by Sam Cheever
I frowned. I hadn’t been expecting anyone. “Please tell me it’s Mx. Diamon?”
“No. She says her name is Crisanne.”
* * * * *
She stood with her back to the door, looking at the framed evidence of my qualifications I’d hung on the wall when I’d moved into my new office. It was the only piece of the old office I’d retained after the fire.
The yellowed parchment from the Institute of Demonic Studies was scorched, its edges browned and jagged, but the frame I’d placed it in was shiny and new.
I was proud of that yellowed, half-fried piece of parchment. It said I’d graduated Master of my class. Nobody kicked demon ass like I did.
After all, I’d started at the age of five. Someday, I’ll tell you about killing the demon in my sandbox for trying to steal my little purple bucket and shovel. He was trying to kill my sister Darma too but it was the bucket that ran me to the end of a very short patience track.
The other Tweener was taller than me, with softly curved hips and slim arms and legs that looked slightly too long for her height. She wore a short black leather skirt over skin-skimming tights that reached to just below her slim knees and stopped on a thin band of lace. Her long, narrow feet were encased in flat, black leather shoes that looked like slippers. Her upper body was snug as a bug in something black and stretchy, the sleeves long and tight, flaring over her hands into feathery tails that dropped six inches from her wrists. The shirt wouldn’t be good for demon slaying—too frilly—but I liked the shoes.
“Crisanne?”
She turned and I immediately disliked her. Her shoulder-length mahogany-brown hair slipped across her shoulders like silk, perfectly straight, hanging from a jagged center part and framing her oblong face in thick bangs. Her eyes were long and tipped up on the outside corners, giving her an exotic appearance. The eyes were a strange light-golden-brown color that I’d never seen before, almost amber. Her skin was a flawless, creamy brown.
Crisanne’s mouth curved upward, the kiss-me fullness of her lips painted soft burgundy by nature. Her nostrils flared slightly, making her long, straight nose look wider.
Her eyes widened in surprise. “You are dealing with your Settling?”
Frowning, I moved to put my desk between us. That subject was just a little too personal to discuss with a stranger. Especially one of Slayer’s old girlfriends.
“I’ve been looking for you.” I sat down behind my desk but didn’t get too comfortable. I didn’t trust the woman across my office any more than I trusted Dialle’s advocate. Maybe less.
She crossed slender arms over her chest and bit her lower lip. It was a very good impression of a woman who was scared and worried about something.
She was apparently a good actress. I wondered if that had been what fooled Slayer initially…or if she’d truly been good at one time and had been pulled to her dark side through her Settling as he’d assumed.
Worry settled over me as it always did when I thought about coming out on the other side of my Settling.
I fought to keep it from my eyes.
Crisanne’s gaze narrowed on me, missing nothing. “I know. I decided it was in both our best interests for me to come to you. I need your help.”
I hadn’t expected that. “With what?”
Shrugging, she looked away, skimming her gaze restlessly around the room. “My life is in danger. Prince Nille wants me dead.”
“Why?”
“Let’s just say my purposes are cross to his.”
I stared at her for a beat, unwilling to showcase my lack of understanding. Something about the pretty Tweener was giving me a serious case of insecurity. “Okay. Maybe a few details would make it easier to fill out my report.”
She gave me a look that told me she wasn’t impressed with my intelligence but I kept as neutral a look on my face as I could.
We all know I don’t do neutral real well. It usually just looks like gas.
“Look. I’ll be blunt. Prince Nille wants to be Council Sovereign. He’s willing to do just about anything to get there. He wanted me to kill the Puka King and King Dialle.”
Okay, now I was really confused. I’d been pretty sure Crisanne was our bad gal. But it sounded as if she maybe wasn’t. “But…you weren’t interested in doing those things?”
“No. I wasn’t.” She blew a stray hair off her face and licked her lips, grimacing at some dirt under her fingernails. “Unfortunately I didn’t realize that until I’d already done them.”
