“He can probably smell the soap,” Beezle said knowingly.
We all sat around my dining room table and waited for Jude to return. A few minutes later he came back in, his hair damp, his face clean and smelling of the citrusy body wash that I used in the shower.
He sat down at the head of the table and looked at me with his eerie blue-gray eyes. Jude’s eyes are like a Siberian husky’s—pale with a dark rim. The color and his way of staring at you like he could see through to your soul always made me feel vaguely unsettled.
“I think Wade knew that something was going to happen to him. He told me several times that if anything went wrong, I was to go straight to you,” Jude said without preamble.
I stared at him blankly. “Well, I don’t know why he would do that. He never said anything to me.”
“Maybe because we were attacked by demons?” Jude said, his eyes furious. “I told Wade over and over that we should have no truck with Lucifer or his minions, but he insisted on trying to negotiate a new agreement with the old bastard.”
“Hold on a second,” I said, completely confused. “Can you just start at the beginning? I didn’t even know that Wade was trying to negotiate an agreement with Lucifer.”
Jude made a visible effort to calm down and collect his thoughts.
“Start at the beginning. Which beginning?” he muttered. “Okay, so after Wade jeopardized our negotiations with Amarantha by openly backing you…”
“You act like this is my fault.”
“It is. You charmed him somehow, made him forget his priorities.”
Beezle snorted. “Maddy? Charm someone?”
I smacked the gargoyle on the back of the head, although privately I agreed with him. Charm is not a quality that I possess.
“Anyway…” I said, indicating that Jude should continue.
“After we lost the opportunity to renegotiate for our lost lands with the faeries, Wade decided that it was time to reestablish ties with Lucifer’s court.”
“Why?” I asked. “From what I understand, your pack hasn’t bothered to have relations with the fallen for a long time.”
“And we were better off that way,” Jude said heatedly. “However, Wade seems to think that the incident at Amarantha’s court…”
“You mean the incident where Amarantha and Focalor tried to have Maddy killed by proxy?” Beezle said loudly. “That incident?”
“Yes, gargoyle, that incident,” Jude said. “Wade sensed that something big is coming, that Focalor moving openly against Lucifer means that there is dissent among the fallen.”
“Well, sure,” I said. “From what I understand there’s always dissent among the fallen. But Focalor failed, and he’s probably having the skin peeled off him in strips as we speak. Wouldn’t that suppress any seditious thoughts the other court leaders might have?”
“Focalor moved outside the realm of the fallen when he made his bid for power, and the fate of Amarantha’s court is now tied to his. Other supernatural courts are now moving to ally themselves for or against Lucifer.”
I blinked. “What? You mean, everybody is picking sides for a future war?”
Jude nodded. “It’s subtle, but it’s there. Some courts are choosing to remain neutral.”
“Meaning they want to wait and see where the chips fall before they make a choice,” Beezle said derisively.
“And Wade was trying to reestablish ties with Lucifer because of this? Was Lucifer receptive?” I asked.
“He seemed to be. He was very pleased with Wade for backing you in Amarantha’s court,” Jude said, his face growing red with anger. “But then he betrayed us and set a pack of demons on us.”
“That doesn’t sound like Lucifer,” I said. “He wouldn’t negotiate with you in good faith and then openly attack you.”
“He is the Deceiver,” Jude said bitterly. “How do you know what he would or wouldn’t do?”
“Because he’s the Deceiver,” I said patiently. “If he wanted to mess with the wolves, he’d find much more subtle ways of doing it. He’d send an ambassador to spread discord in your pack or something like that. He wouldn’t say one thing and then attack you the next day. It shows no style.”
“Madeline is right,” Gabriel agreed. “The Morningstar, above all, prefers to appear above the fray.”
“Then who set those demons on our pack? Who took Wade, and the others? They took our cubs,” Jude said, and his face was haunted. “They took our future.”
The demons had taken the wolves’ children. Anger rose up inside me, pushing at my skin. I did not want to think about what demons would do with those children. Samiel slid his chair a little farther away from mine as electricity arced across my fingertips.
“We’ll get them back,” I promised. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to help you.”
“How?” Jude said. “I tried to track them. But it was like they disappeared into thin air. The trail just went cold.”
I looked at Gabriel, and I could tell that he was thinking what I was thinking.
“Portal,” I said. “The demons came through a portal and returned back through one.”
“That is the magic of the fallen,” Jude said. “Demons can’t make a portal on their own.”
I thought back to something that had happened a couple of months ago, and addressed my question to Beezle. “When Antares and his buddies attacked J.B. on the lawn, they escaped using a portal. How did they do that if they can’t make a portal on their own?”
“Most demons carry portal charms from their masters so that they can do the fallen’s bidding,” Beezle said.
“But they weren’t on my lawn at the behest of any of the fallen. They were there because of Antares,” I said. “Do they carry around extra charms? That seems like it would give the demons a lot more freedom than the fallen had intended for them.”
“What does this have to do with finding Wade and the cubs?” Jude said. “The demons are probably slaughtering them as we speak.”
