Black City bw-5

by Christina Henry

  “Not if you’re Lucifer’s Hound of the Hunt,” I said. “You were standing right there when he gave me the second-crappiest job I’ve ever had in my life. This was my choice—I could either fetch Evangeline and their unborn child under my own power, or I could wait for him to compel me to do it.”

  It was hard to tell in the streetlight, but I think all the blood drained out of J.B.’s face. “Evangeline? You restored Evangeline?”

  “Yes,” I said. “And yes, she’s pregnant.”

  “I know she’s pregnant,” J.B. said. “We’ve been keeping tabs on Lucifer’s activities. You don’t think a conception beyond the Door would go unnoticed by the Agency, do you?”

  Now it was my turn to be angry. “If you were keeping tabs on him, then why didn’t you say anything? Why didn’t you stop him? I got a letter of warning just for accidentally straying into the land of the dead during a dream. Lucifer’s been doing a lot worse for months.”

  “Do you really think the Agency is going to send Lucifer a letter of warning? They don’t want to attract his attention, and rightly so. He might decide to destroy the whole Agency on a whim.”

  “But why didn’t you say anything to me about it?” I asked. “Don’t you think that information would have been useful to me, given that he is my grandfather?”

  “We didn’t see any reason to say anything about it.”

  “Who is ‘we’?” I said. “You and Sokolov? Are you guys buddies now?”

  “No,” J.B. said. “There are other managers and executives besides Sokolov, you know. And he’s not very well liked generally, but he’s got powerful connections with the people who matter.”

  “So why didn’t you tell me about Lucifer and Evangeline?” I persisted.

  “The consensus was that nobody needed to worry about it as long as Evangeline stayed put. We didn’t think that even Lucifer would try to remove her.”

  “He didn’t,” I said. “I did.”

  “And that was something we didn’t anticipate,” he said, running his hands through his hair. “But now that you have…Maddy, you have to leave.”

  “Leave where? Chicago?”

  “This universe,” J.B. said. “If you can travel to the land of the dead, then you can cross to another world. You’ve got to get away before Sokolov discovers what you’ve done.”

  “I’m not going to be a fugitive for the rest of my life,” I said. “If he wants to come for me, let him.”

  I’d relish the opportunity to take Sokolov out. He’d tortured J.B., and for that I could never forgive him.

  “It’s not Sokolov that will come for you. It’s the Retrievers,” J.B. said.

  As he said the name of those creatures, it seemed that the wind echoed him—Retrievers, Retrievers, Retrievers.

  “I’m not scared of the Retrievers,” I said. “You don’t even know what kind of shit I’ve seen. Or what kind of power I have now.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” J.B. said. “The Retrievers are the final resort. Nobody is immune.”

  “Then why didn’t you send the Retrievers after Lucifer once he started sneaking past the Door?” I said.

  “I think what it comes down to is that upper management doesn’t want to tangle with Lucifer,” J.B. said. “They’re still smarting from the attack by Ramuell and Antares. They know Lucifer is more powerful than either of those creatures were.”

  “But it’s okay to tangle with me?” I said suspiciously. “You seem to know a lot about Lucifer all of a sudden. More than I do, actually. And I’m wondering why you never told me any of this before.”

  “It was need-to-know,” J.B. said.

  “Don’t give me that Agency line,” I said. “I thought we were past that. I thought that we were friends.”

  J.B. was silent, and in that silence I figured out why he’d never told me any of this.

  “You don’t trust me,” I said.

  “I do,” J.B. protested. “But upper management doesn’t.”

  “No,” I said, hurt beyond reason. “You don’t trust me, not really. Because if you did, you would have told me all of this no matter what upper management said.”

  “Maddy…”

  “No,” I said, cutting him off. “You stood in front of me less than two weeks ago and said that you loved me. If you love me, then you trust me. And it’s obvious you don’t.”

  “Don’t try telling me about love,” J.B. said angrily. “Your husband died less than a month ago and you’ve been climbing all over Nathaniel ever since.”

