Devils Inc.

by Lauren Palphreyman

  “That’s what I’m saying.”

  “No—you misunderstand me. I meant fair for Adalind. I don’t know what the hell she did to piss off the higher-ups, but in addition to demoting her to reception, they took her powers. She’s pretty much harmless.”

  My mind flashes back to the moment in the elevator when she’d looked almost scared of me.

  “Maybe that’s why she’s so awful all the time,” I muse. “Overcompensating.”

  “Aye. Probably.” He pulls his cell out of his pocket and glances at the screen. His face darkens. “Gabe—”

  “What are you two lovebirds talking about?” Josie says, balancing a tray of empty glasses as she slips back behind the bar.

  A jolt of alarm surges through me. “I thought Darius wanted to see you.”

  “I went down to his office, but he wasn’t there.”

  “I’m pretty sure it’s important,” says Crow. “Maybe you should go and wait.”

  She shrugs. “He knows where to find me.”

  The lighting of Apocalypse flickers, answering my question of what Gabriel was messaging about. My eyes dart to the entrance.

  Josie sets down the tray. “You know the owners, I take it?”

  The lights flicker again, and the temperature in the room seems to drop a few degrees. Josie glances up at the ceiling but doesn’t seem concerned.

  “Old friends,” says Crow.

  “So you work for the company Rachel is interning for?”

  “In a way,” says Crow. “I’m a consultant.”

  A low cracking sound starts as a river of black begins to snake over the mirror.

  “Oh, shit,” says Josie, touching the silver crucifix hanging around her neck. “Bad omen.”

  “Aye,” agrees Crow, jaw set.

  Shadows start to seep in under the door behind us. Crow’s eyes meet mine in the mirror.

  Then the whole warehouse plunges into darkness.

  They’re here.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  When the neon-blue lights of Apocalypse flash back on, our attackers are behind us. A dozen Omens and Demons, fanned across the back of the club.

  Then the lights flash off again.

  Josie yelps and there’s the sound of smashing bottles. Heart pounding, I search for the anger that’ll help me fight; the power that will help me protect Josie. It wasn’t supposed to happen this way.

  When blue light washes over the dance floor again, the Omens and Demons are closer. Josie rises to her feet behind the bar, eyes wide, gripping the small knife used to cut limes.

  Then darkness again.

  Anger builds in the pit of my stomach. Anger that these Omens have come for my life. Anger that they had the audacity to come here before we had a chance to get Josie to safety. Anger that someone is trying to draw out my brother.

  Anger that my brother never came for me.

  When the lights flash on again, there’s a blond man right behind me, blade raised.

  Cold air whooshes by as Crow blocks the hand about to slit my throat. Thrusting my head back, I break the Demon’s nose with a crunch, then jump to my feet. As Crow spins him around, I thrust my crackling blue hand against his back. He goes flying across the room, skidding along the sticky dance floor.

  “Rachel! What the hell!” says Josie, lurching over the bar to grab my wrist. “We need to get out of here!” She jerks her head toward the door marked “NO ENTRY.” “There’s a room back there. Come on.”

  That’s when I see the ball of blue flame hurtling toward us in the mirror. Jumping over the bar, I push Josie down just as more bottles break, releasing the pungent scent of mixed alcohol. With a rush of heat, it ignites. Blue flames lick the floor near Josie’s feet.

  “Shit!” yells Josie as I scream for Crow.

  He’s still in front of the bar, drawing shadows from the room’s corners until they surround him like a shroud. He sends them to us. There’s a sizzling sound as the flames are swamped by darkness.

  Josie’s eyes are wide. “Rachel, what’s—?”

  I grab her face and make her look at me. “Stay down. When you get a chance, run to that door and get out of here. It’s going to be all right.”

  She tries to hold me next to her, but I pull away and reenter the fight. I feel the crackle of power building up from my belly.

  Beside me, Crow’s fingers move almost imperceptibly, controlling the shadows until they form a barrier between us and our attackers. A brunette by the door hurls another ball of flame, but the wall of darkness rises to swallow it. When it simmers back down, no one moves.