“No,” I said. “They’re not. If the demons just wanted to kill them, then they wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of taking the wolves with them. They want them for some other purpose. The question is whether they’re doing it by someone’s command or if they have enough wherewithal to pull something like this off without any of the Grigori noticing.”
Samiel tapped his fingers so I would look at him. Focalor was trying to start an uprising. Maybe his demons have orders to continue without him.
Gabriel shook his head. “I am sure that Focalor’s minions are being watched closely.”
“Could a large group of demons do such a thing and go unnoticed by their masters?”
“In some courts, yes.” Gabriel frowned. “Which may help narrow things down. Not every court is as large as your father’s.”
“That’s assuming that the demons are acting without a master,” Jude said. He stood from the table and paced restlessly. “We’re not going to get anywhere by sitting around talking. We need to leave now.”
“And where do you suggest we go?” I asked. “You said yourself that you tried to follow the demons and your lead disappeared.”
“I have to do something!” Jude shouted, and something happened that had occurred the first time I met him. His bones shifted under his skin, and for a second I saw the wolf looking at me. Then he visibly shuddered, pulled himself back under control, and when he looked up again his face was Jude’s.
Everyone stared at me expectantly. Apparently, I was supposed to take charge.
“Okay,” I said, trying not to think about the cubs. If I thought about them, I would get emotional, and then I would be unable to think clearly. “First things first. We have to see if we can find out who’s doing this. Gabriel, do you think you could trace a power signature from the site where the wolves were attacked?”
“Possibly, if there is any residue from the demons’ magic.”
“Where is the rest of the pack, Jude?” I asked.
“They’
re in hiding. We have a contingency plan in the event of an attack.”
“Are they safe where they are?”
His eyes flickered with some indefinable emotion. “Safe enough. I wouldn’t have left them otherwise.”
“Okay. Gabriel and Samiel, will you come with me and Jude?” I had to make sure to present the request as such. I refused to have Gabriel throwing it back in my face that I’d “ordered” him to do anything.
Gabriel nodded, his face grave. “Of course. I would not leave cubs in the hands of demons.”
I’ll do whatever I can to help, Samiel signed.
“I’ll come along, too,” Beezle said. “You’ll probably need me.”
“I’ll need somebody to complain about how hungry they are and to fall asleep in my pocket just when something horrible is about to happen?”
“You know, I’m starting to feel like my services are underappreciated in this house,” Beezle said, landing heavily on my shoulder.
“Don’t think I’ve forgotten about the mess in the kitchen,” I said.
“Yeah, yeah. The dishes will still be there when we get back.”
“If we get back,” I muttered, wondering just what I was getting myself into this time.
We took a portal from the back yard to the place where the wolves had last been seen. It was some woody location in northern Wisconsin. I was a little unnerved by the complete and total lack of man-made noises, and tried not to reach for Lucifer’s sword, which I’d slung automatically over my shoulder before we’d left.
I am a city girl. I am accustomed to hearing the sounds of cars on the street, the roar of the El going by, the laughter of drunken Cubs fans. I am decidedly not used to the twitter of birds that are not pigeons, or the crackling of brush as little rodent things run through the forest.
The clearing had obviously been the site of an attack. Impressed in the dirt were the four-toed claw marks of demons and the paw prints of wolves. Broken shrubbery and bits of torn clothing were strewn everywhere. There were splashes of blood on the tree trunks, and the acid-burn streaks that indicated demon ichor.
Everyone in my party gave me the now-what? look. Beezle fluttered off my shoulder and alighted on a tree branch that gave him an overview of the area.
“What are you up to?” I asked.
“Surveying,” he said loftily.
“Code word for ‘napping,’” I replied. “Gabriel, will you look for any traces of power while the rest of us see what physical clues we can find?”
Gabriel nodded, but Jude gave an impatient huff.
“What do you think you will find that I didn’t? I told you, I tracked them as far as I could.”
“But you were upset and probably not thinking clearly,” I said, trying to be patient. “You may have missed a few things.”
“This is a waste of time,” he said.
“Fine, then don’t help,” I snapped. “Just sit there on your ass while we figure out who took Wade.”
“Are you implying that I don’t care about my pack?” Jude said.
I threw my hands up. “I imply nothing. Just do whatever the hell you want.”
I stomped away, sick to death of men and their delicate sensitivities. Samiel followed, tapping me on the shoulder.
“What is it?” I asked, turning on him with a snarl.
Don’t take it out on me just because you’re pissed at Jude.
I ran my hands through my hair. “Okay, okay. Sorry.”
It’s okay. I just wanted to stay with you while you searched.
I glanced over at Gabriel, who seemed to be feeling around the other side of the clearing with his magic, and raised an eyebrow at Samiel. He looked guilty.
I don’t need a babysitter, I signed.
Maybe I do, he signed back.
I gave a short laugh at that. Stay with me if it makes you feel better.
It does.
Jude had taken off somewhere while I’d been talking to Samiel, and good riddance to him. I didn’t need him snorting at me and second-guessing everything I did while I tried to help him find his lost pack mates. Beezle, as expected, was already snoring up in the tree.
Samiel and I started at the center of the clearing. I moved clockwise in a circle and he moved counterclockwise in a slightly larger diameter, each of us carefully checking the ground for anything that would indicate who had sent the demons.