My devil rose up in a big way. I shot out of my chair, a power ball sizzling in my palm even as my legs straightened. “You poisoned Dialle!”
She examined her nails. “And you, yes.”
Anger crawled up my spine and sizzled in my breast. At that moment I wanted nothing more than to fry the bitch in front of me into cinders. I’d revel in the smell of her flesh burning. I’d laugh as she melted…and when she collapsed into a pile of ashes I’d dance in them, kicking them around the room. I might even rub them all over my body and visit the evil Nille painted in them.
The walls in the office started to rumble and the floor creaked. Rock dust filtered down on my head and pictures fell from the wall, the glass shattering all over the floor.
I blinked and looked at my hand. The power ball was as big as my head and Crisanne stood across the room covered in a power bubble, her exotic face looking bored even as she prepared to defend herself against a wall of mad power heading her way.
I felt as if a lead weight sat on my lungs. The air was choking, thick with power, and some of it was hers. Things were very quickly spiraling out of control.
Hooboy…devil usurpation happening. If I didn’t pull it together fast, Slayer’s ex and I would level Bob and Ralph’s pretty new office. I needed to get control of my dark side before I went down a path from which there was no return.
I took a deep breath, forcing my fingers to unclench from the power ball, and let it slide away. I fixed a wary gaze on my unwelcome visitor and tried a smile.
She jerked, pulling the shimmering cocoon of her bubble more tightly around her.
Apparently my attempt at a smile hadn’t been entirely successful.
I took a couple more deep breaths and tried a more neutral subject. “What about the advocate?
Blinking quickly, Crisanne gave me an I’m-confused look that didn’t fool me one bit.
I clarified. “The tall, evil guy you slept with and tried to talk into helping you kill Dialle and me.”
She stared at me a moment as if trying to decide if I could be distracted from my current line of questioning. Finally, she nodded, apparently deciding I couldn’t. “You have it wrong. Milc came to me and asked me to help him. I’ll admit he pled a strong case.” She smiled. “But in the end I rejected him too.”
“Aren’t you just the most popular thing?”
She shrugged, pushing a strand of hair out of her eyes. “He didn’t take it well.”
“I noticed. Where’s the Puka King?”
If she was surprised by my quick change of subject she didn’t show it. “At Nille’s court. I called his lover to come get him but they clomped around like a couple of Venusian soldiers and Nille caught them before they got out. When I last saw them they were still alive. Barely.” She settled her disturbing brown gaze on me and waited.
For what, I didn’t know. I assumed for the next question. So I obliged. “And why are you here? In my office?”
Both finely sculpted black eyebrows peaked in surprise. “Isn’t that obvious?”
Apparently not. Not to me at least.
She blew out a frustrated breath. “I told you, I need your help, Phelps.”
“For what?”
“To kill Prince Nille of course.”
Chapter Thirteen
The Better to Eat You with, My Dear!
’Tween good and bad the creature lives, her loyalties in doubt,
But when an outing goes awry, our heroine’s life’s a rout.
/> All the way to Nille’s underground court I fought with my own good sense about what I was doing. “Tell me again why you didn’t want to bring Slayer?”
Crisanne turned to me, her pretty face settled into an unreadable mask. “I can’t work with him, Astra. He and I didn’t exactly part on good terms.”
“So what? Man up, Tweener! Do you have any idea the power we’ll be facing in those caverns?”
She shrugged and I wanted to smack her.
“Well, I do. I’ve fought this guy before, Crisanne. He’s extremely powerful. He killed hundreds of devils last time, without breaking a sweat.”
“I don’t think you understand how powerful I am.” When she looked at me again her eyes roiled with color.
I gulped. I hadn’t been expecting that.
“Besides.” She licked her lips and turned away, looking out the Red Knight’s side view port. “I understand you have quite a bit of power yourself. We’ll be fine. I just want to get the Puka King out of there and kill Nille.”
