Dante Valentine

by Lilith Saintcrow

  So a hover had been downed, but not with a plasbolt. A reaction fire would bring this whole damn building down and burn a scar into the city to boot. It had been downed quietly, all things considered, which probably meant some kind of EMP pulse, probably fairly unremarked since we were out of the main hover lanes. That meant, possibly, two groups of enemies tangling with each other.

  Good for me.

  Fight or flee? I heard Jado’s voice yet again, calm and considering.

  I found a blind corner and waited. I’d be able to see anything that moved on my floor, I’d be able to shoot anything that came up through the hole. It looked as if this place had been bombed, maybe even in the aftermath of the Seventy Days War or a local brushfire action. If I had to, I could drop out of the building and tear my way through a search ring or two, make enough time to lose myself in New Prague. I’d have the benefit of knowing who was after me and what resources they could scramble on short notice.

  The air pressure changed, heaviness sliding against my skin. The cuff tightened, squeezing. I bit back a gasp and folded up inside myself, trying to stay as small and still as possible. The air turned hard and hot, and my throat stopped as I held my breath, unconsciously.

  Below, I felt the arrival of something with an aura full of twisting diamond flame. The smell of heavy oranges and bloody musk filled the air.

  Another demon. I trembled like a rabbit.

  I hadn’t felt this since the first time Japhrimel showed up at my door. The black, twisting diamond flames of demon Power warped through the building’s physical space. I gauged the distance between me and the window.

  Fight, or flee? There was no way I could take on a demon. But if it managed to trap me, I would have to see what I could come up with.

  The soft, chilling voice echoed up from below. “Right Hand,” it said in Merican, the words making the building quiver like a plucked string. “Kinslayer. I wish to speak to you. Come and face me.”

  What the hell? That answered a question—he wasn’t babbling in Czechi, whoever he was. Speaking Merican meant he was probably after me.

  The answer to a question like that is almost worse than having to ask that question in the first place. I had to swallow a wild braying laugh. Why did I always feel the urge to laugh at times like this? I had to breathe; took in a shallow, soft sip of air. Smelled the oranges and musk again, a heady scent.

  I stayed where I was, waiting.

  “I know you are here,” the voice continued. Too deep to be female, full of an awful welter of bone-chilling, nerve-twisting Power. Japhrimel’s voice had never been this uncomfortable. He had occasionally sounded furiously cold or threatening but never so… inhuman. “I can smell you.”

  Good for you. I’d give you a prize but I don’t think you’d like it.

  My right hand tensed around my swordhilt. If a demon comes for me, I want it to be on my terms. I was pretty sanguine about my chances against humans or even werecain, but I didn’t know enough about this terrain to be comfortable facing something bigger. Now I knew there was at least one demon in New Prague, and that he was most likely looking for me.

  And that he could smell me, mistaking me for Japh.

  My mouth gaped, my breathing soundless. I gathered myself, centimeter by centimeter. Like a coiled spring. Japhrimel had taught me how to do it, conserve my body’s need for motion, then explode into demon-swift action.

  Don’t think about him—think about getting out of here. Quickly. Now that you know what you’re facing, get the fuck out of here.

  Movement below. If it was easy for me to haul my carcass up here, it would be even easier for a demon. Especially one of the Greater Flight.

  Stillness, a killing silence like radiation-burn. Demon down there, and what else? What else is waiting to make my life miserable?

  The cuff tightened on my wrist again. Its glow had dampened, as if it didn’t want to give away my location. I went so still I could imagine my molecules slowing down their frenetic dance. I could imagine the flashes between my nerves slowing down too. I could imagine too goddamn much, as a matter of fact.

  “Show yourself.” The voice mouthed along the dark well of the hole slicing through the building. “I come to speak of—”

  The unthinkable happened.

  Pressure crackled in the air. Another arrival. Just like a damn transport dock. Gods above, this just keeps getting better.

  Chaos exploded underneath me. The noise was so instant and so huge I tore my sword out of its sheath, blue flame exploding along the blade.

