For the Birds

by Angela Roquet

  I was too late.

  Asmodeus stepped inside the roost with his fists in the air. He was dressed in black, from the skullcap on his head down to the combat boots laced up his claves. I’d never seen him without his faded fedora. His aura of cool, casual charm was missing tonight too. It had never occurred to me that the lust demon might be Bub’s first choice for backup, but he looked plenty prepared for battle. Of course, no one is ever really prepared to fight the invisible. I watched helplessly as he doubled over, falling face first into the pool. The bony handle of Atropos’ shears protruded out of his back, the blades angled in deep under one shoulder blade. Beelzebub exploded beside me, shifting instantly into a hoard of buzzing flies. He dispersed around the room.

  The storks stopped cooing. The wind stilled outside the windows. The place grew quiet as a tomb, while I listened for some sign of anything or anyone. A single minute must have passed, though it felt painfully longer. Bub’s flies assembled, and he took form again on the upper ledge of the roost. He was dressed the same as Asmodeus, in full combat apparel. His fist tunneled through the air, and I heard it connect with flesh. Caim reappeared as he plummeted from the ledge, Hades’ helm falling from his head and bouncing across the concrete floor. It skittered to a stop at the edge of the pool. Caim’s wings pulled in sharply, buffering his fall. He still landed on his ass, but he recovered quickly, rushing to snatch up the helmet. He snagged Ammit’s headdress while he was at it.

  “You sheep! You puppets!” He spat at us. “You’re still letting them run Eternity according to the humans’ desires. We are gods! You let the souls decide, but we don’t have to. You see? I’ve taken these here. I’ve claimed them for Seth!” He held out Ammit’s headdress and shook it. “We will remake Eternity, and victory will belong to the gods who claim it, not the ones who compete in your pathetic pageants!”

  Bub took flight again, descending in a violent swarm, but by the time he pulled himself back together, Caim was gone. The coward slipped the helmet back over his head as he stepped through the hatch door. I could tell Bub wanted to go after him, but reason swallowed his fury. Instead, he rushed to my side, retrieving the knife from my boot before cutting through my ropes. Then we both sloshed through the pool to where Asmodeus’s still body floated.

  Bub laid a gentle hand on his back, wincing before he rolled him over. Asmodeus was sickly pale. He bobbed in the water, stiff and cold to the touch. My heart broke as Bub moaned softly, knotting his hands in Asmodeus’s shirt. I’d never seen him so open and defeated. I didn’t know what to do with my hands. I held them open over Asmodeus, almost too afraid to touch him. His unblinking eyes stared up at the ceiling. I moved to close them then jerked my hand back as a gurgle escaped his lips.

  “Asmodeus?” Bub whispered. He ran a hand down his friend’s face.

  “Take it out,” he groaned.

  I wasn’t thinking straight. I reached under his shoulder, gripped the handle of the shears, and tore them free of his flesh. Asmodeus gasped. His eyes began to work again, blinking sporadically as his blood seeped into the pool. It clouded around us, soaking into our clothes and filling the room with its sweet, coppery fragrance.

  Bub’s hands slipped as he tried to find the best way to take hold of Asmodeus, struggling to pull him through the pool. “Help me,” he pleaded.

  I looped an arm under Asmodeus’s bad shoulder, and he cried out. More blood darkened the pool. I couldn’t do it. He was too heavy. He was too injured.

  I glanced around the room and noticed my duffle bag, abandoned by the hatch door. My work robe was in there. We could loop it under him and lift him out of the pool without causing him more undue pain. I stumbled out of the water. My clothes clung to me, dripping and cold against my skin. I unzipped my duffle bag with trembling fingers and dumped its contents; my soul docket, work robe, cell phone, and a clean shirt. The tea packet Meng had given me fell out on top of it all. I forgot the robe and tore open the packet, bringing the tea bag back into the pool with me.

  Bub was still struggling to move Asmodeus. “What’s that?”

  “Hold his head up,” I ordered him, cupping the tea bag in my hands. I squeezed my fingers together and dipped them into the murky pool, letting the tea bag stain the red water a rusty brown before tilting my hands up to Asmodeus’s mouth.

