Smoke and Ashes

by Tanya Huff

  “As you say, an added benefit. And why should I not reclaim my handmaiden and then this world?”

  “Because I’ll stop you.”

  “You forget.” The demon’s grip tightened momentarily. Lee fought for air and then sagged, gasping.

  “Okay, so we trade. What’s in that for me? As I see it, Lee dies either way.”

  “The man dies now in front of you. Or later with you.”

  “Dude.” Leaning on Zev’s arm, Amy glared from between eyelashes clumped into damp spikes. “You’ll kill him the instant the gate opens just like you killed Jack! He’s the only thing here that’s a danger to you.”

  “As I said, later. I did not specify how much later.” He swept a dark gaze over her, head to toe. “You will enjoy my new world, little one. I promise you that.”

  “Bite me!”

  “Perhaps.” This was most definitely not the same smile he’d given Lee. Lee’s had been compassionate enough to be believed in spite of the choke hold. This was pure seduction. Only the choke hold hadn’t changed.

  To Tony’s surprise, Amy brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and limped forward, eyes locked on the demon. “Maybe we can…OW! Zev! What the hell was that for?”

  “You were walking toward that!” Zev nodded toward Ryne Cyratane.

  “I was not!” Measured the distance from Zev to the demon. Noticed how close she’d come. “Oh, crap, I was.” She slipped the glare back on as the two of them began limping backward to the wall. “You’re very convincing.”

  From seduction to amusement. “It’s part of my charm.”

  “And it would be one hell of a lot more charming if you didn’t have bits of that…” She jabbed a disdainful finger toward the remains of his meal. “…between your teeth.”

  “We will speak later, you and I.”

  “The hell we…”

  “Slaughtered a whole village,” Zev reminded her urgently.

  “So what?” Behind the streaks of mascara, Amy wore the expression she usually reserved for those who wore fur. Or sweater sets in a nonironic manner.

  “Your friends are intriguing, Wizard.” The Arjh Lord gave Lee a little shake. “But not entirely correct.”

  “About?” Tony demanded. And then he had it. “I’m not the only danger to you, am I?” After that, it was one small step. There weren’t a lot of names in Ryne Cyratane’s current address book. “It’s Henry, isn’t it? He could take that body out, even now.” Tony’d missed the implications when Kevin called to tell him the overpass had blown. The overpass had blown first. “You pushed this arjh through, creating a cascade like we did the other night because you had to be sure all this happened before sunset so Henry couldn’t help.” He knew he had it by the way the demon’s lip curled. “Humans mean less than nothing to you, but he’s another power.”

  “Um, Tony…” Amy rubbed her sleeve under her nose. “Henry’s a romance writer.”

  CB rumbled an unnecessary caution behind him. Tony didn’t need to be warned; he’d been keeping this secret a lot longer than the big guy had.

  It had to be past sunset. Tony glanced at his watch. Crap. Not even close. How could they have destroyed five demons and been betrayed by a sixth in so little time? Okay, fine. So he couldn’t keep things from happening until Henry got here. He’d just have to keep talking, to keep the demon talking until he’d regained enough strength to blast the Arjh Lord right out of his borrowed body.

  Yeah. Like that was going to happen. He had no idea how he was still standing and the soundstage kept wavering in and out of focus like they were about to go to flashback.

  Still, he had to try. Hopefully, Ryne Cyratane would see slouching as a sign of disrespect instead of an inability to straighten his spine. “The sun will set after you’ve taken over, you know. Henry’ll still be around to kick your ass.”

  “Once the Gate is open, I will rule with many arjh. And I will gain power from slaughter.”

  He’d forgotten about that bit. “Killing Mckaseeh’s arjh gave that demon you’re wearing power enough to activate the runes on his chest, didn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “But you’re using up that power maintaining the link.”

  This was the most unpleasant smile of all. “Yes.”

  “Ambitious change requires help; timing is everything.” The fortune in Leah’s cookie from way back when they’d first met. He’d forgotten it until now. “So I’m about out of my two hundred free minutes?”

