The Devil's Daughter Complete Box Set, page 99
part #1 of The Devil's Daughter Series
“How do you expect this is going to work? I barely understand how I’m making it to hell and back.”
“I’m going to send a message to Sanguine via Chloe. Once the hellmouth is open, I’m riding Lefty through the gate. If it worked for doppelgängers escaping hell, I don’t see why it wouldn’t work for a human entering that dimension. After all, Agnes originally designed the portal to get her plants and animals across.”
Fuck, Sere thought. The sight of his magnificently buff body sometimes made her forget that he had an equally impressive brain. “They won’t go along with it.”
“I can be pretty convincing when I get my charm on. The way I see it, Sanguine is going to have her hands full. She needs to find a voodoo totem then transfer you into it from the professor’s hell-based computer. After that, she’ll need to snag the doppelgänger Smoke in his human shape. He’s not going to fit in the vault in his dragon form, so Sanguine will have to fly both of you out to the swamp island. Assuming all goes well, which it almost never does, she’ll then be in charge of making the transfer.”
Though he did a fine job of laying out the plan, Sere didn’t see why he felt the need to risk his life and soul to hell’s dimension. “And where do you see yourself being needed?”
“Security. If Madam Laroque gets even one whiff that the gate is open, she’ll be sending every available demon she can round up out to the swamp. Then there’s the Cormorant to consider.”
Sere was happy to be disembodied at the moment. She wouldn’t have wanted him to see her defeat. “You don’t trust her?”
“Do you?” His question cut her to the circuit board.
“No. Though she wants my body and can’t have it while Marjory is in possession of it, that doesn’t mean she won’t try—especially with me already out of it.” Attempting to take back command of the expedition while still conceding that Bart had a point, Sere said, “Fine. I need your help. Ask Doodlebug who she trusted in hell. Though I don’t want to risk the living, we’re going to need every doppelgänger we can rely on.”
“I’m on it. It’s going to be strange seeing you as a dude, or worse, a dragon.”
Though she’d never admit it out loud, the thought of having him at her side brought a flutter to whatever passed for her heart in the computer. “Just don’t go getting any ideas that because I’m not in a human form, you can order me around. And thanks.”
“I did warn you that I wouldn’t let you rot in hell without me.”
92
Chapter 7
Sere regained consciousness inside the all-too-familiar iron vault. “I swear, this place still smells like my father.”
“Pipe smoker, was he?”
She put her hand to the stubbled chin. Both comments had come from the masculine voice, like two people walking through a revolving door. She wasn’t alone. “Thanks for the use of your body. I know how big a deal this is.”
“Hey, I get to live my life as a dragon. I always knew that shifter ability came with unspecified obligations. A word of advice on becoming the dragon: I find it’s easiest not to focus too much on the transformation. It can be pretty disorienting. Speaking of which, you’d better get moving. Feels like Bernie just took a shot of dragon’s breath. I’ll be hanging here out in the totem when you’re done.”
Sere pushed against the door, momentarily surprised that the heavier masculine body could move the heavy iron hatch so easily. The hinges screeched as it opened far enough for her to fall out and land on the ground. Her head pounded like railroad tracks under a freight train. She squeezed her eyes closed against the sensation of hot daggers being plunged into them.
“We need to get her away from the vault.” Bart’s words rang out through the din in her mind.
Hands grabbed her around the arms, legs, and torso. She couldn’t tell how many, but there were more than just the two that belonged to Bart. The ground rasped against her back as if she were too heavy to be lifted completely. They dropped her on her belly.
The barrage of sensations finally overloaded the doppelgänger brain. Everything went silent and dark. Even her arms and legs seemed like distant memories. A breeze that should have ruffled her hair played around her head and neck.
She opened her eyes. Treetops spread out like the pile of a thick carpet all the way to the surrounding hurricane. Sere shook her head in an attempt to make sense of the inputs that didn’t match up.
In front of one of her eyes, Sanguine hovered like Tinker Bell. “Keep your eye on me.” She flew forward.
Sere focused on the swamp fairy until she disappeared directly in front of her nose then reappeared before Sere’s other eye. Sanguine spread her hands wide and returned to a spot directly in front of Sere, who could see one hand with each eye but not the woman herself.
“There’s a blind spot directly in front of you. When you spit fire, this is where you’ll be hitting.”
Sere nodded. “Okay.”
“Feel like joining the conversation?”
Sere looked down. Forty feet below her, Bart stood next to Lefty, looking like a little boy with his overly large dog. She eased her limbs into bent positions until she felt the grass-covered ground sink under her as if she was lying down on a mattress. Then she put her head on the ground. For the first time in her life, Lefty looked like a little lizard. “This is all so strange.”
Sanguine lighted next to Bart. “We’ve got work to do. I set up a meeting with the Cormorant. I should warn you that I did have to disclose that it’s you in the dragon body.”
Back in life, Sere would have considered the betrayal unforgivable. In hell, brutal honesty was the only approach that would make the Cormorant agree to the meeting. “Did she offer any assurances that she wouldn’t try to abduct my soul in exchange for my body?”
