by Lisa Olsen
“Who says I need protection? Do you see me quaking in my boots?” My chin came up in challenge.
“I ‘ear your boy is in chains under Raum’s boot. I ‘ear your boy bleeds real pretty-like,” he chortled, and I got a flash of an image I’d been trying to ignore ever since Adam left.
“Okay, you know what? I’m done playing.” I wasn’t there to verbally spar with the scumbag, I was after some answers.
“I’m not, pretty, I’ve only just begun,” he advanced, his grin stretching obscenely wide.
Somehow I knew he wasn’t in for a Carpenters sing-a-long, but I was ready for him. With a flick of the wrist, I called forth my sword, gratified to see his eyes bulge in acknowledgement. “On second thought, I could go for a game or two. How about we play… pin the tail on the demon? No? Where’s your laughter now, you bastard?” Rage swept through me, all the anger and frustration finally having a target right in front of me to take it out on. What was to stop me from killing him? Absolutely nothing. I would be doing the world a favor.
Cephas must have seen the deadly intent on my face as he started to back up, his hands stretched out in front of him. “Now ‘old on there, pretty. Don’t go doin’ anythin’ you’d regret later. I ain’t done nothin’ to you since Adamiel told me not to.”
“But you did go back to Raum and tell him all about me, didn’t you?” my eyes glittered dangerously. It was because of him I’d drawn Raum’s attention in the first place.
“I might ‘ave said some such…”
“You little rat, this is all your fault!” I laid the flat of the blade against his throat and he let out a shriek as it burned his skin with a hiss.
“I beg mercy, Mistress,” Cephas whined, going down on his knees.
“The hell I will. None of your kind have ever shown me the smallest amount, why should I?” Pressing a little harder, I felt the sword bite into his neck, just enough for the stain of black blood to taint the blade.
“Merceline,” I felt Sam’s hand on my shoulder, but I tried to shrug off the soothing waves of Grace I felt emanating from him. I wanted to hold on to my anger, it gave me strength.
“Give me one reason why I shouldn’t skewer his black heart right where he stands.”
“Perhaps he has some information to tell us?” Sam’s face took on a speculative look.
“Old Cephas knows lots of things, ‘e does,” the demon nodded quickly, spittle flying from the corners of his mouth in eagerness to offer his services.
“He doesn’t know dick,” I maintained, holding the sword in place.
“No, I do! Just ask and you’ll see,” Cephas begged, and I gave Sam a faint nod to go ahead.
“What do you know of another way in to Midian, beyond the main gate?”
“You’re askin’ about fairy stories?” His face scrunched up in confusion, and Sam nodded.
“Tell us and we’ll set you free.”
Cephas sat back on his heels as he thought it over. “There is a way, but you gots to know where the portal is. I’ve never ‘ad cause to find it m’self, Naberios lets me go through whenever I want to.”
“So, where is the portal?” I pressed again with the blade.
“Don’t know ‘ow much stock to place in it, but I’ve ‘eard stories. Was a legend once of a fallen angel who falls in love with a demon, see? And they worked a spell to create a doorway. Don’t know if it’s true or a load of bollocks,” he shrugged.
“Can you ask this demon where it is?”
“No good, she died real tragic-like. Shame too, she was a pretty piece of crumpet, as I recalls it.”
“What’s the name of the fallen angel?” If he said Adamiel I was going to seriously lose it, but instead he named another angel I’d heard of before.
“Name’s Remiel. Fell ‘ead over ‘eels.”
“Oh, Remiel and Lysha… I have heard this story before,” Sam’s eyes widened in recognition and I shot him a withering glance.
“And you didn’t think to mention it before now?”
“Lysha, that’s the one,” Cephas nodded energetically, reaching up to straighten his hat. “Right, I gave you what you wanted, you said you’d let me go now.”
