Collateral Damage (Demon Squad Book 8) (10 page)

That was the one thing that kept me from rushing off to level Shaw and her cronies. My knuckles popped as I clenched my fists, desperate to lash out, but there was no one I could hurt that wouldn’t somehow make things worse for us.

“Damn it!” I screamed, letting the sound echo in the huge chamber until it faded to a whimpering croak.

If we were gonna hold our ground in Hell, we’d need everyone we could get to help. I sighed at that, the last of our merry band out in the world being better in theory than practice. Still, if nothing else, they’d be safer here with the rest of us.

At least that’s what I told myself when I pried open a gate and headed back to Earth.

Eleven

The best part of having sub-demon lackeys is that you can shove the magical equivalent of a LoJack up their ass and they don’t complain. Just like I’d done with one of the dread fiends I’d sent with Veronica.

As much as I believed her capable of keeping Rala and Vol off the radar, the paranoid in me—Micro-manager Bob as I like to call him—felt it necessary to keep tabs on the ex-wife. Hmmm, maybe I am capable of learning despite what my therapist or parole officer think.

To no one’s surprise, especially not mine, the tail led me to Old Town. You can take a succubus out of the ghetto but you can’t… Well, you know the rest. Anyway, while I’d known Veronica would squirrel herself away in Old Town, that didn’t mean she’d be easy to find. She knew the place like the depths of Baalth’s ass, which is to say up close and personal. Here she’d have all the supplies and contacts she’d need to avoid the world at large while still hiding out pretty much exactly where anyone who knew her would start looking.

It was either genius or stupidity, but it worked for her.

After making sure I hadn’t been seen by anyone, I dropped down into a dark alley around the corner from where my senses had led me. There was no telling if she’d been found out, and I wanted to be sure I wasn’t screwing things up by popping in. My power reined in tight—a trick I’d practiced living in boring-ass suburbia—I hung in the shadows of the alleyway and stared out at the place she’d chosen to hole up in.

It was a dump, just one more abandoned piece of Old Town that had forgotten to die alongside its previous owners. Baalth had been quick to secretly buy up every old property that was foreclosed on out here, basically giving him the lion’s share of ownership over everything in Old Town. It was his own little Hell that he’d watched over, at least until he went nuclear. That kind of screwed things up, the area slipping further into decline from there. Azrael’s little escapade hadn’t helped either, though it looked to have drawn in its fair share of the homeless these last several months.

The telltale signs of occupation had sprung up all over the place, clothes hanging on the business signs, blankets and tin foil covering windows that had been previously boarded up and sealed shut. Folks wandered the streets, doing what homeless people do, whatever that is. They weren’t really my focus there, though. At least not beyond making sure none of them saw me.

As soon as I was sure I was in the clear, I darted out of the alley and ran across the street and into an alley on the other side. No one to chase them from the streets and stairwells, the alley was empty, for which I was grateful. I made my way to a fire ladder that had long ago given up its duty. The steel from the first floor down had been scavenged and likely sold as scrap long ago. Rust shone on the rest of it as it hung from the side of the building, orange and red in competition against the dull gray. An emergency exit door loomed two floors above, out of reach.

At least of normals.

Once I made sure I was alone, I flew onto the tiny parapet of steel. It groaned under my feet as I reached for the door only to find it inched open, the silver bolt engaged to keep it from closing.

Now that’s not very secure.

My confidence in Veronica, such as it was, deflated fast. Afraid to let my senses loose for fear of alerting someone to my presence, I pulled one of my guns from its holster and eased the door open. I was gonna have to do this old school.

The door swung open easily—hinges freshly oiled—about two feet before it met resistance against the warped parapet, but it was wide enough for me to squeeze through. I slid into the darkness and pulled the door back the way I found it. No point in announcing I was there.

A long hallway met me on the other side, leading off into the dark of the old office building. The floor was laid with a dark gray carpet that matched the dust covering it. There were no obvious footprints showing, which I imagined was one point in Veronica choosing this place. A handful of doors lined both sides of the hall, and from where I stood, they all appeared to be closed.

