Lucifer and raced over. Ralph had caught the lip of the chasm with his paws, but paws weren’t great for holding onto something like this. I flung myself in a horizontal position and just managed to get my hands around his front legs as his grip slipped.

This was good, as Ralph wasn’t plummeting into the Depths. It was bad, however, because I wasn’t stronger or heavier than him, and we were now inching towards the Depths anyway.

“There’s nothing for me to get a toehold on,” Ralph panted. “Let go.”

“No way.”

“Vic, let go!” This was snarled.

Didn’t work. “Nice try, but still no.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Jack said. I felt his feet straddle me. “I’ll make her let go, how about that?”

“How about I show you what I do to guys who screw over my ex?” It wasn’t Ken’s voice, it was Jude’s.

I managed to look over my shoulder to see Jude, wings on full. He grabbed Jack’s head and yanked him backwards. This was nice, but Ralph and I were still sliding towards imminent doom.

“Vic, let me go.”

“No. I can keep this up for hours. No.”

I felt two hands grab my left ankle, then two more grab my right. “On three,” Amanda shouted. “One, two, three!”

My legs wanted to come out of their sockets, but we flew backwards. Literally. We were in the air -- in an awkward position, but still, in the air. My right side was higher and steadier than my left. I risked a look. Sexy Cindy has the left side and while she was giving it her all, she still wasn’t all that adept at flying.

“Drop us on Lucifer!”

They let go. Conveniently, we were right above him. I wasn’t sure if they’d just been listening or lost their holds at the right time, but I didn’t have time to question.

Lucifer flipped us both off, but we landed on the ground. On our paws. Apparently cats weren’t the only beings that could land on their feet when it mattered.

I took a look around. We were doing some serious damage to the fallen angels and other lesser minions fighting. I noted Ishtrallum -- he was standing behind Merc and L.K., chanting. The same thing the others on our side were chanting. I looked carefully -- there were a lot of minor minions doing the same, hiding behind our side and lending a helping hand, claw, paw, talon, or vocal chord.

Jude had Jack and was doing some seriously nasty things to him. The totem of Adlet was hovering over them, twirling. I saw a dark mist drain from Jack into the totem. Adlet grew larger, Jack dropped like a stone. Jude was about to deliver what I knew was a deathblow when Jack disappeared.

I knew he wasn’t destroyed. The Adversary was still fighting and grew a little larger as well, now that Jack was back within it.

But it didn’t help. The totem of Adlet sailed over the Adversary’s head, spinning even faster. Dirt Corps and a variety of beings were in full on attack and occupying all the Adversary’s focus. A larger dark mist sailed from the Adversary to the totem. Adlet was now about the size of the Maltese Falcon, though nowhere near as pretty.

Lucifer grabbed me. “Adlet! Come drain her and break free!”

Chapter 73

The totem of Adlet moved towards us. “Adlet,” I shouted. “Remember that deal? I never mentioned what you needed to do for me to give you the great idea.”

The totem hovered in front of me. It was definitely malleable because it shrugged what I charitably thought were its shoulders.

“Here’s the thing. The Adversary? It’s vulnerable to werewolves. That’s why you could drain them all so easily.” I talked fast. Who knew how long I had? “Think about it. You could destroy the Adversary and take his place. You know how the Prince works. You kill it, you can take its place.”

Adlet cocked his statue-head at me.

“Seriously, what are you waiting for? You don’t need me to break those bonds. You need the real power that’s sitting within the head of the Prince’s Army of the Damned.”

Adlet looked at Lucifer.

“No, not him. Really, he’s like the Prime Minister or something. The Adversary’s where your kind of power is. Besides, if you destroy the Adversary, the rest of the werewolves will have to follow you, right? We won’t have a choice. So, why not hurry up and kill two minions with one bottle of holy water? Or whatever the evil undead equivalent is.”

“I forbid you to do this,” Lucifer said imperiously.

Adlet was big enough that I could see his eyes narrow. He also bared his fangs. Clearly, this wasn’t the right thing to say to the being who the Prince’s side had left locked up in a tiny statue for hundreds of years.

Adlet nodded to me and flew straight at the Adversary. Dear Old Dad saw him coming, reached out, and yanked the Mom and Susan combo to him. They melded into one being. I gagged. Adlet sailed into them and was also absorbed.

The internal struggle started immediately. The Adversary was jerking and flinging itself all over the place, flailing and hitting out at anything.

“Retreat!” Jude shouted, and our side disengaged, fast.

Which was a good thing, since the Adversary hit Abaddon and Apollyon at the same time. Now the Three A’s were going at it, since the two fallen angels were still trying to follow Lucifer’s orders and destroy Adlet.

“Let me go, withdraw the rest of your troops, or I’ll give the order to attack again. Only this time, we’ll focus all our energy on you.”

Lucifer threw me to Jude, who caught me easily. “So be it. It’s not over. We
will
meet again.”

“Looking forward to it.”

Lucifer’s eyes locked with mine again.
Thank you.
Then he opened his mouth. Sound came out, but nothing like I’d ever heard before. It was loud, but not painful, and not in a language I understood.

The minions did, though. To a one they disengaged and flung themselves into the convergence chasm. Lucifer spread his wings and opened his arms. He tackled the Three A’s and they all tumbled into the chasm as well.

Lightning flashed down from the sky, hitting all parts of the chasm. Our side scrambled to get away, though Jude and I didn’t. The ground rumbled as the lightning struck and this time the sound was deafening. I and all the other animal-based undeads covered our ears but it still hurt.

And then, just like that, the chasm was gone. Along with all the minions, other than those already living on the human plane.