Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (17 page)

“Niki,” said Gage. “I think we should get out of here.”

I looked at Eli. He was twitching now, the spell starting to wear off. I looked at my father, his eyes full of fear. “No,” I said. “I can’t leave Eli.”

The demon paused, holding perfectly still, and I had the strangest sensation. As if there was something in my head. My ears filled with whispers, as if a crowd was murmuring all around me, but I couldn’t make out the words. I shook my head, trying to shake off the feeling. There was a pressure in my skull, like I was on a plane taking off. I felt as though I couldn’t breathe, as if I were choking on something. Then just as the panic rose in my chest, the feeling dissipated, and I was left feeling slightly weak, but the whispering had gone, as had the pressure and the feeling of choking. I staggered. The demon smiled.

“What was that?” I said. “What did you just do?”

“Leave her alone,” my father wheezed. Something was happening to him. He was heaving, his breath rattling in his chest. Abaddon chuckled, an eerie, bone-chilling sound like the sound of metal on metal, grating against my nerves.

Naz was still backing away, pushing his body past me and the still-heaving Gage who had grabbed the side of the wall for support. Something was going on with him besides mere nausea, but there was no time to think on that right now. I couldn’t worry about Gage.

“What are you doing to Sasha?” I said, my voice shrill. I knew that my guns wouldn’t work on Abaddon even if they were loaded. But old habits die hard, and I raised the guns, aiming them at the demon’s face. “Let him go,” I demanded.

“Little one, put down your toys,” the creature said. He didn’t move his lips, but I heard his voice inside my head, dull and throbbing and close. “You can’t hurt me.” I looked at his body, trying to focus on his torso, rather than his exposed crotch. There were small marks where the bullets had hit him, but they were closing up fast. I looked at the carpeted floor and realized Abaddon’s body had already expelled the bullets. They lay on the white carpet, smearing dark blood where each one fell.

“Maybe not,” I said. “But I can stop you.”

Abaddon laughed again. “You are without sin,” he said. “Be on your way and leave the rest to me.”

The twins were unstopping. Their eyes searched the room like rats, their well-dressed bodies becoming less rigid and falling back onto the bed, their shiny shoes touching the floor at the toes. They still held their insane guns in their hands. Ponytail - I thought he was the one called Otto - twitched his gun hand, a spasm twitching his shoulder.

“I’ve sinned,” I said. “I’ve killed people.” I was mostly trying to buy time. I didn’t know how it might help, but it was all I had.

“To avoid being killed,” throbbed the voice in my head. “You have put sinners in their place, and let go of those you love out of concern for their well-being. Not sin, little one. I will spare you. I find you intriguing. You are like this one,” he looked at Sasha, who looked at me helplessly. “So bold, so brave. But you, little one. You are selfless where your father is a selfish man. So many vices. Such a wasted life.”

“Why are you doing this?” I said. I lowered my arms, the empty guns pointing uselessly at the floor.

“Don’t you know? Your own father wished it. He commanded me. I have to fulfill my duties to the Summoner.” Abaddon smiled. “But when I’m finished, I’m going to clean up.”

“Clean up?” I said.

“Your world needs to be cleansed,” said the voice. “Purged. You can help me, little one. You can help me rid your world of scum.”

“No,” I said. I glanced at Eli. He was blinking and moving the index finger of his left hand. His eyes moved towards me, confused. Miklos turned his head toward Abaddon.

“Ah, the lover,” said Abaddon. “I will spare him. If that is what you wish. But he has allowed those who abuse their power to continue to abuse it. And half demon, no less. I would brand him a sinner were I not so generous.”

“What about sex?” I said. “Isn’t sex a sin?” Blood was starting to ooze from Delaney’s wound. Her eyes started to twitch as she began to unfreeze, then opened wide in shock and pain. They searched the room for me, giving me a questioning look. Jesus, she was still alive.

“Not my area of expertise,” said the demon, his lips pursing in distaste. “I deal with the sycophants, the fraudsters, the liars, and the murderers. My pits are filled with those that deserve their fate. They are rotten meat crawling with maggots. There are no excuses where I come from. Only pain.”

