Beezle fluttered back in the window and grimaced at the handholding. I gave him a look that warned him not to bring it up right now.
“It’s J.B.,” he announced.
I let go of Gabriel’s hand and let out an exasperated breath. “Does that idiot Antares think that I’ll fall for this a second time?”
“I think it really is J.B.,” Beezle said. “If he is using magic to disguise himself, then it is a very powerful spell. I looked at him through all five layers of reality and it appears to be J.B. down to the bone.”
“Well, swell,” I said. “It’s not my demon half brother, but if J.B.’s here at this hour, then that means that I’m in trouble for something.”
I hurried down the stairs as the bell rang again a few more times. Swinging open the door at the bottom of the stairs, I saw that J.B. stood inside the foyer, and that reminded me that both Gabriel and Antares had been unable to cross inside from the porch without my permission. The last bit of tension in my gut unknotted. I didn’t really want to see J.B. right now, but at least he wasn’t some horror show coming to take me back to his master in pieces.
“I need to talk to you—now,” he said grimly as soon as he saw me. His face was drawn, his cheeks were stubbled and his hair stuck up all over his head like he’d been pulling on it for several hours—or maybe it was just bedhead. Either way, J.B. looked a mess.
“You look a mess,” I said tactfully. “And it’s a bit early—or a bit late, depending on your point of view—for a social call, don’t you think?”
“I’ve been up all night and I don’t need any of your crap right now, Black,” he said, pushing past me onto the stairs.
“Not bedhead, then,” I mumbled, and closed the door. As I turned to follow him I bumped into his back. “Get going if you have to be here, Jake. Otherwise, I can think of things I would rather be doing right now than standing on the stairs looking at your ass.”
No matter how fine it is,
I added mentally.
“Who are you?” J.B. demanded.
I peeked around him and saw Gabriel standing at the top of the stairs. He gave J.B. a menacing look.
“That’s my neighbor,” I said, squeezing around J.B. and marching up the stairs. “Stop intimidating J.B., Gabriel.”
Gabriel nodded. “As you wish.”
He disappeared into my apartment. I sighed and beckoned for J.B. to follow.
“What’s he doing here in the middle of the night?” J.B. asked crossly.
“That’s a question that I could ask you,” I said, leading the way into my living room. Beezle had disappeared, although he was probably eavesdropping under the windowsill again. Gabriel had resumed his position in the chair opposite mine.
I didn’t offer J.B. a chair or a drink, but he dropped onto the couch anyway. I closed the front door. Before I could make it to my chair, J.B. launched into his usual speaking mode—attack, attack, attack.
“Just what in the hell happened at Clark and Belmont tonight, Black? Twenty-six souls disappear without a trace or a record of their choice, and you’re the only Agent on scene. The whole intersection looks like it’s been destroyed by flamethrowers. I want some answers and I want them now.”
As usual, J.B.’s presence made my back teeth grind and brought all my worst instincts to the fore. “Well, J.B., I’m sure you’re distressed over the lack of properly filed reports, but I was very busy in that intersection fighting for my life. You see, this completely horrific creature called a nephilim showed up, munched on a few souls, melted a few people into taffy, and tried to take me out, too. And oh, by the way, it’s the same creature that I warned you about yesterday when I was in your office, and you ignored me completely. So, as far as I’m concerned, this mess is on your head, not mine.”
“What the fuck is a nephilim?” J.B. exploded, his face red. “Is this another one of your fairy tales about soul-eating monsters?”
“It’s not a fairy tale,” I said, rising to my feet. “It’s a nightmare the likes of which you have never known. We are on the verge of a real biblical-style apocalypse here. I don’t need you giving me crap about paperwork right now. I have to find this thing before it finds me, or else I’m going to end up just like my mother, my soul trapped inside its body forever.”
