Black Howl bw-3 Read online

  I came in the back door so I saw the mess in the kitchen first. Apparently Beezle and Samiel had made waffles, because the counter was covered in batter and the sink was full of dirty dishes. The score from a movie swelled in the living room and drifted down the hall to where I stood with my coat in one hand and my gloves in the other.

  “Seriously?” I said, and then my voice got louder. I tossed my stuff on a chair and strode down the hall. “Seriously? Beezle, you are way too old for this shit.”

  I stopped when I got to the living room. Samiel and Beezle were sitting on the couch. Both of them had tears running down their faces.

  “Gods above and below. What happened?” I said, rushing to Beezle and picking him up. “Did somebody die?”

  He pointed wordlessly at the screen. I glanced at it, then back at Beezle.

  “E.T.?” I said.

  Beezle sniffled, nodding. Samiel blew his nose with a tissue.

  “You do know it’s make-believe, right?”

  Beezle glared up at me. “If you don’t cry during E.T., you are a robot. No human could get through this movie without shedding a few tears.”

  “Far be it from me to point out that neither of you are actually human,” I said. “When you’ve wiped your face you can clean up the mess in the kitchen. I’d like to have breakfast in a batter-free zone.”

  Samiel looked at me and signed, He made me do it.

  I signed back, You don’t have to listen to him.

  He threatened to put Grape-Nuts in my bedsheets if I didn’t make waffles.

  Just make sure he actually does the dishes instead of supervising, I replied. Grape-Nuts in your bed is a pretty diabolical punishment. Those little grainy things would probably get everywhere. How would you ever get them out completely?

  “We saved some waffles for you. They’re in the fridge,” Beezle said.

  I looked down at my nonexistent abs and sighed. “I can’t have waffles.”

  Beezle smirked. “Because of your diet.”

  “I am going to lose thirty pounds,” I said. “Stop trying to sabotage me by bringing doughnuts into the house.”

  “No one is making you eat them.”

  “No, but you are making me buy them,” I said. “You could be supportive, you know.”

  Beezle made a little “pfft” noise.

  “And what would you do if I stopped going to the pastry shop for you?” I said.

  “You would deny an old gargoyle a few simple pleasures before I turn to stone?” he said, putting on his best I-am-so-adorable-you-can’t-resist-me face.

  “You act like you’re going to turn tomorrow,” I said.

  “Who knows?” Beezle shrugged. “It could happen very suddenly.”

  “So could a heart attack from saturated fat overload,” I said, and went to the kitchen to make oatmeal. My virtuous breakfast didn’t taste nearly as good as Samiel’s waffles looked.

  After the movie was over they came in the kitchen and Beezle started washing dishes with a lot of long-suffering sighing. I told them about what had happened with the ghost I’d found, and how J.B. thought it had something to do with the fallen.

  “It probably does,” Gabriel said from the door.

  I turned slowly, my heart beating faster, the way it always did when I heard his voice. He leaned in the doorjamb, hands in the pocket of his ever-present overcoat. His face was implacable as always.

  “I didn’t hear you come up,” I said.

  “You gave me permission to come and go as I pleased. I have come for Samiel’s morning lesson,” he said.

  Gabriel was teaching Samiel to channel his powers in a more productive way. Samiel had been raised by a monstrous nephilim and a psychotic angel who’d drilled vengeance into him from the moment of his first breath, and thus mostly knew how to use his powers for destruction. I was very interested in keeping Samiel alive and under the radar of the Grigori, so Gabriel had undertaken the task of making Samiel a more productive member of supernatural society.

  “Have your orders changed, mistress?”

  “Don’t start with the ‘mistress’ crap,” I said angrily. “I’ve already gotten enough passive-aggressive BS from my other not-a-boyfriend this morning.”

  Gabriel nodded stiffly. “As you wish.”

  “And my name’s not Buttercup, either.”

