Echoes of the Past (Demon Squad) (8 page)

I flung the head into the dining room for the fiends to collect and dropped back onto the couch. The cushions squished. The rutting sounds of Chatterbox’s porn hit me right then and I mashed the remote to shut the TV off.

“Looks like the
weres
are pissed at me for ruining their attempt at becoming the dominant life forms on the planet.” I let my head fall back into the cushions and ignored the clinging moistness that stuck warmly to my scalp. “No good deed goes unpunished.”

Karra
gave me a pity smile, and I peeled myself off the couch and went to the kitchen. I pulled the last of my beers from the fridge and returned to the living room. After
Karra
waved off my offer of the beer, I popped it open and took a big swig and went to the front door to see if it could be fixed or it needed to be replaced. I ordered the fiend out of the way and it stepped aside, carrying the door with it.

My heart nearly exploded when I saw there was someone standing right outside. The beer fell from my hands and shattered at my feet…again.

Tall, humanoid in shape, and obviously male, the stranger was dressed in what looked like rumpled leather armor. It was covered in strange designs I couldn’t quite figure out. There were too many inconsistencies to the coloring; some parts were a dark brown whereas others were pale, almost pink. My eyes focused and it suddenly hit me that the designs weren’t designs at all, but faces.

The armor stared back at me through dozens of dark and dead eyes, the plates of the suit crafted entirely out of what looked like people. Their torment showed in their frozen expressions. I recognized one of the faces that made up a part of the thigh. It was Asmoday’s.

My gaze snapped to the stranger’s face. He smirked, but nothing in his manner—barring the outfit made out of people—came off as aggressive. Short black hair covered his head except where a curved set of horns erupted from his scalp. They sprouted thick just above his temples and rose up a little before curling toward the back of his head. They ended in sharp points. His eyes were a bright, yellowish-orange and looked like two suns set into the recessed sockets of his skull. The rest of his face was fairly human in shape, a wide nose just above a normal looking mouth.

He grinned at me and shot that perception all to hell. A mouthful of shark-like teeth reflected the inside house lights. I let my senses loose and picked up a conflicting mix of power and emptiness, but there was also a hint of the same oddness I’d felt when scanning
Xyx
and
Hasstor
. I recognized his aura.

Without warning, a flash of bluish energy exploded before me, symbols and sigils appearing in the magic, and the stranger disappeared. Tracers of his power were still shimmering on my retinas moments after he was gone.

Karra
ran up behind me. “What the hell was that?”

I reached out into the stormy night, unable to detect a presence of any kind. “I think we might have found who was inside the case.”

She pushed past me and surveyed the street. “I felt his power right before I ran out here. What happened? Did he say anything?”

I shook my head. “He ported away without a word. I opened the door and he was standing right here.” I pointed to the porch. “I didn’t sense anything from him until right before he took off. The fiends didn’t react at all.”

We both looked to the sub-demon holding the broken door. It stared at us, but it hadn’t moved an inch since I’d told it to step aside. Ordered to protect me and the house, it should have engaged the guy immediately, but it hadn’t done anything. It acted like it hadn’t even seen him.

A dim bulb flickered in my head. “That would explain how he managed to kill Asmoday without the fiends tearing him a new one. I mean, it doesn’t exactly explain why they aren’t reacting to him, but it does tell me how he could have waded through thousands of them to reach Asmoday.”

“Why would he come here?”
Karra
asked.

I shrugged. “Apparently, it’s in the bad guy handbook that they have to fuck with me first. I would also imagine my being related to Lucifer,” the name tasted like shit on my tongue, “has something to do with it. I mean, who wouldn’t be pissed after being locked up in a trophy case for who knows how long?”

Karra
reached out and took my hand. “You’re not safe here if he can just ignore the fiends.”

“I’m not even sure what he wants. He didn’t say anything or act aggressive. He just stood there and smiled, then
poofed
.” I glanced toward the storm clouds that obscured the night sky. “You’re probably right, though. I think he was the one behind the specter. I didn’t realize it right away, caught up in how alien he felt, but I’m pretty sure he was the presence I scanned outside the bar.”

“Then come and stay with me.”
Karra
pulled me into the house. “I can talk to my father about this alien, and maybe he can track him down somehow.”

I shook my head despite wanting nothing more. “It’s obvious I’ve got a big ass target on my back, and I don’t want you in the middle of it any more than you already are. If the
weres
and E.T. can find me here, they can find me at your place, too. I don’t want to put that on you.”

“Frankie—“

I cut her off. “Don’t
Frankie
me. You’re the only good thing in my life, and I’m not gonna put you at risk. Lucifer has proven he’s got no problem letting innocent people suffer for his actions, and I’m not gonna let him hurt you any more than he already has.”
Karra
huffed and put her hands on her hips, but I waggled my finger at her. “I’m used to being on the hit list. It’s just another day at the office, but if I were to lose you to all this bullshit my uncle’s stirred up, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself. Besides, what would your dad do if you were to get hurt?”

She stared at me a moment with hard eyes, and then sighed, conceding my point.

“You’re the only thing keeping him out of the chaos left behind by God’s disappearance. Add in a quest for revenge by the most powerful Anti-Christ to ever walk the Earth and I might as well have let Gabriel have Heaven. Dying to a storm of deadly ash would be preferable to the Hell Longinus would unleash were he to lose you.”

“You’re not supposed to be the reasonable one.”

“I have my moments, but you know I’m right.”

Karra
nodded. “I do, but I don’t like it.” She tried her best to smile, and I kissed her crooked lips.

“Go and be with your dad where I know you’re safe. Find out what you can about the alien. I’ve got my own research to do, and I don’t think it’ll help to have you there.”