I drew in a deep breath, tasting the musk of ages past, and started down the hall, the mental ping of my dread fiend GPS guiding me. As I crept to about halfway down the hall, I heard a voice I recognized despite the tingle from the fiend being a long way further into the building. Knuckles crunched as I tightened my grip on my pistol. The voice drifted to me again, and I slithered up to the door of the room it had come from. Like the one outside, this one was cracked open as well. My gaze charged ahead, running along the wall of the room and around the corner until it landed on the source of the voice. I choked back a growl.

That
motherfucker
.

There, not three feet from Veronica, stood the rotten tree stump that called himself Thud, Shaw’s DSI muscle. He hunched forward, body hunched, and looked ready to lunge. I was just about to put a bullet in his brainpan when Veronica’s voice stopped me, her words freezing me in place, my blood running cold.

“So, what exactly do I get out of all this?” she asked, her voice like warm honey, in sharp contrast to Thud’s.

“For starters, you get to live, sugar lips,” he answered, the tone of his voice making it clear he wasn’t under her control. She’d never let him get away with that if he was. “That should be enough.”

She laughed. “If you thought it would be that easy to kill me, you wouldn’t have come here looking to bargain, demon.”

He shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. Don’t matter what you or I think, tits. All that matters is what you do, and we both know you’re going to make the right choice.”

Veronica’s eyes narrowed as she stared at Thud, her poker face in place. Too bad that didn’t mean shit. Veronica always looked out for the number one; herself.

“And if I give you him, what then?”

I swallowed hard as her words hit my ears, their sound echoing through my skull. There was no mistaking the `him’ she was talking about. Right there in front of my very own eyes, Veronica was selling me out. My face warmed, temples throbbing. It took every ounce of self-control I had to keep from stomping into the room and murdering them both. Still, even though my feet never moved, my imagination played out a million different scenarios in an instant, each and every one of them with the two bastards in front of me strung up in the worst way possible.

“The boss only wants Trigg,” Thud said, only confirming what I’d already realized, that my ex-wife was buying me a trip to shit creek once again without anything resembling a boat or even a paddle. “She knows damn well he’s hiding out in Hell with all his buddies, but none of us can get to him yet, and that ain’t making her happy. She’s like a dog slobbering over a stew bone, if you know what I mean. She wants that shit now, not later, and you’re the chick with the magical golden ticket. Wonka’s fiending for her chocolate, baby.”

“So you’re saying Shaw will let me and the aliens go free if I hand Frank over? We walk, now and forever without her coming after us?”

“Shit, that bitch loves her leashes, let me tell you,” Thud said with a laugh. “She won’t ever offer up nothing that open-ended, but if you give her what she wants today, and then keep your pretty little ass out of sight, she’ll let you slip her mind. She don’t give a good goddamn about anything right now but stringing up that dildo Triggaltheron. Give her the toy she wants and you ain’t nothing to her.”

Veronica walked back and forth in a tight circle, and I continued to fight the urge to kill Thud. I barely managed to hold back, grinding my teeth into stubs. I
so
wanted to kill someone right then.

She rubbed the back of her neck as though her head might pop off, and then finally stopped her frantic pacing. “And Trinity? What do they want from all this”

Thud shrugged. “Can’t say, if you want me to be honest. Them’s strange shits. Fanatics, even. But if you and them muties ain’t kin to Triggaltheron, you should be all right once they get their hands on him and the baby.”

It felt as if a mule kicked my chest in right then. Hearing the demon talk so causally about the death of my child was the flame that lit my fuse. My pulse ramped up so quickly that my hands started to shake. There they were discussing the life of Abby as if she meant nothing. My feet started forward of their own volition.

“Okay,” Veronica told him. Once more her words brought me to a halt. “I’ll help you but I can’t be there for it, can’t be a part of it.”

My brain ran in circles inside my skull, hoping, begging that what I’d just heard was Veronica talking out her ass just to save it, but I couldn’t make myself believe it. I knew her too well. Everything I saw, her mannerisms, her tells, all said she’d been serious when she offered Abby and me up to Shaw. Her eyes told the truth of it. So she could live, she’d let my child die as a sacrifice.

