I rummaged up a change of sheets for Holly, and left her with that paperback and a half-empty bottle of vodka from before I’d figured out vodka wasn’t my drink. Holly said she didn’t drink, but after the week she’d had, I figured maybe she’d change her mind before the night was through.
As soon as I started down the stairs, raised voices from downstairs caught my ear. Well, one raised voice. Juliana was yelling, or close to it. Father Keller’s voice was as even as ever, but he had that tone he got sometimes, like he thought he was the only adult in the room and was tired of it.
“It’s time. It’s long past time.” A sharp thwack followed Juliana’s words—flesh hitting wood. She must have thumped the desk for emphasis. I hoped she didn’t crack the thing, because we couldn’t afford a replacement. “He’s been hiding for too long. It’s bad out there, and getting worse. If you can’t see how much the city needs him, you have your head as far up—”
Father Keller cleared his throat.
“As far down in the sand as he does,” Juliana finished.
“His head was, up until the past few days, firmly on his shoulders,” said Father Keller. “My job is to make sure it stays attached to his body. Whatever he once was, our friend Nic is in no shape to fight a demonic threat. He likely wouldn’t have survived the night if not for your intervention, and don’t tell me you believe otherwise.”
“Then you’re ready to turn that girl over to a demon who doesn’t care about Hell’s own laws anymore, let alone Heaven’s. Is that it?”
“I have no intention of leaving the young woman to fend for herself. She came to us for sanctuary, and I will provide it. There may be a safehouse to be found for those in her position, or perhaps a practitioner who can help her. If nothing else, we will give her what solace we can. And if you’re willing to help, I’m not too proud to accept. But Nic can’t be involved. Because you’re right—the people of this city need him. They need him too badly for him to throw his life away on a fight he can’t win as a human.”
I stepped into the room. “That’s enough.”
Something in my tone made them both snap their lips shut. They turned to me like I had caught them with their hands in the cookie jar.
I met Juliana’s combative gaze first. “I am not your soldier to command. Only one being ever had the right to give me orders, and if you hadn’t noticed, he’s not around anymore.” Then I turned to face Father Keller’s guilty eyes. “And I’m not your broken-winged bird to nurse back to health. I didn’t ask you to join up with me. That was your choice. So you don’t get to tell me to play by your rules. You want to stick with me, you’ll play by mine.”
I took the chair Holly had abandoned and leaned back, aggressively casual, every muscle taut and aching.
“As of now, Holly Bennett is my client,” I said. “She doesn’t deserve to have a demon set up shop inside her head because someone else made a bad decision and then didn’t stick around to take the consequences. It’s a simple problem—a demon is breaking the laws of Hell. I’m going to put a stop to it.
“But you’re right, Father. In this body, I don’t have the strength to take on this demon’s underlings in an open fight, let alone the demon himself. If you want in, I need your help figuring out what other options we’ve got. If you don’t, the door’s right there.”
Neither of them said a word. They looked at each other, then at me. I met their eyes with a cool stare and didn’t offer them anything else. They didn’t go for the door, which might have been a victory. I wasn’t sure yet.
After an eternity of silence, Juliana cleared her throat. A grumpy bear coming out of hibernation would probably have made a sound about like that. “You already know what I’m going to say.” She motioned behind her, to where the axe made a lump in her coat. Or maybe that was one of her guns. “This is only the beginning. No, really the beginning was five years ago, when the demons started crawling out of Hell and realized no one cared enough anymore to shove them back where they belonged. Demons used to be particular about their contracts because that was the agreement they made with Heaven. Now they do it because it’s a habit. If this one bends the law and gets away with it, it’s only a matter of time before the rest stop worrying about making deals, and start taking whatever they feel like.”
“I’ve performed enough exorcisms in my time to know it wouldn’t be that easy,” said Father Keller. “The laws of Hell are more than habit. They have real metaphysical weight. An attempted possession is as likely as not to kill the victim without a prior contract in place.”
Juliana waved away his words with a skeptical grunt. “Tell that to the girl upstairs.” She turned back to me, eliciting a groan of protest from the chair underneath her. “Like I was saying, we’ve got to shut this down hard and fast. We go in, we show this demon what happens to anyone who thinks the laws don’t apply anymore, and we make sure every demon in a hundred miles hears how and why he died. I’ll even do it for you, if you don’t want to break a nail.” The look on her face wasn’t a smile so much as a teeth-bared look of satisfaction. “You’d owe me another favor, of course.”
“As much as I wish I could take you up on that,” I said, “going in alone is too much of a risk. Even for you.” I held up a hand to ward off her objections. “I know how many demons you’ve fought in the past five years. And with the Inquisition before that. But how many had a stable of underlings to do their grunt work for them? We don’t know how much cannon fodder he has to throw at us. Or how powerful he is to have gotten them to work for him in the first place. Loyalty is a rare thing in Hell. Mostly, if someone is willing to go out and fight for you, it’s because they’re more scared of you than of whoever they might be fighting.”