  My eyes do a sweep of the room. Eight of the intruders have shadows pooling at their feet. The rest have blue flames winding up their bare arms, and eyes that flash.

  Heat burns through my body. I want to release it. I want to unleash Hell. But my gut tells me it’s not time yet.

  “Crow,” caws a girl standing in the center. She wears black skinny jeans tucked into heavy-duty work boots, and her curly black hair is pulled back in a neat ponytail. Black pawprints trail from her left arm to her collarbone, and catlike shadows wind around her ankles. She grins. “Fancy seeing you here.”

  “Hey, KittyKat,” says Crow. “It’s been a while.”

  “That it has.” She takes a step closer to Crow’s barrier. “When I saw your name next to the target’s on the map, I feared we were too late. Yet here she is. Alive.”

  “Aye. Here she is.”

  She grins. “Give her to me.”

  “Can’t do that, KittyKat.”

  “And why’s that?”

  “Well, she’s mine.”

  She laughs. “Come on, Crow. We’ll do it together. Share the money. We’ve shared jobs before. It’ll be like old times.”

  Crow only shakes his head. She watches him for a moment, then she touches his shadow barrier. A wisp of it curls around her fingers.

  “You’re not protecting her, are you?” she asks, seeming shocked. “You are, aren’t you? Now, why would you be doing a thing like that?”

  “Perhaps I know something you don’t,” he says.

  “Katherine, can we just get on with this?” grumbles a dark-haired Omen at the back. “We—”

  She raises her hand, and he shuts up.

  “I don’t want to fight you, Crow,” she says.

  “I don’t want to fight you either, KittyKat.”

  She smiles, and the darkness at her feet begins to twine up her body. “There’s going to be a fight though. All these people. And just the two of you. I don’t fancy your chances.”

  “I think our chances are just fine.”

  Frowning, she studies the ball of shadow that has collected in her palm with an air of deliberation.

  “Okay,” she says. “You’ve convinced me. I want in on whatever deal you’ve spun to keep her alive.”

  Crow chuckles. “If I let you fight with me, you’ll sink a knife into her back the moment I’m not looking.”

  She sighs. “Fine. If that’s really the way you want to play this.”

  In a vicious movement, she hurls the ball of shadow at him. His barrier of darkness rises like a tidal wave to catch it, then crashes down on all of them.

  There’s a yell and the sound of bodies thudding to the floor, but Kat’s hand rises from the writhing darkness. With a simple flicking movement, she shatters the mirror behind the bar completely.

  Josie screams, and I have to duck, arms over my head, as shards of glass fly toward me and Crow.

  As the darkness ebbs, the Omens and Demons start to rise. The blue lights flash on and off.

  And then, chaos.

  Katherine lunges, but Crow catches her and pins her to the bar with one arm. A blade flies at my face, and I stumble to the side, glass crunching beneath my feet. Three Omens run toward me, shadows rippling behind them like cloaks.

  This time, I don’t hesitate. Sweat rolling down my face, I scream and hurl a ball of flame.

  The lights go off, and the air fills with g
runts and shrieks. To my side, Crow whistles, loud and piercing.

  Footsteps race toward me.

  When the lights come back on, I’m ready. I land a right hook across the bloody face of the blond guy with a blade, and his dagger clatters to the floor. The next time, he comes at me with flames, but before I can react, I’m dragged by shadows toward the impatient dark-haired Omen. He wants the kill for himself.

  Crow releases Kat and spins around. A wall of shadow sends both men reeling backward but stops when Kat pounces onto his back.

  The lights flash off. Heart pounding against my ribs, I will a new set of flames to my fingers and hurl my next missile blindly. It hits a bearded Demon who was seconds from being at my throat, knocking him back to the wall. The neon-blue trumpet sign crashes to the ground.

  I feel someone behind me. Heart in my throat, I spin, fist raised.

  “Steady, little Demon,” Crow says, catching my wrist.

  Suddenly, we’re cocooned by a protective tornado of darkness. Everything is muffled. I can smell him: sweat, leather, and darkness.

  Both of us breathe hard.