  “Drink.”

  Asmodeus opened his mouth and I let the tea spill from my fingers and down his throat. He began to cough, wincing as his shoulder jerked about. I dunked my hands down in the pool again, squeezing my thumbs over the tea bag to get a second dose. Asmodeus’s lips trembled, and he frowned at me, but he took the second helping. He was still in bad shape, but he seemed to be breathing easier.

  Bub looked up at me. “We need to get him to Meng’s.”

  I nodded.

  Someone else stirred in the room, and we both tensed. Lachesis was awake. She groaned and stretched against the ropes binding her. I waded out of the pool. The knife Bub had used to free me lay abandoned on the floor beside my chair. I used it to cut her free, letting her remove the duct tape on her own. Then I did the same for Atropos, gently squeezing her shoulder to wake her. I saved Clotho for last. She was still slumped in her chair like a ragdoll. Lachesis and Atropos stepped around the stork carcass, each sparing it a soft eye before wrapping their arms around their comatose sister.

  “The shears?” Atropos glanced back at me.

  “Caim had them.”

  “I know. Does he still?”

  I shivered and wrapped my arms around myself. “They’re in the pool.” I glanced back and Bub and Asmodeus. “We need to get to Meng’s.”

  Atropos nodded stiffly. “Do you have a phone?”

  I dug through the pile I’d emptied out of my duffle bag and found my cell.

  “Dial star five. It will ring you into the Nephilim Guard’s station. Tell them to send everyone they can spare. Tell them to barricade the harbor. We might be too late, but there could still be a chance he’s in the city.”

  I did as she said. The guard who answered didn’t ask questions. He said they were on their way and hung up. I dialed Grim’s private number next. It felt like the right thing to do if I wanted to keep my head on my shoulders.

  He answered on the first ring. “What’s happened?” He had enough sense to know that something was very wrong if I was calling him at this hour. We did not do social calls. It was a wonder he had even bothered to give me his private number at all when I made captain of the Posy Unit.

  “I’ve already called the guard,” I said, hoping his mind would calm before I laid the rest on him. “We have a serious problem.”

  Chapter 18

  “The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.”

  -Mark Twain

  Asmodeus looked all wrong in Meng’s guest room. The Nephilim Guard had spared two men to transport us to her temple in one of their fancy new SUVs. The Limbo City tax dollars were hard at work. With his lust demon wiles completely unguarded, Asmodeus had quite an effect on Jai Ling. After spilling a second cup of tea on the bedspread, Meng had to chase her out of the room.

  The smell of her extra potent healing brew made my stomach grumble. Asmodeus turned his nose up, and gave the cup a questionable look. “Is this really necessary? I’m feeling much better. I’m sure I’m capable of healing on my own,” he said, waving his hand in the air with a grimace.

  Meng huffed at him. “You stabbed with death shears. Drink. No dead demons stink up my house.”

  Asmodeus took the cup from her withered hand, looking to Bub and me for sympathy.

  I shook my head and grinned. “I’ve been right where you are a few times myself, and all I have to say is better you than me.”

  Meng shot me a dirty look. “See to it he drink that. I have others tonight.”

  “Really?”

  Meng put her hands on her hips. “Did not know Grim put me on council just to run hospital.
Sneaky illegitimate son of rabbit.” The insult carried more weight in Chinese.

  “Who else is laid up?”

  Meng shrugged. “Nephilim guards. A reaper. Don’t know what happen to them. They sleep still. This city troubled tonight.” She shook her head and shuffled out of the room.

  Loki must have been busy. I wondered if he was still walking around in my skin. I was fairly certain that the harbor guards were the ones snoozing down the hall, but I was curious about the reaper.

  Jai Ling appeared in the doorway again. Her eyes roamed over Asmodeus with thoughts far darker than any young girl should have been capable of thinking. She licked her lips and timidly stepped into the room. A folded blanket and a suturing kit were nestled in her quivering arms. “Does he need to be stitched up?” she whispered to me.

  “I think we can manage,” I said, taking the supplies from her and laying them on the side table. Her bottom lip puckered out, and she left the room reluctantly.

