Smoke and Ashes (45 page)

Weirdly, Mouse spoke for the group. He moved the dripping handful of flannel shirt away from his nose and grinned, the bloodstained teeth and eyes already swelling shut making him look particularly disreputable. “Wouldn't have missed it.”

The other four, even Kate, nodded.

“Hang on,” Amy called out, head cocked so she could glare through her nonwatering eye. “If they leave, who's going to clean this mess up?”

They were gone before she finished asking.

Tony braced himself for her protest, but CB began a second set of instructions before she got the chance. “Zev, take Amy and Lee out to Eagle Ridge. One of the demons came through near there. That gives us a readymade explanation for the bite and the claw marks. If they ask, you were all out there because we're thinking of shooting at Heritage Mountain.”

“And if they ask why we waited before coming in?”

Formal cadences returned with the raised brow. “I think Mr. Nicholas' talent extends to providing a little attitude.”

“I could,” Lee admitted, folding his arms. “But I'm not going anywhere until this is over.”

Amy echoed his action from the floor. “Neither am I.”

“Hardly seems worth going all the way to Eagle Ridge on my own,” Zev pointed out with a careful shrug.

“You're all bleeding,” Jack began, but Amy cut him off.

“You call this bleeding?” she scoffed, folding her good leg under her and using Zev's uninjured arm to pull herself to her feet. “I lose more monthly. Besides, you're bleeding, CB's bleeding, Tony's bleeding…”

He was? He glanced down at his bare chest between the shredded wings of jacket and shirt and blearily focused on the lines of red rolling down from his right shoulder. Oh, yeah.

“…and you guys aren't leaving.”

“There is still a demon to deal with,” CB told her. “Not to mention, as you so helpfully pointed out, the mess.”

“Wizard!”

“Whoa!” Amy's head whipped around so fast her hair separated into bicolored layers. “This one talks?”

“Yeah.” Tony shifted position slightly and regretted it a lot. “He talks. What do you want?”

It was hard to tell because of the gore encrusting his face—plus Tony's vision was a bit wonky—but mini-Ryne looked worried. “Demongate?”

“Safe.” Frowning hurt, too. Quel surprise. Not. “At least I think…” He turned to CB who took three long strides and dropped to one knee beside him.

“If you cannot send this creature back, Mr. Foster…”

“I can do it.” It might be the last thing he did for a while, but he figured he had enough left in him to draw four final runes.
Let's hear it for endorphins. Yay endorphins.
As long as he didn't have to hurry. Or, apparently, stand up. “Uh, Boss? Little help.”

The big difference between being lifted onto his feet by Henry and CB was, well, about a foot vertically and at least that much horizontally. CB was a big guy and Henry was…

Henry wasn't.

That meant something. Tony frowned. Winced.

“Ms. Burnett is outside in my car.” CB's voice was a low growl against his ear. “Parked up against that outside wall…” He nodded across the soundstage to the wall closest to the gate. “…she is close enough to the gate and to you that her own metaphysical signature should be masked but able to make a fast getaway should we have lost this fight. I doubt very much that any demon would have been able to catch her.”

“Drove the Jag today?”

“I did.”

It seemed like a plan. Actually, it seemed like a good plan, especially the masked signature part. “Have you been reading up on this shit?”

“Mr. Groves has suggested a number of very helpful publications.”

“I'll bet. And she's going to stay out there…?”

“Until one of us goes and gets her.”

“Demongate.”

“I told you, she's safe.” Hang on. That wasn't a question. The first time the demon had asked. This time…

“Would whoever's been calling for me, please shut the fuck up? I'm not deaf, and I'm moving as fast as I can.”

Most of his weight still on CB's arm, Tony turned in time to see Leah stop walking and raise a hand to her nose. The other hand was tucked under her clothes, pressed up against the skin of her stomach.

“Oh, wow. It stinks in here. Smells like offal and peppermint with the faintest hint of sulfur.” She frowned over her hand at Tony. “You had to ash one?”

“Yeah. Leah…”

“Demongate!”

“What the hell?” She jumped back, then stopped and blushed. “Right. This is the one that's here to help and…”

When she stopped talking, Tony turned and stared at mini-Ryne. Standing on the partially eaten demon, he was, in turn, staring at Leah. His eyes were black, lid to lid, and even six meters away, he could see his reflection burning in them.

A heartbeat earlier, Tony would have denied any ability to move without help, but he pulled free of CB's hold before Leah's lips started to form the question and was standing in front of her before she asked it.

“Lord?”

“Boss!” Even as a physical barrier, he sucked right now, but when Leah tried to go through him instead of around, it gave CB enough time to grab her arms and hold her in place. Tony was pretty sure he was still standing, not exactly upright, not unless the studio had acquired a recent lean to the left, but standing. As he tried to straighten, he caught sight of Jack beginning to move.

Circle of yellow rope dropped around the demon's shoulders.

Jack in the air, then crumpled motionless against the base of the wall.

Lee on one knee, one of the demon's arms wrapped round his throat.

Amy's scream lingering.

And the tableau froze.

It happened just that fast.

Ryne Cyratane smiled, now clearly in control of mini-Ryne's body, his attributes no longer sheathed. “I think we should talk trade, Wizard.”

“Trade?” It took a moment to sink in. Finally, he dragged his gaze away from the six inches of detached claw protruding from Jack's chest and shoved his reaction behind old familiar shields. “You want to trade Lee for Leah?”

The demon looked confused. “Who?”

“Her!” Tony jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

“Ah. That is not the name I knew her by when she was my handmaiden, my priestess, my love.”

