Martinis with the Devil

by A. A. Chamberlynn

  My turn now. The guard held the device up toward my mouth. “Zyan Star. Soul thief, kickass bartender and occasional bounty hunter.” I said it deadpan, no hint of humor in my voice. Not a one of them cracked a smile. Seriously?

  The light on the device turned blue this time, and the robot voice said, “Voice scan obtained and stored.”

  The metal doors whooshed open like elevator doors, but faster, like on a spaceship. Pretty cool. We passed through into a narrow hall. This hall was cylindrical and lined with shiny white panels. We had taken not two steps when all of the panels turned a dull red. I froze. “Weapons scan initiated,” said an electronic voice. A humming filled the hall. Eli didn’t pause, so I started moving again. After a few seconds, all the panels turned purple and the voice said, “Bomb scan initiated.” One more time, the panels changed, this time to a pale blue. “Mind scan initiated.”

  “Mind scan? What the hell is that?”

  Eli glanced back over his shoulder. “It reads your intentions. So, if you’re here to assassinate the HR, we’ll know about it. The entrances to this hall will be locked, and they won’t be so friendly at the next checkpoint.”

  “I didn’t even know the technology existed for something like that,” I said, truly awestruck.

  “It doesn’t, at least not for society as a whole. Not even the government has this stuff. Well, this exact method.”

  I wondered what he meant by that, and what depth of knowledge he possessed about the governments of the world, but before I could ask the doors on the other side of the tunnel slid open and we emerged into a small room. “I guess you passed,” he said, a slight smile playing on his lips. He was enjoying my discomfort.

  Another twenty or so guards crowded the next room, a large, white rectangle that reminded me of a psych ward. The guard closest to the door approached me. “Your katana, and your hira-shuriken, please.”

  “My throwing stars? I’ll get them back, right?”

  “Of course,” he said, face expressionless. Eli rolled his eyes at my wistful expression as I handed over my weapons. “You may proceed,” the guard said, bowing slightly and indicating a door on the opposite side of the room.

  “Is the HR even awake at this late an hour?” I whispered to Eli, but he ignored me and opened the door.

  Stepping through the door, it seemed we had moved through a portal to another world. Darkness lay beyond, a purple twilight hue, lit only by the flickering of candles and lanterns. An elegant Japanese-style garden lay before us, complete with reflecting ponds, bamboo and pagodas. The ceiling twinkled faintly like the light of a thousand stars, though I knew we were deep within the headquarters and only impenetrable metal and a bomb-resistant forcefield lay above us. An earthy incense floated on the air, and somewhere in the darkness I heard the bubbling of water from one of the ponds.

  Eli led the way across the garden, pebbles crunching beneath our boots. We walked over an arched bridge and into a large pagoda. A single lantern cast light on a figure sitting in the far corner, cross-legged in meditation. His eyes were closed, and I took a moment to observe him. He looked younger in person than he did on TV, forties maybe, with golden skin and soft black hair. I imagined it must be a heavy burden being one of only eleven HRs in the entire world. And being the only human in this building full of angels.

  “A burden I shoulder gladly,” the man said, opening his eyes and smiling at me.

  I froze in place. Unnerving much?

  “I apologize if I’ve made you uncomfortable, Ms. Star,” he said. “Please, have a seat.”

  “Call me Zyan,” I said, lowering myself onto the cool tiles across from him. Eli did the same.

  “Certainly,” the HR replied. His voice was incredibly soothing, as one might expect from someone sitting in a pagoda, in a Japanese garden, probably communing with God. “Undoubtedly Eli has told you of our problem, and subsequent request for help.”

  “Yes,” I replied, glancing sideways at my grumpy angel companion.

  “And there has been another development, your Grace.” Eli bowed his head toward his master.

  The HR was silent for a moment, extracting the thought from Eli’s head I presumed. I shivered. “I see,” he said. “So, your—ah—old acquaintance is the one trying to assassinate me.” He said this with extreme aplomb, as if discussing his next choice of outfit.

  “I’m sure of it,” I said. “I found out earlier tonight that he’d come to town. He’s nearly two thousand years old—more than skilled enough to break through your defenses.”

