“Hill,” the first guy said.
“Hill, don’t get yourself into trouble with the Agency,” I said. “It’s not worth the aggravation.”
Hill tilted his head to one side. “You’re really not worried about the Retrievers.”
“Nope,” I said.
I put my hands in my pockets and turned south. That was the direction they were coming from. I could feel them now that they had entered our dimension. I didn’t know where they were kept normally, but it wasn’t on our plane of existence.
Hill and the other Agent backed away a little from me. Bryson watched me avidly, practically salivating.
I started to whistle.
The Retrievers approached, their pace quickening. I sensed their anticipation. They longed for a soul to take, for a purpose. They had spent so long inside their prison.
“The Retrievers are your prisoners?” I asked Bryson.
“If we did not imprison them, they would run rampant over the world, devouring souls,” Bryson said dismissively. “We allowed them their lives. Now they can fulfill their desires in the service of the Agency.”
“You need to stop hiding behind the Agency like it’s some kind of untouchable institution,” I said. “You guys have made plenty of mistakes. And one of them was trying to chain creatures that should never have been chained.”
“You sound like you feel sorry for the Retrievers, Agent Black,” Hill said.
“I do,” I said softly.
As they got closer and closer I could feel their pain, the centuries they had suffered in the Agency’s prison. Even now, when they were allowed to run free, chains bound them so that they would be forced to return to the place they hated.
Darkness appeared in the distance. The Retrievers would be here at any moment.
When I saw the Retriever at my house, just before I’d leapt into the portal, I’d had a sense of something huge and horrible, something impossible for the human mind to understand. They sped toward us as giant, inky black shadows, contorting in monstrous shapes.
I pulled my hands from my pockets, and held them out in front of me in supplication as the Retrievers drew near. The creatures howled as they approached, their maws open, ready to devour me.
And then they stopped.
The dark magic inside me poured from my hands, reached out to the Retrievers. The creatures seemed confused. They were supposed to attack me. I poured my compassion into the darkness, and settled it over them like a balm. One of them whimpered, and the three creatures seemed to shrink in confusion. Now the Retrievers looked like nothing more than miserable, confused dogs. They looked like oversized mastiffs, blacker than the night before the dawn.
In this form it was easy to see the silver cuffs that each Retriever had around two legs. The cuffs were held there by the magic and power of the Agency. These were the bindings that forced them to return to their prison after they did the Agency’s bidding.
I studied the spell for a moment, and then waved my hand at the Retrievers. The cuffs disappeared into smoke.
The Retrievers approached me cautiously, wound around my ankles, sought affection from my petting hands. The new magic inside me let me know what they were feeling. They had not been free for eons, and I had given them this gift. They would serve me willingly. They would destroy every member of the Agency if I asked them to.
I have to admit that I was tempted, just for a moment, to set them on Bryson. As soon as I had this thought, they turned on the Agency’s captain, growling. Bryson backed up several feet, shock and terror on his face.
“No, no,” I said to my new pets. “Stay.”
Hill stared at me in amazement touched with fear. The third Agent had fled some time after the Retrievers arrived.
“Go back to the Agency,” I said to Bryson. “And tell Sokolov that if he comes after me again, I’ll deliver the same punishment to him that he would have given to me. The Retrievers are mine now.”
“Your heart is as black as Lucifer Morningstar’s,” Bryson said. “One day, someone will bring you to heel.”
“Possibly,” I said. “But it won’t be today. And it won’t be you.”
Bryson and Hill took off in the direction of the Agency. Hill looked back once over his shoulder at me, floating in midair, surrounded by the Retrievers that were supposed to destroy me.
“Now, what am I supposed to do with the three of you?” I murmured. “I hope you don’t like pizza, because I don’t think Beezle will share.”
I continued flying north again, toward the place where my house used to be. The Retrievers loped along in the air beside me. It seemed that the more doglike I thought of them, the more doglike they became. Their ears and heads grew more defined, and they all let their tongues loll out as they ran.
I flew over my street, unsure what I was doing there. I just wasn’t sure what else to do with myself. After I defeated the big bad monster, I always went home. This was where my home was, even if the house was gone.
Except that the house was there.
I landed on the sidewalk in front of the building. It looked just like the house I’d grown up in. The porch was painted red, and the paint was peeling. The bricks over the second-floor window were crumbling. Beezle’s nest of sticks and blankets was perched on the roof over the porch. Lights were burning inside on the second floor.
I walked forward as if in a dream, wondering whether this was a glamour, a trick. But the steps felt solid beneath my feet. The front door opened when I turned the knob.
I climbed the stairs to the second floor. The carpet was worn in the same places. I reached the top landing, and heard someone moving around inside my apartment. The Retrievers had silently followed me inside, and crowded around me, nudging my legs with their wet noses.
I opened the front door.
Daharan was setting the dining room table. There was an amazing array of food set up there—a roast chicken, mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus. He turned and smiled when he saw me standing in the doorway, but his smile was touched by sadness.
“How?” I said.
“Magic does not only destroy,” he said. “I thought that this was the least service I could do for you, especially since . . .”
He trailed off, shaking his head. “Not now. First, you must eat.”
I let him lead me to the table. I wasn’t aware until I sat down that I was still wet from my dunking in Lake Michigan, and that the water that drenched my clothes didn’t smell all that great.
“Um, maybe I should change,” I said.
Daharan nodded. “The meal will stay warm for you. I have contacted your gargoyle, and told him that you are well.”
“Is he coming home?” I asked.
“Soon,” Daharan said.
I went into the hallway to the bathroom, where my shampoo and soap waited for me, just as if the house had never burned down. The same towel was thrown over the rack, just as if I’d hastily left it there the day before.
The Retrievers had trailed me to the bathroom door, and I pointed them back to the dining room. “Wait for me there,” I said.
The three gigantic dogs reluctantly returned to the other room. I was going to have to come up with some names for them. I wondered what Beezle would think of the new additions to our household.
I wondered what he would think when he saw the way the darkness had spread inside me.
I showered, dressed in clothes that had magically returned to my closet, and tied my hair in a braid. My belly protruded slightly above my jeans, exposed by a too-short T-shirt. I was going to have to buy maternity wear soon.
Beezle would probably have some choice words about maternity shopping, too.
