Black City (A BLACK WINGS NOVEL)

by Christina Henry

  I sat at the head of the table, pulled a plate over and started loading up before the food disappeared. “The first order of the day is to find out where J.B. is.”

  “I told you I could do that,” Jude said.

  “And I told you I’m not sold on that plan,” I said.

  “If you would think logically instead of emotionally, you would see that what he’s saying makes sense,” Chloe said.

  “If you weren’t a chick, I’d punch you in the face for that. What, you think that just because I’m pregnant I’m all emotional?”

  “I didn’t say that,” Chloe said mildly. “I just said you were thinking emotionally. And if you hit me in the face, I’d hit you right back. Not that that it would do me any good, really. People who hit you tend to die screaming in little pieces.”

  All the men at the table watched this exchange with the uncomfortable expressions of males who do not want to get in between two women. Even Beezle kept his head down and his mouth shut, although that may have been because he’d put about six slices of bacon in his craw.

  “I wouldn’t kill you just because you punched me,” I said, insulted. “I’m not a monster.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Chloe said. “Because you seem to be a ‘smash first, ask questions later’ kind of person.”

  “Not everyone who has fought me has come to their mortal end.”

  “Oh, yeah? Name one.”

  “I have fought with Madeline and I’m not dead,” Nathaniel said.

  “From what I understand, that’s not for lack of trying.”

  Samiel rapped the table with his knuckles. She didn’t kill me even though I cut half of her hand off.

  His eyes automatically slid to the digits in question. I saw them register surprise. Your hand…

  “Just got around to that, did you?” Beezle muttered.

  “When did that happen?” Jude asked. “And how?”

  “It happened sometime after we put the veil over the hospital. As for how, I have no idea. They were just suddenly there again.”

  Jude looked from Nathaniel to me with suspicion. “Just what was involved with this spell, anyway? Because you’ve smelled different ever since you got back,” he said, addressing Nathaniel.

  I took a moment to be grateful for the fact that Jude had never met Puck; otherwise he would have made the connection immediately.

  “Can we refocus, please?” I said loudly. “Whether or not I am a monster can be debated at a different time, as can the consequences of the protective spell.”

  Although I hoped to never talk about the circumstances of the spell with anyone. It would do none of them good to know that I had tried to climb inside Nathaniel in midair.

  Jude pushed back from the table, his plate cleaned. “I will look for J.B. and return within a day.”

  “We didn’t settle that,” I said.

  “There is no point in going around in circles only to come to the same conclusion,” Jude said steadily.

  “Wade will kill me if anything happens to you.”

  “Wade knows well the risk I have taken in staying here.”

  “I wouldn’t be too happy, either.”

  “Madeline Black, I have been alive since the time of the Romans. I can handle a few vampires.”

  “Everything can die,” I said softly, and we all knew who I was thinking about.

  “But I won’t,” Jude said.

  You can’t make that promise. I took a deep breath, tried to think with my brain instead of my heart.

  “Okay,” I said, hoping I wasn’t making a decision I would regret. “Okay. But don’t bother checking his condo. I can guarantee that J.B.’s been sleeping at the office since all this started.”

  “That may have protected him, then,” Nathaniel said. “Does not the Agency have wards to keep out vampires?”

  “Yes,” I said. “But if he was out on a soul pickup, or if he decided to fight the vamps against orders…”

  “Or if the vampires brought in a witch to break the wards,” Beezle said.

  “A witch,” I said, looking at Nathaniel. “A witch could have put all the patients in the hospital under that sleeping spell.”

  “Another player?” Chloe said. “How big is this game?”

  “It’s not a game.”

  “It is to Therion,” Chloe said. “And probably to Lucifer, too.”

  She was right, but it really went against the grain for me to admit anyone was right but me.

  “I’ll be back within a day,” Jude promised, and he transformed into a wolf, his clothing falling to the floor.

  I walked him to the front door, opened it, and followed him downstairs to do the same for the external doors. We emerged into the cold on the front porch.

