Martinis with the Devil, Part One

CHAPTER NINE

  Something acrid was being waved beneath my nose. I jumped up and flailed violently in the general direction of the hand near my face.

  “Settle down, Zyan, it’s just me.” Eli was sitting on the floor of the safe room. The HR sat next to him.

  “Oh, thank God,” I breathed.

  “Yes, I’m sure He had something to do with it,” the HR said, a gentle smile on his lips. Such a peaceful expression, despite coming within a hair of being murdered.

  “How long was I out? Where’s the assassin?” I asked, my words and my tongue tripping over each other.

  “You were only out about five minutes. And the assassins, plural, got away. It seems Alexander has an accomplice.” Eli rolled the muscles in his jaw again, his expression stony.

  “The one I tackled, the one that almost…” I trailed off. “It was a woman. But she was wearing a mask, so I couldn’t identify her. Alexander must have been cloaking himself somehow… someone hit me from behind.”

  “Yes,” the HR said simply. “Alexander appeared out of nothing behind you. At that moment Elijah entered the room, and the two assassins fled.”

  “I tried to follow them, but they were too fast.” Eli looked down at the floor. “I have a lot of talents, but not a vamp’s super speed.”

  I looked back and forth between the two of them. “I don’t get it. They’d come so close. Why not kill you, Eli, and then the HR? They cut through a dozen other warriors… it doesn’t make sense.”

  “I don’t know.” Eli paced back and forth, running his hands through his hair in frustration.

  I walked towards him and placed a hand on his back. “I’m sorry about your friends. They died nobly.” He met my eyes, and I was surprised to see they’d changed, deepened to a darker purple. And within that purple swam pain that took my breath away. “We’re going to get him. And her. Whoever the hell she is. I promise you.”

  The HR rose from where he’d been sitting on the floor. “I will perform the blessings now.” He walked out into the hallway and squatted by the nearest fallen warrior, head bent in prayer. I watched as blood seeped slowly up into his white robes before averting my eyes.

  “In order to properly do my job I’m going to need to know everything there is to know about this building and its security,” I said. Eli nodded, and we both turned as we heard footsteps coming down the hall. Backup had finally arrived. A little too late.

  “I’m going to be busy here for a while,” he said. “I’ll have someone send the needed documents over to your apartment.”

  “Okay.” We walked out into the hall. “Can I stay and help with anything?” It felt lame and inadequate, but I didn’t know what else to say.

  “No. The bodies have to be blessed and moved according to strict ritual. Only the HR and his staff can assist.” He paused. “But, thanks.”

  It wasn’t until a little after sunset the next day that Eli showed up at my apartment. As promised, he’d had someone send over all the security information shortly after I’d arrived home the evening before, so I’d gotten to familiarize myself with it. Now that I’d read through all of it, my initial hunch that someone inside HR headquarters was helping Alexander had grown even stronger. There were just some things that didn’t add up.

  “Who disabled the laser grids in the passage to the safe room?” I asked Eli, after the pleasantries had been exchanged, I’d gotten him a drink, and we’d made ourselves comfortable on the couch. “Since once they’re activated they can only be turned off in the main control room?”

  “It seems that’s what Alexander’s accomplice was doing while Alexander was taking care of the first set of guards at the bottom of the stairs. The warriors in the control room were dead.” He took a sip of his drink. His eyes had returned to a cool, controlled lavender.

  “Okay. So, Alexander breached the back door, presumably after jumping over the walls of the compound. The alarms went off, you were called, the HR and two dozen warriors were sent down to the safe room. Then the other multitudes of warriors roamed about upstairs because no one could catch Alexander and his accomplice on the security cameras.” I drummed my fingers on the security notebook sitting in my lap. “What about the door leading down to the safe room stairs? It appeared completely untampered with. How did they get through it? And how did she even make it all the way to the control room anyways?”

  “I don’t know, they must have somehow found out the layout of the building. He’s just really good. And his accomplice, too.” Eli sighed in frustration.

  “I barely knew Alexander as a vampire,” I said. Eli lifted his head and looked at me. “He left shortly after revealing that side of himself. Until two days ago, I hadn’t seen him since then, over two hundred years ago. I heard things about him here and there. Being over two thousand years old, he’s extremely dangerous, that’s for sure. But it just seems to me that this was all too easy, even for him.”

  Eli’s eyes flared slightly, then narrowed. “What exactly are you saying?”

  “I think you know what I’m saying, Eli.” I held his gaze steadily.

  “No. This was not an inside job. None of the angels would betray the HR. That’s tantamount to betraying God himself.” He shook his head back and forth vigorously.