I looked back at Delaney. She was fading fast. Her eyes went far away, and a shudder shook the bed. Dark blood soaked the bedspread and trickled down the side of the bed, released from the spell Gage had cast. I felt a lump in my stomach, ice cold. I was supposed to help her.

Something caught my eye behind Abaddon. The spirit of Norah Delaney was looking down at her body, her lips pursed. “Oh, that’s just great,” she said. “I’m dead. Thanks for all your help, Slobodian.” She glared at me. “You were supposed to protect me. This is all your fault.”

Abaddon had turned at the sound of her voice. “Shut your mouth,” he snarled out loud. “Before I shut it for you.” His hands had become fists. He stepped away from her, as if afraid she would touch him.

“You can see her?” I said.

“What is it?” said Gage. He looked pretty rough still, but some color had returned. He was also standing more upright.

“He can see Delaney’s ghost,” I whispered. The ghost in question had backed away at the demon’s threat and receded into the wall, disappearing like smoke into the next room.

I’d stalled him this long. If I could just keep him here long enough…then what? Eli would shoot him and get himself killed? Gage would cast some magical spell that would somehow be stronger than a lord of Hell? Otto and Miklos would shoot the shit out of him?

Even as I thought it, Otto moved his arm slowly, letting it rest on the bed. He moved it until his gun was pointed right at Abaddon, who only smiled. His finger curled around the trigger and suddenly a war went off in the little room. Everyone that could move instinctively dropped to the floor. When the noise stopped I looked up. Abaddon had one hand on each of the brothers. They were shaking, twitching uncontrollably, sparks burning small holes in the satin bedspread. After a moment, their eyes were just as flat and dead as Delaney’s.

Abaddon turned to look at Gage, who looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown, though I suspected it may have been more from the submachine gun fire than the killing. “Don’t worry,” Abaddon said. “I won’t indulge myself on their hearts. They would be tough and bitter anyways.”

I looked at Sasha. He looked like a ghost. I suspected he was exhausted from trying to control Abaddon for the past few days. There was strain in his face, like he was trying to concentrate on something. His fists were clenched. I thought of what Naz said. About how he left me so I could be raised right. So I could have a normal life away from the killing and torture and black magic. To see him this way, for the first time since I was a girl, I felt something for him. It wasn’t love exactly. Maybe pity, or sympathy, or both. I didn’t agree with any of the paths he had taken in life, but for the first time, I understood them.

“Sasha,” I said, even to myself sounding surprised. He looked up at me and took a shuddering breath. “I forgive you.”

Sasha stared at me for a moment, his eyes taking in my face. He took a deep, shaky breath, and looked at Abaddon. He narrowed his eyes. “Demon,” he said, his voice hoarse. “We leave now.”

Abaddon looked at him, irritated. Sasha was saying something, but it was barely audible. What I could hear didn’t sound like words at all. Some kind of spell. I put my hands over my ears, remembering the trickles of blood back at the office building. The demon snarled at my father, his sharp teeth seeming to glow they were so white. My father backed up slowly, then opened his palms toward Abaddon. A fine thread of palest pink came from each hand and circled around the demon’s neck. Abaddon struggled, grabbing at the threads encircling him, sparks being thrown off where he touched them. My father put one leg out of the window and swung the rest of his body over. I saw his face after he dropped and his mouth was still moving. He backed into the front yard and Abaddon followed, the pink string pulling him like a rabid dog. The demon screamed in frustration, the sound causing the entire house to shake. I heard car alarms going off up the street. Where were the cops? Surely someone had called them.

My father was still backing up, pulling the demon so he had to go through the window. He was too big, but seemed to change in size as he went. He became smaller, though didn’t take the form of a human, as he had before.

Sasha stopped at the sidewalk, waiting for Abaddon. They were the same size now, and Abaddon glowered and snarled as he went. But he went all the same. And when Sasha said something to him, the demon put a clawed hand out, twitching as if he were fighting it, which my father took in his own. He looked toward the house.

“I love you, Nikita,” he said. And then the two were gone.

