Dante Valentine

by Lilith Saintcrow

  “Why didn’t you tell me you were a Corvin? You should have told me.” I tried not to sound hurt and failed miserably. I was just too tired.

  He laughed, dropping his chin to look at me. “Everyone knows how you feel about the Mob, baby. I never would have gotten past your front door.”

  “So you lied to me.”

  “I love you, Danny,” he said, closing his eyes and tipping his head back onto the couch. Dark circles stood out all the way around his eyes. He was unshaven, gaunt. “I didn’t have a choice. Not if I wanted to stay clean; if I’d told you who I was, you would have ditched me. I wanted to be clean for you. I was out, until you went on the Morrix job. They threatened to kill you. The only thing I could do was disappear and hope they would leave you alone.” He sighed. “Sargon’s been too busy to bother with you, I’d guess, while he perfected this fucking process of his and I slipped my chain and started giving him trouble. Until you came back and shoved yourself in his face again. I didn’t know, Danny. If I had known, I would have killed him myself. Or tried to, at least. Why don’t you ask your pet demon what he knows about all this?”

  “Watch your mouth, human,” Japhrimel said quietly, his tone completely cold. “Did the Prince know that Santino has gone so far as to create an Androgyne, he would have brought Hellesvront—Hell-on-Earth—to bear on this Corvin Family, and wiped them from existence. This affects him far more than it affects you.”

  Jace snorted and opened his mouth. “Shut up,” I said. “Just shut up.”

  Japhrimel lifted his free hand and stroked my hair back from my face. “You should rest, Dante.”

  “What about the little girl?” I asked, craning my neck to look at his face. “Did you know Santino was trying to breed a new kind of demon?”

  “Not a new kind of demon,” Japhrimel said. “An extremely rare kind of demon. Lucifer is the Prime, the first Androgyne from whom all demons are descended—the younger Androgynes are either his vassals or his lovers. It is not a thing spoken of to humans.”

  I let out a long sigh. I was so damnably tired, my eyelids felt like lead. “So you knew. What does it mean, Japhrimel? I’m tired, and I died back there. I’m feeling kind of stupid, spell it out for me.”

  “The Egg is a sigil of the Prince’s reign,” Japhrimel said. “It holds the Prince’s genetic codex and a portion of his Power—so much Power that he cannot leave Hell without it. Santino can access the genetic codex by virtue of his function as one of Lucifer’s genetic scientists, but the Power locked inside the Egg is not his to use. If another Androgyne unlocks the Egg, the balance of power in Hell itself will shift. The Androgyne with the Egg will control Hell—and who will control the Androgyne?”

  “Santino,” I breathed. I believed it. I didn’t need the canisters or the vision of the little girl with Doreen’s face to convince me any more than I already was. Demons played with genetics the way they played with technology—some scientists said our own genes were proof of that. It was one of the greatest scientific mysteries, hotly disputed and contested by Magi and geneticists—could demons theoretically interbreed with humans? Only no demon had done so for thousands of years, if they ever had—if you could believe the old stories about demons marrying human women and giants roaming the earth.

  I thought of the rows and rows of canisters and shuddered. Santino had figured out how to make another Lucifer, a Lucifer he could use for his own ends? A lovely little malleable, controllable genetic copy of Lucifer—using Doreen’s genetic material in the process.

  And now he wanted to use mine. Or maybe just my body as an “incubator.” You could be the new Madonna, his voice whispered in my memory, soft and chillingly inhuman.

  I shuddered. I had escaped being assigned as a breeder in Rigger Hall; I didn’t want to be turned into one now for a crazed demon. And what about other sedayeen or Necromances, possibly kidnapped and forced to incubate more of the filthy little things?

  I should have been angry. Japhrimel had omitted to tell me far more than Jace had, but I only felt a weary gratefulness that the demon was here—a gratefulness I didn’t want to examine more closely. Silence stretched through the room. Eddie hissed a curse between his teeth, and Gabe murmured an apology, bandaging his arm.

  “He’s playing for control of Hell itself,” the demon said quietly. “And if that happens, he will gain control of your world as well.”

