by Lucy Auburn
“Don’t worry about it.” Elah leaned forward and kissed me, nothing resentful or frustrated in the lines of his body. “Can you help me out in some other way?”
“Oh, I would love to.”
Reaching out, I grasped his cock and watched his face as I worked him. He made the most delightful moans with his mouth—a mouth whose skills I wanted to become acquainted with more often. As I brought him to the edge, Elah reached out to stroke his fingers inside me and bring me to orgasm again. We kissed through it, moaning into each other’s mouth, his energy like a volcanic eruption on my tongue. I rocked myself against him as he came in shuddering spurts, clamping down on his fingers even as I wished for something more. Something that would fill me, raw and hard.
“There we go,” he murmured against my mouth, pulling his fingers out. “You make the most beautiful face when you come.”
If I wasn’t already warm all over, I would’ve blushed. “We should probably get back soon, shouldn’t we?”
“Unfortunately,” Elah grumbled, padding over to his bathroom to grab a towel and clean us both off. “The next time we’re together, I will make sure we get more than single hour. I want to make the most of your body, Selena. Any chance that I get.”
“Me too,” I murmured, skipping my fingers over his abs. “When will we be able to see each other again?”
“Regretfully, I have to go put down an insurgency in the west, so not for a few days.” He pulled his clothes back on as he talked, running his fingers through his impossibly black hair. “But as soon as I’m able, I’ll come visit you. I want to meet the people who matter to you. When I do, maybe we can consummate things?”
“Yes.” I smiled at him and got dressed as well, kissing him gently on the cheek. “The next time I see you, I intend to make you mine.”
“If that’s the case, then you’ll need a better way to get in touch with me.” Elah opened the drawer in his nightstand and pulled out a necklace on a silver chain. “This is the twin of one I carry with me into battle. Hold it in your hand and say my name three times to speak to me.”
He handed it over and I stared down at its beauty. It was a dense gem, a smoky dark grey with a bright red heart, just like Elah’s fire. “Thank you.” I put it around my neck, the gem nestled between my breasts. “Don’t get hurt out there.”
“I promise to come back to you safely.”
Petyr was waiting for us by the time we finally got downstairs and outside. I considered asking him about fae sex and the use of protection, but decided it would be inappropriate given my little crush. Tae Min would be able to answer my questions, I decided; and in the meantime I could take things slow with Elah—if slow meant oral sex and handjobs on our second ever meeting.
“Did you have a good discussion with your intended?” Petyr asked as he took my hand to guide me home.
“It was illuminating.”
Though the ambassador returned my smile and waved the Havaalas goodbye, there was something shadowed in his expression that seemed to burn when Elah kissed my forehead and promised to see me again soon. I ignored it, though; if Petyr wanted me, he’d had his chance, and now I had someone who made me feel desired.
I just hoped that my life could stay this good forever.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
When I got back to work after my visit to Elah, Naomi and Leon were pouring over something in his office. The two of them had a strange relationship; they barely seemed like friends at times, but almost finished each other’s sentences, too. If I didn’t know for an absolute fact that Naomi didn’t swing that way, I would think they were exes.
I peeled my jacket off and dropped it on one of the chairs, aware of the necklace nestled near my cleavage. Surreptitiously, I stuffed it down my shirt. I didn’t know why, but it felt strange to have it on display in front of the two of them.
“Come over here, Pierce,” Leon said when I walked in, motioning for me to join him at the map on his desk. “We’re pinpointing the epicenter of these possessions. We need you to check your honeypot to see if we can narrow things down.” He handed me an old laptop that was grudgingly requisitioned for me. “Login and see if our guy has bitten yet.”
I did so, scanning the inbox on the email I’d used for all the forums I signed up for. My character, an angry ex-girlfriend, had posted about how her cheating boyfriend deserved what was coming to him… and she needed tips on how to get the best revenge. She was, of course, an LSU student, and posted in many regional boards.
My inbox was, of course, flooded with gross men flirting with “Sasha” and sending photos that made me grimace. At first I wasn’t sure I’d gotten anything.
Then I saw it: a cryptic message, from a familiar username.
If it’s revenge you’re after, I have a few ideas. I understand where you’re coming from—some people need to be taught a lesson. I can help you.
“I got a hit,” I said, heart beating fast. “What do I do?”
Leon had me read the message aloud to him. He tapped a pen against his lips, considering our options. “Message him back that you’re interested, and to meet you here.” He slid an address across to me, of an unfamiliar location in downtown. As he did so, his eyes landed near my neckline. He pointed towards the amulet at the end of my necklace, which had swung out of my shirt when I leaned over. “Where’d you get that from?”
Naomi whistled at it. “That’s one expensive communication device.”
Grasping the necklace, I stuffed it back down into my shirt, for some reason embarrassed that they’d both seen it. “My, uh, well my fae fiance gave it to me. So I can contact him while he’s out slaying demons in the Realm of Light.”
“Fancy,” Naomi commented, turning her attention back to the map. “Let’s find this bastard once and for all.”
