lily harper - complete series, page 127
The barrel moved a bit to the left and the man fired. The heavy round entered me left arm, causing me to bite my lip from the searing pain. He flicked the lever on the rifle back and forth before aiming it at me head again.
“You are my bounty, Tallis Black, no different from the slaves I used to hunt in my former life.” He pressed the now-hot barrel into me forehead, and it seared me skin. “And if you give me reason, I’ll gladly plant a round straight through your head, bounty or no bounty.”
His point made, he stepped back and whistled. His pack peeled away from us, one picking up me blade in its jaws. They surrounded all three of us like a protective guard. He stepped back and gestured upward with the rifle. “Both of you, on your feet.”
We rose as best we could. I was lightheaded from the blood loss caused by the bounty hunter’s bullet. He gestured with the barrel again towards the rubble ahead of us. I put me hands up and started walking in that direction. I could hear the steps of the stookie angel behind me while the pack scattered to encircle us on all sides. The one in the lead continued carrying me sword.
I got me a chance to look at the bullet wound in me left arm. The bullet had gone clean through but not without tearing a nasty gash through me bicep. I had little strength left and nae food. But none of that mattered if I died of blood loss. I focused the last of me magic on the task of staunching me wound. The flesh quietly mended, and the unrestrained bleeding ended. A bandage would have been nice but such had to wait for now. If I healed too quickly, this bounty hunter might decide to test the limits of me abilities.
The bastard gunman’s pack finally steered us to a building that was mostly intact. Judging from the outside, it could have been an office building. But I knew better. Nothing in the Underground City was ever as benign as it might appear.
The presence of the two door guards only furthered me discomfort. These particular demons had pale, hairless skin, mostly covered by fancy three-piece suits. Their beady eyes refused to blink, their noses merely a couple of slits above their mouths, and their mouths were nae more than round holes ringed from the outer edge to the inner with sharp teeth. They resembled snakes with their leathery skin and oblong heads. This breed could only have originated from the morgue, pasty nightmares that fed off both living and dead flesh. They were called Mephits.
The one on the left saw our caravan first. “Returned.”
The hunter stepped in front of us to acknowledge the greeting with a nod. “Has the cardinal returned as well?”
Both guards shook their heads.
“What about Avernus?”
The monster on the right pointed toward the open doorway. “Waiting.”
A flick of the rifle towards the door got us moving again. The entrance hallway was so tight, all of our captor’s beasties could barely fit two-by-two. The walls were made of some sort of heavy metal—steel or lead mayhap. The only other doorway was the open one ahead.
The room beyond was roughly the size of Fergus Castle’s main hall, and the fluorescent lights dimly flickered over our heads. More of the Mephits were walking about with the look of an army prepping for battle. That image didnae exactly fit with the maze of cubicles they wound through.
I noticed humans chained to the desks inside the cubicles, all of them working at the computers on their desks at a furious pace. Whenever they slowed down, one of the monsters would pull a whip from under its coat and strike their backs. In the far left corner, I heard the heavy rumble of an engine, mayhap a generator to supply power.
The bounty hunter called out the name “Avernus” over the din of the engine while his wolves herded me and the stookie angel towards the wall on the left. A perfectly proportioned woman in a dark blue business suit with long tresses, came out from behind one of the nearer cubicles ahead of us. Her skin was reddish but paled next to her flaming red hair and the red horns that poked through either side of her forehead. Huge black wings expanded from her back and with her pointed red tail, ‘twas quite obvious she was a Succubus demon.
The bounty hunter appeared uncomfortable upon seeing her but stood at attention all the same.
The woman glanced at both of us with bright, flashing eyes before smiling at our captor. “I knew I could count on you, Jedidiah. With all due respect to the cardinal, it would have taken his army a full week to accomplish what you just did in a day.”
Jedidiah looked like he was anything but comfortable with the praise. “Just doing my duty, Avernus.”
The woman pressed against him, putting a delicate hand between his legs. “And you do it so well, my loyal hunter. Yet you still choose to reject the standing offer I gave you?”
