“A few toads!” Johnny put his palms to his hips. “There were thousands. They were covering every single spot of my club!”
“Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, you know exactly she doesn’t like to be called, what was the expression you used... something about a redheaded bitch?”
“If she steps inside my club again with so much as her little foot, I’m going to—“
“Johnny, Johnny, Johnny, be assured, she isn’t here tonight and all what I need are a few information and I’m on my way.”
“What information?”
“I’m looking for a Berserker called Lucifer. Ever heard of him?”
Johnny took a step backwards, shaking his head energetically. “Sorry, can’t help. And now leave” He waved us out, went to the other side of the bar and started serving a man with two small horns on his forehead.
“Lucifer?” I asked astonished.
“Remember the Berserker leader who killed Dean? He was also in the library. Meaning, he must be a regular on the payroll of the Guild.”
I remembered. One of his minions called him by name. I’ve totally forgotten about it. To be fair, there were other things on my mind.
Dimitri put his arms onto my shoulders and glanced directly in my face. Again, his touch sparkled up the fireworks in me, making it hard to concentrate, especially when he was so close to me. “So far the Guild managed not to expose themselves”, he started explaining. “They’re wearing masks and robes to hide their identity. The demons have no idea who summoned them, but they certainly get an idea where they went. That’s how we got the hint about Beacon Hills. It took Tat and me some time to torture the info out, but eventually he surrendered it to us. Turned out, it was worth it.”
“You believe this Lucifer knows where my friends are?” I asked puzzled.
“Knowing might be too much of a statement, but he can certainly tell us where he delivered the kids after the abduction.”
I put my right leg over my left. “What if they’d moved the prisoners in the meantime. I would.”
Dimitri shrugged his shoulders. “Maybe, but we have to start with the search somewhere. One piece leads to the next. I promise we find them. So now go and do your thing.” His chin jerked at Johnny.
My expression must have looked very puzzled right then.
“Your thing…” he pointed his thumb at Johnny again.
“I have no thing. What do you mean? I’m not Tatiana, I have no magic.”
“Whatever girls do… go over to him, flirt, ask him where to find Lucifer.”
I shook my head determined. “Can’t you give him a hundred dollar note? That always works in the movies!”
“Izzy, that’s not the movies and we’re no longer in our world. Money has no meaning here.”
“Well, how are people paying then?”
“Information, stories, dreams… services”, the right side of his mouth twitched up. Oh, shit I got the picture. In complete embarrassment, I pulled my hands in front of my eyes. “You want me to seduce Johnny?”
He didn’t answer.
“Dimitri”, there was anger leaving my lips. “I’m not sure what picture you have of me, and spare me the details, but if you believe my life consists of flirting in dodgy nightclubs, getting hooked up by some strangers, you are widely mistaken. FYI, I’m a virgin.” Not sure why I shared this information. I would never share this with anyone, except Vicky. Not even mum.
Confusion was written all over Dimitri’s face. “You and Jake… you’re together for how long?”
I couldn’t remember. That was bad... I’m his girlfriend. If a boy forgets, it’s no big deal, if a girl does, it means she doesn’t care.
“You never…” he clearly struggled with the words.
“Gone intimate? No! Happy? Can we change the topic?” How about discussing how often you had sex with Tatiana? The thought cramped my insides together. It shouldn’t.
“Yeah”, he couldn’t hide a satisfied smile and looked back at Johnny. “No matter what, we need you talking to Johnny.”
“Fine, I’m doing it”, I said and leaped off the chair. The extreme heels hit the ground at an angle and I would have tripped over if Dimitri wouldn’t have caught me in time.
“That’s not working”, I whispered in his ear, when he put me back onto my feet.
“It will. You look gorgeous. Please don’t offer your virginity to him. A kiss on the cheek might do.”
“How come you care about my virginity?” I snapped back and walked away from him. Johnny was still on the other side of the bar, pretending business by cleaning a beer glass that was already clean.
I swung myself onto the nearest stool, damn proud of me that I managed it in one go and without exposure and pushed my hair back behind my ear. It always worked, at least in the movies.
