Black Heart (9 page)

“That, I would believe,” I said, although I didn’t like to think about what would happen once he did decide it would suit his purpose. Puck might think the world was more fun with humans in it, but if he could harm his brother, then people had just better watch out for the cross fire. Puck would certainly not be looking out for them.

No, that’s your job.
It was a little startling to think of myself in those terms, to consider that I might really be all that was standing between the monsters and civilized society. Especially since the civilized society seemed perfectly willing to throw me to the wolves to protect themselves, as was demonstrated when a bunch of kids had tried to turn me in to Therion’s vampire authority.

I realized Puck was watching me with a knowing look. I wondered how much of my thoughts he could read on my face. Then I decided I was better off not knowing. It would be nice to at least have the illusion of privacy in my own mind, especially since Lucifer and Puck and all of their brethren had infected every other corner of my life.

“So?” I said. “How come you need me to hammer the Cimice when you have more than enough power to do it yourself?”

“It’s better if I don’t make grand gestures,” Puck said. “It tends to draw unwanted attention.”

“And it doesn’t draw unwanted attention when I do it?” I asked.

“Well, yes, it might,” Puck admitted. “But when you do it, ancient beings don’t construe your actions as an act of war. They just think you’re flying off the handle—again.”

“So lovely to know my reputation precedes me,” I said.

Puck grinned. “It does. It really, really does.”

“And what will happen to you if Titania finds out you’ve thwarted her?” I asked.

“She won’t find out,” Puck said.

I didn’t know whether it was extreme arrogance or that he had a fail-safe in place, but he seemed supremely confident that Titania would not discover his machinations. Fine. It had nothing to do with me, anyway. It was none of my business what happened to Puck, and I had no desire to make it my business. I had enough on my plate.

“Will you continue on with me now and eliminate the threat posed by the Cimice?” Puck asked.

I was angry that Puck had manipulated both Nathaniel and me, but I was going to help him anyway and Puck knew it. There was no way I could allow Titania to set the Cimice on my city.

“Let’s go,” I said, and started forward again. And stopped.

The buzzing of the Cimice had ceased. Good for my sanity, sure, but possibly bad news otherwise. I dropped a veil over myself. Beside me, Puck did the same.

“Can you see me even when I’m veiled?” I whispered.

“Yes,” he said.

“Fine,” I said. “Stay close to me, because I can’t see you.”

“Will do,” he said.

It sounded so strange to hear modern phrases coming out of the mouth of such an old creature, but both Puck and Lucifer were much more attuned to the modern world than most ancient things. All the faerie pretty much seemed trapped in the fifth century.

I continued moving through the forest in the direction the noise had come from. I assumed Puck would put me right if I strayed too far in the wrong direction. That was, if he hadn’t just decided to trip off somewhere and leave me for his own amusement.

I wanted to ask whether he was nearby, but I didn’t want him to think I was needy.

“I’m right here,” Puck said, touching my right shoulder.

“Can you read my mind?” I asked suspiciously.

“No,” Puck said, laughter in his voice. “But in some ways you are very predictable.”

I didn’t respond to that. On one hand, it was definitely good news that Puck was not a mind reader. On the other hand, it stung my pride a little to think that anything I ever did was predictable.

The barren forest slowly gave way to tumbled boulders as a series of high, rocky peaks rose before us. I had not seen or even detected any sign of life since our brief encounter with the dragon.

“How much farther?” I asked as we started to climb. “Can’t we fly?”

“It’s better if we don’t,” Puck said.

“Because of the Cimice?” I asked. “I didn’t think they could fly.”

“They can’t,” Puck said briefly, and then he did not elaborate any further.

Which made me think of the dragon, and wonder again why my uncle was so determinedly hiding from this creature.

The climb fatigued me very quickly. I had yet again traveled very far with little sustenance, and my body was devoting all its resources to my growing baby. I was sure now that I was getting thin despite the swelling in my abdomen. My pants were getting looser almost by the minute.

After a while I stopped, leaning against a large rock and panting, my face soaked with sweat. “Look, I can’t take much more of this without food. We’re going to have to take our chances in the air.”

