Martinis with the Devil

by A. A. Chamberlynn

  “Sounds marvelous.” I sank down on the sofa as he flitted into the kitchen.

  Quinn sat down in a chair opposite me. “Um, well I guess I can just chat inanely about the boys I like until you feel like talking. So, remember Lucas from Will’s bar?” And she did indeed carry on about several different crushes for the four minutes it took Riley to make our cocktails.

  “Thanks, Ri,” I said after I took my first sip.

  “Hey, why don’t we go up on the roof?” Quinn suggested.

  I shrugged. “Sure.” I could use a little cool night air.

  We took the elevator up to the little community rooftop garden, and it relieved me to see we were the only ones there. The sky was a deep ocean blue, the stars muted by a netting of rainclouds across the horizon. I could smell rain and trees and the faint tang of asphalt. A sudden, overwhelming relief to be back on Earth again rushed through me. If I didn’t have to cross into another realm as long as I lived, that’d be fine with me.

  About halfway through my martini I spilled my story to Riley and Quinn. I ended by telling them how ridiculous Eli had been back at HR headquarters. “So I guess I’m a double threat now. Eli barely trusted me to begin with, but now that I’ve got this partial mark…I wouldn’t be surprised if he has angels spying on us right now.”

  “Do you trust Eli?” Riley asked.

  “What do you mean?” I asked, feeling sure it was a trick question or something.

  “Well, you’re upset thinking he doesn’t trust you, but have you ever completely placed your trust in him?” His eyes bore into mine.

  I cast my gaze back up to the sky, my memory drifting to another sky, long, long ago. A sky as light and bright as this sky was deep and black. Dotted with lacey clouds and butterflies zipping back and forth. And the scent of lavender and honeysuckle.

  He placed his hands over my eyes. “I have a surprise for you.” His breath was warm in my ear and his voice tickled my skin.

  “A surprise? What is it?” I tried to turn around and look at him, but he held me tight.

  “If I tell you, it won’t be a surprise, now will it?” He moved his hands, but only for a moment. In their place, he tied a black silk scarf. The fabric felt cool against my flesh. Saying nothing, he took my hand and led me across the lawn. It seemed we were moving back in the direction of his house. I’d been spending more and more time there, while my parents thought I was taking harp lessons with Mr. O’Connor.

  We walked a ways, and I could tell we must be beyond the house now, but I’d lost track of whether we were heading down the lane toward the carriage house, or back toward the gardens or the stable. I’d know if we got too close to the stables though, because of the cobblestones in the yard, and near the garden where the grass was especially soft and springy and the earth went down in a little dip. But before I could contemplate it too much more we had stopped. I could hear what sounded like a bird springing off a nearby branch, its wings beating through the air.

  And then another sound. Something large walking toward us. The soft exhalation of a powerful set of lungs.

  Alexander grabbed my waist and hoisted me into the air. A shriek escaped my throat. “Don’t you trust me darling?”

  I paused just a moment, and then I felt myself sliding into a sidesaddle. I gasped, my hands finding coarse strands of mane and a sleek shoulder. Without waiting for permission, I tore off the scarf. “He’s beautiful!” My eyes couldn’t move over the horse fast enough, taking in every inch of his pure white body.

  “She,” Alexander corrected, a broad smile on his perfect face. His eyes were so, so blue. It was hard to breathe. “Do you like her?”

  “Like her? I love her!” I slid down again, tumbling into his arms, my sunbeam hair a mess against his gray coat.

  “See? You should have a little faith in me. Wasn’t this a nice surprise?” I nodded, and those eyes were sucking me in, the whole sky resting in them. He leaned in and kissed me, just once, just for a moment. “I would never, ever do anything to hurt you. Ever. In this life, or the next, or the one after that. Through all the ages, for all of time, I am yours.” Another brush of his lips. “You believe me, don’t you?”

  “I do,” I whispered.

  I blinked up into the black sky again, black as the maelstrom of emotion in the pit of my stomach. My eyes found Riley’s. “I learned a long time ago that trust is a gigantic fucking waste of time.”

