Dan's Inferno, Book IV: Vengeance

by Jan Stryvant

  Dan's Inferno

  Book Four: Vengeance

  Published by Jan Stryvant

  Copyright 2021 Jan Stryvant

  Copyright Jan Stryvant 2021

  Cover Credits: eBook Launch (http://ebooklaunch.com/)

  No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form without expressed, written consent from the author. The material in this story may feature graphic depictions of a sexual or adult nature and is intended for a mature audience only. All characters in this story are fictional and of the legal age of consent for any activities they engage in. Any resemblance between characters, places, or things in this story, and people, living or dead, actual places, or events is purely coincidental. It's fiction; I made it up.

  License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be copied and given away, or copied and sold, to other people. Got that? No copying, please! If you would like to share this book with another person, it would be really nice if you purchased an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use, please consider purchasing your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  #90271

  Jan Stryvant Books:

  Dan's Inferno:

  Cursed! Book 1

  BeDeviled Book 2

  Heritage Book 3

  Vengeance Book 4

  The Valens Legacy:

  Black Friday Book 1

  Perfect Strangers Book 2

  Over Our Heads Book 3

  Head Down Book 4

  When It Falls Book 5

  Stand On It Book 6

  Vegas Rules Book 7

  Desperate Measures Book 8

  Secret Treaties Book 9

  It Ain't Easy Book 10

  Red Skies Book 11

  Demon Days Book 12

  Simple Things Book 13

  Trying Times Book 14

  Firestarter Book 15

  Times Like These Book 16

  No Regrets Book 17

  Wives Tales Books 1, 2, 3, & 4 (Assorted Short Stories)

  Shadow

  Table of Contents

  Thursday

  Surprise Party

  Banished

  What is Life

  Bovera

  After Action Reports

  Passage

  Onlasku

  Almost Home

  Old Homes and Old Crones

  Grand Designs

  Still Learning

  Morning Sun

  A Short Trip

  Playtime's Over

  Allies and Lovers

  No Quarter

  Appearances

  Pushback

  Sellout

  Be Yourself

  It's Good To Be King

  Afterword

  Thursday

  "So, Goff, how was he?" Carmine asked Godfrey as they sat down to breakfast.

  "Completely under her control."

  "Do you think he knows it?"

  "I'm not sure it matters. He's a young man with five gorgeous women paying him the kind of attention young men like."

  "So you think she's just leading him around by his cock, then?" Terry asked with a snicker.

  "It could be. I mean, why would you waste the power to mentally dominate someone when you've already got them in your pocket?" Godfrey replied as he started in on his eggs. "She did let him carry the conversation at first, until the things she and the others were most interested came up. Then she pressed up against him and started off slow, until it was just me and her who were really talking."

  "Do you think she realizes you know she's in control?" Carmine asked.

  Godfrey shrugged and chewed on his eggs a moment before swallowing and replying.

  "I'm not sure it really matters if she knows. It's only important that we know."

  "What about her being the succubus from Slovakia?" Terry asked.

  Godfrey frowned and picked up his coffee. "I'm not positive it's her, but I'm sure enough that we need to proceed with caution." He took a sip of his coffee before continuing, "She only corrected me on the name, she didn't protest at all."

  "Wouldn't she have protested if she was Hana?" Carmine asked.

  "Maybe she doesn't know about Hana?" Terry added.

  Carmine shook her head. "Oh, they all know about Hana. She was like the rockstar of the succubi world. She ran that city for years."

  "And she was far too calm when correcting me about it," Godfrey said. "Which makes me think either she is Hana or likes the idea of being associated with Hana."

  "Which means we need to proceed as if she is," Terry said with a nod. "Got it."

  "I guess the real question then becomes," Carmine said with a thoughtful look, "do we go after them first? Or is Weson still our primary concern?"

  "That's what I've been thinking about all night," Godfrey confessed. "I've come to the decision that we need to constrain our operations against Weson and prepare to take on the succubus and her friends."

  "So cut back, but don't stop," Terry said with a nod.

  "No, we don't want them to think we're suspicious. Maybe that we're easing off a bit to give them a clear shot."

  "And then once they take it, we go after them."

  "Exactly."

  "What did they say about Dale?" Carmine asked.

  Godfrey frowned again. "That was curious. She said their 'business with Dale was completely unrelated to the matter at hand'."

  "Well, that's cryptic."

  "Yes, and I don't like it. We know so little about Dale. He's been able to keep us from learning anything about him and has successfully resisted every attempt to suborn any of his people."

  "Well, we know he's not as powerful as you are, or Weson," Terry said. "The few times we've come up against his people, they've lost badly. Maybe she made a deal with him and is just trying to misdirect you?"

  "Then why not make a deal with me as well?" Godfrey said, trying to think it through. "That would definitely make it easier to play us off against each other and makes it easier to take either of us off the playing field after Weson is gone.

  "In fact, it would have made the inevitable betrayal of my agreement with her a lot easier if Dale was on her side. That's really the only way she'll be able to take us on."

