Fiends and Familiars

by Dunbar, Debra

  The thought turned those worms under my skin to knives. I might never see her again, but I’d gladly pay the price to know she was happy.

  As we screeched to a stop in front of her house, Addy was far from happy. She let out a cry that nearly ripped me in half, then flung open the car door and raced across her lawn.

  “No!”

  She scrambled through the wreckage of the front door. I heard her sobs, but took my time getting out of the car. There was no one for me to battle, no one for me to kill. As I feared, we were too late.

  The house…the house could be fixed, although I sensed that by breaking through her wards and damaging her sanctuary, Abraxas had wounded my beloved almost as much as if he’d hurt her physically. I followed her inside, watched as she searched the house, a singed vulture limping beside her.

  “He’s not here. That asshole took him!” Addy turned to me, her hands in fists, her eyes full of fire. I saw three squirrels emerge from the rubble of her kitchen at her voice, tentatively making their way toward her.

  I gathered her into my arms. “I know. I’m sorry, Addy. I’m so sorry.”

  Her tears were a mixture of sorrow and anger. After a few seconds she pulled back, and looked up at me. “He killed Rhoid. He killed him so he could take his soul to hell and torture him. How can he do that, Ty? How?”

  I knew how. “The contract says his soul belongs to hell once he’s dead. We’re demons, Addy. When faced with that sort of thing, our impulse is to immediately make Faust dead so we can collect what’s due to us. He’s avoided punishment for so long. It was bound to happen.”

  I knew as soon as I’d said it that I should have just kept my mouth shut. She pounded her fists on my chest, shrieking in fury. “That’s wrong! He might have been clever enough to weasel out of his contract for hundreds of years, then to escape hell, but that’s no reason to kill him. Your co-worker terminated his life before it had run its course. That’s wrong!”

  I held her tight, let her rage and punch until she just slumped against me and cried. It hurt—not her punches, but her sorrow. Faust was an absolute jerk, and I shouldn’t care one bit about whether Abraxas killed him or not, but I did.

  I cared because Faust had been my soul to deal with, not that fuck head Abraxas. And I cared because Addy grieved over the loss of that annoying squirrel who’d once been a clever wizard.

  I didn’t know what I could do. If I went to Lucien, I’d be a whiny demon ratting out a co-worker. If I went to Satan, he’d laugh at me and probably punish me for not being the one with enough balls to bring Faust back to hell.

  There was only one thing I could do. So I kissed Addy on the forehead and left her in the rubble of her house to do it.

  Chapter 16

  Adrienne

  Ty left and I immediately felt bereft at his absence. Rhoid was gone. Gone. Dead. I’d never see him again.

  Ever since Cassie took up with Lucien, I’d had a different opinion of demons. Yes, they had their business, and I didn’t always approve of their methods, but who was I to criticize how God and Satan managed the afterlife of reward and punishment? Plus Lucien was nice. He adored Cassie. He went out of his way to make sure his infernal career didn’t interfere with their relationship. I knew he’d made huge sacrifices in both his reputation and in his business decisions to keep the peace with Cassie.

  And then there had been Hadur, a warmonger who was so gentle and devoted to Bronwyn. And Nash, a reaper. Eshu, a sort-of demon, although I honestly thought he might be a demi-god. Then Xavier, a crossroads demon who bargained the sort of contracts that Rhoid had agreed to when he’d been Faust.

  They were wonderful men, even though they were demons who had jobs that involved the punishment of wayward souls. They ate dinner with us every Sunday. They loved my sisters. I’d just assumed all demons were like them.

  Then Ty had shaken my faith. And this Abraxas had completely broken it.

  He’d smashed though my wards. He’d broken into my house and trashed it. He’d stolen a being that was under my protection, killed him, and taken him to hell. Me. A witch. The sister of the very witch who was mated to the son of Satan.

  I didn’t feel safe. I didn’t feel powerful. I wasn’t sure how I was going to ever sit down to Sunday dinner with my sisters’ demon mates and make small talk with them when one of their own had done this to me.

