Dark Days

Author:Caitlin Kittredge
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
Published: 2013-04-29T22:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 22

They emerged back into the daylight in Kensington, not far from the City Line stop, and Belial sat down on the curb and pulled out a black cigarette, sucking on the foul smoke until he’d completely enveloped his head in the cloud.

Jack waited and watched, not wanting to be the one who set the demon off.

“You know, I put in my time,” Belial snarled. “I was small change for a thousand years, collecting souls and doing deals and keeping my legions in order. I kissed the boot of plenty of Named jockeying for position with the Princes. Watched them eat each other. Then one day I pop up because some idiot mage has cast a summoning and wants to trade his soul for thirteen more years of life, and after a millennium of careful watching and waiting for my time, you fuck everything up in thirteen short years.”

Belial exhaled. “Life was so simple before I met you, Jack. You’re poison to anyone who plans to have things go their way.”

“Sorry I fucked up your winning streak of torture and mayhem there, mate,” Jack said. “Now how are we going to kill Legion?”

Belial glared at him, a look so withering Jack felt sure that his head should be catching on fire. “I can’t do anything, you twat. I have no more connection to Hell. All of my talents, all of my power, it’s cut off. My credit’s no good anymore. I can’t even shift out of this wretched two-legged body.”

The petty, cruel part of Jack, the part of him that kept him from staying entirely in the white light of untainted magic, the kind that whispered that if he’d just let go he could sweep away so many of his problems, whispered that there was never going to be a better time than this one to hand Belial some payback.

Jack shut it up. That side of him was the one that went looking for power, and trouble, the one that got him wrapped up with demons in the first place. That side of him was a fucking coward that could only be counted on to look out for itself.

“Do you want to cry, or do you want to figure out how to get back in the driver’s seat?” he asked.

Belial viciously ground out his foul cigarette and stood up. “I want you to leave me alone, Jack. I’m not your friend. Just because I can’t turn you to vapor any longer doesn’t mean I need your help. You’re done enough.”

“Hey!” Jack scrambled up as well. “You were the one who pulled me into this. You can’t just crawl off to lick your wounds and leave the entire world to be Legion’s buffet.”

“I wish it were different,” Belial said. “But I’m in no shape to do anything. Don’t you have any other friends, Jack? Anyone who hates you, even, who hates demons more? Because I am no longer your sensei. I do not have all the answers, or even any of the fucking answers, so I wish you good luck, but I’m well and truly out of it.

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