Working for the Devil

"He shot me. I doubt 'capture' is on his laundry list where I'm concerned."

"If he wanted to kill you, he would have eviscerated you, Dante. He could have. Instead, he only shot you, knowing we were close enough that your condition would delay us. He obviously means to recollect you at his leisure. Which means he has a plan."

That didn't help me feel any better. I opened my mouth, but Jace beat me to it. "It doesn't matter," he said. "As soon as my Family moves on the Corvins, all Santino's neat little plans go out the window. He won't have any resources left to fuck around."

"I doubt your move on him is unanticipated," Japhrimel said quietly. The hover rattled. I tensed in my chair, and Eddie growled.

"Still doesn't fucking matter," Eddie growled. "We're taking him down." He swung around to pin us all with a ferocious glare. "I ain't come all this way and been beat up and stuffed in two hovers to let him get off with just a spanking. 'Sides, we got the Gabriele Spocarelli. An' Jace Monroe. And Da

I blinked. It was the longest speech I'd ever heard from him.

Gabe didn't twist around in her seat, but I could tell from the set of her shoulders that she was smiling. Japhrimel had turned, and was regarding Eddie with a faintly surprised look. Jace gri

I cleared my throat. "Thanks, Eddie. I feel better," I said dryly.

And the fu

CHAPTER 48

"Holy motherfucking shit," Gabe whistled out tunelessly. "Would you look at that."

"What about the radiation scans?" I asked.

"Flatline. They can't see us," Jace said, leaning over Gabe's shoulder, buckling his rig. "Ogoun…" he breathed. "Damn."

"Impressive," Gabe giggled. It was a carefree, girlish sound, but it set my teeth on edge. "Looks like a bad holovid villain's hideaway."

Below us, the icy sea broke foaming against sheer cliffs. The island was a hunk of rock rising from icefloes, and the castle crouched atop it, spires of stone rearing up from darkness, decked with tiny yellow and blue points of light. It looked like something out of a Gothic fairytale, spire upon spire, screaming gargoyle shapes torn out of the stone.

"Get me a laseprint of that," I said, and Jace's fingers danced over a keyboard. The computers hummed. A laseprinter droned into life. "Are you sure we're invisible?"

Eddie tore the paper free. "Looks like antiaircraft batteries here, here, here, and here," he said, smacking the printout down on a small foldout table. "If they knew we were here, they'd blast us out of the sky."

I passed my palm over the smooth paper. We'd done our final equipment checks. All that remained was to actually drop out the side hatch and start causing trouble. "Jace, get me a couple of different views. Gabe, keep us going slow. Magscan shielding is no good unless we drift a bit."

"I know, Mom," Gabe sneered. "Let me fucking drive, okay?"

"They are unaware," Japhrimel said. "Dante, this place is heavily guarded."

"Good," I said. "The more confusion, the better."

Jace laid another two printouts down. "More?" he asked, and my eyes met his. It was a moment of complete accord, the kind we used to have while we were working together.

"Can you penetrate the shielding?" I asked.

"That is no trouble," the demon answered, his eyes never leaving me. "Santino has no demon shielding; if he did, Lucifer could track him. He is naked here, depending on secrecy."

"Good." I spread my hands over the printouts. "Japhrimel, make sure I don't bleed through," I said.

He nodded. "Of course."

I focused, looking for the link I'd followed before. It was weak—the child wasn't Doreen, and she wasn't human. But then again, neither was I. Not anymore.

I followed the thread-thin cable stretched tautly over the roiling sea below. Reaching. Reaching.

Contact.

— who are you—

The voice was neither male nor female, but it was familiar, as familiar to me as my own. A wave of heat sparking up my arms, into my bones, my heart pounding, mouth full of copper.

Disengage, ripping free, link open, too open, salt against raw wound, Doreen, the memory of Doreen tilting her head back, her hands full of blue-white fire, her blood everywhere—

— who are you—

The contact stretched. My mental «fingers» froze, unable to let go, as whoever it was—the kid? But no kid can be this strong—examined me like a fly caught in a glass.

I stumbled back. Japhrimel caught my shoulders, steadied me, absorbed the backlash of Power. He rested his chin on top of my head. "Dante?"

"Fine." I said. My fingertip glued itself to a space on the printout. Whatever that is, it's not a kid. It looks like a kid, but it's not a kid. But it's Doreen's, and I promised. "She's here. We'll hit here hardest and extract her."

"Sounds good," Gabe said. "I'll put ol' Betsy here on autopilot."

I looked up at Eddie. The shaggy blond Skinlin bitched his leather coat higher on his shoulders, then checked his guns for the umpteenth time. "Maybe you should stay here, Gabe," I suggested.

"Fuck that," she returned equably, her fingers tapping an AI pilot deck. Coordinates entered, she slid out of the captain's chair and picked up her rig, buckling herself into it. Projectile guns, plasguns, knives, and triggers for various spells settled into their accustomed places. Even in a rig she looked impossibly elegant. "I'm not about to stay in here while you go have all the fun."

"You can pilot this thing; we need a getaway driver."

"Quit fussing, Mom." Gabe rolled her eyes, shoved a pin through her braided hair. "Why don't you stay up here and cover us?"

"That's Jace's job," I returned. Then I looked down at the printouts. My finger rested over one of the yellow points of light, low down on the south side of the castle, in one of the most difficult-to-access parts. "Japhrimel, can you… umm, fly?"

"I can get you into that window, Dante," he replied. "I can't carry more than one, though."

"Don't worry about us," Gabe piped up. "We brought slicboards."

"I don't suppose I can talk you out of this." I rolled my head back; Japhrimel's lips met my temple. Jace glanced down at the printouts. I tore my finger away from the table with some difficulty, shook my hand out. My heartbeat took on the usual prejob pace—too quick to be resting, too slow to be pounding, adrenaline flooding my bloodstream.

"Wait a minute," Jace said. "I'm not staying here. You need backup."

"I've got Japhrimel," I said, without thinking about it.

There, it was out. Jace's mouth twisted down at the corners. Japhrimel's arms tightened slightly. The mark on my left shoulder flushed with velvet heat.

"We're too small a group to leave someone topside," Eddie said. "We need everyone we've got down there making trouble."

I hunched my shoulders. "You're all fucking crazy." I put my hand out, palm-down, over the table. "All right. We all go in together."

Gabe placed her hand over mine. "All together, and the gods help us."

Eddie covered our hands with his hairy paw. "Fuck 'em all," he growled.

Jace, then. "I won't be left behind," he said. "Not on something like this."

Japhrimel paused, and then slid to the side. He laid his hand over ours. "May your gods and mine protect us," he added judiciously.

"I didn't know demons had gods." Gabe gri