  “This is quite fortunate,” the HR said with a smile. I frowned, puzzled, as he continued. “We know who we are dealing with now, and you perhaps know his weakness. That is, of course, if you are willing to work with us in light of this change in circumstances.”

  He waited and allowed me to speak, instead of doing the creepy mind reading thing, which I greatly appreciated. “I hold no love for Alexander,” I said. “And I want more than anything to see him brought to justice.”

  “About that…” Eli began.

  “Your Grace,” I interrupted, fixing my gaze on the HR. “Before I agree to help on an official basis, I need to know what you will do with Alexander when we catch him.”

  The HR returned my gaze with a steady one of his own. “He will be imprisoned and an attempt will be made to rehabilitate him.”

  I shook my head back and forth fiercely. “That won’t work. You can’t keep him locked up. He’s too strong and too smart. One day, be it a week after we catch him or fifty years from now, he’ll escape.”

  “I will not condemn any being to death,” the HR said calmly. “And beyond this one vampire, I am more concerned to discover the deeper reason for these attempts. Someone is trying to unseat the stability of the HRs, and therefore Heaven, and I need to know why.”

  I decided that we could negotiate Alexander’s punishment at a later date. Like, after I’d killed him. “I will help you find Alexander and bring him to justice,” I said, wondering if the HR had caught that last little tidbit. “But I’m not interested in getting involved in some Holy war.”

  The HR smiled serenely. “I appreciate your honesty and directness. It’s not something I receive often.” He paused. “Do you know why I asked for your help?”

  I leaned forward slightly. “No. But I’ve certainly been wondering.”

  “You have quite a reputation in the supernatural community, and I’ve followed your exploits.” He interlocked his fingers loosely and set them in his lap. “You have achieved wealth from your bounties no doubt. But you do not sit on The Assembly. You do not use your money to affect political debates. You pursue what you want to pursue, with no thought as to power. You could wield great influence if you wanted, but you choose not to.” The man paused, lowering his gaze for a moment, his black bangs falling into his face. When he looked back up, his eyes shone. “In a world where most people seek only to climb as high as they can, regardless of the impact on others, this is a rare trait. As you can imagine, someone in my position is almost constantly being asked to shift the balance of power for one purpose or another. I need someone who sees beyond all that. Which is why I asked for your help.”

  I cast another glance in Eli’s direction. Maybe if Wings had told me that from the beginning, he’d have gotten a warmer response. “It doesn’t bother you that I’m technically under the jurisdiction of Hell?”

  The HR raised his eyebrows. “Do you believe you are a minion of Hell? Does Hell exert control over you?”

  “Well, no, but The Agreement—”

  The HRs face clouded for a moment. “The Agreement has… imperfections. It cannot change the free will of the inhabitants of this dimension. Each individual chooses his or her own path, be it light or dark.”

  I frowned. My path had definitely dipped into a dark area a few times. While I churned that around in my head, Eli interjected. “The Agreement was deemed necessary when the supernatural races began to come out of hiding, and the realms of H
eaven and Hell were revealed as the closest dimensions to the Earth dimension. The supernaturals were divided up between the two realms based loosely on their general tendency toward light or dark, good or evil. It doesn’t mean that either realm has more power over you than the other.”

  I sighed. I was still destined for Hell when my existence came to an end. But that was a topic for another day. Today’s topic was whether or not to work with the HR to bring down Alexander. My idea of bringing Alexander to justice was a bit more extreme than the HR’s. But if I didn’t work with them, I knew Eli would try to block me out of the hunt altogether. It was tricky business either way. Another sigh. “Okay. I’ll help you. Officially,” I said.

  “I’m glad to hear it, Zyan,” the HR said with one of his beatific smiles. “And I don’t expect you to become ensnared in any Holy wars.”

  “One more thing,” I said. “I’ve enlisted help from some associates of mine. They’ll need to be compensated.”

  “Of course,” the HR said, nodding his head. “As will you.”

  I stood up. “A friend of mine lost his bar in a fire tonight. You can donate my pay to him.”

  Eli raised both brows, lavender eyes wide with surprise. The HR just smiled. “As you wish.”