  The amount of bone necessary to hold up his borrowed horns, kept the Arjh Lord from frowning very deeply. “You make no sense, Wizard. But if you mean that you are out of time, then, yes.” And he tightened his grip. “Choose.”

  Lee’s face began to purple, green eyes bulging. He clawed at the demon’s arm, head immobile, body twisting and thrashing.

  Eyes locked on Lee, Tony almost missed Amy’s charge.

  “Zev!”

  The music director’s tackle took her to the floor, stopping her just short of the demon. Without the injured leg she might have made it.

  “No! No! No! Bastard’s not killing Lee like he killed Jack!”

  “You’re right, he’s not; I’ll trade!” Tony wasn’t positive they’d heard him, but Amy stilled, Lee began to breathe again, and the demon beckoned with his free hand.

  Tony turned just far enough to meet CB’s eyes. He had to offer Leah to the demon, so this whole thing fell apart if the boss kept hanging on. Forcing his right hand high enough to close his fingers loosely around Leah’s forearm, Tony saw CB’s gaze flick, just for an instant, to his broken collarbone. Broken on the right side. Come on, boss. If I’m using my right hand for this…

  Then, although he hoped it looked like he was jerking her away from safety, he hung on as Leah stumbled forward pushed by CB, the movement turning them both back to face the demon.

  This demon was not Ryne Cyratane. The body was merely a meat puppet controlled by the Arjh Lord’s energy. Back in Leah’s condo he’d called energy into him. Called his own energy back. Called the fire.

  These days, if he wanted something to come to him, it came. It took next to no power and it took almost no thought.

  It came regardless of any solid object that might be in the way.

  As Leah stepped out in front of him, Tony held his left palm against the small of her back and concentrated. Focused. Called.

  The energy that was Ryne Cyratane tried to come to him through the only thing in the room designed to hold demons. He went through the Demongate.

  Leah jerked once, made a noise somewhere between agony and ecstasy, and dropped to her knees, her arm pulling out of Tony’s useless grip. On her knees, she curled forward, wrapped her arms around her stomach, and keened.

  On the other side of the soundstage, the demon was merely a demon. Onyx eyes widened as the runes cut into his chest healed. He threw back his head and roared.

  Still holding Lee.

  Before Tony could figure out what to do next, Jack had the muzzle of his gun pressed into the soft tissue of the demon’s throat and was emptying it up into the skull. There were no exit wounds. A skull with horns like that had to be hard. Tony half thought he could hear the ricochets as blood dribbled from the demon’s eyes and ears and nose.

  Ryne Cyratane’s ex-puppet hit his knees much like Leah had. From his knees, he pitched forward to slam facefirst into the concrete.

  Zev crawled to Lee’s side while Amy threw herself at Jack.

  “I thought you were dead, you son of a bitch!”

  He groaned and stumbled back as she made contact, then moved her slightly to one side so he could pull out the claw. “I was wearing…”

  “A flak jacket or Kevlar or whatever the hell you lot call those things now! I can’t believe I fell for one of the oldest fucking clichés in the business.”

  “Actually, the claw got snagged on the bandages wrapped around my broken ribs and curved around instead of going in.”

  “Then why didn’t you
get up!”

  “I thought I should reload.”

  “Bastard!”

  “Ribs!”

  As Tony hit the floor beside Leah, Jack and Amy moved into the traditional end-of-scene mind-the-broken-bones clinch. It’d never work, Amy was too out there and Jack hadn’t gone out far enough but, what the hell, there was nothing like a traditional endi…

  “So it seems you managed nicely without me.”

  Tony blinked up at Henry’s face and then past it at the ceiling of his apartment. Two things occurred to him. The first, that he had no memory of leaving the studio. The second, that Leah had a valid point about all the beige. He’d been looking at this ceiling a lot lately and boring didn’t begin to cover it. Periwinkle, however, was out of the question. What the hell was up with her and periwinkle anyway?

  “Tony?”

  His gaze slid back to Henry’s face. The eyes were a little dark, but it was mostly Prince of Man with just enough Prince of Darkness to command attention. He looked…worried? Crap.

