That Zeke was in the same shape made Solomon the luckiest demon alive.
“You really should be Eden House. You’re quick. So very quick.” He flipped the blade, ignoring the black blood staining his fingers, and offered the handle to me. “For a human.”
“I’m a savant. Some are good with music, some math. I’m very, very good with sharp things.” I took the knife and gave an internal sigh at the cleaning job lying ahead, bound to clog up the dishwasher. “Some of us might be born hunters, but that doesn’t mean it’s the path we have to choose. Officially. I like my independence. I don’t need any little social clubs like Eden House to back me up.” I gave a triple flip of the blade and caught it by the black rubber handle again. “What could they possibly have to offer me except chains?”
His hand had healed in an instant, the same as his chest had. “You’re not telling me a thing, are you?”
I waved fingers at him and drank more of my tea. “Don’t worry. I’m not telling Eden House anything either. If God wants the Light, Above will have to come begging to me, just like you did. And they’ll get the same thing right now. Nothing.”
“God?” he repeated, appearing genuinely astonished. “You think God has anything to do with this? With Eden House?”
I frowned. “He doesn’t?”
He shook his head. “And you thought you knew it all, didn’t you? No. God has been hands-off since the Rebellion. The angels with free will have taken it upon themselves to form a middle management, if you will. To carry on Heaven’s work or what they think Heaven’s work might be. God didn’t start Eden House. Man did. And then angels took advantage of it. Why soil their lily-white hands when they can get Man to do it for them? Why fight demons when Eden House will train soldiers to stand in their place?”
“And what does God think of all this?” I asked.
Shrugging lightly, he replied with a trace of melancholy, “I’m a demon. I don’t know God’s word or will anymore.”
“And the angels?”
“I don’t think they know either. God is the sun to them now, warm, loving, but silent. Distant.” He was silent as well for a moment, remembering or thinking, before he finally mused, the gray of his eyes lightened to an almost silver, “You’re fortunate that I find you so . . . unique. Be careful of your back, Trixa. You humans, so fragile.”
From most demons . . . I would’ve said all demons up until then . . . that would’ve sounded like a threat. This didn’t sound like that. This sounded different. Like Solomon was different. But what was that difference? There was a thought that kept turning round and round in my head. A little kid’s whirligig, spinning. Always spinning. Black, then red, then silver, and which was real? Which was true?
Black.
Red.
Silver.
“I didn’t mean for you to be hurt. I didn’t mean for our game to go this far,” he said softly, eyes inscrutable. “We’re angels, you know. Fallen, but still angels.”
Then the door opened behind him and he disappeared into the shadow of it. Sank into the puddle of darkness on the floor. Angels . . .
Who ate souls, but had to if he wanted to survive. An angel who bargained for souls, but always gave fair trade. Gave you what you asked for. Even the Better Business Bureau couldn’t fault him there.
Angels or demons or both . . . and I had a headache. But I also had a client and this one couldn’t wait.
“Did you find him?” She was thirteen years old and not living on the street, but not precisely living off the street either. Her hair was long, lank brown and hadn’t been washed in a few days, and her frame was skinny but not too skinny. She was getting food somewhere. She probably hung out around the shelters. I didn’t ask her name because I knew it. Alone. She was alone in the world and when she thought of herself, that’s probably the only thing she called herself. Alone. Until a few weeks ago, but the past few days had been a return to that alone.
Kimano, Zeke, Griffin, Solomon, the Light . . . they were all things beyond me at the moment, but not this. I grinned and whistled. There was a skittering of paws and a dog just as brown as its owner came speeding out of the kitchen, half a hot dog still hanging from his mouth. Brown, yes. Lank like the girl, no. He was round like a beach ball.
Wary blue eyes turned clear in an instant and she scooped up the homely hound. It snarfed the last of the meat and licked her face enthusiastically. “Koko.” She didn’t care about her own name, but the dog . . . the dog had a name. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment as she hugged him and when they opened again, they were just as wary as in the beginning. “How much?”
“This one’s pro bono,” I said, grinning back at the dog. Two of a kind we were. We saw life and hot dogs and seized the day. Carpe diem. Carpe canis. Beef canis. Pork canis. Kosher canis. As long as it had mustard and relish, we were good. Right, doggy? The tongue lolled at me in what I was sure was agreement.
The girl’s forehead wrinkled at the pro bono and I elaborated, “Free.”
“Nothing is free,” she said with prompt suspicion.
“Just come by next weekend and clean out the alley and we’ll call it even.” I finished my tea. “And come by any afternoon and my bar guy Leo will feed Koko. I like dogs.” I leaned across the table and tickled Koko’s belly.
“What about people?” She lowered her head and the brown hair spilled forward, hiding her face.
“People I can take or leave.” I moved to the dog’s chin and it kicked its back legs ecstatically. “But Leo is a softy. If he likes you, he might even feed you too.”
She snorted. “Find my dog for nothing. Free food. You’re a sucker.”
I laughed. No one . . . no one, not in my entire life, had called me a sucker. “Leo will like you all right. He’ll feed you breakfast, lunch, and dinner if you want. It’ll be greasy, but it’ll be food.” I jerked a thumb. “Go out the back through the kitchen. If you happen to see any food lying around, help yourself.”
She hesitated. “Aren’t you going to even ask my name?”
“You don’t know your name. When you figure out what it is, then you can tell me,” I said with a yawn. “And it’s not Alone. That’s no kind of name for anyone. So think on it.”
She vanished almost as quickly as Solomon had, but I doubt he’d taken a loaf of bread and an industrial-sized package of cheese with him. Too bad. He might have found that tastier than eating souls.
The rest of the day I spent napping and popping one more pain pill. They give you weird dreams, those pills. Bright colors, drifting like the wind. I saw Kimano again, but always out of reach. Always moving away. Always leaving me behind. The same as ever they were, only in brighter colors . . . more real, and if I had been just a little faster, I could’ve touched him. Touched his skin. Turned him to see the laughter in his eyes.
Later that night I flushed the rest of the pills down the toilet. Numb my back and claw my heart; it wasn’t a good exchange.
Not at all.
Chapter 6
The next morning I went hiking—that would be “hiking” with quotes around it and a good amount of subtext. Leo didn’t want to go with me—he said the limp, shuffle, drag of my hiking boots was giving him flashbacks. I wasn’t sure if those flashbacks were to the last Mummy movie he’d seen or some previous work he’d had at a nursing home as an orderly. Grumbling and bitching aside, he came along in the end. He also brought snacks and a cooler. At least he was good for something, I told him.