I moved the sword away from his throat, but Sam replaced it with his hand, slamming Cephas back against the dirty alley floor. “I said we’d set you free.” Sam’s eyes narrowed, that deathly calm settling over him as his hand began to glow. “I judge thee, unclean thing. I abjure thee, and cast thee into the cleansing fires of hell.” Cephas’ mouth fell open with a horrible gurgle, and I turned around, not having the stomach to watch. When I felt Sam rise to stand beside me, I darted a quick look, but there wasn’t a sign of the demon anywhere. Nothing left but a scorched mark on the pavement.
“If you were going to kill him anyway, why didn’t you let me run him through?” I asked as we walked back to the car. While it felt good to know Cephas had gotten his just deserts, I couldn’t help but feel a little cheated out of getting to skewer him myself after all the trouble he’d caused.
“I didn’t want you to give in to the dark side of the force.”
So, he’d finally gotten around to watching the Star Wars movies… “Looking out for my immortal soul are you? Thanks Obi-Wan,” I grinned. “But what about your soul, aren’t you worried about what it does to you to kill demons?”
“I did it without hatred in my heart. I didn’t simply murder him, I cleansed the world of his presence. There is a difference.”
I mulled that over as we got to the car, Sam leaning against the front in lieu of climbing back inside again. “If we’re going to find the portal he mentioned, we need to find out everything there is to know about this Remiel and Lysha.”
“As I said, I have heard their story before, but the details escape me. I’ll consult my books, see what I can dig up.”
“Thanks again, Sam. We made a good team tonight.”
“We did, didn’t we,” he brightened at the thought. “I quite liked playing bad cop.”
“Bad cop?” I laughed. “If anything you were the good cop, I was the bad cop.”
“I’m the one who dispatched him.”
“Only because I threatened him enough to get him to spill his guts,” I pointed out and that just confused the heck out of him.
“But… I stopped you before you gutted him.”
“I meant… tell us what he knew, not literally spill his guts.”
“Oh, I see. Yes, you were very good at getting him to empty quite a few guts. I believe he would have told us anything we wanted to know.”
“Too bad he didn’t tell us how to find this Remiel.”
“Perhaps we should have asked him,” Sam considered aloud, his head canting to one side.
Oops. “Huh. Yep, we probably should have asked him that,” I agreed. So much for patting ourselves on the back for a job well done. “Ah well, we can always catch another demon if your books don’t turn anything up.” Or maybe Luz might have a clue where the fallen angel lived?
“I should like that very much. Thank you for showing me where they congregate.”
Uh oh. Had I opened up a new hobby for him? “You didn’t know where the gate to Midian was before today?”
“No, I have never trailed them to where they emerged from Midian, and I have never sought to go there. I told you, most angels avoid it at all costs.”
“Be careful then, if you pick off too many of them by the gate, they might send reinforcements.”
“Don’t worry, Mercy, I know a thing or two about not spooking my prey,” he chuckled, and I was reminded that he’d been fighting ‘the dark side’ for thousands of years. Sometimes I forgot how much life experience Sam had, since he was often clueless about the simplest of things. But maybe, as Daphne had said, he was really starting to embrace this century and understand the way the world worked?
“Maybe next time we capture a demon, we can ask them what it means, ‘The Honey Pot’?” he added with a beatific smile.
M
aybe not.
Chapter Seven
It didn’t take long to track Remiel down once we knew what we were looking for. A short drive for me (and flight for Sam), and we found ourselves standing outside the aptly named Vagabond Inn in a rundown part of Tacoma. Despite the late (or early, depending on how you looked at it) hour, the light was on inside, and knowing angels didn’t need to sleep, I knocked boldly on the door.
“Somethin’ I can help you with, sugar?”
He was gorgeous, as all angels were, but something about him seemed… dirty. Not just because of the greasy blonde hair that obscured half his unshaven face or the soiled wife beater he wore with blue jeans so torn and faded, I could see through them in spots. His room was liberally strewn with garbage. Old pizza boxes, beer bottles, and more than one pair of lacy panties; it looked like a frat party exploded in there a few weeks ago and no one had bothered to clean it up.