Well, Johnny was either gay or the movies lied. “Busy night?” I asked.
“Hmm, same as usual. What do you want?”
I leaned over the desk, using the crossbar of the bar stool as leverage. “See Johnny, you’ve two options. You give me the answer I want, or I have to come back with my friend, you know who I mean.”
He shook his head. “No clue.”
“Red hair, witch, sometimes a bit bitchy, loves to summon toads in bars.”
Johnny turned to me, his face a mask of anger and panic. “Don’t you dare threaten me!”
I waved with my hands in front of my chest. “No, no, you completely misunderstood. The threatening part is done by my boyfriend over there.” I pointed at Dimitri. Boyfriend? Did I actually call him my boyfriend?
“He’s a tracker, he would never dare hurting me without conviction.”
“Say, he’s off duty tonight and I might have slipped the words that I found you attractive.” I shot forward and pressed him a kiss right onto his lips. Johnny sprang back. “Are you mad?” He pointed at Dimitri energetically. Admitting, Dimitri’s glance could kill, if he meant me or Johnny was hard to say, but when I looked at the white of his knuckles under the skin of his fist holding onto the bar table, I knew he was fighting with his temper.
“Alright, alright”, Johnny said. “No more toads, no more this bloke. I want him out of here, young lady. Understood?”
“If you tell us where we find Lucifer, consider us out of your establishment already.”
“Lounge 66.” He indicated to one of the semi-caves on the other side. People were moving forwards and backwards, but when a gap opened in between, I saw him, sitting sandwiched between two Asian chicks. One licking her tongue up his neck.
“That wasn’t so hard, was it?” I turned around and leaped off the stool.
“I warn you, lady, no trouble in my club”, Johnny was calling behind me.
Without turning around, I raised my right hand and gave a wink that I understood. Dimitri was at my side before I could count to three. “And?”
“Lounge 66?”
“Kidding, are you?” His glance swept the room until he found him lounging on the sofa and playing with the two ladies. “You’re a genius!”
“I know, not bad. Impressed?”
“I would lie if I deny my astonishment.”
“Anyway, do you believe Lucifer and lounge 66 is a coincident?”
“Not really, he has something for the melodramatic.” Dimitri took my hand and pulled me forward.
“What did you promise Johnny in return for the info?”
“That we’re not trashing his place! He has a terrible fear of Tat.”
But before we could make a plan, we had already reached the lounge.
“Lucy”, Dimitri greeted the demon like an old comrade, grabbed a chair and parked himself opposite Lucifer.
“You”, Lucifer recognised him. “You! You killed a lot of my men and you dare come here into the neutral zone?” Lucifer snapped with his fingers, twice, and the Asian chicks left the sofa immediately.
Dimitri shrugged. “You left me no choice. Lucy, Lucy, Lucy, you clearly intervened into Council business
.”
Lucifer’s glance moved up, meeting mine. My heart was pounding hard. That was the demon, who killed my friends, the devil in person if I was concerned.
His focus shifted back to Dimitri. “I see you brought her with you. A bit bold.”
“As you said, the Other Place is neutral territory. Let’s keep it this way. All I want to know, where did you bring her friends?”
Lucifer escaped a laugh. This man shouldn’t laugh. It turned him more into the psycho he already was. “Do you consider me this stupid? What’s in for me.”
“Isn’t that obvious?” Dimitri nodded in my direction. “Her!”
I coughed suddenly. That wasn’t part of the deal. Was he out of his mind? I would never sleep with this physical abomination of a senseless mass murderer. Dimitri had his arm around my hips in no time and pulled me onto his lap. “Don’t tell me you’re not interested.”
My fingernails buried into Dimitri’s upper leg. He flinched, which proved, he didn’t ignore me any longer. “Listen jerk, I don’t sleep with him!” I whispered in his ear. In response he patted my back. “She’s a bit of a wildcat of course.”
“I love wildcats”, Lucifer smirked, saliva appeared on his lips. My fingernails dug deeper into Dimitri’s flesh.