  “He says it’s for freedom,” I answered. Exhaustion pulled at my arms and legs, wrapped my brain in cotton wool.

  “Freedom for Vardimal, perhaps.” Japhrimel shrugged. The movement made my head loll against his shoulder.

  I closed my eyes. It was so hard to think with exhaustion weighing me down.

  “So what now?” Gabe said.

  “Now I get a couple hours of sleep, and I do what I should have done in the first place.”

  “And what is that?” Japhrimel didn’t move, but his arms tightened slightly. If I hadn’t been so tired, I might have thought about that.

  Sleep was stalking me a little more gently than Death had. It was the expected reaction; most people fell into a deep sleep after being yanked back from death. It was the psyche’s method of self-defense, trying to come to terms with brushing the Infinite. “I’m going to get up, and find my sword, and hunt the motherfucker down. Alone.”

  “Not alone,” Gabe said. “We’ll tie you up if we have to, Danny. Don’t start that again.”

  I was about to tell her to back the fuck off when I passed out. The last thing I heard was Japhrimel’s voice. “If I did not leave her at Death’s door, I would not leave her now. I will take her to bed.”

  CHAPTER 39

  I slept for twenty-eight hours.

  Plenty of time for Santino to get away.

  When I finally surfaced, it was to find myself tucked naked into a large dark-green bed. The climate control was on, so the room was cool, even though fierce early-morning sunlight stabbed through the windows. I blinked at the light, propping myself up on my elbows.

  My entire body ached, the reverberation of the plasgun bolt and Power backlash. I’d pushed myself far beyond the limits of pain-free Power use. I would be lucky to escape a migraine in the next twenty-four hours.

  My shoulder didn’t ache, though. I touched the scarring of Japhrimel’s mark and had to steel myself against a wave of painful nausea.

  “I’m here,” he said, and turned from the window. I hadn’t seen him there, maybe dazzled by the sunlight. Maybe he hadn’t wanted to be seen. “Rest, Dante.”

  “I can’t rest,” I said, tasting morning in my mouth. “Santino—”

  “He’s being tracked. You will not be helpful if you do not rest.” He approached the bed silently, his black coat floating on the sunlight. “Events are moving, Dante. The Prince, now that he knows what Santino was attempting, has placed the full resources of Hellesvront under my control. Every Hell-on-Earth agent is looking for Santino. He will not long escape our attention.”

  I sat up the rest of the way, gingerly, and rubbed at my eyes. “Unless he goes where there aren’t any people,” I said. “Human agents aren’t any good if he stays out of sight like he’s been doing for the past fifty years.” And besides, he was mine. I’d started this hunt, I was going to finish it.

  He shrugged. “Not all the agents are human. Vardimal is a scavenger, despite his contempt for humans. He needs people, hungers for them. Hellesvront will find him.”

  “What the hell are the demon police getting involved for? They can’t kill him. I should know, I tried. Where are the others?” I asked, squinting up at him. I wanted to see his face, couldn’t.

  “The other Necromance and the earth-witch are sleeping. Your former lover is sealed in a spare room, but otherwise unharmed.” Japhrimel’s tone changed slightly. He sounded… disdainful. His eyes glowed with a light of their own. Backlit by the sun, he looked like a shadow with bright eyes. “I would speak with you of something else, Dante.”

  “If Vardimal’s a scavenger
, what does that make you?”

  “I am of the Greater Flight, he is of the Lesser. I am not bound by his hungers.” Japhrimel shrugged, but the movement wasn’t as fluid as it usually was.

  “Is that why you’re the Devil’s assassin?”

  He bared his teeth in a facsimile of a pained grin. “I am the Prince’s assassin because I am able to kill my brothers and sisters without qualm, Dante. And I am his assassin because he trusts me to do his bidding. I would speak to you of—”

  I didn’t want to know. “Is it true?” I asked him. “Sedayeen and Necromances—is it true?”