  The urge to slap him in the face was strong, but I resisted. “I don’t owe you anything. If anything, you owe me. I’ve saved your life more times than I can count in the last week.”

  “Keeping score, like your grandfather?” J.B. said. “You’re becoming more like Lucifer every day.”

  I couldn’t believe it had come to this, that we were standing on the beach in the middle of January cutting each other to ribbons. I was losing him, too. Maybe I’d already lost him. But the gulf between us seemed too wide to cross.

  “I am nothing like Lucifer,” I said through my teeth.

  “Could have fooled me,” J.B. said.

  “Then go,” I said, pointing to the sky. “Get your own damned self home. I hope you can avoid being kidnapped by faeries or possessed by your mother without someone to watch you.”

  J.B.’s face was purple with anger now. “Someday, someone is going to give you your comeuppance. I just hope I’m there to see it.”

  And then he was gone. Like everyone else. Everyone except Nathaniel.

  I crossed my arms and turned toward the lake. The wind was cold. I was abruptly aware that my sleeves were still rolled up from my trek through the desert with Evangeline, and that I wore nothing except a T-shirt and jeans. My hair had come out of its braid somewhere along the way and it whipped and curled in the breeze. Just like Evangeline’s.

  I let myself have a cry. I deserved it. Everyone I’d thought would stand by me was gone. And now that I was alone, I started to doubt myself. Could I have made different choices? Could I have avoided becoming further embroiled in Lucifer’s machinations?

  No matter how I replayed the last four months, it seemed that the only choices I could have made were the ones that I did. From the moment Ramuell had killed Patrick to the moment that led me here, there wasn’t anything else I could have done. At least, I didn’t see how.

  Nathaniel landed on the beach beside me. I jumped about four feet in the air.

  “Are you crazy?” I said. “What’s with the ninja act?”

  “I am sorry,” he said, smiling a little. “I did not think to announce my presence.”

  “Next time bring a bullhorn,” I said. “I could have taken your head off.”

  “You were not even holding your sword,” Nathaniel said. “What has become of J.B. and Amarantha?”

  I gave him an edited version of events, leaving out the details of my argument with J.B. Nathaniel seemed to read between the lines, though he didn’t say anything.

  “What happened at the house? You didn’t kill Bryson, did you?” I said.

  “No,” Nathaniel said. “All of the Agents were safely returned to the Agency. They are not happy, but they are not harmed.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I took away their weapons, tied them up and then deposited them on the Agency’s front step,” Nathaniel said. “Then I followed you here.”

  “How did you find me?” I asked.

  Nathaniel caressed my cheek. “I would be able to find you even if you crossed all the worlds, Madeline. The spell we performed, the one that bound our powers—it bound us together. Can you not feel it?”

  I could, but I’d thought it was nothing more than lust. Now I knew it was more than that, that Nathaniel and I were connected on a deeper level than I realized. He would always be with me, and I with him.

  He bent his head to mine, kissed me, and as our passion surged so did our power. A pulse of magic emitted from our en
twined bodies.

  And a pulse answered us.

  We broke apart, staring at the lake. Far out, beyond the breakers, the water was bubbling and surging. Something big was rising up.

  “Alerian,” I breathed.

  I took a step backward, and so did Nathaniel. He grabbed my hand and held it tight. The water was rising up into a column, and there was a sense that something of impossible size was beneath the water. Green mist rose from the surface of the lake once more, except this time it poured off in a continual fog.

  That fog didn’t stay confined to the lake but drifted out to the sand, onto the path, onto Lake Shore Drive and beyond. The drive was silent, the cars still abandoned. The city had not even begun to rebuild itself yet, and here was another monster.

  A huge tentacle emerged from the column of water. It lashed the breakers, smashing the rock into a million tiny pieces. The creature surged forward, emerging from the column and moving toward the shore. Everywhere I looked there were arms, huge squid-like arms. The rest of his body was still submerged, and I sincerely hoped it stayed that way. If I saw all of him, I might start gibbering.

  “That’s Alerian?” I said faintly.