  “Well, then you can’t be mad at Eli,” he said, and drained his drink.

  “I can and I am,” I said with a hiss of petulance. “And I don’t care if that makes me a hypocrite,” I added as they both rolled their eyes. I tossed back my martini.

  “I think all this hypocrisy calls for more cocktails.” Riley stood and strode off without waiting for a response.

  Quinn glanced over at me. “You really should trust Eli. I think he’s a good guy.”

  I groaned. “Let’s talk about something else, okay?”

  “Fine.” Quinn tapped her fingers on the arm of her chair. “How about we practice more with your powers?”

  “Um, something other than that.”

  “Zy! This stuff is serious. You can’t keep putting it off.” She huffed and blew her bangs out of her face. “Why don’t you practice now, before Riley gets back.”

  “Really? It’s not like I just came back from, you know, HELL or anything.” I glared at her. She just glared right back. “Jesus, will you shut up if I practice for five minutes?”

  “Fifteen.”

  “Seven.”

  “Twelve.”

  “Ten.”

  She took a deep breath. “Alright, fine. Ten minutes.”

  “So, what do you want me to do?” I ran my finger along the bottom of my glass to catch the last dregs of my beverage and then popped it in my mouth.

  “Well first, quit thinking about alcohol.” Quinn looked around the rooftop area. “Okay, try this.” My eyes followed her outstretched hand. “Make those morning glories bloom. It’ll take focus, and just a little power. Not a lot.”

  After what happened the other day with Riley, there was no worry that I’d try to unleash a lot of my power. In fact, I was a bit petrified just to let out a little of it. I gazed at the flower vines, and the small buds hidden amongst them. Before I had barely even reached for my power it was there, like a pet eager for attention. Quinn must have sensed it too, because she straightened in surprise.

  My eyes returned to the buds, to one in particular, and I willed it to open. I felt my magic flow across the space between us, and the bud opened, revealing the royal purple within. A surge of excitement rushed through me, and all along the vine buds started popping open. Startled, I tensed up, and felt my connection with the magic cut off.

  “Well, that was great!” Quinn beamed at me.

  “Yeah, I guess.” I dropped my eyes. If she only knew about the other day… “It’s not that I don’t know how to call my power. It’s that it goes beyond my control so quickly. I didn’t mean to open those other blossoms.”

  “Well, let’s try again, but this time—”

  Riley pushed the door open. And this time, he’d brought a whole glass pitcher of martinis.

  “When did the plan for tonight change to us getting wasted?” I laughed.

  “About the time you came back from your little visit to Hell,” he answered, pouring me a refill.

  Quinn caught my eye and we both shrugged. “Well, I can’t argue with that.”

  The next evening, Quinn and Ri headed over to the bar and I headed to HR headquarters.

  “How’s it hangin’?” I called to the angels guarding the front door. They opened the doors silently, without so much as a dart of their eyes or a twitch of their cheek muscles. Good lord.

  Eli met me in the hall. “What do you look so vexed about?”

  I waved a hand. “Oh, nothing.”

  He stared at me for a moment, then chose to drop it. “So, how are you feeling? Did you rest up last night?”

>   “Feeling fantastic. So, what’s on the agenda for the night?” We strode up to the mega security door and the warriors started their whole scan thing.

  “We’re planning on breaking into patrols and trying to find where Alexander is hiding. With the intel Donovan’s been doing with his pack, we have some good starting points.” I followed him to a small room with a conference table. Papers were strewn across it. “These are the operations briefs for the patrols.”

  I grinned. “You actually came up with individual ops plans for each of the patrols? You must have been really bored last night without me.”

  His lavender eyes darkened. “Just normal preparations, Zyan.” Then he added, “I know it’s not nearly as exciting as barging in, guns ablaze.”

  “Swords, not guns. Guns lack in creativity.”

  “You get my point,” he said with a withering gaze.

  “Wow, somebody’s especially moody tonight. No ambrosia on tap?”