  I knelt in my trashed kitchen and cried, Oak, Pine, and Maple snuggling against me in sympathy. Drake came and perched on my shoulder, running his sharp beak through my hair. I turned to him, feeling his soft feathers under my hands. He’d been hurt defending the house, defending Rhoid, but he’d healed since I’d gotten back.

  I guessed familiars had powers of their own.

  I tried, my witch. I tried to save the squirrel, but the demon’s fire was too much for me.

  “It’s my fault, Drake,” I told him. “I shouldn’t have gone to that stupid party. I should never have left you all alone here. I just thought after what happened in Cassie’s office, that Rhoid would be safe here in my house, behind my wards.”

  It’s not your fault. Drake nuzzled me again. It’s that demon’s fault.

  I wiped my eyes and gave each of the squirrels a reassuring pat. It might be Abraxas’s fault, but there was nothing I could do about it. Rhoid was gone, and somehow I’d need to figure out how I was going to handle all of this going forward. Should I move farther away so I didn’t have to face demons once every week at dinner? Should I just mourn Rhoid and continue on with my life?

  Or should I get off my knees and fight to get my squirrel back, even if he was dead? For fuck’s sake, my sister was mated to the son of Satan. My sisters’ mates were five powerful denizens of hell. I needed to fight this. Even if Satan refused to intervene and I lost Rhoid forever, I’d never forgive myself if I didn’t at least make an attempt to get him back.

  The first step would be to go see Cassie. My house wasn’t fit to spend the night in anyway, and Cassie did live in our family home, the one we’d all grown up in, that generations of Perkins witches had called their home since the founding of Accident. I texted Babylon to let her know what was going on, so she wouldn’t freak if she drove by here and saw the condition of my house. Then I loaded three squirrels, a vulture, and a bag of clothes into my truck, and drove to Accident.

  * * *

  “This is bullshit.” Cassie paced back and forth across the kitchen, sparks flying from her fingertips. I eyed her in a bit of alarm. Would I be worried about putting out random fires for the second time tonight? Because Cassie was just as likely to start setting things alight as demons evidently were.

  “Tell me exactly what happened,” Lucien said. His voice was calm and even, but he was also sending quick glances toward Cassie that showed he was equally as alarmed as I was.

  “I was at a party, and while I was in the middle of the corn maze, a demon came out of nowhere and tried to grab me. I ran, but he tried to grab me again, and Ty fought him off. He said the demon was Abraxas.”

  Lucien’s brows knitted together. “Abraxas.”

  Cassie stopped her pacing. “Not that asshole your father’s been fawning over for the last few months?”

  Lucien nodded. “He has taken quite a liking to Abraxas. It’s problematic. He’s not likely to support me if I lodge a complaint against the demon. He’ll say Abraxas was justified in using whatever force was necessary to retrieve a soul that has eluded us for so long. In spite of what the contract says,” he quickly added as he saw actual flames flicker in Cassie’s palms.

  “But he tried to abduct me,” I stressed. “Then he distracted us with three demons who attacked us in full view of a group of humans, while he was smashing through my wards and destroying my house to get to Rhoid. I mean, Faust.”

  “Breaking and entering,” Cassie snapped. “Attempted kidnapping. Assault. Did I mention breaking and entering? And all that’s before we even get to him taking a squirrel that was under the protection of my sister.”
>
  “My father isn’t going to give a damn about Addy protecting Faust in the form of a squirrel,” Lucien argued. “And he probably won’t give a damn about the rest either. Cassie, darling, please try to understand the situation. I’m the son of Satan, but I’m not my father and I don’t have his authority.”

  “I think we need to let Ty deal with this,” Babylon interjected. She’d arrived not long after I had, and was in the process of making a big pot of coffee for everyone.

  “Ty?” Lucien laughed. “He’s the master of the hellhounds, and I’ll admit that he is a powerful demon, but he’s no match for Abraxas, especially with my father backing the latter.”

