by Tim Marquitz
As for Marcus, I’d exiled him to another part of the room and sealed him off from the rest of Hell, making sure to provide him with all the necessities: a bathroom, food, and plenty of booze to keep him relatively compliant. He was still pretty pissed that I’d kidnapped him and kept him from Poe, but that was just the way it had to be. I’d let him go when I was done and no amount of bitching or complaining was going to change that. Didn’t stop him from trying, though.
The little necromancer, on the other hand, seemed to understand his predicament better than Marcus ever would. Once his eyes popped open, he glanced to his hand and noticed I’d taken the ring he and his teammates used to teleport. I smiled wide as I held it up, twirling it about my pinky.
It was a sweet little device crafted by the girl Kit who’d shot my ass at Katon’s place with the cannon she made. According to Poe, the ring needed to be programmed for an external location to be accurate, but they had several built in, default destinations for emergencies. They were also very limited in power since they were powered by the girl’s magic, only able to be used twice, three times before they lost their charge. That’d been why the holy rollers were slumming it in the government taxi. All their flitting back and forth had drained their batteries.
Styg looked from the ring to the army of sub-demons filling the room, and promptly wiped the slate of his emotions clear before looking back to me. His face was a blank slate as he got to his feet, rubbing at his jaw. There was none of Marcus’s aggression or disrespect. Styg knew his place and the price of stepping out of it.
“I presume there’s a reason I’m still alive,” he said.
Ding, ding, ding! “You know it, Necrolicious. Want to play the Guessing Game?”
He shook his head. “Not particularly, no. How about we skip to the part where you tell me what it is you want, and then I can decide whether or not I want to risk life and limb defying you.”
Fucking mercenary, this guy. I liked his attitude. “Well, my reasoning for kidnapping your precious little ass is twofold really,” I answered. “You worked a rather unfortunate reversal on a certain biblical psychotic that my cousin and I went to great pains to put down like the shit-spewing scumdog he is.” I waggled a finger at him. “We can’t have that happening any more. Those three need to stay dead once we put them there. You understand that, right?”
He nodded, though it was obvious he didn’t give a damn what I said or wanted him to do. Or not do, for that matter. The guy was a survivor. After everything was said and done, he planned to crawl out of the wreckage and dust the past off his sleeves and keep on keepin’ on.
“And?” he asked, taking it all in stride as if being captured by a pissed off demon was the most normal thing in the world.
“Then you’ll put your voodoo to work for me,” I said. “Do what I ask you to do, without giving me any grief, and you’ll go on about your business with my blessing. Fuck with me and…”
A narrow grin flickered at his lips, and he raised a hand to stop me. “And you make my life a living hell, I presume.”
“Close enough, though I can offer up specifics if you feel they’re necessary. Charts, graphics, video if you like.”
“No, don’t believe I need examples, Triggaltheron.”
I sighed. “Okay, first things first, don’t ever call me that again. Second, I’m curious about your name. Is Styg the one you were born with? It really rolls off the tongue like a wet cat turd, I have to say.”
“It’s short for Stygian, thank you very much. Stygian Darkness if you must know, and no it’s not the name my mother graced me with. It just seemed to fit my inclinations growing up, so it stuck. Who am I to question the wisdom of my Heavy Metal peers?” He almost sounded sincere.
I threw him the horns, my estimation of the guy clicking upward a few notches. “So what is your real name?”
He rolled his eyes. “This necessary?”
“It so is, buddy.”
He sighed, conceding without a fight. “It’s Tim, if you must know.”
“Tim, huh?” I said, sounding the name out in my head. “Tim, Tim, Tim, Timmy Tim Tim, Tim, Tim, Timaroo, Timarino.” I shook my head. “Nope, that doesn’t work for me. I can’t help but picture you with curly red hair and a ukulele, belting out a horrific falsetto. I guess I’ll stick to Styg then.”
“Fabulous.”
“So what do you need to perform your special kind of magic?” I asked, getting back to the business at hand.
“Well, I don’t see a body anywhere. That does present a challenge to my abilities of returning one to life.” His gaze wandered the room, the move exaggerated.
“I’m working on that. It’ll be here soon enough. Until then, enjoy the fragrant company and work out a list of what you need to get the job done. You can give it to one of the fiends when you’re finished.” I slipped his teleport ring into my pocket and headed for the door, pausing before I opened it. “I don’t need to mention what happens if you try to leave this place without my permission, do I?”
“No, sir,” he said, bowing to me with a sarcastic flourish, like a LARP player in full faire mode. “I relish the opportunity to work with you and your glorious, foul-smelling pets. I’ll play nice. Promise.” Styg grinned, throwing a wink in there for good measure. I’d have bought a used car from him.
Comfortable that I had him under my thumb, I left him to his imprisonment, sealing the room behind me. Now the hard part started: waiting until the shit hit the fan.
On the bright side, it wouldn’t take long.
#
“Please tell me you had nothing to do with this, Frank,” Rahim asked, jumping up to confront me the moment I stepped into my chambers.
He waved a freshly printed newspaper in my face, the thing a blur before my tired eyes. I finally had to snatch it from his hands so I could read it. I let out an amused chuckle at seeing the headline: The Monsters Have Come! The grin on my face must have given me away.