  We nodded to the HR and began to walk toward the exit. I heard a buzzing sound, and turned. The HR’s wrist comm glowed bright red. He pressed a button and raised it to his mouth. “Go ahead, Gabriel.” A holographic image of an angel popped up from the wrist band, about ten inches high.

  “Your Grace, there’s been another dimensional breach,” said the angel. “Ninth level demons this time.”

  “Another dimensional breach?” I asked Eli quietly. “Those don’t happen very often do they?”

  “No,” Eli confirmed. “Every few months there’s always some demon faction or another popping through to cause trouble, but the portal police catch them quickly and vanquish them. But there have been three this week.” He scrunched up his brow.

  The timing of this was most interesting. The assassination attempts alone could be any of millions of citizens tired of the government controls ever since Evo. But demonic invasions as well? “Seems to be another attempt to destabilize the HR’s power. Remember that demon spawn outside Noir, with his creepy little Doomsday message?”

  “Yeah, the one I took seriously, and you laughed off?” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked down at me smugly. “I remember.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Well, you think maybe we should check out these portal openings, then?”

  His eyes smoldered into mine for a moment. “Yes, I think that would be prudent.”

  “Did you really just say ‘prudent’?” I grinned at him.

  “Your Grace, Zyan and I are going to check into the situation at the dimensional breach,” Eli said to the HR, turning his muscular back on me.

  The HR had just ended the transmission with Gabriel. THE Gabriel, I wondered? “Yes, I think that is a wise choice. I am disturbed by the sudden intensity of these attacks.” His gray eyes flickered. “Zyan, step forward please.” With hesitance, I did so. The HR rested a palm on my shoulder and Eli’s, closing his eyes. “May the grace of Heaven be with you both.”

  I felt an aura of calm wash over me. Psychosomatic, surely? “Thank you,” I said, and followed Eli out the door. A little blessing couldn’t hurt when you were on your way to a demon brawl.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  “I need the two of you to check back with Donovan and make sure his crew is behaving,” I told Quinn and Riley after we’d picked them up and were heading back out of HR headquarters. “No one is to move on Alexander until I get there.”

  “No worries,” Riley scoffed. “We aren’t gonna confront a two thousand year old vamp on our own.”

  I headed down the stairs toward the Porsche, but Eli shook his head. “No time for normal modes of transportation.”

  I grimaced. “Alright. Quinn, take care of my baby.” I tossed her the keys.

  “What?!” Riley’s outraged cry echoed through the parking lot, causing a couple angels to look our way. “You’ve got to be kidding me!”

  I grinned. “Good luck with the shifters, guys.” I turned to Eli. “Where’s your ride?”

  “Right here,” he said, flexing his wings.

  Let me clarify something and say that an angelic warrior’s wings are not the fluffy, white cherubic things one usually sees in the movies and stuff. They range in color from light to dark gray, and there’s nothing soft about them. It’s almost like each feather is coated in some sort of flexible metal. Pretty badass.

  “Grab ahold of me,” Eli instructed.

  I managed to avoid making a face at his bossiness and stepped into the semi-circle of his pewter wings. I snaked one arm around his back, and he did the same to me. That same delicious manly smell wafted around me as our torsos pressed together. And something else that I hadn’t noticed before. His life force. It sang a silver song as it coursed through him. I could sense it and almost smell it, simultaneously clean like an autumn wind, and sweet, like I imagined ambrosia must smell. I gulped and held my breath as an intense wave of hunger passed over me again.

  A moment later I was blessedly distracted as Eli launched into the night air. I expected him to soar out over the city toward the portal, but he flew straight up like an arrow. A pulse of light flashed around us, lavender like Eli’s eyes. Then the sky was gone, and we were whisking through something blacker than the night. Here and there in the distance I saw something white and glowing like vines or spider webs or lace. But before I could get a grasp on what I saw, we were landing on asphalt somewhere, with all hell broke loose around us. Literally.

