Darkest Night - Smoke And Ashes Part 38

"Yeah. Thanks." Sighing, he mirrored her position on the opposite wall. "And thanks for hauling me out."

She stopped b.u.t.toning her s.h.i.+rt long enough to shrug. "Even I can't get a guy to ignore you if you keep hanging around."

"Not then. When you pulled me out of the DVDs."

Dark brows rose.

"You didn't pull me out of the DVDs?"

"I didn't pull you out of the DVDs."

"Then who..." His gaze dropped to the tat, disappearing under white silk.

"No." Leah shook her head as the door opened and they moved quickly across the apartment building lobby. "First of all, he has no corporeal form on this plane and second, why would he help you? You're trying to stop him." "Maybe I'm not."

"What? Stopping him?" She linked her arm through his and dropped to a sedate walk as they moved away from the apartment building and toward his car. He wanted to run, but he made himself match her pace. "Since I remain unslaughtered, I think you're stopping him fine so far."

"Not what I meant. Maybe..." The theme from Darkest Night cut him off. Sliding his cell phone out of the pocket on his backpack, Tony flipped it open and glanced at the screen. "It's Amy." Thumbing it on, he held it to his left ear.

"Tony! It's out! There were all kinds of wild lights, and then it was like a bomb went off! This tanker by Ballard Power Systems totally blew! I had to call 911 before I called you!"

s.h.i.+t. s.h.i.+t. s.h.i.+t. "CB?"

"He's making sure everyone's out of the building. I'm heading to the Future Shop warehouse to do the same! Tony, this thing was nasty looking. It took a swipe at me as it went by."

The metaphysical taint! He'd totally f.u.c.king forgotten it when he'd sent Amy out to face a demon.

To observe a harmless little weak spot.

Yeah. Big difference.

"Are you okay?"

"It knocked me on my a.s.s, but it was like I wasn't worth its time. I'm..."

Call waiting beeped out the last few words.

He checked the screen. Lee. Who'd been shadow-held twice. And possessed. If Amy had a faint taint just from acting as an anchor while he spoke with a dead housemaid, Lee must have a big red metaphysical target painted on his chest. "Amy, tell me you're fine!"

"I'm fine!"

"Stay that way!" Left hand thumbed the link. Right hand unlocked the car. Stomach twisted as he fought the urge to puke. "Lee?"

"Tony! The tear ripped just after we got to it!"

"Are you hurt?"

"What? No! Jack emptied half a clip into the demon, and it lost interest in us."

Lost interest in you. "My fault."

"What the h.e.l.l are you talking about?"

"I sent you out there."

"Hey, grown man here. I knew the risks."

He didn't know all the risks because Tony hadn't thought to tell him. How could I have forgotten about... Hang on. There were alarms going off in the background. "What's happening?"

"Our demonic buddy didn't so much explode out of the building as explode the building!" "Fire?"

"No. Rubble. I thought there was smoke, but it was steam. Jack says there must've been a boiler plant in the bas.e.m.e.nt. A few of the surrounding buildings took some collateral damage. The whole place looked empty; the lights were off and all, but Jack's checking for casualties. I called it in before I called you. Tony, we're going to have to stick around here. We won't make it back to the studio before..."

Good, because there's going to he demons at the studio! Where it looked like it would be just him and Leah and Henry, and that was how it should be. No normal people-however tainted-getting hurt. Circ.u.mstances had stepped up to the plate.

"Don't sweat it." Phone clamped between ear and shoulder, he slammed the car into gear and roared out of his parking s.p.a.ce and down the empty street. "You're sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, we're good!"

We? Right. Jack. "Stay good."

"Can you handle... ?"

"Yes." Tony took his hand off the gears.h.i.+ft long enough to turn off the phone and toss it toward Leah. "Both of the other weak spots blew."

"Another metaphysical overload?" She didn't seem to be making fun of him.

"Probably the same one. They were timed to go off together, remember. When ours tried to open, theirs did, too, but only ours got closed. We're heading for the studio."

"I guessed." At the edge of his vision he could see her clutching the dashboard, knuckles white. "Is everyone okay?"

"Yeah. Things blew, but no one got hurt."

"No one we know."

"Hey, if you know how I can f.u.c.king save everyone, tell me now!"

"I was just..." Her protest trailed off as he ran a stop sign. "Sorry."

"We know where they're going, and if they do any more damage, it'll just be en route."

"And once they arrive."

"Yeah." A light rain speckled his winds.h.i.+eld. He flicked on the wipers. Tras.h.i.+ng the studio meant tras.h.i.+ng a lot of expensive equipment.

"They won't be expecting a vampire." Her tone suggested she was trying to cheer him up. It almost worked.

"Who does?"

The damp roads were greasy. Speeding around a corner, the car started to fishtail. Tony stomped on the gas and fought to straighten out, cursing under his breath. Something crunched as he pa.s.sed an old blue Buick Regal, but he convinced himself it was garbage on the road and not a door panel.