  “I don’t think Josie’s escaped,” I say. “We should have made sure she wasn’t working! And how are we supposed to kill them all?”

  “We aren’t,” he says. “We just have to stay alive for a bit longer. Couple more minutes, I reckon.”

  Our shadow barrier jolts as someone tries to punch through. Crow winces, his face flushed.

  “What happens in a couple of minutes?” I say.

  “You’ll see,” he says, jerking back when flames surge up from my hands.

  “What do you mean, ‘You’ll see’?” I demand.

  He chuckles, though the sound is strained. “That’s right. Get angry. You need it.” He grunts as the tornado shudders again. “Can’t hold it much longer.”

  The flames grow in my hand. “Me neither.”

  “Ready?” he asks.

  I nod, jaw clenched.

  He lets go of my wrist, and we both spin around, our backs touching. I throw my growing ball of fire at the same time Crow sends his tornado hurtling forward. Mine knocks the blond Demon into the wall, while Crow’s causes Kat to dive out of the way and a few Omens to scatter.

  Back-to-back, we fight, hurling shadow and flame. My heart pumps fire through my veins, and adrenaline makes my body buzz.

  There’s a smashing sound, and I notice a new stream of liquid snaking over the floor. I throw a fireball at it, and blue flames whoosh up around the club, engulfing a couple of Omens.

  “Not sure that was the best idea, little Demon,” singsongs Crow as the flames get closer.

  “Yeah. I’m having second thoughts too,” I say as heat licks my foot.

  Then, suddenly, the flames disappear, and the whole club plunges into darkness. The temperature drops, and the hairs on my arms stand on end. A terrible feeling overcomes me, worse than anything I’ve ever felt—even in the dark times before and after Jonathon’s death. Horror and emptiness. Nothingness.

  Crow’s back tenses against mine. He feels it too.

  There’s a murmur of confusion. The Omens and Demons pause their attack.

  Then the scraping sound of a metal blade being dragged along the floor fills my ears.

  “Enough.”

  The low voice seems to come from everywhere and nowhere at once.

  The club lights flicker on, painting the scene of destruction in a cool blue glow.

  A man stands in the center of the dance floor. He has black hair, short at the sides and curly at the top, and he holds a scythe upside down, his big fist curled around the ornate black handle. There are symbols inked onto his knuckles.

  The air around us is cold enough that my ragged breath puffs in front of my face.

  The man’s dark eyes survey the room, sliding over the smashed bottles and damage to the walls and booths. Tension hangs like a shroud over us all.

  “Are you all lost?” he says calmly as he rights his scythe and drags one finger over the blade. “Do you forget yourselves? Do you forget who owns this club?”

  Death.

  Kat stands nearest to him, and when she doesn’t lower her gaze, he brings the scythe to her throat, stopping just before it cuts her skin. Her eyes widen. Crow jerks as if to help her, then stops himself.

  “Perhaps you forget that my scythe can bring about a fate even worse than the Hell you are all headed for,” he says. “Perhaps I should remind you.”

  “Darius, mate . . .” Crow starts.

  Darius holds Kat’s eyes for a moment longer, then he pulls his scythe away.

  “Everybody out,” he says. “Last orders were over an hour ago.”

  Our attackers can’t get out of the club fast enough, fighting to be the first out of the wooden door and up the stairs. The last one out is Kat, who pauses in the doorway and looks over her shoulder, eyes lingering on Crow for a moment before she too disappears.

  Twirling the scythe, Darius looks at Crow. “I might have known you’d be involved in this, my old friend. I’m very interested to know why you brought this mess into my club.”

  When Crow doesn’t answer, Darius’s eyes slide to me. Something clenches in my chest when I meet his gaze. It’s like looking into an abyss.

  “And who have we here?” He puts the blade of the scythe beneath my chin, tilting my head upward when I try to avert my gaze.

  “Darius, mate,” Crow says again, placing a protective arm in front of me.

  The humor leaves Darius’s eyes.

