Darkest Night - Smoke And Ashes Part 52

"Her!" Tony jerked a thumb over his shoulder.

"Ah. That is not the name I knew her by when she was my handmaiden, my priestess, my love."

Leah leaned toward him, her arms angling back in CB's hold. "I am not your love!" she spat, tossing a curl of hair back off her face.

"Am I not?" He didn't seem too upset by her reaction. "Do you not remember..."

"I remember that you slaughtered my entire village!"

Hang on. "You said you were over that," Tony reminded her.

Her shrug was a bit truncated given her position. "Yeah, well, you were right. Maybe I still have some issues."

"So if CB lets you go?"

"I'd be in his arms in a heartbeat." No need to define whose arms. "Sorry. It's a built-in response, and guess who built it in."

The Arjh Lord cleared his throat. Tony turned to see Lee fighting for air, clawing at the arm around his throat. "You don't seem to be taking this seriously, Wizard."

"Stop it!"

He loosened his grip just enough for Lee to draw in a painful sounding breath. And then another. Tony breathed in with him. In.

Out. Finally, clutching the demon's arm with white-knuckled fingers, Lee wheezed, "I'm so f.u.c.king tired of being the designated damsel in distress."

"Yes." Ryne Cyratane smiled down at him. "I can understand that." Even while wearing a body not his own, there was such understanding in his voice that Tony had a sudden epiphany about how he'd convinced Leah's people to worship him. Lee actually looked comforted.

"Okay." Tony cleared his throat and tried to sound a little more like he was in charge of the situation. "If we trade-Lee for your ex-handmaiden-then you'll kill Leah the moment you get her and the Demongate will open and you'll be here in the flesh, not just riding in the flesh of one of your arjh."

"Yes."

Tony fought the urge to preen under the Arjh Lord's approval. "This was your plan all along, wasn't it? You used Sye Mckaseeh as camouflage-while we were concentrating on her, you could slip in unnoticed."

"No. I took advantage of the situation when I had time enough to mark this body as a vessel rather than merely as mine."

"A spur of the moment kind of thing, then? With the added benefit of p.i.s.sing off the ex?"

"As you say, an added benefit. And why should I not reclaim my handmaiden and then this world?"

"Because I'll stop you."

"You forget." The demon's grip tightened momentarily. Lee fought for air and then sagged, gasping.

"Okay, so we trade. What's in that for me? As I see it, Lee dies either way."

"The man dies now in front of you. Or later with you."

"Dude." Leaning on Zev's arm, Amy glared from between eyelashes clumped into damp spikes. "You'll kill him the instant the gate opens just like you killed Jack! He's the only thing here that's a danger to you."

"As I said, later. I did not specify how much later." He swept a dark gaze over her, head to toe. "You will enjoy my new world, little one. I promise you that."

"Bite me!"

"Perhaps." This was most definitely not the same smile he'd given Lee. Lee's had been compa.s.sionate enough to be believed in spite of the choke hold. This was pure seduction. Only the choke hold hadn't changed.

To Tony's surprise, Amy brushed a strand of hair behind her ear and limped forward, eyes locked on the demon. "Maybe we can... OW! Zev! What the h.e.l.l was that for?"

"You were walking toward that!" Zev nodded toward Ryne Cyratane.

"I was not!" Measured the distance from Zev to the demon. Noticed how close she'd come. "Oh, c.r.a.p, I was." She slipped the glare back on as the two of them began limping backward to the wall. "You're very convincing."

From seduction to amus.e.m.e.nt. "It's part of my charm."

"And it would be one h.e.l.l of a lot more charming if you didn't have bits of that..." She jabbed a disdainful finger toward the remains of his meal. "... between your teeth."

"We will speak later, you and I."

"The h.e.l.l we..."

"Slaughtered a whole village," Zev reminded her urgently. "So what?" Behind the streaks of mascara, Amy wore the expression she usually reserved for those who wore fur. Or sweater sets in a nonironic manner.