"You just..."

"No, I didn't." "Why are you driving? Specifically, why are you driving instead of me?"

"Good question."

"Okay." After a moment, she said, "Ballard Power Systems is a hydrogen fuel development company."

"How do you know that?"

"I did some wire work around one of their tanks."

"Big boom?"

"Then, no. Tonight, very."

"Good thing CB and Amy were right there to call it in." It made him feel a little less guilty about sending them.

"Seems strange that there were two sites that led to explosions plus a... Jesus, Tony!" Her fingers locked back down on the dash.

"What was that for?"

"Squirrel."

"You swerved into oncoming traffic to miss a squirrel?"

"He's not protected by a Demongate."

"You don't know that."

"Very funny." Not much farther. Napier Street would take them right to Boundary. "Two explosions plus a what?"

"An apartment building." He heard her settle back in the seat and wondered about her expression, but it didn't seem smart to take his eyes off the road.

"So? You said the weak spots happen anywhere something's missing."

"Well, yes, but if these three are deliberate, aimed for maximum s.h.i.+t disturbing, as it were, why an apartment building?"

"Population density. Lots of people screaming." Boundary traffic was annoyingly heavy. Tony slid between a truck and a hatchback and sped south toward the studio. "Furniture thrown off balconies. A distraught mother screaming that the monster has her baby."

"You had me at population density."

"I like to be thorough."

"Tony..."

And sometimes, just one word was enough. South of the studio, the streetlights were blowing out all along the east side of the road.

Bam. Bam. Bam. Heading north. Shards of gla.s.s showered down, glittering in the pa.s.sing headlights. Tires screamed. Horns blared. No accidents yet.

No accidents in sight, Tony amended, barely slowing to head into the studio parking lot. There was a whole lot of road in between the Fraser and CB Productions. The lot lights blew as he parked the car, and a shadow pa.s.sed between him and the building.

A big shadow.So much for beating it back to the studio and setting a trap.

Feeding off Kevin Groves had been reflex. The reporter had walked into the soundstage, realized they were alone, and bared his throat, a desperate desire rolling off him like smoke.

Henry could have stopped himself, but the emotional need drew him as much as the blood. He expected the sharp intake of breath as his teeth met through soft skin. The look of peace as he swallowed a single mouthful of blood then drew back was less usual.

"Complete truth," Groves sighed. "No codicils, no compromises." Then his eyes snapped open, and he stared at Henry in rising panic. "It's just, you know, lies. I get so tired of them. Everyone lies. You don't. Even when you are. Lying. Please don't hurt me."

He stared at the drop of blood rising from the puncture on his wrist and his eyes widened. "You really did it. Oh, G.o.d." Shaking fingers fumbled his PDA from his jacket's inside pocket. "I need to ask you some stuff."

"No."

The PDA fell from nerveless fingers, the plastic case cracking against the concrete floor. "Okay."

"Go to Raymond Dark's office and sit down. Stay there. Don't move unless you're avoiding a threat." He could hear gla.s.s shattering outside.

"What about..."

"Now."

Raymond Dark's office was safer, given that it was not directly under the power residue drawing the demons. Safer. Not safe.

Concrete block walls, no windows into the soundstage. The weakest point was the large door the carpenters used. It had, once again, been left unlocked.

Metal screamed.

Henry raised a speculative brow. Apparently tonight's demon would rather go through the door than open it.

Expected, the shower of cherries was no less annoying.

"Son of a f.u.c.king b.i.t.c.h!"

The big sliding door had been pulled half off its track, the steel scored in three parallel lines. CB was going to be p.i.s.sed.

Something howled. A cherry bounced out into the parking lot.

Tony dropped his laptop case by the wall and took a deep, steadying breath. "Get in there and see if it's marked for you. If not, help Henry."

"And if it is?" "It won't be. Maximum mayhem, remember? There's a lot less mayhem if it heads right for the person standing beside the guy kicking demon a.s.s back home."

"That was actually very convincing."

He glanced up to see her staring speculatively down at him. "Thank you. Now haul a.s.s." Without waiting for a response, he turned his attention back to the laptop, clutched the pull thing on his fly-the spell needed a metal ground-and recited the words of the Notice Me Not.

This demon was no tentacled monstrosity. It walked on two legs like a man and had a caricature of a man's face-two eyes, one nose, and a mouth. Except the eyes were orange lid to lid, the nose nearly invisible under a plate of its chitinous body armor, and the mouth lipless, with more of the body armor growing up into gleaming tusks. The armor changed color to match its surroundings, and it was now fading down from night-sky black to concrete gray. Henry got a close look at one of the arm plates as it knocked him across the soundstage to slam into the outside wall. When it withdrew the arm, it dangled a length of yellow nylon rope from one thick wrist.