I’m not sure what I expected to see, but that wasn’t it. Sure I knew he was Fallen, but so were Sam and Adam, it didn’t give them the excuse to live in a pigsty. When people talked about Adam living in debauchery for centuries, was that what they meant?
“We’re looking for Remiel,” I managed to get out, more than a little disconcerted. I might even have thought we had the wrong place entirely, but nothing could disguise the golden nimbus that surrounded him, or the bright (if bloodshot), blue eyes.
“Well, you found him,” he shrugged, squinting against the light. “Either one of you got a smoke on you?” His voice had a distinctly Southern twang to it, like he’d spent some time in Texas maybe, and the accent had stuck.
“I do not smoke,” Sam volunteered and Remiel cupped his fingers over his eyes to peer at him more closely.
“Oh, it’s you. Shit, I thought you got busted down like the rest of us? What are you doing working for the skirts upstairs?”
An interesting name for the heavenly host… “He’s not working for them, he’s helping me. Do you think we could come inside maybe?” Not that I thought anyone might be watching us, but I didn’t want to linger outside in that neighborhood.
“You can come in anytime you want, sugar,” he leered openly, leaning against the door as he opened it wide. Sam strode in, immediately frowning in distaste over the filth.
“I will wait outside, if you don’t mind, Mercy.” Sam looked to me for permission and I gave him a nod. Remiel might be a pig, but I was pretty sure I could handle him.
“Mercy… mercy… mercy… ain’t you just the type to make a man sit up and beg for a little.” Despite the generally disheveled look, his teeth were even and white as he smiled. He might have been stunningly handsome if he made the slightest effort to clean himself up.
“Do you know who I am?” I asked, making sure, since it seemed like every other supernatural creature I ran into had my whole dossier memorized.
“You got a website, honey?”
It figured he wouldn’t notice anything through the hangover. “Take another look.” He wasn’t that bombed that he couldn’t see my Grace, was he?
“Well, hot damn, look at you…” his eyes widened in genuine surprise. “There’s somethin’ I don’t see every day.”
Glad I had his attention, I forged on. “I don’t know how up you are on current events, but we could really use your help.”
“What kind of help?” It didn’t take much to hear the skepticism in his voice, and I talked fast before his curiosity ran out.
“I understand you know how to get in and out of Midian without going through the main gate. I want you to show me how to do it.”
Remiel grabbed a half empty beer bottle off the counter and took a swig. “Shit, why don’t you slice open my belly and drag me around by my innards?” he replied sourly, sitting down on a beat up ottoman.
“Ah, I’d rather find out how to get into Midian.”
“Did it ever occur to you I might not want to have anything to do with those fuckers? I been tryin’ my damnedest to forget about them ever since…”
“Ever since Lysha?”
“Don’t say her name like you know me,” he growled, lurching to his feet and stretching to his full six foot plus height. My hands came up to press against his chest, and I sent out calming Grace, making my voice as soothing as possible.
“No, I get it, I don’t know you. I don’t know anything about you, except that you risked everything for her once, like I’m willing to risk for the man I love.” I don’t know if it was the Grace or my reply, but Remiel’s anger fizzled out, his eyes dropping to look where my hands laid on his chest before he cocked a brow at me.
“You want me to show you a way to get into Midian without getting caught. What for? Are you in love with a demon?”
“They’re holding my…” boyfriend seemed like a trivial word for what we shared, but I wasn’t sure what else to call him. “…Adamiel, do you know him?”
“Your Adamiel,” a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. “Sure, me and him have raised the roof a time or two,” he chuckled. “So, you’re one of Adamiel’s girls, are you?”
I ignored the dig, it didn’t matter what Adam had done in the past. I knew how much I meant to him without having to justify it to a broken down hick of an angel. “Can you help me get in or not?”
“Sure, I’ll help you, sugar.”
“You will?” My face lit up in a relieved smile, finally we were getting somewhere!
“For a price.”