I sent out a little questing thread of power, trying to see if I might stumble upon anything that Gabriel missed. I’d been trying to practice the more subtle forms of magic, to not let my emotions dictate to my abilities. I was getting better at it, but I was still nowhere close to Gabriel’s mastery. Plus, I still didn’t know how to trace a tiny flare of power to its source the way Gabriel did. But if I found something, I could at least show it to him and let him follow it.
I was getting a little dizzy walking in circles, my gaze completely focused on the dirt under my feet, but I didn’t want to accidentally miss anything. That was when I noticed something.
I put one knee on the ground and leaned forward, trying to make out the shape that was pressed into the dirt. It was inside a demon’s footprint, and it wasn’t perfectly clear, but it seemed to be the shape of a small V on top of a circle.
“This looks like a demon’s sigil,” I said, getting excited. I looked up for Samiel.
I realized that Samiel and Gabriel were gone, too. Beezle snoozed away up on his branch.
I didn’t know whether to be worried or annoyed that both of them had disappeared without a word. The last time Gabriel had gone missing, he’d been taken captive by Samiel and traded to Focalor.
I didn’t think I had to worry about Samiel’s intentions anymore, but maybe some other creature had gotten both of them. Or maybe they had gone off following clues, so absorbed in their search that they didn’t think to notify me.
“And standing here speculating is not productive,” I muttered to myself. “Beezle!”
He kept rumbling away like a freight train, so I goosed him with my power. He came awake with a snort and a glare.
“What was that for?” he said, flying down to my shoulder.
“Samiel and Gabriel are gone,” I said.
“You woke me up for that?”
“Don’t you care that more than half our party is missing?”
“They’re probably just following leads, the way you asked them to,” he said, rolling his head and cracking his neck.
“Yeah, probably,” I said unconvincingly.
The forest seemed unnaturally quiet all of a sudden, as if all the little creatures had gone still in the presence of a predator. I stilled, too, listening for any sign of Gabriel or Samiel or Jude moving through the brush. Beezle stopped moving, finally catching on that something was wrong.
We waited a few minutes. His claws tightened on my shoulders. I tried to steady my breath, to control my galloping heart. Something was about to happen. I could feel it.
There was a sudden crash in the woods only a few feet from where we stood. I turned toward the sound, saw the flashes of light that indicated magic, heard the repeated percussion of flesh hitting flesh, followed by grunts of pain.
I started toward the noise, drawing the sword and holding it before me. The snake tattooed on my right palm wriggled underneath my glove like it recognized its former home. Beezle squeezed his claws in warning. “Wait. It could be a trick, or a trap.”
“It could also be Samiel or Gabriel getting the sense knocked out of them,” I said, and continued toward the sound anyway.
A second later Samiel and Gabriel appeared, Samiel looking proud, Gabriel grim. They each held the shoulder of an unconscious figure they dragged between them. Jude followed behind them, wiping his knuckles on his shirt.
The figure had white wings, and golden hair that covered his face, but I knew who he was even before they tossed him to the ground at my feet.
“Nathaniel,” I said. “What is he doing here?”
3
“LOOKS LIKE WE FOUND OUR CULPRIT,” JUDE SAID with a satisfied air. “Once he wakes up we can make him tell us where Wade is.”
I rubbed the bridge of my nose. This was a complication that I had not foreseen.
“Look, I’ll agree that it’s suspicious that he’s out here in the middle of nowhere at the same time as a demon attack, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that he’s the mastermind behind it. There could be any number of reasons for his appearance.”
“Such as?” Jude challenged.
“I don’t know,” I said helplessly, looking at Gabriel and Samiel. Samiel shrugged.
“He could be here as an ambassador from Lord Azazel,” Gabriel said slowly. “Nathaniel is often sent on such missions for both Lord Azazel and Lord Lucifer. He is a trusted emissary.”
“Then why was he sneaking through the woods, trying not be detected?” Jude said. “I followed him for a good distance and he was clearly trying not to make noise.”
“Just because he was trying to be circumspect doesn’t mean that his actions are suspicious,” I said.
“Just because he is your fiancé doesn’t mean that he is above suspicion,” Jude snapped back. “If anything, his ties to Lucifer make him less credible in my eyes.”
“You’re letting your prejudice blind you. And Nathaniel is not my fiancé,” I shouted.
I wondered why I was trying to defend Nathaniel. He had assaulted me in Amarantha’s castle. Even though he had been under the influence of a spell at the time, I still suspected that the seed of jealousy had always been there, and that the spell had only magnified thoughts and impulses that he had buried deep within.
I did not like him, I did not trust him and I certainly didn’t want to be married to him. But I also did not want to make assumptions, to miss out on finding the real culprits because we were distracted by Nathaniel.
The subject of this heated conversation groaned, and we all looked down. Nathaniel opened his ice-blue eyes, saw himself surrounded by a bunch of hostile stares, and seemed to calculate in an instant the correct course of action. He held his hands up above his shoulders while still lying prone on the ground, and made no move to sit up.
Black Howl Page 3