  He was silent for a long time. Then, “It is true; sedayeen and Necromances do carry recessive genes closely related to demons. I would speak to you about—”

  Gods. I’m human, I thought. I’m not a demon. I know I’m human. “Later,” I said, and slid my feet out of the bed. The blessed warmth of the covers was matched only by the blessed coolness of the climate control. “Get the others. We’ve got work to do.”

  “You should eat something,” he said, stepping back slightly. Retreating into the sunlight. “Please.”

  “I’ll make you a deal.” I gained my feet in a rush, too happy to be vertical to care if I was naked. Besides, he was a demon, he’d probably seen plenty of naked women before. “You get the others here by the time I get out of the shower, and I’ll eat breakfast while we plan.” I headed for the bathroom, heard his sharp intake of breath. “What?”

  I stopped, looking over my shoulder. My knees were shaky, but I felt surprisingly good despite having been shot and dragged back from death.

  “Your… scars.” Japhrimel’s voice was flat again.

  “They don’t hurt anymore,” I lied. “It was a long time ago. Look, Japh—”

  “Who? Who did that to you?” Now there was a tinge of something else in his voice. Was it anger?

  It was my turn to shrug. “It was a long time ago, Japhrimel. The… the person who did that is dead. Get the others. I’ll have breakfast while we plan.” I forced myself to take another step toward the bathroom. Another. That’s what you get for walking around naked in front of a demon, I thought, and managed to make it to the bathroom, flicked on the light, and shut the door behind me before I looked down at the other mass of claw scars on my belly. My ribs stood out, each one defined, my hipbones sticking out sharply. I’d lost weight.

  I blew out a long whistling sigh between my teeth. My legs trembled. I looked up, meeting my own eyes in the mirror. I’d faced Santino again, and survived.

  Miracles did happen.

  “Maybe this job won’t kill me,” I whispered, and tore my eyes away from my gaunt face to go take a shower.

  Gabe looked a lot better, especially with her long dark hair clean and pulled back. Eddie still favored one arm, but Gabe’s healing charm had apparently sped his recovery—as well as hers. Her black eyes were now a yellow-green raccoon mask, and her split lip looked less angry.

  Jace was unshaven and moving a little stiffly, but his eyes were clear. He lowered himself cautiously into the chair Japhrimel placed for him. Gabe didn’t even spare him a look. Eddie, shaggy and direct as ever, stared at him for a full twenty seconds, lip lifting in a silent snarl.

  I sat cross-legged on the bed. It felt good to be dressed in clean clothes, and felt even better to be clean myself, my hair damp from the shower and smelling like sandalwood. Japhrimel, expressionless, produced my katana. The sheath was lost, so I balanced naked metal across my knees. “Okay,” I said, once we’d all settled in. “Breakfast is due up in a quarter-hour. Japhrimel’s checked the staff here and says they’re trustworthy. I’m going to start tracking antino as soon as—”

  “Wait a minute.” Gabe held up her hand. “How in Hades are you going to find him without alerting him? He’s got a day’s head start, and he’s a demon—Magi magick might find him, but if he’s on his guard it might just put him in a snit. And we can’t afford to have you come down with another case of backlash. There’s a limit to the amount of abuse you can take, Danny—despite what you seem to think.”

  I held up my hand. “Gabe,” I said with excessive patience, “we may not be able to track him, even with Dake’s little toy. But he’s got the kid. And the kid’s at least half Doreen; I shared my mind and my bed with her. I can find the kid, we’re bound by Doreen’s blood. Where she is, Santino will be.”

  Gabe shrugged. She glanced at Jace, seemed about to say something, and stopped.

  “What about this kid?” Eddie asked suddenly. “What the demons gonna do with her?”

  I looked up at Japhrimel, who shrugged. His eyes darkened, more strange runic patterns slipping through their depths—but he looked down at the floor, as if avoiding my gaze. “The Prince will perhaps take her as a lover,” he said, “or as a vassal. Androgynes are precious, and she is far too young to challenge his rule.”

  “Like hell,” I said. “I’ll take care of the kid. I owe it to Doreen. Lucifer didn’t contract me to bring the kid back, he contracted me to kill Santino and return this Egg thing. He doesn’t even need to know about the kid. You haven’t told him, have you, Japhrimel?”