I snorted. Just like that. Save the king and kill the monster. I half expected her to check her manicure to see if it was chipped. “Whatever.”
I knew I could always call Slayer and Dialle if I needed to. And Darma.
Bleurgh.
The Knight’s engines softened as we began the descent toward the remote acreage that held Nille’s cave-based court. It had been his father’s Royal Court until Prince Nille killed his ass in a power takeover and sent him to Hell.
As far as I knew he was still there, torturing the locals.
Two gargoyles paced the ledges above the opening. Beneath a sense of déjà vu I felt relief. If they hadn’t been there I’d have known for sure that it was a trap. As it was, I was just pretty sure I was walking into an ambush. The last time I’d come the gargoyles had been conspicuously absent. Instead, it appeared we might actually have the element of surprise on our side.
For once.
I dropped the Knight to the ground a hundred yards from the entrance, setting the protective wards so nobody could get into it. I’d decided to leave it on the ground so it would be hidden from view by the lush vegetation.
Crisanne and I pushed our way through the thick wall of green, heading toward the cave’s entrance.
A dozen yards from the cave, the gargoyles’ snouts lifted into the air and they grunted wetly, their long, purple tongues coming out to swipe across massive yellow canines.
As we pushed through the edge of the green barrier and stepped into the rocky clearing around the front of the cave, the two gargoyles roared, bunched massive shoulders and leapt to the ground between us and the entrance.
They stood on tree-like legs. Their long, narrow feet ended in evil-looking yellow claws that curved under so that the three toes on each foot were unable to lie flat against the ground. Their heads were wide at the top and became narrower as they flowed into short, dense muzzles that were held ajar by impossibly large teeth. Two long fangs curved toward each other from the corners of each wide mouth, nearly meeting in the middle about an inch below their chins.
The ’goyles’ mutated dog faces stared in our direction, their dark, malevolent gazes fixed on us with the focus of a predator that has a very small brain.
“I’ll take the one on the right you take the one on the left.” As I said the words, my heart did a painful jerk in my chest. It was what I always said to my friend and partner Emo when we faced the monsters together. I could still hear his voice in my head. Have I told you how much I hate gargoyles, Astra?
I sighed, automatically answering him in my mind. Yes, you have, my friend.
I missed him. And I hoped he’d be back from his angelic indoctrination soon.
Crisanne glanced at me and curled her lip with disgust. “I will handle this.” She reached out with one hand, fingers bent as if grasping something round, and slowly turned her arm, obviously straining, though I saw no visible evidence of her power.
The gargoyles’ beady eyes widened and they roared in pain. They lifted off the ground and hung there for a moment, nasty claws beating the air, and screamed in fear and pain.
A sudden cracking sound abruptly ended their screams and their thick heads jerked backwards on their bodies.
They hit the ground at our feet with a thud, sending up clouds of dust.
“Frunkin’ awesome!” I murmured, completely impressed. “How’d you do that?”
She gave me the side eye. “I have many skills. Perhaps I’ll share them all with you. Later.”
I stood there and sneezed as the ice queen stepped through the dust, around the corpses, and headed toward the entrance to Nille’s evil dominion. “Come on. They’ll know we’re here now.”
I stood there with my mouth hanging open in complete awe. Slayer had told me she was scary. But this…I hadn’t even seen her power working.
As she disappeared into the darkness of the cave I shook it off and ran after her, determined to find out how she’d broken the necks of not one but two ’goyles from ten feet away without even breaking a sweat.
We found Nille in his office, sitting behind his big, pretty desk, evidently doing something that didn’t require paper or writing materials, or a televisual…or anything that I could see.
Apparently he ran his court through telepathic messages and sign language.
He looked up as we walked in, his pretty face a study in surprise.
I couldn’t help feeling he looked a little too surprised, given that Crisanne had just dispatched his guard ’goyles without any concern for the screeching that had ensued.