“Ouch, that hurts”, he mumbled under his breath.
“Good”, I whispered back.
“Tracker, what makes you think I couldn’t take her right here and hand her over to my principal afterwards. I believe he would be very pleased, very pleased indeed.”
To both sides of the lounge I noticed some movement. My glance wandered to the left and there were two Berserker demons pushing through the crowd. I jerked around, but Dimitri held me tight on his lap. “He isn’t alone.” My voice was a panicking whisper.
“Of course, he isn’t. They never come alone.” There were another two to our right and one behind us. Six to two, well, one as I would be more or less useless in a fight. You didn’t need maths to understand, the odds were not in our favour.
Lucifer leaned back satisfied and crossed the arms in front of his chest. “Let’s assume my principal has anticipated this meeting. You see, tracker. I win, you lose.”
Lucifer gave his man a wink and in the next moment I was lifted out of Dimitri’s lap. When I looked up, one demon was holding me in a tight embrace, his nose sniffing in my hair. “She smells good, boss.”
“Oh, I’m sure she does. I can’t wait taming this wildcat.” Lucifer laughed out loud. “You four”, he pointed at his associates. “Kill the tracker. I’ve business to attend with the girl.”
I was all panic. My heart was pumping so hard, I could hardly make out what Lucifer said. Only that he was going to attend to me. That can’t be happening. “Please”, I stuttered. “Just kill me—“
Lucifer changed his attention to me. “Why should I do that? The principal wants you alive.”
Dimitri raised his arm, two demons were positioned on both his sides, each of them armed with a dagger, half drawn from underneath their jackets. Another demon stood in Dimitri’s back, reaching into the inside pocket of his jacket.
“Wait”, Dimitri ordered in a calm voice. Was he clinically mad? How could he stay so calm?
The demons halted for a second. Dimitri crooked his head to the side, his glance interlocking with Lucifer’s. “What gave you the impression I would come alone and hand her over to you?”
“That’s obvious, isn’t it?”
Dimitri snipped with his fingers and the demons to either side of him were sinking to the ground, a crossbow bolt drilled into their back heads. I squinted over my shoulder and there she was, Tatiana, wearing that gorgeous white dress I’d tried on before, white heeled boots up to her knees, two hand-sized crossbows in each hand. She let the bows fell to the ground, a knife appeared in her hand instead — God knew where she got that from, her outfit really didn’t allow for storage — a moment later and the knife ended in the back of the demon standing behind Dimitri. Just that Dimitri wasn’t there anymore. He’d careered over the table and leaped at Lucifer, bringing his fist onto the demon’s nose.
I didn’t wait, just raised my heel and drilled it into the feet of the Berserker. It had zero effect. The bloke was wearing steel-capped boots. Hollywood has been mistaken again. The guy spun me around and slapped me in the face, which knocked me over and I landed on my bum. Immediately I raised my arms in defence. The man drew a butterfly knife and made one, two steps in my direction, then he sunk to his knees and collapsed with a groan to my feed, two knives piercing his back. My glance moved up and found Tatiana’s, right in that moment when the last of Lucifer’s comrades bumped into her and brought her to a fall on one of the tables behind her. The glass table gave way and smashed into pieces. The demon landed on top of her and nailed her to the ground, his knife pushed against her throat. With both hands, she tried to keep the blade at bay. Her hands were shaking, the knife getting closer to her skin. Desperately I looked around until my eyes fixed on the butterfly knife. I reached for it; it felt burning hot in my hand, like an evil artefact. I scrambled to my feet and dashed forwards, amazed how I managed to run in those heels. Taking the blade in both hands, I jumped onto the Berserker’s back and brought the knife down right into the demon’s neck, exactly as Tatiana had showed me. The blade went through like butter, but the demon wasn’t dead. He rose to his feet and shook me off. For a second time tonight I landed hurtful on my bum. The Berserker got furious. He pulled out the blade and ran towards me. Why always me?
