The fog swirled around him, faster and faster. It was now so thick that he could barely see the brick walls of the garage and the fluorescent light was just a dull bright patch above his head. There was another flash of lightning, then another, the cracks so loud that they hurt his ears.
He stared ahead, tears streaming from his eyes. Then space folded in on itself and there were a series of bright flashes and she was there, dressed in black as usual, her black and white collie dog at her side. Proserpine. A devil from Hell. One of many, but one of the few that Nightingale knew by name. Her face was corpse-pale, her hair jet-black and cut short, her eyelashes loaded with mascara and her lipstick as black as coal, emphasising the whiteness of her small, even teeth. She was wearing a long black leather coat that almost brushed the floor over a black T-shirt cropped so short that it showed the small silver crucifix that pierced her navel. Her tight black jeans were ripped at the knees and she wore short black boots with stiletto heels.
She stared at him with her cold black eyes, her upper lip curled back in a sneer. ‘Jack Nightingale,’ she said. The dog growled as its hackles rose. She had it on a steel chain and she pulled on it to get its attention. ‘Hush, we won’t be here long,’ she said. The dog sat down and stared at Nightingale with eyes as cold and black as those of its mistress. ‘I told you last time, I’m not to be summoned on a whim.’
‘This isn’t a whim,’ said Nightingale. ‘I need your help.’
‘We’re not friends, Nightingale. We never were and we never will be.’ She looked around the garage and smiled. ‘Salubrious,’ she said. ‘Looks like you’ve fallen on hard times.’
‘It’s private, that’s all that matters,’ said Nightingale. ‘It doesn’t matter where the pentagram is, all that matters is that you have to stay between the triangle and the circle until I say you can go.’
‘That’s one way of looking at it,’ said Proserpine. ‘The other way is that so long as I’m here you’re trapped inside that puny little circle with nowhere to go. I could easily just stand here until you die of old age and your bones crumble to dust.’
‘So it’s a Mexican stand-off. Let’s keep it as short as we can, shall we?’
‘What do you want, Nightingale?’
‘I need some questions answering. About Shades.’
‘Try Wikipedia.’
‘I don’t believe anything I read in Wikipedia.’
‘But you believe me?’
‘Sounds crazy I know, but yes. So will you help me?’
‘No,’ she said flatly.
‘No?’
Proserpine shrugged carelessly. ‘Why should I?’
‘What if I did a deal?’
‘You’re offering me your soul?’
Nightingale laughed, but it sounded like a harsh bark and the dog pricked up its ears. ‘I only need information,’ he said. ‘My soul’s worth more than that. But I can offer you something else.’
‘I’m listening.’
‘Help.’
Proserpine tilted her head to the side. ‘Help?’
‘I’m starting to understand how things work,’ said Nightingale. ‘You and your kind move in and out of this world but there are things you can’t do yourselves.’
‘That’s your great insight, is it?’
‘I know, we’re ants compared to you, but we’re still here and you’re still dealing for souls and not just taking them. That’s always had me thinking. You’re all-powerful devils from Hell, why don’t you just take our souls, harvest them like a farmer culling cattle?’
Proserpine said nothing.
‘I’ll tell you why. Because there are some things that you just can’t do. Either because there are rules that you have to follow, or because there are physical constraints on what you can do. Either way, sometimes you need help. You need us to do things that you can’t. So here’s the deal. Answer my questions about Shades and I’ll owe you one. If you need something doing, something you can’t do yourself, you can ask me.’
‘That’s very open-ended.’
‘I’ll risk that,’ said Nightingale. ‘You’ve always played fair with me.’
‘Plus I’m assuming you’re reserving the right to refuse?’
‘Like I said, I think you’ll respect the deal.’
‘And not ask you to kill a child?’
Nightingale stiffened, wondering if Proserpine was toying with him. Did she know about Bella Harper already? Did she know what Mrs Steadman had asked him to do?
Proserpine laughed and the garage walls shook. ‘If I do a deal with you, how do I know you’ll stick to it?’
‘Because I always keep my word.’
She laughed again and this time dust showered down from the ceiling and a jagged crack appeared in the concrete floor. ‘I’ll need more than that,’ she said. ‘I tell you what, if you refuse to do whatever I ask in return, then I get your soul.’ She watched him with unblinking black eyes.
Nightingale took a long breath and exhaled slowly as he considered his options. He needed Proserpine’s help but he didn’t want to put his soul at risk, not after he’d gone to so much trouble to make it his own. ‘What will you ask me to do?’ he said.
Proserpine smiled coyly. ‘Now if I told you that, it would spoil all the fun, wouldn’t it?’
‘I’m not prepared to kill for you.’
‘Fine.’
‘Or to do something that would result in someone dying.’
‘Fine.’
‘And it’s a one-off deal. You ask me to do something for you and I do it. Then we’re good.’
‘And if you refuse to do what I ask, you forfeit your soul.’
Nightingale nodded slowly. ‘Agreed.’
‘Okay, it’s a deal,’ she said. She held out her hand. ‘Let’s shake on it, shall we?’ Nightingale instinctively reached out to shake her hand, but pulled it back when he realised what he was doing. She laughed. ‘Almost got you.’
Nightingale stared at her hand, just outside the protective circle. The pentagram only kept Proserpine from him so long as he didn’t breach it.
‘So, ask away,’ she said.
‘You know about Shades?’
‘Of course I know about Shades. Nasty pieces of work, but nasty for nasty’s sake.’
‘As opposed to your lot, you mean?’
‘My lot, as you call it, serve the Lord Lucifer. Shades serve no one.’
‘So they’re not devils? Or demons?’
‘You are forever using terms that you don’t understand, Nightingale. But no, Shades are not demons or devils, or angels or spirits. They never have been nor will they ever be. Shades are Shades.’ She narrowed her eyes. ‘You have come across one?’
‘You don’t know?’
‘Nightingale, you seem to think I take a personal interest in your comings and goings. That is so typical of your kind, thinking that the universe revolves around you. You are nothing to me. You are less than a speck of nothingness on nothing. I have not given you a single thought since the last time we met and immediately I have left this place you will be gone from my mind.’
‘So I should take you off my Christmas card list, then?’
She laughed and the sound seemed to come from the bowels of Hell itself, a deep throbbing roar that he felt in the pit of his stomach. The ceiling shook and plumes of dust scattered down through the fog.
‘You’re a very funny man, Nightingale. But if you are planning to interact with a Shade, be very careful.’
‘They’re dangerous?’
‘Lethal. Do not get too close.’
‘They bite, is that it?’