  Asmodeus was a charming fellow, but he wasn’t so rarely beautiful in Eternity. Among the souls, however, he was a libido magnet. They’d throw themselves naked at his feet if he demanded it.

  Bub was sprawled out in the corner chair beside Asmodeus’s bed. Five o’clock shadow was filling in around his goatee. That and the tired circles under his eyes made him look a hundred years old. I knew he was ancient, but I was used to seeing him as a youthful, strong male in his prime, not as a worn out refugee. His black military ensemble was still dripping pinkish water. I’d changed into the spare shirt from my duffle bag, but my jeans were still a disaster, rubbing my skin raw and making the cuts along my thighs itch. My hair was drying into an unruly catastrophe on my head. Mangy curls poked out around my face.

  Bub caught my eye and stood up, walking around the bed to join me by the door. He pulled me into his arms. I let him hold me, not caring that my dry shirt was getting soaked.

  I pressed my face into his neck and sighed. “How did you know I was in trouble?” I asked.

  Bub grew brittle in my arms. I hadn’t meant it as an accusation. I was so very grateful, but my nerves had settled enough that curiosity dug its way into my mind.

  “Your phone,” he said finally. “I tried to call. Twice. You always answer when I call. It has a GPS chip in it. I don’t know why, but I decided to activate the feature and see what might be preoccupying you so late in the evening. When I saw that you were at the factory, I knew something wasn’t right.”

  “Oh.”

  I wasn’t really angry. It was hard to be when he had just flown in and saved the day. Part of me wanted to find his concern endearing, even if that concern was possibly at the notion that I might be stepping out on him. A darker part of me wondered how often he had checked up on me since I’d had the phone and if my location could be tracked inside the throne realm. I wondered if Bub could feel my pulse racing. I needed to talk to Winston, and soon.

  Asmodeus whined through two cups of tea before he pretended to doze off, probably hoping to avoid any more of the liquid torture. Bub rolled him over and inspected the wound. It was black and oozing clear fluid. The infection extended half an inch around the opening, but it looked like it was receding. Atropos might not have used the shears anymore, but they still had a nasty smite to them.

  I slipped out of the room, giving Bub and Asmodeus some privacy, before tiptoeing down the hall to check in on the other guests. I recognized one of the slumbering nephilim as Abe, confirming my assumption that it had been Loki waiting for me at the harbor. The other nephilim was a new face, but the reaper patient was oddly familiar. It took a minute to come up with his name.

  Clair Kramer was Grace Adaline’s apprentice. I remembered him from Grace’s wandering souls course that Josie and I had taken last semester. He had been tasked with mundane duties like grading and handing out papers. Occasionally, Grace would send him out to fetch her some coffee. I imagined that she also took him out on harvests with her, but I’d never really asked. I was far more preoccupied with the fact that Craig Hogan was taking the class with us.

  Clair stirred, waking to the hall light spilling over my shoulder and casting a long shadow over him and the bed. He jolted upright, gaping in horror as I stepped into the room.

  “Hey, hey,” I whispered. “You’re at Meng’s. It’s alright.”

  “I-I didn’t mean to bother you.” He shook his head, clutching the bedspread up to his chest.

  I snorted softly. “And here I thought I was bothering you. I just wanted to see who else Meng was taking care of tonight. What happened to you? I thought Grace only did low-risk harvests.”

  Clair looked confused and unsure of how to answer. “I was attacked on the street by… well, by you.”

  I shuddered, feeling utterly sickened by the thought of how much damage Loki could do while wandering around the city, wearing my face. “That wasn’t me,” I said, taking another step into the room. Clair squirmed and flinched away from me. I paused and lifted my hands up. “Honest. There’s a shifter in town. He’s part of the reason I’m here tonight too.”

  I watched the information roll around behind his eyes. He finally relaxed and gave me a reassured smile. “I believe you.”

  My shoulder sagged as I blew out a breath. “Where did you run into him anyway?”