  Godfrey shook his head. "No, something else is going on between them and Dale."

  "Or has gone on," Carmine suggested. "Remember, they were in there for two whole hours."

  "Maybe we should be attacking Dale while they're attacking Weson?" Terry said. "I mean, if they're in cahoots with Dale, they won't be able to help him."

  "And if they're not, Dale will be expecting us to either backstab them or help them with Weson, and he won't be expecting us at all," Godfrey said with a smile. "You know, I like that idea.

  "I want both of you to prepare people for an all-out attack on Dale. Once Weson is tied up with the succubus and the Westridge boy's attack, we'll be able to roll up Dale without having to worry about Weson taking advantage of the situation."

  "Then all we have to do is deal with the succubus, and the town's yours," Terry said with a smile.

  "Assuming they stay," Carmine pointed out. "If the succubus isn't Hana, once they've settled their score with Weson, they may very well decide to go elsewhere. Hell, they may even kill the boy and just be done with all of this."

  "That would be nice," Godfrey agreed. "But we shouldn't count on it."

  "No, of course not. But one can always hope!" Carmine said with a laugh.

  #

  "So what happened last night? What was that phone call about?" Miles asked Weson as they sat
down to discuss his 'oath' situation. Miles was the only person he'd confided in. As Miles was on the list of people he was planning to keep around after he'd consolidated his hold over Sacramento, he was willing to use this as a test of his trust, to make sure he'd made the right decision.

  "They want a flat-fee buyout," Weson told him. "Five point two million by this Saturday, and all the oaths get waved..."

  "Well, that sounds good."

  "But the energy-drain won't go away until twenty-one days after the financial deal is complete."

  "Shrewd," Miles said with a shake of his head.

  "Yes, very. Dave and I went around every financial trick he knows to see if we could pull the money back somehow. Fourteen business days was really the best he could come up with, but twenty-one days works out to fifteen business days."

  "But the money goes in on a Saturday, so shouldn't that..."

  "We checked banking regulations. Unless we hand over cash, the starting date of the transaction is the following Monday."

  "So what does that mean? You do have the money, right?"

  Weson grimaced and nodded. "Yes, I have the money, though I'll have to borrow to get most of it by Saturday. I've already been contacted by two different banks that are more than willing to float me a ninety day note if I put up most of my properties."

  "Is that long enough?"

  "To come up with the money? Yes. I've already got my financial guy working on a refinance, but that's not the problem."

  "What is the problem then?"

  "That I've got until Saturday to kill that bastard and his covey of bitches, or I'm going to have to fork out five million dollars!" Weson snarled. "Also, if we kill them before I pay, the drain goes away immediately instead of three weeks from now!"

  "That doesn't give us a lot of time." Miles sighed. "I talked with Rafferty this morning before he went to bed."

  "Oh, what did he have to say?"

  "That the kid and his demons were seen at the demon bar last night, the 'Zoo', I believe it's called."

  "Really? What were they doing?"

  "Celebrating, apparently."

  "What could he possibly be celebrating?"

  "Oh, I can think of five point two million things," Miles said with a snort as Weson frowned. "But that's not all."

  "Oh?"

  "Guess who showed up?"

  "Wait, you're kidding, aren't you? Surely Godfrey wouldn't..."

  "Yup, he showed up and went and talked with the kid."

  "Son-of-a-bitch!" Weson said, swearing loudly. "Just what I need, those two to join forces!"

  Miles shook his head, smiling. "That's just the thing, they sent him packing with his hat in his hands. He wanted to make a deal, but they turned him down. Something about 'not wanting to wait that long'."

  "Wait that long for, what?"

  "I wasn't sure until you just told me about the deal they offered you. Obviously they don't want to wait around until your powers fully come back. They're not staying."

  "Why…" Weson started and then stopped. "That's why they're looking to settle! They're leaving town!"

  "I would guess so. Everyone knows they went away for a month. I guess they remembered the oath and came back to hit you up for whatever they could get, then they'll leave again as soon as they get it."

  "Damn! And here I was hoping that if we didn't kill them in the next two days, I could just kill them later and get my money back then."

  "Well, sadly, it doesn't look that way."

  Weson nodded and thought about that. On the one hand, after Saturday he'd have one less problem.

  But on the other, he'd still be out one hell of a lot of money.

  "We need to find out where they are and launch an all-out, no-holds-barred attack. Either tonight or sometime tomorrow. We need to call in every favor we can to find out where they're staying and get ready to move on it."

  Miles nodded. "Should I call a meeting?"

  Weson shook his head. "It'd only waste our time. Call everyone, and I do mean everyone, and tell them to start preparing for it. I'll follow up with Dave and Yvette personally."

  "I'll get right on it."

  "Oh, and if you have any special items or weapons you've been holding onto for a rainy day, it looks like now's the time to bring them out. I'm definitely going to be raiding my own special collection for this. We're only going to get the one shot, after all."

