I stood, peeling away from the leather chair, recognizing the end of our conversation. Abraham stared off into space, barely acknowledging I’d moved.
“I’m gonna head over and ask Baalth if he knows anything useful about our White Knight buddy. Keep our folks on the cemeteries and the like, still. Reven has been losing a bunch of zombies lately, so he’s gonna need to replace them. If we can keep him from collecting the blood he needs, we might be able to delay Longinus’s resurrection until we have a better idea of what’s going on. Maybe by then, we’ll know how to stop it.”
Abraham agreed, on the phone before I’d even finished talking.
I waved and started to leave when I spied Candy’s cell phone on the desk. I snatched it up, checked to see if it still had service, then stuffed it in my pocket. With a nod to Abraham, still too distracted to notice I was there, I left. On the way out, I replaced my exploded gun at the armory, stocking up on ammunition.
Exhausted, my mind a thick sludge of coagulated thoughts, I needed something to get the blood flowing.
Since my first choice of a blowjob was probably out of the question, coffee would have to do.
Chapter Sixteen
Thanks to Baalth’s outburst, I had to take the long way around Old Town. While the fires had been put out and the asphalt roads had cooled enough to walk on, the streets were still filled with rubble and marred with giant, steaming potholes. The sidewalks were non-existent, scaled models of the Himalayas. Slabs of concrete rose at ninety degree angles in some places and sunk, close to the same, in others. Not up for a hike, I circled the neighborhood until I found the easiest access point.
Just as I’d crossed the line into ground zero, I heard a quiet voice call out from behind me. I spun around to see the daintily smiling face of Lilith.
“Hi, Frank.”
My heart pounded in my chest and at my groin, a blast-beat of raw lust.
Eschewing the dress she had on the last time I’d seen her, she wore a pair of ultra-tight jeans, which outlined everything as if they weren’t even there. It hurt to lift my eyes, but when I finally did, they got stuck at her chest. A thin, white wife-beater did absolutely nothing to hide her perfect boobs. They stood out in defiance of gravity, daring me to look away.
They knew I wouldn’t.
Caught off guard, my own pants mimicking the tightness of hers, I just stood there and stared, while visions of leather and chains danced in my head.
Lilith understood the way to a man’s heart was through his crotch. She was a sexual sniper: one shot, one kill. If my uncle’s bloodline hadn’t run so fiercely through my veins, I’d have been panting at her feet. As it was, I could have welded steel with the fire burning in my pants.
“Uh, hey.” Smooth, huh?
She stepped in real close, wisps of her black hair tickling my neck and cheek, her breasts a naughty whisper against my fluttering stomach. One of her warm hands settled on the small of my back, the skin prickling at her touch.
“I have something for you.”
And I for you. I only hoped I wouldn’t have to clean it out of my underwear before our conversation was over. “What’s that?” My voice squeaked like a schoolgirl’s.
“I know where Baalth’s pets are being held.” She brushed her lips against my chin. Tiny electric shocks reverberated downward from the touch, curling my toes and straightening everything else in between.
Two thoughts struck me right then. The first was a mental treatise in the moral and ethical dilemma of banging my uncle’s woman and ex-wife’s mother, my once mother-in-law, in the middle of the street, in broad daylight.
The second was a detailed summation of all the groovy things I could do after Baalth granted me a heaping chunk of his magic for rescuing his men.
Surprisingly, the latter won out.
Common sense and self-preservation: 1
Penis: 0
At least for today.
I took a small step back, putting some space between me and Lilith. It was hard.
Moving away was too.
She looked at me like I’d just bought American. “Are you not interested?”
Double entendre aside, I did my best to act cool; ice cubes and arctic wastelands. Given the fact my pants looked like a pup tent, it was pretty clear she had my full attention. “Of course I am.”
She inched forward again, clearly not willing to let me off the hook. “My spies witnessed the necromancer’s attack.”
My thoughts went back to the body I’d found. It was awful convenient, but it could explain why the gaunt was there. “Go on.”
She licked her red lips before she continued, making sure my eyes followed her slow-moving tongue. “Reven’s creatures fled before Baalth arrived, stealing his men away into Limbo.”
While I was grateful to know where Baalth’s goons had been taken, Lilith was far too eager to pass the information on. I played stupid.
It wasn’t that difficult.
“Limbo is a big place.”
“That’s why I prepared a transport crystal for you.” She reached into her shirt, her hand squirming its way between her breasts. I held my breath as her wife beater was pushed down to within a millimeter of baring everything, then she yanked her hand out with an exaggerated twist. She flashed me a small blue gem, her fingers gently rolling it around her palm. I’d been hoping for a different kind of flash.
Disappointed, I peeled my eyes away from her show of manual dexterity. I had to think. Here Lilith was, providing me with the location of Baalth’s captured men and the means to go straight there, all while asking for nothing in return. There had to be a catch.
I had to ask-she’d expect it. “What’s in all this for you?”
Her eyes sparkled. “The hope of good will, mostly.” A serene calmness passed over her face. “Baalth and I have been on opposite sides of the aisle for too long. Were I to take this to him, at best, he’d refuse to see me, ignoring anything I had to say. At worst, the most likely of conditions, he’d…well, let’s just leave that to your imagination.” A tinge of sadness touched her lips. “However, were you to bring his men home, putting in a good word for my part in the rescue, he might open the door to me once more.”
I weighed what she told me. It made sense, especially now that Baalth was the biggest demon on the block, but something still bothered me. I couldn’t figure out how rescuing Baalth’s guys would help to stop Longinus from being resurrected. Why would she sidetrack me“I’m assuming Reven isn’t with them?”
She shook her head. “He knows his undead minions are flawed, that they can be compromised. He keeps a line of separation when it comes to remaining secure.”
Following her line of logic, it was a trap. My only question was, for who? Did Reven know Lilith was involved and had trailed his zombies, or did he realize she was feeding me info? My brain spun in circles. There were too many possibilities.
I suck with choices.
“So, if Reven isn’t there, how does this benefit us regarding Longinus?”
She looked at me as though I were stupid. She might have been right. “He did not kidnap Baalth’s men without cause. They have become an integral part of his plan to raise my dear, Maximus.” Moisture glistened in her eyes on cue.
I wished I had a golden statue to give her. “And their part is?”
She made a show of wiping her tears. “As circumstances have robbed Reven of the means to procure blood in mass quantities, he must find an alternate way to achieve his goal. In necromancy, empowered blood is far more potent than common, human blood.” She gestured toward Old Town. “The wizard and mentalist are to be sacrificed.”
From an entirely selfish point of view, that would blow. “Are you sure they’re still alive?”
She nodded. “Unlike common blood, empowered claret must be culled fresh for it to retain its potency. He will save them until the very last moment, claiming them from Limbo to be about his task before he can be stopped. That gives you time, however little.”