A Snake in the Grass (29 page)

Estéban immediately disobeyed my prohibition
against speaking. “I know you. I’ve seen you here before.”

The demon tilted his head and smirked
faintly. “Ah yes, the student. Now I remember.”

“It was time for them to truly meet you.” At
the sound of my voice, Axel’s attention swiveled back to me. “Their
lives are on the line, right next to mine now. They needed to know
what we were dealing with.”

“And are we? Dealing, I mean?” Axel’s eyes
flashed red, finally betraying his irritation. “Do you have any
idea what you have
done
, Jesse?”

“Which part? The part where we broke a really
pissed off fallen angel out of her prison, or the part where I
threatened to detonate the little tac nuke you’ve got riding around
in my skin?”

He threw up his hands. “You have no idea the
ramifications of these events. The power balances that have been
tipped, the moves that have to be scrapped now and rethought…”

“Of course I don’t.” That made him pause, and
he tilted his head at me. “You’ve been very careful to keep your
little intrigues to yourself. Well, this is me, telling you that it
ends now.”

The man-demon narrowed his eyes at me. “What
do you mean?”

“I mean that you’re gonna pull up a chair,
right here on this patio, and you’re gonna lay it all out for me.
No deals, no bargains, just information. You’re going to tell me
what this little war is about that you’ve got brewing. You’re going
to tell me who Reina is and why she’s so pissed at you. And you’re
going to tell me how the hell you intend to get me out of this shit
that I never signed up for.”

Axel blinked at me like I’d slapped him in
the face. “I can’t just…”

“You can. And you will. I’m done
playing.”

His eyes darted to our audience and back to
me again, looking uncertain for the first time since I’d known him.
“And you want them to hear all of this.”

I nodded. “They need the chance to walk away.
The one I didn’t get.”

“We’re not—”

“I would never—”

Of course that set both Sveta and Estéban to
talking over each other, despite the fact that they’d been told not
to speak. “Quiet, both of you. Grab some chairs. I think we’re
going to be here a while.”

The kid obediently grabbed a few plastic
chairs, dragging them around our patio table, and I went and took a
seat, kicking one out in invitation to Axel. After a moment of
eyeing it like it was a striking snake, he came and sat as well,
stretching his long legs out. “It will have to be the Cliff’s Notes
version, or we’ll be here all night.”

“Hey, we got nowhere to go. Start at the
beginning.”

He was right. Even with the abridged version,
we were out on the patio most of the night. Mira brought us drinks
and sandwiches at one point, frowning intently at the demon on her
deck even as she slid a glass of lemonade in front of him. Axel
managed to smile politely and thank her, even if he didn’t touch
the beverage at all.

Hours of chatting boiled down to a few basic
facts. There were two factions in Hell, which was something I
pretty much knew already. To say they didn’t get along was putting
it mildly. You had the one side, represented (or lead? Axel managed
to avoid that question) by Axel and those allied with him. And then
we had the other side, who until a few days ago had been without
their leader. Of course, it was Reina, whatever her real name was.
Their war had been put on hold a thousand years ago when she got
put on ice, but as the spells around her weakened, the demons had
started to rebuild their ranks, once again choosing sides.

The good demons – and wasn’t that an
oxymoron? – believed that it was their duty to test the souls of
the world, to make deals, to follow the rules as laid out. It was a
job, a purpose, and they took it very seriously.

“But why? I mean, what are you supposed to
get out of it?”

Axel shrugged, looking at his hands as they
were clasped in his lap. He’d spent a lot of the night like that,
eyes downturned, lacking all of the bravado and charm I was used to
from him. “Maybe…maybe they think that if they do their jobs well
enough that they’ll be allowed into heaven someday.” He didn’t even
choke on the word. I was a bit proud of him.

“Demons want to go to heaven? Even the angels
that fell?”

His chuckle was bitter. “You will never find
so devout a creature as a fallen angel, Jesse. They’re the ones who
know what they’re missing.”

