Women of the Otherworld 09.5 - Angelic (8 page)

We seemed to fall forever, grunting and kicking and punching, into
a darkness
even my Aspicio vision couldn’t pierce.

I landed flat on my back with a bone-jarring crack that left me dazed.

I listened, but of course heard nothing. Ghosts—even angels—don’t
breath
. Marius could be right beside me and I wouldn’t know it. Beneath me the ground was slick and cold.
Rock?
Marble?
Glass?
I had no idea.

I could conjure a light ball, but that would only show him where I was, so instead I struggled to see. My powers, though, like any night vision, need a light source, however faint, and here there was none. When I did make out a faint glimmer, I leapt to my feet, spinning as Marius’s glowing sword sliced toward me.

I dove into the darkness. My sneakers squeaked. Hearing that, Marius flew at me. I raced out of the way,
then
hopped, yanking off my shoes as I went, too hurried to unconjure them. When I pitched one, he tore off that way; I ran the other direction,
then
hunkered down.

He picked up my shoe, cursed and whipped it into the shadows.

“You’re too good for this job, Eve,” he said. “We both are.”

I bit my tongue against answering.

“They don’t treat you right and you know it. It’s your demon blood. They can’t get past their prejudice. You could be the best angel they’ve ever had, and they’d still treat you like shit.”

I could faintly see him by the glow of his sword. He walked carefully, chin up, listening for any sound that would give me away, still talking.

“Can you imagine how the demons would treat you?
Daughter of a lord demon?
Master of the dark arts?
Former ascended angel? I’ll be well paid for my part, but I’d be lucky if they’d even let me be your bodyguard.”

My socks whispered against the ground as I moved. He stopped, head jerking to follow the sound. I crouched and threw my other shoe, letting it skip lightly across the hard ground. When he turned that way, I scampered in, coming up behind him—

He wheeled. I fell back.

He chuckled. “Nice one. Not quite quick enough, though. Do you forget my claim to fame, Eve? I’m a gladiator. I’ve fought giants and dwarves. I’ve fought wild animals and savages. I’ve fought one, two, a dozen at a time, but what finally killed me?
My partner.
Stabbed me in the back.
I learned my lesson. Do unto others before—”

I rushed forward, straight on, catching him off-guard. He stumbled back, sword flashing. I grabbed the blade. Felt the pain, searing, unbelievable pain, but I held on. I wrenched the sword from his hands, spun and threw it as far as I could.

And we were plunged back into darkness.

I pounced. We fought. It wasn’t easy—he was as good as he thought he was. But he was fighting blind and the distant glow of his sword was enough for me to make out his figure, duck his blows and deliver my own. Soon I had him pinned.

“Need some help?” asked a voice behind me.

“Took you long enough.”

Katsuo laughed and took out his sword, waving it so he could see by its glow. “You’re lucky I could follow your beacon down here. And you’re lucky I brought a little magic dust to get us out of here.
Ready to go?”

I was.

Fourteen

Katsuo and I took Marius into custody. The Fates were shocked and overcome with gratitude. They saw the error of their ways, and promised me a permanent extra month of ghost-time each year.

Right.

We handed Marius over to the guards outside the Fates’ throne room. One took a message in and returned to say they’d be with us shortly. After sitting in the waiting chamber for an hour, I told Katsuo to cover the meeting—I was starting my vacation.

I found Kris back where I’d left him, with Dantalian. I told him what had happened. I didn’t say a word to the demon, but he could hear, of course, and knew his plan had failed. He cursed—some serious cursing, too. None of it, though, was directed at me. As he’d said, betraying me had been purely business. I
did
understand that.

When I left, he was already making offers to renegotiate our contract. I ignored him. I
would
listen, but only when he’d had a few months to stew and panic and get very, very lonely. Then I’d make damned sure he paid me well for my continued social visits.

I teleported us back to Kris’s houseboat, still explaining how I’d figured out it was Marius.