  “I’m just saying I think we need to consider the possibility—”

  “And I’m saying it’s not a possibility.” He stood and began to pace like a cat, much like he had down in the safe room.

  His stupidity and blindness to the situation pissed me off. “God damn it, Eli, it is a possibility. Just a possibility. That’s all I’m saying.”

  He spun on me. “You know nothing of angels, and true purity. You’re a soul thief, so I don’t blame you for being suspicious, but I’m telling you—”

  “What the fuck did you just say to me?” I stood and jabbed my finger into his chest. “If you’re so blinded to what could be lying right under your nose, maybe you aren’t the best person for this job. We’re trying to keep the HR alive here, not play a game of favorites.”

  “I thought you were just trying to get revenge on Alexander—or did I miss something? Since when are you so holier than thou? You’re as far from it as you can get, in case someone hasn’t told you.” His face was twisted in very un-angelic fury.

  “Get the hell out of my house!” I pointed a finger at the door.

  He shot me one last glare, then stalked out.

  I sank down on the sofa, trembling all over. Who the hell did he think he was? Douche bag angels…

  Riley and Quinn popped their heads around the hall corner. “What the flip just happened?” Riley asked, walking over cautiously.

  “I don’t want to talk about it. I just want a goddamn drink. I’m going to Noir.” I got up and headed for the door.

  “I’ll drive,” Quinn offered, following after me.

  “Fine,” I said. I saw Riley raise his eyebrows at Quinn.

  A few minutes later, Quinn pulled her little yellow car into the underground lot beneath Noir. A couple minutes after that, I was enjoying a siren’s kiss martini with extra cherries. I hadn’t realized how much I’d missed the bar. I always took a couple days off a week, but even on the nights my other staff were running Noir, we almost always came up here to hang. It was my place, even more so than my apartment. Home.

  Quinn waited until after my second martini to broach the subject. “So are you off the case? Or what?”

  I sighed. “Maybe officially. But I’m still going to find Alexander, and I’m still going to kill him. They can’t stop me from that.” I bit into one of the vodka-soaked cherries. “Though I’m actually going to feel guilty if anything happens to the HR. I think they’re screwed without me. And I don’t want an innocent person to die because of a petty argument.”

  She placed her hand on mine. “Sorry, Zy. I wish I could help.”

  “I know.” I cast her a watery smile.

  “You know what else?” Quinn asked, “I think you like Eli, and
that’s what’s got you so pissed off.”

  “I do not like Eli,” I laughed. “Have you been sneaking shots behind my back?”

  “No.” She pursed her lips. “But you get insulted all the time. I think you actually enjoy it from most people. But you took it personally this time.”

  “Look, Quinn,” I said, pointing at my chest. “In case you forgot, I’m a soul sucker. Eternally damned. Eli, on the other hand, is an angel. A frigging angel. You’ve gone off the deep end.”

  She smiled triumphantly. “So you’re saying if it was possible for you to be together you might like him!”

  “What? No, goddamn it! That’s not what I’m saying at all. Joel!” I yelled to my closest bartender. “Has Quinn been hittin’ the Patron?”

  Joel was used to my rants, so he just grinned and shook his head.

  I turned back to Quinn. “I’m simply pointing out another layer of absurdity to your fairy tale romance.”

  Riley sloshed over with another round of drinks. “Drink up, ladies.”

  I glowered at Quinn. “This little witch has had quite enough for the night.”

  “Oh, God, what did I miss?” Riley placed a hand on his hip, eyeing us both.

  “Nothing. Never mind,” I grumbled as Quinn burst out laughing.

  Both luckily and unluckily, my metabolism is speedier than NASCAR. So, I found myself sobering up a couple hours later in one of the supernatural black markets in the University District, having convinced an inebriated Riley and Quinn to assist me in tracking down an old informant of mine. I needed more information on Alexander’s accomplice, and their plans. And I knew just the weasel that could help me. I meant that in the most literal sense, of course. A lot of informants do tend to conjure the image of a sly yet skittish fellow. But Franklin Johnston was actually a weasel. A wereweasel that is.

  I decided to leave the roomies in a witch friend’s tea parlor because they were too drunk to be of any use at all, which I realized now that I was no longer drunk. Once the topic had switched to Celine Dion I knew they were beyond useless. I wandered down a dark alley with some dandelion root in my hand, one of a wereweasel’s favorite snacks. The chaotic light and color of the supe market fell behind me, though the lute song of a centaur street musician still snaked through the shadows.

  “Here, weasel-weasel-weasel,” I chanted as if looking for a lost kitten.

