Fourth Grave Beneath My Feet

by Darynda Jones

  Since Pari was busy being seduced by an Egyptian goddess, I decided to give them some alone time. And to let my nerves calm down a bit. That little adrenaline rush was more taxing than I thought it would be. I strolled back one room and sat in a center booth.

  As I sat waiting for my number to pop up on the marquee, my mouth watering as I imagined the red chili in the burrito and the butter dripping off the sweet roll, I decided I had to get out more. Two months without the sugary goodness of a sweet roll was entirely too long to wait. What the hell had I been thinking?

  I hadn’t been thinking. I’d gone crazy. Gemma was right. I had a disorder. I’d have to see if there was an OTC I could use. Like a salve. Or a medicated powder.

  I was so into my musings that it took me a while to sense the darkness sitting nearby. So close, I could taste it on my tongue. The raw acidity of rotten eggs filled my mouth and nostrils until my stomach heaved in reflex. I fought the feeling and looked to the side toward a man staring at me in a tweed suit and tan fedora. He had his legs and hands crossed and looked like he could have been a professor at the university.

  “This is quite an honor,” he said, nodding an acknowledgment.

  He had a smooth English accent, the tenor to his voice pleasant but not very deep. His smile was kind and affectionate, but I didn’t miss the darkness lurking just behind his eyes. Still, if this was a demon, why wasn’t he scrambling toward me with drool dripping off his chin? Wasn’t that what they did?

  “To be close enough to you to taste the sweetness of fear wafting off your flesh.” He tilted his face up and drew a deep ration of air in through his nostrils. Then he closed his eyes as though savoring what he found there.

  And he was right. I was afraid. I couldn’t move, I was so afraid. What if he came after me? What if he pounced? I’d be dead before I could say, Um, Reyes?

  He refocused on me with a sheepish expression. “Forgive me. I’ve heard stories of the girl with no fear, so please excuse my surprise.”

  “Surprise of what?”

  “You’re afraid of me.”

  “I’m not afraid of you,” I said, lying through my chattering teeth.

  “Of course you are.”

  “Those stories were exaggerated anyway.”

  The next expression he offered held more wolf than sheep. “I doubt it. Something happened. Your aura has been damaged. So it would be horridly unfair of me, but I’m finding it difficult to hold back. I seem to want nothing more than to rip out your jugular with my teeth and smell the copper in your blood.”

  “I have a guardian.”

  “But I’m here on a mission,” he said, ignoring me. “I have a message.”

  “Have you tried texting?”

  “If the boy will stop hunting us, we will leave you alone to live your life and die naturally, though I have to warn you, traditionally reapers don’t live long in corporeal form. Still, you shan’t die by our hands. We will not interfere in your life in any way. We’ll only—” He turned up a careless palm. “—watch from afar.”

  That was disturbing.

  “But when your body dies,” he continued, lowering his head in warning, “you’re fair game.”

  “The boy?” I asked.

  He smiled. “Rey’aziel.”

  “Reyes is hunting you?”

  “You didn’t know?”

  I shook my head. It seemed the only movement I could manage. “No.”

  “Did you think he just happened upon my soldiers at that ridiculous contest?”

  “You mean the fights?” I asked, frowning. “I hadn’t given it that much thought.”

  “He has been hunting us down like dogs.”

  “Not like dogs.” I shook my head once more. “You don’t deserve the high praise of such a comparison.”

  A lecherous grin stole across his face. “There she is. The girl with no fear. It is no wonder he is obsessed. He always was such a clever boy.”

  Surely he was talking about someone else. Reyes was no more obsessed with me than he was with dryer lint. He just needed me alive for this war that supposedly hovered on the horizon. He’d told me so on several occasions. “So let me get this straight,” I said, trying to wrap my head around the goings-on of the underworld. “He stops hunting you, and you stop attacking him.”

  “We have never attacked him, dear girl. We have no need of him just yet.”

  “I would beg to differ. I saw what your demons did to him in that basement.”

