The Night Beat

infected, and you infected your host, your mate, and your host’s mate. Wow, nice job, Jack.” It was. I wasn’t something the Jack Wagner I’d fallen in love with would have done, but it was clear I’d fallen in love with either the little part of him that was still good or I’d been fooled by the best. The base of my tail was betting on the latter.
    But it also brought up an interesting situation. The Adversary was clearly having issues with the werewolf parts. And two beings sharing one body, and then sometimes wanting to be a werewolf, too, was more strain than I figured either my mother’s mind or Susan’s were prepared for.
    So, if I left them alone and did nothing, they’d self-destruct over time. However, I was learning how Lucifer thought, and there was no way he would have planned that in as a possibility -- it wouldn’t fly with the Prince and Lucifer had to make sure whatever he did had all the signs of working. I needed to figure out what my undercover counterpart expected me to do and actually do it. And fast.
    I looked at the totem of Adlet in my hand. It was still hideous, but it looked different. I got the distinct feeling Adlet was not only truly trapped within it but also completely aware. So, what we were calling a statue or totem or whatever was really something else -- a cage.
    Before I could do anything meaningful, I heard chanting. The humans were all repeating the prayer I’d given Johnson, police included. But there was sound from the other side of the street, where our forces were waiting. I strained.
    “Double, double toil and trouble, fire burn, and caldron bubble.” They were repeating it, over and over, just like the beings praying were. Clearly the Bard had taken charge.
    I looked down. The convergence chasm was acting funny, and considering it was already off the scales in terms of normalcy, this was worth noting. It looked, I had to admit, like it was bubbling.
    “Your team’s into cheerleading,” Jack said. “Not going to help.”
    I looked back and forth between him and my so-called parents. “Double, double. You’ve doubled yourselves up. Been a lot of toil and trouble. The fire burns below as the cauldron bubbles.” Benny was right -- there were a lot more beings casting spells than I’d realized. Anyone could do it. Even me.
    I shifted back to human form. “Vic, what are you doing?” Ralph sounded worried. I figured my next move wouldn’t reassure.
    I threw the statue of Adlet right towards Jack’s head.

Chapter 72
     
    The natural human and demon reaction when a projectile is heading towards them is to duck or catch it. Since most undeads had been human or demon, that instinct remained.
    The natural werewolf reaction is to catch it in your mouth.
    Experienced werewolves either ducked or turned into a form that could catch. But Jack wasn’t experienced.
    He also wasn’t very good at reacting now. If we hadn’t been in the Ultimate Undead Standoff, it would have been pretty comical to watch his body fight with itself. And because he didn’t know whether he had hands or paws, he caught it in his mouth.
    “Good boy!”
    Jack managed to turn into human form and spat Adlet’s totem into his hands. “How stupid are you?”
    “I’m wondering that myself,” I heard Benny mutter behind me.
    “Adlet, got a deal for you!”
    “He’s dead,” Jack said, derision clear.
    “Adlet, there are four werewolves who just don’t know what to do with themselves. They’re all connected to the one who bit you -- and they’re also all connected to the being who caged you, Black Wolf. I wonder -- if you drew their powers, could you break free of your bonds?”
    “Vic, seriously, what are you doing?” Ralph hissed.
    What I was doing now was praying. To Yahweh, to Usen, to all the Gods and Monsters. Because I could see Adlet’s totem -- and it was moving on its own.
    The totem wrenched out of Jack’s hand and floated in the air, high above Jack’s head. “Destroy it!” Lucifer thundered.
    It was small, and the minions were quite large, but I’d judged Adlet right -- he wanted the chance to get out of his cage.
    There was another positive, of course. All the minions, major and minor, were now trying to catch or hit a small object that was, as near as I could tell, having fun being close to impossible to hit or catch.
    I focused all my mental energy on one thought. Surely at least one of our angels was monitoring me, right? Jude, at least, should be. I also