Suddenly a figure stepped in between us. It was Dimitri. My heart missed a beat. Relief washed over me. Relief turned into frustration when I noticed, Dimitri held no weapon in his hand. The Berserker reached back and hit after him. Dimitri tried to block the attack, but the impact catapulted him backwards, right onto me. With our faces less than an inch away, I was gazing directly into his eyes, my cheeks filling with heat. “Kiss?” I thought. Izzy, you’re crazy! Do you even possess an ounce of self-preservation? I was sure I didn’t speak this thought out loud.
“Later?” he answered and rolled off me. I did. Damn my loose tongue.
He leaped up quick as lightning, Tatiana tossed him another knife and a second later, the blade ended in the Berserker’s right eye. The creature fell backwards and evaporated into black smoke that filled the air with the smell of rotten eggs.
“Everyone alright?” Dimitri said and offered me a hand. I nodded and took the hand gratefully, but without daring to look at him.
Tatiana appeared at my side and rummaged at my dress. Just now I realised it had gone up over my hips and was revealing nicely my red knickers. “Thanks”, was all I could bring out.
“We’ve to work on your knife skills”, she answered instead.
“How did you know we’re here?”
She pointed at Dimitri. “He said he had a plan and needed me as backup. He left the portal open and I followed you.”
“You told her about our plan!” I should feel affronted, but right then, I felt just relief.
“Let’s get some answers”, he urged and indicated on the table in front of the couch. Lucifer was nailed with six knives to the table, like Jesus Christ. Blood the colour of charcoal was dripping from the table to the floor. No wonder he had no knife left.
“Lucy, Lucy, Lucy. You know what happens if you die in the afterlife, do you?”
Lucifer groaned, lifted his head and spit Dimitri in the face.
“I tell you. No coming back. The end. Finale. Your countenance will be wiped off this dimension, any dimension.”
“What do you want?” Lucifer muttered in resignation.
“Where are the prisoners, where did you bring them?”
Lucifer rolled his head to the side.
“Seriously, Lucy?” Dimitri mocked and turned one of the knives that was stuck on Lucifer’s shoulder around. Lucifer screamed in agonising pain.
“What’s going on here?” Johnny shouted, pushing through the crowd of bystanders, bu
t then his eyes found Tatiana and he retreated slowly backwards. “You!”
“Yeah, it’s me”, Tatiana said bored.
Johnny’s glance moved to me. “You promised — Bitch.”
“Did you call her a bitch?” Tatiana asked, raising an eyebrow, but Johnny was already gone, most likely hiding behind his bar.
I shook my head at her. “You’ve a terrible reputation.”
She showed me her empty palms. “What can you do? It’s hard work.”
Lucifer screamed even louder when Dimitri moved another knife. “Jerk”, he brought out between clenched teeth.
“Well, all you have to do is telling me where the prisoners are.”
“Go to hell!”
“One day, but not today.”
“AHHHHH”
“Talk!”
“Winter Palace.”
Dimitri’s mouth opened wide and so did Tatiana’s.
“Liar! No demon can enter the palace. There are wards.”
Lucifer smiled, blood was running as a thin film from his lips. “Unless the wards have been taken down to let us in. A new era is on the march, tracker. Considering the side you’re on!”
Tatiana and Dimitri exchanged a glance. “He tells the truth”, she concluded for him.
Dimitri’s focus shifted back to Lucifer. “Who is the principal? Who? Tell me and I let you go.”
“He never revealed his face.”
“You’ve to give me something more precise, if you wanna live.”
“There is nothing!”
Dimitri pulled out a dagger and held it against the demon’s chest, where he suspected the heart.
“Alright, he had a strong accent. British.”
“Consul Wayland?” Tatiana breathed out in shock.
“That’s all I know”, Lucifer said.
“Then die!” Dimitri said.
“But you said—“
“I lied!” And with a dark grimace, he rammed the dagger into the demon’s heart. Lucifers limbs started shaking for a short moment, then they went limp.
Chapter XVI
The Gathering
Princess of Apocalypse Page 16