  “Touché, but that was only to get to you. We can get to him anytime. Those tattoos are there for a reason, love. You, on the other hand, are protected. A treasure not so easily gained. But you do have part of it correct. If he stops hunting us, he’ll live much longer in his physical form, fragile as it is. No more stab wounds. No more gashes of which to tend.”

  I jerked to attention. “Gashes?” The bandages he had at the fights.

  “You have no idea what the boy has been up to, do you? He’s grown up. Become quite the warrior, if his ability to down my soldiers while hardly breaking a sweat is any indication. But you care for him.” He turned a curious gaze on me. “Perhaps I could make a deal with you instead.”

  “What?” I asked, realizing I was actually negotiating with the devil. Or, at the very least, one of his minions.

  He unfolded a hand and held it out to me, palm up. “Come with me now. Your death will be quick, and you will rule by my master’s side.”

  “Your master? Meaning Satan.”

  “That is one colloquialism, yes.”

  “Why on all that is holy would I do something like that?”

  “Because you have no idea what you’re capable of. What you can do defies everything you have ever known. But right now, you are just a silly girl running about in an ape suit. You’ll be so much more powerful when you shed it. You will shine like the brightest star and you will have just as much power as one.”

  Okay, so this guy seemed to know what he was talking about. “Tell me what I’m capable of.”

  He leaned in, his eyes black caverns behind the light brown of the human’s he inhabited. “Anything you can imagine.”

  Again? Really? “Why do you want me so bad? There have been other reapers.”

  “But none like you, my dear. We want you, but we need both of you to gain the advantage. You are so close to doing our jobs for us anyway, we’d just like to be around when the gate is actually opened.” When I questioned him with my eyes, he asked, “What do you think happens when the key of darkness is inserted into the locket of light?”

  He raked a salacious gaze from the top of my head to the tips of my booted toes. I felt violated. And repulsed.

  “It’s like opening a door directly from hell and straight into the heart of heaven. How many soldiers do you think can slip through before that door is closed? We just have to be at the ready when it happens.”

  He couldn’t possibly be saying what I thought. “So, you mean if Reyes and I get together?”

  “Yes, well, there’s a bit more to it than that, but that’s the basic idea. Why do you think the master made the son? It wasn’t because he longed for a family, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  I was starting to feel sick. The acrid smell of him made me dizzy. That combined with the constant surge of fear had me almost doubled over with nausea. But I didn’t dare take my eyes off him.

  “I’m going to have to turn down your kind offer,” I said, praying he’d leave so I could run to the bathroom.

  “Pity. But I do understand. The human mind is so limited, it’s hard to see past the rotting flesh of humanity to bigger and better things.” He seemed so civilized, so educated.

  “Is the accent yours?” I asked.

  “No, it belongs to the ape I’m wearing. But I like it. I think it suits me.” He rose and adjusted his tie almost joyously. Then he walked around, bent over, and whispered in my ear, the acrid smell of him overpowering. “Tell Rey’aziel hello from Hedeshi.” He straightened and poi
nted to the coupon book on my table. The one I’d just won. “That was my gift to you, by the way. A token of my admiration.”

  When he turned to walk away, a handful of college kids a couple tables away started clapping, their faces alight with appreciation. He stopped and offered them a regal grin. They were applauding as though we’d just given them a theatrical production. But that’s exactly how it would look from their end. Anyone watching would think we were actors, probably rehearsing for a performance at the university. How could the conversation we’d just had been real?

  Hedeshi held up a hand in true thespian style and took a bow as I sat dumbfounded. He bowed again as he left; then all eyes turned toward me. Waiting to see what my exit would entail. They were about to be very disappointed.

  I looked down at the coupon book for a year’s worth of sweet rolls. With shaking legs, I stood and smiled to our audience, then walked over to Iggy and handed him the book. Knowing I would never make it to the bathroom, I ran out the back door and almost emptied the coffee I’d had on the way over onto the pavement as a cat watched me, her ears twitching in curiosity. Then I took a deep breath, straightened my jacket, and summoned Angel.