She sighed and nodded again, returning my kiss.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be careful. Given who I’ll be with, I’m not too concerned about anyone taking another shot at me.” I leaned in and luxuriated in her. “I’ll call you after a while.”

It took her a few moments to pull away, but she did, at last. With a forced smile, she went into the portal room without saying anything. The gate ramped up and I felt her presence fade away.

Once she was gone, I ordered the fiends to fix the door, without being seen, and to stay on guard duty. If anyone popped in for a visit while I was gone, there wouldn’t be a body left to identify. I then made a quick call and snatched up a couple of guns and some extra ammo, collected the vial
Karra
had left on the table, and said goodbye to Chatterbox before I headed out.

I wanted to know more about the relationship between Lucifer and my mother, and if Baalth wasn’t in the mood to talk, I knew someone who would.

Chapter Nine

A mile or two outside of town, the sun was creeping over the horizon. The abnormally green desert surrounded me as I parked my
confiscated
Impala and waited for my cousin to show up. She clearly wasn’t in anything resembling a rush. I’d already paced a furrow in the wet dirt and contemplated asking the Chinese for help since I was damn near halfway to their country by the time she finally arrived.

Leaving behind a trail of shimmering light, she dropped from the sky and landed gracefully before me. She still looked battered, but I guess that made sense seeing how I’d just seen her at Abe’s funeral that morning. The inter-dimensional time change was still screwing me up. She’d exchanged her dress and sunglasses for her usual leather outfit.
Everto
Trucido
hung in its place at her hip with a brand new scabbard.

Her bruised face was grim. “Frank,” She said, her voice was barely a whisper.

I bit back a snarky comment about her tardiness as another streak followed just a second later, the angel
Raguel
joining us. It wouldn’t do me any good to ruffle Scarlett’s feathers seeing how I called her. I needed a favor.

“Hi,
Raguel
.” I greeted the other angel with nod. Unlike when I’d first encountered him, there was a sense of his power drifting off him this time. He was no longer incorporeal, a being of nothing more than willpower and memories. Still dressed in his bronzed battle armor, his own runic sword was at his side. His wild gray hair was tied into a long tail behind his head. It made his sharp features even more so, seeming to pull the wrinkles of his face into deeper lines.

“Triggaltheron.” He gave a curt bow, his icy blues eyes appraising me. “Scarlett has told me what you seek. Why should I do this for you?”

He was all business, but it’s not like I expected rainbows and fluffy kittens. That was okay, though. I had a pretty good idea he would help, seeing how he wouldn’t have come all the way from Heaven just to tell me no. There’s a card for that. “No reason at all, but I’m still asking for your help. Before he was shut down, Azrael spoke to me of my mother and a
relationship
with Lucifer. I need to learn more about that.” I had no interest in divulging all of the details, but I had to offer
Raguel
something or he’d have no reason to help.

Scarlett’s lips pulled back into an unconscious sneer at the mention of my uncle’s name. I could relate.

“I need to know whether he was just yanking my chain out of some sick desire to torment me, or if he really knows something about my family history; my past.”

“Do you think he was telling you the truth?” Scarlett asked. Her eyes were narrow and sparkled with doubt.

I looked at her and shrugged. “I hope not, but if he was, then the whole of who I am is nothing more than a lie. I have to know.”

Raguel
stared at me, the cold chill of his eyes making me feel as though he were peering inside me. After a long moment, he nodded. “I will grant your wish, Triggaltheron, only because of what you’ve done for the Kingdom, but beware Azrael. He has long lived apart from Heaven and is no longer an angel in any sense of the word. Trust only that he serves himself, and no other.”

He turned away and I felt the sudden buildup of power. Immediately, the dimensional wall was torn open, a glistening shimmer of golden energy bridging the gap between two realities: Earth and Limbo.

“I have
warded
the passage so no one but you may enter or leave Limbo. It will remain open for two hours only. Be sure you are through it before then or you will be trapped inside.”

“Thank you,” I told him after he’d recited the steps that would lead me to Azrael.

Raguel
said his farewells and streaked into the sky, leaving me alone with my cousin.

“Are you sure about this, Frank? Our bloodlines are tangled enough as it is. I can’t imagine anything you’d learn from Azrael would be good news, even if he could be bothered to tell you the truth.”

“Probably not, but there are too many lies to ignore. I doubt the truth can be much worse than what I’ve been led to believe.”

She shook her head. “You’re lying to yourself now, but do what you must.” Scarlett came over and hugged me tight. It caught me off guard, and I scrambled to return the embrace. When she pulled away, she smiled. It was a genuine, honest smile. “Thank you for saving my home, Frank. No matter what you find in there, she gestured to the portal, “you shall always be in my heart, as family.”

A second later, she was in the air, nothing but the trail of her power still visible. The awkward moment over, I turned to the look at the dimensional rift. I didn’t have much faith Azrael would open up and tell me the truth if I just asked him, so I’d come prepared to do more. That wasn’t something I wanted to let Scarlett or
Raguel
know. For all their reasons to kill Azrael, they’d simply turn the other cheek seeing how he was already beaten. Down and out, he was just another soul who had to worry about a redemption that was never gonna come. For me, down and out was exactly how I wanted him.

 
No time to waste, I stepped into the portal and felt myself transported to Limbo. Its gray emptiness was a shock to the system after being on Earth. Made entirely of swirling clouds that obscured everything, Limbo was a colorless void designed to stash the spirits of the dead on the way to their final destination. With no landmarks or buildings, absolutely nothing to judge direction or distance by, you had to know exactly where you were going or you wouldn’t get there. Worse still, lose your way and you wouldn’t be able to leave. It was like having a TV with only PBS—mind-numbing.