I damn near broke the grip of my gun as all that settled over me. Only the shock of her being so callous kept me from entering the room, my feet rooted to the carpet.

“Then it’s settled.” Thud chuckled. “You bring that asshole to us, and we’ll take care of the rest.” He started to turn, and out of instinct, I ducked further behind the wall, not wanting to be seen. “Call me when you’re ready, tits, but I suggest you make it right soon. Shaw won’t be so cooperative the next time she sends me out.” His heavy footsteps came my direction.

For a split-second I weighed ripping his head off his shoulders the moment he stepped into the hallway, and then doing the same to Veronica right after, but the loudest voice in my head right then was the most improbable: reason.

Shaw and Trinity had us on the run, stumbling through the maze like beaten rats without a clue. Yet here was the opportunity to change that, to skew the odds no matter how minor it might be, and all I had to do was hold off killing two pieces of filth who sold my child to the reaper.

That was the hardest decision I’d ever had to make.

I was down the hall and in the nearest room before Thud even reached the doorway. He stomped out as if he owned the place, not even realizing I was watching him through yet another cracked door. He never looked back, stepping through the emergency exit and clanking his way down the fire escape. He hit the ground with a muffle
thump
, and then he was gone. Veronica sauntered out into the hall a few moments after he left. Again, I had to mentally restrain myself.

It hadn’t been the first time Veronica had betrayed me. She’d a long history of selling me out to the strongest bidder. I’d let all those times go—for the most part—because it was her nature as a succubus to surrender to power, a compulsion even. It was who she was at the very core of her existence. But this was different. She’d crossed the line by involving Abby. There would be no coming back from this.

She called out to Rala, her voice loud as it reverberated through the building. I waited, not daring to breathe for fear she might hear me. Finally, the little alien appeared, the sound of her feet trotting down the hallway. Though I couldn’t see her orange and black-striped face, I knew from memory the ugly face she was pulling at being summoned like some wayward pet.

“What?” she asked, attitude in place.

Veronica ignored it. “I need you to stay here until I get back. There’s something I need to take care of.”

Rala’s mood shifted gears, and I could hear the uncertainty in her voice. For all her toughness, she was still a kid caught up in a world that would eat her alive given the chance.

“When will you be back?”

“Soon,” she answered, and I sensed the barest flicker of Veronica’s power leaking out to massage the moment, smooth things over. “Just stay quiet and wait for me. Will you do that?”

And just like that, Rala was hooked. “Of course. I’ll be right here, waiting for you to get back.”

Veronica muttered something vaguely appeasing and shooed the kid off, back to wherever she’d been hiding. As soon as her footsteps faded, Veronica started down the hall. I leaned away from the crack in the door so I wouldn’t see her and lose control, but I have to admit I almost lost it. Only when I heard the outer door slam shut and be bolted, did I draw in a lungful of air and loosen my hold on my gun. My fingers tingled, and I barely managed to slip the .45 back into its holster without dropping the damn thing.

Holding back my rage had drained me dry. Weariness washed over me, and I just wanted to lie down and sleep for an eternity or two. I’d never put much faith in Veronica—and she’d certainly never given me reason to—but she’d gone and done something I never imagined her capable of, even as selfish as she was.

I stumbled out of the room, closing the door behind me, unsure of what to do, where to go. I thought about grabbing Rala and Vol but they were as safe where they were as anywhere given what Veronica had just done. It was best to leave them for now so Veronica didn’t suspect anything.

Shaw couldn’t be trusted, but she had only sent Thud to do her bargaining. Had she wanted to hurt the aliens, it would already be done. No, she’d rather use them against me for as long as she could, and that kept them safe for a bit.

A stress headache coming on, I made my way out by a side window so Veronica wouldn’t come back to an unlocked door and get suspicious. She’d made her decision, and I didn’t want paranoia getting in the way of it. Her Benedict Arnold routine had shown me a door I hadn’t known existed.