Black Lament Read online

  PRAISE FOR

  BLACK HOWL

  “Another great installment of the Madeline Black series.”

  —Urban Fantasy Investigations

  “An incredible read from start to finish.”

  —A Book Obsession

  “An action-packed, sometimes-emotional roller coaster with a well-developed world and truly engaging characters.”

  —The Qwillery

  BLACK NIGHT

  “The Madeline Black series employs a blend of two great common urban fantasy tropes… [and] creates a chemistry that adds new zest to familiar concepts, an energy that I thoroughly enjoy.”

  —All Things Urban Fantasy

  “Madeline Black is back and super badass in her second installment… If you’re looking for a brilliant urban fantasy with page-turning action, witty dialogue and fun characters—this is your book.”

  —Rex Robot Reviews

  “Playful and light, yet also adventurous and dark… The bottom line is that if you enjoy adventure stories, you will enjoy this book, especially if you’re a nonstop-action junky.”

  —SFRevu

  BLACK WINGS

  “A fun, fast ride through the gritty streets of Chicago, Black Wings has it all: a gutsy heroine just coming into her power, badass bad guys, a sexy supernatural love interest and a scrappy gargoyle sidekick. Highly recommended.”

  —Nancy Holzner, author of Darklands

  “An entertaining urban fantasy starring an intriguing heroine… The soul-eater-serial-killer mystery adds to an engaging Chicago joyride as courageous Madeline fears this unknown adversary but goes after the lethal beast.”

  —Midwest Book Review

  “Fast action, plenty of demons and a hint of mystery surrounding the afterlife make for an entertaining urban fantasy populated by an assortment of interesting characters.”

  —Monsters and Critics

  “Henry shows that she is up to the challenge of debuting in a crowded genre. The extensive background of her imaginative world is well integrated with the action-packed plot, and the satisfying conclusion leaves the reader primed for the next installment.”

  —Publishers Weekly

  “Readers will enjoy a fast-paced adventure with an interesting cast, especially Beezle, the gargoyle, and be ready and waiting for a future still yet unwritten. Pick up your copy of Black Wings today, and stay tuned for Black Night.”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  “A fast-paced first novel… Black Wings is a lot of fun.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  “Henry does an excellent job of unveiling the first layers of her unique world and its fascinating inhabitants. There’s plenty of kick-butt action and intriguing twists to ensure that this story grabs you from the very first page. One to watch!”

  —RT Book Reviews (4 stars)

  “The story was a nonstop action blast full of smart-alecky gargoyle guardians, devilishly handsome (and enigmatic) love interests, arrogant demons, wicked witches and more jaw-dropping revelations than a Jerry Springer show. I barely had time to catch my breath between chapters.”

  —All Things Urban Fantasy

  “Fast-paced, action-packed and hard-core—breathing new life into the vast genre of urban fantasy… Black Wings is intense, dark and full of surprises.”

  —Rex Robot Reviews

  “Amazing… Henry’s pacing is incredible and keeps you absorbed, plus the characterization is fantastic… I strongly urge all you [urban fantasy] fans to get this book!”

  —Read All Over Reviews

  “I recommend Christina Henry to readers who enjoy the dark humor of Ilona Andrews’s Kate Daniels series and the demon politics of Stacia Kane’s Megan Chase series.”

  —Fantasy Literature

  Ace Books by Christina Henry

  BLACK WINGS

  BLACK NIGHT

  BLACK HOWL

  BLACK LAMENT

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  BLACK LAMENT

  An Ace Book / published by arrangement with the author

  PUBLISHING HISTORY

  Ace mass-market edition / November 2012

  Copyright © 2012 by Tina Raffaele.

  Cover art by Kris Keller.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  ISBN: 978-1-101-62210-0

  ACE

  Ace Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  ACE and the “A” design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  For Chris, because you are always there for me

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  As always, much thanks is due to my gracious and ever-patient editor, Danielle Stockley, who makes my books better than they would be without her.

  Thanks to my awesome and incredibly hardworking publicity team, Brady McReynolds and Rosanne Romanello.

  So many thanks to my emotional support team—Sarah, Faith, Anne and Pam—for always listening when I need it.

  Much gratitude to the hardworking Einstein Bros. crew—Cynthia, BJ, Pedro, Jessie, Michael and everyone else—who let me drink their coffee all day and make my bagels just the way I like them.

  Special thanks to Krista McNamara for all that you do for me and Maddy, and to Chloe Neill for assorted kindnesses.

  Thanks to Nancy Holzner for her always-wise counsel.

