Bitten in Two (35 page)

“It’s a bird,” said Cole.

Yousef shook his head. “The tail and the beak are singular—it is a dove.”

“He’s right,” I told Cole. “It’s one of the few symbols that can drain the mojo right out of a demon.”

“I didn’t know that. Why didn’t I know that?”

“Because until you started working with us, you never needed to, am I right?”

He paused to take a mental hike into his last career.

“You’re right. I dealt with some funky stuff, but never demons.”

Vayl nodded. “We al seem to have to face them eventual y. And when that happens, we learn that dove symbols carry with them great power. As Jasmine said, they can weaken a demon’s defenses. And they can lock any hel spawn out of a protected area.”

“Which would explain why Kyphas needs us to unlock the vat,” I said.

Cole spoke in a near monotone. “But that doesn’t explain what Roldan has to do with it.”

“No,” Vayl agreed. “But do not discount his hatred for me. I am the reason Helena slipped through his grasp. If the demon promised him revenge for that, he would agree to demon promised him revenge for that, he would agree to anything.”

“I’m a little busy at the moment,” I said. “But as soon as my schedule clears, I am so going to kick Roldan’s ass.”

“Not if I get to him first,” said Vayl.

“Nice words,” said Sterling. “But they won’t do you much good if those hel spawn grind you into assassin burgers in the meantime.” He was leaning one elbow against the roof’s edge, like he was about to pose for a picture.

“What’re they doing down there?” asked Cole.

Sterling said, “They’ve set up a defensive line. Probably because they know we have to come down within the next couple of hours.”

We joined him, let him point out Kyphas and her three active minions. We were stil assuming another two hung back to guard their retreat.

“It shouldn’t be that hard,” noted Cole. “If the door guards stay in place, our numbers are even. We can take them.”

“Have you ever fought
kloricht
before?”

“Oh, so that’s what they are.” He scratched his chin like he actual y had a mental index to thumb through before he could give us a truthful answer. “No. But I assume they have asses?”

Vayl’s lips twitched. “Yes.”

“Then they’re kickable.”

Vayl’s smile widened ever so slightly. For once it looked like he and Cole agreed, even though Vayl, at least, knew the
kloricht
were famous for their fighting ferocity.

Because if they kil ed enough of Lucifer’s enemies they could use the souls as a ladder to climb right out of the pit.

The standing theory on the Great Taker’s strange generosity was that he felt loyalty should be rewarded. And these pups were true. Most of them had been soldiers. The kind who’d fol owed orders to the letter. Even if that meant herding train cars ful of innocent Jews into the gas chamber.

I suddenly wondered where the
kloricht
went when they escaped hel . No way would they be al owed entry into paradise. So what was left to them?
The Thin?
Deep in my mind’s prison, Brude’s howling laughter confirmed my guess. He’d built the foundation of his army on Satan’s escapees.

I spoke up. “Yousef. How close are the
kloricht
to the vat we need to uncap?”

“Halfway across the tannery,” he said through Kamal, who’d started to bite his fingernails between sentences.

Sterling said, “Even with al our skil s combined, they’l be on us before we can move the lid and lift the tool to the top of whatever muck is stil inside the vat. Not to mention the danger we might stil be facing from the liquid itself. If it burned men fifty or sixty years ago it stil could today.”

“So we fight,” said Vayl. He gave me his slow smile. I felt my whole body respond.

Kamal sniffed. “Are you people actual y excited about this?”

Cole drew his sword. I knew the vibration that ran through him had nothing to do with fear as he and Sterling bumped fists for good luck. “It’s like asking a pro footbal player if he’s ready for the game, dude. This is what we
do
.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Since Sterling could provide air support and use the Party Line to update us on the demons’ movements, we decided to leave him on the roof. Alone. Because we stil needed Yousef to guide us to ground zero. And Kamal…

When we turned to leave him with the warlock he made a please-don’t-abandon-me sound. I stopped and looked up at Vayl, who asked, “How old are you, son?”

