Succubus Rescue (The Accidental Necromancer Book 3)

by JG Jerome

  “Neh,” he says with a shrug. “It took a lot of work to set up, and there was a fair amount of trial and error involved. Now, I probably spend about a day each month on systems maintenance.” Warren steps in front of me. “You have a spy.”

  Lara says, “The youngest male on Leonore’s team. He didn’t bathe last night, and he spends time muttering by himself.”

  Warren nods, “Yes. He exudes a lot of fear whenever someone walks near him.”

  Lara asks, “I wanted to check with you before killing him, Lord.”

  “I’d like to know how he’s reporting and what he has reported. Can you handle that?” I ask.

  Lara nods, “Consider it done, Lord.”

  Clarice asks, “May I go with her Daddy? I’m not the least bit squeamish.”

  I counter, “You need some breakfast, honey. I’ll go.” I remind Lara, “You claimed that you didn’t have much choice when Valya put the glyphs on you. If he’s a victim, he’ll get the same treatment I gave you.”

  “Okay, Daddy. I’ll grab something really quickly and then join you,” Clarice interjects.

  Lara says, “We could wait for Clarice, Lord. I don’t think there is any rush. There hasn’t been much to report since we arrived.” She hands my jo back to me.

  I frown, “No, Lara. I want this resolved now. Let’s go introduce ourselves. Clarice, be careful. Let Leonore know what is going on and get something to eat.”

  We walk into the barn, and we’re immediately mobbed by a bunch of elven ladies - mostly the barely clad former slaves, but a couple of the healers are in the group too. A couple of the elven gentlemen wander over too with smirks on their faces. They point directly at me and chuckle, but they don’t appear malicious about it.

  Lara says, “In the shadows by the back door.”

  I see who she means. He seems rather sullen. “Lara, would you ask the ladies to mob him please?”

  An elven woman wearing a garment that looks like a modified pillowcase says in halting English. “He bad, Lord. Be careful.” Lara speaks quietly and intensely to the crowd as I talk to the delicate strawberry blond in the pillowcase.

  “Bad how?” I ask. I kneel down on a knee in front of her. I suspect she’s less than 4’2” tall. If it weren’t for the slight lines around her eye’s I would think she was an adolescent.

  “Mean to girls. Hurts us. Tell him’s father ‘bout Duchess Valeran,” she says as the rest of the women mob the suspect.

  I watch as the ladies paw him and wrap their arms around his arms and legs. The tiny woman sits on my bent knee and lays her arm around my neck. I instinctively wrap an arm around her tiny waist as I watch the young man struggle. She plants a light kiss on my cheek. I look back at her. “What’s your name?”

  “I Zenia, Lord,” she says shyly.

  “Zenia, thank you for the information,” I speak slowly and clearly. “I need to talk to the bad man now.”

  Zenia slides off my knee, and Mica steps up as I stand.

  Mica informs me, “His name is Le’szak, Lord. Le’szak Valeran. His father is Lorn Valeran’s brother, Mal’szak Valeran. With Valya’s death, Mal’szak is the new Duke Valeran. Le’szak is an apprentice healer, but he spent as much or more time spying on Lorn and Valya than he did working at learning his craft. Everyone is afraid to confront him. The Court Magician was even careful of him.”

  “Time to rock his world,” I tell my squire.

  Le’szak sees me approaching and tries to escape the ladies who have immobilized his limbs, but they laugh and hold tight, teasing him incessantly. He looks at me with distaste.

  I ask, “Lara, would you please ask the ladies to strip him.”

  His eyes flash in fear as he comprehends what I said. I tell him, “Hello Le’szak Valeran, I’m William James. I’ll probably get credit for killing your aunt and uncle, but I haven’t actually killed a Valeran yet. Do you want to be my first?”

  Lara says, “Not true, Lord. Reddy and Yoren were Valerans.”

  Le’szak whimpers, “They were my older brothers.”

  I shrug. “Both were trying to kill me at the time for interfering with their effort to torture and kill Feliz, so I don’t have much regret over it. I understand you were spying on your aunt and now you’re spying on us. Why and how?”