  12

  When I want your opinion,

  I’ll remove the duct tape.

  —T-SHIRT

  After dry-heaving in front of God and beast alike, I started toward my apartment building on the next block, then remembered I’d left Misery at Pari’s. I had to stop and lean against something every so often. My hands and knees shook. Even my elbows shook. And quite possibly my hair follicles. Bile slipped up my throat, and I swallowed it down in several quick gulps. Trying to calm myself. Trying to collect my wits and focus.

  The moment his name came to mind, Angel appeared. He glanced around and then glared at me from underneath his bandanna. “How are you doing that? And why are you blue?”

  I sipped on the cool air before asking, “Where is he?”

  I didn’t have to clarify. Angel knew exactly whom I was talking about, and if anyone would know where Reyes was, it was him. He’d been keeping tabs on him ever since the son of public enemy number one got out of prison. I knew it and I knew why. Angel was hoping Reyes would keep his distance, would stay away from me. Not that he told me that outright, but I knew enough about Angel’s feelings toward Reyes to know exactly why he would keep tabs on someone he was so afraid of.

  He kicked the rocks at his feet. “Why?” he asked, his disappointment evident.

  “Because if you don’t tell me, your mother will never see another penny.”

  His expression held a hint of resentment, but I couldn’t help that now. “He’s at the Paladin Lodge down the street.”

  I straightened in surprise. “A hotel? I thought he was living with Elaine Oake.”

  “Look, you asked. I told. I have no idea where he’s living. But right now, he’s at that hotel.”

  Fair enough. “Room?”

  “One thirty-one.”

  “Thank you.”

  I dismissed him and started for Misery.

  * * *

  I parked several spaces down from number 131 and hoofed it to Reyes’s room. The hotel wasn’t horrible. Especially for one that rented by the hour. I’d been to worse. On a scale of one to five, I’d give it a two-ish, but at least there were no blatant drug deals going down in the parking lot. Always a good sign.

  When I got to the room, the door stood ajar just enough for a stream of evening light to slash across worn, dark carpet. I drew Margaret and held her with both hands, barrel pointed to the ground. Like in the movies. If I could actually hit something when I shot, I’d have felt safer, but at least I looked cool.

  “Reyes?” I asked, peeking inside.

  When I didn’t get an answer, I nudged the door open with Margaret’s barrel, an act that only sounded naughty. A ray of light revealed a boot propped on a small table by a kitchenette. I recognized Reyes’s signature style instantly. His boots were a combination of ropers and street cycle, and I coveted them horridly.

  After glancing around for any other occupants, I stepped cautiously inside. He sat ensconced in shadows, so I couldn’t see his facial expression to gauge his mood. The only sentiment wafting off him was pain. Beside his boot on the table sat a bottle of whiskey and a roll of duct tape. That meant only one thing: He was hurt and probably hurt bad. Duct tape was Reyes’s answer to stitches. And surgery. He healed so fast—we both did—that we rarely needed to go to extreme lengths to recover. The exception for me was when Earl Walker had taken a knife to me. The exception for Reyes was when a group of demons had gotten ahold of his physical body while his incorporeal one had been away. And it was a big group. Over two hundred, if I had to guess.

  He didn’t move when I repositioned the door where he had it. His heat drifted around me, warming me, calming me. I was still shaking when I’d parked, but his heat was like a salve for my nerves.

  “Nice room,” I said, glancing around.

  The whiskey bottle was half empty, and I wondered if he’d drunk it or used it as an antiseptic on his wounds. Probably a little of both.

  “I thought you were staying with Elaine.”

  He spoke at last. “I thought we agreed you’d stay in your apartment.”

  “You agreed,” I said, lifting a notepad to inspect it. I couldn’t read the writing. “With yourself apparently, because I remember refusing to.”