  Clair looked down at his hands. His long bangs slanted over his eyes and his cheeks flared a rosy pink. “In front of Holly House. I wanted to talk to you about the demon defense course starting up this fall. I thought since Kevin’s your apprentice, he could vouch for me, and maybe you would put in a good word with Beelzebub. I’d really like to take the class.”

  “Ahhh. I see. Yeah, no problem.” I shrugged.

  “Really?” He looked up at me.

  “Why not? It’s the least I can do after you were attacked by my look-alike.”

  Clair laughed uneasily. My nerves were still raw, but the excitement had died down and I was feeling relatively normal again. It made me question the direction my life was spiraling into. A year ago, I wouldn’t have been able to manage such a casual conversation so soon after a near-death experience.

  I excused myself and went back to check on Bub and Asmodeus. Bub had reclined himself back in the guest chair. His feet were kicked up on the edge of the bed, and both men were softly snoring. I scratched a little note on a pad beside the bed and tucked it down behind Bub’s folded arms, giving him a gentle kiss on the forehead.

  It was well after midnight, and I had already made up my mind that I was going to make it to work in the morning. I loathed the idea of having another harvest heavy makeup day, and I told Grim as much after explaining the events of the evening. He had been livid, but at least it wasn’t directed at me for a change.

  Atropos had her shears back, though they were still minus a stork. They weren’t plotting my demise anymore, so that was one plus on my list. Caim and Loki’s appearance in the city was still eating at me. Anubis had finally arrived with his jackals, but the trail they picked up ended at the harbor. Caim had made his getaway. The jackals didn’t pick anything up on Loki, so the nerve-wracking possibility that he was still in the city had everyone on the lookout.

  I considered calling a cab, just to be safe, but it was highly unlikely that Loki would strike again tonight. Instead, I left Meng’s on foot, walking down the long gravel drive that led back into the city. There was a travel booth just off Divine Boulevard, the main street Meng’s driveway came out onto. It was a whole two blocks back to Holly House, but I was feeling lazy and exhausted, so I took the booth route.

  When I exited the booth at the corner of Divine and Memorial Drive, I spotted a silver limo parked in front of Holly House. I didn’t even have to wonder who it was there for. One of the back windows rolled down, and a small dark hand adorned with a cluster of beaded bracelets beckoned me over. Parvati, the Hindu representative on the council, opened the car door and slid across the seat, inviting me inside.

  I’d become bolder with the council as of la
te, but one did not simply deny Parvati an audience. Through the War of Eternity, she had been a different deity entirely; the bloodthirsty Kali. She was a force of fury and chaos on the battlefield, one that the gods still whispered about fearfully when they thought no one else was listening. I’m not saying she won the war singlehandedly, but if she had been on the other side of the fence, Limbo City would be a different place indeed, and I might not even exist.

  Beyond the deep-seeded terror, I didn’t have much of an opinion about Parvati. She was nice and sweet, but she was also a politician. I never could quite tell where I stood with politicians. Their agenda always escaped me, as I’m sure they intended for it to. I was skeptical to say the least, but it never seemed to be enough to keep me out of their webs.

  I climbed inside the limo, not wanting to induce the history book images of the dark, snake-tongued crazy I knew she was capable of becoming at a moment’s notice. Parvati tapped the glass between us and the driver, and the car began a slow loop around the block. I cradled my duffle bag in my lap and waited, not quite ready for whatever she had planned, but I didn’t have much of a choice in the matter.

  Parvati, like most of the Hindu deities, was unsettling to be around. I think it had something to do with all their extra appendages. The Egyptian’s animal natures had evolved until they simple became living headdresses, like Ammit’s crocodile and Horus’s falcon. They could take them off and leave them at home, setting the rest of Eternity at ease with their more normal appearances. With the Hindu gods, it wasn’t so easy.

  Parvati’s brown eyes seemed too big and too bright for her delicate round face. She smiled placidly at me as she stirred two cups of tea at the same time, one with her two upper arms and the other with her lower set. She held out one of the cups to me, and I hesitated to take it from her.

  “Please, dear reaper, let us make this a pleasant meeting.”

  I took the cup gingerly and balanced it on my knees, giving her a tight smile. She waited for me to take a sip of the sweet brew before beginning.