Just like that my smile crumpled. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means, what’s in it for me?” He laid his hands on my hips and I shoved him away in disgust. Even if I wasn’t in love with Adam, he wouldn’t have been my type, even if he did have those little muscles on the sides of his arms that drive me wild.
“Ugh, no way.”
“Why not? I got needs too, same as anybody else. You might even like it,” he gave me a slow, sexy smile that was somewhat marred by the dirty hair hanging in his face.
“Not a friggin’ chance in hell.”
“I also accept cash,” he sat down on the ottoman again. “Twenty large.”
“As in twenty thousand?” My brows climbed skyward and he grinned at my reaction.
“I don’t mean twenty bucks.”
“Do I look like I have that kind of money?”
“That ain’t my problem. I’m sure there’s somethin’ you can do worth that kind of money.” His eyes traveled the length of my body and I felt the urge to shower. Or possibly delouse.
I threw open the door, gratified to find Sam standing right outside. “Isn’t there something you can do to make him talk?”
“I may not strike at another angel,” he shrugged helplessly.
“That’s something you could have told me before I took you along.” Somehow I thought Parker might have had less scruples about it. Then again, things had been a little weird between Parker and me ever since the detective’s visit, so it was probably for the best that we hadn’t had too much alone time together lately.
Turning back to face Remiel, I tried one last time to appeal to his sense of decency. “Don’t you want to help me because it’s the right thing to do?”
“Shit, I ain’t done the right thing since before you were born, sugar. Ain’t no reason to think about startin’ now.”
“But a terrible evil will be unleashed if we leave him down there.”
“Not my problem, gorgeous. If it’s as bad as all that, you might want to rethink my offer,” he slapped his thighs as if he thought I would jump on his lap.
God, we were so close, but I couldn’t give him what he wanted. Even if it meant setting Adam free, I wouldn’t be able to live knowing I’d debased myself like that. Frustration swept through me and I called the sword to my hand without thinking twice about it. Sam might not be able to strike at another angel, but I was under no such vow.
“Mercy, no, you mustn’t.” Sam’s hand caught my wrist before I’d even moved a half step.
“L
et me go, I’ll make him talk,” I growled, shooting Sam a dirty look for stopping me.
“Damn, the kitty’s got claws,” Remiel chuckled, as if we were there solely for his entertainment. “Alright then, kitten. You decide you want to pay the piper, you know where to find me.” There was no mistaking the air of finality in his voice. I got the impression there was room for negotiation, but I would still end up giving far more than I wanted to in dealing with him.
“The next time I find you, you might want to reconsider that position,” I muttered, sending away my sword with a snick and tearing my hand free from Sam’s.
“I got a few positions you might want to reconsider,” he sniggered, and I decided that was it. I had to get out of there before I did something we might all regret. For the moment, there was at least a ray of hope that there was another way into Midian, we just had to find the right price to get access to it.
*
“I’m telling you, a bank heist is the way to go. You make yourself all invisible, and tiptoe in there, and no one will be the wiser.” Matty stretched out on my couch, beer in hand.
“For the last time, no, I will not be committing larceny of any kind to get the money to pay that hick off. Nevermind the fact that it’s plain wrong, I would hate to give him the satisfaction.” Any kind of satisfaction. There had to be another way. “Maybe you could go try to talk to him,” I appealed to Raziel, who returned from his trip without another shred of useful assistance.
“I would not be of help to you with Remiel,” he shook his head sadly.
“Why not?”
A pained expression flickered over his face. “I was the one who dispatched his lady love.”
“You’re the one who killed Lysha?” my mouth dropped open. Talk about a small world.
“In my defense, she was a demon, and as the Angel of Death it has fallen upon me to destroy many a demon over the years.”
“That pretty much leaves you out of the negotiating process then, unless we offer you up to Remiel to torture in exchange for the location of the portal,” I muttered, shaking my head when I saw the look of panic come over him. “Relax, I have no intention of turning you over to him or anyone else.”
