Black Howl

“I think Wade knew that something was going to happen to him. He told me several times that if anything went wrong, I was to go straight to you,” Jude said without preamble.

I stared at him blankly. “Well, I don’t know why he would do that. He never said anything to me.”

“Maybe because we were attacked by demons?” Jude said, his eyes furious. “I told Wade over and over that we should have no truck with Lucifer or his minions, but he insisted on trying to negotiate a new agreement with the old bastard.”

“Hold on a second,” I said, completely confused. “Can you just start at the beginning? I didn’t even know that Wade was trying to negotiate an agreement with Lucifer.”

Jude made a visible effort to calm down and collect his thoughts.

“Start at the beginning. Which beginning?” he muttered. “Okay, so after Wade jeopardized our negotiations with Amarantha by openly backing you…”

“You act like this is my fault.”

“It is. You charmed him somehow, made him forget his priorities.”

Beezle snorted. “Maddy? Charm someone?”

I smacked the gargoyle on the back of the head, although privately I agreed with him. Charm is not a quality that I possess.

“Anyway…” I said, indicating that Jude should continue.

“After we lost the opportunity to renegotiate for our lost lands with the faeries, Wade decided that it was time to reestablish ties with Lucifer’s court.”

“Why?” I asked. “From what I understand, your pack hasn’t bothered to have relations with the fallen for a long time.”

“And we were better off that way,” Jude said heatedly. “However, Wade seems to think that the incident at Amarantha’s court…”

“You mean the incident where Amarantha and Focalor tried to have Maddy killed by proxy?” Beezle said loudly. “That incident?”

“Yes, gargoyle, that incident,” Jude said. “Wade sensed that something big is coming, that Focalor moving openly against Lucifer means that there is dissent among the fallen.”

“Well, sure,” I said. “From what I understand there’s always dissent among the fallen. But Focalor failed, and he’s probably having the skin peeled off him in strips as we speak. Wouldn’t that suppress any seditious thoughts the other court leaders might have?”

“Focalor moved outside the realm of the fallen when he made his bid for power, and the fate of Amarantha’s court is now tied to his. Other supernatural courts are now moving to ally themselves for or against Lucifer.”

I blinked. “What? You mean, everybody is picking sides for a future war?”

Jude nodded. “It’s subtle, but it’s there. Some courts are choosing to remain neutral.”

“Meaning they want to wait and see where the chips fall before they make a choice,” Beezle said derisively.

“And Wade was trying to reestablish ties with Lucifer because of this? Was Lucifer receptive?” I asked.

“He seemed to be. He was very pleased with Wade for backing you in Amarantha’s court,” Jude said, his face growing red with anger. “But then he betrayed us and set a pack of demons on us.”

“That doesn’t sound like Lucifer,” I said. “He wouldn’t negotiate with you in good faith and then openly attack you.”

“He is the Deceiver,” Jude said bitterly. “How do you know what he would or wouldn’t do?”

“Because he’s the Deceiver,” I said patiently. “If he wanted to mess with the wolves, he’d find much more subtle ways of doing it. He’d send an ambassador to spread discord in your pack or something like that. He wouldn’t say one thing and then attack you the next day. It shows no style.”

“Madeline is right,” Gabriel agreed. “The Morningstar, above all, prefers to appear above the fray.”

“Then who set those demons on our pack? Who took Wade, and the others? They took our cubs,” Jude said, and his face was haunted. “They took our future.”

The demons had taken the wolves’ children. Anger rose up inside me, pushing at my skin. I did not want to think about what demons would do with those children. Samiel slid his chair a little farther away from mine as electricity arced across my fingertips.

“We’ll get them back,” I promised. “I’ll do whatever I have to do to help you.”

“How?” Jude said. “I tried to track them. But it was like they disappeared into thin air. The trail just went cold.”

I looked at Gabriel, and I could tell that he was thinking what I was thinking.

“Portal,” I said. “The demons came through a portal and returned back through one.”

“That is the magic of the fallen,” Jude said. “Demons can’t make a portal on their own.”

I thought back to something that had happened a couple of months ago, and addressed my question to Beezle. “When Antares and his buddies attacked J.B. on the lawn, they escaped using a portal. How did they do that if they can’t make a portal on their own?”

“Most demons carry portal charms from their masters so that they can do the fallen’s bidding,” Beezle said.

“But they weren’t on my lawn at the behest of any of the fallen. They were there because of Antares,” I said. “Do they carry around extra charms? That seems like it would give the demons a lot more freedom than the fallen had intended for them.”