Sanguine folded her arms over her stomach. “She agreed to the meeting. All things considered, I took that as a victory. She doesn’t trust me very much. For what it’s worth, Smoke made quick work of the Cormorant’s flying contingent, so you’ve got that power on your side if things turn ugly.”
Sere looked past Lefty to where the vault had been, feeling bad about asking so much from that side of Chloe’s apprentice. “I guess with Smoke inside the totem and vault and back between dimensions, he’s about as safe as we can make him.” She turned her giant dragon eye to Bart. “And what’s your plan?”
“I thought I might bum a ride from you into the city. Doodlebug left me a list of her street-warrior contacts. No matter how your chat goes with your weird-ass Jennifer-mirror deity, we’re eventually going to have to confront whatever army Madam Laroque has drummed up.”
Sere looked back toward her gator lounging in the weeds. “You’d better stay here, boy. Even with the vault being invisible, I can’t risk either of those hell powers trying to do an end run on me.”
His snort leveled the grass for ten feet in front of him.
Sere found flying to be remarkably easy. Even with Bart on her back, a couple of swings of the giant dragon wings lifted her clear of the trees.
Sanguine flew beside her like a pilot boat directing a cargo ship upriver. “Stretch your wings out a little farther, and you won’t have to beat them so often.”
Yes, Mom. Other than from Joe Cazenave, Sere never had been able to take instruction without it setting off her snarky attitude, and the only reason she accepted guidance from the former Army Ranger was because he’d drop her on her ass if she gave him any back talk. She figured that trying another of the body’s special powers—one that Sanguine didn’t share—might get the angel off her back. “I’m dropping down to treetop level. I want to test out the flame-throwing ability.”
Sanguine flapped her gossamer-white wings a little harder. “I think I’ll stay up here.”
Sere spread her wings as far as they would go and angled her head down like the fiery flying serpent from hell that she’d heard about in stories. “Hang on, Bart.” She puffed up her chest then blew the air out of her nostrils. All that came out was snot, which covered the tops of the cypress and oak trees. “That didn’t work.”
Bart lay against the back of her neck. His head rested so close behind her ear that she flapped it in irritation. “Maybe you have to be mad, the way you get when you go all demonic.”
“That would make sense. Say something that you know will make me angry.”
“Why do I have to do everything? It’s like every problem you encounter, you just figure I’ll come sailing in to your rescue. For a badass demon-hunting daughter of the devil, you can be a real prima donna at times.”
She gritted her teeth and blew out her lungs so she could fully refill them for an irate response. The puff of air she let out, however, set the oak below her ablaze. “You did that intentionally.”
His laugh further fueled her irritation. “You told me to make you mad.”
She focused her anger through her nose. As Sanguine had explained, she didn’t see the main body of fire, only the way it lit up the sky in front of her and created a bonfire below. “At least we figured out how to activate the flames.”
She felt him squirming around on her back. Even without seeing what he was doing, she could feel his tensed-muscle call to action that accompanied the drawing of weapons. “If you’re done playing,” he said, “it looks like someone sent us a welcome party. Straight ahead and a tick above us.”
She angled her head to see the flock of oversized bat-like baby dragons. “Must be from Marjory. It would appear that back in life, she’s still abducting druggies for her little experiment, or these were leftovers from her invasion force. You don’t suppose they followed Sanguine and Smoke out here, do you?”
“That, or they’re the remnants from the group that attacked Doodlebug. They could have just been hanging out, waiting to see what emerged from the hellmouth. Still, I would have thought they’d hightail it back to their mistress with their report rather than engage in combat.”
“Let’s make sure they don’t get the chance.” Sere beat her wings to get above the squadron.
Sanguine had her gleaming silver sword drawn. “They may be small, stoned, and stupid, but even children with matches can set things on fire.”
Sere didn’t like the flammable look of Sanguine’s feathered wings. “Let me take first crack at them.” She folded in her wings before the angel had time to argue.
The little flaming fuckers came up at her from the treetops like mosquitoes out of the grass. Without being able to see straight ahead, Sere let out a blast of fire, hoping some were stupid enough to be directly ahead.
A loud explosion from her back made her swing wildly away from the flock. “What the hell was that?”
Bart was busy doing something between her shoulders. “I exchanged weapons with Doodlebug. She left me her flintlock. She thought it might be useful here. I’ve gotta say, this thing packs a punch. Did you see that little flamehead tumble out of the sky?”
“I can’t see anything other than what’s coming up alongside of me, like that breakaway contingent overhead.”
“Swing your head side-to-side while you’re discharging the fire. Slash your flame like it’s a sword. That’s the way they do it in the movies.” He settled back into place. “I’ve got a shot ready and my knives within easy reach.”
She had no intention of letting the little flintheads get near enough for Bart to need his blades. A little dragon missing half a wing tumbled beside her. Looking up, Sere noticed that Sanguine’s sword was dripping with blood. “Those little fuckers are everywhere.”
“They’re gathering above us,” Bart said. “Sanguine’s doing what she can, but we need to take a more commanding vantage point.”