  Before he could answer, his wrist comm buzzed. “Commander, we have an emergency. We need you down at the media room right away.”

  “On my way,” Eli said into the comm.

  We shared a panicked look, then headed for the door. After weaving through the honeycomb maze of halls, we came to a large room with banks of screens. Some were tuned to TV stations, others the internet. It was one of the screens to the left that immediately caught my attention. Not because of the cluster of angels huddled in front of it. But because three very familiar faces looked out at me.

  One was the HR. The other two were Quinn and Riley.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  There was another figure on the screen, whom I didn’t recognize. It was clear however, that this fourth person was a faerie. I could also see from the scrolling text at the bottom of the TV that what we were seeing was being broadcast live.

  The faerie spoke calmly into the camera. “My name is too complicated to say in your language, so you may call me Taryn Blackflame. I have abducted the Holy Representative of the northwestern United States, as well as two random citizens.”

  The silence in the media room was deafening.

  “I have done this to prove that I can. To prove that the realm of Heaven has no true power over the other supernaturals. To prove that The Agreement is a lie.” The faerie paused. His bright eyes seemed hypnotic. “I want to make it clear that this is not a ransom situation. I do not want your worthless human money, or anything else. I will take the prisoners into my realm and I will never return them. The balance of power has shifted. We will no longer listen to a false authority. Humans be warned: your time of supremacy is over. The supernatural races will now take their rightful place as leaders of the realm of Earth.”

  The faerie smiled. As the camera zoomed out, I had just enough time to see Quinn and Riley, gagged and struggling against their bonds, before the screen went black.

  A volcano of voices erupted. “To the briefing room, now!” Eli yelled, taking charge. “Someone get Uriel and Cerelea.”

  My mind was a blur as we strode to another room around the corner. I had just been with Riley and Quinn not an hour before. They must have been taken right after they left the apartment. Shock made my blood feel thick and slow in my arteries.

  I found myself sitting in a chair around a long conference table next to Eli, without having made any conscious effort to do so.

  “How did this happen?” someone called. “Where was the HR?”

  “He was in a motorcade on the way to a dinner with government officials. I’m getting intel that the warriors and local police running security were all killed by some kind of explosive devised of faerie magic.” This came from a tall angel that strode into the room. Uriel, I presumed.

  “What about the citizens? Where did they come from? Why were they chosen?” asked a woman in a blue tunic.

  “The faerie said they were chosen randomly,” someone called in response.

  “They weren’t chosen randomly,” I said, my voice spiked with fury. It was all coming together in my head now.

  “The two citizens are Zyan’s best friends,” Eli explained as confused looks shot in our direction. “They also happen to be a witch and a werewolf.”

  “But why not choose humans? That’s the point, isn’t it?” Another helpful question.

  “No. That’s not the point,” I said through gritted teeth. I turned to Eli now, ignoring the others. “Clearly they want me to go after them. To get me out of the way.”

  “So they can proceed with their plans.” Eli nodded.

  “And they’ll get what they want. I’m going after them.” I stood up. Everyone stared at me in total confusion.

  “You mean you’re going to abandon society to go look for your friends?” Eli asked incredulously.

  I made a show of thinking it over. “Let’s see. Society? Riley and Quinn? Tough choice. Not to mention, I swore to protect the HR. I keep my promises.”

  Eli shook his head. “But no one can get into the faerie realm without permission. Not even an angel.”

  “Good thing I have faerie friends,” I retorted, drumming my fingers on the table impatiently.

  “And what about…” Eli trailed off, his eyes drifting down to my arm.

  I felt my eyes go cold. “I suppose this is where you tell me you won’t allow me to go? Well, you can bite me, Eli.”

  A collective gasp circled the room.

  “Ms. Star, may I speak to you outside?” Eli asked. He stood and walked out before I could answer.

  I stomped out after him. “If you think for one second—”

  He spun on me. “Would you shut your mouth for once, Zyan? Yes, I’m very concerned about your bond. Yes, I think he’s going to try to use it against you. Yes, I think it’s nuts that you’ll let Earth get invaded by Hell so you can go rescue your friends. And yes, I’m going with you.”