  “He beat the crap out of him in the corn maze.” I wasn’t sure why I was defending Ty, but I found myself absolutely incensed that Lucien would think my demon was no match for Abraxas. He’d wipe the floor with that asshole. Wipe. The. Floor.

  Lucien’s eyebrows rose. “With his hellhounds?”

  “No, he took Abraxas on without any of his hellhounds, and won.” I felt rather smug about that. “I don’t know why your father likes Abraxas so much, because in my opinion, he’s a boot-licking weasel.”

  Lucien laughed. “I think so too, but my father does have his favorites. Thankfully they don’t seem to remain his favorites for longer than a few years.”

  Cassie stopped and put her hand on Lucien’s chest. “And no matter what, you’re always his son.”

  The demon preened. “Well, yes. Although he doesn’t always support me or agree with me. He does allow me a lot of latitude in the areas of hell that are under my control.”

  “Then use that influence,” Cassie insisted. “Do something. You can’t let this sort of thing go unpunished. If witches were to think that demons could attack them, invade their homes and take what belongs to them without any sort of repercussions, then all the trust we’ve built since you and I met would be destroyed.”

  There were few things in this world that demons were wary of, and witches were at the top of that list. We could summon them. We could entrap them and deprive them of their powers. But together, mated, a witch and a demon were nearly unstoppable. Lucien might be the son of Satan, but with Cassie by his side, his power could rival his father’s.

  And he knew that. He also knew how much Cassie’s family meant to her.

  “I’ll see what I can do.” Lucien sighed. “I’m not promising anything specific, but I’m going to assess the situation, see what things look like in hell, then come up with a few solutions we can consider.”

  It sounded like a bunch of corporate-speak to me, but I was exhausted both physically and emotionally, and right now I didn’t have the strength to argue. So I nodded, thanked Lucien for his help, and went upstairs to sleep in my old bedroom, curled up in bed with three squirrels and a vulture.

  Chapter 17

  Typhon

  I left Addy’s, went straight to hell, then cloaked myself in the form I assumed when I was presenting myself as Master of the Hounds. Gathering my pack together, I went straight to the top.

  Satan was relaxing in a giant pool of hot lava, a drink in one hand and a copy of the Wall Street Journal in the other. The paper kept catching fire from its proximity to the lava. Each time the ruler of hell would curse, shake the paper, and blow the fire out. I wondered how many articles he’d not been able to finish because the continuation had burned away.

  “Well, if it isn’t Typhon, the demon who lost Faust’s soul.” Satan grinned at me once I’d been announced, and waved me over to the pool. The paper vanished, replaced by a lit cigar. “With all your hellhounds, I was a bit surprised to have Abraxas be the one to bring him in. Although I shouldn’t have been surprised. That guy’s got talent. Promise. He’s going places.”

  “Abraxas didn’t find Faust. I did. My hellhounds located him, and I was working to retrieve him.” I shut my mouth, knowing better than to accuse Abraxas of swooping in and stealing Faust’s soul from under my nose. Satan didn’t take kindly to tattletales, and he didn’t care who got the job done or how, as long as it gone done. If I delayed, and Abraxas got the upper hand, that would only raise the other demon higher in Satan’s estimation.

  Satan puffed on the cigar and nodded. “So I hear. My son told me you were closing in on our famous escapee. Some of the credit does go to you, although you were the one who lost him.”

  I gritted my teeth, detesting that I’d forever have that blot on my record.

  Satan saw my expression and threw back his head with a laugh that shook the firmament and sloshed lava from the edge of the pool. “I can’t completely blame you for that one. Faust is one tricky bastard, and he had help from demons I’d thought I could trust. The fact that he escaped is as much my fault as it is yours.”

  Satan must be in a rare happy mood if he was actually accepting the blame for anything. I played along, protesting that he shouldn’t take any responsibility for that. Faust had been my responsibility, and if I’d trusted the wrong people, that was my fault as well.

