Demon Squad 7: Exit Wounds (17 page)

“It wasn’t much more than a flicker, as if the portal is in rampant flux on the other side, time offset between the two making it more difficult to connect,” he said. “There wasn’t but a hint of Rahim and Katon, a limp ping reflected back, but I’m certain I connected with Frank, though the link was horribly distorted. He felt…odd; different.”

“More so than usual, I presume?”

I glanced at Uriel, unable to hold back my smile despite the inappropriateness of his joke.

“His soul is bound to a vampire while Azrael wears his flesh, so he’s not quite the Frank of old,” Rachelle answered.

“That would explain it.” Michael took the weirdness in stride. Anyone close to Frank knew to temper their expectations for strange occurrences. There was no separating the two. “I wasn’t able to actually connect with him, to speak with him, but I managed to push a suggestion through the link before the connection was severed. Not sure how effective it will be, but I’ll keep pushing every time the portal cracks. He’ll be easier to find now that I’ve embedded a psychic beacon, if nothing else.”

Rachelle nodded. “I believe I have the gate’s number this time.” Her energies swirled about her, coiled, ready to snap. She’d missed latching onto it the previous times it appeared, but there was no doubting her determination.

“Any word from the rest of DRAC?” I asked Michael.

He shook his head. “None of our agents report seeing the angel anywhere, and the mystic we employed hasn’t felt any splits in the dimensional wall from Hell, but she lacks Rachelle’s sensitivity. However, unless Azrael completely shuts down his magical signature, I’m sure she’ll spot him in time to give us a heads up as to his destination, at least.”

“The more advanced it is, the better,” Uriel said.

Michael shrugged. “She’ll do what she can, but our resident expert is here with us.” He gestured to Rachelle, who squinted and focused all her attention on the spot where the portal had been popping into existence. She prepared without a word.

Uriel nodded. “I understand, but I fear that if we wait on Azrael to return of his own accord, on his terms, our current plans might not be sufficient to our needs.”

The uncertainty in the archangel’s tone drew me up short. If Azrael found access to the full strength of Longinus embedded within Frank’s flesh, there was little hope we could bring him down with so few of us. Uriel was a great equalizer, but with the full power of the earthly Christ at his beck and call, stolen upon the cross by the tip of Longinus’ spear, we stood little chance of conquering Azrael. We could only hope the message I’d delivered to Duke Forcalor, on behalf of Uriel, had the desired effect. I prayed to our Father that we succeeded in our plan before the Angel of Death succeeded in his.

Only empty silence answered.

Seventeen

Darkness settled, and once more the world outside our tiny sanctuary exploded with life. This time, I was glad to hear it.

I glanced over at Karra who rubbed her swollen stomach absentmindedly. She gave me a tight smile, no doubt realizing what we were gonna have to do to feed the baby. She’d deal with anything to make sure the kid was taken care of, but neither of us had any clue as to what the pair of them would end up ingesting. I could see the uncertainty in her eyes, and it bothered me to feel so useless. I wasn’t very good at this camping out crap, and she knew it.

I stared off to where Katon had taken up his post, the foliage grating smaller than the last hideout, but built similarly to allow us some small view outside. He was pensive. His hands clenched and unclenched at his side with rhythmic intensity. The sounds of shuffling monsters outside had him wound up tight. Couldn’t blame him, though. I was fixing to head out into it once the early clamor subsided. We needed food, but there was no way I could take down an army of unknowns to get it. The play had be stealthy or the roles would end up reversed, us being dinner instead of them.

Shaw and Venai sat nearby, with Rahim and Karra a short distance off to ensure the women didn’t make a run for it, though they seemed content to hang out. Rala, Veronica, and CB were all nestled in an alcove off to one side of the hole, their whispered chatter drifting into the main chamber, while Ilfaar had been tucked into a similar alcove on the other side. He sat curled in the shadows, only the occasional grunt of his movement sounding from within. The guy was a mystery. I only hoped he didn’t die before we figured it out.

He wasn’t the only one, though.

I glanced around the room, my eyes landing on Shaw. She glared back, daggers in her eyes. I resisted the urge to grin. She was more trouble than I wanted to deal with, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized she might be useful. At least until she tried to stab us all in the back.