"Your friends are intriguing, Wizard." The Arjh Lord gave Lee a little shake. "But not entirely correct."

"About?" Tony demanded. And then he had it. "I'm not the only danger to you, am I?" After that, it was one small step. There weren't a lot of names in Ryne Cyratane's current address book. "It's Henry, isn't it? He could take that body out, even now."

Tony'd missed the implications when Kevin called to tell him the overpa.s.s had blown. The overpa.s.s had blown first. "You pushed this arjh through, creating a cascade like we did the other night because you had to be sure all this happened before sunset so Henry couldn't help." He knew he had it by the way the demon's lip curled. "Humans mean less than nothing to you, but he's another power."

"Um, Tony..." Amy rubbed her sleeve under her nose. "Henry's a romance writer."

CB rumbled an unnecessary caution behind him. Tony didn't need to be warned; he'd been keeping this secret a lot longer than the big guy had.

It had to be past sunset. Tony glanced at his watch. c.r.a.p. Not even close. How could they have destroyed five demons and been betrayed by a sixth in so little time? Okay, fine. So he couldn't keep things from happening until Henry got here. He'd just have to keep talking, to keep the demon talking until he'd regained enough strength to blast the Arjh Lord right out of his borrowed body.

Yeah. Like that was going to happen. He had no idea how he was still standing and the soundstage kept wavering in and out of focus like they were about to go to flashback.

Still, he had to try. Hopefully, Ryne Cyratane would see slouching as a sign of disrespect instead of an inability to straighten his spine. "The sun will set after you've taken over, you know. Henry'll still be around to kick your a.s.s."

"Once the Gate is open, I will rule with many arjh. And I will gain power from slaughter."

He'd forgotten about that bit. "Killing Mckaseeh's arjh gave that demon you're wearing power enough to activate the runes on his chest, didn't it?"

"Yes."

"But you're using up that power maintaining the link."

This was the most unpleasant smile of all. "Yes."

"Ambitious change requires help; timing is everything." The fortune in Leah's cookie from way back when they'd first met. He'd forgotten it until now. "So I'm about out of my two hundred free minutes?"

The amount of bone necessary to hold up his borrowed horns, kept the Arjh Lord from frowning very deeply. "You make no sense, Wizard. But if you mean that you are out of time, then, yes." And he tightened his grip. "Choose."

Lee's face began to purple, green eyes bulging. He clawed at the demon's arm, head immobile, body twisting and thrashing.

Eyes locked on Lee, Tony almost missed Amy's charge.

"Zev!"

The music director's tackle took her to the floor, stopping her just short of the demon. Without the injured leg she might have made it.

"No! No! No! b.a.s.t.a.r.d's not killing Lee like he killed Jack!" "You're right, he's not; I'll trade!" Tony wasn't positive they'd heard him, but Amy stilled, Lee began to breathe again, and the demon beckoned with his free hand.

Tony turned just far enough to meet CB's eyes. He had to offer Leah to the demon, so this whole thing fell apart if the boss kept hanging on. Forcing his right hand high enough to close his fingers loosely around Leah's forearm, Tony saw CB's gaze flick, just for an instant, to his broken collarbone. Broken on the right side. Come on, boss. If I'm using my right hand for this...

Then, although he hoped it looked like he was jerking her away from safety, he hung on as Leah stumbled forward pushed by CB, the movement turning them both back to face the demon.

This demon was not Ryne Cyratane. The body was merely a meat puppet controlled by the Arjh Lord's energy. Back in Leah's condo he'd called energy into him. Called his own energy back. Called the fire.

These days, if he wanted something to come to him, it came. It took next to no power and it took almost no thought.

It came regardless of any solid object that might be in the way.

As Leah stepped out in front of him, Tony held his left palm against the small of her back and concentrated. Focused. Called.

The energy that was Ryne Cyratane tried to come to him through the only thing in the room designed to hold demons. He went through the Demongate.