  Miles nodded, suddenly realizing this could very well be the turning point if they lost. He'd be going through his personal collection as soon as he got finished here.

  #

  Dan stretched and yawned. He was still sore, but now he was sore from overexerting himself, not because of the beating he'd taken from that minotaur yesterday. He almost had to laugh at that. Five horny demons equaled one very pissed minotaur!

  Well, six if he counted himself!

  Snorting, he got up and looked around the hideout. Fawn was at her computer, doing who knows what. Lofn and Wrath were in the shower, and Aella and Olivia were eating.

  "Welcome back to the world of the living," Olivia said with a grin.

  "So what's the plan for today?" he asked, getting up and trying to decide between eating or getting clean.

  "We're going to the DMV and then the county records office," Fawn called out.

  "We are?" Olivia asked.

  "Yes, we are."

  "Why?" Dan asked.

  "Because we have to file for a new license for you, and I seem to recall something about changing your birth certificate?"

  "Oh, right. You know I was born in Placer County and not Sacramento, right?"

  "Actually, no. But that'll make it easier! We can hit a DMV up there, too; they're never as busy."

  "So why are we doing this today?" Olivia asked.

  "Because if we don't, there'll be problems transferring the house into Dan's name. Besides," she said with a shrug, "what else are we going to do? We can't go after Weson until after he's paid us our Dane Geld."

  "But he can sure go after us!" Wrath called from the shower as the water turned off. "So being scarce around town might be a good idea."

  "There are some really nice hotels up there," Aella said with a smile. "We could spend a few days relaxing."

  Dan decided to wash first and walked towards the shower as Wrath and Lofn got out.

  "I'd rather be scouting Weson's place again so we can attack him come Sunday," he grumbled.

  "Sorry, we have to wait until Monday night," Fawn called back across the room.

  "We do?"

  "That's when all the agreements and money will post. We kill him before that, there's a chance we won't get the money or be able to take over all the property we're making him hock when the loans default because he's dead."

  "Fine," Dan grumbled and stepped into the shower, turning on the water. "But keep Tuesday open!" he called back as he picked up the soap and started washing himself. It was going to be a long and boring day; he was sure of it. No one ever looked forward to going to the DMV.

  Seven hours later, Dan sighed, dropped face-first onto the hotel room bed, and just laid there for a few moments. They'd gone to the county records office first and gotten his birth certificate changed. That had been a surprisingly straightforward process. Fill out the paperwork, attach a copy of the judge's ruling, pay the fee, and submit it.

  Sometime in the next week or so, the clerks would update all the records, and that was that.

  But then they'd gone to the DMV, and unfortunately, that had taken all day. Apparently changing one's name involved 'special' processes, and he'd been bounced from line to line and spent five hours just waiting. He'd finally resorted to casting a charm spell on the lady he was working with and persuaded her to do the job.

  It had taken her fifteen minutes once she'd been convinced to do it. The hardest part was she'd had to get the office supervisor's time, but a second charm spell had solved that little bottleneck once he knew it was there.

  "I still think the ave
rage DMV worker could teach Hell a thing or two about suffering," Fawn grumbled, dropping onto the bed next to him.

  "Hell? I'm thinking of writing it all up and sending it to my dad!" Wrath said with a laugh. "You just know there's gotta be a great curse in there somewhere!"

  "That whole place is a curse," he grumbled. "A curse on civilization."

  "Well, going in on a Thursday afternoon probably wasn't the best idea," Olivia said with a shrug. "Tomorrow will probably be worse."

  "So, what about dinner?" Aella asked. "There's a whole slew of places on the other side of the freeway. Seein' as we're not in hiding, and we're well outta town, why don't we go someplace nice and take it easy for a while?"

  Dan's stomach growled, and he was fairly certain his wasn't the only one.

  "Yeah, I like that idea," he said, rolling over and sitting up as he gave Fawn's ass a smack. "Food sounds good right about now, and being able to sit back and not worry about Weson or the other assholes for a few hours would be nice. Just pretend I'm a normal guy again, doing normal things."

  "Right, with his five girlfriends," Lofn teased.

  "I'm just an overachiever!" he replied with a grin.

  #

  "Tell me why we're driving around Auburn again?" Andrey asked.

  "Because Mika told us too," Victor told him.

  "Yeah, but what the hell are we supposed to do? This guy could be anywhere!"

  "That's why there's like a hundred of us out here tonight," Victor growled. "Look, all I know is, Mika told me they got someone working at the DMV, and the guy filed for a new license today."

  "Well, that explains the shitty picture!" Andrey said with a laugh. "But still, how are we supposed to pick him out?"

  "He's with five hot women, that's how."

  "Damn, that's reason enough to kill him right there! Didn't anybody ever teach the guy to share?"

  "Just shut up and turn down Lincoln, okay?"

  "You know, sooner or later people are gonna notice that we're driving down this street a lot."

  "Slow down! I think I got something!"