Darkest Night - Smoke And Ashes Part 42

"No. I am not one who battles with the other lords for power."

Tony blinked as that sank in. "You're kidding me. You're a lover, not a fighter?"

"As I understand your use of the language, yes. And there is disunity between Sye Mckaseeh and I."

"Disunity?"

The Arjh Lord shrugged. "Once there was unity. Now there is not."

Standing on that featureless white plane, Tony had a sudden strong desire for a wall, so he could bang his head against it. "She was your girlfriend and you guys broke up and that's how she knows about the Demongate and that's why she's trying to get it open, to screw you." Same old story, add a truck and a dog and they could set it to country music.

Ryne Cyratane shrugged again. "Her arjh watch for me. I could not get close to her should I desire it."

"Hey, you fighting your way through a few of her arjh would be a distraction, at least. We could use that."

"No."

"Yeah, we could."

"No, I will not fight."

"Yeah, but this isn't a power struggle with another lord," Tony reminded him. "You'll just be smacking around a few arjh."

"I do not fight."

"Then what the h.e.l.l are those horns for?"

"They are a symbol."

Oh, that was useful. Not. "f.u.c.king great. You're nothing but Bambi's dad." Ryne Cyratane may not have understood the reference, but he definitely understood the tone.

Actually, Tony figured as he was once again lifted off his feet, it was probably a good thing the reference sailed right on over. "I'm sorry, okay! I'm just worried about your handmaiden!" He could see himself reflected in the onyx eyes-which was more than a little disconcerting since the hands holding him did not appear in the reflection.

"I do not wish my handmaiden to die." This close, the Arjh Lord's teeth were as out of proportion as certain other parts of his anatomy-only not in a good way.

"Bonus, because she doesn't want to die."

"But neither will I put myself in danger."

"Not even for her?"

This new expression was not one of Henry's. Tony'd last seen it on Mason's face when CB had set up an interview with one of the science fiction media magazines. The expression of the innately selfish forced to acknowledge they had responsibilities they didn't much like.

"If Sye Mckaseeh is indeed attempting to control so many entries to your world, she will not be able to watch all of her lesser arjh,"

Ryne Cyratane admitted reluctantly after a moment. "It seems her continuing defeat at your puny hands has caused her to rage against you and to overextend." He smiled but, whether at Sye Mckaseeh overextending or at her continuing defeat, Tony wasn't sure. "While she is distracted by the great effort she makes, I will mark one of her waiting arjh with my sigil so that when it breaks through to your world, it will fight at your side and rend the others of its kind." Rend was p.r.o.nounced with enough relish to supply an infinite number of hot dog carts.

"If you could mark one of her arjh," Tony pointed out, "you could kill it. And if you could kill one..."

"Death of her arjh, she would most definitely notice."

"Okay, back to your original plan." Tony's lower arms were going numb, but the Arjh Lord didn't seem to be tiring. "Problem is, I'm closing as many of these things as I can before they open. What if I close the weak spot you've co-opted?"

"Do not."

Yeah. That was helpful.

"If my handmaiden, my priestess, my love is with you, she will know which weakness I use as mine."

Okay, that actually was helpful.

"Tell the Nightwalker I will allow his interference with what is mine this one time and this one time only. If you desire to speak with me again, find another way. Now go."

Tony bounced a little as he hit the ground. Bounced a little higher. The white began to darken. Higher still. Fighting a rush of nausea, he closed his eyes.

"Tony?"

Opened them to find Henry bending over him. "Bucket," he gasped, rolling for the edge of the bed. It was a good thing the wicker garbage container had a plastic bag in it because there wasn't time to forage any farther out.

A familiar growl. "Your arms are bleeding."

"Not... now!" His blood was Henry's. He got that. Given that no one else had ever wanted it, that usually wasn't a problem. At the moment he was a little too busy to deal with vampire issues.

He started shaking just before he finished vomiting and barely made it to the bathroom in time to empty the rest of his digestive tract. Things got a little messy anyway, and he closed the door on the scrubbing bubbles bleaching the color out of Leah's towels.

The bedroom was empty when he got back, his clothes folded neatly on the end of the bed. Reaching for his jeans, he caught sight of his reflection in the full-length mirror and paused. Purple-and-green handprints covered most of both biceps, the soft inner skin of his arms scored by Ryne Cyratane's claws. Tony scratched at a dribble of dried blood, decided against risking the bathroom while the bubbles were still working, and reached for his jeans.

They seemed loose. Barefoot and holding his T-shirt, he staggered out into the condo, following his nose.

Leah was in the kitchen stirring what looked like a large pan of scrambled eggs.

"Where's Henry?"

"Gone. Apparently, he didn't trust my closet s.p.a.ce. I put some cheese and some cold ham into these," she continued without turning. "You're going to need the fats as well as the protein."

Considering the fun he'd been having since he got back, the last thing Tony wanted was food. "I'm not hungry," he groaned, dropping onto a stool by the breakfast counter.