  The ladies open his robe and pull it down. I see a metallic collar before he says in broken English, “None you fornicating business, hooman,” the guy cops an attitude. He starts yelling in Elvish and struggles against the ladies, managing to backhand one of them. His robe falls to the ground as the ladies pull on it and try to grab his arms again.

  “Get down,” I shout as I pull my pistol. Lara repeats it in Elvish. The ladies drop to the ground, and I put a round in his upper left chest from about twenty feet away as I rapidly walk closer. He stumbles back into the wall.

  The noise scares the ladies and they scatter. I’m only about twelve feet away. He turns to run away, and I shoot two rounds into the back of his right knee. I’m surprised that I hit him with both of them, and he drops to the ground.

  I shoot him in the other knee, and he screams again. I say conversationally, “I’m guessing the collar isn’t working so well since Valya is dead. That has to suck - thinking you’re invincible and suddenly your superpowers fail you right when you need them most.”

  I drop the staff on the ground as I kneel on his back and press the gun into his lower spine while gripping the collar with my left hand. I push entropy into the collar as I tell him, “Yoren was an impressive dude. He was fit, strong, and fast.” The collar opens, and I pull it off. “He would have been a challenge without a collar. I learned a lot about how to fight someone wearing a collar when I killed him. I got lucky with Reddy.” I holster my weapon and get off him.

  I tell Mica and Lara. “If you saw him muttering in a corner, he’s either got a technical or magical device he’s transmitting his report through - or recording it. Search his garments and his body.”

  My five wives, daughter, and Erica come running into the barns with weapons out. Leonore, T’os, and Warren are with them, the latter with a shotgun in his hands. I hold up a hand to slow them down. I pick up my staff. Lara roots through Le’szak’s robe and Mica runs his fingers through Le’szak’s long hair. Mica pulls gold clasps from Le’szak’s hair, but there is no magic signature off either of them. Lara shakes her head as she roots through pockets of his robe.

  T’os walks up and asks Lara to inspect the garment. I can’t see enough of the garment between them to assess if there is a magical signature. T’os and Lara discuss the garment. T’os gives a command to Le’szak. Le’szak shakes his head and tucks his arms underneath his body.

  I pull out my Taser flashlight. I ask T’os, “You want him turned over?”

  “Yes, Lord,” T’os and Lara respond in unison.

  I squat down next to the wounded elf. “Le’szak, I need you to turn over. You can do it yourself, or I can make you do it. You really don’t want me to force you.”

  “Self-fornicate,” the elf spats.

  I shock his shoulder with the Taser. He jumps up off the ground, and I do it again as he begins to settle. I put the Taser in my jacket pocket and slide my jo in under his chest. As the elf spasms, I roll him over onto his back. I kneel on his right shoulder and place the end of the staff next to the bullet wound on his left shoulder.

  I tell him, “If you move, I’m going to make you wish you were dead.” I look at the half-groll elf. “What are you looking for T’os?”

  He scrunches his eyebrows. “A glyph. There is a storage device in the collar of his healer’s robe. That means there has to be a partner device to capture and transmit. Since we didn’t find a partner device, I’m assuming there is a glyph or network of glyphs near where the storage sits on his body. Since there is a storage device, it probably can’t transmit unless there is a working portal close by or a receiver is within one hundred kilometers.”

  “What would the partner device look like?�
� I ask.

  T’os says, “It’s usually a fairly large medallion or a stone that can be held in the hand. Putting a glyph or network of them on the chest is also fairly common.” Lara calls out in Elvish and all the ladies start rooting around. A couple of the males call out and run out of the barn.

  I use my second sight on the kid’s chest, but I don’t see anything. I ask, “Would the glyph have to have power all the time? I’m thinking he doesn’t need it to be. Is it something that could be tattooed into his skin with a clear ink, and only be active when he pushes power into it? If he had the collar on when they tattooed it, it wouldn’t leave any visible scars, would it?”

  Remembering my experience with Ilara’en, I reach down and use entropy to remove all the kid’s hair. I lift his head and look on the back of his skull. I denude the patch above his genitals, but even with second sight I see nothing in either location.