J.B. stared at me. “You’ve cracked. You’ve finally lost it. I always wondered if your mother’s death would do it, and it finally has. You’re imagining some nonexistent monster ate her up, and now you’ve killed twenty-six people in an effort to prove your wacko theories.”
“What?” I said, unreasonably hurt by his assumption. He’d known me for years. We didn’t always like each other—okay, we didn’t like each other at all—but how could J.B. think I was a murderer? “You think that I killed those people? How the hell would I be able to do that?”
“I don’t know, and the truth is, I don’t want to know. Those people died horrible deaths,” J.B. said grimly.
“I was trying to help them!”
“Right. Help them by melting their faces off.”
“If I am a murderer,” I said through gritted teeth, “don’t you think that you should be running out the door right now instead of standing in my living room making ridiculous accusations?”
From the look on J.B.’s face, I would say that the thought hadn’t occurred to him. Gabriel coughed into his fist. The cough sounded suspiciously like laughter.
J.B. visibly tried to pull himself together. “You are suspended until further notice. Any pending collections will be reassigned to other Agents.”
“You can’t suspend me solely on the merit of your asinine conclusions,” I shouted.
“I can and I will,” he said, standing up and approaching me so that we were nearly nose to nose.
“I don’t have time for this. Why can’t I make you understand that there is something horrible out there that is going to eat its way through the city until it’s stopped?”
“The only ‘something horrible’ that needs to be stopped is you,” he said.
I had actually pulled my fist back to deck him right in that smug mouth, but Gabriel’s hand closed over mine.
“Why not?” I said to him through gritted teeth.
“Because it will cause unnecessary complications,” Gabriel said softly.
I breathed hard through my nose and glared at J.B., who watched this little interchange with widened eyes.
“You have no sense of self-preservation whatsoever, do you?” I asked.
“What do you mean?” J.B. said, his eyes darting from me to Gabriel and back again.
“I don’t think you fully grasp how angry I am at you right now, and you’re standing very, very close to me.”
12
I SMILED, AND I KNEW THAT IT WAS NOT A PLEASANT smile. Somewhere deep inside, I felt a little flicker of magic, as faint as a match flame.
He finally seemed to understand, and he stepped back a few inches. As he did, I saw his expression change. He stared at me like he’d never seen me before.
“What now?” I asked.
“Your eyes,” he said, his voice half-strangled. “What happened to your eyes?”
Worried that I had manifested some new freakiness since my altercation with Ramuell, I looked at Gabriel, who said, “You have starshine in your eyes.”
“Oh, that,” I said, waving my hand in a dismissive motion.
J.B. backed away slowly, his hands up in the air like he was surrendering to the cops. “I don’t know what the hell is going on here, but you stay away from me, Black. You’re some kind of freak.”
I watched him, content to let him go and deal with the suspension later. He continued his careful path backward out of the room until something behind me made his face turn paler and he let out a yelp of surprise.
“What the hell is that thing?” he shouted, pointing at Beezle.
“Great timing, Beezle,” I said as he landed on my shoulder.
“Umm, you might not want to let J.B. leave right now,” he said in an undertone close to my ear.
“And why is that?”
“Antares and a few of his buddies are hanging out on the front lawn. They asked for, and I quote, ‘Azazel’s half-breed bitch to come forth and engage in mortal combat.’ Then they mentioned taking your entrails back to Focalor or something else of that nature.”
“You didn’t think the details were important enough to remember?” I asked. I was a little concerned for my entrails even if Beezle wasn’t.
“Frankly, demonic threats get a little boring after a while. It’s always ‘I’ll pull your beating heart out of your chest’ or ‘I’ll suck your eyeballs out of your skull.’ They haven’t had any new material in a couple of millennia,” Beezle said.
“He is absolutely right. Demons do have an unfortunate tendency of repeating themselves,” Gabriel added, straight-faced.
