Angel Town (18 page)

I
didn’t even see the dogsbody move. One moment it was right next to me. The next, it hit the flying ’breed with a boneshatter crunch, and several ’breed shrank back as ichor splattered. The dogsbody’s jaw crackled, and it made a sound like a hyena late at night.

I ignored a cramp of nausea, backed up a few more steps to get some room in case the piebald threw off the dog-thing and came for me.

I shouldn’t have worried. Because a dogsbody, like a hellhound or a
ronguerdo
, knows its work. The crunching of teeth settled into wet chewing slurps as it settled down to its feast, crouching, only the gleam of one colorless gemlike eye as it watched me. One flat ear was pricked, too, standing alert.

Like a good dog with a bone, waiting for his master’s call.

Oh, Jesus.
The world paled, came back in a rush of color. I actually staggered back, regained my footing, and gave myself a sharp mental slap. Looking weak in the middle of a crowd of ’breed is not a good way to go.

“How nice,” Perry murmured. “Our Kiss has a pet. Well, would anyone
else
like to dispute our little plan? No? Good. Then you are all excused to work my will.”

They didn’t move. Some of them stared at me, avid, mouths slightly open and eyes burning. Another ripple ran through them, titters and half-heard whispers.

“Oh, yes. That reminds me.” Perry half-turned, looked at the stage. “I want that Were’s head. If the other beasts will not give him up, move into the barrio.” His grin turned wide and white, his tongue flickering once. “Kill them too.”

“It’ll be difficult.” This from a tall female, so skinny the alien bones rubbed against the inside of her parchment skin. “That’s their ground, they know it better than we—”

“Nevertheless.” Perry waved a hand. “Children, children, you are Hell’s scions. I trust you’ll find a way.”

I found my voice. “Perry—”

“You may leave us now,” he said quietly, and Helletöng filled the spaces between the words with misshapen drowning things bubbling in a cold vault. The hellbreed moved for the exits in a wave of seashell hips and painted eyes, chitterings and moanings and sighs behind them.

“Perry.”
I am still a hunter. And this is my town.
“Leave the Weres alone.”

“If they would hand over the one that shared your bed, my dearest, I would. But no, they’re intransigent.”

I almost choked. “What do you—”

“I had him once before, and I would have kept him after you were mine. Now I don’t need him, so I won’t keep him, but I want him for just a few moments, Kiss. Can’t you guess why?”

“So you can take lessons on how to be a decent human being?” I probably shouldn’t have said it. Judas to a hellbreed, sure, but he wasn’t going to touch my Weres.

Especially
Saul.

The hellbreed were slipping away, and I still had my gun out.

But Perry had simply hopped up on the stage. ’Töng grumbled and swirled through the sun-pierced dimness, and all the hellbreed were scurrying to their cars under the assault of the cleansing light of day. “Too late now.”

Salvage this, Jill. Assert some control.
“Perry. Go after the Weres, and the deal’s off.”

“You should have said that earlier.” He spread his arms, a paleness against the dark cavern of the stage. “All they have to do is hand over your kitten, my dove. Wouldn’t it be nice to see him again? They move him from place to place, but sooner or later they’ll see reason.”

“Fine.” I turned, and the dogsbody lifted its snuffling head from its snack. The piebald ’breed was rotting quickly, and my gorge rose again. The smell was something else, and to have your nose buried in it…“You send ’breed into the barrio, Perry, and you’ll never see them ag—”

“Do you honestly think you can threaten me now?” He had my arm, suddenly, fingers biting in, and the dogsbody growled. “And you’d better leash that thing, before you lose it. There is a
limit
to what I allow you, Kismet.”

I hit him hard, a good solid crack to the face. His chin snapped back and the gun was level, pointed into his chest. The whip jingled a little, and the dogsbody growled again.

“Shut up,” I said, and the thing that used to be Jughead Vanner did.

The silence was immense. The hellbreed had drained away, and the dripping from Riverson’s outflung hand had stopped.
Why kill Riverson? This isn’t like you, Perry.

None of this made sense. Had I just made a huge mistake, or was I doing what I was supposed to? Had I thrown away any advantage over Perry by letting him think I was here willingly? Did any of this fucking
matter
?

