Women of the Otherworld 09.5 - Angelic (7 page)

“I need a bigger sword,” I said.

Marius grinned. “We’ll have to requisition one for you.”

I glanced behind him. “Is Katsuo with you?”

“Haven’t seen him, but I’m sure we can handle these three.”

The djinn looked human—or close to it. Unlike most demons and demi-demons, they can manifest in the living world. And like most
who
can
manifest, they bore some resemblance to their mythical counterparts, in their case, the genies of Arabian lore.

The djinn were bald and muscular, and wore only
billowing
pants. Their yellow eyes and copper skin glowed. They were barely five feet tall, but I’m sure to humans who summoned them, they looked
much
bigger.

Skewering them on my sword didn’t kill them. Stung like a son of a bitch, but that wasn’t what really pissed them off. I don’t know what makes an angel sword glow, but it’s like celestial Krazy Glue for demons. Once they touch it, they aren’t going anywhere, no matter how much they curse and struggle, and believe
me,
these djinn did plenty of both.

“Want me to take these guys into custody?” Marius asked. “You can wait and see if more show up.”

“First I need to interrogate them and find out exactly what Dantalian was up to.”

Marius shrugged. “I say don’t bother. You’ve done enough. Let the Fates handle interrogation while you head off on your overdue vacation.”

Tempting.
Very tempting.
But any thought of getting
myself
fired had faded under the need to finish this job. So I asked him to stay and watch for more djinn, then I thanked Jaime and Jeremy, and hauled my captives off to a dimensional holding cell.

The djinn didn’t want to talk, naturally, but I can be very persuasive, especially when I’ve called in Kris to help me play bad cop/psychotic cop. This was another reason why I’d left Marius guarding the arrivals gate—I don’t mind breaking the rules, but I won’t let an angelic colleague be party to it.

Kris had been right. Dantalian was behind the scheme. The djinn were only foot soldiers, so they knew little about the overall plan, only their small part in it, which was to work overtime responding to all summonings and give the summoner an automatic pass to crazy land.

When the divine powers realized the djinn were breaking their contract, they’d send in the angels, who’d find the problem spreading like eldritch fire. The lord demons would see the angel troops being marched out and they’d get involved—not to muster their own troops, but to stamp out the fire fast.

The battle between good and evil is really a cold war. Each side makes small forays against the other, struggling to keep the power balance tipped a little to their side, both knowing they don’t have the martial supremacy to risk a full-blown attack.

So the lord demons would want a quick resolution to the situation. That’s where, presumably, Armaros would suggest a surefire way to end the conflict. Release Dantalian. After all, he’d served most of his sentence. He’d learned his lesson. Grant him early parole and he’d be eager to prove himself by stopping his djinn. Then, the moment he gave the word, the djinn would fall in line. Problem solved.

I was still finishing the interrogation when Marius popped in. No more djinn had appeared and he was eager to hand these three to the Fates. I let him handle that. I had a more pressing appointment to keep.

* * * *

“Yo, Dantalian!”

I strode through the wall, narrowly avoiding a skeleton. The oath beside me said Kristof hadn’t been so lucky.

“Jaime and I talked about having her do a ‘special broadcast’ here, sensing the spirits and breaking down the wall to put these poor buggers to rest,” I said as we walked into the room. “Great publicity for her, but we didn’t want to take the chance of freeing Dantalian.”

“Oh, I’m sure that wouldn’t happen,” Dantalian’s voice slithered past.

I snorted and strode to the couch.

“I see you brought your boyfriend,” he said, a petulant note creeping into his voice.

“No, I brought my lawyer.”

Kris walked to the center of the room. “You had a binding agreement with Eve, Dantalian, and you’re in violation of section three, clause two, which means—”

“I like the lawyer even less than the boyfriend. I’m quite sure you and I can work this out, Eve.”

“He stays. Kris? Continue please.”

“You’re in violation of section three, clause two of Eve’s agreement to visit you biannually in return for services already rendered. Therefore, she is now free of her obligation and you may consider this your last visit from her.”

“Perhaps we can renegotiate.”

“You’re not even going to deny what you did, are you?” I said.

“I respect you too much to engage in such petty machinations—”

My burst of laughter cut him short.

He started again. “It was business not personal, and I’m sure of all people, Eve, you understand that. I’m really very fond of you.”

“Fond? Your djinn tried to drive me crazy.”

“Only temporarily, and I assure you that when I was freed, I had every intention of compensating you for that inconvenience.” His voice slid around me on a warm breeze. “You’d find me much more useful as a free demon.”

“Nice try. But you’re staying here. I captured three of your djinn. They told me everything.”

“Ah.”

“They’re on their way to the Fates now, and when
they
hear the story and relay it up the food chain, then over to Lord Baal…”

“Ah.” He sighed. “I suppose I’ll be serving my full sentence then.
Pity.”

My eyes narrowed. “You don’t seem very upset about that.”