  I sighed. I didn’t know how much longer the two of us could go on this way. It seemed Gabriel resented me more because I refused to act like his owner. Since I’d already thrown down with J.B., I wasn’t in the mood for another confrontation with Gabriel, especially with Beezle and Samiel watching us like we were the best reality TV ever.

  “Why do you think the ghosts have something to do with the fallen? Their own accords state that they aren’t supposed to harm mortals.”

  “And you have witnessed for yourself just how well some of Lord Lucifer’s minions follow those accords,” Gabriel replied.

  “Not very well at all,” I said, thinking of Focalor and his bid for power.

  My darling great-grandfather had told me that Focalor would be punished for his actions at Amarantha’s court. I hadn’t heard what that punishment was, but I was certain it had been swift and severe. Lucifer had to make sure that his other courts understood that treason would not be tolerated.

  Samiel rapped his knuckles on the counter so we would all look at him. But to murder mortals and leave their souls in such a state—that law is one that even the most rogue of Lucifer’s court would not break. Lucifer is not interested in the death of mortals.

  “No,” Beezle agreed. “He wants to collect them.”

  “Because every creature on his side increases his base of power,” I said. “All he’s really interested in is lording his strength over the other supernatural communities.”

  “Which is why he is so interested in you, Madeline,” Gabriel said. “You have strength and power that you have not yet begun to imagine, and Lord Lucifer knows this. It is also why you have become such an interesting target for the other courts.”

  “Yeah, moving on,” I said. I didn’t like to think too closely about my value to Lucifer and my consequent dead-or-alive value to his enemies. That way lay indigestion and sleepless nights. “Look, the last two times there were deaths outside of the natural order it was because of Lucifer’s sons, so I can see why you and J.B. would think it would have something to do with him again. But really—how many more sons could he have floating around?”

  Beezle arched his brow at me pointedly. “Lucifer has been alive for millennia.”

  And therefore would have had millennia to reap and sow, as it were, I thought. Was I really going to have to go through this again—stumbling onto more secrets in Lucifer’s kingdom, hunting down another of his children? How many innocents would die before I figured things out?

  We all stood silently, each of us brooding on our thoughts. The doorbell rang. Beezle fluttered up and away from the sink, clearly thrilled to have a reason to leave the dishes.

  “I’d better see who it is,” he said, speeding toward the window.

  “You have to finish the washing when you come back!” I shouted after him.

  “With any luck, it will be something horrible and you’ll be distracted for the next several hours,” Beezle snapped back over his shoulder.

  I looked at Gabriel, who gave me a sad little half smile. Beezle was probably right. My doorbell rang only when bad things were about to happen. Maybe I should tear the stupid thing off.

  Beezle zipped back in through the kitchen window, pulling it shut behind him. “It’s cold out there. It’s Jude at the door.”

  I frowned. Jude was a werewolf that I had met about a month ago. I was friendly with Wade, Jude’s alpha, but Jude himself didn’t think very much of me. He hated anyone related to Lucifer.

  I trooped downstairs to see what Jude wanted. My household entourage followed me, Gabriel and Samiel crowding on the stairs and Beezle plunking himself on my shoulder.

  “H
asn’t anyone in this house ever heard of privacy?” I muttered.

  “No,” Beezle said. “Your business is my business, and you’re only going to tell the other two anyway.”

  And if Jude was there to claw me to death, Gabriel and Samiel could probably intervene before too much bodily damage occurred.

  I swung the door open and saw Jude through the exterior door standing outside on the porch with his back to us. This was standard for supernatural creatures—they couldn’t cross the threshold of my house without my permission. I pushed open the exterior door and tried not to think about the fact that Gabriel was standing right behind me, the warmth of his body radiating into my skin and making my clothes feel uncomfortably tight.

  Jude turned when he heard the door open, and I gasped. His face and hands were covered in blood and his eyes were wild.

  “You have to come. Wade’s missing.”

  2

  “I KNEW THERE WOULD BE SOME TRAGEDY FOR YOU TO attend to,” Beezle said.