“N-n-not at this time,” he sputtered out.
“Are you certain?”
“Yes, I am certain,” his face became more and more tense with her fondling of his crotch.
Avernus pouted her lips but removed her hand and body from his side. “As you please… but I shall look forward to the day or night when you finally surrender.”
She slunk past him to get a closer look at us. Her bright red eyes were now all business, looking us over as though we were fresh cuts of beef. Finally, she pointed at me. “You, I know.”
I grunted. “Ah dinnae know how.”
I didnae recognize her but I knew well enough to know she was nae friend. Not an unattractive woman, she was shapely but she was also hard. Her features were long and angular, chiseled. There was naethin’ soft about her.
“We crossed paths once, but it was many centuries ago so I doubt you’d remember me,” she said. “We’re both a long way from my original stomping grounds in Dis.” She moved her finger over to the angel. “You, I don’t know.”
Naturally, the angel took that as an invitation to open his mouth. “Yeah? Well, toots, if yer chief zookeeper over there hadn’t dragged us in, I might actually want—”
A shot from the rifle cut the dunderheid off, throwing him against the opposite metal wall. The shot echoed in the enclosed space like a cannon, making human and Mephit alike jump. I was damn near deafened from the racket meself, worse than poor Prometheus’s yelling.
Avernus marched up to her subordinate with considerable less flirtation. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Jedidiah flicked the lever on his rifle, unfazed by the racket and fuss he’d just caused. “Keeping a promise I made to the little man outside. Besides, he’s a spy and the cardinal’s orders are to shoot them on sight.”
The angel groaned as he got to his feet, the bullet hole leaving a large gap in his chest. “Okay… fine… mission accomp-blessed. Now can we get back ta the part where the hot chick was checkin’ me out like she was ready to experience angel sausage?”
The hunter put the rifle onto his shoulder only for Avernus to slap it back down again. “He’s an angel, you idiot! Empty your whole rifle on him and it won’t make a bit of difference.”
The stookie angel managed a cheeky grin while he spread his arms wide. “Hey, don’t listen ta her, Daniel Boone. Hit me with a few more rounds. Maybe you’ll eventually pull it off.”
The hate pouring out the bounty hunter’s eyes told me he wished to oblige the fool angel. Regardless, Avernus’s grip on the bounty hunter’s rifle remained firm until he finally lowered it. The situation back under control, Avernus looked at me sword at his side.
“That looks like a fine weapon.”
I did me best to keep the smirk off me face. She touched the hilt then pulled her scalded hand back and screamed. I couldnae keep from laughing long and hard.
“Did ye really think Ah’d craft a blade that a demon could wield? Yer little cousins can steal it but, by Lleu, no demon’ll ever wield it.”
The hateful look she gave me was bloody priceless. It almost compensated for the dire straits in which we’d found ourselves. Avernus waved her hand through the air while Jedidiah stood at attention.
I glanced over at the wolf pack before saying, “Ah’m surprised ye managed ta git a pack o’ Fenrir oonder yer control.”
That observation resulted in the hunter giving me a hard, disbelieving blink. “Most refer to them as hellhounds.”
“An’ wrongly so. Nae mistakin’ the wolf in these beasties when ye’ve had a chance tae look at ‘em oop close.”
What I didnae add was that I was sure the bounty hunter had placed runes on the wolves to keep them under his control.
One of the humans poked his head above his cubicle. “M-M-Mistress Avernus?”
Giving her injured palm one last shake, she barked at the sheepish creature, “What?!”
“The cardinal r-r-requests your presence shortly.”
Jedidiah raised an eyebrow at his boss. “Do you believe the cardinal’s hunt was as successful as mine?”
Avernus blew out a breath of visible irritation. “Without any allies, his prey is practically helpless on her own. So what does it matter if he catches her or not?”
I felt me heart skip a beat. Could they be speaking of Lily? That thought went nae further as the wolf pack began herding us back towards the door. I felt the barrel of Jedidiah’s rifle on me the whole way down the corridor.
