Jenna Black: The Devil's Due

Raphael stood there for a moment, assessing the situation. His face didn’t give away much, but he had to be coming to the same grim conclusion I was: this was not going to be a piece of cake, and we were now into the “winging it” stage of our plan.

“I presume you don’t need me anymore?” Raphael asked Big Cheese, who’d sat down on the air bed and started stripping off his sneakers and socks.

Big Cheese sneered a bit, not looking up from his task. “I didn’t need you in the first place.”

Raphael shrugged. “Well then. Good night, all.”

And then he started plodding up the stairs. I wondered what the hell he was up to. My only guess was that he was going to turn around at the last moment and try to shoot the demon that was holding on to the little girl. He was our biggest, most immediate threat. But that still left two demons and two children for us to take care of. The kids would probably wake up and panic when they heard a gunshot. If the demons were smart, which I was betting they were, they’d immediately go for the kids and use them as hostages. Then what would we do?

But Raphael didn’t turn, didn’t even look over his shoulder. He just marched to the top of the stairs, opened the door, and stepped out. I held my breath, still expecting him to make a surprise attack. But he didn’t.

Big Cheese came to squat beside me so he could meet my eyes. “If I hear so much as a peep out of you, the girls are going to pay for it. Got it?”

I didn’t respond, and Big Cheese punctuated the point with a vicious kick to my rib. I heard something snap, and Lugh stifled a scream.

“That ought to give you some extra incentive to stay still and keep quiet,” Big Cheese said. Then he left me lying there and flopped onto the air bed. Cronyman had already stretched out on his back and folded his hands behind his head. Making himself nice and comfortable.

And still no Raphael. My spirits sank, and I cursed both myself and Lugh for fools.

We should never have trusted him, I said bitterly. We should have known he’d never risk his ass for a couple of kids. He just used them as an excuse to get Tommy, and now that he’s got what he wants, to hell with you and me.

Maybe he would have followed through on his promises if the rescue had looked easy enough. But when he’d seen the odds were against it, he’d decided to cut his losses and abandon us here. After all, he had what he wanted, didn’t he?

Don’t give up on him yet, Lugh said. He may well have something up his sleeve.

Yeah, the knife he’s using to stab us in the back!

I lay there stewing, wondering how the hell Lugh and I were going to get out of this without getting the children killed, for about five minutes, my rage increasing with every tick of the clock. Then I heard the sound of angry voices upstairs. I recognized one of them as Claudia’s. The other was Tommy’s, which made me hope Raphael hadn’t abandoned us after all.

The angry voices came closer, and I realized it wasn’t just anger I heard in Claudia’s voice—it was hysteria. Tommy bellowed something, but the basement was just deep enough that I couldn’t hear his words clearly. Claudia’s voice rose to a scream.

Big Cheese and Crony had both sat up and were staring at the ceiling. Crony looked amused, but Big Cheese looked pissed off. I guess the commotion was interfering with his beauty sleep. Alex still sat like a statue with the sleeping girl on his lap.

The door at the head of the stairs crashed open. Both Big Cheese and Crony leapt to their feet. Alex tightened his hold on the girl, who woke up and immediately started crying. Her sobs woke her sister, who cried in chorus, curling up into the smallest ball she could manage and pulling the blanket over her head.

Tommy, his face red with rage, eyes glowing with demonic fury, started down the stairs. Claudia followed behind him, grabbing uselessly onto his arm and screaming.

“Don’t! Please!” she begged, but she couldn’t hold him off any more than she could a speeding train. He dragged her all the way to the base of the stairs.

“What’s going on?” Big Cheese demanded.

“Bitch!” Tommy shouted, and flung Claudia away from him. She hit the wall beside the stairs with a cry of pain, then crumpled to the floor.

“What’s—” Big Cheese started to repeat, but Raphael cut him off.

“We’re not waiting until tomorrow to settle things!” he snarled, striding across the room toward the screaming little girl on Alex’s lap.

A part of me knew this had to be just an act. If Raphael were betraying us, he’d simply have left us here, and we never would have heard from him again. Certainly he’d have had no reason to pick a fight with Claudia, whom he didn’t even know. But distrust dies hard, and watching him stride across the floor toward that helpless child with murder in his eyes inspired a kind of horrified terror I hoped never to feel again.

Lugh rolled over onto his side, ostensibly to watch what was happening. But by rolling over, he made it so his cuffed hands were hidden from view. I felt him use my own fingers to jerk open one of the bracelets, the lock no match for a demon’s strength.

Raphael snatched the screaming child from Alex’s arms. Her little arms and legs flailed wildly, and my heart ached with pity for her even as I finally recognized what Raphael was doing.

“Calm down, Tommy!” Big Cheese snapped. “We have better things to do with that hostage.”

From across the room, Raphael met my eyes briefly, flicking his glance toward the other little girl, who cowered under her blanket. Lugh and I both got the message loud and clear.

Lugh surged to his feet, launching himself across the room until he was between the girl and the room full of demons. At this point, it was finally dawning on Big Cheese and company that all was not as they’d first assumed. But it was too late.

Keeping his body between the child he held and the other two demons, Raphael lashed out with his right fist, catching the gaping Alex right under the chin. The punch landed with a sickening crunching sound, and Alex immediately went limp, probably dead.

Lugh reached under my sweatshirt and ripped the Taser off my belly. He would fight as if he were no more than human unless forced by necessity to use his demon strength. It wouldn’t do to have any of these demons return to the Demon Realm with news that I was possessed. Too many people would guess that meant I was still hosting Lugh.

He used his body to keep the child pressed up against the wall, out of harm’s way, while he fired the Taser at Crony. His aim was good, and Crony went down with a shriek.

I wasn’t sure what we were going to do about Big Cheese. It would be hard for Raphael to attack him while still protecting the child, and I doubted Lugh’d have had the time to reload the Taser even if I happened to have another cartridge on me, which I didn’t.

But before I had time to put too much thought into it, the deafening blast of a gunshot echoed against the basement’s stone walls. Blood exploded from Big Cheese’s chest, and the life had left his eyes before he hit the floor.

I turned to see Claudia, standing with her back against the wall by the staircase, both arms held out in front of her as she braced one hand with another, the barrel of her gun following Big Cheese’s body as it slumped to the floor. Her eyes were wide and ringed with white, but her hands were steady, her jaw set with fury and determination.

Even with Lugh controlling my body, my ears rang from the sound of the gunshot. But even through the ringing, I could hear Tommy’s voice as he turned to Claudia while still holding the struggling, screaming child.

“Nice shot,” he said with a sardonic lift of his brow. “But you can put the gun down now.”