“I knew something was up when Katsuo didn’t answer my page. If it was him, he’d have come. And there’s no one less likely to betray us than Katsuo—samurai loyalty and all that. The guy loves his job. Marius…” I shrugged and tried to ignore the stab of pain. “It was a possibility.”

“He blocked your signal to Katsuo?”

“Apparently.
Luckily my follow-up call worked or I might still be in that
hole
.” I slumped into a deck chair and sighed. “I can’t believe it that when Dantalian’s goons went looking for an ascended to turn, they didn’t even try me. Some rebel angel. I’m a fraud and everyone knows it.”

“I hope you don’t expect me to respond to that,” he said, slanting me a look.

He was right, of course. I wasn’t a fraud. One thing I always prided myself on was keeping my word. Granted, I didn’t give it very often, but if I did, I kept it. That was the key to success in the dark underbelly of the supernatural world. You can be as bad as you want to be, but if you expect to survive and
thrive,
people have to know that if you agree to teach them a deadly spell, you won’t turn it on them and empty their bank account.

“I don’t want to quit my job, Kris. But you knew that all along, didn’t you?”

He didn’t answer that either.

“As much as I love it, though, I can’t take the bullshit. I just can’t.”

“I know.”

I looked over at him. “I need your advice.”

He smiled. “I thought you’d never ask.”

* * * *

The Fates summoned me within the hour. When I arrived, Katsuo was gone. This was a private audience. And if I expected a hero’s welcome, well, let’s just say it’s a good thing I didn’t.

The youngest Fate was at the loom, weaving. She didn’t even glance up when I arrived.

“You guys knew there was a traitor in the ranks, didn’t you?”

She looked up, bright eyes dancing. “We know everything.”

“Then you didn’t need me to find him.”

“
Almost
everything.”

“Why did you pick me? Because you thought one troublemaker would recognize another?”

The middle-aged Fate took over. “No, dear, because we knew if there was a traitor, you wouldn’t quit until you found him.”

“And I did, so now I can start my vacation, right? And on that subject—”

“You want an extension,” she said with a put- upon sigh.

“No.”

“No?” The old Fate appeared. “You’d better not want anything else, Eve Levine. We don’t grant favors to angels for doing their job. We’ll give you exactly the number of hours you lost, because that’s fair, but don’t you dare push—”

“I wasn’t going to. I’ll take compensation for the hours I lost. I know I don’t deserve special treatment.”

Her eyes narrowed.

I continued, “I figured a few things out while I was gone. At first, I was mad as hell, ranting about how unfair it was. Then I realized you guys aren’t being unfair at all. I’m a celestial pain in the ass, always sneaking around, getting into trouble,
breaking
the rules. If I want to be treated better, I need to act better. I need to be a proper angel.”

She eyed me, waiting for the punch line.

“When I come back, I’m going to follow the rules. All of them.”

“No one asked you—”

“I get that. You’ve been very patient with me, but it’s been five years and it’s time for me to shape up and toe the line.”

The three Fates morphed in and out, as if clamoring to speak. Then the old one returned and, for a minute, there was silence. I met her gaze, mine as open and guileless as I could make it.

“Fine,” she harrumphed. “Take an extra month, but don’t—”

“No, I’m serious. You want the Good Witch? I can be the Good Witch.”

“Six weeks.” She scowled. “And that’s my final offer.”

“Wow. Well, okay, I guess. But you do want me to behave myself, right? That’s what you’re always getting on my case about: my misbehavior. Ergo, you must want—”

“We want you to do your job.”

“And I want to do it.” I locked gazes with her. “I want to do it right.
My kind of right.
And if you want the same thing, then you need to back off and let me work.”

We stood there a moment, staring one another down. Then she pulled back, grumbling under her breath before saying, “Go. We’ll talk when you get back.”

I turned away, smiled, and teleported off to meet Kris in La Ceiba.
Time to play pirate.