  I knew Franklin frequented this particular dark alley, and sure enough, it wasn’t long before I picked up the pitter patter of little furry feet over the slimy asphalt underfoot. The gleam of his beetle-black eyes became visible before his lanky body separated from the gloom. I squatted down and offered him the dandelion root, which he greedily gobbled up before scampering off again. “Franklin, you little slime! Get back here!”

  I counted to ten, and just before I could get good and furious, I heard scampering feet again, coming from the other direction. A tall, lanky figure sprung up, seemingly from the concrete. Brushing greasy bangs out of his pale face, he said, “I smell dandelion root.”

  “Well, I did have some, until some other asshole weasel ate it and ran off. Since when have there been other random weasels roaming about Seattle?” I drummed my fingernails on my upper arm.

  “Yeah, that’s my girlfriend,” Franklin said. “She can be a real bitch. But the things she can do with—”

  “Eww, Franklin, TMI! Do you mind?”

  “Not really.” He smiled lewdly. “Well, what can I do ya for, Zy?”

  I took a steadying breath. “One of my exes is in town. But you already knew that, right?”

  Franklin rolled his eyes. “I knew that before he even got here.”

  “I need to know more about the woman he’s with.”

  “Arianna Vega? She’s all over the news every day.” He gave me a look that said I was wasting his time. He sure could be snobby for an informant.

  “No,” I hissed. “Not her. The woman he brought with him. That he’s working with.”

  Franklin’s eyes got real shifty. “That’s gonna cost you.”

  “Fine. Five cases of your favorite gin. Tanqueray, right?” The smell of the alley was really giving me a headache, and I wished he’d just hurry up and tell me what I needed to know.

  Franklin licked his lips. “Ten cases.”

  “Whatever,” I sighed. “But this better be good info.”

  “I’m always good, baby,” Franklin said, his smile returning.

  “Don’t call me baby again unless you want to lose your little weasel balls. Got it? Now spill.” I was tapping my foot now, and I saw a flicker of fear in his eyes.

  “Okay, okay. She’s one of his vamp offspring. I don’t know when he turned her, but they’ve been traveling together a while, doing different special jobs, you know?”

  I felt a stab of surprise. From what I’d heard of Alexander, he always turned ‘em and dumped ‘em. “What’s her name?”

  “Anna.”

  “Anna what?”

  “I don’t know her last name, okay? Vamps are always changing with the times anyways, there’s no telling what her real name is.” He jutted out his pointy chin defensively.

  “Is that it? You said this would be good…” My eyes narrowed.

  He rubbed his hands together and looked from side to side as is someone could be listening. “The different jobs? They do a lot of high-tech shit, burglaries and stuff. That’s where he gets all his money. Well, and old-school assassination. And Alexander, he’s like a couple millennium old, right, so why does he need this chick? Well,” he lowered his voice now, “She’s got some sort of special powers. It helps them on their jobs.”

  “What kind of powers?”

  “Don’t know exactly. For real,” he added when I took a step towards him.

  “Alright. One more question. What do you know about all these dimensional breaches?” I locked him in my gaze.

  “Oh, that’s a crazy mess, that is. I’ll tell you what, Zy. This info’s on the house, if you’re going to do something about that shit.” I nodded and he continued. “Some of the lower level demons and the spawn come up here to buy brimstone liquor from the witches, and sometimes they get wasted and blab about junk. Well, these ones a few days ago, they started talking about how there’s this whole plan for the demons to invade Earth, like a total takeover and everything. And running their traps about how the Devil isn’t satisfied with The Agreement, and so they’re bustin’ out and stuff. Then, this higher demon steps right out of space and burns them all to ash, just like that. Thank God or whoever I was in my weasel body and he didn’t see me. I ran so fast and so long I thought my little feet were going to fall off. Completely wacked, it was.”

  Shit and double shit. I would have to tell Eli that. Which meant I was going to have to be the first one to break the silence after the argument, which blew big time.

  Oh, and the demonic invasion sucked, too.

  “Thanks, Franklin. This is really helpful. I’ll do my best to stop whatever they’re up to.”

  Franklin looked doubtful. “I hope you can, Zy. I enjoy my simple weasel existence.”

  I didn’t hold it against him. I mean, I’m good, but I was still only one woman against the hordes of Hell. What chance did any of us have? “Alright, well see you later, Franklin,” I said.

  Without a word, he spun and scampered off. I thought that was a bit rude, but then I wasn’t exactly Miss Manners. I shrugged. Well, at least a demonic invasion would take the pressure off my whole eternally damned situation. I didn’t have to worry about going to Hell when I died permanently if Hell had already come to Earth. I turned to trudge back down the alley, get some chamomile tea at the witch’s shop, and contemplate the end of life as we know it.

  That’s when I saw what had made Franklin depart in such a hurry.