  “Shush,” I said, my stomach knotted. I liked Wade. He was straightforward and compassionate, two traits that were sadly lacking in most supernatural creatures that I met. “What happened, Jude?”

  “Perhaps he should come inside,” Gabriel said. “Lest we draw the attention of your neighbors.”

  Jude ran his hands through his shock of red hair. “I don’t have time for tea and biscuits. Wade’s missing and he told me to get her. So come now.”

  “I’m not going anywhere until I know what’s going on,” I said, “and Wade wouldn’t want you running off without a plan. So come inside.”

  Jude looked mutinous, like he might bolt off the porch just to spite me.

  “Please,” I said, summoning up all my patience. Jude didn’t like me, and I didn’t think too much of him generally, but I respected Wade. I could be patient for Wade if not for his second-in-command.

  Jude looked down at his hands, seeming to realize for the first time that they were covered in gore. “They attacked us in the night. They took so many.”

  There was a universe of pain in his voice. Something inside me softened toward him. Whatever he might think of me, he obviously cared about his pack.

  “Come inside,” I said again, and I took him by the arm. It was a mark of how lost he was that he even let me touch him in the first place.

  He shook his head as he crossed the threshold, and then he looked down at my hand on his arm. “I’m okay.”

  I correctly took that to mean that he wanted my hand off him, and I complied. We all climbed the stairs again—Samiel in the lead, followed by Gabriel, Jude, and me, lugging Beezle on my shoulder.

  “Do you want to wash your face and hands?” I asked when we got upstairs. I really hoped he would. It was kind of hard to look at his face in its current condition.

  “Yeah,” he said, and then he unerringly went down the hall to the bathroom and shut the door, like he’d been there before.

  “He can probably smell the soap,” Beezle said knowingly.

  We all sat around my dining room table and waited for Jude to return. A few minutes later he came back in, his hair damp, his face clean and smelling of the citrusy body wash that I used in the shower.

  He sat down at the head of the table and looked at me with his eerie blue-gray eyes. Jude’s eyes are like a Siberian husky’s—pale with a dark rim. The color and his way of staring at you like he could see through to your soul always made me feel vaguely unsettled.

  “I think Wade knew that something was going to happen to him. He told me several times that if anything went wrong, I was to go straight to you,” Jude said without preamble.

  I stared at him blankly. “Well, I don’t know why he would do that. He never said anything to me.”

  “Maybe because we were attacked by demons?” Jude said, his eyes furious. “I told Wade over and over that we should have no truck with Lucifer or his minions, but he insisted on trying to negotiate a new agreement with the old bastard.”

  “Hold on a second,” I said, completely confused. “Can you just start at the beginning? I didn’t even know that Wade was trying to negotiate an agreement with Lucifer.”

  Jude made a visible effort to calm down and collect his thoughts.

  “Start at the beginning. Which beginning?” he muttered. “Okay, so after Wade jeopardized our negotiations with Amarantha by openly backing you…”

  “You act like this is my fault.”

  “It is. You charmed him somehow, made him forget his priorities.”

  Beezle snorted. “Maddy? Charm someone?”

  I smacked the gargoyle on the back of the head, although privately I agreed with him. Charm is not a quality that I possess.

  “Anyway…” I said, indicating that Jude should continue.

  “After we lost the opportunity to renegotiate for our lost lands with the faeries, Wade decided that it was time to reestablish ties with Lucifer’s court.”

  “Why?” I asked. “From what I understand, your pack hasn’t bothered to have relations with the fallen for a long time.”

  “And we were better off that way,” Jude said heatedly. “However, Wade seems to think that the incident at Amarantha’s court…”

  “You mean the incident where Amarantha and Focalor tried to have Maddy killed by proxy?” Beezle said loudly. “That incident?”

  “Yes, gargoyle, that incident,” Jude said. “Wade sensed that something big is coming, that Focalor moving openly against Lucifer means that there is dissent among the fallen.”

  “Well, sure,” I said. “From what I understand there’s always dissent among the fallen. But Focalor failed, and he’s probably having the skin peeled off him in strips as we speak. Wouldn’t that suppress any seditious thoughts the other court leaders might have?”

