Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (16 page)

“I’m not lying, Naz,” I said. “I honestly don’t know where Sasha is. I’m looking for him too.”

“I find it difficult to believe that you got off the Registry without Sasha’s help,” said Naz. “I do not wish to offend you or the people you work for, Nikita, but no one could get you off the Registry.”

“With all due respect, Uncle Naz,” I said, “you don’t know who I’m working for.”

“Then tell me,” he said gently, almost condescendingly, “who is this person?”

“They call him Sam,” I said. I took my badge out of the inside pocket of my coat, where I’d hastily put it before leaving my apartment. The twin that had frisked me hadn’t felt it there.

Naz stared at the weird piece of metal. He reached out and I let him take it out of my hands. He stared at it for a long time. “
Beda ne prikhodit odna,”
he murmured. My Russian was pretty rusty, but it was a saying Sofi sometimes used: “Trouble never comes alone.”

I took the badge back from him. “Do you believe me now?” I said.

“Do you know about this man who you work for?” he said. “Do you know who he is?”

I shrugged. “Maybe I don’t want to know. Maybe it’s better that way.”

Naz sighed. “You may not want to hear this, Nikita,” he said. “But you are very much like Sasha. You look like your mother, but you are ruthless, just like your father.”

“You knew my mother, Naz?” I said. “I didn’t know that.”

“Your father and I knew each other in the Ukraine, before he had to leave. I followed him later.”

“Where do you think he is?” I said.

“To be honest, I thought he was with you,” said Naz. “And if he wasn’t with you, I thought he’d come here.”

There was the sound of glass breaking followed by a loud yell from behind the door Eli, Delaney and the twins had disappeared behind. A man’s voice was saying something. Then there was silence. We watched the knob turn and the door swing open. Naz stood up and pointed his piece toward the noises. Bobby Gage stood there, looking shaken, with a determined look in his eye. He looked from me to Naz and back to me. He pointed at Naz.

“Bobby, what the hell are you doing?” I said.

He raised an eyebrow at me. “Saving you, of course,” he said.

“I don’t need saving,” I said. “Naz is an old friend of the family.”

He opened his mouth, then shut it again. He looked at Naz as if his mere existence baffled him.

“Naz, put the gun down,” I said. “Who carries a revolver around, anyway?”

Naz pocketed the gun with a shrug. “I told you, I am sentimental.”

Gage looked behind him and looked back at me. “So, Niki?”

“What?”

“Eli and Delaney, they weren’t in danger either?”

I looked at Naz. “Of course they weren’t in danger,” Naz said. “Norah is an old friend.”

“Then why was she so scared?” I said.

“She is an old friend, but still a mouthy bitch,” he said. “I might have scared her a little when I came in. Plus, she is afraid Sasha is going to kill her. He probably is, but still. No reason to overreact.”

“Well, the reason I ask is that I may have frozen everyone in that room,” said Gage.

“Everyone?” I said. I got up and walked across the room and peered around Gage. The twins were sitting on the end of a big bed watching TV, their torsos swiveled around to face the broken window, as if they’d turned toward the sound. Ponytail’s hand was on his hip like he’d been reaching for his gun. Eli and Delaney were tied to the bed frame, their backs against the pillows. I looked at Naz.

“It is sometimes easier just to tie someone up than to worry about them,” he said.

“Well, at least they look happy,” I said. They did, in fact, look reasonably happy. There was a sitcom on the television that was blaring a laugh track. The prisoners had at least relaxed enough, if not to full-on smile, at least look slightly amused.

“How the hell was I supposed to know?” said Gage. “You never told me you were BFFs with a goddamn Russian kingpin.”

“Ukrainian,” Naz corrected.

“It’s okay, Bobby,” I said. “But what the hell took you so long?”

“Got lost,” he said. “Never been to the ritzy side of town before. Lived here my whole life and never been over here.”

“How long will they be like this?” I said.

Gage shrugged. “Half hour maybe. Maybe a little less.”

“Well, we may as well get something to eat,” I said. “Let’s see what the mayor keeps in her fridge.”