Once we were outside again, I noticed a flickering light coming from around the corner. True, this shell of a city had plenty of such freestanding fires that emitted such light. But none of them, so far as I knew, could move.
A few moments later, the source appeared at the head of a squad of humans and Mephits, a strolling figure engulfed in bright blue flames. The closer it came, the more I could see the man inside it. Though the fire burned at a constant, steady rate, his flesh remained whole and unblemished. Me eyes widened as he came close enough that I recognized him.
“What wounds I mark’d upon their limbs…”
—Dante’s Inferno
EIGHT
Tallis
“Cardinal Cauchon,” I breathed out as he and his troops stopped in front of us. I made a discreet glance at me sword. It wasnae more than a few feet from where I stood, but nae way could I make a move for it with the pack ‘round me. ‘Twas nae the right moment.
The cardinal’s eyes lit up with recognition. “Tallis Black… No words can express how much I have been looking forward to this moment.”
Me eyes locked onto his, and I wanted to lock me hands ‘round his neck. “Would that Ah could say the same.”
The angel looked between us. “You know each other?”
Cauchon’s eyes burned hotter than the fire upon his flesh. “Quite well, angel… I am not likely to forget the one who dared to pass sentence upon me for merely doing my duties in life.”
“Dinnae pass yer vices off as virtues tae me, inquisitor,” I spat back at him. “Every century o’ flame ye’ve endured was still tae good fer the likes o’ ye.”
He stalked up to me with quick steps. The wolf pack parted like the Red Sea at his approach. He came sae close, I could feel the heat from his fire. “The same can be said of the fate for which I am about to condemn you.”
He gestured at one of the Mephits. The creature shoved someone out from behind him, throwing her forward. The girl, who stumbled before landing on her knees, turned out to be a wee slip of a girl with short, dark hair. She was wearing battered men’s clothes and looked as though she couldnae be more than twenty.
She looked up at me with calm, sad eyes, asking—nae begging, but asking—for understanding. Something about her manner made me heart go out to her at first sight. Sure, she was nae me Besom. But I knew with certainty that she didnae belong in this place.
Matter of fact, she looked like someone who could have selflessly tended to a Titan’s eyes for many days….
“Place her alongside the others,” Cauchon ordered Jedidiah. The pack’s master obeyed, coming close enough for me to grab me blade. But too many others were watching… The moment had yet to arrive.
The girl was dragged alongside us before the hunter kicked me knees out from under me and then did the same to the angel sae that we all knelt together.
Avernus picked that moment to speak. “With all due respect, Your Grace, why are we performing the executions here?”
Cauchon took the question calmly enough. “Actually, Mademoiselle Avernus, we are not performing executions at all.”
“Explain.”
Cauchon nodded. “Within a few moments, the swarm shall make its appearance.” He raised an eyebrow. “That is, unless your machines have miscalculated its pattern of flight…?”
Avernus paled at the implied accusation and she held up her hands. “No, no, nothing has been miscalculated.”
The guards began shutting the heavy doors with trembling hands. As I looked upon each of them, fear was clearly evident in their expressions. Even the Fenrir seemed to think it was a daft idea to be caught in the swarm’s path. Clearly, this swarm was something to be feared.
Cauchon gestured again at one of his lackeys, who tossed him something bright and shiny. It wasnae until Cauchon caught it that I could tell what it was: a perfectly crafted diamond with a blue tinge to its sheen.
The fool angel picked this moment to open his mouth. “Hey, yo, last I checked, diamonds were only a girl’s best friend…”
The cardinal shoved the diamond right into the stookie’s angel’s face, making him scream out as the superheated stone branded him. Any ideas I had about assisting the fool angel died when Jedidiah pointed his rifle right at me head. The angel kept yelling before Cauchon pulled the stone away. An ugly red wound was burned into the angel’s cheek. The bleedin’ dunderheid only made the pain worse by rubbing it with his bare hand.
“Clearly the stone is no friend to you, you disgrace to the Celestial Choir,” the cardinal said as he spat upon the angel’s burned face.