  “Focalor moved outside the realm of the fallen when he made his bid for power, and the fate of Amarantha’s court is now tied to his. Other supernatural courts are now moving to ally themselves for or against Lucifer.”

  I blinked. “What? You mean, everybody is picking sides for a future war?”

  Jude nodded. “It’s subtle, but it’s there. Some courts are choosing to remain neutral.”

  “Meaning they want to wait and see where the chips fall before they make a choice,” Beezle said derisively.

  “And Wade was trying to reestablish ties with Lucifer because of this? Was Lucifer receptive?” I asked.

  “He seemed to be. He was very pleased with Wade for backing you in Amarantha’s court,” Jude said, his face growing red with anger. “But then he betrayed us and set a pack of demons on us.”

  “That doesn’t sound like Lucifer,” I said. “He wouldn’t negotiate with you in good faith and then openly attack you.”

  “He is the Deceiver,” Jude said bitterly. “How do you know what he would or wouldn’t do?”

  “Because he’s the Deceiver,” I said patiently. “If he wanted to mess with the wolves, he’d find much more subtle ways of doing it. He’d send an ambassador to spread discord in your pack or something like that. He wouldn’t say one thing and then attack you the next day. It shows no style.”

  “Madeline is right,” Gabriel agreed. “The Morningstar, above all, prefers to appear above the fray.”

  “Then who set those demons on our pack? Who took Wade, and the others? They took our cubs,” Jude said, and his face was haunted. “They took our future.”

  The demons had taken the wolves’ children. Anger rose up inside me, pushing at my skin. I did not want to think about what demons would do with those children. Samiel slid his chair a little farther away from mine as electricity arced across my fingertips.

  “We’ll get them back,” I promised. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to help you.”

  “How?” Jude said. “I tried to track them. But it was like they disappeared into thin air. The trail just went cold.”

  I looked at Gabriel, and I could tell that he was thinking what I was thinking.

  “Por
tal,” I said. “The demons came through a portal and returned back through one.”

  “That is the magic of the fallen,” Jude said. “Demons can’t make a portal on their own.”

  I thought back to something that had happened a couple of months ago, and addressed my question to Beezle. “When Antares and his buddies attacked J.B. on the lawn, they escaped using a portal. How did they do that if they can’t make a portal on their own?”

  “Most demons carry portal charms from their masters so that they can do the fallen’s bidding,” Beezle said.

  “But they weren’t on my lawn at the behest of any of the fallen. They were there because of Antares,” I said. “Do they carry around extra charms? That seems like it would give the demons a lot more freedom than the fallen had intended for them.”

  “What does this have to do with finding Wade and the cubs?” Jude said. “The demons are probably slaughtering them as we speak.”

  “No,” I said. “They’re not. If the demons just wanted to kill them, then they wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of taking the wolves with them. They want them for some other purpose. The question is whether they’re doing it by someone’s command or if they have enough wherewithal to pull something like this off without any of the Grigori noticing.”

  Samiel tapped his fingers so I would look at him. Focalor was trying to start an uprising. Maybe his demons have orders to continue without him.

  Gabriel shook his head. “I am sure that Focalor’s minions are being watched closely.”

  “Could a large group of demons do such a thing and go unnoticed by their masters?”

  “In some courts, yes.” Gabriel frowned. “Which may help narrow things down. Not every court is as large as your father’s.”

  “That’s assuming that the demons are acting without a master,” Jude said. He stood from the table and paced restlessly. “We’re not going to get anywhere by sitting around talking. We need to leave now.”

  “And where do you suggest we go?” I asked. “You said yourself that you tried to follow the demons and your lead disappeared.”

  “I have to do something!” Jude shouted, and something happened that had occurred the first time I met him. His bones shifted under his skin, and for a second I saw the wolf looking at me. Then he visibly shuddered, pulled himself back under control, and when he looked up again his face was Jude’s.