own. Thinking I had to do the same with this, I pushed against Azrael’s essence with my senses and willed it to surrender to me.
Nothing happened.
I could feel it in me, pick out the subtle flicker of Azrael, the scent of the tomb, but there were no memories I could find. The essence felt as though it were sealed against me, keeping me from prying inside. Something stopped me from cracking the shell of it and absorbing Azrael’s history.
Disappointment welled up, and I growled at my stupidity. I’d let Azrael trick me into killing him. He’d told me the truth, but not all of it. I should have known better. There’d be no answers from him or the tiny remnant I’d acquired through the soul transfer. He’d gotten what he wanted, and I’d gotten nothing more out of it than the pleasure of putting a bullet into his head.
It’d have to do.
Chapter Ten
Azrael a bust, I was running out of people who might know something about Lucifer’s relationship with my mother. They’d apparently had a baby together, at some point, but the letters weren’t dated so there was no telling if my mother was pregnant when she was killed, or if I had a brother or sister somewhere out in the world I didn’t know about. Both were a horrible thought.
I could probably use the summoning stone Hasstor gave me and call on Dip and Shit to take a message to Lucifer, but that didn’t seem productive. He managed to keep their fling a secret from me for five hundred years without a slip, so it didn’t seem likely he’d suddenly divulge anything. He kept it to himself for a reason, whatever that was. No, I wouldn’t be getting answers from Lucifer, so I had to settle for the next best thing: Baalth.
Still worried about the freak who’d come a knockin’ after the werewolf attack, I drove along the main streets, doing my best to stay amidst traffic. I was probably putting everyone at risk as the guy had shown he didn’t really care too much about witnesses or passersby, but if nothing else, it might stop the weres from springing an ambush.
As I wheeled into Old Town, it was clear there was something in the air. Just past the line of downtown, the traffic on the streets dwindled to almost nothing. There were a few homeless folks wandering the sidewalks, but they stopped and stared as I drove by, all of them appearing to hunker close to the buildings and alleys as if they expected violence.
I kept my head on a swivel as I drove, trying my best to see what had spooked the locals, but there was nothing to be seen. My senses weren’t picking up anything, so the threat didn’t appear supernatural. Maybe they were just antsy about all the crap going down lately and were waiting it out.
No idea what was up, but certain something was, I figured out where Baalth was hanging out and pulled into the parking lot of a rundown strip mall, which covered half the block. I stashed one of my guns and an extra clip under the driver’s seat, then got out of the car and made my way to the comic book store that looked like it hadn’t seen a customer since the early eighties. It still had a poster advertising the New Mutants, for Starbuck’s sake.
I went to the door and pulled it open. Alexander Poe met me before I could step inside.
“Good afternoon, Mister Trigg.” He greeted me with his usual cold professionalism. Dressed as he always was, in a tailored suit fitted to his exact dimensions, he was intimidating despite his advanced age. His thinning gray hair immaculate, he stared at me through ice-blue eyes that didn’t blink. “What can I do for you?”
“I’d like to speak to Baalth, and don’t give me any of that vacation stuff, because I know he’s back.”
Poe nodded. “He is, but he’s not up for visitors, having more than his fair share of uninvited and unwelcome guests today.” He glanced casually toward the rooftop of the building across the street, his eyes lingering.
I followed his gaze, and there, plain as day but out of sight from the street, were several men dressed in SWAT uniforms without emblems. They all carried some variety of automatic rifle-Ar-15s, or some such thing-and had their faces covered. That explained why the locals were hiding. The feds had moved in. One of the men waved and mimed shooting me. I flipped him the bird and turned back to Poe.
“I guess the Department of Supernatural Investigation is taking their job seriously.”
“It would seem, so you can understand why Baalth wouldn’t want to see you right now. They’ve been hounding him since his return.”
“ Deja vu.” I still didn’t know where Baalth had up and disappeared to during the Heaven fiasco, but apparently everyone knew he’d come back…except for me. If he hadn’t burst in on us ransacking Lucifer’s chambers, I wouldn’t have had a clue. I didn’t know whether I should be offended or not. Of course, seeing how I’d blown a gasket and poked old Baalthy boy in the chest, I figured Poe’s reluctance to let me in had more to do with that than the government agency perched across the street. Baalth didn’t have much to fear from the feds.
“Look, I know he’s pissed at me, but he caught me at a really, really, bad time, you know? Let me talk to him, and we can straighten things out. I also have a message he won’t want to miss out on.” I was tempted to flirt my way in, Poe having mistakenly shown me a part of his character he kept under lock and key, but decided against it. Getting to see Baalth wasn’t worth my grunting into a pillow. “Besides, the DSI thinks I work for Baalth anyway, so it’s not like you’re saving your boss the shame of being connected to me.” I plastered on a grin to punctuate my seriousness.
Poe sighed and waved me inside. “Baalth said to let you in if were you suitably humble and apologetic. We both know this is as close as it gets for you.”
So true. As a powerful mentalist who could read whether I was lying to him, he knew I wasn’t trying to bullshit my way in…at least no more than usual.
Poe shut the door and told me to follow. He led the way past the sales counter where a pimply-faced kid picked his nose and stared at us as we passed. In the back room, we wound our way around a minefield of cardboard boxes overflowing with comic books and nerd paraphernalia. Posters and cardboard cutouts covered the walls and shelves, advertising everything from Superman to Star Wars. I was jealous. Just don’t ask me to admit it in public.
Too busy checking out the life-sized Princess Leia in the slave outfit cutout, I nearly ran into Poe who’d stopped before a small desk stashed in the recesses of the store. He muttered something that didn’t sound cultured, but still ended with, “Mister Trigg,” and waved me to a seat. Baalth sat behind the desk, staring at me with a look that said, “You better be here to kiss my ass.”
I might nuzzle it a bit, but he wasn’t getting any tongue. “Uh, hi. Sorry about earlier. PMS.”
Poe rolled his eyes and went to stand beside his boss. Baalth stared and stroked the point of his black goatee. “I’m not quite sure what set you off, Frank, but I was serious about your lack of respect. I draw the line damn far back when it comes to you, but it’s still there. Don’t cross it again.”
Having grown up around Baalth and the other demon lieutenants, I’d always had a casual relationship with them thanks to being the Devil’s nephew, but that dynamic was out the window these days. Especially now that Baalth was the true power in the world with no other beings even close save for Metatron and possibly Longinus. Even if I didn’t work for him, it made sense for me to stop antagonizing him. I didn’t have many friends these days, and while Baalth could never be considered that, it made life a hell of a lot easier to have him in the ally column rather than the enemy; more so now than ever.
I nodded. Baalth knew me well enough not to expect much more. He could push the issue, but there wasn’t any point to it, so he let it go. He stopped stroking his beard and leaned back in his leather office chair.
“You made quite a number of enemies by standing alongside Heaven.” A quiet chuckle rumbled out. “It seems the weres and vampires have put a sizable price on your head for ruining their plans of world domination.” A small grin broke across his lips as I squirmed, unsure of how to replay. “That aside, you did the right thing.”
I stared at him, eyebrows raised as I waited for a laugh. It didn’t come.
Baalth’s grin grew a little wider. “I’m serious. For all their righteous indignation and holy blather, you saved far more than just the Kingdom when you woke Metatron from his guilty slumber. Lucifer would be proud of you.”
I snorted. While that kind of comment would have lit the wick a while back, it didn’t do shit besides piss me off now. “You know, I came to talk about Lucifer, but I’m certainly not interested in his feelings.”