The other group, what I mentally tagged as
the rebels, didn’t give two figs about the rules, or about what
duty they may have been assigned, once upon a time. They were tired
of being stuck in Hell and they didn’t see why they couldn’t just
come up and take the world for their own. They viewed themselves as
superior to the human race, short-lived, weak things that we were.
We were a fuel source to them, nothing more.

“But, if there are angels, why are they not
fighting the demons?” Estéban had given up remaining silent hours
ago, but at least he hadn’t said his name. Even as cooperative as
the demon was being, I knew Axel was mentally cataloging everything
he could, and if I could keep their names from him, it would be a
start.

I raised my hand before Axel could respond.
“I actually know the answer to this one. I talked to one, once.”
That got all their attention. “He said that it was not their war,
that Hell would have to take care of their own.”

“That’s it?” Estéban blinked at me in
disbelief.

I shook my head. “I asked him why God hadn’t
sent help, because there were humans down here dying over this
mess. He just said ‘what makes you think He didn’t?’”

Axel snorted softly. “Not surprising. It’s
always someone else’s problem, where most of them are
concerned.”

“So what happens next? Now that the queen
bitch is loose?”

Axel sighed, and I realized that he looked
weary. I didn’t even know he could. “I honestly don’t know. I was
arrogant enough to think I had a few years at least before I would
have to deal with her. Now… Well, I know a few strikes she’ll make
first, to weaken me and to strengthen herself.” He chuckled,
suddenly. “Do you know how odd is it so think of her as ‘her’? It’s
not like we actually have gender, not like your kind.”

I couldn’t help it, I had to smirk a little.
“You telling me that’s not how little demons come into being? When
a mommy demon and a daddy demon like each other very much…”

“Ew.” He actually kicked my shin,
half-heartedly. “You say such disgusting things sometimes. Why do I
talk to you?”

“Because I’m just so damned awesome.” I
stretched my arms and laced my fingers behind my head with a smug
grin.

We parted ways soon after that, the human
factor needing to make up on their sleep, and the demon participant
needing to…well, go be demon-y.

I lay in bed that night, my very pregnant
wife curled up against my chest, and I dreamed of the tunnel and
the figure at the far end of the arena. This time, every time he
was there, I felt an immense sense of relief. The times the hard
packed field remained empty, dread seeped into my very core, and
Mira finally woke me to tell me I was mumbling in my sleep. That
was new.

Axel showed himself more often after that.
Sometimes, it was just to walk past the window of It as I worked,
catching my eye to let me know that he was in the area. Sometimes,
he showed up just to play a game of chess with me in the back yard.
My two shadows would always be nearby, keeping an eye on the demon,
but we’d agreed to let him come and go as he pleased for now. If
Reina made an appearance, Axel was the only one likely to be strong
enough to put her in her place.

In the meantime, the world was going to shit.
Just watching the news told me that much. It had been going on for
a couple years now, but with Reina on the loose, things got worse.
There were earthquakes where there’d never been any before.
Typhoons and hurricanes. There were random shootings in pretty much
every city you could name, even riots on a few occasions.
Dictatorships were under siege in unstable countries, and to hear
the talking heads tell it, everybody’s finger was on the button. I
hated to say it, but I kinda knew how they felt.

I was a tiny little country in the big demon
world, but I’d gotten my hands on a nuke, and I was fully capable
of using it. They wouldn’t come for me, because they couldn’t be
sure I wouldn’t do it, and I couldn’t actually use it without
ending two hundred and seventy-five people who had absolutely no
idea what was going on with their souls. We were at the ultimate
stalemate.

I got way less flak from Ivan than I’d
expected. I could tell, when we talked on the phone, that he wasn’t
happy with my decision to replace Terrence with a half-trained kid,
but in keeping with Ivan’s plan to have me as his replacement, he
didn’t contradict me.

“You are to be having good judgement, Dawson.
I must be believing this is a good thing.” Ivan sounded tired, more
often than not, lately. It was starting to worry me. I’d never
heard him be anything but larger than life, as equally passionate
in his laughter as he was in his anger. Now, he sounded…old.

