Mercy seethed under the restraints, clawing at me down the internal line. I did my best to ignore it and focus on the dark shape huddled in the far corner of the garage. I pointed the Cougar at it and Mercy snarled in eager anticipation.
“Try whatever you want, Night Caller,” it said quietly. “I doubt you could kill me, even in this weak state.”
Mercy growled.
“Don’t fight,” I sent to her.
“It’s weak,” she managed to send back, her predator teased by the admission of vulnerability. “Now is the time to fight.”
“No. Now is the time to find out what the hell is going on.”
“You can ask all the questions you want,” the demon said, a hint of amusement in her voice. “I doubt I’ll be able to answer any of them.”
The demon moved, a deliberate, slow action and the light came on. I was blinded for a moment, but it didn’t bother Mercy and she stepped in front of me.
“I should have warned you, human. I’m sorry.”
“I bet you are.” I blinked my eyes into focus.
Apart from the dead imps and the very much alive demon, the garage was empty.
She stood at the rear of the garage, or more precisely, leaned against the wall. Her appearance was still that of an angel, but tonight, she had definitely fallen. Those pearlescent wings hung limp and her body sagged.
“I’m going out on a limb here,” I said, “but I think your clock just got cleaned.”
She glared at me, then at the imps. “Blasted pests.”
I laughed. “The imps? Well now, that is interesting to know.”
The demon shifted and her wings fluttered. “I’m weak, human, but don’t think that grants you any right to superiority. If it weren’t for your mutant child there, even like this, I could kill you faster than you could blink.”
Now, Mercy’s been called some interesting things before. Fiend of the night, blood sucking bitch, unholy terror—and that was just by me. A while back, another vampire had called her ‘crippled’. And now we had this added to the list.
“Hear that, Merce? You’re a mutant now. Want me to get you some yellow spandex and sideburns?”
Vampire and demon both snarled.
“No? Okay then, let’s get on with the finding of some knowledge.”
“I told you, human –”
“Yeah, yeah, I can ask all I want but you won’t answer.”
The street was empty of residents. I didn’t bother with the suppressor.
The bullet hit her in the kneecap.
She must have been hurting already, because she went down like the proverbial. Her wings smacked about and kicked up a little gale. Whatever it was about her—aura, spirit, personality disorder—that worked against Mercy’s uber-cool flared and it stabbed into my head, slicing through the barriers I’d put up against the wild darkness within both me and Mercy, but it died as quickly as it had come, leaving the remaining influence even weaker.
So her effect on Mercy was tied in with her own strength. If I could keep her weak, me and Merce might just escape without too much damage.
“Good start,” she gasped. “But I can’t tell you anything.”
“Oh, you thought that was supposed to be an incentive to talk? Sorry for the misunderstanding. No, that was just the start of what I’m going to do to you as payback for what you did to Erin.”
The demon sighed. “The human woman.”
“Yes, my dear. The human woman.”
“I tried to save her.”
My control slipped and Mercy lunged forward. She got in a few good kicks and before I could call her back. The demon toppled to the side, arms wrapped around her middle. There was another mild surge and bigger retreat. Theory holding water. Go me.
“You tried to save her? After tossing her car off the overpass?” I put the barrel of the gun against my cheek. “Hmm, here’s a fun idea. Don’t try to kill a person, because then you don’t have to try to save them. It’s called logic. A human concept I know, but it seems to be catching on.”
“You don’t understand,” the demon shouted. “I don’t have a choice in what I do!”
“No? But didn’t you just admit to choosing to try to save Erin?”
“That, yes, was my choice. As for pushing her off the overpass—”
I put a bullet in her shoulder this time.
“Stop,” she screamed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t want to.”
It took a great deal of effort to pry my finger off the trigger. “You didn’t want to?”
“Yes. I’ve been summoned, bound and commanded. I have no free will.”
Summoned. I thought of what Lila had told me, that demons could be summoned from wherever it was they came from. She too had spoken about free will and what it meant to not have it.
“You’ve been commanded to kill Erin?” I asked.
She shook her head. “You only.”
The Cougar trembled in my hold. “Then you hurt Erin voluntarily.”
“I was commanded to kill you by any means. Last night showed me I couldn’t do that while the human woman was with you. Or while that—” She spat at Mercy. “—was with you. If I could get them away from you, or you away from them, then I would have no trouble.”
“So you followed us tonight, saw Erin go off alone and decided to get her out of your way permanently.”
“It wasn’t me. Not really.” She picked at the flesh around the bullet wound in her shoulder. “I tried to get her car away from the road before the truck hit, but the imp swarm caught me and carried me away.”
I glanced at the imps. There were about a dozen of them, all fully grown. “I don’t believe this many imps could take you down so hard.”
“They have a venom that works against the greater demons. Individually, they are nothing. In a swarm, they’re very dangerous.”
Mercy kicked a couple of the dead imps at the demon.
“How did you survive the poison?” I asked as Mercy’s small acts of rebellion tickled my leashed rage.