  Before he could ask, Henry had an arm around the back of his neck and a cup of water at his mouth. He drained it, and then another before he got the question out. “What did I miss?”

  “A day and most of two nights.”

  “No.” Attempting to get up on his elbows, he discovered he couldn’t move his right arm. And that would be because it was strapped to his body. Holding the sheet up in one hand, he stared down at the bandages and then back up at Henry. “I broke my arm?”

  “Collarbone.”

  The memory of pain. “Right.”

  “I know a very discreet doctor.”

  Impossible not to snort. “Well, you would, wouldn’t you. But that wasn’t what I meant. You look like there’s shit hitting the fan and I’ve missed being there for it.”

  Henry took a moment to work that through and then he smiled, wrapping his left hand gently around Tony’s jaw. “I was worried about you.”

  “Me?” His throat was sore. He wondered if he’d forgotten some screaming.

  “You were unconscious for a day and most of two nights, Tony. Leah insisted you were fine, that your body needed a time out to recover from the metaphysical strain you’ve been putting on it, but I suspect she was saying that just to keep me calm.”

  “I’ve seen you not calm.” The coolness of the vampire’s touch felt good against heated skin. “Calm is better.”

  “Perhaps. Fortunately, although your heart had slowed, I could hear it beating strong and sure and was willing to wait a while. About an hour ago…” He moved his hand from Tony’s jaw to rest it lightly on his chest. “…it began to speed up. It reached its normal rhythm just before you opened your eyes.”

  “My heart had slowed? I was hibernating?”

  “Essentially.”

  “Cool.”

  “You need to…”

  “Pee, Henry. It’s been a day and two nights, I really need to pee.” His stomach growled. “Is there food around here I can take with me into the can?”

  Tony’s memory returned as he ate. Not the part where they carried him from the studio but the rest: the battle, Ryne Cyratane’s betrayal, and his defeat.

  Betrayal…

  “Lee!”

  “Bruised but fine.”

  CB and Jack had gotten rid of the bodies. Henry didn’t know where and hadn’t asked. “Why would I? This wasn’t my fight.”

  “You upset about that?” Tony wondered, his hand paused in the bucket of fried chicken. “That we didn’t, you know, need you?”

  “Honestly?” Red-gold brows dipped down. “A little.” And rose back up again. “It’s a conceit of mine that I’m essential when it comes to saving the world. But mostly, I’m proud of the way you’ve grown into your power. Proud that you found a way to prevail against nearly unbeatable odds. Proud that you refused to quit and kept fighting long after many would have given up.”

  “Hey!” Tony jabbed a chicken bone indignantly in Henry’s direction. “I couldn’t give up; I was responsible for those people. They wouldn’t have even been there if not for me.”

  “And, mostly, I am proud of that.”

  If his ears got any hotter, they were going to ignite and there was a suspiciously damp itch in his eyes. “Henry, I’m carrying some serious negative father shit, and you’re creeping me out here.”

  “You’ll have to get used to it if you’re going to keep saving the world.”

  “Yeah, well I’m not…” He sighed as Henry smiled. “I am, aren’t I? This kind of crap is just going to keep right on happening.”

  “You said it to me once; like is drawn to like.”

  “Yeah, yeah, and then I said it to Leah. I’m a font of freakin’ wisdom.” Looking into a future full of metaphysical bullshit, he sighed again and reached for the last piece of chicken. Paused, hand back in the bucket. “Leah. What happened with Leah?”

  “Happened?”

  “After I pulled Ryne Cyratane through the Demongate. Is she all right?”

  “She’s fine.”

  “She’s really pissed, isn’t she?”

  “She’s a little…” Henry visibly considered and discarded several words. “…annoyed.”

  Tony didn’t see Leah until early November—her agent had called while he was recovering and she’d gotten a job doubling on a CBC Movie of the Week being shot up in Hope.

  “Being immortal doesn’t pay the bills; falling off a railway bridge in a corset and bloomers does. I’ll see you when I get back.”

  His entire response had consisted of: “Yeah, but, Leah…” and then he was talking to a dial tone.