“We can’t,” Puck said. “It’s too dangerous.”

I felt his arm go around me, lifting me up so I could lean against him.

“It’s just a little farther,” he said.

“Yeah, but what kind of shape am I going to be in when I get there? What if I can’t destroy them all?”

“You will have the strength to do what is necessary when the time comes,” Puck said. “You always do.”

We were both silent for a few moments. I focused on just putting one foot in front of the other, trying to conserve my energy for what lay ahead.

“You’re so like him, you know,” Puck said, and there was a mixture of tenderness and bitterness in his voice. I knew that the “him” Puck referred to was Lucifer. “Are you sure he’s not your father?”

“Don’t even joke about it,” I said fervently. “Besides, don’t you think he would have laid claim to me if he were my father?”

“Probably,” Puck said. “He does brag about you with annoying regularity. It’s quite sickening, actually. I’m sure he would love to be able to claim you were his child instead of his granddaughter.”

“When is Lucifer talking about me with you?” I asked. “I thought the two of you could barely stand to be in the same room together.”

“We can barely stand to be in the same galaxy together, to tell the truth,” Puck said. “And despite all that, we do communicate regularly.”

He said this with all of the relish of a person describing a trip to the dentist. I gave a short laugh.

“At least I’m not the only one who doesn’t cherish my family ties.”

“The truth is, the only being who has ever actively desired my brother’s company is Evangeline,” Puck said. “Which is probably why he was unable to let her go, even in death.”

“What about all of the other women who bore him children?” I asked.

“Oh, he can—and does—seduce. And those women will want him, at least for a little while. But sooner or later my brother’s true nature will reveal itself. And once it does, his conquests usually flee screaming. That is, if they haven’t already been killed for some minor slight against his lord and majesty. But only after the baby is born, of course. He always makes sure to take the children.”

It was sickening to think of Lucifer using and abusing scores of women as nothing more than broodmares. And I knew that if given sufficient opportunity, he would lay claim to all life on Earth, would declare himself emperor and demand fealty from all.

But a part of me, a very small part of me, felt sorry for him. No one had ever loved him except one lone, crazy girl. Even his own family couldn’t stand the sight of him. Had lack of affection created the monster, or had his monstrosity ensured he would never be loved?

Of course, Puck and Alerian weren’t exactly lovable, either. There was a warmth and charm present in Puck that wasn’t in the other two, but I knew there were hidden depths in Puck. I’d seen just a hint of them, but they were there. I would no more trifle with Puck than I would with Lucifer. And my brief encounter with Alerian had terrified me. I didn’t even want to meet brother number four, who was apparently so frightening that the other three left him to his own devices as much as possible.

I was so busy thinking of all of this that I didn’t notice I was feeling better until Puck dropped his arm, saying, “You should be able to walk under your own steam now.”

I was suddenly aware of the fact that I felt warm and well rested, like I’d just had a nap and a big cup of hot chocolate.

“What did you do?” I asked.

“No need to sound so accusing,” Puck said mildly. “All I did was give you a little boost, so that you would not feel quite so tired. I can do that because we share blood.”

“You didn’t do anything permanent?”

“Like what?” Puck said.

My mind conjured up a lot of possibilities, starting with his magic harming my unborn son and finishing with Puck planting some kind of time bomb inside me that would force me to do his will at some later date. But I didn’t say any of that out loud. I didn’t want to give him any ideas. Instead, I zeroed in on his non-answer.

“I noticed you didn’t actually say ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Did you leave a permanent mark on me?”

“Not in the way you are thinking,” Puck said after a long pause. “I cannot force you to do anything you do not wish to do. Lucifer’s power over you as Hound of the Hunt is too strong, and would take precedence. Likewise would I be unable to harm your child.”

“I’m sensing a big ‘but’ here,” I said, growing angry.

“But all magic leaves a trace. And that trace of my magic left in you may be enough to keep you from harming me should the day ever come when you should wish to do such a thing.”

“That day is now,” I growled. “I’m not some toy for you—or Lucifer—to play with.”

“I only meant to help,” Puck said. I could not see his eyes because of the veil, but I was sure they were twinkling.

