into fists and dropped them to his knees, and the spheres vanished.
“We just about done here, Domino,” he said. “Pretty soon, all my soldiers going to be on Anton’s side and he’ll be running this outfit.”
“That bad?”
“About eighty percent attrition. Like I said, a lot of them hooking up with Anton’s crew, otherwise this would be over already. Most don’t last long after they turn, though, and Anton got to put them down. I guess you saw the machete he carries around.”
“Jesus Christ.”
“Yeah, might be it’s time for him. The demons are the worst of it, about like you’d expect. Some of them got juice, Domino. I’ve seen them pull souls out of zombies and eat them. What do you suppose happens to a guy when his soul is eaten?”
“I don’t know, Terrence. Maybe they just eat the ghost-
I’ve seen that kind of thing before.” I didn’t mention it was Terrence’s nephew. “Seems like a soul is more than just a ghost.” I sat down on the floor facing him.
“Simeon Wale is MIA,” Terrence said.
“When?”
“Last night. He took a crew behind the lines, hit a home less shelter Mobley was using down in Compton. He said they had a demon in there and that was the last I heard.
Ain’t heard anything from his crew, either. The shelter burned.”
“Okay,” I said, “you talked to Chavez? You know what we’re doing?”
Terrence nodded. “I like the plan, D. Not sure what I can contribute, though. Ain’t really anything left you’d call a sanctuary south of Huntington Park.”
“I know, but there’s a lot of people here, Terrence. We have to do what we can to protect them. Pull back, let Mobley breathe and focus on civilians for the next couple days.”
“I don’t have enough soldiers, D. Didn’t have that many to begin with. Think I told you I got about eighty percent less than when I started. It’s too much territory, and the front line’s basically running along the 105, right through the middle of it.”
“I’m going to send you some more reinforcements, Terrence.”
He looked at me, his face expressionless. “Outfit?” he said finally. “Or fairies?”
I nodded. “I have to give it to him, Terrence. He can’t bring in more sidhe unless he controls enough juice to support them-or he won’t, anyway. We aren’t going to survive this without his help.”
“You know that’s how he’s going to do it, right?”
“What?”
“How he’s going to rebuild his kingdom. I couldn’t really figure how he thought he was going to do that, you know? But there always going to be something worse, Domino. Today it’s zombies, tomorrow going to be something else. And we’re always going to need his help. A few blocks here, a few hoods there. When this is over, he’s going to own most everything from Hollywood to Compton, D. He’ll be coming for you next, looking for Downtown, looking for Chinatown and Koreatown and Huntington Park, over to Crenshaw and Culver City.”
“I know, Terrence, and the only way we can stop that from happening is to get our shit together, get strong so we don’t need him for every crisis of the day. Plus, there may come a day when Oberon needs our help, and when it does I plan to make the son of a bitch pay dearly for it.”
“You say so, D. Anyway, I ain’t got the muscle to raise much of a fuss about it. I want you to make room for my people, any of them make it through.”
“I will, Terrence. I’ll find a spot for you, too. Hell, I won’t have to find a spot-you’re going to have rank in Rashan’s outfit when this is over.”
“I live to see the day, I been thinking about an early retirement. The game ain’t the same after this, Domino. I ain’t the same.”
“I need you, Terrence. You don’t have to make any promises. I’m not your boss. Just give me a shot to recruit you.”
The limp body of one of Terrence’s soldiers crashed through the office’s plate-glass window and smashed into the front desk. Alarm bells sounded and the hair on the back of my neck stood up as wards activated and raw magic swept through the room.
“Intrusion,” Terrence said, and leaped to his feet. I followed suit, reaching for my forty-five semiautomatic under my arm.
A pitch-black, vaguely humanoid creature crawled through the front window and onto the ceiling. It looked like a hairless man, except it had four arms and all of its limbs were impossibly long, thin, and articulated like a crab’s. It had no eyes, nose or ears that I could see-just a wide, grinning mouth filled with pointed teeth. It clung to the ceiling of the office and its head swiveled around, a black, forked tongue darting at the air.
Terrence chanted hip-hop lyrics and spun a combat spell. There was no obvious effect, but the creature hissed and dropped from the ceiling to the floor, landing on its back with its arms and legs wriggling in the air like a bug.
“Crawlers,” Terrence said. “I hit them with anti-magic spells. Doesn’t kill them, but it slows them down.”
“Crawlers, plural?”
Terrence nodded. “Always packs of them.”
The crawler flipped over, crouched, and leaped onto the front desk. Its jaws yawned wide, the thin tongue writhing at us, and the demon hissed. Another one crawled in through the window onto the ceiling.
“Well, how do you kill them?”
Terrence grunted. “Haven’t figured that out yet. Maybe you got some ideas.”
“Vi Victa Vis,” I said, extending my hand toward the crawler demon. It rocked back on its haunches as the force spell flowed around it and blew out the front wall of the office. “Damn.”
“Told you,” Terrence said, and then he hit the demon on the ceiling with another magic-suppressing spell. It lost its grip and followed the first down to the floor.
“God is a scientist,” I said, “not a magician.” I dropped my own magic-killing spell on the demon crouching on the front desk. It hissed again and wrapped all four arms around its head, covering its blank face. I brought up the forty-five and shot it in the chest. The demon’s skin puckered and rippled, and the bullet was swallowed up like I’d fired it into a tar pit. Another demon crawled in through the broken window and skittered along the wall.
“This is below average, Terrence,” I said.
Terrence glanced over at me. “You telling me, Domino. This is what I been doing while you looking for lost dogs.”
“Touche,” I said. “Sorry about your motel.”
“What about it? I can fix the win-”
“Vi Victa Vis!” I shouted, pulling all the juice I could reach out of Terrence’s turf. The force spell blew out the front wall, along with the one facing the street. The roof collapsed into the lobby and two of the demons were buried in the rubble. The demon perched on the front desk screamed and sprang at us.
Terrence triggered a spell talisman and a wall of force formed in front of us, shimmering like a heat wave. The demon hit the wall, but it didn’t bounce off. It kind of slowed and flowed around it like a fly in molasses. It dropped to the floor, hissed and leaped up to cling to the office ceiling. We turned and watched as it scrabbled to the back of the room.
“Damn it, Domino,” Terrence said. “There’s other shit I wanted to try.”
“Like what?” I said. “Anyway, it’s going to be Oberon’s motel soon enough.” Maybe it wasn’t very tactful to bring it up, but Terrence needed to be practical about the situation.
“I’ll suppress its magic, you hose it down with the hostile shit.” I nodded and Terrence spun his juice-killing mojo again. The demon plopped to the floor and curled up like a roly-poly.
“All power corrupts,” I said, “but we need the electricity.” Naked current arced from my fingertips and played across its skin. The demon stiffened and screamed, and greasy, foul-smelling smoke curled from its hide where the electricity touched it.
“Hey, it’s working!” I said, and then another crawler demon pounced on Terrence from behind. The monster sunk two clawed hands into his abdomen, two more into his face and clamped down on the back of his bald head