That turned out to be diet cola and some leftover pizza. Guess Delaney didn’t have time to cook what with all the mayoring she did. We each took a soda and a cold piece of pizza while our cohorts defrosted, though Gage said it was more like unstopping. Defrosting just sounded a lot better in my head than unstopping, though.

“Naz,” I said. “You said that Delaney was an old friend.” I pulled the picture of the mayor and my dad out of my pocket. “I found this in Sasha’s cell. How do you two know her?”

“She was your father’s
lubovnitsa
, his sweetheart,” said Naz. “They were together for a couple of years.”

“He never mentioned her,” I said. I didn’t mean for it to sound so bitter.

“Nikita, Sasha did not want you exposed to his world. Do you remember when he brought you to that old warehouse when you were little? Over by the river?”

“Yeah,” I said. “I was just thinking of that the other day.”

“That was because I urged him to do it, so he could spend time with you. But after you were there, around all these bad men, I realized that Sasha was right. Our world is not a place for a child. You were better off growing up with the old lady. He tried to give her money over the years, he sent her cash, presents for you, even a car once. But she had so much pride. She would find Sasha and give him back the money or whatever he bought with the money. Blood money, she called it. Murder money. She was right, of course. We were so arrogant back then. Nothing could stop us. She kept you away from all that. She said that growing up thinking your father abandoned you would be better than growing up with thieves-in-law. Strong lady. To stand up to Sasha back then was hard, even for me. But for you, she did this thing. Sasha regretted losing you, Nikita, but he believed it was for the best.”

“Oh,” I said.

“So this broad, she was Slobodian’s girlfriend, huh?” said Gage. “How’d she go from that to politician?”

“She always wanted a career,” said Naz. “Sasha, he could never stop thinking about your mother, Niki. He talked about her all the time, and Norah, she would stick out her lip and want to leave. They were no good for each other, but they stayed together for a while. She finally asked him to help her. We had a lot of pull back then with all the money, connections, you know. So Sasha, he fixed it so she could be mayor. Paid a lot of people off, padded her background. Then, poof. She’s a councilwoman. Few years more, she is mayor. Just like that. Your father gave her money whenever she asked. But then, she started talking crackdowns.”

“For the Abnormals,” I said.

“Yeah. The Registry,” said Naz. He shook his head. “It was like she punched him. He was so angry. She wouldn’t talk to him. Then she had him arrested. Later, Norah even testified against him. Nobody knew about them together. “

“Why didn’t he say something?” I said.

“It was all done before it started,” said Naz. “Sasha wanted to go out with some dignity. He said he’d be back to set things right. This must be what he meant.”

There was a noise from the bedroom like the crunch of broken glass. We looked at each other.

“Bobby,” I said softly. “You said a half hour right?”

“Yep.”

“How long has it been?”

“Not long enough.”

I bounded from the kitchen, grabbing my guns from the sideboard on my way, holding the Beretta in my left hand and my Marokov in my right. I stopped at the entrance to the bedroom and saw an impossible sight. Hugh Perry, the guy that was lying on a slab in the morgue minus a vital organ, was backing away from Delaney, a red and glistening lump in his hand. Delaney was dead, or would be when she unfroze. She had a hole in her chest right where her heart should have been. There was a coating of red that looked like blood over the organ in Perry’s hand, but it wasn’t dripping or moving like a liquid should. This may have been because of Gage’s conjuring. She hadn’t ‘unstopped’ yet before she was killed. The other figures in the room were still frozen like creepy mannequins. Delaney was still frozen with that amused smile on her face. The expression made it even more horrifying.

There was movement by the window and another figure rose up from where it had been crouching. There was an acrid odor in the air and I realized the person had been vomiting. I knew who it was before he turned around.

“Sasha,” I said. “I’ve been looking for you.”

He turned. He straightened up. “Nikita,” he said. He looked past me. “Nazar. How interesting to see you here.”

“That’s the most interesting thing in this room?” gasped Gage, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

“Sasha,” said Naz, stepping past me. “What are you doing, my friend?”