The demon laughed. “I had help. That at least I can tell you. I’m not the worst thing you have to fear at the moment. There’s an even bigger demon than me hanging around.”
“A bigger demon?”
She nodded but before she could speak, her eyes widened and she stiffened. Mercy snarled.
As the demon faded, she shouted, “Solomon,” and then she was funnelled very abruptly into nothing.
“What the…?”
Mercy, demon-induced rage fading, faced me. “I think she got summoned.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Just before she disappeared a big, dark presence came here looking for her. It dug into her deep and then pulled her away.”
I stared at where the demon had disappeared. “Fantastic. Now whoever summoned her is going to know she spoke to us.”
“And?”
“And that means he and or she is probably going to want me deader even quicker.”
Chapter 17
Amaya slumped in the middle of her circle and dug at the bullet in her knee. Fingers of pain burrowed through her whole leg and echoed in her shoulder. So close to a visit from Asmodeus and she had a few issues trying to decide what hurt and what felt good. Either way, her alternating groans of pain and moans of pleasure were disturbing her summoner.
“He found you?” he asked for surely the hundredth time.
“What can I say?” Amaya muttered. “I’m a succubus. Any red blooded male and a few red blooded women would walk over flaming coals for me.”
“He wasn’t supposed to find you. You were supposed to find him and kill him!”
“I know that, moron. Best laid plans and all that rubbish.”
She felt the bullet and ignoring the screaming nerves she brutalised in the process, got a grip on it and jerked it free. She flicked it against the barrier of the circle. It was worth the jolt of agony that rebounded on her to see him flinch.
“You could have warned me a
bout the tame vampire,” she said as she began work on her shoulder.
That won her a moment or two of stunned silence.
“Vampire?”
“Yeah. You know, fanged beast of the night? Sucks the blood out of your neck. Hates garlic and so forth. Vampire. And Mr Night Caller has one fighting for him. If you’d bothered to summon me back last night, you would have seen the battered remains of what a vampire can do.”
Her summoner sat down so abruptly he was in danger of exposing his face. Tugging at the hood, he said, “But vampires don’t like humans. They’re more likely to kill them than fight alongside them.”
“True enough, but this one’s different. It’s… not normal.”
“How so?” The disbelief was gone, replaced by a probing need to know more.
“It’s relatively young, but has the powers of a creature much, much older. And it belongs to the human male. He is its master.”
“Like I am yours.”
“No. Vampires don’t have the mental capabilities of understanding free will.”
If he caught the jab, it failed to dig deep. “I was assured you would be able to give me everything I wanted, but apparently even a young vampire is too much for you. I should summon the spirit who gave me your name and punish it.”
Amaya had to laugh. The thought of this human punishing Lucifer was ludicrous. He obviously didn’t know who had given him her name. If he did, he wouldn’t have been making such claims. He probably wouldn’t have been able to form a coherent thought if he knew the Demon King had touched him, no matter how brief.
“Stop it!” he shouted and she shut up so fast she bit her tongue. If it hadn’t been for the spark of uncontrolled rage that cracked his voice, she would have continued to smile at least.
He didn’t like being laughed at. Hated it. It had the power to push him over the edge into rage.
“I’m sorry,” Amaya said, surprised when she realised she meant it.
“Not you’re not,” he snapped. “Demons aren’t sorry. They don’t care about us. They want only to use us to their own ends and then trample all over us when we’ve got nothing left to give.”
A shiver stole down Amaya’s wings. “You’ve been possessed before?”
“No. Not me.” He rolled his shoulders, as if throwing off an unpleasant memory. “But possession isn’t as bad as watching someone you respect give in to a bad influence of her own free will.”
He might summon them and use them, but her summoner hated demons. Hated what they had done to Geraldine, what they had made Geraldine do.
No. Not they. Him. Asmodeus. Lucifer had given her to this hurting, desperate man to be used against Asmodeus.
“What did he make Geraldine do?” she asked softly. She was his to command, not the other way around and he didn’t have to answer, but she tried anyway. This wasn’t just about murder and covering it up anymore.
“He didn’t make her do anything,” he whispered. “She could have stopped if she wanted.”
“But she didn’t want to,” Amaya said.
It all came down to want. Asmodeus was called the Lord of Lust and he definitely used sensuality as a weapon, but sex wasn’t what he dealt in. It was want and desire and need. Geraldine had wanted something and Asmodeus had helped her get it. But it was never a one way street with any demon, least of all Asmodeus. If he offered you the thing you wanted most, it wasn’t as a gift. There would be payment.
What had been the price of Geraldine Davis’ want? And had she paid it before Amaya had killed her?
“If you just told me everything I would be able to help you,” she said. “But I would need to be free to do it.”
He spun around and lashed at the circle of power around her. Amaya flinched, expecting a flash of pain from his impact with the circle, but there was nothing. Even in his anger, he managed to pull himself back before he could be burnt by the energy trapping her.
“As if I could trust a demon,” he snarled. “The only good demon is a bound one. Besides, there’s nothing left to do but kill the Night Caller before he can expose me. If I gave you another chance, do you think you could do it this time?”
