Darkest Night - Smoke And Ashes Part 20

"I can say you were hurt in the attack?"

"Go ahead. I'm a TAD..." He remembered pain in time to cut off the shrug. "... no one will give a s.h.i.+t."

"You saw this deranged fan?"

"Duh. You know it's funny. You believe in all sorts of paranormal c.r.a.p, yet you don't believe that one of Mason's fans could go bugf.u.c.k."

"It's not that I don't believe..." He paused and leaned closer still. Tony got a whiff of mint and wondered, since there seemed to be no gum chewing going on, if it was a default odor. "I've met some of Mason Reed's fans," he said, "and it's a short trip to bugf.u.c.k.

But there's more going on."

"More?"

"Why are we here?"

"I wanted some poutine," Tony told him as the food arrived.

Groves waited until they were alone again, until he'd emptied three creamers into his coffee, and said, "Why are we here together?"

"You said we needed to talk." "You agreed with me."

"You've been stalking us since August."

"Because I know when I'm being lied to."

"About what?"

"Anything."

"Like creatures of the night?" Tony asked. His tone implied he couldn't believe they were talking about stuff no one in their right mind believed in.

"Yes."

Tony nearly choked on his mouthful of fries and gravy and cheese curd. "You're serious?"

"It's a..." Groves stared into his coffee as though he could find the missing word. Finally, he raised his head and met Tony's eyes.

"... curse."

"You know when you're being lied to?"

"I do."

He did. And more, he expected Tony to believe him.

"What are you doing?" he asked as Tony frowned at the scuffed wood beside his bowl.

"I'm trying to decide if beating my head against the table will be worth it."

"Why?"

Because like drew to like. The Demonic Convergence was in Vancouver because Leah was there and the gate was there and he was there and-oh, yeah-Henry was there. Since he'd first met Henry, there'd been ghosts and werewolves and walking mummies...

It was like murders always happening around Jessica Fletcher. Who the h.e.l.l would want to live in the same town as a little old lady who solved crimes?

Or never noticing a white van until you owned one and then they were all over the G.o.dd.a.m.ned place.

There was a gate to another world in the studio where he worked.

The house they used for a location shoot just happened to be haunted.

When Darkest Night needed a stuntwoman, they hired an immortal Demongate.

It was like eight o'clock on the WB.

And Kevin Groves, who knew when he was being lied to, was still waiting for an answer. Tony sighed. "I'm having one of those days." Absolutely not a lie. "So let me guess..." He took a swallow of the milk. "... you went to work for the tabs because they're the only ones who dare to print the truth?"

"That's right." After a long moment, Groves rolled his eyes. "Now what?" "Sorry." Tony blinked and started eating again. "Just having an MiB moment. You'd like the regular papers to print the truth?"

"Who wouldn't?"

Good point. "Under your byline."

"I don't do what I do for the good of my health, Mr. Foster. I'm a journalist."

Or he wanted to be seen as one, which, for all intents and purposes, amounted to the same thing. "So, are you saying Mason lied to you?"

"Mason Reed believes everything he says."

"That's not an answer."

Groves only shrugged and took a long drink of his coffee. Waiting.

He knows I have something to say or we wouldn't be here together.

He believes that I have metaphysical powers, that weird metaphysical s.h.i.+t is happening around the studio, and he's looking for proof.

Let's not be too impressed by him sharing his lie detecting ability since I'm guessing he tells everyone. Of course he probably doesn't expect everyone to believe him.

Probably.

"Yesterday, you said the words Demonic Convergence like you expected me to know what they meant. Why?"

Groves smiled. "Because I expected you to know what they meant."

"Why?"

"Nope. You asked a question, now I ask a question. That's how these things work."

Maybe it was. Almost able to feel the calories in the poutine winging off to various body parts, Tony pushed his empty bowl aside, laid his forearms on the table, and leaned forward, deliberately mirroring the reporter's earlier position. "Not this time," he said quietly. "I ask the questions, you answer them, and if I'm happy with the answers, maybe I'll tell you some of what you want to know."

Groves started at him for a long moment, then he sneered and stood. "I don't have to..."

"Yeah, you do. This is your only chance, Kevin. Screw it up and you spend the rest of your life on the outside looking in. Knowing things are happening but never being a part of it."

His lips drew back off coffee-stained teeth. "Idiot. I want to expose it, not be a part of it."

Tony locked their gazes and refused to let the other man look away. "Bulls.h.i.+t."

"Everything okay here, gentlemen?"

"Fine, Brenda. I could use a coffee now if you wouldn't mind. And Mr. Groves could use a refill."

"He's not leaving?"

"No." He sat down, hands shoved under the edge of the table a little too late to hide the trembling. "I'm not leaving. Refill would be good. Please."