  I heard a howling snarl, then another chilling scream cut the air. This one froze all the blood in my veins and rather rapidly altered the entire situation. One demon who didn’t know where I was I could handle. Two demons in a melee I could most definitely not handle, but it would give me enough cover to get the fuck out of here.

  I barely thought, all the compressed energy in my body tearing loose at once. I bolted for the window and hit it with Power and flesh both. Wood exploded out, the momentum carrying me far, I braced for impact, tumbling through the air.

  Plasgun fire streaked past, and the coughing roars of projectile weapons. I slammed down, my boots cracking concrete, the shock jolting all the way up to the crown of my head, and took the first two opponents with a clash. All things considered it was actually a comfort to have a clear-cut problem in front of me.

  Mercenaries, human, each with guns and blades. It barely slowed me down, I didn’t even kill the second one, just knocked him aside and streaked over smoking rubble, bowling over another two mercenaries. Plasgun bolts crisscrossed my path, I heard a rising scream I didn’t recognize, a sound of lung-tearing female effort. Something brushed my cheek like a whip, a line of fire against my face. The screaming sound was mine, a howl pushed past all endurance and smashing aside crackling yellow plasbolts. They were firing at me because I was moving too fast to engage now.

  I burst out into a street, deserted but lit with streetlights, flashes of buildings as I ran using demon speed, hearing the footsteps behind me, pounding. They sounded even swifter than mine—I had to do something quick, gaining on me, gaining on me.

  Time to think of something else, Danny.

  There comes a point past which running is useless. I saw an intersection ahead of me and could have jagged to try to throw off pursuit, but my body decided otherwise, streaking instead for the shelter of an alley. I burst into noisome darkness, no Power left to make a shield to ward off the smells of human death and decay. Iron burned against my palm as I leapt over a dumpster, shoving it back in the same motion. The end of the alley was what I’d hoped for, a blank brick wall, and I twisted in midair, boots thudding against it, and completed the motion by leaping lightly down facing back the way I’d come, ready now, my sword singing as it clove the air. My lips peeled back from my teeth. If I was going to die, I was going to die in combat, face-on, with my back to the wall.

  My ribs flared with deep panting breaths. Adrenaline soared and sang through me, pushing me past rational thought and into the tearing-claw frenzy of an animal brought to bay and prepared to go down fighting.

  He stood less than ten feet away, the darkness burning around him with a sound like voices whispering, chattering, sneering. My heart slammed into my throat, I dropped into guard, my blade suddenly glowing with harsh, hurtful blue light. The mark flared against my shoulder, soft velvet heat scoring into my nervous system.

  His eyes. Anubis et’her ka, his eyes.

  His eyes were like Lucifer’s, piercing intense green. And his aura, the diamond-twisting black flames of a demon; he was the same as he had been the very first time I’d ever seen him on my front step.

  Tierce Japhrimel was a demon again, and the look on his face froze my blood. My heart smashed against my ribs, my sword blazed blue-white, every nerve in my body sang with the furious urge to kill.

  I dug my heels into the concrete and prepared to sell myself dear if he came for me.

  CHAPTER 18


  Japhrimel cocked his head, watching me. His face was shuttered, blank, only the terrible burning fire of his eyes to show he was something more than a statue. I swallowed copper. I knew how eerily fast he could move. My heart threw itself against my ribs as if it intended to explode and save everyone involved the trouble of killing me.

  We stood like that, Fallen-no-more and hedaira, for about thirty of the longest seconds of my life. My blade, the weapon of a Necromance, spat blue flame, my head was full of the rushing noise of combat. I was set on lasetrigger, dialed up to ten, and just aching, aching to fight.

  My patience broke. “If you’re going to do it,” I rasped, “do it, don’t make me wait for it!”

  A fleeting shadow crossed his face. He looked puzzled.

  “What nonsense are you speaking now?”

  I was relieved. He didn’t sound like the soft evil voice that had crawled up from the bottom floor of the ruined apartment building. I was so relieved that he sounded like he always had—flat and ironic—that I actually let out a sharp breath, my swordblade dipping slightly. More thunder walked through the sky, the smell of rain turning thick and cloying. Whatever weather was crossing the city, it was very near.