  Thanks to all the awesome authors who let me sit up onstage with them at panels this year, especially Chloe Neill, Laurell K. Hamilton, Patricia Briggs, Anton Strout, Edward Lazellari, Rachel Caine and Kim Harrison.

  Love to Mom and Dad.

  As always, all the love in the world to Chris and Henry.

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chap
ter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  1

  LUCIFER PUT HIS ARM AROUND ME. IT FELT COMFORTING, like the act of a parent, a parent I’d always wanted—a father. The air filled with the scent of cinnamon. It reminded me so strongly of Gabriel that the tears that always hovered beneath the surface spilled over.

  Lucifer said nothing, only held me as I wept. After a long while, it felt like there were no more tears to be cried. I lifted my head and saw Lucifer watching me with great compassion in his eyes.

  “If there is one human emotion I truly comprehend, it is grief,” Lucifer said. “I lost Evangeline and my children so long ago, and I never stopped grieving for them.”

  “So it doesn’t stop hurting, then,” I said dully.

  “The pain becomes, perhaps, not quite so sharp. In the future, you may find that days may pass when you do not think of him at all, but when you do there will be a tenderness there, like a bruise that has never healed.”

  I didn’t need Lucifer to tell me that. A piece of me had been taken forever when Gabriel died. You can’t replace the missing parts of your heart.

  Lucifer released me. I felt lost again, empty, except for the flame that burned bright with anger at the thought of Azazel. He would not be able to run far enough.

  “Still, all is not lost. Gabriel lives on inside you,” Lucifer said.

  “Yes, I’ve heard all the clichés.” I sighed. Beezle and Samiel had been repeating them ad nauseam.

  “No, I mean Gabriel really does live on inside you,” Lucifer said. “Here.”

  He put his hand on my abdomen, and I looked up in shock.

  Far below, deep inside, I felt it.

  The beating of tiny wings.

  A child. Gabriel’s child. Wonder smothered the grief, just for a moment.

  “My grandchild,” Lucifer said.

  There was such possessiveness in his voice, in his face, that I pulled away from his touch, covering my stomach with my hands.

  “So that’s why you wanted me to marry Gabriel,” I said angrily. “So I can be a part of your supernatural breeding program?”

  “That sounds so… indelicate,” Lucifer said.

  “And yet still true,” I said.

  Lucifer didn’t bother to acknowledge this. Instead, he said, “You and Gabriel are powerful beings born of my line. Your child, no doubt, will be magnificent.”

  “You can’t have him,” I said fiercely. “He’s mine.”

  Mine and Gabriel’s.

  Lucifer took me by the shoulders and kissed me on the forehead. I stayed perfectly still, my hands fisted at my sides, until he released me.

  “Careful, my dear. Every time you try to cross me you just get pulled further into my orbit.”

  He climbed down the steps of my front porch and walked away down the snow-covered sidewalk. I watched him until he was out of sight, his words echoing inside my head.

  Every time you try to cross me you just get pulled further into my orbit.

  It was true that I hadn’t managed to beat Lucifer at his game yet. It was also true that when I tried, something horrible would happen, like my being named the Hound of the Hunt.

  But I was not going to let Lucifer use my child as part of his plan for total world domination. I was not going to let Lucifer take my last piece of Gabriel away.

  Gabriel.

  I felt my shoulders sagging, the familiar weariness settling on me. I wanted to go to sleep, which was pretty much all I’d wanted to do since Azazel had killed Gabriel right in front of me.

  I went back inside, locked the front door and climbed the steps up to my apartment. Beezle and Samiel were nowhere to be seen, which meant that they were probably in Samiel’s apartment downstairs watching a movie.

  I took off the coat that Lucifer had given me. For half a second I contemplated folding it up and tossing it in the trash, but practicality won. Both of my coats had been ruined in various battles with monsters, and I was too broke to afford a new one. On my best day I couldn’t have bought a coat as nice as this.

  I hung the coat up carefully by the back door and wandered down the hall to the kitchen. The idea of a nap suddenly had less appeal. I didn’t want to climb in bed and find myself lying awake thinking about Gabriel or about ways to keep Lucifer from taking my baby.

  My baby.

  How was I supposed to raise a baby? I was surrounded by enemies who tried to kill me on a regular basis. The only reason I was still alive and hadn’t died of my injuries yet was because Gabriel had been around to heal me.

  And now he wasn’t. And I was back to where I’d started, the place I was always trying to escape but found that I circled back to, endlessly.

  Azazel’s sword in Gabriel’s chest. Gabriel falling to the ground.