Tony sat back feeling powerful. Feeling like a wizard in control. Feeling like he'd just kicked a puppy. A mangy, annoying, nippy puppy that no one liked but a puppy nevertheless. He shot what he hoped was a rea.s.suring smile at Brenda who frowned at them both as she set a clean mug on the table and then filled it before refilling Kevin's. She frowned once more, just at him, before she walked away.

"You thought I'd know about the Demonic Convergence because of what you believe I did last summer at that location shoot, right?"

"Witnesses said you spoke with the dead. Witnesses agree you..."

"Yeah." Tony raised his hand. His right hand. No point in flas.h.i.+ng the rune burned into his left at this point in the game. "I don't need to know what you believe I did. Just answer the question."

"That's what I thought." Sullen but cooperating. Wanting desperately to be on the inside. With the cool kids.

"How do you know about it?"

"I was researching you, what you might be involved in..." Black ma.s.ses and deals with the devil were strongly implied by his tone.

"... and I found an old book in a used bookstore. It was written in German. I could read just enough to recognize that it was about talking to the dead, so I bought it figuring I could get it translated." The sullen started falling away. Tony had a feeling that being taken seriously was a new and exciting sensation for Kevin Groves. "There was a piece of folded paper in it... except it wasn't paper. It was vellum. You know what that is?"

"I have no idea."

"It's a piece of calf hide tanned really fine for writing on. Point is, it's old. Really old. On the vellum was a chart drawn up by some astrologer. He wrote that the powers would align to create a Demonic Convergence and the walls between the world and h.e.l.l would thin. I took his calculations to the astrologer at the paper and she worked out the dates."

"Is she the real thing?"

Groves snorted. "Not hardly. She's got a Ph.D. in math, but she hates teaching."

d.a.m.n. Tony sc.r.a.pped his idea of a metaphysical Justice League.

"It's happening now, isn't it? The Demonic Convergence?"

Why not? He'd already done the math. Or had the math done for him. Mouth open to admit that yes, the Demonic Convergence was in fact happening now, Tony got distracted by the sight of his own car driving by and turning into the studio lot. Then he realized that if Leah had gone back to her place for his laundry, of course she had to take his car.

Then he noticed that there was a spot by the entrance to the parking lot where the rain wasn't quite falling.

Chapter Seven.

"WHAT THE h.e.l.l IS UP with you?"

Tony ignored Kevin Groves yelling behind him, concentrating on getting through the traffic on Boundary without being killed.

Wizardry wouldn't keep him from dying under the oversized wheels of some guy's SUV-or under the wheels of one of the new Previous Contents Nexthybrids for that matter. He might be more environmentally dead, but he'd be just as dead. Horns blared, tires skidded sideways on the wet pavement, creative profanity blasted out of half a dozen open windows, but he made it to the other side alive. From the continuing sound of horns, tires, and profanity, Kevin was right behind him.

Great.

In about thirty seconds, deciding how much to tell him would no longer be a problem.

Tony could see the headlines now: IMMORTAL STUNT-WOMAN SLAUGHTERED IN BURNABY; DEMONGATE OPENS AND THE WORLD ENDS! Bright side-he'd be dead and someone else would be cleaning up the mess.

He could see his car at the far end of the lot and thought he could see Leah twisted around, rummaging in the back seat. Then the driver's side door opened and an enormous white-and-red umbrella emerged, tipped down to keep the rain from blowing up under the outer edge. Unfortunately, tipped down, it was also keeping Leah from spotting the anomaly moving across the parking lot toward her.

Lifting his left hand, Tony called the umbrella. The demon appeared as nylon and wire and wood pa.s.sed through the same s.p.a.ce it was occupying, and Leah, mouth open to demand answers, had just enough time to fling herself back inside the car as claws struck sparks off the closing door. For a heartbeat the car filled with a translucent, naked, and very p.i.s.sed-off Demonlord, then it was only Leah.

Yeah, well, I'd be p.i.s.sed, too, if my way back into the world kept ducking at the last minute.

"That's a..."

"No s.h.i.+t." Tony thrust Leah's umbrella into Kevin's arms. "You might want to get behind something solid."

"I don't..."

"Or not. Just stay out of my way."

Fortunately, the demon was intent on peeling his quarry out of her strange new sh.e.l.l. Where fortunately didn't refer to the damage being done to his car. As he started focusing energy, Tony realized he'd pretty much run out of options. Another Powershot would use all the energy he'd regained and then some-the "and then some" was the worrying bit. He'd done a little gaming in his day and he knew what happened when stats fell into negative numbers. Leah's runes were his best chance. He was pretty sure he could remember the first one and then, with any luck, the others would fall into line behind it.

Except he couldn't quite remember the first rune.

Curves here. Crosses back. And there's sort of a circle thing...

c.r.a.p!

The demon shot him a disdainful sneer over one shoulder-given the excessive teeth and the glowing yellow eyes, it was a pretty d.a.m.ned effective sneer-and then slammed its palm down on the window. The window cracked.

He could hear Leah screaming.

f.u.c.k!