He may have intended to help, but he couldn’t resist the chance to help himself, as well.

“Next time you feel the urge to aid me, resist,” I said. “I don’t need any more assistance from you.”

“If you say so,” Puck said.

“I do,” I said, and stomped away with much more energy than I’d had before Puck’s boost.

BECAUSE I WAS ANGRY, AND MY ANGER OFTEN MADE
me blind and deaf to everything around me, I blundered over the crest of a hill and nearly walked into a troop of patrolling Cimice.

I skidded to a stop, the loose gravel shifting beneath my boots. The lead insect called a halt just a few feet away, its mantislike head twisting this way and that. I stayed perfectly still, pulling my veil tighter around me, and hoped the Cimice would not be able to sniff me out. My veil would never have fooled a werewolf, but I knew nothing about an insect’s ability to smell. I had no idea where Puck was, but presumably he had more sense than I did and hadn’t practically walked into the Cimice’s arms.

After a few long and tense minutes in which the little band of six crawled all over the immediate area looking for signs of intruders, they finally decided to continue on their way.

I exhaled the breath I’d been holding and waited for Puck to reveal himself. His voice at my ear almost startled a little scream out of me, but I swallowed it. I did not want to draw the Cimice back to me.

“We must proceed with caution from here,” he said. “No more temper tantrums.”

I wanted to say that a temper tantrum implied my anger was unjustified, and that was definitely not the case. I wanted to say that I would not have been angry at all were it not for his behavior. But I did neither of those things. I did not feel like being drawn any further into Puck’s logic. Plus, even when I was right, I always had the vague sense that I was losing when I argued with him.

That happened a lot with Lucifer, too.

We continued in silence for a while, passing two more small Cimice patrols. The cicada-like buzzing had started up again, but this time I was able to block out the noise by concentrating on my will and my magic.

We went farther into the mountain, surrounded by rock and the noise of the Cimice. Every so often Puck would put his hand on my shoulder so I would know he was still present. And then, suddenly, we were there.

It looked like a hive because it was a hive. There was a great gash torn in the mountain, and from it the Cimice spilled forth. The giant insects crawled all over the side of the mountain.

We drew off behind a series of large rocks and dropped the veil so we could counsel.

I wasn’t sure what the Cimice were doing, but the place hummed with activity. All of the creatures moved with a purpose in and out of the cave. I could see the problem immediately.

“How do we kill them all?” I murmured.

According to the fae, the Cimice bred like city rats. One or two breeding pairs could replace the whole population within a few months. So the only way to do the job thoroughly was to make sure every last Cimice was eliminated. But how could I possibly do that?

“How did you kill all the vampires?” Puck asked.

“The vampires had all taken Azazel’s serum in order to walk in daylight. Azazel had infused the serum with his magic, and his magic was also in me, since I was his daughter. So I called the vampires to me using that link, and once the magic was activated and we were bound, I sent a spell of destruction out through them.”

“Blood,” Puck said. “So mundane and yet so powerful. I suppose that does mean that you are, in fact, Azazel’s daughter and not Lucifer’s.”

“Off topic,” I said. “We already covered that. So how do I make sure to get all of the Cimice?”

“You’ve already presented the answer,” Puck said.

“Blood?” I asked. “How will that work? I don’t have the blood of the Cimice inside me.”

“So crude,” Puck chided. “You just need some of the Cimice’s blood to direct the spell. Since only a few of the creatures settled here, all of the subsequent generations will share genes from the first group.”

“So I just need to catch one of them, take its blood, and then use the blood to push the spell through?” I asked skeptically. “I’m not sure about that. I don’t know if I can do that kind of magic. All of the spells I’ve used thus far have been internally motivated—you know what I mean?”

“Just because you have not done something like this before does not mean you cannot,” Puck said. “Madeline, now that you have fully opened yourself to Lucifer’s legacy, you have a vast, untapped store of power. You have not even begun to plumb the depths of that power.”

“If you say so,” I said.