"I know. You're starving." When he snorted, she turned and glared. "Do you have any idea how much energy you used tonight?"

She gestured at his arms with the spatula. "You created a physical form, you idiot. Okay, maybe that was partly because of how we made contact, but I still can't believe you were so stupid!"

"I'm fine," Tony protested as she began to sc.r.a.pe the eggs out onto a platter. "I just got a little bruised."

"You could have been killed. How many times do I have to remind you that demons gain power by slaughter? You're just lucky that slaughtering you didn't occur to him."

"It didn't occur to him, because I was right; it's not him sending the demons. He needs me to protect you." Tony frowned, suddenly realizing that Leah's eyes were bright with unshed tears. "You're really upset."

"Of course I'm upset!" Holding the full sleeve of her dark green dressing gown back with one hand, she slammed the platter down on the counter in front of him with the other. "If you'd gotten yourself killed, what would have prevented all those demons from coming through and killing me!"

Of course she was upset.

Strangely comforted by this indication of normalcy-within his current fluctuating definition of the word-Tony flicked a bit of scrambled egg out of his chest hair and back onto the plate. "He's going to do what he can to help."

"You're sure."

"Positive." By the time he finished repeating everything that had been said in the white, the platter was empty. He didn't remember eating, but since he was holding a dirty fork, it seemed safe to a.s.sume he had.

"Sye Mckaseeh?"

"That's what he said."

"Scottish?"

"I didn't ask." "I can't believe I'm in danger and I could die because Ryne Cyratane broke up with his girlfriend."

"She's definitely holding a grudge. And I think he's a bit afraid of her."

"He could have been lying to you."

"I know. I don't think he was, but..."

"But you don't have a lot of experience judging demonic veracity."

"Uh."

"You had no way of knowing if he was telling the truth."

"Right." Tony tapped the fork against the edge of the platter. "Maybe I should have taken Kevin Groves with me. You and Henry have already had him, it wouldn't have been that much of a stretch."

He'd been kidding, but Leah rolled her eyes and s.n.a.t.c.hed the fork out of his hand. "Fine time to think of that now."

"Eww."

"Oh, grow up. And get dressed so we can get started on saving the world. We've got twenty-seven weak spots to find and close before my G.o.d's ex-girlfriend stomps through and tries to take over the world."

"Yeah, well, you know what they say. h.e.l.l hath no fury like a demon scorned." A broad wave at her robe. "You'll be going out in that?"

"I dress very quickly."

The obvious comment was, well, too obvious to bother with. His T-shirt seemed to have more holes than he remembered, but eventually he got it over his head and both his arms. His arms hurt, but that was hardly surprising. His shoes and socks were still in the bedroom, but when he stood up to go and get them, the floor moved.

"Or maybe you should sleep for a few hours first," Leah sighed, walking around the edge of the counter and peering down at him.

Chapter Thirteen.

HE HADN'T HAD ENOUGH sleep, and in the last-he counted back on his fingers Sat.u.r.day to Wednesday-four days he'd probably lost a good ten pounds. That's right, folks, it's not only a Demonic Convergence, it's a workout plan. Sign up now and we'll throw in the Sye Mckaseeh Diet free! All the carbs you ever wanted, but you have to get them away from an Arjh Lord before you can eat them.

"Tony!"

The level of p.i.s.syness suggested Leah had been calling his name for a while now. "What?"

"We're here."

Here was Richmond, in a company parking lot nearly empty except for a premillennia Buick and two Smart Cars.

"The weak spot is in the lot?" he asked hopefully. With any luck, number one of twenty-seven would be an easy fix.

Previous Contents Next"The weak spot is in the building."

So much for easy. "Of course it is."

"It's a Sat.u.r.day," Leah reminded him, opening her door. "I'll distract the security guard, you close things up, slam bam, we move on."

"Isn't that supposed to rhyme," he muttered getting out of the car. His knees hurt and his back was stiff; he felt about seventy-five.

"You know, Gandalf was probably no more than thirty and the whole gray hair and beard thing was payback for being a wizard.

Explains the break dancing with Saruman," he added as they walked toward the front doors." 'Cause that'd make them the right age in the backstory."

Leah turned to stare at him in confusion. "What are you babbling about?"

"The break dancing scene in the movie. Okay, it was supposed to be a fight, but, man, the fight ch.o.r.eographer really fell down on the job."

She rolled her eyes. "For pity's sake, read a book."

"There was a book?"

The building containing the weak spot belonged to a company called Seanix Technology Inc.

"Number one PC manufacturer in Canada," Tony announced as they moved out of the fine mist and into the shelter under the concrete overhang bordering the front of the single story building.

"You know that and you didn't know Peter Jackson made Lord of the Rings from a book?"

He shrugged. "I've never had time to watch the appendices. And we have a problem."

"Besides your appalling ignorance of anything besides television or movies?"

"The security guard is a woman."

"What? That was on the sign, too?"