  It had snowed again in the last couple of days. The streets were unplowed, the sidewalks unshoveled. Jude nudged the palm of my hand with his nose.

  I looked down at him steadily. “You come back in one piece, you understand?”

  Jude barked once. He took off running. A moment later all that was left of him was fresh paw prints in the snow. I stayed there for a minute, shivering in the cold. Then I went back upstairs, now wondering whether I would lose two friends to this folly.

  Beezle and Chloe had demolished pretty much every morsel on the table, and my plate was missing.

  I put yours in the kitchen, Samiel signed. It seemed safer. I’ll get it.

  He rose, clearing the empty plates away. Nathaniel helped Samiel carry the empty dishes, and I realized that Nathaniel really had changed. The old Nathaniel would never have done “the work of a servant.”

  Had he been changing all along, or was this another side effect of the spell? Or—and this was much more disturbing—was he just trying to be what he thought I wanted?

  Samiel returned with my plate, the food covered by another dish so it would stay warm. Chloe looked expectantly at me as I uncovered the meal.

  “Forget it,” I said.

  She looked slightly disappointed, but not surprised.

  Beezle had already retired to his favorite pillow on the couch. He sprawled on his back in a sunbeam, his belly at least two times its normal size. His eyes were closed.

  “You look like you swallowed a basketball,” I said.

  Beezle belched in response.

  There was nothing to do except wait. And wonder.

  So that was what we did. Chloe convinced me to play UNO with her, and Beezle and Samiel joined in. Nathaniel watched us like he was observing alien life on another planet.

  Chloe and Beezle were both loud, demonstrative players. More than once the play of a certain card was punctuated by a noisy “Ha!” or “Beat that!”

  I tried to keep my mind on the game, to not mentally follow Jude through the streets of Chicago. I tried not to think about what the Agents might have suffered already in Therion’s tender care.

  Most of all, I tried not to think about J.B. standing on a street corner telling me he loved me.

  After a while, Chloe and Beezle needed more food to fuel their antics, and Samiel produced another feast. We turned on the news for a bit but they had nothing new to say, and the sight of Therion’s face made me want to smash things, so we shut it off.

  Beezle popped JAWS into the DVD player in concession to my extreme anxiety. For some reason that movie always makes me feel better, like comfort food for my brain. There’s probably something wrong with me at the proton level if a movie about a town being terrorized by a great white shark is comforting.

  We had just gotten to the point where Quint was telling the story of the U.S.S. Indianapolis when I heard the howl of a wolf.

  “Jude,” I said, and bolted for the door. Samiel beat me there, clattering down the steps to let Jude in. I stood at the top of the stairs, my heart in my mouth.

  Jude sprinted inside. J.B. was not with him.

  “Oh, god,” I said, covering my face. Therion had him.

  Nathaniel put his arm around me and drew me inside. J
ude had already changed back into a man.

  “It’s not what you think,” Jude said as soon as he saw me. “Therion doesn’t have him. Titania does.”

  9

  “TITANIA?” I SAID. “WHY?”

  “It took me a little time to put the pieces together; otherwise I would have been back sooner,” Jude said, pulling on his clothes as he spoke. “But I managed to eavesdrop on that little shit Sokolov.”

  “How did you get inside the Agency?” I asked. “J.B. told me three days ago that the place was on lockdown. Shouldn’t the wards have kept you out?”

  “The wards recognized me as a friend. I was cleared when the cubs were there, remember?” Jude said. “And I know how to keep to the shadows. Those security guards in the lobby never even saw me run past.”

  “So what did Sokolov say?”

  “He was complaining that Titania had overreached her authority by taking J.B. from the Agency, even if he was a king of a faerie court. And the person he was talking to asked why it was so damned important for Titania to take J.B. when there was a crisis going on. Sokolov said it was to punish you.”

  My heart stilled. “She’s going to use J.B. against me in repayment for Oberon.”

