Black London 05 - Soul Trade

her stomach. “You may not care beyond your next pint and wank,” said Belial. “But you’re going to have to live in the aftermath.”
    “Same question,” Jack said. “I don’t oweyou shite, mate. Quite the other way around, after I did you that favor with Abbadon.”
    “You know what’s coming,” said Belial, and Pete felt the Black vibrate all around them, saw shadows quake at the corner of her vision as the demon’s power washed over her. “You both know. The end, Jack. The full stop, the period at the end of the sentence. The Morrigan will march across the burnt face of theworld, and you’ll be the dead man riding at the head of her army. It’s inevitable, and you’ve always known it.”
    “Fuck off,” Jack said, but his voice was barely a whisper. Pete wrapped her arms around herself as Belial’s shadow lengthened and the temperature dropped.
    “I can offer you a way out,” Belial said. “You help me, I’ll help you get out from under the Hag’s claws.”
    “You think we’re stupid?”Pete blurted. “If you really knew how to help Jack out with the Morrigan why didn’t you dangle it before?”
    Belial shrugged. “I never needed you before, Petunia. Was you lot who needed me.” He worried his ruby cufflinks with his black claws. “It’s a good bargain, crow-mage. It’s one of the best bargains I’ve ever made, and I’ve been making them a very long time.”
    “So,” Jack said slowly. He’dsat up, and his crystal eyes were fixed on the demon’s obsidian ones. “Let me get this straight. I go to Hell, I help you put a boot up this demon’s arse, and you help me get the Morrigan off my back once and for all?”
    “Yes,” Belial said.
    “Bullshit,” Jack snapped. “I know you. You’re a tricky bastard, and you’d never make a deal if there wasn’t some third angle working in the back.”
    “Thereis no angle,” Belial retorted. “I want to bargain. What about that is so hard to believe?”
    All at once, Pete recognized the emotion on the demon’s face. The fact that there was an emotion to be seen was startling enough, but even more alarming was that it was fear. Demons didn’t feel fear. Even when Abbadon had escaped and Belial’s responsibility was to bring him back, he hadn’t shown fear.
    “It’s already happened, hasn’t it?” she asked. “You’re on the outs.”
    Belial flared his nostrils. “The other Princes and I aren’t on the best of terms,” he said. “But I still rule. I am still one of the Triumverate.”
    Pete looked to Jack. “He’s scared enough to play straight with you,” she said.
    Jack sighed. Pete silently willed him to take the bargain. She’d never thought it would come to this,hoping for a bargain with a spawn of the pit, but if it would get Jack out from under the yoke of the Morrigan, then almost anything would be worth it.
    “All right,” he said to Belial at last. “You’ve got me.”
    “Us,” Pete said. Belial flicked his eyes to her.
    “Excuse me?”
    Pete stood to face him. When Belial was in his human form, she was nearly as tall as the demon. “You want Jack, you get me,too,” she said. “I’m not leaving him with you again.”
    Belial sniffed, as if she were a teenager clinging to her boyfriend’s arm. “Fine,” he said. “Two is as good as one, I suppose. And you, you little harbinger of doom…” He reached out and flicked his fingers across her cheek, before Jack’s growl dissuaded him. “How could I resist?”
    The demon walked a few feet away, then glared over his shoulder.“Well?” he said. “What are we waiting for?”
    Pete picked up her bag. “Margaret,” she called. “You wait right here, luv, and Lawrence will be ’round to get you in just a moment.”
    “Pete…” Margaret said, face crinkling with concern.
    “I’ll be back before you know it,” Pete said.
    She turned to walk with Jack and squeezed his hand with her free one. He didn’t say anything, but he squeezed in return.

    They followed the demon, Pete’s heart in her throat, until all she could hear was the beating of it, and the scream of the train whistle as it rumbled from the station, leaving her and Jack behind.



 
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Caitlin Kittredge
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    N OCTURNE C ITY SERIES
    Night Life
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    Second Skin
    Witch Craft
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    Acclaim for Caitlin Kittredge’s Black London series
    “Takes supernatural shadows to the