Of course it matters. Melendez’s loa wants the debt repaid, but I can’t do that until I know where and when Perry’s planning his party.

“Sweet nothings,” Perry hissed. He wiped at his mouth with the back of one narrow hand. “Oh, I’ve
missed
you.”

“You won’t miss me if you declare open season on Weres. I’ll be right up close, once I finish with the hellbreed you send into the barrio.” The shaking had me again, but the gun was solid.
Fuck this, fuck everything. I’ll kill them, then I’ll take Saul and—

And what? Ride off into the sunset while Chango got a hard-on for me and Anya braced herself for the next wave of hellbreed to come in? Because there were always more.

Or even, here’s a thought, what if Perry had a little plan for Anya too? Or if something fatal happened to her? Hunters were tough, but also as mortal as everyone else.

And what would happen to my city, all the oblivious who liked signing deals with hellbreed and the others who had no idea they even existed? What
then
?

Stop, little snake,
Mikhail whispered inside my memory.
Anger is no good. It makes things distort, yes? It makes you stupid.

Hearing him used to be a comfort. Now it had teeth. I’d signed myself up for the scar because Misha had said it was a good idea.

He hadn’t told me he needed someone to take his place in the deal with Perry. Would he ever have told me? Couldn’t he find the fucking words?

I would have done it anyway, for him. If he just would have
asked
. Add that to the list of my sins.

I swallowed.
Be clear and cold for this, Jill. You have to be.
“Besides, what does it matter? I left him, Perry. I’m here.”

“Here, yes. Now.” His mouth was flushed, a bruised scarlet line. “But I want you
more
than here, Kismet. I will take everything you love, everything that has ever loved you, and I will break it until there is only me.
Only
me.”

Oh, for fuck’s sake. Great. He’s gone insane.
“Well, that’s a great Christmas list, Perry. Too bad it’s summer. Why don’t you tell me about the Lance instead?”

It wasn’t very elegant, but at least it got his attention. He was still for a full ten seconds, Helletöng groaning and rumbling under the surface of the visible, and I knew I had his complete attention.

“Oh, that.” He waved a hand. “It’s not important. Yet.”

“If you’re wanting me to do something with it, it is.” The gun was level, but he seemed to take no notice of it. My fingers tightened on the whip’s handle.

“Oh, Kiss. Never bored while you’re near me.” The grin was back, and wider than ever. “You may go now, my lovely. Tell your friends I am coming for them. And tell whoever sank that stinking thing in your arm that they are welcome to try and stop me.” He spread his arms. “It is
my
time, now.”

I backed up a step. Two. My heart beat thinly in my chest, echoing in my wrists and temples. “You seriously want me to leave?”

“Take your dog. That’s a nice trick, too, I’ll ask how you did it sometime. Later, when I’m not so busy.” He watched me as I took another step. “Yes, I want you to go. It’s Wednesday now. Come back tomorrow, we’ll dance and dine. The world will end, and you will help me end it.”

Fuck it all. I can’t do it.
“I should kill you now.” My finger tightened on the trigger. I knew exactly how much pull would send a bullet through him.

But one bullet wouldn’t do it. I’d have to start shooting, then I’d have to hack him in pieces, and call the banefire. And hope to hell it put him down.

Don’t. You can’t kill him yet, there’s something even worse waiting in the wings. Play along, Jill.
“I should,” I repeated. “I should ventilate you right fucking now.”

His grin turned savage, and the shadow of handsomeness was back, burning away the screen of blandness. “Likewise, I’m sure. But my primrose path, my darling, you can’t afford to. You don’t know nearly enough about what I want, or how I’m going to get it. So run along and ask some questions, and meet me tomorrow. About dusk, I should think.”

This is not going well at all.
“Perry—”

A thin tremor passed through him. A draft of spoiled honey brushed along the tense air between us. “For the love of your pale little God, my darling, go. I find myself growing murderous.” Perry headed for the second door, the one leading to the red-neon hall. He left a scar behind him, viscous darkness peaking and eddying. The Monde grumbled, settling lower into itself, like an animal in a dark cave.