The glare in the angel’s eyes told me he heard the cardinal loud and clear. He spat an impressive-sized glob of phlegm right at his torturer’s face. The blue flames surrounding the cardinal burned the mucus to naught before it could even touch Cauchon. Even so, the cardinal clearly didnae appreciate such blatant disrespect.
Just as I thought this ribald bastard weren’t worth the divine firmament used to create him, the angel did something that reminded me he was still an angel at his core.
When Cauchon turned his back to us, the girl began whispering to me traveling companion in what sounded like French. And damn me if the angel didnae speak back to her in the same language near perfectly. Aye, the walloper’s French sounded better than his English.
Jedidiah turned his gun on the girl, which made me sneer. “What, ye think words are a match tae yer weapon?”
The hunter ignored me, keeping his eyes and rifle trained on the girl. “English from now on… unless you want to suffer the consequences.”
“Jedidiah…” The cardinal’s voice boomed with massive disapproval. It cut through me captor’s anger enough to make him blink. But his gun remained on its target.
Turning to the man taking aim at her, the girl bowed her head. “Apologies, monsieur. I shall speak English from this moment forward.”
The way she looked at Jedidiah made his anger waver. He pulled the weapon back and looked away, his lip trembling ever so slightly as if he were restraining grief. Clearly, the girl had an effect on him.
Meanwhile, Cauchon faced us again. The hand that was holding the diamond had turned chalk-white, and he slowly squeezed the stone as if it were a sponge. Me concentration was interrupted by the girl’s quiet whisper in me ear.
“Bless you, monsieur, for speaking on my behalf.”
Though she meant well, the grip of failure lodged in me throat. “Fer all the good it did either o’ oos, lass.”
“But you tried all the same. No wonder you travel in the company of an angel.”
Were it anyone else—say, Besom in the early days—I would have railed against her for being sae naïve as to think the situation were sae simple. But, in the company of this girl, words failed me. I felt nae anger and nae need for remonstration. She was simply a girl completely at peace with whatever fate awaited her.
The stookie angel spoke up but had the rare good sense to keep his voice as low as ours. “He might be my travelin’ partner, but Tido’s got a lotta work ta do before he reaches my level.”
Her lips twitched into an amused smile. Naïve though she might be on some subjects, she could smell the stench of the stookie angel’s falsehood clearly as anyone.
She whispered to him, “Bless you likewise, sweet angel, for also standing up for me.”
The angel’s voice sounded a bit choked when he answered. “Hey, no sweat, sweets. I mean, it’s in the job descriptation, right?”
A sudden cracking sound caused us to look at Cauchon. Somehow, the damned cardinal had managed to squeeze the diamond hard enough to make it shatter. The cracks inside its perfect façade began spiderwebbing and within seconds, the whole thing fell apart. He put his hands over the fragments and crushed them between his palms.
When he opened his hand again, the diamond was thoroughly ground into dust. Over his head, on the distant horizon, a black cloud burst through the grey, dipping low and heading in our direction. That simple sight was enough to make Cauchon’s lackeys nervous again. They took turns examining each other, licking their lips and taking the odd step back.
Cauchon gave them what he mayhap thought was a reassuring smile. “Have no fear, mes amis. The remains of the true Hope Diamond shall protect us from all the ravages that await our prisoners.”
“The Hope Diamond?” the angel asked nervously.
“Yes, my divine friend,” Cauchon replied, a smile perverting his ugly face. “The very same.”
He began walking in front of his troops, distributing the diamond’s dust in front of them like granules of sand. Looking back at the descending black cloud, I finally understood what was coming our way. “Sae it be the Spites then, Cauchon?”
The chuckle he gave me was as unsettling as his smile, making the closest of his Mephits shiver. “Mais oui, Monsieur Black. From what I understand, death at the hands of the Spites is a death unlike any other.”
The angel swallowed hard but did his best to put on a brave front if only in his voice. “Hey, yo, Catch-On… I think ya mighta missed the part where I told yer hench-assholes I can’t die, yo. Remember the whole immortal part?”
