“Is Santino one of them?”
He shrugged. “I am not worried about him.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“You have grown more perceptive.”
“And you’re giving me the run-around. Which means he could hurt you.”
“The Power contained in the Egg might conceivably damage me. However, I am not the one he wishes to capture.” Japhrimel was a statue of darkness now, only his skin faintly luminescent.
“He shot me. I doubt ‘capture’ is on his laundry list where I’m concerned.”
“If he wanted to kill you, he would have eviscerated you, Dante. He could have. Instead, he only shot you, knowing we were close enough that your condition would delay us. He obviously means to recollect you at his leisure. Which means he has a plan.”
That didn’t help me feel any better. I opened my mouth, but Jace beat me to it. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “As soon as my Family moves on the Corvins, all Santino’s neat little plans go out the window. He won’t have any resources left to fuck around.”
“I doubt your move on him is unanticipated,” Japhrimel said quietly. The hover rattled. I tensed in my chair, and Eddie growled.
“Still doesn’t fucking matter,” Eddie growled. “We’re taking him down.” He swung around to pin us all with a ferocious glare. “I ain’t come all this way and been beat up and stuffed in two hovers to let him get off with just a spanking. ’Sides, we got the Gabriele Spocarelli. An’ Jace Monroe. And Danny Valentine version two, kickass demon Necromance with her own pet demon boy. And you’ve got Eustace Edward Thorston III, Skinlin sorcerer and pretty pissed-off dirtwitch berserker.” He showed his teeth, lips peeling back. “He hurt my Gabby,” he continued softly. “And I’m gonna make him pay.”
I blinked. It was the longest speech I’d ever heard from him.
Gabe didn’t twist around in her seat, but I could tell from the set of her shoulders that she was smiling. Japhrimel had turned, and was regarding Eddie with a faintly surprised look. Jace grinned, his eyes closed, his head lolling against his seatback.
I cleared my throat. “Thanks, Eddie. I feel better,” I said dryly.
And the funny thing was, I did.
CHAPTER 48
Holy motherfucking shit,” Gabe whistled out tunelessly. “Would you look at that.”
“What about the radiation scans?” I asked.
“Flatline. They can’t see us,” Jace said, leaning over Gabe’s shoulder, buckling his rig. “Ogoun . . .” he breathed. “Damn.”
“Impressive,” Gabe giggled. It was a carefree, girlish sound, but it set my teeth on edge. “Looks like a bad holovid villain’s hideaway.”
Below us, the icy sea broke foaming against sheer cliffs. The island was a hunk of rock rising from ice-floes, and the castle crouched atop it, spires of stone rearing up from darkness, decked with tiny yellow and blue points of light. It looked like something out of a Gothic fairytale, spire upon spire, screaming gargoyle shapes torn out of the stone.
“Get me a laseprint of that,” I said, and Jace’s fingers danced over a keyboard. The computers hummed. A laseprinter droned into life. “Are you sure we’re invisible?”
Eddie tore the paper free. “Looks like antiaircraft batteries here, here, here, and here,” he said, smacking the printout down on a small foldout table. “If they knew we were here, they’d blast us out of the sky.”
I passed my palm over the smooth paper. We’d done our final equipment checks. All that remained was to actually drop out the side hatch and start causing trouble. “Jace, get me a couple of different views. Gabe, keep us going slow. Magscan shielding is no good unless we drift a bit.”
“I know, Mom,” Gabe sneered. “Let me fucking drive, okay?”
“They are unaware,” Japhrimel said. “Dante, this place is heavily guarded.”
“Good,” I said. “The more confusion, the better.”
Jace laid another two printouts down. “More?” he asked, and my eyes met his. It was a moment of complete accord, the kind we used to have while we were working together.
“Can you penetrate the shielding?” I asked.
“That is no trouble,” the demon answered, his eyes never leaving me. “Santino has no demon shielding; if he did, Lucifer could track him. He is naked here, depending on secrecy.”
“Good.” I spread my hands over the printouts. “Japhrimel, make sure I don’t bleed through,” I said.
He nodded. “Of course.”
I focused, looking for the link I’d followed before. It was weak—the child wasn’t Doreen, and she wasn’t human. But then again, neither was I. Not anymore.