You’ve only got one more, Jill. Make it good.
“Why Riverson? Perry, why Riverson?”

He snarled, a deep throbbing noise. “Go. Away.”

“Why Riverson?” I yelled. “God 
damn
you, answer me!”

“
Because he robbed me of you!
” Perry screamed, and the whole place shook. Dust pattered from the ceiling. His head dropped forward and his shoulders heaved, linen stretching and rippling as it fought to contain him.

For a second I was sure he was going to turn around and leap on me, and that would have made it all right to kill him according to the abacus inside my head. The
conscience
. The thing that kept poking me no matter which way I turned, the stranger who had made me a hunter in the first place. And then I would go tell Melendez that Chango should be satisfied, collect Gil, and go find Henderson Hill’s caretaker, with his blue eyes and his vanishing scars.

And I would get some answers. All the answers he would give me willingly, and any others I felt like beating out of him.

“He robbed me of you,” Perry said again, but very softly, like a killing frost creeping down from the desert. “There is my first warning, Kiss. All your friends.
All.
Even those who are not quite your friends. Everyone you have cast your eye upon, they are marked for death. You will have only me.” His tone dropped, confidential and musing. “And I will have everything.”

He stood there for another moment, while everything around him shook, spiderlines of reaction etching themselves on the Monde’s floor—concrete covered in hardwood, the dance floor something else entirely, glimmering black.

I waited, hoping. And I was right. Perry had to throw one more bone in the pot to make it boil.

It was a good one, too. “And when you see my brother Michael, ask
him
about your resurrection. Ask
him
about the game you’re so blindly stumbling through.”

Call me Mike.
The hornets buzzed, speaking to me with their pinprick feet, a tattoo of warning.

I got out of there. The dogsbody padded after me, and the sunlight didn’t smoke on its wiry blond hide.

“Oh, thank
God
,” Galina breathed. “He’s gone mad, Jill. I can barely—”

“Shut it.” It was rude, but I was beyond caring. “Where’s Devi?”

Sound of movement. “Here,” Anya Devi said, carefully. “Jill?”

“Perry’s got something big planned for tomorrow night.” I braced my hand against the phone booth’s scratched, clear plastic. Sarvedo Street was deserted even this far up, and the sunlight was too thin. I kept seeing odd shadows, my blue eye hot and dry.

“Hutch is running on coffee and nerves. He says he’s found an old etching or something, prior to any knowns. Saul’s tearing up whatever room Galina locks him in—”

“Devi.” My throat was dry. “Tell Hutch to drop everything. Instead, get him on the horn and call every hunter we know of.
Everyone
, do you hear me? Every single one of us. This thing Perry’s planning has something to do with a portal to Hell, possibly
huge
, and have him cross-check with a ’breed called Halis, spelling unknown. And something else.
La Lanza de Destino
, Spear of Destiny. Lance of Destiny. Whatever.”

“There’s so many—” she began. She was about to say there were plenty of things masquerading as Spears of Destiny, and some of them were even Talismans. Every long piece of wood around in the Middle Ages with some etheric force in it was a goddamn “Spear of Destiny,” it was a needle in a historical haystack.

“I know there’s a million of them knocking around, but have him dig. And there’s…” I almost choked. How could I even begin to explain? “Never mind. Get everyone we can for tomorrow before dusk.”

She swore, but under her breath. “What else?”

Of course, you knew there had to be more.
“The hellbreed are moving to take the barrio. Get everyone under cover. The Weres on Mayfair, too.”

She cursed again. “Of course. Perry’s been trying to get his hands on Saul for months, and now that you’re back…Jill, what
is
it with you and that hellbreed? Mikhail had a deal with him and you took it over, sure, but he never played for Mikhail this way—”

“I don’t know.” The words stung my chapped lips as they slid free, and I didn’t sound truthful even to myself.
Oh, you know all right. It’s because deep down, you’re the same thing. Twins. You proved it yourself, didn’t you?
“Did the Badger come up with anything?”

“Vanner’s cars? Let’s see. A red Dodge pickup, two motorcycles—he was a Honda dude, fucking poser—a blue Buick four-door, a—”