  Eli spun around, squeezing me tightly against his body as his wings cut a path through the chaos. I pulled my blade, careful not to nick him, and jumped into the melee. I quickly assessed in less than a second what it would have taken a human ten times as long to absorb. There were a dozen or so ninth level demons, which are pretty high up on the demon chain of command. Basically huge hunks of bright red muscle, about eight feet tall and equipped with a mouthful of jagged teeth, talons like a mutant eagle, and a long tail with a nasty barb at the end. However, their largeness is not an oafish largeness. They’re super smart, and can cast spells, too. In other words, they’re hella trouble. Pun intended.

  The portal police were already on the scene, about two dozen in total, though that included about four that were already dead. Judging by the large pile of ash in the midst of the fight, they’d only brought down one demon so far. You’d think after more than a decade, the government would’ve realized they needed more supes on their SWAT team. They’d added a few witches to defend them against the spell-casting demons, but that was it. Of course, usually it was just demon spawn and lower level demons that tried to bust through, the ones that were too stupid to obey commands from their master. This new rash of invasions was something else. Something premeditated.

  The ground shook beneath my feet as something lumbered up behind me. I spun and leaped into the air, whirling my sword around. With a guttural laugh, the demon blasted a spell at me, and I hit the ground ten feet away. He leaped forward to splatter me like a cantaloupe on the pavement. I catapulted my blade into his chest. That broke his stride long enough for me to roll to my feet and jump onto one of his shoulders.

  He swatted at me with his massive talons as I ducked down to yank my sword out, ripping half his heart out in the process. I felt a searing, burning, tearing down my back as he raked his claws through my flesh. Biting back a scream, I arced my blade around in one swift movement. His head wobbled on his neck, then fell to the ground. I did a tidy back flip off of him as his body crumbled into black ash. Seeping blood, I charged back into the fray.

  Eli had just brought down one of the demons with a pulse of light, and one of the portal police witches got another with some sort of vanquishing spell. Great. Only nine to go. Time to quit playing around. I became the blade, darting in and ou
t amongst the demons, a blur of movement. More than once I caught the astonished expression of one of the portal police as I flashed by, hacking at demon parts, blood and ash flying in all directions. Even my pain aided me, forcing me to focus and be efficient in my movements. It was times like these, when I felt I had become the battle itself, that I felt closest to any sort of divinity or higher power.

  My peaceful moment was interrupted by a high-pitched scream of agony. It came from one of the witches on the outer fringes of the battle. Two of the demons had broken through the line of human portal police and were in the process of playing a game of tug-of-war with her body. In one heartbeat I closed the distance between us. In two I removed the arms of both demons with my blade. In three one of the demons plunged his barbed tail through my calf. And in four I was dangling three meters above the ground.

  The two demons began to buffet me with spells. Being non-human it didn’t kill me, but it felt like getting suckerpunched in the gut. Blood, my own blood, was dripping down into my eyes. With a gasp of pain, I twisted up, slicing through the demon’s tail. I fell hard on my back, which felt really good considering the gashes. A huge demon foot pressed down on my chest. The demon leaned over me, it’s breath a cloud of sulfur that burned the flesh inside my throat. His yellow eyes bored into mine and he smiled. “You’re fighting on the wrong side, you know,” he growled.

  “No. I’m. Not!” I yelled. I swung my sword into his leg, which didn’t sever it completely, but made him shift his weight enough for me to wiggle out from underneath his foot. I sprung straight into the air, plunging my blade in and back out of his heart, then spun and threw it sideways at the other demon, decapitating him. I landed in a crouch, calling it back to me with a small pull of power. Ash swirled around me as I reached up and caught it in one bloody palm.

  Surveying the scene, I saw Eli and the portal police battling the last two demons. I reached down and yanked out the demon’s barb, pulling a chunk of flesh with it. I bit my lip to keep a shriek from leaving my mouth, then ran forward, ignoring the pain shooting up my leg. Adrenaline was my friend in these instances. As I approached, Eli sent a blast of light into the one demon, sizzling him into dust. The other demon turned, as if sensing he was the last one standing, and landed a bone-crunching punch right in the center of Eli’s chest, sending him sprawling backwards. It held a wicked curved black blade, which it twisted in its hands and swung toward Eli’s chest.