“Sixteen.”

Shit.

So his next question was for Sterling. “Can you protect him?”

Sterling’s hair seemed to whisper spel s of its own as it brushed against his col ar with the shaking of his head. “I can’t make any guarantees. The boy should leave.”

“Yeah, and if they grab him right outside the gate and use him as a bargaining tool?” asked Cole. “What are we gonna do then?”

“We wil leave the decision to him,” Vayl said firmly. “It is his life, after al .”

Kamal slapped his hand over his chest like Vayl had threatened to carve out a piece of it. “I want to go home,” he said.

Vayl nodded. “Of course. Sterling?” He turned to the warlock. “Do you have any sort of charm this boy can carry for extra protection?”

Our warlock reached into his back pocket, pul ed out his wal et, and from it lifted a card. Kamal took it, studied it, looked up incredulously. “You want me to trust my neck to…

a library card?”

a library card?”

“It’s special,” Sterling assured him. “Just put it in your pocket and say these words as soon as you leave the building.” He whispered in Kamal’s ear. “It wil make you seem harmless to al who lay eyes on you for the fol owing five minutes.”

“That’s not long.”

I raised an eyebrow at him. “For chrissake, Kamal, how long is it gonna take you to run away from here?”

“Al right.” He pocketed the card. Fol owed us downstairs.

By the time we reached the center of the tannery I figured he was shutting the door of his house behind him.

But he’d be back tomorrow. Which boggled my mind. I couldn’t imagine how anybody could work here for more than a few minutes, much less the years Yousef had obviously put in.

I crumpled the new bouquet of mint that he’d picked for me earlier and held it to my nose. It wasn’t working as wel as it had before. Maybe I was getting used to its smel . Or maybe I was just too close to the piles of animal skins, stil wearing their layers of rotting flesh and feasting insects.

Either way, the stench made me want to hurl the last thing I’d eaten into the nearest pool of bloody-looking liquid.

I decided it would help if I concentrated on holding my sword safely at my side so that neither one of its razor-sharp edges could slice into Yousef or Vayl as I fol owed them. Cole walked close behind me, hugging the wal s of the tannery’s outer edges like the rest of us while he tried not to make any noise that would attract Kyphas and her gang.

We’d come into the tannery from the north. The vat we needed was in the southeast corner. That meant a careful hike between grunge-soaked wal s and ancient pools that contained everything from lime water to pomegranate juice to watered-down pigeon dung.

What would this place have been back in the States?

Maybe a succession of clear blue pools edged by lush greenery with fountains set every twenty feet or so to draw the eye on to some new pleasure. Or maybe a fish farm, its tanks heaving with healthy bass, the purity of its H2O so closely regulated that most countries would wil ingly run it through their taps. Here the vats crammed against each other like shackled prisoners, their contents reminding me of bottomless pits. I imagined if any of us fel in we’d drift downward forever while the chemicals ate the skin off our bones until al that was left was an eternal y sinking skeleton.

Sterling’s voice yanked me back to the job. “The
kloricht
are holding steady,” he said.

“Where is the plane portal in relation to us?” Vayl asked.

“If you’re at one o’clock, it’s at four.” Yousef kept up a steady, creeping motion, though I could see him shaking as he led us toward our goal. He looked over his shoulder once, to make sure we were stil fol owing. And the gleam in his eyes told the whole story. He couldn’t have been happier if I’d just cracked a dictionary over his head.

Behind him Vayl moved with the stealth of a born predator. I would’ve complimented his skil , but the headache was knocking harder now, and if I had to say anything I might puke. I glanced back to see if Cole felt the same. Uh, considering that he was winding a long purple string of gum between his teeth and fingers like taffy, probably not.

I nearly turned back to Vayl and said, “I can’t work under these circumstances. I need peace before a kil , man.” But then I imagined myself meditating and maybe downing a cup of chamomile tea before pul ing off my next hit. And that was so ludicrous that I nearly slapped myself across the face.
Pull it together. You can do this.

