The Night Beat, From the Necropolis Enforcement Files (40 page)

“How did you do it?” I asked as I tried to leap over his head and got batted down onto the bed again.

“Do what?”

“Fool me, fool the others.”

He flipped me onto my stomach and pinned me. His muzzle was next to my ear. “It was easy. You wanted a mate so badly. And you had one, right in front of you. That had to be stopped before it could start.”

“What are you talking about?” I tried to crawl out from under, but he was using his full weight to hold me. I decided to focus on the more pressing point. “How did you give us away?”

He chuckled. “It was easy. You were so trusting. I could do anything, you weren’t paying attention. But get over it. It’s time to follow your heart. After all, you’re in love with me.”

“Not any more.”

“You promised. None in between us, forever.” His voice was a deep, terrifying growl. “You promised on sanctified ground.”

Something slammed into Jack and his weight was off me. I rolled to see Ralph between me and Jack. “She’s not her mother, and you’re not taking her.”

Jack shifted again. Only this time, he wasn’t in wolf or werewolf form. And while he looked human, he sure didn’t look like himself. He looked just like Little Harp. He smiled, and it was the most evil thing I’d ever seen. “Bet me, dog-boy.”

Chapter 57

The Adversary, or at least part of him, was in my bedroom. Inside, point of fact, my until-just-now boyfriend. Meaning I’d slept with the Adversary at least once. Did things get better than this?

Yes, they did, if by “better” I meant “really, horribly worse”.

Ralph and Little Harp attacked at the same time. Ralph was all angry, protective werewolf in action, but Little Harp was using Adversary-type skills, including a set of horrific claws I’d only seen on the vamps in major Nosferatu mode. He slashed while Ralph bit and clawed, and they both rolled around my room. Well, until they crashed through the walls. Then they rolled through the living and dining areas, right before they flipped and slid onto the Necropolis side, I assumed to destroy the other half of my living quarters. Not that I was too focused on that.

I tried to get into the fight, but they were flipping around so much it was impossible to be sure I’d bite the right being. Ralph was holding his own, but I didn’t think it was going to last, especially since I could see him bleeding from a variety of locations. Sadly, I got the feeling Little Harp wasn’t trying too hard. They did like to play with their prey, as I recalled, when they felt they had the time.

And he seemed to have the time. What was a shock, once we were on the other side, was that no one else was there. I knew for a fact Sexy Cindy and the others had gone to sleep over here. So, where were they? I sniffed -- nowhere around. I didn’t smell death, so hopefully they’d just wandered off for some strange reason.

The Adversary was playing, but Ralph wasn’t looking good. I ran for my weapons room. But I’d already shown Jack where that was, so the Adversary blocked me. By throwing Ralph at me. Showy, but effective. Ralph slammed into me and we both slammed into the wall. Meanwhile, Little Harp sauntered into my weapons room. This was definitely on the “horribly worse” side of things.

He sauntered out carrying what looked like an elephant gun. Well, it
was
an elephant gun, but it was modified into a Duster. Yeah, I was one of the beings entrusted with one. “Nice,” he said to me, grinning widely. “All loaded for me, too. What a good girl you are.”

We all had something that would dust another undead -- in case one of our own turned to the bad. But, from mildest holy water bullets to the mighty Dusters, we never turned it on each other until that point. Of course, this wasn’t really a situation where I could say one of our own had turned against us. Frankly, if what I was seeing was real, and Ralph’s blood all over me said it was as real as it got, part of Little Harp’s soul had always been in Jack.

I got in front of Ralph. “Get out of here.”

Little Harp laughed, then shifted. It was Jack looking at me, holding the gun which he had cocked and aimed right at me. “Come on, Vic. Let me get rid of him. Then we can go off together, just like you always wanted.”

“I wanted what I thought you were, not what you really are.”

“You’re sure?” He cocked his head at me and looked almost boyish. “Maybe I’m exactly what you wanted.”

“I didn’t want to hook up with one of the Prince’s major minions. To set the record straight and all.”

He snorted. “Sure you did. You were hot for me from the first moment you saw me. And what’s wrong with that? We belong together. You don’t fit with him and you never will,” he pointed at Ralph with the gun barrel. “He’s a loser. Besides, you can’t stand him, and you know it.”

“He’s a better being than you’ll ever be.”

“Big words. Impressive and heartfelt, I’m sure.” Jack sighed. “But let’s be realistic. He’s not the one for you, now, is he?”

“I think the bastard’s trying too hard,” Sexy Cindy said as she slammed one of my end tables against the back of Jack’s head. “Or however that quote goes. And like I said to her freak mother, get away from our girl.”

“Methinks the lady doth protest too much, my dear,” Freddy said, as he hit Jack at the knees with my coffee table. “From the Bard. And I agree with both sentiments.”