  He waved the hand holding the cigar. “That’s all in the past now, Typhon. Faust is in our hands. Now I just need to think of the right place for him to go for his eternal punishment.”

  “And that, my Lord Satan, is why I am here.” My hounds came forward to sit by my side, their eyes glowing, their fangs dripping a viscous liquid that sizzled when it hit the rocky floor. “No one in hell is as motivated as I am when it comes to Faust’s punishment. It’s personal for me. He escaped under my watch, and that’s something I feel compelled to punish with my very own hands.”

  Satan’s eyes lit with orange sparks, brighter and fierier than the flame at the end of his cigar. “I’m intrigued, Typhon, but Abraxas has asked to be the one to punish Faust. And after all, he is the one who brought the reprobate back to hell.”

  “And left a damned mess in his wake that I’m having to deal with,” an angry voice boomed from behind me. I didn’t have to turn to know that Lucien had joined us. He was the only one in hell who spoke to Satan in such a way, and the only one who could stride right in the devil’s personal quarters without being announced.

  Lucien stopped in front of his father. “There was a reason Typhon held back on grabbing Faust. Issues in the contract for Faust’s soul had come to light and they needed to be clarified before we proceeded. Abraxas jumped the gun. I’m in the mood to hoist him up on the rack right beside Faust.”

  Satan’s eyebrows shot up. “Such temper, Lucien. It suits you. But I also appreciate bold action that gets results and Abraxas has demonstrated such bold action.”

  “Yeah, at the expense of our reputation.” Lucien’s reply had his father pausing mid-sip of his drink. “The contract had loopholes. If it comes out that we can’t be counted upon to abide by our own deals, to withhold action until the legalities are clarified, then our annual numbers will suffer. Humans will be reluctant to sell their souls if the deal they strike might not be upheld due to the whim of some demon who decides bold action is more important than keeping to our binding agreements.”

  Satan sucked in a breath, setting his drink to the side of the lava pool. “Did we wrongfully collect a soul? What did the contract bind us to do or not do?”

  The leader of hell had reason to be concerned. Wrongfully collecting and/or detaining a soul against the contract both parties had signed had huge repercussions. There would be an audit. There would be an oversight committee. Angels would get involved on behalf of the soul. Lucien’s grandfather himself might get involved. No one wanted that, least of all Satan who hadn’t been on speaking terms with his father since he’d stormed out of heaven so long ago, taking half the family business along with its assets and employees.

  “We are very lucky,” Lucien shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe how lucky the denizens of hell truly were in this matter. “Faust’s soul is indeed destined for hell, but it is only ours when he is deceased. Thus when he escaped and was resurrected as a squirrel, he no longer belonged to hell and shou
ld have been free from pursuit until after his death.”

  Satan let out a relieved breath. “Well, no one needs to know that we were pursuing him. And as he’s dead now, the point is moot. He’s dead for the second time, and upon his death his soul reverts to hell. Now we just have to make sure the slippery bastard doesn’t manage to get resurrected again.”

  “Normally I would agree, father, but Abraxas has put the whole thing in jeopardy. In his rush to claim Faust and the glory of capturing him, he has put us at grave risk of a complaint and an investigation.”

  Satan sat up taller, tossing his cigar into the pool of lava. “What the hell do you mean? He grabbed the squirrel, killed it, and collected the soul. That might have gone a bit over the line of the contract, but that little fact will stay in hell. Who’d complain? Faust? If the oversight committee listened to every whining soul who claimed they were innocent and shouldn’t be here, they’d be buried in cases. And if any humans saw, then they’d just think some guy killed a squirrel. It happens all the time. No one is going to go running to heaven about a squirrel.”

  “Abraxas broke through a witch’s wards, destroyed her house, and took an animal, a soul, that was currently under her protection,” Lucien snapped. “That witch complains, we’re going to be buried in internal affairs shit for centuries. They’ll find the loophole in the contract. They’ll audit every contract we’ve done for the last two millennia. They’ll probably fast-track Faust up to heaven.”