Dark Days

CHAPTER 26

“You’ve got to be joking,” Pete said. She, Jack, and Belial were gathered in an empty sleeping cabin, the demon sitting on the bed, tapping one toe of his pointed leather shoe against the deck, Jack facing him, and Pete blocking the door. He didn’t miss the signal there. She wasn’t happy with either of them, and they weren’t getting out of this.

“I wish I was, but I’ve tried everything else, including this one’s asinine plan to stab Legion with a bit of stone like we’re back in the caveman days,” Jack said. Belial gave him a grunt and bestowed another baleful glare.

“I fail to understand, then, why he’s here,” Pete said. “In fact, I really don’t know why he’s here, since I still owe him a kick in the teeth for involving us in this in the first place.”

“My dear, you’re a human being living in the world,” Belial said. “Once Legion is done cementing his base, that will make you involved.”

“From what I saw,” Jack said, “we don’t have very much more time before he spins his little globe one last time and drops the barriers between the Black and everything else. It was still spring in my vision. Trees were still green. You know, the ones that hadn’t been burned down.”

Pete passed her hands over her face. “If we live through this, I’m going to slap the both of you into next week,” she said to Belial. “Just so we’re clear.”

“If we live through this, I’m going to be back in Hell, far from the grating sound of your voice,” Belial grumbled. “But do your worst, by all means.”

“Oi,” Jack said. This new Belial kept throwing him off—he could almost forget for a few moments at a time that Belial was a demon, a predator, and that made him even more dangerous. “You speak to her like that, I’ll feed you your own teeth.”

“Are we going through with this idiotic plan or not?” Belial snapped. “Because I tell you, I’d much rather go back to what I was doing when your chicken scratch got me here. It was brunette. Her name was Candi, with an I.”

“You’re so charming I may vomit,” Pete said. “I’ll be sure to aim for your shoes if I do.”

“Just tell Pete what you told me,” Jack said. He would never say out loud that the demon was right—this was a desperate idea, the last gasp of his attempt to avert what he’d seen in his vision. Then again, if it didn’t work, they were fucked anyway. Might as well go down, as Bon Jovi said, in a blaze of glory.

“The Princes won’t let me stroll into the vault, so the first problem is that it’s guarded by a fuckton of Fenris, who’d like nothing more than to rip my legs off and make them into appetizers,” Belial said. “Then, you need a blood key.”

“Is that what it sounds like?” Pete said, wrinkling her nose.

Belial nodded at her. “A Named demon’s blood. If anything goes wrong, we’re locked in the vault for good. Once we get access to the eye, the girl wonder here will have to keep it from melting her face off long enough to scry for the location of the blade. Then it’s a simple matter of somehow getting out of there before the wrath of 665 of my brethren rains down on your head.”

“Well, once we get through the hard bits, I’m sure it’ll be no trick at all to have Scotty beam us back to the Enterprise,” Jack said. Belial huffed.

“If I’m going to get it from both sides I’m leaving right now.”

“You’re sure this blade can really kill Legion?” Pete asked Belial, even though she looked at Jack when she asked it.

“I’m sure of nothing except that I have a hangover and you two are the most irritating human beings I’ve run across in a thousand years of existence,” Belial said. “So shall we kick on, or are the two of you going to live out your short remaining days annoying each other to death?”

Pete spread her hands. “I’m ready. What do you need from me?”

Jack rubbed his chin. Now that there was a direction, something for him to focus on other than the pounding in his head from his visions and his brush with the Fae, he was starting to think again. That had always been his only asset—cleverness. Cleverness had gotten him out of Manchester, cleverness had told him that going with Seth was the right move, and cleverness kept him one step ahead of the Morrigan, even now.

He could be clever one more time. That was going to be the easy part.

“You’ve got your part down,” he told Pete. “I don’t want to tax your talent if you’re going to be handling an artifact with as much voltage as that thing in the vaults.”

“Consider me a tour guide,” said Belial. “Even if I wanted to do the heavy lifting, I don’t exactly have a full bag of tricks these days. A demon exiled from his home is about as useful as a bum pissing in the gutter while it’s raining.” He stood, straightening his tie. “Have fun, kiddies. Give me a shout when our little Wild Bunch is ready to ride.”