It was extremely scary to think that I was sitting on a massive well of power. What if I lost control? I could go off like a nuclear bomb. More than once I’d suspected that I’d barely skimmed the surface of my magic, but I didn’t like to think that I had unlimited abilities sitting at my fingertips. That would make me like Lucifer, and I did not want to be like Lucifer.

Even if I had crossed a few lines in defense of my life, I still believed I was on the side of good. I was still trying to be something better than my grandfather wanted me to be. But every time I went deeper into that pool, every time I drew a little bit more of that power and made it my own, I was also drawn a little deeper into Lucifer’s web. Puck may have known, or at least suspected, most of my feelings on that count.

He wouldn’t want me belonging to Lucifer any more than I already did, unless it served his purpose. And Puck’s purpose was just as opaque as that of his brother. If I used my magic in this new way, I would get rid of the Cimice, thereby eliminating a threat to my city and thwarting Titania at the same time. But it was also possible—even probable—that I would play myself right into the middle of some scheme of Puck’s.

Could I avoid being trapped by Lucifer’s brother? Was the risk worth it if I could save innocent lives? If I wanted to stay on the side of good, then the answer had to be yes. But maybe I could clear myself of an obligation at the same time.

“If I do this, I want one of the favors I owe you wiped off my ledger,” I said.

Puck shook his head, tut-tutting. “Oh, no, no, no. A favor from Lucifer’s best beloved is far too valuable a quantity to give up for something such as this. Besides, you would go after the Cimice whether I were here or not. You were going to do it when you thought I was Litarian.”

“Yes, but it also benefits you if I do your dirty work. So I want one of my favors cleared.”

Puck continued to shake his head. “Are you telling me you would really allow innocent humans to die just because you didn’t get what you want? I don’t believe that of you. If you did behave that way, I would say you were more like Lucifer than I thought.”

“Of course I won’t allow anyone to die because I didn’t get my way,” I said.

Puck spread his hands wide. “Then I rest my case.”

“But if you don’t clear me of my obligation, then I’ll call the dragon here, and you can take your chances.”

Puck stared, his jewel-blue eyes carefully blank. “You wouldn’t,” he said.

“I would,” I said, and made sure he could see the conviction on my face.

I was definitely taking a gamble. If Puck became angry that he had been boxed into a corner, he’d find a way to pay me back later—and I was certain I wouldn’t like the payback. It was always possible that he wasn’t actually scared of the dragon. Maybe he’d feigned fear just to see what I would do.

I was giving myself a headache, thinking in circles like this. How did Puck and Lucifer and Titania do it—weigh all the angles, contemplate all the possibilities?

Beezle had once compared me to the Hulk, and it was an apt description. I liked to crash and bash and worry about the consequences later. The trouble was that everyone around me was playing the long game, and if I continued the way I had before, I was always going to be on the losing end of the stick.

I watched Puck, and waited for his decision. I didn’t have a hint of what he was thinking.

Finally, he said, “Deal.”

I couldn’t conceal my shock. “Deal?”

“You don’t want it?” Puck asked craftily.

“Of course I do,” I said. “I want your word, by the blood we share, that you forfeit your right to one favor from me if I kill all the Cimice present on this world.”

I was careful to add that last qualifier. If there were Cimice alive on other worlds, Puck could easily claim that I had not adhered to the letter of our agreement. He would then absolutely use that as a loophole to put my favor back in his ledger.

“I give you my word, by the blood we share, that I forfeit the right to one favor from you if you kill all the Cimice present on this world,” Puck said solemnly, but his eyes twinkled.

Had he thought of something that I hadn’t? It was very likely he had, but my brain was pretty much done with exhausting the options. I’d have to accept that I wasn’t as well equipped in that department as my relatives.

“So now we’ve just got to catch one of these suckers so I can use its blood to direct the spell.”

“We?” Puck said.

“Aren’t you going to help me?” I asked.

Puck shook his head. “You are fulfilling an obligation to me. You must perform the task on your own.”

I bit my tongue so that I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of listening to me curse him out. “Enjoy the show, then,” I said.

I veiled myself and stalked away, Puck chuckling softly behind me.