He sat tall and elegant in his chair, dressed in perfectly pleated slacks and a button-up white shirt. He looked like a business man. His thick mane of hair was cut short, the color lighter than I remembered it.
“Did you frost your hair?”
Nille’s light-blue gaze swept over me as if I wasn’t important enough to address and landed on Crisanne.
“Lovely Crisanne. What is the meaning of this?”
She stepped forward. “We’ve come to get the Puka King and his consort.”
Nille stared at her for a beat and then laughed. “You overstep yourself, Tweener. I don’t care how sweet your flesh, I won’t allow insubordination from anyone.”
From the sexy Slayer to a would-be devil king. Mx. Crisanne had certainly stepped down in the world.
“This isn’t insubordination, Nille. I’m seizing your court for my own.”
My eyes widened in surprise. Bent frunkin’ gargoyle toes. What was the bitch up to now?
Nille’s pretty blues narrowed in anger and he lifted a hand toward Crisanne, power throbbing in his fingertips. Before he could send that power into her, Crisanne’s hand shot out and her fingers squeezed into a fist.
Nille started to choke and his power slipped away. He stood up and stumbled away from his desk, obviously hoping to get to his guards.
I just stood there, thinking she didn’t need me to kill the prince. Which made me wonder why I was even there.
Nille fell to the ground, clutching his throat and twitching.
I watched in shock as he died. It wasn’t possible was it? Prince Nille was the most powerful being I’d ever gone up against. And Crisanne had killed him with the simple clutching of a fist.
What the Hades was going on?
Crisanne walked over and stood above him as he died, her fist tightening until her knuckles were white.
Something wasn’t right.
I walked over and looked down. The creature on the floor was bug eyed and tinged with blue, his long fingers scraping helplessly at his throat, leaving behind raw flesh from the hopeless effort.
As I stared at him something flickered and for a moment I saw a wide, craggy red face. Then the thing that looked like Nille gasped its last breath and fell silent. I pulled my power forward as the victim began to change form, becoming a lower-level devil with red, scaly skin and horns.
Crisanne reached out and clamped a hand on my wris
t. My power fizzled out like flames under a fire extinguisher. I jerked out of her grasp and was immediately surrounded by royal guards. Their massive red-scaled hands grasped my arms and dragged me up against wide chests covered in armor.
Crisanne smiled at me and my bowels turned to liquid. “Welcome to my web, Astra Q. Phelps. At last I can put the legend of Phelps the Powerful Tweener behind me and begin creating my own legendary tales.”
I fought to move my arms so I could get to my daemon marks and call Dialle and Slayer.
Crisanne simply laughed. “Are you looking for these?” She touched the daemon hickey on my throat with a finger and power speared through me, sending agony knifing through my body. Her power ripped at my organs and bubbled my skin.
My brain expanded to the point where I thought it would explode. Anguish pounded against my head like a series of concussion rounds. My body writhed violently, held upright only by the massive red paws of the guards, and blood ran in streams from my ears, eyes and nose. My eardrums shattered under the immense power. My joints ripped.
I screamed so loud and so long that my voice gave out, finally emitting only strangled shrieks. After what felt like an eternity, the guards released my arms and I slammed to the floor. I lay there more dead than alive, bleeding from nearly every orifice in my battered body.
Worse than the pain was the emptiness. My magic had been ripped away from me. Torn from the hidey hole where I kept it. Plucked from the mark Dialle had given me as proof of our mating.
I tried to move. Tried to get my hands beneath me so I could sit upright. I was determined not to lie on the floor at her feet. Prostrate before her. But my muscles were spongy and weak. I couldn’t even open my eyes to glare.
Her laughter should have given me the strength to fight back. But all it did was make me want to cry with frustration.
Unfortunately for me, I soon had something much worse to cry about.
She reached down and grabbed my hand. “Just one more mark to rid you of, greedy, greedy Astra. You probably won’t survive this one. Most have only one binding mark to dispatch. Unfortunately for you there are two men who care about you enough to want to protect you.”