I followed the thread-thin cable stretched tautly over the roiling sea below. Reaching. Reaching.
Contact.
—who are you—
The voice was neither male nor female, but it was familiar, as familiar to me as my own. A wave of heat sparking up my arms, into my bones, my heart pounding, mouth full of copper.
Disengage, ripping free, link open, too open, salt against raw wound, Doreen, the memory of Doreen tilting her head back, her hands full of blue-white fire, her blood everywhere—
—who are you—
The contact stretched. My mental “fingers” froze, unable to let go, as whoever it was—the kid? But no kid can be this strong—examined me like a fly caught in a glass.
I stumbled back. Japhrimel caught my shoulders, steadied me, absorbed the backlash of Power. He rested his chin on top of my head. “Dante?”
“Fine.” I said. My fingertip glued itself to a space on the printout. Whatever that is, it’s not a kid. It looks like a kid, but it’s not a kid. But it’s Doreen’s, and I promised. “She’s here. We’ll hit here hardest and extract her.”
“Sounds good,” Gabe said. “I’ll put ol’ Betsy here on autopilot.”
I looked up at Eddie. The shaggy blond Skinlin hitched his leather coat higher on his shoulders, then checked his guns for the umpteenth time. “Maybe you should stay here, Gabe,” I suggested.
“Fuck that,” she returned equably, her fingers tapping an AI pilot deck. Coordinates entered, she slid out of the captain’s chair and picked up her rig, buckling herself into it. Projectile guns, plasguns, knives, and triggers for various spells settled into their accustomed places. Even in a rig she looked impossibly elegant. “I’m not about to stay in here while you go have all the fun.”
“You can pilot this thing; we need a getaway driver.”
“Quit fussing, Mom.” Gabe rolled her eyes, shoved a pin through her braided hair. “Why don’t you stay up here and cover us?”
“That’s Jace’s job,” I returned. Then I looked down at the printouts. My finger rested over one of the yellow points of light, low down on the south side of the castle, in one of the most difficult-to-access parts. “Japhrimel, can you . . . umm, fly?”
“I can get you into that window, Dante,” he replied. “I can’t carry more than one, though.”
“Don’t worry about us,” Gabe piped up. “We brought slicboards.”
“I don’t suppose I can talk you out of this.” I rolled my head back; Japhrimel’s lips met my temple. Jace glanced down at the printouts. I tore my finger away from the table with some difficulty, shook my hand out. My heartbeat took on the usual prejob pace—too quick to be resting, too slow to be pounding, adrenaline flooding my bloodstream.
“Wait a minute,” Jace said. “I’m not staying here. You need backup.”
“I’ve got Japhrimel,” I said, without thinking about it.
There, it was out. Jace’s mouth twisted down at the corners. Japhrimel’s arms tightened slightly. The mark on my left shoulder flushed with velvet heat.
“We’re too small a group to leave someone topside,” Eddie said. “We need everyone we’ve got down there making trouble.”
I hunched my shoulders. “You’re all fucking crazy.” I put my hand out, palm-down, over the table. “All right. We all go in together.”
>
Gabe placed her hand over mine. “All together, and the gods help us.”
Eddie covered our hands with his hairy paw. “Fuck ’em all,” he growled.
Jace, then. “I won’t be left behind,” he said. “Not on something like this.”
Japhrimel paused, and then slid to the side. He laid his hand over ours. “May your gods and mine protect us,” he added judiciously.
“I didn’t know demons had gods.” Gabe grinned. It was her combat grin, light and fierce.
We broke as if at a prearranged signal, and I looked up at Japhrimel. “Be careful, okay?” I rubbed my katana’s hilt with my thumb.
His face was as grim and murderous as I’d ever seen it. The eerie green glow from the instruments bathed him in a radioactive aura. “Do not worry over me, Dante. I have fought many battles in my time.”
I looked down at the printouts, my mouth dry. The place was massive, and I had no clue where Santino would be hiding.
Jace opened the side hatch as the hover drifted. “Datbands?” he yelled over the sudden roar of wind, water, and pressurized airseals. The commlinks in everyone’s ears crackled into life. I shook my head—I hated commlinks, but I couldn’t spare the concentration keeping a telepathic five-way link open would cost me.