I surveyed the situation. The Cimice were all pretty centrally located around the cavern. Even if I was under a veil, the Cimice would notice if I grabbed one of them. Then an alarm would be raised, and I would lose the element of surprise, and this whole enterprise would quickly become more annoying than it already was.

If I had known I’d need the blood of one of the creatures, I would have taken out one of the patrols we had passed earlier. They were nice and isolated from the rest of the population. Now it would be too time-consuming to double back. I was just going to have to take my chances here. That was pretty much the default of my life, so at least I was in familiar territory.

I crept carefully over the ground between me and the colony, mindful of any place where there was loose rock or dirt that I might dislodge beneath my boots. I skirted around the entrance to the cavern and took up a spot several feet away from the epicenter of activity.

The Cimice were carrying rocks of various sizes inside the cavern. They were obviously building something, and I was really not interested in what. Understanding them was not going to help me get rid of them.

After several moments, a Cimice drifted close to my location. First, I quickly dropped a veil over the creature. I could still see the Cimice underneath, but it seemed see-through, like a ghost. I wondered why I could see it when I couldn’t see Puck under my veil before. Was it a product of my will? Or because I hadn’t expected to see Puck then, but needed to see the Cimice now?

There was a lot I still didn’t understand about my powers. Regardless, the insect did not seem to be aware of the veil. The creature went about its business, busily collecting rocks and loading them into the sack it had slung around its neck.

The Cimice were well armored, with shiny green carapaces everywhere except at the soft joints. I remembered killing one before, in Chicago, under the Southport El. That creature had known I was coming, had fought me to the point of exhaustion. But I had managed to kill it by shooting electricity through it at the vulnerable exposed flesh just under its head. Using electricity now would attract a lot of attention. In any case, I needed the creature’s blood, and frying it wasn’t the best way to achieve blood loss.

What I needed to do was use the sword to slit the thing’s neck. There were a couple of logistical issues I needed to work out first, though.

For one, the Cimice were tall—like, NBA-player tall. I am decidedly un-tall. I could fly up behind the insect in order to reach its neck, but it’s a lot harder to be stealthy that way. The Cimice might sense my presence behind it—feel the breeze from my wings or something like that. It seemed better to do it from the front, especially if the insect was distracted into looking up. Which gave me an idea.

Sheer rock rose above the Cimice’s cavern, and above the place where I stood. If I very carefully caused a small piece of rock to break off and tumble down . . . Yes, that could work.

I moved into position. I was close enough to where the Cimice worked to lunge forward and slice its neck. It was kind enough to help me in this regard by suddenly deciding to work on all fours, which made it a lot easier for me to reach the soft throat with my blade.

Now the tricky part. I needed to hold the veil over myself and over the Cimice while using a very small, focused amount of power to dislodge an eensy bit of the rock wall above. I didn’t want to start an avalanche, although that would have been better suited to my skill set.

I took a deep breath, focused my magic and my will to hold the veils steady, and then shot a tiny amount of nightfire at the rock wall. A chunk the size of a potato was dislodged, and it tumbled down in front of the Cimice. It then immediately did the logical thing and looked up.

And when it did, I pounced. The blade sliced through the Cimice’s neck. I put a lot of force into it, nearly taking the thing’s head off entirely. As it was, the creature’s head flapped backward, bending the remains of its neck in an unpleasant way and exposing the cut muscle and veins.

Blood spurted, covering my sword. And my arm and chest and face and hair. This thing had a lot of blood. But at least I had what I hoped was enough of the stuff to perform the necessary spell.

I was congratulating myself on a job well-done when a nearby Cimice let out a high-pitched cry of alarm. And then pointed one of its pincers right at me.

The veils still held steady, so I couldn’t figure out what had given me away. Then I noticed the blood spatter all over the rock. Ah. Yes. That would attract some attention, wouldn’t it?

I raised the sword up, ready to take down any Cimice that came for me. But the creature who had raised the alarm wasn’t actually pointing at me.

It was pointing at the splattered blood, which was behind me. My veils were holding. The insects gathering now could see neither me nor their fallen brethren. They saw the blood, and didn’t understand where it came from. It frightened them.