  I was on my knees, my arms wrapped around my body, trying to stop the pain that never left me, the grief that hung over me like a cloud.

  I put my cheek on the cold tile floor and closed my eyes, hoping I would not dream of Gabriel’s blood in the snow.

  * * *

  I woke to the insistent tapping of a little gargoyle hand on my cheek.

  “Maddy, wake up,” Beezle said.

  My eyes felt glued shut. My chest hurt, like I’d run a long way taking gasping breaths of air.

  I didn’t open my eyes or sit up. “Go away, Beezle.”

  “You need to eat something,” Beezle said.

  “It won’t hurt me to lose a few pounds,” I mumbled.

  “No, but it will hurt your baby.”

  I opened my eyes. It was dark in the kitchen. Light streamed in the back window from the streetlamp in the alley behind my building. Beezle sat frowning on the floor in front of my face.

  “How do you know about the baby?” I asked. My voice sounded rusty and unused.

  “Gargoyles can see the true nature of things,” he said gently. “I’ve known since the morning after your wedding night.”

  “Why didn’t you say anything?” I said, sitting up slowly. I was tired right into my bones.

  Beezle shrugged. “You had enough on your plate. Besides, I figured you’d find out soon enough from…”

  He trailed off.

  “Gabriel,” I finished. “Yes, I suppose he would have known.”

  It was hard to know how to feel about that. Gabriel had probably figured out immediately that I was pregnant, just as Lucifer had. But he hadn’t told me.

  “Will all the fallen know as soon as they see me?” I asked.

  Beezle shook his head. “They can sense children of their own line. Lucifer, especially, is sensitive to the presence of children of his blood. Evangeline would never have been able to disguise Lucifer’s children from him without Michael’s help.”

  Evangeline, my crazy ancestor who’d started everything by falling in love with Lucifer millennia ago. She’d been kidnapped by Lucifer’s enemies while pregnant with his children. The archangel Michael had found Evangeline and convinced her that he could keep the twins safe from her lover’s enemies. Michael had covered Lucifer’s presence so thoroughly that the Morningstar never found the children of Evangeline, or the descendants of those children. Until he found me, daughter of Katherine Black, last direct descendant of Evangeline’s line.

  He had other offspring, of course. I didn’t know how many. Two of his sons had been insane monsters, and they’d both tried to kill me. I wasn’t in a big hurry to meet any more of Lucifer’s progeny.

  “Wouldn’t Azazel have known I was pregnant?” I asked. “I am of his line, too.”

  “If he knew, it would only have made him angrier than he already was about your marriage,” Beezle said. “He was never happy with your inability to fall in line.”

&n
bsp; “I wasn’t very interested in being a good little soldier for a father who never acted like one,” I snapped.

  “And you don’t need to get angry with me about it,” Beezle said mildly. “I’m on your side.”

  I rubbed my forehead in the place where a headache was starting to form. “I’m sorry, Beezle. I just… I don’t know what to do.”

  “About what?”

  “About anything,” I said. “I just want to go to sleep and never wake up. I don’t want to face the day. I don’t want to get up in the morning knowing that Gabriel’s not here.”

  I was crying again. I couldn’t seem to stop.

  “And the baby?” Beezle looked very grave.

  “There is a part of me that’s happy,” I said, wiping my face. “A small part. But the bigger part of me is scared, because I know that if I live long enough to deliver this child, he will have a target on his back for the rest of his life. Every enemy that Lucifer has will be after this baby.”

  When I thought about it that way, my future looked overwhelming. Was I ever to have a normal relationship with this child, or would I always be on the run, always fending off new threats?

  “You’ve got to secure a future for the baby now,” Beezle said. “You can’t wait until the demons are at your door. You have to find a way to make sure he is protected.”

  I stared at him. “Are you suggesting what I think you’re suggesting?”

  “Make a pact with Lucifer,” he said. “Now, while you can still dictate your own terms.”

  “I can’t believe you’re telling me this,” I said. “You know that I don’t want to be another one of Lucifer’s pawns. Besides, he wants the baby for himself. I can’t trust him.”

  “No, you can’t trust him,” Beezle said. “But if you wait until you have no other option for the child’s safety, then Lucifer will make you pay more dearly than you can imagine.”

  “Did you have to tell me this today?” I said tiredly. “Don’t I have enough to worry about already?”

  “Your problems won’t go away just because you want to put a pillow over your head and pretend they’re not there,” Beezle said.

  “You don’t have to tell me that,” I said grimly. “My problems never seem to go away no matter what I do. They just grow and multiply like gremlins.”