  Jude nodded. “They came for J.B. just after the vampire invasion started.”

  “She’s had him for three days? For the love of the Morningstar. He could be dead by now.”

  “No,” Beezle said. “She wants to hurt you. If she’s going to kill him, then you can bet she wants to make you watch. But I bet he wishes he was dead.”

  Nathaniel nodded. “Faeries are well versed in methods of torture.”

  “Not helping,” I said shortly.

  “You’re not going to like this, either,” Jude said. “There was blood all over J.B.’s office. He put up a fight.”

  “How much of the blood was his?” I whispered.

  “Enough.” Jude’s face was grim.

  “Well. I’m not going to wait for an invitation from Titania. We’ve got to go and get J.B. out of there now.”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Chloe said. “What about the vampires, and Therion’s threat? You’ve only got two more days to solve that problem or else the vampires are going to invade the rest of the country. Are you really going to let hundreds of innocent people die so you can rescue one man?”

  “Who says I’m going to let them die?” I said. “First I get J.B. Then Therion will pay.”

  “And how are you going to defeat the vampires?” Chloe said.

  “I don’t know yet,” I said. “But once I know J.B. is safe, then I can figure something out.”

  “What—once all the Avengers are assembled, a solution will magically appear?”

  “I will not leave J.B. in the hands of that bitch,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “Watch out. She’s using the B-word.”

  “Keep arguing with me and I’ll be using the C-word. I thought you were on my side.”

  “I am,” Chloe said. “But you’re following your heart again instead of your brain. The bigger problem here is the vampire invasion, not Titania’s gripe with you.”

  “She never uses her brain,” Beezle said.

  “Oh, great, another country heard from,” I said. “I’m doing things the way I’ve always done them.”

  “Well, the way you do things is inefficient and illogical,” Chloe said.

  “It works for me,” I said.

  “Fine, fine,” Chloe said, throwing up her hands. “Let’s break out J.B. I have nothing better to do. How do you propose we get there?”

  Nathaniel looked at me. “Lord Lucifer brought you there the last time, through the old ways.”

  “And Lucifer is out of touch. But I know someone else who will take us there. For a price.”

  “Madeline, no. You cannot possibly indebt yourself to Puck any further. It is too dangerous. We are not even certain what kind of creature he is, nor what he will ask of you in return. You already owe him a debt for helping us escape Titania’s court the first time.”

  “I don’t see any other way,” I said. “And I won’t leave J.B.”

  “I wouldn’t suggest it,” Nathaniel said.

  “He’s all insightful now,” Beezle said, looking at Nathaniel.

  “J.B. went willingly against his mother and his court when Amarantha kidnapped Wade. I would not leave him to Titania, either,” Jude said.

  Nor would I, Samiel signed.

  “It’s like your insanity is infectious,” Chloe grumbled.

  “I like having her around,” Beezle said. “It saves me the trouble of being the sensible one.”

  “There is no planet on which you would be considered sensible,” I said.

  “Compared to you, I’m a paragon of logical thinking,” Beezle said.

  “How will you contact Puck?” Chloe asked.

  “He gave me a jewel,” I said.

  “That jewel brings him here,” Nathaniel said.

  “Yes, it does,” I said. “And I’d better talk to him alone. I don’t know how he’ll respond to my call, and I don’t want him to refuse just because he has an audience.”

  Plus, I wanted to keep Nathaniel out of his sight for as long as possible. I wasn’t sure how Puck would respond if it did turn out that Nathaniel was his son and I’d revealed him—even if it was by accident. Nobody ever seemed to give me a pass for my accidents.

  “I’ll take the rest of the inmates downstairs,” Beezle said.

  They all looked reluctant except Chloe, who just appeared curious.

  “I’m not certain you should be alone with him,” Nathaniel said.

  “He doesn’t want to hurt me,” I said. “He might refuse to help, but he won’t hurt me.”