She was saved from having to answer by a piece of bleak, electronic music sounding from beneath his robe.
“Damn,” he hissed, pulling a phone from somewhere about his body. “I have to take this.” He left the room, slamming the door behind him.
Amaya resumed picking at the bullet in her shoulder. So close after the first round of wounds, the imps and a visit from Asmodeus, it would take a lot of time and effort to heal. Since she suspected she wouldn’t get as much time as she needed, she had to get started as soon as she could.
Finally, the bullet in her shoulder gave in and popped out. Staring at the two misshapen slugs covered in her dark blood and strands of tissue, she wrapped her wings around herself and concentrated on healing. And yet she found she couldn’t slip into a deep enough trance.
Too many thoughts swirled around her mind, too many questions. It had been so much easier when she’d simply been after Hawkins. Even her guilt over the death of the human woman hadn’t been as bad as the confusion she now found herself in.
Somehow she had to find out what Asmodeus was up to and stop him. But once the barrier on her circle dropped, the Command to kill Hawkins would override any other thoughts and desires.
Pity, really. He had the strength to defeat her and that meant he had some chance against Asmodeus—well, more than the average human, at least.
Between the vampire child and the lurking darkness of berserker rage she’d felt in him tonight, he was not something to be taken lightly. And he’d listened to her while she was in her true shape, not some human guise. He’d been willing to stop his harassment and hear what she had to say, what she could say. She’d shouted about free will and it had caught him, as she’d hoped it would.
Now, if he managed to evade Amaya long enough to work out the clues she had given him, he might actually be of some use.
“Hey!”
She fell out of the minor trance she’d managed. “What?”
Her summoner leaned close enough that a faint touch of his face was revealed. Again, just the shape of his nose and jaw, and perhaps something that might have been stubble.
“You weren’t moving. Thought you might have died.”
The anger was gone. He was back to his calm, in-control self and she wouldn’t be able to trick answers out of him like this. He didn’t trust her with his overall plan, or his reasons for why he was doing this.
“I’m not that lucky,” she said, reverting to her bitter attitude. It was safe, neutral ground. “I was, in fact, trying to heal myself in preparation for being sent out on your bidding again.”
“So, you think you are capable of actually killing the Night Caller?” It was a taunt, a provocation meant to goad her into proving him wrong.
“I am capable of it.” She picked her words very carefully, not wanting him to add more emphasis to the existing Command. In the space of an hour she had gone from wanting to carry out the Command to desperately not wanting to. “But it’s going to take some time.”
“How much time?”
“I told you about his vampire. It will need to be disabled before I can reach him. And it’s very strong. I need to heal and recover my own strength before facing it.”
“Why not go after him during the daytime?”
Amaya glared at him. “I tried, but he rarely moves out of public areas during the day. So unless you want a very public, very messy murder to deal with, the vampire must go first.”
He grunted. “Fine. Whatever. You have two nights to finish him.” With a casual wave of his hand—he was starting to get quite good—he dropped the circle. “Heal and then tomorrow night do your best to kill Hawkins.”
Robe flaring, he swept from the room, pointedly locking the door behind him. Dork. Now she was out of the circle, locks wouldn’t stop her, but his commands would. He’d ordered her to heal
, so she stretched out on the floor, all of her limbs outflung to their extremes. Thus she finally managed a healing trance.
When she woke up, her body felt whole and strong. Standing and flexing her wings, she felt a little resistance in them still, but they would suffice for what she had planned for today.
Pulling a cloak of reflective light around her, she left the room in the empty house and launched into the golden light of morning. Invisible to the human eyes all around her, she soared toward the sun. It was just warming up, but it was bright and glorious all the same.
Her birth realm was an unforgivingly hot and unrelentingly bright place. There was no such thing as night and no shadows—except those Asmodeus dressed himself in. Here, there was always refuge from the light and Amaya enjoyed that most of all. But there were times when all she wanted was the glaring brilliance of home. Flying into the sun was as close as she could get, and considering her only other option, it was more than good enough.
Amaya swam through the morning clouds, chilling herself delightfully. Then she exploded out above them and into the sunlight again. She coasted up there for a long while, soaking in the rays, feeling them reach into her very core and defrost the last vestiges of Asmodeus’ touch.
At last she felt ready to face the rest of the world. She arched her back, folded her wings and dived back through the clouds. Falling toward the city, she let it rush up to meet her. As she made out the various antennas and dishes on the top of a tall building she flared her wings and pulled up into a sweeping curve that skimmed her over the top of the building.
A flock of roosting doves scattered before her and she wasted a while giving playful chase. It was good to be flying again, unbound by slavery to the surface of the earth.
She hadn’t been able to fly while with Nick. He hadn’t allowed her any time free of his bonds. How could he? His command over her was accidental. She knew that. He had no clue about what he’d done. Amaya supposed she shouldn’t have been so pissed with him, in that regard, but it was hard not to be, especially after her first summons to Brisbane had forced Nick to relax some of his hold over her.
Night Call (Book 2): Demon Dei Page 15