“No sense raging against fate.
Or the Fates, in this case.
As you so quaintly put it, it was a nice try.
Now, about our contract.
I believe renegotiations are in order.”

“You really aren’t the least bit worried about what Baal—” I stopped short. “Shit!”

I spun on Kris. “Can you get yourself back home?”

“Go, I’ll wait here.”

Thirteen

I popped into the Fates’ outer chambers first, in case I was wrong, but as I feared, there was no sign of Marius. I returned to the theater. Jaime and Jeremy were long gone and, again, there was no sign of Marius, but I searched the building and finally found him backstage, sitting on the floor, shell-shocked.

When I shook him, he didn’t respond, just kept staring, unblinking. I shook him harder, calling his name, and was about to resort to a magical wake-up call when he jumped, right hand sailing to his sword hilt… only there was no sword there.

“Marius?”

He looked up at me, blinking. “Eve?”

“Where are the djinn?”

“Djinn?”
His lips formed the word as if he didn’t quite recognize it. Then he leapt up, looking about. “No. No, no, no!”

“What happened?”

“I—” He blinked hard. Then he looked up at me. “I don’t know. I had them on my…”

He glanced down at his empty hands, then into his empty scabbard, and he swore, the end of the curse rising in panic. Outstretched fingers trembling, he stammered through the incantation. When the sword appeared in his hands, he tottered with relief. I didn’t blame him.
For an angel to lose his sword to a demon?
Let’s just say it was one of those things I’d heard about, but I’d never met anyone it had happened to, and suspected there was a good reason for that.

“You must have unconjured it and they escaped,” I said. “Do you remember anything?”

He gave a slow, mournful shake of his head. Then his eyes snapped wide. “I remember…” He glanced down at the sword still lying across his palms. His voice dropped to a whisper. “I saw an angel sword. Then everything went dark.”

An angel sword meant an angel, which meant his attacker was one of us.
A traitor.
And what surprised me most about that was my own reaction—I wasn’t shocked. I’d already considered the possibility when Dantalian hadn’t seemed too worried about his djinn being hauled before the Fates. He knew that would never happen. I should have guessed that for an operation this important, he’d need an angel in his pocket.

What surprised me was my gut reaction.
Grief,
and outrage. A little voice reminded me that I’d planned my own treachery, but even in my betrayal, I’d only used a demon to finish an assignment.
Not
finishing it had never occurred to me.

“I think I know…” Marius swallowed.
“Katsuo.
He didn’t come when you called for help, but he must have heard the summons and knew you had the djinn. He knew where we were.”
A sharp shake of his head.
“No, I’m sure I’m wrong. Katsuo would never…”

He trailed off uncertainly.

“Either way, we need to get those djinn back,” I said.

“If… if it was Katsuo, I might know where he’d take them.”

“Lead on.”

* * * *

Waves battered the rocks, drenching me with each crash. I squinted, but even my Aspicio powers didn’t help me see through my hair, whipping in front of my eyes. I licked my lips, tasting salt.
The ocean.
A ghost world version, if I could feel and taste the water.

I tied my hair in a plait, hands moving automatically, gaze still traveling around me, Aspicio powers kicking in, letting me see through the mist. I stood ankle deep in water on a rock that jutted from the stormy sea. It was a small outcropping, barely big enough to pitch a tent on. Beyond that, there was no land as far as my bionic eyesight could see.

“—down—cave—”

Behind me, Marius shouted to be heard over the crashing waves and howling wind. I turned to see him hunched against the water’s blast, one hand shielding his eyes from the wind, the other pointing down to a narrow hole in the rock, descending into darkness.

“Katsuo—we found—assignment last year—said—perfect place—”

I didn’t catch the rest, but could fill it in. That cave on this forsaken outcropping was the perfect place to stash a prisoner—or three.

“I’ll go down,” he yelled. Then he grimaced in what would probably be a wry smile if not for the icy rain pelting his broad face. “—your job—you want to do—I’ll stand watch.”

“No, you need the collar,” I shouted back, moving closer so he could hear me. “You go on down and get them. I’ll stand guard out here.”

He sluiced water off his face as he shook his head. “No, it’s your job. You should—”

He jerked back, my sword point at his throat.

“Eve?” His eyes widened.
“You?”

“No, not me and not Katsuo, but you know that. I’d ask you why, but the truth is, Marius, that I don’t give a shit why you did it. There is no excuse.”

“You think
I’m
the one who—?”

“Am I wrong?
Great.
Go on down there and prove it.”

He didn’t move.

“So where does that lead?” I asked, nodding at the hole.
“A cave?
A portal?
A hole to the center of the—”

He kicked my shins. I staggered back, but recovered in time to leap out of the way. He lunged for me. I danced around him, blade flashing. He ducked and charged. I sidestepped. My foot slipped on the rock. He dove at me, knocking me toward the hole. I tried to stop, but couldn’t get any traction. My sneakers hit open air. I dropped my sword, rushing through the incantation to unconjure it as I grabbed the hem of Marius’s toga. I fell into the hole… and he came with me.