  My mouth dropped open.

  “If anyone can fight the bond, you can.” His lavender eyes bored into mine. “I guess I’ll just have to trust that you can handle it.”

  I didn’t know what to say for a second. Trust. He trusted me. Well, that’s not exactly what he’d said. I shook my head. I didn’t have time to contemplate this now. “Okay, let’s go then.”

  “I’ve got to finish briefing the troops first. They’ll have to be ready for whatever tries to break through.”

  “And I’ll get Donovan to come over with every trustworthy supe he can find to help. He’ll replace me as your supernatural muscle.”

  Eli looked hesitant for a moment, then nodded. “Okay. Go call him, and I’ll finish up in here. Where are we headed after that?”

  “Cherry,” I said.

  Ten minutes later we stepped out of the interdimensional paths onto the sidewalk outside Cherry, the club where Dan’s pack had tried to pick a fight after the riot. It seemed like ages ago.

  I walked up to the hostess. “I need to speak with Selfora.”

  “I’m afraid she’s occupied at the moment,” said the skinny blonde, not even bothering to look up.

  “Please tell her it’s Zyan Star, and it’s an emergency.”

  “I’m sorry, but she can’t be interrupted.” The hostess smiled sweetly and then began to flip through her little hostess scheduling book dismissively.

  “Excuse me.” She looked up and met my eyes, and when she saw the look on my face, she flinched. “Go get Selfora. Now.”

  “Right away,” she said, scurrying off. She cast a frightened look over her shoulder.

  Eli glanced at me but kept his mouth shut. He knew I was the only chance he had of getting the HR back.

  Less than a minute later she returned. “Right this way.”

  We followed her to the back of the club and into a lavish private room. One entire wall was encrusted with sapphires and backlit so it cast an eerie hue over the white suede loveseats. The chandelier overhead was made not of crystal, but hundreds of live pixies, their crystalline wings glowing faintly.

  “Zyan.” Selfor
a lounged on one of the bigger loveseats. Two human men sat on the floor at her feet. They looked barely twenty years old and were clad in nothing but leather pants. I raised a brow. “You scared my hostess.”

  “I’m afraid I’m in a bit of a crunch, and need to ask you for a favor.”

  “Is this about your friends?” Selfora tilted her head slightly, her sheet of ebony hair shimmering.

  “Yes.” Since she was going to be direct, so would I. “I want an invitation into the faerie realm. And a guide. I’ll need someone to show us through.”

  Selfora looked past me at Eli as if noticing him for the first time. “You always do have the tastiest accessories.” She sighed and stroked the hair of one of her pets. “I like you Zyan. And I like your friends. But I’m afraid I can’t get you into the realm of the Fae.”

  “Why not?”

  “Let’s just say that I’ve angered some of the faerie clans, and it would be unhealthy for me to travel there at the moment.” She smiled, just the barest upturning of the lips. “There is another alternative, however.”

  I waited, trying not to pace or drum my fingers or pull my hair out.

  “I have an associate that could get you in and take you to your friends. But this man is very fickle and very dangerous. He’ll only take you if he’s in a good mood and you amuse him.”

  “And if he’s not in a good mood?” Eli asked.

  “He’ll most likely kill you.”

  “Well, if that’s all, then let’s go.” I grinned. Eli and Selfora didn’t share my enthusiasm. “Seriously though, if that’s the only option, then what choice do I have?”

  Selfora shrugged. “I don’t think any of the other faeries in the city will take you. So, yes, it seems to be the only option if you are dedicated to this path.”

  “So, where do we find this faerie fellow?”

  “A club called Gemstone. It’s faerie only. Approach the doorman with the green hair and tell him I sent you.”

  “And what’s the name of this faerie we seek?” Eli asked. Tension sang in the lines of his jaw, the set of his shoulders, and the way the veins in his arms were popping out.