“Just,” my father said, then hunched, his shoulders panting. The pseudo-Perry smiled in an amused sort of way. He caught his breath, standing up again. “Just cleaning up a few loose ends,” he said.

“What is this person doing here?” Naz said.

I turned to Gage. He looked oddly pale. “Freeze them,” I whispered.

“What?” he said.

“What you did to everyone else, do that to them.”

“Sis, I don’t know. I’m not—” Gage was interrupted by a splashing noise. I turned to see that he was bent over and was vomiting all over the floor.

“Jesus,” I said. “Great.” What was it about men? A little blood and they all lost their lunch. At least he had managed to turn rather than puke all over my boots. I liked these boots.

I had the Beretta in my left hand, and the Makarov in my right. Naz was still talking to Sasha. They had switched to their native Russian, and I was having a hard time understanding. Sasha was just looking at his friend morosely, glancing every once in a while at the figure that looked like Perry, but which I knew was Abaddon.

“Enough,” I said. Perry smiled at me unpleasantly, like he was thoroughly enjoying the show. I stepped forward and gestured with the Makarov at Sasha. “Call it off,” I said.

“Nikita, I’m sorry,” he said, looking thoroughly dejected. He was thinner than he had been a few days ago. He had changed out of the orange prison clothes, and was wearing some Levi’s and a blue button-up, but they fit him badly. They hung off of him, his body too thin to fill them out. He licked his dry lips nervously. “I can’t. I ordered this. It can’t be retracted.”

“Don’t give me that shit,” I said. “Call it off. Send the demon back.”

My father shook his head. “I tried,” he said, his voice cracking. “It nearly killed me. I am dying anyway. I should have told you. This was my last big act. Something to be remembered by.” His voice cracked. “I can’t control him, Nikita,” he whispered, as if Abaddon wasn’t in the room with us. “The connection is there, but he does not do as he’s told.” Sasha looked fearfully at Abaddon, who seemed not to even care Sasha was in the room. The demon was looking right at me with his fat Perry-face. I got a chill up my back, making me shiver.

“Sasha,” said Naz, his voice quiet. “What happens to the demon when you die?” The whole summoning-a-demon-from-Hell thing didn’t seem to be fazing him much. Probably because he’d spent so much time with Sasha that he was used to it.

Sasha was quiet for a moment. Abaddon kept staring at me, and I was finding it hard to look away. I felt like if I didn’t watch him closely he’d take a bite out of me. “Then the connection is broken,” said my father. “The creature will be free from me.”

“What does that mean?” I said.

My father looked at me. “It means he will be free in the world,” he said. “And God help you all.”

Gage rejoined us, wiping his mouth again. He started to mutter something, but doubled over before he’d even started. “Sorry, sis,” he groaned. “I’m not strong enough right now. The Casting won’t work.”

I looked at Abaddon, who hadn’t looked away. It helped that he was cloaked in the skin of a guy I thought of as pure evil. Hugh Perry, who ruined my life, taken everything I had, and then tried to take more. I may not have been able to do what I knew I had to do if not for that face. I pulled the trigger. Then I pulled it again, and again, until I heard the empty click that signaled the clip was empty. The demon hadn’t seemed to notice he’d been shot, so I emptied the Beretta into him too. No change. I stared at him.

The demon didn’t fall over. He didn’t even flinch. But Perry’s face dissolved and the figure seemed to rise up, growing from the short, squat Perry to a height just below the ceiling. His skin darkened to a dusky color somewhere in between red and black. His face flattened and his teeth grew, sharp and shining white in the warm light of the bedroom. His horns sprouted magnificently from his hairless, ridged head. His eyes were small and completely black. The clothes that he had appeared to be wearing— a white shirt with Perry’s usual sweat-stains under the arms and some faded khakis— also evaporated, seeming to melt into nothing. The demon glowered at me, his lip curling in a snarl. He took one lumbering step forward, the floor shaking from the force of him. Naz backed up, bumping into me. He uttered a curse under his breath.