Leah jerked once, made a noise somewhere between agony and ecstasy, and dropped to her knees, her arm pulling out of Tony's useless grip. On her knees, she curled forward, wrapped her arms around her stomach, and keened.

On the other side of the soundstage, the demon was merely a demon. Onyx eyes widened as the runes cut into his chest healed. He threw back his head and roared.

Still holding Lee.

Before Tony could figure out what to do next, Jack had the muzzle of his gun pressed into the soft tissue of the demon's throat and was emptying it up into the skull. There were no exit wounds. A skull with horns like that had to be hard. Tony half thought he could hear the ricochets as blood dribbled from the demon's eyes and ears and nose.

Ryne Cyratane's ex-puppet hit his knees much like Leah had. From his knees, he pitched forward to slam face first into the concrete.

Zev crawled to Lee's side while Amy threw herself at Jack.

"I thought you were dead, you son of a b.i.t.c.h!"

He groaned and stumbled back as she made contact, then moved her slightly to one side so he could pull out the claw. "I was wearing..."

"A flak jacket or Kevlar or whatever the h.e.l.l you lot call those things now! I can't believe I fell for one of the oldest f.u.c.king cliches in the business."

"Actually, the claw got snagged on the bandages wrapped around my broken ribs and curved around instead of going in."

"Then why didn't you get up!"

"I thought I should reload."

"b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"

"Ribs!" As Tony hit the floor beside Leah, Jack and Amy moved into the traditional end-of-scene mind-the-broken-bones clinch. It'd never work, Amy was too out there and Jack hadn't gone out far enough but, what the h.e.l.l, there was nothing like a traditional endi...

"So it seems you managed nicely without me."

Tony blinked up at Henry's face and then past it at the ceiling of his apartment. Two things occurred to him. The first, that he had no memory of leaving the studio. The second, that Leah had a valid point about all the beige. He'd been looking at this ceiling a lot lately and boring didn't begin to cover it. Periwinkle, however, was out of the question. What the h.e.l.l was up with her and periwinkle anyway?

"Tony?"

His gaze slid back to Henry's face. The eyes were a little dark, but it was mostly Prince of Man with just enough Prince of Darkness to command attention. He looked... worried? c.r.a.p.

Before he could ask, Henry had an arm around the back of his neck and a cup of water at his mouth. He drained it, and then another before he got the question out. "What did I miss?"

"A day and most of two nights."

"No." Attempting to get up on his elbows, he discovered he couldn't move his right arm. And that would be because it was strapped to his body. Holding the sheet up in one hand, he stared down at the bandages and then back up at Henry. "I broke my arm?"

"Collarbone."

The memory of pain. "Right."

"I know a very discreet doctor."

Impossible not to snort. "Well, you would, wouldn't you. But that wasn't what I meant. You look like there's s.h.i.t hitting the fan and I've missed being there for it."

Henry took a moment to work that through and then he smiled, wrapping his left hand gently around Tony's jaw. "I was worried about you."

"Me?" His throat was sore. He wondered if he'd forgotten some screaming.

"You were unconscious for a day and most of two nights, Tony. Leah insisted you were fine, that your body needed a time out to recover from the metaphysical strain you've been putting on it, but I suspect she was saying that just to keep me calm."

"I've seen you not calm." The coolness of the vampire's touch felt good against heated skin. "Calm is better."

"Perhaps. Fortunately, although your heart had slowed, I could hear it beating strong and sure and was willing to wait a while.

About an hour ago..." He moved his hand from Tony's jaw to rest it lightly on his chest. "... it began to speed up. It reached its normal rhythm just before you opened your eyes."

"My heart had slowed? I was hibernating?" "Essentially."

"Cool."

"You need to..."

"Pee, Henry. It's been a day and two nights, I really need to pee." His stomach growled. "Is there food around here I can take with me into the can?"

Tony's memory returned as he ate. Not the part where they carried him from the studio but the rest: the battle, Ryne Cyratane's betrayal, and his defeat.

Betrayal...