“Can you sense the portals now?” I asked, catching her off guard with a real question.

She sat stoic for a moment before finally nodding. “I can, though just barely. They seem more pronounced as the night wears on.”

“Would you be able to track them?”

“What are you fishing for, Frank?” Katon asked without bothering to turn around.

The last thing I wanted to do was get into detail with the enemy camped among us. I hadn’t told anyone about the strange gate in the volcano or how the glimmering portal strings seemed to head straight for it, seeing how we were headed that direction anyway, but a nagging thought kept pecking at me. My head wouldn’t let it go. I’d heard something in the midst of all that noise that reminded me of home.

I simply ignored Katon. “You weren’t able to pinpoint where the portals opened, were you?”

She didn’t appear pleased as she shook her head.

I pointed upward. “That’s because they aren’t opening near the ground. They’re hovering high in the air above us where we can’t see or reach them.”

Her eyes narrowed as the sense of it hit her. Then her lip curled back when she realized what that told me about her. Had she been operating on full cylinders, she would have pinpointed the portal fluctuations rather than only being teased by them. That gave me pause, as what I was plotting required her to be able to pick them out accurately or we’d miss our opportunity to…to…

To what exactly?

My brain belt slipped and left me scrambling to catch up with what I’d been thinking. A discombobulated echo inside my skull ricocheted through the darkness, shrieking about something I couldn’t quite grasp.

“Damn it!”

“What?” Karra asked?

I shook my head, and something resembling coherence popped into place. “I want to try something, but I’m gonna need help.”

“I’ll help.”

“No.” I waved her offer aside, only realizing how rudely I’d done it after the fact. I clasped her hand in mine as an apology. “No, thank you. Stay here and keep an eye on tubs back there.” I gestured to where Ilfaar lurked, doing my best to convey my uncertainty.

Karra ground her teeth together, but she didn’t argue. For all her concern, she trusted me to take care of things. You’d think she’d know better by now. I sighed and disentangled my finger from her, instantly missing the warmth of her grasp.

“I need you, you, and you,” I said, pointing to Shaw, Rahim, and then Rala in turn. “Let’s take a walk.” The alien and her companions trundled out into the main chamber, no one looking pleased.

“And if I refuse?” Shaw asked.

I sent an ugly grin to my lips. “Then I start knifing you until you decide it’s better to go along with my harebrained scheme than to live the rest of your life as a deformed cripple.” I hoped she wouldn’t call my bluff. We still had options, and I wasn’t sure exactly what I was trying to accomplish, but it damn sure seemed important for some reason. I knew I couldn’t do it without her.” So, what do you say, your wightness?”

“She’s not going anywhere without me?” Venai growled. Only the subtle sound of Karra drawing her sword held the Nephilim in check.

“Fine,” I answered. “I can use you, too.”

“What are you doing, Frank?” Katon had turned from his watch to stare at me with suspicion swirling in his dark eyes.

“I have an idea,” I answered. “Besides, we need food, and I think it’ll be easier for us to procure some if I have help. Or at least someone to carry it.” I winked at Venai.

“I don’t think this is wise.”

“Nor do I,” Rahim agreed. “I’m not sure what you’re planning, but we should at least take Katon along with us.”

I wasn’t completely sure myself, but I did know Katon needed to stay with Karra or I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving her behind. “No, he should stay here and keep tabs on things.”

My eyes shifted first to Ilfaar, and then to Veronica, hoping Katon got the hint. I didn’t trust either one of them. If the ex-wife managed to get a few minutes alone with the angel, she might be able to use her powers as a succubus to ferret out what he knew about escaping Tenebrae. Wounded as he was, he was less susceptible to her manipulations because of the pain he was going through, but I didn’t want to take the chance. If we needed to go that route, I wanted to be the one controlling it.

I also didn’t want Veronica with me. Given what she’d done to help Baalth kidnap Karra, the woman knew she was on thin ice. If she found the opportunity to stab me in the back and get away with it, she might just take it since she could only presume I intended to do the same. She had to be thinking she could get something out of Ilfaar, but she hadn’t said a word. That alone was evidence of her plotting something. If she hadn’t felt threatened, she would have already offered to do it so we could all go home.

