Free Devil's Punch by Ann Aguirre Page A

achieve my own ends.
Is this what evil feels like? How it begins?
You started with a slippery slide down the slope of good intentions until you were mired in the blood and mud at the bottom, unable to see any light no matter which way you turned. Heart dark and heavy, I wondered how far I would go, and what I would become when I got there.
    If you care for no one
, a little voice whispered,
if you remain firm and steadfast and will not act to save the ones you love, in the name of some abstract good, is
inaction
not the same as evil?
I couldn’t fashion an answer; it was too much, too confusing, but I did, unfortunately, see how good and evil were almost like a wheel, and that if you went far enough down one road, the two became virtually indistinguishable. People had done terrible things in heaven’s name, too.
    â€œWhat happens to demons when they die?”
    â€œNothing,” it said.
    â€œThere’s no afterlife? No hell?”
    It flashed its teeth. “According to your lore, Binder, we’re already there.”
    â€œBut Maury told me—”
    â€œAh, yes.” Its tone became disapproving. “You have…contacts, do you not?”
    â€œI guess. What kind of demon is Maury?”
    â€œHe is of the Birsael caste, the bargainers. They are easy for practitioners of your world to call because they long to cross over. They are…playful?”
    â€œPlayful?” I thought about what Maury had done in Kilmer, and shivered. I did not want to meet a non-playful demon, but I was on my way to a city full of them.
    â€œOver time—and many summonings—they become attuned to a certain human…trait.” That hadn’t been the word it meant to use at first. “And then they hunger for more of the same.”
    â€œAn acquired taste,” Chance put in.
    â€œJust so.”
    Maury’s thing was stagnation, as I recalled. Entropy.
    â€œWhat is Dumah’s affinity?”
    â€œHunger,” it replied. “Greed. Need.”
    Shit. And I’d unloosed her on the world. Hopefully, the way I’d crafted the bargain would keep them from wreaking too much havoc. Guilt plagued me, but Greydusk was saying, “I have no doubt that Maury told you that Sheol is another world. The fact that our citizens enjoy playing in yours has given rise to interesting stories over the eons.”
    â€œYou view people as toys?” I was indignant, even if I couldn’t afford to be.
    â€œEntertainment, certainly. To us, it is no different from how human children toy with insects or set anthills on fire.”
    â€œOnly
bad
kids do that,” I muttered.
    â€œYet I am not here to argue with you.”
    â€œHow come it attacked us? I thought the demons
wanted
me in Sheol.”
    â€œSome do,” Greydusk replied. “But there are…factions in play, and others want different things.”
    â€œSuch as?”
    â€œPower. Or to preserve the status quo.”
    â€œWhat did you learn from that?” Chance nudged the corpse.
    â€œMany things, but the most important? Who hired it. You have enemies, Binder, and some of them prefer you never reach Xibalba at all.”
    â€œWhy?” God, it was too much. I just wanted to rescue Shannon.
    â€œBecause you presage change, no matter what you decide. The caste structure has been etched in blood and bone for thousands of years, and you could topple it.”
    â€œI don’t plan to topple anything.”
    Secretly, I thought I might die, and if that meant saving Shan, then I was okay with that. It was a peaceful thought that she could go back to Jesse, and have the life I’d wanted—holidays with his family, nieces and nephews, maybe children someday, although she was so young that the relationship might not last. At the least, she hadto live. I’d settle for nothing less, even if I had to level Sheol to make it happen.
    Greydusk watched my face, guessing my thoughts, I half