“Aside from the risk involved,” said Father Keller, “if you’re right that Hell will be watching to see how this situation resolves, solving it with violence will send the wrong message. It won’t tell the demons the old laws are still in effect. It will tell them a new law is in place—the law of force. If you take his head for this, you’ll commit yourself to doing the same to every other demon who wants to follow in his footsteps—and leave your own neck open to whoever doesn’t accept your authority.”
“And how is that different from now, exactly?” Juliana asked. “Or, for that matter, from all the centuries the Inquisition spent keeping peace between Hell and Earth at the point of a sword?”
“The difference,” said Father Keller, “is the difference between apprehending a few criminals and fighting a war.”
“We’re already at war.” But she scowled, which was how I knew Father Keller’s words had landed. “Okay, so you don’t think we should use violence. Got any other ideas? Should we invite them in for tea and a talking-to?”
“Talking to them won’t do any good,” said Father Keller, dipping his chin to her in acknowledgment. “Talking to someone else, however…” He turned to me. “You made an interesting point a moment ago, Nic. Even if the denizens of Hell no longer have a reason to consider the laws of Heaven valid, they still obey their own authorities, if only out of fear.”
I shrugged. “Sounds about right. What’s your point?”
“If Lucifer himself impressed upon this demon the importance of continuing to follow Hell’s laws, I’m inclined to believe this demon would listen, if only because he values his own skin,” said Father Keller. He paused. “And Lucifer will listen to you.”
“Good one, padre,” Juliana said flatly. “Now if you’re done joking around, let’s hear your real suggestion. If you have anything to offer besides criticism, that is.”
Then she looked at me. Her face changed when she realized I wasn’t laughing.
“Lucifer won’t listen to Nic Ward.” I gestured down at my t-shirt, my wounded shoulder, my still-wet hair that had already sprung back to its usual state of disarray. “And that other name isn’t mine anymore.”
Juliana looked like she still wasn’t sure this wasn’t all some elaborate joke at her expense. “You expect me to believe you have a personal relationship with Lucifer himself?”
“It doesn’t much matter to me what you believe.” I looked at Father Keller. “I figured you would be the last person to make that suggestion. You’ve spent the past five years trying to keep me away from the forces of Hell. Now you want me to sit down and have a talk with the granddaddy of them all?”
“I assumed you were persona non grata in the underworld after you switched sides.” Juliana sounded like she was talking it as a personal betrayal that maybe that wasn’t the case after all.
“It’s complicated.”
“And you.” Juliana rounded on Father Keller. Without getting up from her seat, she managed to get the impression across that she was looming over him. “You’re squeamish about making a few heads roll, but you’re fine with having a sit-down with the ruler of Hell? Aren’t you supposed to be a priest? Working with demons to defeat a demon—you don’t see any way that could go wrong?”
“I was a demon not that long ago,” I pointed out. “You don’t have a problem asking for my help.”
“Because I know I can trust you. Or I thought I could, before you stopped answering my calls.” She scowled. “And you may be a demon… or former demon, or whatever you want to call yourself… but at least you’re fighting for the right side. That’s more than I can say for some of the supposed good guys.”
“There’s no point in having this argument,” I said. “Because I’m not doing it. I’m not going anywhere near Hell, and the only name Lucifer would recognize is one I won’t use. I’m Nic Ward. Human. Personal security consultant. Everything else is in the past, as you’re so fond of reminding me.”
Father Keller crossed the room to me and rested his hand on my shoulder, like he had done to Holly when he was trying to calm her down. Great. I was getting the lost-sheep treatment.
“You know it’s not a suggestion I would make lightly,” he said. “But you’ve made it clear you’re set on helping Holly Bennett. Violence is likely not a workable solution, for the reasons we’ve discussed. And reasoning with the demon himself will be a dead end—probably a literal one. If you want to help the young woman, and prevent similar problems in the future, I believe making contact with Lucifer is the way that’s most likely to result in a deal with minimal bloodshed.”
He let go of my shoulder and stepped back to look at me. His eyes were dark with emotion.
“However,” he said, “I won’t pretend it’s without risk. Once Hell knows how to find you, neither of us knows what the consequences could be. And as you made clear, I have no right to set your path for you, although it is my privilege to advise you. I won’t tell you to do this. I can’t even say for certain that it’s the right choice.”
Juliana rolled her eyes. “Stop all the yakking and let me go in. Next time he sends a hit squad after the girl, I’ll take one of them alive and have it draw me a map to its boss’s door. After that, it’s only complicated if you want to make it that way. However strong this demon is, I’ve taken on worse.”
“Since leaving the Inquisition?” I asked. “Or are you talking about back when you had a team of Inquisitors to back you up?”
Juliana’s scowl deepened. “Do I really have to tell you making a deal with the devil is a bad idea?” she asked, instead of answering.
No, she didn’t need to tell me. In fact, I was sure she didn’t know the half of what could go wrong if I showed my face around Lucifer or the people who still worked for him. I wished Father Keller had never suggested it.
Because now that he had, I could see that he was right. If I wanted to not only protect Holly, but keep anything like this from happening again, it would be foolish not to use the ace up my sleeve.
“I’ll go first thing in the morning,” I said.