Katon glared at me for a while before finally giving in with a shallow nod. He might not understand the specifics of what I was asking of him, but he knew better than anyone we couldn’t trust Veronica. Never had, never could. He’d pointed that out to me a million times in the past, as a matter of fact. I’d never listened, of course, but he was much smarter than me.

“So, what’s the plan?” Rahim asked, resignation hardening the question.

“I’ll tell you when we get there.” I smiled and waved Shaw to her feet. “Let’s go, 007.” As soon as she stood, I grabbed her arm and pressed a greenie knife to her ribs. “You know the deal,” I told her, casting a raised eyebrow glance at Venai. “You two play nice and we all go home. Fuck with me and I reenact the dinner scene from Silence of the Lambs. We’re all hungry enough. We’d just need to find a nice Chianti.”

Venai growled but didn’t lunge at me. That was a start.

“I still owe you for Scarlett, so mind your manners.”

Shaw raised a hand to calm the Nephilim. “Lead the way.”

I motioned for Rahim to open the way out, and then sent Venai after him.

“Be careful, Frankie.”

“You too.” I nodded to Karra, blowing her a kiss. “Keep Katon safe.” With that, I headed for the exit, Shaw and I scrambling up the ladder awkwardly together while I held the knife to her. It was rather more enjoyable than I would have expected; the rubbing against each other bit, not the knife holding. She was a pretty little dead thing with hard curves in all the right places. Only the memory of her ordering her DSI flunkies to shoot me in the head kept me from enjoying the moment too much.

It’s a sad world when a man lets a bullet get between him and a good time.

Once everyone was outside, the tree-quarters sealed, and we’d made sure the initial rush of critters had run its course, I nudged Shaw forward.

“All right, bloodhound. Get to sniffing.”

She met my gaze with ice, but a gentle prod of the blade took some of the chill out of her stare. Well, it got her moving, at least.

“Track down the portals and maybe, just maybe, we won’t have to rely on the half-dead angel back there to get us out of Dodge.”

Her eyes narrowed. “What is it you’re not telling us about our little adventure, Trigg?”

“It’s all on a need to know basis, Shaw,” I told her. “You should be used to that by now, seeing how your organization of half-wits and cutthroats is funded by the government of ‘Murica. Now let’s get to it before something bigger and uglier than Venai there wanders by and uses us as a scratching post.”

If I hadn’t pissed them off before, I most certainly did then. Shaw drew in a deep breath—though I wondered if it was for show since I really didn’t think she needed to breathe either—and tugged me along without saying another word. Venai shuffled alongside us, Rahim and Rala a step or two behind the Nephilim. If things went south, I could count on Rahim slowing Venai down just long enough for me to gut Shaw, but I was hoping that wasn’t how it all played out. With as many greenies as I saw lurking about the place, we would need all the cannon fodder we could get when we stormed the mountain, and even more so when we came across the guardians.

That said, Shaw was a predator through and through. You didn’t plead logic or try to compromise. While I expected Veronica to be sneaky if she got the opportunity, Shaw was weighing every instant against her chances. She was still there because
her
life depended on it. As long as that stayed constant, we were cool. The minute she felt safe, someone—specifically me—would catch a shanking.

Shaw kept quiet and did her part, as best I could tell. She stood still for a few moments before heading off in a direction that seemed reasonably consistent with where I’d spied the portals above. We might have done this without her, but it would require someone to be up in the trees hunting for the shimmer of the gates in the inky blackness. No telling if they could even be seen, so this made more sense from that aspect even if it sucked depending on Shaw.

She moved along for a long while, her head on a swivel. It’d probably been a half hour when I heard the heavy
thump
-slide of something moving through the woods in our direction. I grabbed Shaw and pressed her to a nearby tree, waving the others in for cover. Everyone on high alert, it only took a second before they were huddled against the bark alongside me as the sound grew louder and louder. We stood there in silence, waiting as the thing shuffled closer, seeming no further away than the other side of the tree trunk. Then it went quiet.