  The Demonic Convergence was still going on, but without Sye Mckaseeh’s manipulations, things were coming through from a lot closer to home. Tony was out for no more than a couple of hours most nights tracking down weird little odds and ends and sending them back where they belonged. With the exception of a city employee working in the old sewer tunnel under Highbury Street who ran into a rat carrying a short sword, no one got hurt. Kevin Groves became an invaluable filter—most reports came first to him, and he could tell if the weirdness was real or homemade. In spite of a few very visible incidents, there was a remarkable lack of hysteria from the general population. The people of British Columbia had always been more willing than the rest of the country to adjust reality to suit them, and the contrary attitude of Vancouverites kept them from agreeing on just what exactly they’d seen.

  During the day, they were so busy getting the last episode of Darkest Night in the can before going on hiatus there wasn’t time to replay the whole climatic battle scene in any detail. Maybe a few people strutted—as soon as they stopped limping—and maybe Mason thought a little more of himself than usual, but his ego was so enormous already it was hard to tell. Mostly they worked at getting the stains off the floor under the gate and got on with the job. Where they included Tony. CB’d given him as much time off as he was getting if he wanted to remain employed.

  TO: tfoster@darkestnight.ca

  FROM: bestbane@darkestnight.ca

  u r teh suckhead!

  TO: bestbane@darkestnight.ca

  FROM: tfoster@darkestnight.ca

  when you get back, i’ll teach you what i can

  TO: tfoster@darkestnight.ca

  FROM: bestbane@darkestnight.ca

  OMG! I <3 U!

  A small part of Tony held out a forlorn hope that something eldritch would attack and rip him limb from limb before he had to make good on his promise. Most of him had grown resigned to the inevitable where “the inevitable” had been defined by powers with a vicious sense of humor as his boss’ youngest daughter.

  “Nothing.” Amy hung up the phone and looked up at Tony and Zev. “That’s four days since Kevin’s had anyone call about something going bump in the night. Maybe Halloween was the last.”

  A pair of half-meter-wide, phosphorescent-green, eight-legged visitors had made the traditional Haunted Village at the Burnaby Village Museum out on Deer Lake a littl
e more authentic than most years. By the time Tony found them hiding under the carousel, they’d been completely terrified by the giant bat on stilts and were more than willing to go home.

  “Halloween does have a certain satisfying end-of-season feel about it,” Zev admitted. “And that means this whole thing lasted about a month.”

  “Golly, Tony.” Amy batted bright orange eyelashes suggestively in his general direction. “The Demonic Convergence is over and the show’s going into hiatus, so everyone who works on it will have some free time. What are you going to do?”

  Before Tony could answer her, the door to CB’s office opened. A motorcycle helmet cradled under one arm, Leah paused on the threshold and grinned. “Ah, that’s so sweet. Spanky and his gang. Oh, stop looking at me like that.” Eyes rolling, she crossed toward them. “I got back last night. I would have called.”

  Tony ignored the excuse. “Henry says your tattoo changed.”

  “That was a little abrupt. What’s up your skirt?”

  “We were still in the Demonic Convergence. You should have checked in before you left, just to be on the safe side.”

  “Should have?” Arms folded. Lip curled. “You’re not my keeper, Tony,” she snarled.

  She’d had millennia to work on that whole “don’t fuck with me” thing, and it was definitely definitive. Zev took a step sideways, putting more of Amy’s desk between them. Amy looked like she was taking notes. Tony didn’t really give a crap. All things considered, attitude from an immortal stuntwoman was pretty fucking low on his list of things to be impressed by.

  “I’m the only wizard we know of,” he told her flatly, “and you’re walking around with the oldest working magic in the world etched into your stomach. I need to know what’s going on with it.”

  Leah’s eyes narrowed, and she stared at him for a long moment. “You used me to defeat Ryne Cyratane. You had no idea what slamming him back through the gate would do to me, and yet you did it anyway.”

  “I knew what Ryne Cyratane would do to this world. Reshoot the scene and I’d play it the same way.”

  “Would you?”