“Shakespeare,” Merc added as he swooped in and grabbed Ralph. “I’m sure he had a ‘get away from our girl’ quote, too.”

“Nice to see you guys, where did you come from?” I leaped over the table and grabbed the gun. Sadly, Jack still had it firmly in hand, but at least I had the barrel pointing up and not at any being I cared about.

“We were hiding,” L.K. said, as he wrapped at bath sheet around Jack’s head and held it there. Jack shook his head wildly, but L.K. held on.

“Where?” I tried to wrench the gun away, but Jack wasn’t having any of it. I decided not to complain -- if he had both hands on the gun, he couldn’t take the towel off or get L.K.

“Somewhere we’ll tell you about when enemy dude isn’t right here,” Sexy Cindy said. “Now might be a good time to tell you that he wasn’t an infrequent visitor to our corner, both before you were his partner and after.”

I was well-placed and, by now, beyond angry. I slammed my knee into Jack’s groin. Happily, he made the sound men make when they’re so slammed. I slammed my other knee into his face as he crumpled to the ground, still holding onto the gun.

“We’re officially broken up. I promise. On sanctified or desecrated ground or just totaled apartment building. I’m officially cutting you loose.”

“You promised.” How he could get that out clearly I didn’t want to contemplate.

My doors burst open and four beings swarmed in. Black Angels One and Two looked angrier than I’d ever seen. I really hoped they weren’t that angry just at me.

Cain reached us first, grabbed the gun, and wrenched it out of both of our hands. I fell back into Freddy’s conveniently waiting arms. L.K. zipped over to us. Merc still had Ralph, who wasn’t looking anything close to great, but who was, for all I could tell, still unalive.

Miriam grabbed Jack and spun him towards her. “I warned you.”

I couldn’t see his face, but I could hear him clearly. He laughed. “You warned a part of me. That part cared. But it’s dead. Like you’ll be.” He shifted again, and instead of Jack or Little Harp or a werewolf, the Adversary was there, all twelve feet of him. He smashed through my ceiling as he leaped into the air, still holding Miriam.

I didn’t think and I’m pretty sure Ralph didn’t, either. Instincts took over and we both leaped. I caught one leg, Ralph caught the other. We locked our jaws and held on. Then we went on Mister Adversary’s Wild Ride, Magdalena, Cain and Abel right behind us.

We weren’t slowing him down. Hampering, maybe, but not slowing. I couldn’t see what he was doing, but I could hear, and the sounds were awful. Miriam was one of my heroes, and he was killing her, slowly and with great malice aforethought.

It’s risky to change form while you’re only holding onto something with your jaws, because the human bite is nothing like the werewolf one. But I needed hands, not paws. I took as deep a breath as I could, relaxed, and did the switch, grabbing his leg as my jaws lost their hold.

It worked. I was still flying through the air attached to the Adversary. I considered my concept of “working” but decided to table it for when my feet were on terra firma. I wrapped my legs around his leg and started to climb up his body.

This gave new meaning to the term “icky” but I gritted my teeth and tried to ignore what I felt moving under his clothes. It wasn’t Jack, it was the Adversary. It wasn’t someone I’d been in love with, it was my most sworn enemy.

He was either vastly overconfident or Miriam was causing him to have to concentrate. Either way, I made it up to his neck. Then I wrapped my arms around it and squeezed. “Let her go.”

He laughed. “If you insist.” He opened his hands and Miriam dropped like a stone. I saw Black Angel One catch her. Magdalena was still on our trail. “So brave. All of you. But you can make it stop.”

“How’s that? By killing you? Good plan.” I squeezed harder.

“No. By accepting your true place. I’ll let them all live, if you just acquiesce and come home with me. I promise.”

He sounded calm and reasonable. I was exhausted and heartsick and, the moment I thought about it, frightened. Giving up sounded so safe and easy.

The base of my tail wanted a word. “Really? You’ll just stop trying to kill all my friends and associates, stop trying to take over all the planes of existence? And all I need to do is say yes to you and go down to the depths of Hell as your baby-mamma?”

“Absolutely.”

“Really. Does that offer cover Ken?”

“Yes.”

“Jude?”

“Yes.”

“How about Ralph?”

I knew what the answer was going to be, before it came. I felt the Adversary flail about, felt the kick connect, heard Ralph’s canine whimper of pain, looked around to see him plummeting towards the buildings below. “No. He’s dusted. Sorry.”

“Then I have nothing to lose, right?”

“Right.”

“That’s what I thought.” I flipped myself into the Adversary’s arms. “Let’s kiss and make up.”

He smiled, and shifted to look like Jack again. “I knew you’d come around.”

I wondered just how stupid the major minions really were. I shifted to werewolf form as I bit his neck again. Only this time, I wasn’t going to let go.

Chapter 58