Rahim’s head lolled back on his neck a little, and he rubbed at the base of his skull. “Do you have any idea what you’ve set into motion?”
“I most certainly do, my good man.” Some of Styg’s politic sarcasm seemed to have rubbed off on me.
Rahim stared at me for a quiet moment, and I cracked beneath the weight of it.
“Come on, man, I didn’t do anything the DSI hasn’t done to us.”
“You’ve sicced the vampire and lycanthrope nations on the government, Frank.” He was only about a decibel or two from shouting. “How did you think that was a good idea let alone even manage that?”
I shrugged. “They’re in the shit just as much as we are. Mind you, it helped that I dangled the possibility of the DSI killing or capturing me before either of them could. That seemed to motivate the little buggers. They’re still very pissed at me.”
“I wonder why,” Rahim groaned.
I guess ruining the plot to take over Heaven and establish the vamps and fur-fuckers as the alpha dogs of Earth kind of poo-pooed their plans. Can’t blame them for being pissed, but I had enough grief with my vampire and werebear companions that I certainly didn’t need the world being run be those fuckers.
“Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.”
Scarlett sighed.
“You look great to me,” Katon called out from his chair. “I love the way the blackness complements the blur that is you.”
“I’m a blur now? Good to see you’re starting to recover.”
“Not soon enough,” he grumbled. “Listening to you without the benefit of being able to see Scarlett to offset the ugliness of your voice is sheer hell, let me tell you.”
“Now’s probably a good time to put your clothes back on then, Scarlett.”
“At least we’d know where you were if she was naked, Frank,” Rahim said.
“Aaaaah, don’t say that word.” Images of Venai popped into my head unsummoned. They might be great to have in the spank bank for a day when I’m feeling unusually adventurous o
r masochistic, but I hadn’t reached that point yet. Right now, Venai’s chiseled physique was the last thing I wanted to think about. “So, how about them Bears?”
Scarlett turned her head like a confused puppy. Katon just chuckled.
“Back on track,” Rahim cut in, saving me from more Nephilim flashbacks, “I’m curious to know what you think you’ve accomplished by bringing the other factions into the fight.”
I smiled, but there was a grim tightness to it as I was reminded as to why I’d set that particular ball in motion. “We’d been on the receiving end of it since Trinity hit my home and killed Karra,” I answered. It was getting easier to say, but it still left a fiery ball of fury simmering in my guts each time. “Even though we managed to give them a little of their own medicine, it didn’t stick.”
“What do you mean?” Scarlett asked, glaring at me.
“The kid we killed has been resurrected.”
The room filled with frustrated groans and complaints.
I waved them to silence after a moment. “I’ve managed to curtail that from happening again in the future but…”
“Do I want to know?” Rahim stared at me with dark, disapproving eyes.
“Probably not, but that adventure has opened up a couple new avenues of investigation. But don’t worry, Rahim, I didn’t kill anyone.” Well, maybe my libido. May it rest in peace.
Rachelle drifted in the room then. She walked slowly, carefully, one eye focused intently on the almost invisible pinhole that floated along with her, while the other gazed at us. “El Paseo is in chaos,” she said. “More than twenty government offices and military installations have been assailed overnight. The damage is immense, and it would appear that it’s not going to slack off anytime soon.”
“It will,” I said. “The vamps will shut down before dawn since they don’t have Katon’s sunblock app. The furries will likely vanish around then, too. Can’t see them sticking their necks on their own.”
“They’ll be back come dark,” Katon said. “Of course the army will be ready for them then.”
I grinned. “Which is fine. It means they’re not dumping rounds onto DRAC properties nor are they hunting us down. Who cares if a bunch of vamps and furries die? Present company excluded, of course.”
Eyes narrowing, Rahim glanced over at me. “It also means the same locations we might have found Trinity and Shaw are now doubly reinforced by the Army and National Guard.”
“Nope.” I shook my head. “The vamp coalition—which was easier to say, not to mention the fact that we all knew the vampires ranked over the weres—have limited intel on what properties the DSI maintains. They’re hitting the most obvious ones, and tacking on whatever targets of opportunity present themselves. I suspect a number of banks and post offices have been hit as well.”
Rachelle nodded, confirming my thoughts.
“Won’t Shaw and her people just be on high alert now?” Scarlett asked.
“Most definitely. My raid on one of their living spaces last night assures that.”
Rahim groaned.
“Then what are we supposed to get out of all this, Frank?”
“The clock is ticking” Katon answered for me. He stared in my direction, the barest flutter of an appreciative smile brightening his face. He turned to the wizard and went on.
“Hostilities will end shortly, forcing Shaw and her cohorts to reassess and move their game pieces across the board. They’ll be reactive, and priorities will have changed because of the new threat they face.” He chuckled. “I can’t believe you did all this on your own, Frank.”
“Did what?” Scarlett asked while I grinned, frustration growing in her voice. For all her intelligence, Scarlett was about as tactical as a pit bull when it came to the big picture.