  T’os says, “I’ve not seen that nor heard of it, Lord.”

  I place my right hand on the elf’s chest and push pure energy into it thinking, ‘I want to transmit.’

  A glyph lights upon under my hand, and I say, “Mal’szak Valeran, your youngest son is dead now, too. I’m coming for you next.”

  Le’szak starts muttering in Elvish and a network of glyphs light up on his body. T’os gasps. I light up a blade of power out the end of my jo pushing it into Le’szak’s shoulder and then dragging it towards his head. The blade cuts through his shoulder and his neck as I pull his soul out of his body and absorb all its energy. The glyphs slowly fade, and I hurry the process by flooding them with entropy energy. I finish the job by flooding the corpse with entropy until it’s a pile of sludge.

  Josie walks up and does the same to the head, the hair remnants, and the battery while I dismiss the blade from the staff.

  15

  Come together

  Josie wraps me in a hug and murmurs in my ear. “Are you okay, husband?”

  I nod. I kiss her before turning to Leonore. I keep Josie cuddled up close to me. “Hey, Leonore. I will offer amnesty to anyone that comes forward right now. I have way too many people here to put them at risk from the standard elven intrigue games. Anyone spying later will die by my hand. I don’t care who they are spying for. Am I clear?”

  “Yes, Lord,” the healer replies.

  “T’os, Mica, Warren, please join my family out by the cars. Leonore, please join us when you are done talking to your people. Please pass on my thanks for their help capturing Le’szak.”

  I turn to look at them all. They look pretty shell-shocked from the power demonstration. I bow gently toward the largest group. I see Zenia among them, and she steps out front and kneels on the ground and bows deeply. She doesn’t get up, and several others join her as I walk out of the barn.

  When we are all out by the cars, I turn to see Chiara approaching the group. Her damp dark hair is in a loose braid, and she is wearing a short toga that looks like it was originally part of a bed sheet.

  Shryl joins us carrying a plate with a napkin over it, and Susan carries a travel mug that she offers to me. I lift the napkin to find two thin, dense pancakes with nutella and bananas rolled inside. I look over at Rebecca, “Thank you, Baby.”

  She smiles at me and says, “Susan made those.” I turn to my sexy boss and she smiles shyly in return.

  I tell Susan, “Thank you, Ms. Rey.”

  She purrs in response, “Anything for you, Mr. James.” She cuddles up close and collects a kiss.

  I tell the red-skinned, sexy demon. “Thank you, Shryl.”

  She kisses me lightly and steps back. I tell the group, “Okay, things are moving fast around us, but so far we seem to be spinning our wheels. We have to find and retrieve our dear friend Alöise, the person we knew as Bernadette. We have hopefully delayed the elven occupation, but from what T’os tells me, the new Duke is already out there and will likely strike elsewhere soon. We have one hundred twenty-two elven refugees. We need to be able to house them in less-rustic lodging, protect them, and give them something useful to do. Warren can’t host them for very long. I don’t think we can feed them from Costco for very long before it becomes apparent we have a large group, but then again it may not matter. We need another solution quickly. The Church is looking for information on the elves, and I don’t know whether local authorities have figured out that we have an elven invasion ongoing. We need to figure out how to let them know in a way they won’t dismiss, but also doesn’t reveal the presence of the refugees. We can’t fight off all of House Valeran by ourselves. We don’t have time to deal with these problems individually; we need to deal with all of them now.”

  I eat one of the pancakes and sip coffee for a moment.

  I summarize the rescue business first, “To recover Alöise, we need to get Shryl in front of her queen on planet Ravissement to explain what happened with Archduchess Gabrielle and Duchess Alöise. Actually, I think those are separate but related actions. Regardless, I need to get to the dungeon of Archduchess Gabrielle to break Alöise out of her cell and bring her home. Ideally, we probably want to bring Shryl back here at the end of this, so Gabrielle can’t harm her.” Shryl nods vehemently at that idea. “I have no idea how to travel there or how to get back. Maybe our elven friends have some ideas.” I see Chiara look at T’os and nod. I think to myself, ‘That’s encouraging.’

