Dark Days

CHAPTER 6

Belial was watching him when his eyes flickered open. “It’s a little weird when you go out like that, just so you know,” he said. “People are staring.”

Jack sat up and immediately wished he hadn’t. “You might want to move unless you want me redecorating that ugly suit of yours,” he told Belial.

The demon pulled Jack to his feet and hailed a cab. Once they were inside, he looked Jack up and down.

“You going to tell me what you saw?”

Jack pressed his forehead against the glass. “No.” The gunshot still echoed in his ears, and he could still see Pete lying at his feet, silent and bloody.

Belial shrugged. “Suit yourself. But it might interest you to know that what you’re seeing isn’t certain.”

“‘Always in motion is the future?’” Jack grumbled.

“More like, you’re going to come down to the Pit with me and we’re going to convince the Princes that they can’t bargain their way out of this,” Belial said.

That made Jack sit up. His head was still thick and muzzy, but a day trip to Hell was the one thing worse than the visions that had started knocking him on his arse. “I don’t fucking think so,” he said. “The last time I was there, if you’ll remember, the Princes didn’t exactly take to me.”

“I’m one, and I certainly don’t,” Belial said. “But you’re tied up in this now, whether you like it or not.”

Jack wanted to argue that this was a demon’s mess, and that Belial could piss off, but much as he hated to admit it, Belial was right. He was tied up in it. The things he was seeing couldn’t be written off. If there was even a chance that what he’d seen could happen, he couldn’t do anything but try to help Belial stop it.

Pete and Lily weren’t going to end up in the place he’d seen. He wasn’t going to be that man, drifting through the end of the world with nothing to anchor him except the fact that his heart was still beating.

The cab stopped at the entrance to Regent’s Park, and Belial stepped out. Jack followed him, and Belial held out his hand. “Let me do the talking,” he said. “Things with the Princes haven’t exactly been smooth since all this kicked off.”

“You mean you found someone besides me who thinks you’re an insufferable twat?” Jack said. “Imagine that.”

Belial heaved a deep sigh. “The day the first human crawled out of the mud was the day the rest of the universe went to shit,” he muttered. “Just stick with me, and try not to get both of us turned into furniture, all right?”

“Sure,” Jack said to himself. “Sweet-talk the Princes of Hell. What could be easier?”