  Relief turned to whipsawing fear and irritation, riding just under my skin. I hadn’t eaten, and I’d expended a hell of a lot of Power. My shields trembled once, snapped back into place. The mark on my shoulder pulsed, another hot wave of Power soaking into the mass of exposed nerves I was fast becoming. Get it while you can, I thought in a lunatic singsong. Get it while it’s good.

  “Dante?” He didn’t move. His eyes flicked down my body, took in my feet in ready stance, the blue-glowing blade, came back up to my face.

  “What happens now?” My breath jagged in my throat. My swordblade dipped even further, blue flame glowing, my rings flaring with golden sparks. “What now, Tierce Japhrimel?”

  Comprehension lit his face. In that one moment he looked completely human despite the lasers of his eyes. My chest gave a horrible squeeze. His eyebrows drew together again, and I braced myself for it. This is going to hurt. This is going to hurt worse than Jace, worse than Doreen, worse than anything. Oh gods, I’ve been wrong, he is planning on making me human again, he’s going to tell me… how is he going to tell me? Japhrimel, please—

  “If you think I am about to fight you, Dante, you are exceedingly stupid.” Now his voice held a faint note of disdain, or was it anger? Irritation?

  I wished I could tell.

  My throat closed. “Oh.” I braced myself. “Are you sure?”

  He made a curious little grimace, sighed. Clasped his hands behind his back, his inky hair falling over his forehead, longer than it had been the first time I saw him. His shoulders relaxed infinitesimally. “Someday, Dante, I will discover how your mind works. When I do I will be able to live content, having solved one of the great mysteries of Creation.”

  What? “What?” I blinked. My shoulders relaxed. It was going to be all right. He was here.

  But the red bath of instinct under my skin wasn’t so sure. The animal in me wanted to fight, wanted hot blood and a deathscream, and I was so twitched-out on adrenaline and fear I wasn’t sure I could stop myself.

  “Have you lost your senses?” Definite anger, reined in, controlled, and burning out through his eyes. When had he learned to wear such a human face, the expressions flitting over his expressive mouth plain as day to me? “I told you I would come for you.”

  “There’s a lot that expression can mean.” My stupid mouth bolted like a runaway horse. “You told me to stay inside the house. They cracked the shields, if I hadn’t gotten out of there the reaction fire… and the imp, there was an imp, and back there—”

  “Ah.” He nodded thoughtfully. “I see.”

  Silence again, crackling against the alley. My breathing began to smooth out. Slowly, so slowly, the tension and bloodlust faded, my pulse slowing down, and he made no move. I was still on the fine edge, pushed almost past rationality by the crazed burst of relief and fresh fear, I had just escaped a demon and now here was another one in front of me, and even though I knew him, I still felt pretty damn nervous. Each moment he just stood there scraped my nerves raw.

  My nerves were jagged enough. I hitched in a breath. “Don’t just stand there!” I shouted at him, twitching as if I meant to attack, sword dipping slightly.

  He didn’t even move. Just examined me, his hands behind his back and his shoulders straight.

  “Goddammit—”

  “Hush.” He shook his hair back, a quick flick of motion. “You must come with me, now. It isn’t safe here for you.”

  “You’re telling me.” The sky lit overhead with a few thrown bolts of light. More thunder, seeming to send hot prickles through my aching, strained body. “I thought… I thought you would…” I couldn’t bring myself to say it. My heartbeat slowed, but each pounding beat felt thick and heavy.

  “Whatever you thought, I am here now. I am losing patience, Dante. Come.”

  My sword dipped the rest of the way. The blue fire along its edges spattered briefly, went out. The sudden darkness stung my eyes. Even the wristcuff had gone dark, and that was some comfort. It had been warning me of other danger, not of Japhrimel. I took a deep, lung-searing breath. My hands shook.

  “You promised not to doubt me.” Silken, the reminder. “There would be unpleasant consequences to breaking a promise to me.”