Leah leaned toward him, her arms angling back in CB's hold. “I am not your love!” she spat, tossing a curl of hair back off her face.

“Am I not?” He didn't seem too upset by her reaction. “Do you not remember…”

“I remember that you slaughtered my entire village!”

Hang on. “You said you were over that,” Tony reminded her.

Her shrug was a bit truncated given her position. “Yeah, well, you were right. Maybe I still have some issues.”

“So if CB lets you go?”

“I'd be in his arms in a heartbeat.” No need to define whose arms. “Sorry. It's a built-in response, and guess who built it in.”

The Arjh Lord cleared his throat. Tony turned to see Lee fighting for air, clawing at the arm around his throat. “You don't seem to be taking this seriously, Wizard.”

“Stop it!”

He loosened his grip just enough for Lee to draw in a painful sounding breath. And then another. Tony breathed in with him. In. Out. Finally, clutching the demon's arm with white-knuckled fingers, Lee wheezed, “I'm so fucking tired of being the designated damsel in distress.”

“Yes.” Ryne Cyratane smiled down at him. “I can understand that.” Even while wearing a body not his own, there was such understanding in his voice that Tony had a sudden epiphany about how he'd convinced Leah's people to worship him. Lee actually looked comforted.

“Okay.” Tony cleared his throat and tried to sound a little more like he was in charge of the situation. “If we trade—Lee for your ex-handmaiden—then you'll kill Leah the moment you get her and the Demongate will open and you'll be here in the flesh, not just riding in the flesh of one of your arjh.”

“Yes.”

Tony fought the urge to preen under the Arjh Lord's approval. “This was your plan all along, wasn't it? You used Sye Mckaseeh as camouflage—while we were concentrating on her, you could slip in unnoticed.”

“No. I took advantage of the situation when I had time enough to mark this body as a vessel rather than merely as mine.”

“A spur of the moment kind of thing, then? With the added benefit of pissing off the ex?”

“As you say, an added benefit. And why should I not reclaim my handmaiden and then this world?”

“Because I'll stop you.”

“You forget.” The demon's grip tightened momentarily. Lee fought for air and then sagged, gasping.

“Okay, so we trade. What's in that for me? As I see it, Lee dies either way.”

“The man dies now in front of you. Or later with you.”

“Dude.” Leaning on Zev's arm, Amy glared from between eyelashes clumped into damp spikes. “You'll kill him the instant the gate opens just like you killed Jack! He's the only thing here that's a danger to you.”

“As I said,
later
. I did not specify how much later.” He swept a dark gaze over her, head to toe. “You will enjoy my new world, little one. I promise you that.”

“Bite me!”

“Perhaps.” This was most definitely not the same smile he'd given Lee. Lee's had been compassionate enough to be believed in spite of the choke hold. This was pure seduction. Only the choke hold hadn't changed.

To Tony's surprise, Amy brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and limped forward, eyes locked on the demon. “Maybe we can…OW! Zev! What the hell was that for?”

“You were walking toward that!” Zev nodded toward Ryne Cyratane.

“I was not!” Measured the distance from Zev to the demon. Noticed how close she'd come. “Oh, crap, I was.” She slipped the glare back on as the two of them began limping backward to the wall. “You're very convincing.”

From seduction to amusement. “It's part of my charm.”

“And it would be one hell of a lot more charming if you didn't have bits of that…” She jabbed a disdainful finger toward the remains of his meal. “…between your teeth.”

“We will speak later, you and I.”

“The hell we…”

“Slaughtered a whole village,” Zev reminded her urgently.

“So what?” Behind the streaks of mascara, Amy wore the expression she usually reserved for those who wore fur. Or sweater sets in a nonironic manner.

“Your friends are intriguing, Wizard.” The Arjh Lord gave Lee a little shake. “But not entirely correct.”

“About?” Tony demanded. And then he had it. “I'm not the only danger to you, am I?” After that, it was one small step. There weren't a lot of names in Ryne Cyratane's current address book. “It's Henry, isn't it? He could take that body out, even now.” Tony'd missed the implications when Kevin called to tell him the overpass had blown. The overpass had blown
first.
“You pushed this arjh through, creating a cascade like we did the other night because you had to be sure all this happened before sunset so Henry couldn't help.” He knew he had it by the way the demon's lip curled. “Humans mean less than nothing to you, but he's another power.”

“Um, Tony…” Amy rubbed her sleeve under her nose. “Henry's a romance writer.”

CB rumbled an unnecessary caution behind him. Tony didn't need to be warned; he'd been keeping this secret a lot longer than the big guy had.

It had to be past sunset. Tony glanced at his watch. Crap. Not even close. How could they have destroyed five demons and been betrayed by a sixth in so little time? Okay, fine. So he couldn't keep things from happening until Henry got here. He'd just have to keep talking, to keep the demon talking until he'd regained enough strength to blast the Arjh Lord right out of his borrowed body.

Yeah. Like that was going to happen. He had no idea how he was still standing and the soundstage kept wavering in and out of focus like they were about to go to flashback.

Still, he had to try. Hopefully, Ryne Cyratane would see slouching as a sign of disrespect instead of an inability to straighten his spine. “The sun will set after you've taken over, you know. Henry'll still be around to kick your ass.”

“Once the Gate is open, I will rule with many arjh. And I will gain power from slaughter.”

He'd forgotten about that bit. “Killing Mckaseeh's arjh gave that demon you're wearing power enough to activate the runes on his chest, didn't it?”

“Yes.”