“Niki,” said a voice as I stood at the window, looking where Sasha had been. I turned slowly to see Eli looking at me. He worked his throat, trying to swallow and wincing as he did. “Can you please untie me and tell me what in the hell is going on?”

“You froze me?” Eli yelled. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Not you specifically,” said Gage. He was sitting on Delaney’s couch, Eli pacing the room back and forth. I sat on the other end of the couch. Naz disappeared, embarrassed by his own cowardice and grieving the deaths of the twins. He left the bodies.

“Look,” said Gage. “It was nothing personal. These Castings, they’re sort of an all-or-nothing type of deal. Either I do one person, or the whole room. And since there were two of them, I did what I had to. I thought Niki was in trouble and I was in a hurry.”

“Naz was never going to hurt me, Bobby,” I said. “He’s like family.”

“He had a gun, he’s a known criminal, and he was alone with you,” said Gage. “It’s a logical conclusion. Even I know who he is.”

“Well, we all thought Niki was in trouble,” admitted Eli, throwing an irritated look at me. “Some family.”

“I never meant to hurt anyone,” said Gage.

“It wasn’t your fault,” I said. “Abaddon would have killed Delaney no matter what. He’s too strong for any of us to fight. Bullets didn’t even hurt him.”

“Well, I made it a lot easier for him, didn’t I?” said Gage. He ran a hand over the stubble on his face that was about a day from becoming a full beard. “I might as well have killed her myself.”

“She probably didn’t feel any pain,” said Eli after a moment. He came around and sat on the coffee table, just as Naz had done an hour earlier. “She wasn’t scared or nervous or anything. It was probably like dying in her sleep. Maybe you did her a favor.” I remembered the horrified look in Norah Delaney’s eyes, her accusing look clouded with pain. I didn’t say anything, though. Gage had enough problems without lumping more guilt on him.

“Yeah, well, didn’t stop me from going to pieces over the blood,” said Gage. “Jesus, I’m goddamn useless.”

“You were weak from the first spell,” I said. “We’re going to get this guy, Bobby. You’ll have your chance.”

“Just out of curiosity,” said Eli, seeming to have shaken his anger at Gage, “why did the blood bother you so much, Bobby? You got some kind of phobia or something?”

“Just does,” said Gage shortly. “Does there have to be a reason? Stop badgering me.” He took a long swig of the diet cola I’d gotten him from the fridge.

I looked at Eli, then back to Gage. “Bobby,” I said. “I know it’s your business, but if there’s something to it, you need to tell us. Our lives are on the line here. You fell apart back there. Your spells might not have been strong enough to take down Abaddon, but we could have learned how he reacted at least. I think we deserve to know why this is happening to you so we can anticipate it in the future.”

Gage was quiet so long that I thought he’d just decided not to acknowledge the question. But finally he took a deep breath and straightened up. He looked at the ceiling. “It wasn’t my fault,” he said. I looked at Eli and shared a look of confusion. I wasn’t sure if he was talking about tonight or another time. Gage continued after a moment. “I was out with some friends when it happened. Demons, I learned later. A bad lot, too. Got out and went on a bender. My house wasn’t the only one they visited. But it was the only one I saw. I mostly just remember the blood.”

Gage stopped, putting his hand over his eyes. His voice became thick. “My wife and my son were killed,” he said. “I don’t remember what happened after that, but they said I went crazy. Started screaming and attacking the cops. I woke up in a mental hospital. They kept me in there for a couple of months. Lumped me in with all the crazies and freaks. But when I see the blood, it takes me back to that night. And I get sick thinking about it. I can see my wife’s dead face staring at me, and I can feel myself losing it again. Like one more thing will put me over the edge and I’ll wake up in the loony bin again.” Gage wiped at his eyes with the back of his hand. “So that’s why I go to pieces, and now you know all about it.”

“Jesus,” said Eli. “I’m sorry, Bobby. I had no idea.”

“Damn right you had no idea,” said Gage. “And now you two are looking at me like you feel sorry for me and you don’t know how to act around me. It pisses me off. So stop it. I didn’t want to tell you. It changes the way you look at a person when you find out about their secrets. So don’t look at me like that.”