“I gather from your jocular attitudes that neither of you are taking Antares very seriously?” Even though I was loaded with enough energy to clean the house five times over, I could feel that the strength of my magic was still very low. I didn’t think I was up to taking on Antares right now, especially since our last meeting had involved a lot of punching and kicking of my vulnerable human parts.
“The devil here can manage your measly half brother,” Beezle said, jerking a claw in Gabriel’s direction. “The other two will run once Antares has learned his lesson.”
I frowned. “Doesn’t that make it look like I can’t fight my own battles?”
“No,” Gabriel said. “It shows Antares—and, more important, Focalor—that you are not a weak link to be exploited. It shows that Lord Azazel cares enough for you to come to your aid. After tonight, they will think twice about attempting to threaten you simply because you are Azazel’s human daughter.”
“What are you going to do?” I asked as Gabriel strode past me toward the door.
“As the gargoyle says.” Gabriel nodded at Beezle briefly. “Teach Antares a lesson he will not soon forget.”
“I love it when you talk sexy like that,” I said, and then my heart dropped into my stomach. “Wait a second—where the hell is J.B.?”
“Gods above and below,” Beezle swore, launching from my shoulder to fly out the window.
I raced to the door. Gabriel had already disappeared down the stairs ahead of me. I took the stairs two at a time, almost tumbling down in my haste. J.B. drove me crazy, and yes, he thought I was a murderer, but I did not want his death on my conscience. I wanted him alive so I could kick his ass tomorrow for suspending me.
“Please, please, please let him be all right,” I said as I rushed out the open door and onto the front porch. I crashed into Gabriel, who stood stock-still on the peeling red boards, his hands fisted beside him.
I stepped around him and saw Antares in all of his black-horned, red-skinned glory. He held J.B. loosely around the shoulders, almost as if he was showing us that the two of them were pals. But the black sickle claws of Antares’s right hand hovered dangerously close to J.B.’s jugular.
J.B. looked like he wanted to throw up. I was surprised he hadn’t already—the stink of sulfur was overwhelming. I cupped my hand over my nose.
“Let him go, Antares,” I said in the most commanding voice that I could. It wasn’t very commanding since my hand was over my nose. I ended up sounding like I had a cold.
Antares smiled and showed his mouthful of sharp teeth. He pulled J.B. a little closer and stroked one claw down J.B.’s neck. J.B. was pale but to his credit he made no sound.
“But your friend and I are having so much fun,” Antares said. “Isn’t that right, Jacob?”
“A laugh a minute,” J.B. said, his voice hoarse.
Antares threw his head back and guffawed. “You are quite brave for a man about to have his throat slit.”
I dropped my hand from my face and stepped forward. The little match flame inside me roared to about the size of a candle and then sank back. I had no magic. But Antares didn’t need to know that.
“Let him go,” I said again, this time putting the force of my will behind the command. I saw Antares’s face flicker for a moment—confusion? fear?—then return to a smug expression.
“And what,” Antares said silkily, “will you give me in return, little virgin?”
Antares’s compatriots snorted and leered suggestively at me. The sight of them nauseated me more. Antares looked like a Hollywood stereotype of a demon—the red skin, the bat wings, the black claws and horns. His friends, however, looked more like the Thing in the Carpenter movie. One demon was a mass of loose, rubbery gray flesh that oozed from side to side as it paced—I assumed it paced; I couldn’t see anything resembling feet—behind Antares. Underneath the flesh something moved, like millions of maggots were crawling beneath the demon’s skin.
The second demon had a more humanoid form, but it was squat and grossly fat. Its skin was pale and its eyes were a slitted purple. When it opened its mouth to smile at me, I saw blood caking its teeth.
“How about you give me J.B. and I keep Gabriel here from kicking your ass from here to next Tuesday?” I said sweetly.
Antares had been steadfastly avoiding Gabriel’s gaze up to this point, but now he was forced to acknowledge Gabriel’s silent presence beside me. The angel seemed content to let me handle the talking while he did the menacing bodyguard thing.