Lilith Saintcrow - Working for the Devil

I didn't promise ! I wailed silently. Let me go! Let me go, let me die —

You have work to do . Doreen's voice, gentle, inexorable. Please, Danny. Please .

Floated. Sinking. Even a share of a fallen demon's Power couldn't keep me alive for long in this. Something had happened—Santino had done something, that small glittering thing had hit Japhrimel—

Santino . I'd killed him. I'd watched his body dissolve under my fingernails, I'd torn through his throat. He was, indisputably, dead and scattered on the freezing ocean. No little bit of him would be left.

I killed him , I pleaded. I did it. I got revenge for you. Isn't that enough ?

No , she replied, solemn. Live, Danny. I want you to live .

It hurts too much , I keened to her.

Blue crystal glow, the bridge under my feet. For one dizzying moment I was between two worlds—the Hall of Death, its blue directionless light pouring through me, Anubis standing tall and grim on the other side of the bridge; and the real world, where I floated face-down under a sheet of broken ice. For one infinite moment I was locked under the pitiless, infinitely forgiving gaze of the Lord of Death, weighing, evaluating, His black eyes fixed on mine. It hurts too much , I told him. Please don't make me go back .

He shook His sleek black head, once, twice. I struggled— no! Let me stay! Let me stay !

Then He spoke.

The Word boomed through me. It was not His name, or any Word of Power. It wasn't the secret name I held for Him, my key to the door of Death.

No.

It was my name—only more. It was my Word, spoken by the god, the sound that expressed me, the sound that could not be spoken aloud. My soul leapt inside me, responding to His touch. The god took the weight from me, briefly, let me feel the freedom, the incredible freedom , rising out of my body, leaving the world behind, the clear blue light becoming golden, the clear rational light of What Comes Next.

Then it dwindled to a single point in the darkness, and I rammed back into my body, fingers clamped in my hair, yanking. I was torn from the water's embrace, glazed with ice, choking, coughing, the landing lights of the garbage scow named Baby exploding through the darkness. Jace, his lips blue, tangling the plasnet around us both and we were yanked up together, his arms and legs wrapped around me. We broke through the airseals and into the warm interior of the hover, and the hatch slammed closed as the peculiar weightless pressure of a hover quickly ascending pressed down on me.

I coughed and choked, spluttering.

" Breathe , you stubborn little bitch—" Jace shivered and cursed, raging at me. Water washed the decking, rapidly melting ice shrinking under the assault of climate control.

"Is she alive?" Eddie said from the front. After the deafening noise, the quiet of the hover's interior and someone speaking normally was a muffled shock.

"She's alive," Jace said, and flung his arms around me again. Water dripped. My fingers and toes tingled and prickled. "Gods damn you, Danny, don't you ever do that to me again." He kissed my forehead, examined my fingers and my dark rings, wrapped me in a spaceblanket that started to glow, heat stealing back into me. My teeth chattered. My right hand was twisted into a fist, and I couldn't unloose it.

"G-G-Gabe—"

"She'll live. Your demon friend patched her intestines back together up there in that room, damndest thing I ever saw. She's lost a lot of blood, but she's stable and the medunit's monitoring her." Jace kissed my cheek, pushed sodden strands of dark hair back from my face. "Don't ever do that to me again, Danny. I thought he'd killed you."

"The k-k-k-k—" I began.

"The kid's fine. Curled up in a seat with a spaceblanket. She's asleep." Jace coughed. "Look, Danny—"

"Japhrimel?" I whispered.

Jace shook his head. "There was a hover—another hover. It might have scooped him up, I don't know. We looked for him, Danny. We really did. The entire goddamn island's broken down and iced over, I don't think anything survived that. If we hadn't been airborne we'd have been toast. What happened ?"

"I killed him," I whispered. "I killed Santino. He threw's-s-something at J-J-aph…"

"We couldn't find him," Jace said. "I'm sorry, Danny."

I clapped my fists over my ears, huddled under the spaceblanket, and started to cry. I'd earned it, after all.

Twelve hours later we floated over an oddly quiet Nuevo Rio. Dry and finally warm again, I sat in the seat next to Doreen's daughter (I couldn't think of what else to call her), watching out the window as morning lay over the city. Jace had moved up front next to Eddie, and the comms up there were crackling with messages. Gabe lay across a table, strapped down and deep in a sedative-induced slumber, the medunit purring as it monitored her and dripped synthetic plasma and antibiotics through a hypo into her veins. She'd wake up with a headache and a sore gut and spend a week or so recuperating, but she'd live.

The Corvin Family was gone. Just… gone. They hadn't even put up a real fight. Jace was now the owner of a hell of a lot of Family assets.

When I looked back at Doreen's daughter, I saw she was awake. In the light, her eyes were wide and clear, and dark blue. Like Doreen's.

Exactly like Doreen's.

She watched me gravely, a small child with frighteningly adult eyes, far too much Power and knowledge swimming in their depths. For a few moments, we sat like that, one tired, sobbed-out half-demon Necromance and one small demon Androgyne child.

I can't handle this , I thought. Then, I have no choice .

I finally managed to clear my throat. "Hi," I said quietly. "I'm Danny."

She watched me for a few more seconds before she responded. "I know," she said, in a clear light voice. "He told me you would come."

My mouth was dry and smooth as glass. This wasn't normal for a kid.

Like I knew what was normal for a kid. I never spent any time with children if I could help it. "Who told you?" I managed. "Santi—ah, um, your daddy?"

She nodded, her pale hair falling forward over her face. " He said he was my daddy," she confided, "but I don't think he was. My real daddy talks to me inside my head at night. He has green eyes and a green stone like me and he told me you would come for me. He said he would send you."

She seemed to expect some sort of reply. It was obvious who her "real daddy" was. Either Lucifer had some way of communicating with her, or she was precognitive, or… My brain stopped sorting through alternatives. It didn't matter. Lucifer already knew about the kid, I'd bet. I'd also bet that Lucifer had known about Santino's "samples." Or if not known, guessed. The Prince of Hell was no fool.

Why then had Japhrimel promised not to tell him?

"I promised your mommy I'd take care of you," I said rustily. Oh, gods, Danny, you've done it now .

The little girl nodded solemnly. "You're not like them." She pointed at the front of the hover, where Jace and Eddie conferred in low worried tones. "You're not like my real daddy either."

"I hope not." I shifted uncomfortably in the seat, the spaceblanket crackling as I moved. "What's your name?"

"I'm Eve," she said, matter-of-factly. I flinched. Of course , I thought, and watched as her dimples came out. She smiled at me. "Can I have some ice cream?"

"I don't think we have any, kiddo." Japhrimel had to live on blood, or sex, or fire , I thought. What does this girl eat? Oh, you an not ready for this, Danny. Not ready at all .