Jenna Black - Speak of the Devil

I felt a little better about the plan now, but I still wasn’t exactly liking it. “Okay, so we probably won’t blow your cover if we succeed. But what if I show up at the warehouse and Abraham just shoots me in the head from a distance? You’re tough, but you can’t survive a bullet wound to the head.”

He’s not going to kill you , Lugh said with a certainty that surprised me.

“Why do you say that?”

Do you think he’d go through all this elaborate work just to go for a quick kill and put you out of your misery? The evidence suggests he would find that … unsatisfying .

Not as unsatisfying as I would find it! “You know, we do know someone who can survive a shot to the head. Two someones, in fact.” I’d seen Saul’s current host survive two shots to the head when his previous demon was in residence, and Raphael’s host supposedly had the same abilities.

And as soon as Abraham caught sight of Saul or Raphael, one of the people on that list would be dead. If he found he couldn’t kill whoever we sent after him, he’d just retreat and try someone else .

I was running out of arguments, though the prospect of walking into a trap and crossing my fingers in hopes Lugh and I could turn the tables on Abraham didn’t exactly light my fire.

What else can we do? Lugh asked.

“Call in the troops and have a major powwow session. Maybe if we all put our heads together, we’ll come up with something better.

Morgan, think about it a minute. What’s going to happen if we tell the council that we want to face Abraham alone? Even if they can’t think of a better option?

“It’s not like they can stop you! You’re the king. What you say goes.”

He laughed at that. I would trust my authority over my people in almost any situation. This isn’t one of them. As my advisors, they would feel justified disobeying me if they thought my safety was at stake .

“They’ve let us do dangerous things before when you’ve ordered them to.”

Not quite like this, though .

And he was right. The human members of the council would certainly object, but they wouldn’t be able to stop him. However, if Raphael and Saul and Adam—and this was the only time I could imagine the three of them being in agreement about something—all ganged up on him, then we wouldn’t be going anywhere.

So we didn’t dare ask for a second opinion, or even for backup. Only the thought of Abraham picking off everyone around me one by one was enough to convince me to go along with Lugh’s plan.

Saul did not return to the apartment, which was a relief. I was feeling much better, but I’d have to fake a relapse and take to my bed if he were around, because even though he didn’t know me as well as the other members of Lugh’s council, he was bound to notice that something was up.

My appetite had been severely put off by Abraham’s little love note, but I forced myself to eat another heaping bowl of chicken soup for dinner. The headache and queasiness were gone, but I was still weak, and I didn’t think starving myself was a good idea.

Per Lugh’s suggestion, I took another nap in the early evening, conserving what little strength I had for tonight’s festivities. I was starting to feel that if I never fell asleep again, it would be too soon, but that didn’t stop me from conking out the moment I lay down. Probably Lugh’s influence, but I decided not to make a big deal out of it.

A major case of cold feet hit me around eleven, and I had to reread Abraham’s note several times to remind myself of why I had to do something that seemed patently stupid, even to me. God, I was so sick of being caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place, which is where I seemed to spend most of my life these days. But despite the cold feet, I called a cab to pick me up at eleven-thirty.

At eleven twenty-five, I knew I couldn’t delay it any longer. It was time to go. Feeling a bit morbid, I grabbed the note from Abraham and scribbled on the back, “If I don’t come back, please tell Brian I love him, and I’m sorry I was such a rotten girlfriend.” Someone would find it eventually and know what had happened to me.

If I’d thought of it earlier, I’d have written something more eloquent, but now there was no time. I left the note on the dining room table, then took a deep breath and headed out.

The cab arrived on time, which was a nice surprise. I gave the driver an address near the building where I was to meet Abraham. He gave me a funny look—it wasn’t exactly a good place for a woman to hang out at any time, much less late at night—but he wasn’t enough of a Good Samaritan to try to talk me out of it.

I walked the last couple of blocks, wanting to get a look at my destination before I arrived. The building was much like I expected it—a large brick monstrosity with boarded-up windows and colorful graffiti scrawled across every flat surface. It had probably been some kind of a warehouse in its heyday. The door had been forced open, the frame flapping loose. I couldn’t see any light inside, but I felt sure Abraham was there, with whatever nasty surprise he had in store for me.

I looked all around me, checking to make sure no one was watching. I needn’t have bothered. The street was deserted, and while there were plenty of cars going by, they were all on the opposite side of the river. Although I didn’t think Abraham was going to make this so easy for me, I armed my Taser and held it out before me. I swallowed what I hoped was the last of my fear and pushed open the door.

It was pitch-dark inside, and I wished I’d thought to bring a flashlight. If the windows hadn’t been boarded up, I might at least have had some moonlight to work with, but no such luck. Abraham could jump me, and I wouldn’t see him coming until it was way too late.

My pulse kicked up as adrenaline surged through my system, anxious for me to fight or flee.

“Drop the Taser, or this will get ugly fast,” said an unfamiliar woman’s voice from somewhere deep inside the darkness.

Whoever she was couldn’t possibly see the Taser. It was too damn dark in here. My heart sank a bit. So dark that even the tiny indicator lights on the Taser glowed like beacons.

“Don’t make me tell you again,” the woman said.

I considered firing in the general direction from which the voice came, but then I heard a plaintive whimper. The woman wasn’t alone, and if she had a hostage, I didn’t dare shoot.

You’d best drop it , Lugh advised. We want Abraham to think we’re helpless anyway .

I’d rather look helpless than be helpless , I quipped, but I knew he was right. Gritting my teeth against my reluctance, I dropped the Taser.

A match suddenly glowed in the darkness, and that little light seemed so blindingly bright that, for a moment, I still couldn’t see. Then, as my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I took in the scene around me.

I’d been thinking of this building as a warehouse, and had expected wide open spaces. What I got instead was a long, dark corridor punctuated at regular intervals by padlocked doors. At the far end of the corridor, one of the doors was open, and a figure lounged in the doorway.

It was a woman, no doubt Abraham’s current host, but I didn’t know her. Maybe about thirty years old, reasonably pretty, except for the feral flicker in her eyes. Or maybe that was just the reflected light of the candle she held—in the hand that wasn’t holding a gun, that is.

“Who the hell are you?” I demanded, as if I didn’t know.

“If you really have to ask, then my answer would be meaningless,” she responded.