And afterward, free margaritas for everyone!
shouted my Inner Bimbo from her favorite barstool. Which she promptly fel off of. I glared at her.

This is why nobody listens to you, ya lush.

Teen Me was waving frantical y from the second-story window of Granny May’s house. Now why would she be up there? That wasn’t even the room I usual y stayed in. I looked around for somebody to ask, but my Librarian was sprinting down the road like she’d just heard there was a two-for-one sale at Borders. And Granny May’s bridge table? Deserted.

I stopped. “Something’s wrong.”
Hey, no vomiting! Two
points for me!

Vayl murmured to Yousef and we stopped at the edge of a smal alcove formed by the side of yet another deserted building, part of the medina’s outer wal , and a third structure that the tannery seemed to be using as a warehouse. Inside this capital U was lowercase U formed by one large tub.
Our
tub. But al I saw was a white blur as I pul ed back and ducked inside the abandoned home with Vayl, Cole, and Yousef. We huddled beside the open door, discussing our options.

Sterling spoke into our ears. “Demons are holding steady,” he reported.

“Why would that be?” I wondered aloud. “Why didn’t they ream us up on the roof? Why retrieve the map and then hand it back to us? What are they waiting for?”

“They’re demons,” Cole said bitterly. “Playing games like this is their favorite pastime.”

I didn’t reply. Vayl had been watching me like if he just held stil and stared hard enough he could see right into the workings of my brain. The thought scared me less than it would have a few months before. Until he said, “Jasmine?

Are you thinking that they already have the Rocenz?”

“Yeah,” I whispered.
I’d
only just realized that’s where my thoughts were taking me. How had he figured it out?

Cole said, “That’s ridiculous.”

“Not real y,” Vayl said. “In fact, it makes a great deal of sense to hand a treasure map over when you have already retrieved the loot.”

“But we’ve been watching the place. Kyphas hasn’t been here since she got the map.”

“No,” I said. “Because she’s had the Rocenz for a lot longer. The whole bit about getting the map? That was to fulfil her contract with us. She agreed to help us find the tool. And we’re about to. In fact, she’s leading us right to the spot where it’s been held since Roldan and his Gorgon rider took it from Sister Yalida over eighty years ago.” Sterling spoke up. “What are you saying, Chil ?” I replied, “You guys know about the canals?” Cole had been quietly translating al this time. Now Yousef tugged on my sleeve, shaking his head in confusion.

I said, “Thousands of years ago demons could travel to our realm a lot easier than they can now. Part of the reason was because the Great Taker had built al these canals between his world and ours. And no, they’re nothing like those placid little rivers you see every time Denmark advertises for tourists. Anyway, smal teams usual y made up of a couple of fighter types and a Seer or holy man eventual y sealed the majority of them. Except the ones that were wel disguised.” I paused, to wave my hands around the tannery.

“But the map,” Cole protested. “The dove!”

“Yeah,” I agreed. “Probably taken from the dead hands of just such a crew. I don’t think the holy mark was meant to show where they’d completed their work. I think it was their guide, leading them to the place where they needed to make that seal real. I’l even go further. I think Sister Yalida was a member of that crew. And the story about her possessing the Rocenz was just part of a bigger tale, one in which she probably used the tool to find the canal that she and her comrades needed to lock. But they were kil ed in the process. Then their murderer, Roldan, hid the Rocenz in that very canal.”

“Why?” Vayl asked.

“You said the Gorgon eats his death. I’m guessing the Rocenz can somehow separate the two of them again.

Maybe the same way it can split me and Brude. If that happened, wouldn’t they both die?”

Vayl stared at me thoughtful y. “I cannot be certain without researching the matter, but yes, I would think so.”

“Why keep the map, then?” Cole asked. “Why not destroy it?”

I shrugged. “Maybe the Rocenz’s other powers are just too tempting to give up.”