Sere could imagine Joe telling her the same thing in a tone of controlled irritation. Any time she’d truly been in trouble, he’d resorted to curt commands rather than yelling. With half a dozen good strokes of her wings, she was well above the action. A dozen little dragons were rotating their attack on Sanguine. Each came away with more damage than victory, but the angel was seriously outnumbered.
“Dive for the riverbank, Sanguine,” Sere said. The angel needed the extra protection of the woods, and even if the little monsters could sail after her between the trees, they couldn’t outfly the big dragon.
As the angel folded her wings and made her escape, Sere dove snout first through the cloud of black dragons. With flames erupting from her nostrils like bug spray discharged into a swarm of cockroaches, Sere disbanded Marjory’s latest contingent of flying lizards. The ones that didn’t fall to the trees with wings on fire screeched in fear as they headed in every direction away from the great swamp dragon.
“We can’t let them escape,” Bart yelled.
They were already at the edge of the hurricane. “Well, I can’t go flying off in every direction!”
Sanguine glided down beside Sere. “It won’t matter. It’s not like Smoke hasn’t been seen before. Even if her little spies didn’t see us playing around with the vault, the fact that you’re back in hell isn’t a secret we’ll be able to keep for long. Our best bet now is to meet with the Cormorant.”
“And the sooner the better,” Sere said. “If Marjory intends on plopping out dragons, we’ll be inundated with the little bastards.”
93
Chapter 8
Though Sere had been out of hell—and the eternally midnight hurricane—for over a year, some experiences came back as easily as putting on a moldy old coat. The hurricane wasn’t as daunting as it had been in the past. In the dragon body, she finally had the means of combating the storm. “Flying this thing isn’t half-bad.”
Bart remained safely behind the flap of her ear. “Speak for yourself.” He pointed toward the freeway just beyond the airport. “Set me down just past the Kenner exit. Doodlebug said she has spies staked out there just in case Marjory got any bright ideas about sending demons on foot back to the hellmouth.”
Sere nodded, undulating the reptilian neck more than she’d intended and causing Bart to hang on tighter. “Any thoughts on how we’ll stay in contact?” She set her clawed feet on the off-ramp and arched her back so he could slide off.
He worked around in front of her, her body shielding him from the wind. “Well, we don’t dare use any connections involving the professor’s lab. We can’t risk either Marjory or the Cormorant getting their hands on the tether to your soul.”
A shudder went along her back all the way down her tail. “And Chloe is too far away to be a useful intermediary.”
“Doodlebug said she used to leave a journal in the cemetery so she could communicate with Dooly.”
Sere spread her wings in frustration. “Do I look like I could operate a pen?”
“No, but my point was that the cemetery is as close to neutral ground as we’re going to find in hell.”
Sere snorted out a small flame that she angled away from him. “I can get there without any problem, but you’re going to be a little limited in getting around on those flooded streets.”
He jingled a set of keys in front of her. “Doodlebug also told me where to find Joe’s souped-up motorcycle. Do what you’ve gotta do with the Cormorant. I’ll round up as many doppelgängers as I can. Then we’ll regroup at the cemetery. I doubt anyone is going to expect us to return to the scene of your bodily abduction.”
Though she admired his ability to adjust to any environment, his inherent inclination to command could be his undoing in a dimension where he didn’t know the rules and players. A region filled with harvesters on the hunt was no place for a human. “Just remember, you’re in hell, and these demons you’ll be dealing with aren’t the same as humans.”
He gave her the half-snarky, half-charming smile that cut through her emotional defenses. “I do have some experience dealing with a resident of hell.”
She felt a little stupid blushing as a dragon. “Just because you won me over doesn’t mean Doodlebug’s warriors are going to follow you.”
“I understand mercenaries even better than women. If I don’t show up with a dozen skilled soldiers, feel free to say, ‘I told you so.’”
“Don’t think I won’t.” It was as close to a plan as Sere could hope for. She looked out at the storm circling the city. “I should be done first, so I’ll be able to clear the grounds of any stray goblins. I can’t tell you to be careful. This is hell, and you’ll have to put it all on the line to survive.”
His eyes still held the love she remembered. “I’ll meet you at the cemetery.”
The half-destroyed warehouse on the river gave Sere the chills. The last time she was in the open-sided beam structure, she’d been hauling Jennifer’s soul toward the professor’s lab while avoiding the very being she was now trying to meet. “Did we have to have our talk here?” She kept her neck bent to avoid hitting her scaly head against the corrugated metal roof.
Sanguine ruffled the rain out of her feathers. “It was the only place big enough to accommodate you as a dragon. With the open sides, the three of us could fly in from any direction—or out if things go wrong.”
A flock of birds glided in along the riverside then set up a perimeter. The Cormorant landed within it. The birdwoman stood straight as if trying to command the stage, but at seven feet tall, she looked like a little stuffed mama bird behind her flock of chicks from Sere’s vantage point. “So we finally meet.” The Cormorant flexed her fist, rippling a small scar on her arm.
Sere got a flash of memory from when the Cormorant had swooped in and cut Jennifer’s arm with her beak. “We can discuss our issues another time. Our mutual enemy is about to make a move on the living.”
“Why should I care?” Her squawking voice hurt Sere’s reptilian ears.