Carlotta and Terrence kept in regular touch,
but even I could tell that they weren’t getting anywhere. What we
needed was some kind of vessel to house the souls. They could go to
a demon, which wasn’t going to happen, or a human – and I wouldn’t
have done that to my worst enemy – which left us right where we
were, sitting on our hands doing nothing. It was slowly driving me
nuts.

I channeled that energy as best I could into
work, and into training Estéban. Even Sveta got in on the action,
showing off her own unique fighting style and settling in as part
of a team rather than a lone wolf type. Somewhere along the way,
she and Estéban had reached some accord about him thumping her in
the head, but he still tended to flinch a little when one of her
strikes would come his way during sparring. She’d just grin slyly,
and I knew one day she wasn’t going to pull her punch, and it’d be
on him if he couldn’t block it.

We’d been home for nearly a month when I got
an unexpected visitor. I was in the yard, tending to my bonsai
trees (the poor things had been sorely neglected), when the souls
on my back gave a warning ripple that usually heralded Axel’s
arrival. But, when I looked up, there was no sign of the
punk-haired demon.

The birds had gone silent, however, and
inside the house, I heard my daughter’s Mastiff start raising all
kinds of hell. Chunk could sense it, too. “Hello…?” My mind raced,
weighing the idea of using a garden rake as a weapon versus the
odds that I could actually move fast enough to reach the house and
my sword.

Just when I was about to bolt for the door,
the leaves rustled in the tree above me, and a little moon-eyed
face poked out. “Hello, James Dawson!” The scrappy little demon
gave me a fanged grin, hairy ears quivering with excitement.

“Well, hey there. Didn’t think I’d be seeing
you again.” I leaned on the rake, craning my neck to look up at it.
“You coming to spy on me for your master?”

The thing sneered. “Forgets about me. Bigger
game now, doesn’t need me. And I have two names! Better than worm,
so I left.”

“Oh! Well…good for you.” I know it was a bad
idea to engage, but the little guy amused me, okay? “What are you
doing here?”

“Come to see about more names! Things to
trade, secrets to know.” It nodded its head hard enough that it
almost overbalanced and pitched off the branch. Only its vicious
looking claws saved it.

“I don’t really think I need to trade for
anything today, but…thanks for thinking of me?” What do you say to
that?

The demon’s ears wilted, and he sighed. “Even
James Dawson does not need me.”

Cripes, it just looked so dejected. “Well,
no, I just don’t need you right
now.
I might need you later.
Maybe.”

“Say true?” It perked up a little, eyes round
with hope. It’d be almost cute if it wasn’t so into eating
faces.

“Well, sure, maybe.” I had an idea. A no
good, very bad, possibly dangerous idea. “How would you like to
just work for me?”

The demon gave me a suspicious look. “Doing
whats?”

“Just what you always do. Sneak around, be
forgotten, see what you can hear that others miss. Just…let me know
what the other demons are talking about.”

The thing wrinkled up its nose as it tried to
parse that. “And James Dawson would pay? With names or other
niceness?”

“We’ll figure it out on a case by case basis.
I wouldn’t want you to short change yourself if you got something
truly big in the future, right? Big secrets get bigger niceness.”
God, I couldn’t believe what was coming out of my mouth. “But we’ll
start with a retainer. Do you know what a retainer is?”

It shook its head. “No. Whats?”

“It’s like a very small payment, in advance.
Just so that you know you work for me.”

“And no secrets? Just…niceness?”

“Yup. Just so we both know I’m your
boss.”

The thing slid down the tree trunk to a lower
branch, crouching just above my head. “What gives?”

“I’ll give
you
a name. I’ll give you a
name that can be yours, for your very own. And it’s a name you
don’t
have
to answer to. I can say it, and if you don’t want
to come, you’re not forced to. You can make your own
decisions.”

The huge eyes blinked at me once, twice,
three times. “A name…for me? A choice for me?”

“Sure, why not?”

The demon settled on the tree branch, kicking
its clawed feet in the air as it pondered that. Finally, it nodded.
“James Dawson will give me a name. On retainer.”

I bit back a chuckle, and did my best to nod
solemnly. “All right then. I think you’ll be…Henry. You like
that?”