Lilith Saintcrow - Working for the Devil

And me? I sat and stared at my hands, clasped loosely around my katana's hilt. Golden skin under my rings. Light sparkled under the amber and moonstone and silver and obsidian. They rang and shifted with Power constantly now, demon-fed.

I had far too much now, too much to control. Power jittered in the air around me, working its way into my brain, teasing and tapping and begging to be used. I slid my katana free, just an inch or so, and watched a faint blue glow play over the metal. The song of my rune-spelled blade, familiar, resonated under the whine of hovercells.

I looked up at Japhrimel, who studied the waves, his profile sharp and somehow pure in the blue light. I blinked.

His eyes were no longer bright laser-green. Instead, they were dark, dimming. I gasped, shoved my katana back into its sheath. "Japhrimel?"

He glanced at me, then smiled. It was a shared, private smile that made my breath catch. I was lying in bed with him this morning , I thought, and a hot flush slid up my cheeks. "Your eyes," I said, weakly.

Japhrimel shrugged. It was an elegant movement. Would I share his grace? The crackling aura of Power that followed him around? There are worse things , I thought, and then flinched. No. I'm human. Human .

No, I'm not . I realized for the umpteenth time, my fist clenched on my katana's hilt.

"Dark now," he said. "Probably. I am glad of it."

"Why?"

His smile widened slightly. "It means I am no longer subject to Hell," he said shortly. "Only to you."

"So you're technically free? You could walk away from this?" I persisted.

"Of course not. It simply means that once the Egg is returned to Lucifer, I stay with you."

"I'm not so sure I'm comfortable with that," I answered, and went back to staring out the window. "What is he likely to have on that island, Japhrimel?"

"Several rings of defenses, human guards, other things." Japhrimel still leaned against the hull. "It is impossible to guess. Best just to wait and see."

"Like a standard bit on a military installation," Gabe supplied from the front. "Can't tell until we get there, going to have to just go loose and fast. Not enough time for proper intel."

We'd gone over this before, but the conversation was comforting. Better than the silence, anyway. But something was bothering me, some question I couldn't quite frame.

"Well, if we're invisible, we can recon a little before we send their asses to hell," Eddie growled. Then he glanced at Japhrimel. "No offense."

Japhrimel blinked. "None taken."

I watched the sea heaving below. I'd never liked the sea. Anything that big and unpredictable gave me the willies. Ditto with thunderstorms, some of the Major Works… and demons.

The question clicked into my conscious mind as I sat staring out the window. Just how exactly did Santino escape Hell ? He was scary, much scarier than any human monster I'd faced. But still… I'd seen Hell now, and it didn't seem likely that Santino had possessed the kind of Power necessary to wrench himself out of the Prince's grasp, especially with something so valuable as the Egg. Of course, the Egg wasn't often used… so it was probably guarded.

Guarded by a demon Lucifer thought he could trust.

My eyes traveled up Japhrimel's coat, fastened on his profile. I did not want to be thinking this, especially since I'd spent the morning rolling around in bed with him. He hadn't let me down yet; I could ask him the hard questions later.

If there was a later.

We had about four hours before we reached the island, and then we had to find whatever installation Santino had there, and then we had to crack it and kill him—and rescue the little girl.

Doreen's daughter. Or Doreen cloned. Lucifer cloned with a bit of Doreen. One-quarter? One-half? How much? Did it matter? Of course not. I owed Doreen. If nothing else, she had given me my body back, made it possible for the terrified girl inside me to finally go to sleep and the adult begin to come out.

Oh, come on, Danny ! I thought, lifting my katana, resting my forehead against the sheath. I was glad we were running dark, so I couldn't see my reflection in the windowplas. What are you going to do with a demon child? Play mommy? Send her off to school and hope she doesn't burn the whole goddamn place down ?

Doesn't matter , I answered. You can't hand a little kid—Doreen's kid—over to Lucifer. You just can't. What will he do to her? You owe Doreen. She saved your life at the expense of her own .

I sighed. Here I was, sitting in a retrofitted garbage scow, dragging my best friends—and who qualified as my best friend now if Gabe didn't? — and her boyfriend into this. And Jace. And Japhrimel, but he could probably take care of himself.

Could he? Why the hell was I worrying about him !

I lowered my katana, drummed my fingernails on the hilt. "Japhrimel?"

"Dante."

"Are you… are you vulnerable, now?" I sounded a lot less certain than I wanted to.

"Not to humans," he said, shortly. "To some demons, perhaps. Not many."

"Is Santino one of them?"

He shrugged. "I am not worried about him."

"That's not an answer."

"You have grown more perceptive."

"And you're giving me the run-around. Which means he could hurt you."

"The Power contained in the Egg might conceivably damage me. However, I am not the one he wishes to capture." Japhrimel was a statue of darkness now, only his skin faintly luminescent.

"He shot me. I doubt 'capture' is on his laundry list where I'm concerned."

"If he wanted to kill you, he would have eviscerated you, Dante. He could have. Instead, he only shot you, knowing we were close enough that your condition would delay us. He obviously means to recollect you at his leisure. Which means he has a plan."

That didn't help me feel any better. I opened my mouth, but Jace beat me to it. "It doesn't matter," he said. "As soon as my Family moves on the Corvins, all Santino's neat little plans go out the window. He won't have any resources left to fuck around."

"I doubt your move on him is unanticipated," Japhrimel said quietly. The hover rattled. I tensed in my chair, and Eddie growled.

"Still doesn't fucking matter," Eddie growled. "We're taking him down." He swung around to pin us all with a ferocious glare. "I ain't come all this way and been beat up and stuffed in two hovers to let him get off with just a spanking. 'Sides, we got the Gabriele Spocarelli. An' Jace Monroe. And Danny Valentine version two, kickass demon Necromance with her own pet demon boy. And you've got Eustace Edward Thorston III, Skinlin sorcerer and pretty pissed-off dirtwitch berserker." He showed his teeth, lips peeling back. "He hurt my Gabby," he continued softly. "And I'm gonna make him pay ."

I blinked. It was the longest speech I'd ever heard from him.

Gabe didn't twist around in her seat, but I could tell from the set of her shoulders that she was smiling. Japhrimel had turned, and was regarding Eddie with a faintly surprised look. Jace grinned, his eyes closed, his head lolling against his seatback.

I cleared my throat. "Thanks, Eddie. I feel better," I said dryly.

And the funny thing was, I did.

"Holy motherfucking shit," Gabe whistled out tunelessly. "Would you look at that."

"What about the radiation scans?" I asked.

"Flatline. They can't see us," Jace said, leaning over Gabe's shoulder, buckling his rig. "Ogoun…" he breathed. "Damn."

"Impressive," Gabe giggled. It was a carefree, girlish sound, but it set my teeth on edge. "Looks like a bad holovid villain's hideaway."

Below us, the icy sea broke foaming against sheer cliffs. The island was a hunk of rock rising from icefloes, and the castle crouched atop it, spires of stone rearing up from darkness, decked with tiny yellow and blue points of light. It looked like something out of a Gothic fairytale, spire upon spire, screaming gargoyle shapes torn out of the stone.