I held mine up, Gabe and Eddie copying me. We were all three keyed into the hover’s intranet, which meant we could track each other with our datbands. Gabe extracted a long NeoSho slicboard from a crate in the pile of supplies. I checked my plasgun for the fiftieth time. Eddie took the NeoSho and Jace pulled out his Chervoyg. The hum of powering-up antigrav filled the air.
Gabe grinned. “See ya in the funny papers,” she yelled, and ran for the door. Eddie followed, coasting his slicboard out into the jetstream and leaping, the green-yellow glow of Skinlin sorcery limning him. He’s triggered the golem’ai to start the distraction, I thought, and shivered. The mudlike creatures gave me the willies. “Japhrimel,” I yelled over the noise, “just cause as much damage as you can once we’ve grabbed the kid. Level the whole place, if you can.”
He nodded curtly, his coat beginning to stream and flap, separating in front. I swallowed hard. Jace dropped out the hatch, two plasguns already in his hands, his sword tucked through his belt. I took a deep breath. “Catch me?” I yelled, and Japhrimel nodded.
I didn’t wait for more, simply ran for the hatch and launched myself into the night. Before I could lose my nerve.
CHAPTER 49
We certainly made an entrance.
We were too-small targets for the antiaircraft battery, and by the time I found myself yanked up in Japhrimel’s hands, the first golem’ai had Manifested. It was seven feet tall, built out of what looked like sentient humanoid mud, with glowing yellow spotlight eyes. It landed on the battlements with a thud, and screams drifted up over the sound of the waves and the punishing icy wind.
Cold. It was brutally cold. The wind sliced through me. Jace bobbed and wove underneath us, skating his slicboard fast through a collage of plasgun bolts—where are those coming from, I thought, and tossed a firestarter into the wind. A breath of Power made it arrow off toward the outcropping where human guards crouched, raking us with plasgun fire. The resultant explosion briefly turned the night a lurid orange, and I saw Gabe and Eddie had already reached the south side. Gabe wove among plasbolts with incredible grace, as if she was tagging slow hovers back in Saint City; I heard her voice raised sharply as Japhrimel glided, angling to keep us out of the way of the plasbolt crossfire. One gun emplacement exploded; I caught a whiff of Gabe’s Power. She’d used a firestarter.
Picture this, then: the whole battle happening in seconds. Jace’s share of the firestarters crackled, he was sowing them in a criss-cross pattern, taking out a whole tower. Stone crumbled, I heard his whoop of bloodthirsty joy. Then he went streaking over the battlements, sword in one hand, plasgun in the other, almost losing his slic as a plascannon bolt clipped the edge of his shielding.
We were on the north side, Japhrimel and I, about to make the sharp banking turn that would bring us back around and drop us into position to run for the spot in the castle where I’d felt Doreen’s kid. There was a bank of guns here, too, beginning to move on their gimbals to focus down on the other three. “Drop me!” I yelled, flicking a firestarter, and wonder of wonders, Japhrimel obeyed.
I hit hard, rolling, and he was right behind me. I took the first two almost before I knew what was happening, my body moving with instinctive speed and precision. I leapt, catching the iron bar that the gunner was standing on, found his ankle, and yanked. He tumbled off into the wind, a human cry escaping him, lost in all the ruckus.
“Heavy fire,” Eddie gasped.
“I’m on it,” I snapped, shimmying up, hearing the clatter of gunfire while Japhrimel dealt with the other human guard. My conscience would prick me later—but they signed up with Santino, they took their chances. I swung the plascannon and yanked back on the triggerbolt, praying—
Prayers answered. The bolts raked the other end of the wall, exploding cannon after cannon and crackling. I scrambled down, whirling as Japhrimel shouted something shapeless I understood anyway, and flicked another firestarter at the cannon as he grabbed me and flung us both out into empty air. “Now, isn’t that better?”
Japhrimel coasted around, ducking under a stray bit of debris. “Let’s get this over with,” he yelled. I glanced down—we were losing altitude fast.
“Direct me, Danny,” Gabe’s voice crackled over the commlink.