  “Don’t assume such familiarity with me, boy.” He pulls away the scythe and holds it to Crow’s neck instead. “I know exactly what you’re all about. I know the damnation of your soul. You bring this horde of fools to my place and expect me to sort out your mess. I am he who will bring doom and salvation upon this world. And you dare—”

  “Darius?” says a high female voice.

  Darius swiftly pulls away his weapon.

  Josie stands behind the bar, her black hair wild and glittering with small specks of glass from the broken mirror. Her flannel shirt is splattered with alcohol, and there’s a small cut on her cheek. She’s still holding the small knife used to cut limes.

  “Is someone going to tell me what the hell is going on?” she demands.

  A muscle twitches in Darius’s jaw. “Josie, darling,” he says. “I think it’s about time we had a little chat.”

  She folds her arms across her chest. “Yes, babe. I think it is.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Darius takes a step away from Crow and me. “Josie, darling, this may be hard for you to believe. But I am—”

  “Death. One of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,” says Josie, eyes blazing. “Yeah, I gathered that much.”

  Darius’s shoulders sag a little. It could be my imagination, but he seems disappointed his big identity reveal is ruined. “Oh. Since when?”

  Josie ducks under the bar, shaking her head.

  “There’s been some weird stuff going on since I started working here, babe,” she says. “But the final clue was that monstrosity.” She glares at the scythe, causing Darius’s fist to clench around it. Then her eyes flick to me, and the sudden hurt behind them makes my chest feel heavy. “That doesn’t explain why my best friend is involved in all this though. Or why the guy she’s hooking up with is shooting shadows out of his hands.” She looks at Darius. “Or why you just threatened her.”

  Josie prods Death in the chest. Despite him being a head taller, several degrees more muscular, and a scythe-wielding harbinger of doom, he looks a little scared.

  “Josie, darling,” he says, attempting a reassuring smile. “I can see you’re upset—”

  “Don’t you start acting like I don’t have a damn good reason to be upset,” she says, waving at the scythe. “And you can put that thing away when you’re talking to me too.”

  Darius starts to glower, but when that only makes Josie’s chin tilt higher, he turns it on Crow and me. Once aga
in, I’m awash with the feeling of emptiness.

  “You two had better be gone when I get back,” he says, his voice like ice. “I need to have a conversation with my employee.”

  Then he strides across the dance floor, glass crunching beneath his shoes, and exits through the “NO ENTRY” door at the back.

  Crow squeezes my shoulder. “I’m going to check on Gabe. Tell him we’re okay. I’ll wait for you outside. Be quick.”

  With that, he leaves me alone with my best friend.

  We stare at each other, tension thick. Josie said she’d been noticing weird things ever since she started working here. I wonder if we both have been keeping secrets.

  Then something breaks, and she throws her arms around me.

  “What’s going on, Rach?” she asks when she pulls back.

  “I accepted a contract I shouldn’t have,” I blurt “The internship I got. It’s for a company run by the Devil. I signed away my soul.”

  A strangled cry escapes her lips. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “I wanted to. I couldn’t.”

  The sound of footsteps causes Josie to glance over her shoulder at the “NO ENTRY” door. She puts a hand on my arm.

  “You should go.”

  “You’re going to be okay?”

  “Darius won’t hurt me.”

  “Are you sure?”

  “Positive.”

  Feeling numb, I let her pull me into one more quick hug. As the door opens, she nudges me toward the exit.

  Crow waits for me outside. He stares at the dark front of Evie’s over the road, though his thoughts seem to be elsewhere. There’s an uncharacteristic frown playing on his lips. He starts when I touch his arm.

  “You okay?” I ask him.

  He forces a smile. “Aye. Fine. Make sure you set your Afterlife status back to offline.”

  As we walk through the door of Crow’s apartment ten minutes later, I realize I’m still anxious. Even though Darius seemed pretty in awe of Josie, I’m having my doubts we should have left her alone.

  “Well, that was fun.” Crow was uncharacteristically quiet on the way home, so his voice startles me.

  He tosses his keys onto a side table and turns on a dim table lamp while I pull out my cell. I slid my status to offline as soon as Crow told me to, but now I find myself compulsively checking. When I look up, he’s staring at me.