  A black jacket lay tossed over a chair, and take-out containers filled the trash cans. At least he’d been eating.

  “Did she kick you out?” I asked.

  “She served her purpose.”

  Surprised, I asked, “And what purpose would that be?”

  “She had connections. I needed those connections to get a trainer for the fights. I couldn’t get in otherwise.”

  The fact that he was just using her should have horrified me, but elation swept through me with the knowledge. “So you just tossed her aside and moved into a seedy hotel?”

  “Something like that.”

  I picked at receipts and other notes scattered on the dresser. “I’ve seen her house. I’m not sure you made a wise decision.”

  “Why are you here, Dutch?”

  His brusqueness pricked. He was really having issues with me lately. One minute he wanted to pull me into his arms, and the next he wanted me out of his sight. Fine, I’d give him the message and leave him to it. I holstered Margaret and said, “Hedeshi says hello.”

  Every emotion in him fled instantly, like he was a roiling ocean growing completely calm in a matter of seconds.

  After a long, drawn-out silence, he asked, “Did he hurt you?”

  “No. We had a very nice conversation, in fact. And he helped me win a year’s supply of sweet rolls, but I gave it to Iggy.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Oh, you know, he talked about the boys back home, the fact that he wanted to rip out my jugular and drink my blood, your father’s plan to take over the world.”

  He looked to the side in thought. “I knew there had to be someone behind this. It’s too organized. Too well thought out.”

  “Well, he wants you to know if you’ll stop hunting them, they’ll leave me alone, allow me to die of natural causes.” I scoffed. “Like that’s going to happen.”

  I saw him clench and unclench his fists. “They’re liars, Dutch. Each and every one. They would lie when the truth would sound better. They have no intention of leaving you alone, no matter what I do.” He took the bottle, and just before downing a swig, he said, “They want you more than they want their next breath.”

  “I figured as much, but why didn’t he just kill me then? Why go through all the theatrics?”

  “Hedeshi isn’t stupid,” he said after putting the bottle back. “He knows he can’t fight your guardian. He has no defense against her. The moment he attacked, she would have been on him, and he knew it. They will have to attack in a group to get past Artemis.” His lips softened as he examined me.
“He upset you.” It wouldn’t have been hard for him to pick up on that. Probably the minute I drove into the parking lot.

  “Only a little.” When he didn’t say anything, I asked, “You’ve been hunting them? Is that who hurt you?”

  He examined his bandages. “They’re very strong.”

  “I could tell. You broke that man’s neck, and he still came after me.” I ran my fingers along the chipped edge of the dresser I was leaning against. “How is that possible?”

  “As long as they’re inside, they make the human body almost indestructible. Once they vacate that body, it will die if it has been mortally wounded.”

  The last time demons had escaped onto this plane, there were hundreds of them. There was no way Reyes could fight them all, even with Artemis’s help. “Do you know how many are here?”

  “Not many,” he said with a shrug. “And there aren’t that many people who are genuinely clairvoyant.”

  “So, you know who they’re targeting?”

  “Yes.”

  “And, what? You’re going to kill them all?”

  He raked his fingers through his hair, exasperated. “To stop a war between heaven and hell from spilling out into this world? Yes.”

  He had a point, but still. “Reyes, you can’t kill these people.”

  “I just need to kill the demons inside, but sometimes the human has to be sacrificed to obtain that goal.”

  “Well, then stop.” I pulled a chair out across from him and sat down. My eyes were adjusting and I could just make out the sensual line of his lips, the fringe of his thick lashes, the frame of mussed hair. His wide shoulders were bare, and duct tape shimmered over one of them and across his abdomen. No bandages. No gauze. Just duct tape. How sanitary could that be? “You can’t kill innocent people.”

  “That man last night wasn’t innocent, if it makes you feel better.”

  “Sadly,” I said, curious about what the man had done, “it does, but only a little.” I rubbed my arms, still fighting off the effects of my encounter with the Englishman. “What happened?” I asked, nodding toward the tape.