  I sip my coffee. “Bernadette’s staff and household in Phoenix have been attacked by elves in the past. We need to provide security for them. I have an idea for that.”

  Lara says, “I can check with Viktorija, but I think we could take some elves back to help with housekeeping and security.”

  I nod. “Good idea, Lara.”

  Warren says, “I could probably keep a handful here, too. They can help on the farm and provide security. Leave the ones with the worst emotional problems. I can help them, and they can help me.”

  Josie says, “I have an idea for a device that can share the location between its two halves, but I haven’t yet figured out how to get it to tell me the location of the half I’m not holding. If I can get it to work, we can send it to Shryl and use it to open a portal. Knowing the location should be a straightforward question or...query?” I nod and she continues, “...query of ‘where is your other half.’ At least I think so.”

  Chiara chimes in, “That’s harder than it sounds, but it’s a common apprentice exercise to make an object report its location. It will default to a location on this planet. We will need to put a dimensional framework on it to provide a reference of where you are across the dimensions of time and space. I can help you with that.”

  I nod at the dark-haired elf. “Are you sure, Chiara?”

  She kneels on the ground at my feet and bows her forehead into the ground. She looks up at me. “Lord, I want to serve. The leaders of our house, any house really, rarely show the smallest fraction of concern for their people. You treat us so much better. I hurt one of your wives, and you used it as a teaching opportunity and healed me. You don’t treat us as refugees of a race trying to extinguish your own. You treat us as your own people, entrusted to your care. Please let me serve, Lord. However my skills may permit.”

  “Of course, Chiara. Please rise. You’ll learn over time that I’m easily as fallible as anyone else and unworthy of that level of regard. We need your help. I welcome it.”

  Josie teases, “You speak English better than I do, Chiara.” The elf bows towards my amazon wife with a shy smile.

  T’os says, “I would gladly add my own skills to the project. Mica could learn a lot from helping, too. He has not yet passed that exercise.”

  Shryl adds, “I can work with them to let them know the details of the situation.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” I agree. “Let’s go with it.

  As Chiara rises, Leonore hugs her daughter warmly. She says, “I’m so proud of you, Chiara.”

  Chiara hugs her mother reluctantly at first, but embraces her warmly after the initial reticence. “Than
k you, Mother.”

  I pick up the narrative again. “We need to know what is happening on Elven Prime. I have a plan to engage someone to help us gather intelligence.” Rebecca and Josie look perplexed. I explain, “That’s the military term for ‘information about the enemy.’ I’m afraid I’m reverting to type a little bit. Regardless, Audrey and Carla are going to help me with that. They’re also working on finding a way to bring imps across to help us in a fight.”

  “No!” Leonore gasps.

  I nod. “Leonore, they love killing your people, and your people are the major threat at the moment. We’re talking about small squads like what we used at your stronghold. Your reaction reminds me of something. Josie, we need a way to let the critters know who are our elven allies, and who are meat on the hoof. Let’s chat with Audrey and Carla about it. It was easy when it was just Lara we had to worry about, but we need a better solution with one hundred twenty-some-odd elves on our side.”

  Leonore seems slightly mollified, but her horror at the thought of imps eating elves hasn’t completely left her.

  I wrap up, “There are literally hundreds of small problems wrapped up in these bigger ones, and we don’t know what they are. We don’t have solutions for them all either. It will take a very long time for me to solve them all, so I need you all to think about what you can bring to table. We need information, and we need solutions. Think about it, and we’ll all meet again later today.”

  Everyone nods and we break up. My wives all cuddle close with Susan, Erica, Shryl, Clarice and Lara all climbing into the cuddle puddle. They do allow me enough space to finish eating once I’ve handed out kisses to everyone.

  Audrey asks, “Shall we start preparing to summon Chrysilla?”

  I think about it. “Ye-es.”

  Lara says, “I recommend setting up snacks and drinks, cushions to sit on, all on a nice carpet. Tasteful decorations around the room and serving staff standing by. That’s how the royals negotiate. If Chrysilla craves respect, treat her like this.”