  I was pretty sure that if Puck was going to hurt me, it would be in service to his vendetta against Lucifer. And he did not appear quite ready for that yet. I didn’t tell the others any of this, though.

  After a few minutes they’d all cleared out, and I was alone in my apartment. I took a moment to breathe, and to appreciate the fact that a lot of tension went away when Nathaniel wasn’t in the room. Whatever was between us, it wasn’t healthy.

  I realized I was in my pajamas and somewhat grubby, and detoured into the bathroom for a shower before I contacted Puck. If I was going to have a standoff with the faerie queen, then I wanted my hair to be clean.

  I emerged from the shower several minutes later, wrapped a towel around my body and another around my hair, and padded in wet feet to my room.

  I stopped in the doorway. On my bed was a pair of black leather pants that I knew did not belong to me. Next to the pants was a wine-colored sweater that looked like it left nothing to the imagination. There was also a scrap of black lace barely identifiable as underwear, and a matching bra. Next to all these things was a winking blue jewel—Puck’s talisman.

  “You little shit,” I swore. I don’t know how he knew I was going to call him, and not for the first time I wondered whether the talisman allowed him to eavesdrop on my life. I swept the clothes aside, intending to ignore his not-so-subtle directive.

  But then I reconsidered. My own clothes were always getting ripped or torn or bloodstained, and I was never able to present myself very impressively to the faerie. Even though I could give a flying farthing about faerie protocol, I could appreciate that my chances of getting J.B. back were stronger if I made a good impression.

  Not on Titania, of course. Nothing I did was going to make a good impression on her at this point. But the rest of the court could sway her if I presented my case well enough—and if I looked like I belonged.

  I drew the line at wearing the underwear. There was something really creepy about Puck choosing underwear for me, like he expected to see me in it.

  I put on my regular cotton undies and pulled on the pants and sweater. I glanced at myself in the mirror and almost changed my clothes. The pants and the sweater clung to every curve I had. I felt indecent, even though I was covered up from wrist to an
kle.

  The jewel winked at me, reflected in the mirror. I grabbed it and said his name. “Puck.”

  It grew warm to the touch. I sensed the air in the room change.

  “Those pants look good,” Puck said.

  I spun around and found him lounging against the doorframe. He looked me up and down.

  “Looks good from the front, too,” Puck said.

  “Will you quit ogling me? You’re old enough to be Lucifer’s brother,” I said.

  Puck gave me a half smile. “Not just old enough to be.”

  Well, it was certainly a week for revelations. “You’re Lucifer’s brother?”

  “Why else would we hate each other so thoroughly?” Puck said. “Nobody knows how to swing the knife like family.”

  “And that means you’re my great-great-great-whatever-uncle?”

  Puck nodded, his eyes sparkling with mischief.

  “Then that is even freaking ickier that you would buy me underwear.”

  “Don’t worry. The blood relation is distant enough that it would not be unnatural for us to have sex.”

  “It would be unnatural in my brain,” I said, shuddering.

  “It would be like nothing you have ever experienced before, I promise,” Puck said, winking at me.

  “Stop talking, stop talking,” I said. “Angels might have no compunction about screwing their relatives, but humans definitely do.”

  “You had sex with Lucifer’s grandson,” Puck said. “And you are also related to Lucifer.”

  “Yeah, but there are a lot of intervening generations between me and Lucifer…” I trailed off, because Puck was grinning at me knowingly. “It was different with Gabriel.”

  “How?”

  “I’m not having sex with you, and that’s final,” I said.

  “Too bad,” Puck said. “In any case, I am not an angel.”

  “You said you were Lucifer’s brother,” I said.

  “I am. But that doesn’t make me an angel,” he said.

  “I know, you are the leaf on the wind or whatever,” I said, remembering something he’d said the last time Puck was in my bedroom. “Why are you telling me all of this now?”

  Puck shrugged. “Perhaps I would like you to call me Uncle. I thought you would like to know that we are family.”