I was happy I could. “Two windows up, straight in front of you, that’s where the kid is. Pull up and watch your left, there’s a bunch of plasgun coming your way.”
“Got it,” Eddie snarled, and flame bloomed again. A concussive boom! raked the night, stone and glass shattering. I heard thin human cries; another klaxon started to blare. More lights started to blaze in the massive pile of rock. Holy fuck, I thought, we’re doing a full-scale frontal assault on a demon’s hideaway and getting away with it.
Then things started to get interesting.
I didn’t want to see how Japhrimel was flying—or gliding, actually, since we seemed to be falling pretty rapidly. He aimed for the kid’s window and I spent a few moments with my eyes closed, feeling for her, letting him take care of it. The flare of her presence was close, so close—
“Dante?” Japhrimel’s voice in the commlink.
“We’re in,” Gabe said. “What the—”
“Danny!” Eddie yelled. “He’s here! He’s here!”
“Burn the entire fucking place down, Japhrimel!” I screamed, and the entire world went soundless white as Japhrimel pulled on all the Power he could reach. A thin white-skinned shape blew out on the backwash of the explosion; my entire body screamed. It might have been Santino, my prey, falling through cold empty air.
If it’s him, that won’t kill him, I thought. Not even a drop like that will kill him, he’s a demon even if he’s a weak one he’s too strong, too slow, we’re moving too slow—
Jace nipped neatly inside the hole torn in the south side of the castle. Japhrimel let go of me and I tumbled through empty frozen air, faster-than-human reflexes saving me as I slammed into the stone wall. The boom! of another explosion rattled the wall; I jackknifed into the hole, my fingernails plowing stone and cold air plucking at my hair, landed on a wooden floor littered with shards of glass, broken stone, and wooden splinters.
The room was a nursery, again, stone floors holding pastel hangings in a faint attempt to make it less grim. Toys scattered, burning, across the floor. A huge ornate mahogany bedstead crouched in one corner, and I saw a stray gleam of light from the emerald in the child’s forehead as it gave one amazing flash of light. My own emerald rang, answering it.
“Oh, no—”
Eddie screamed. The smell—ice and cold blood, maggots and wet rat fur—triggered my gorge. If I’d had anything in my stomach I would have spewed. I didn’t know demons could throw up. Santino. It was his smel
l, he’d been here, I knew he’d been here. So it had been him falling from the room.
Gabe lay, broken and bloody, against the far wall. Of course—she’d been the first in, and Santino had been here, probably expecting us as soon as the commotion started. How badly was she hurt? I didn’t have time to think about it; Eddie would take care of her.
Eddie gained his feet, shaking his shaggy head. It looked like he’d fetched up hard against the other side of the steel door to this room; his hair was singed and he was dirty from stone dust. He ran for Gabe. Don’t let her be hurt, I prayed. don’t let her be hurt—
Jace grabbed my arm and hauled me up as Japhrimel landed inside the room, coat folding around him as he rolled. He gained his feet and whirled, seeing me, then nodded. He strode toward Gabe and I shook free of Jace, bolting for the bed.
The little girl sat straight up, her dark eyes huge. The only uncertain light came from burning reflected in through the massive hole in the wall, glass from the lamp in the ceiling crunching under my boots. I reached the bed, stared down at the girl.
This is no child, I thought. What am I doing?
“Go,” Japhrimel said. “Go, take her back to the ship. She’ll live.”
“He ripped her stomach out!” Eddie screamed, but Japhrimel caught his shoulders, his eyes sparking for a moment with the old green flame.
“I have mended her, she will live, dirtwitch. As you value her life, go!” Then Japhrimel pushed him away.
“What about Santino?” Jace yelled.
I held out my hands.
The girl looked at me. The cacophony—klaxons screaming, human cries, antiaircraft fire—they were filling the sky with bolts, trying to hit something—faded away.
She has Doreen’s eyes, I thought, and the child nodded.
It wasn’t just that she was beautiful, because she was. She looked as if Lucifer and Doreen had been melded into one small, perfect entity, the emerald in her forehead singing softly. It wasn’t that she put up her hands and smiled at me. It wasn’t even that she smelled familiar—some combination of fresh-baked bread and a unique smell that something in my subconscious recognized.
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