  “Bit of a show-off, isn’t he?” said Lucifer from behind my shoulder. “I’d say he read Lovecraft once and never got over it, but he went to sleep eons before Lovecraft was born.”

  “How did he manage to hide in the lake without anyone ever discovering him?” I said. “He’s enormous.”

  “He doesn’t have to stay that size,” Puck said from the other side of Nathaniel. “As my dear brother says, Alerian is a show-off. He’s displaying his true form for no other reason than he can.”

  I looked askance at Puck. “Are you saying that you and Lucifer have forms other than these?”

  Puck winked at me. “That’s for me to know and you to find out.”

  “I don’t really want to know,” I said.

  “I’ll thank you not to wink at my granddaughter,” Lucifer said.

  Puck leaned around Nathaniel so he could get a good look at Lucifer. I swear I could see the two of them bristling like cats, their tails getting puffy and indignant.

  “She’s my niece,” Puck said. “And Alerian’s.”

  “As Nathaniel is my nephew,” Lucifer said silkily.

  “Stay away from my son,” Puck said.

  “Stay away from my granddaughter,” Lucifer replied.

  “Shut up, the two of you,” I said. “He’s coming out of the water.”

  “You know he’s only rising because of you,” Puck said to Lucifer. “If you had stayed out of the dead world, then he probably would have slept forever.”

  “How do you know it’s not your fault?” Lucifer said. “The awakening of Nathaniel’s power would have been just as noticeable as anything I did.”

  “I noticed Madeline has some lovely new wings,” Puck said.

  “Stop trying to pin this on me,” Lucifer said. “We’ll both have to deal with him now, whoever is responsible.”

  The first enormous tentacle slapped onto the shore. Nathaniel and I scooted back a little farther, until our feet scraped the surface of the bike path.

  Puck and Lucifer walked forward, although they were both careful to keep a sufficient amount of distance between them. The only sibling hatred that I knew of to rival theirs was Antares’ hatred of me. I was sure the only thing that stopped the two of them from actively trying to kill each other was some arcane law of the universe that bound them.

  A second tentacle followed the first. The majority of Alerian’s body was still far from shore. That’s how big he was. His tentacles were slapping up on the beach and most of him was still submerged several feet out in the deeper water. He stopped moving as Lucifer and Puck approached.

  Nathaniel and I moved forward again, cautiously.

  Then two things happened at once.

  Therion came flying out of the darkness, fangs bared, obviously intent on me.

  Alerian coiled one huge tentacle around the vampire king and squeezed. There was a sickening pop as Therion was crushed into two pieces. Alerian threw Therion onto the beach. The upper half of Therion tried to turn over and crawl away.

  “He’s a vampire, you idiot,” Puck said. “You’ve got to behead him or set him on fire.”

  In response, Alerian grabbed Therion around the neck with one tentacle and around the remains of his waist with the other and pulled the vampire king’s head off like a cork.

  “Ah,” I said, feeling sick to my stomach. “That takes care of that problem, then.”

  The tentacles receded into the water, and the fog dissipated. For a moment I hoped that Alerian would go back to sleep, having woken just long enough to save me from the belated vengeance of the vampire king.

  But my luck didn’t run that way.

  A moment after the giant squid arms disappeared, a third figure stood on the beach with Lucifer and Puck.

  I dropped Nathaniel’s hand, moving closer so I could see Alerian clearly.

  He had blue-green hair, like seaweed, drawn back in a long queue. His eyes were the same color. His face was handsome, and he wore a suit that looked as though it had been tailored for him. There was none of Puck’s impishness about him, nor of Lucifer’s smooth control. Even with the trappings of civilization on him, Alerian seemed wilder than the other two. More untamed. More dangerous.

  And according to Puck, Daharan was worse than all of them put together. I definitely did not want to meet Daharan. Ever.

  “Brothers,” Alerian said formally. The ancient siblings stood on the sand like three points of a triangle, a precise amount of distance maintained.

  “Alerian,” Lucifer said. “You have decided to wake from your long sleep.”