Katon reached out and grabbed her hand, wrapping it up in hers. “It means, my dear, that Shaw is no longer calling the shots, or is, at the very least, being relegated to advisor. She’s lost control of the situation and her superiors will either scapegoat her or make her a martyr dependent on how things turn out. Either way, she’ll be desperate.”
“Which means,” I jumped in, “she needs a win to remain relevant.”
“So we’re provoking her?” I could see Scarlett scrambling to find my point.
“Exactly.”
One of her eyes twitched as though she were having a seizure. “I really don’t understand how any of this helps us.”
Rahim sighed, not pleased to have figured it out. “All of it pushes Shaw to do something quick, something rash or foolish if she wants to come out on top. Still, like Scarlett, I’m not sure this does more than up our chances the tiniest bit.”
“You’re not thinking big enough, guys,” I said, waving my arms around as I spun in a quick circle. Tension, baby. Gotta love it. “Up to now, Shaw and Trinity have been unpredictable, coming at us on their schedule. Once we all gathered in Hell, there was nothing for them to do but plot and prepare. Given their resources, they’d come up with something eventually, and then we’d be screwed. But now they have to act without the time to concoct a foolproof plan or move all their assets into place.”
“We still don’t know what they’ll do, so how does this help?”
“That’s the thing, cousin,” I said. “I will know what they’re planning.”
“You’ve someone inside.” Katon nodded his approval. “Can you trust them?”
“I have adequate insurance to feel comfortable, plus there’s an ulterior bonus for my agent to choose the side of the angels in this one.”
“So what do we do?”
“We wait. Shaw will come looking for us.”
The only thing that worried me about that was what she would do to get our attention. I had a damn good idea, and was fairly certain Shaw’s hatred of me was enough to move her that direction, especially how successful it had been the last time she’d done it. Hopefully I’d pissed her off enough by stealing Styg and kicking the crap out of her favorite Nephilim, and that she was under enough pressure from the bosses, that she played her ace first rather than scour her deck for options.
Only time would tell. Until then, though, there was shit to discuss.
Eighteen
“She’s done it,” Rachelle said, stirring us from the stupor that had settled over the group as we waited to see what my plans had instigated. Everyone stretched and groaned as they hopped up to get ready.
“About damn time,” I muttered, though my nerves were torn between exhilaration and horror. If we fumbled the ball on this, we wouldn’t get a second shot at it. My hands trembled as I checked the loads in my pistols.
“It’s hitting the news channels now.” Rachelle turned to me. “You want to see it.”
I waved her off. “No, I’d rather not.”
“You think they’re in place already?” Scarlett asked. “Or will they wait for us to show?”
The stiff-backed voice in my head gave me the answer. “A little of both, it seems.”
“Rahim laid a hand on my shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “We ready for this?”
I let out the stale breath lingering in my lungs and nodded. “Yeah, let’s do it.”
Not two seconds later, Rachelle had three portals peeled open and waiting. Scarlett, Rahim, and I stepped through a different one each, leaving Hell behind.
At least that’s what I wanted to think.
I came out the other side in one of the office buildings that surrounded the courthouse. A crowd gathered outside the windows, down in the street below. Cameras flashed and news crews filmed as Shaw’s plan played out for the world to see. Sickness washed over me as my gaze shifted from the crowd to the bait.
Karra’s headless body had been crucified to a giant, wooden cross that loomed above the onlookers, set dead center in the cement courtyard. My throat burned as I swallowed back my anger, tamping it down as best I could. Shaw had known exactly what seeing Karra splayed out like that would do to me, and she was counting on me to
be stupid, to lose my temper and charge into the fray.
As much as I wanted to do just that, my greatest desire nailed to a cross just a short distance away, the bitch wasn’t gonna get my goat. Not this time.
I crept through the deserted halls of the records building, making my way to the other side of it. At the corner, I held my breath and glanced around it to see exactly what I’d been told to expect.
Twenty DSI snipers knelt before the great windows that looked out on the spectacle below, a handful of soldiers behind them as support. The lower half of the glass had been removed from the frames of all the windows, sheets of transparent film pulled tight across the new openings. From so far below it would be impossible to tell there was any difference between the sheeting and the glass, the early afternoon sun casting a bright sheen over the surrounding buildings.
I swallowed uncomfortably at their ingeniousness. Shaw had pros on her side. It was a good thing we’d known her plans ahead of time. Still, there was a chance for things to go sour when your enemy was good at their job. I didn’t want to think about that, though.
“They’re in position.” Michael’s voice slid gracefully into my skull. It was time. The waiting was over.
I ran around the corner belting out my best battle cry. Mind you, it was “Fucking Hostile” by Pantera but it damn sure suited my mood.
The soldiers spun, having expected their targets to appear in the courtyard below, not in the building with them. But how’s that saying go? `The best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men, often get screwed in the pooch.’ I’m paraphrasing, obviously, but the point’s the same. Somebody was fucked.
For once, it wasn’t me.
I opened the floodgates to my magic as the soldiers leveled their rifles. They looked confident, prepared, and downright vicious. Too bad this was a dick waving contest and I was John Holmes and all of them combined weren’t even on the same playing field as Pee-wee Herman.