  What the bloody fucking hell are you talking about? I have just had one fuck of a bad week, and I’m a little twitchy, so just give me a minute. I am so fucking frightened right now I don’t care who comes for me, I’ll kill them. Kill. I bit the words back. Settled for a choked, “Why didn’t you tell me you were going to do that? Huh? Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “There are more pleasant ways to pass our time than this.” He took a single step forward, the Power cloaking him pressing against me. “I returned as quickly as I could. You bear my mark, I am still yours.”

  My brain struggled with this, chewed it, and spat it back out. “You’re a demon again. What happens now? What are you going to do to me?” I sounded scared to death, and not exactly in my right mind.

  Amazing. For once I sounded exactly how I felt. I was too fucking panicked to be very coherent.

  He took another step. “I am A’nankhimel, but given back my Power as a demon. I believe the term the Prince used is abomination.” His eyes glowed. “And if you do not come with me now I will force you, and that will be unpleasant for both of us.”

  I dug my heels in against the compulsion in his voice, the pressure to do as he said; it was harder to resist than Lucifer’s chill weight of command. Was it because Japh had so much more Power now, or because his mark was burned into my skin? “Don’t. Just give me a minute, okay, and tell me why. That’s all I’m asking. That’s reasonable, Japhrimel. It really is. Just fucking tell me. I need to know.” My voice broke, spiraling up into a jagged half-gasp, and wind brushed through the alley, bricks groaning uneasily behind me as Power jittered at the edge of my control.

  He studied me for a moment. My sword hung to one side, loosely, and I was sure he could see me shaking like a Chillfreak. With each breath I dragged in I calmed down a little more, but not nearly fast enough.

  All things considered, I am handling this very well.

  “I took a risk, my curious. I thought it likely Lucifer needed us far more badly than he would admit. I could not warn you; he is far better at reading you than you may comprehend. Your reaction convinced him he could drive a wedge between us, cause trouble. Perhaps he was right.” He paused. “I am sorry.”

  I measured his face, he let me. The mark still burned against my shoulder, waves of Power teasing at my skin. Sinking in, caressing, cajoling.

  “You promised to trust me, and not to doubt me.” His tone was kind, very soft, and familiar.

  I didn’t need the reminder. I set my back teeth, then slowly, slowly, sheathed my sword; heard the click as the bl
ade slid home. Thunder rumbled in the distance. The storm was closing in. “I know.” My voice was harsh, clipped. “You have exactly ten seconds to explain what the fucking hell just happened. Slowly. In great detail.”

  “It will take slightly longer.” No hint of irony in his voice, just simple quiet reasonableness.

  “I’ve got time,” I shot back, and slid the sword all the way home with a click. “Lead on, lord demon.”

  Was it my imagination, or did he flinch? He stepped forward, deliberately, and approached me, each footfall silent but distinct. I didn’t move, just shut my eyes. My lungs burned, I kept breathing. When his hands met my shoulders I sagged, and he pulled me forward, into the shelter of his body. “Do not, hedaira.” His breath was hot in the tangled, chopped mess of my hair. “What I have done, I have done to protect you. Have faith in me. Just a very little, that is all I ask.”

  “I do,” I whispered against his coat. “I knew you’d come.”

  His arms tightened, briefly. He kissed the top of my head, and some of the skittering panic rabbiting under my heartbeat eased. Just a little. “We must go. It is not safe for you here.”

  Funny, this seems like the safest place in the world to be. But I said nothing, just set my jaw and stepped away when he reluctantly let go of me.

  CHAPTER 19

  We walked together under the rumbling sky, Japhrimel with his hands behind his back and a familiar thoughtful expression on his face. I kept my hand on my swordhilt and tried to look everywhere at once, the sour taste of fear in my mouth and all my nerve endings scrubbed raw and bleeding. Japhrimel didn’t look at me, but he seemed intensely aware of our surroundings. Rain pressed low in the clouds, restless spatters touching the pavement and steaming away from the diamond glow of his aura. He was bleeding heat into the air, which made me think that maybe he wasn’t as calm as he wanted me to think.