  “What my brother wants to know is why you have chosen to wake,” Puck corrected. “And I want to know that, too.”

  “What I would like to know,” Alerian said, looking at Nathaniel and me standing just outside the circle of their conference, “is what the two of you have been doing while I have been asleep.”

  “There’s so much to tell,” Lucifer said. “We should adjourn to my court where we can discuss it.”

  “He’s not going with you so you can poison his mind with your serpent’s tongue,” Puck said.

  “Too bad you do not have a court to offer,” Lucifer said. “Pretending to be Titania’s servant does have its disadvantages.”

  “I do not wish to go with either of you, anywhere,” Alerian said. “I wish to know what you have been doing. And then I wish to spend some time with my kin.”

  Alerian waved his hand in the direction of Nathaniel and me.

  “Um,” I said. I couldn’t imagine putting Alerian on the futon in the living room.

  “Come forward, my niece,” Alerian said imperiously. He held out his hand to me.

  I didn’t want this. I definitely did not want to be on the radar of another of Lucifer’s relatives/enemies.

  But Alerian had just saved my life. And everyone was watching me, waiting to see what I would do.

  I lifted my chin. I wasn’t afraid of anyone, not even a giant squid–sea god–thing. I took his hand.

  He drew me close to him, stared deep into my eyes, and I was drowning.

  I could taste the salt of the ocean, feel the freedom of the water, the pressure of its depths. The waves crashed against me, crashed against the shore.

  Someone was pulling me, tugging me out of the water.

  I stumbled backward, Nathaniel’s hands on my shoulders, gasping for breath.

  Alerian stared at Nathaniel. His face was impassive. I couldn’t tell whether he was shocked or impressed that Nathaniel had pulled me away. Puck and Lucifer both appeared stunned.

  “Yes,” Alerian said finally. “I will be spending some time with the two of you. But for now, I must speak with my brothers.”

  We were dismissed. I can’t say that I was sorry to go. I wasn’t sure what had happened there with Alerian, but it was as if
I were being drawn inside him, smothered by the sea.

  Nathaniel was quiet as we flew home. I wasn’t feeling particularly chatty myself. We had been through a lot in the last few days, even for people who were accustomed to being in constant mortal peril.

  We landed on the front lawn. I looked at him, and he at me.

  “Now what?” I said.

  “Now we eat pancakes,” Nathaniel said.

  “You can cook pancakes?” I said as we walked inside. There was no noise from Samiel’s apartment.

  “Who said anything about cooking them?” he said.

  I gave a short laugh as we climbed the stairs. “That’s not usually the way you ask a woman to cook for you.”

  He stopped me with a tug on my arm. His eyes were full of heat. “I could convince you, I am sure.”

  “I’m sure you could,” I said breathlessly. “But if you do that, I’m not sure how much cooking would get done.”

  “Oh, there would still be pancakes,” Nathaniel said. “Eventually.”

  I tried not to be sad, not to think about Gabriel, not to think about the fact that Nathaniel didn’t smell like Gabriel, that cinnamon sweetness that was always in the air around him. Couldn’t I forget for a little while? Wouldn’t that be all right, for me to stop hurting every second of the day?

  I pulled Nathaniel up with me, almost broke down the door trying to open it. We had just stepped inside when the phone rang.

  “Let it go,” Nathaniel murmured.

  “It might be…” Samiel. Beezle. I didn’t need to say it.

  Nathaniel nodded, and I went to the side table to pick up the phone.

  “Maddy,” J.B. said. He was breathless. He sounded like he was running.

  “What do you want?” I said.

  “You have to get out of the house—now,” he said.

  “Why?”

  I was facing the front window, the portable phone tucked under my ear. A strange black shadow slid across the surface of the glass, like an oil slick.

  “Sokolov has sent the Retrievers after you,” J.B. said. “You have to go. You have to go now.”

  The side window in the living room was drenched in the same shadow. So were the ones in the dining room. I ran through the house, looking for an escape, but there was none. The things looked like nothing more than black liquid, but I could feel their hate. They wanted me, and they would not leave without me.