  Please tell me I’ve guessed right and he hasn’t told Lucifer about the kid.

  Silence crawled through the room.

  “You would ask me to lie to the Prince,” Japhrimel said, finally. He stood at the side of the bed, his head down, his eyes hidden, hands clasped behind his back. His coat rustled slightly; I wondered again why he wore it.

  “You can’t trust a demon, Danny,” Jace piped up. I ignored him, watching Japhrimel. His reaction told me he’d kept his mouth shut. If he hadn’t told Lucifer about the little girl, he had to have guessed I would ask him not to.

  He finally tilted his head back up, his green eyes meeting mine for a long moment. It wasn’t hard to hold his gaze anymore. “I have not… told Lucifer of the child, only that Vardimal was attempting to create an Androgyne. I did not think it wise, as Lucifer would perhaps seek a different means of effecting Santino’s capture. That would endanger you, Dante.” He paused, his eyes holding mine. Here it comes, I thought, amazed I’d been able to predict him for once. “However, to lie to the Prince after Santino is dead… I will do as you ask,” he said, “but in return, I will ask a price.”

  I shrugged. “I expected as much.” My throat went dry. “What price?”

  “I will tell you when the time comes,” he said. “It is nothing you cannot pay.”

  “Danny—” Jace sat bolt upright.

  “Shut up, Jace,” I said, my eyes fixed on the demon. “All right, Japhrimel. It’s a deal. Gods grant I don’t regret it.”

  “I would speak with you privately, Mistress,” he said, formally, nodding slightly. That managed to hurt my feelings—so we were back to Mistress, were we?

  You will not leave me to wander the earth alone. Had he really said that, or had it been some kind of near-death hallucination?

  I shook the thought away, hair sliding over my shoulders. “Soon enough. Gabe, I need you and Eddie at full strength. Do what you have to do to get there. We’re hitting the trail soon as possible. Before twelve hours I need a work-up of every bit of munitions we can beg borrow or steal. Everything. Plasguns, assault rifles, projectile guns, explosives, everything. Eddie, I need as many golem’ai as you can make before we leave—and firestarters, too. You’re the best Skinlin I know, and the mud-things will even the odds for us. Jace—” He flinched as I said his name, his shoulders hunching protectively. “Get yourself up to full strength and outfit us. We need transport, supplies, and passports into Mob Circle.”

  “Mob Circle?” Eddie actually sputtered. “Are you crazy?”

  “We can’t travel everywhere in the world just on a hunt,” I said. “If Santino goes into any Freetowns, Mob Circle passports will give us some kind of protection and a place to sleep. Can you do that, Jace?”

  He was paler than I’d ever seen him. “You’d trust me?” he asked, his blue eyes stuttering up to
mine then sliding away, as if he couldn’t stand to look at my face. “You’d trust me to do that?”

  “I’m not going to forgive you,” I told him. “I’m just going to overlook the fact that you took up a year and a half of my life with a complete lie. You do this for me, and we’re even, your debt’s paid. After this job, I never want to see your face again. If I see you after this is over, I’ll fucking kill you—but if you help me take Santino down, I’ll let you go your own way. Alive. All accounts balanced.”

  “Danny—” he began.

  “You lied to me,” I hissed. “Every time you touched me, it was a lie. And you didn’t come clean when I came here, either—you kept lying to me. What, were you thinking I’d never find out?”

  “You never would have—” he began.

  “Well, we’ll never know now, will we? I never had the chance.” I shook my head, looking away to where the sheaf of sunlight fell into the green room, pure light glowing on every surface. It was nothing like the clear light of Death, but it was close enough that my heart twisted. The room was beautiful, clean, and made my entire body hurt. I wanted to be home, with Santino dead and the Devil’s lies and little games out of my life. “Either you do this for me, or I’ll kill you, Jace. It’s that simple.”

  I don’t know if it was my level tone or the way my face felt frozen, or maybe it was just the way my fingers touched the katana’s hilt, but Jace believed me. He stared at the floor, his jaw working.