For some reason Leon’s eyes were fixed on the silver chain around my neck, a strange look on his face that I didn’t quite recognize. We’d started to become close enough to have a casual work relationship, but the detective was still a mysterious and intimidating man.
Whatever he was feeling, though, he kept it to himself. “We’ve narrowed it down to a four block radius.” Leon pointed to an area in Spanish Town, one of the more diverse parts of Baton Rouge, where the Mardi Gras parade was held every year. “We’re pretty sure our suspect lives here. I’ve cross-checked the area with our database of local fae, but none of the fae registered with us live here. We’re going to use your honeypot to follow him back to his central location—and hopefully, his boss.”
I typed the message into my inbox and then paused. “Are we sure I should meet this guy?”
“You won’t meet him,” Naomi said firmly. “We’ll lure him out, but this ‘Sasha’ won’t be waiting for him anywhere nearby. No reason to talk to him when we can just follow him home.”
I tried to hide my palpable relief, pressing “send” on the message and waiting for a response. “That’s good. I’m not really sure I want to meet a dark fae alone. Not that I entirely understand what the difference is between dark and light.”
“You will when you meet your first dark fae,” Naomi told me. “The ones who skulk around here aren’t quite as terrifying as those who’ve been banished to the Shadow Realm, but we still have our fair share of skin-peeling monsters in Baton Rouge.”
Leon grunted. “Dark fae are serial killers who feed off of humans. They get a taste of killing and they never go back.”
“And we’re not talking about self-defense or a little stab here and there,” Naomi added, making me wonder once again just how many people she’d knifed in her life. “The dark fae we mean feed off human pain and misery. Torture, rape, cannibalism... they do it all. And they can’t stop themselves. Just like you wouldn’t be able to stop yourself if you ever fed off the energy that releases when a human dies while you’re connected to their energy.”
“I know, I know,” I cut in before she could start her lecture, “no killing people, no feeding off humans until they�
��re hurt or worse, dead.”
“I wasn’t about to say that, actually.” Straightening up, Naomi crossed her arms over her chest and gave me a harsh look. “Things are different now that you work here and have an actual fae boyfriend to feed off. You’re just one of us now.”
“Oh.” I glanced over at Leon, who shrugged as if to say he didn’t really understand Naomi, either. “Well. Good to know.” I decided to return to talking shop. “Once we’re in this area, how do we know which person is the dark fae we’re looking for? He might not come out if he doesn’t see ‘Sasha’ after all.”
“With my nose,” Leon said, taking out his phone and snapping a photo of the map. “Or with Naomi’s sixth senses.”
“So it’s just the three of us on this case?” I wasn’t sure if I was ready to go out into the field yet; I’d only practiced my powers inside the interrogation room so far. I didn’t even know how to fight that well; Leon had mostly shown me how to meditate. “There’s no one else?”
“My sister is in town,” Naomi mentioned. “She could help out.”
“Sister?” I asked.
Leon said to me, “She’s a dark hunter,” and to Naomi, “Have Iva stick to hunting down the current possessions. Someone needs to be on the streets while we focus in on this guy. There are too many incidents right now to put the whole team on one task.”
“Makes sense.” Naomi pulled out a familiar-looking long, black dagger and ran her finger against the edge. “I say we go now instead of waiting for nightfall. No time like the present, right?”
I tried to hide my nervousness. “So I’m going? To hunt down a demon-summoner-adjacent dark fae?”
They both swiveled their heads towards me; Naomi smirked. “Don’t worry Suck, I’ll give you a knife.”
Leon reminded me, “You can drain people’s energy with your hands, Selena. And you’ve done it plenty of times now. Besides, this is just an information gathering mission.”
“What if I get attacked by someone?” The thought of a demon coming after me was more frightening than I wanted to admit. “Like, you know, a demon.”
“We’ll cover you, but if you wind up in a hand-to-hand combat just grab onto them and drain whatever you can.”
Naomi added, “I’ll let you borrow one of my knives. You look too squirrelly for a gun. Don’t want to get shot in the back.”
My inbox pinged at her words. “He responded.” I gulped down my nervousness. “He wants to meet.”
“Good.” Naomi grinned. “Get ready to stab things.”
Just like that I was a demon hunter.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The streets of Baton Rouge felt different when I was out with Leon and Naomi. They prowled down the streets, all confidence and leather-wrapped predators, making me feel like a little kid treat-or-treating with her parents. Something about them felt like they should be partners, and I should be left at home. Despite their differences and whatever grudge they seemed to hold towards each other, the two of them were more similar than they thought.
As I tried to keep up with whatever instincts guided them, the knife that Naomi had given me weighed heavy in my jacket. I had no idea what I would do with it if we somehow came face-to-face with a demon. For all that I’d been warned for days not to accidentally kill someone, I felt like a lamb ready for slaughter.
Naomi must’ve caught onto my nervousness, because she fell back to walk with me. “You don’t have to worry, you know. We’re not going to burst into some demon-infested house without warning.”
“I guess I just didn’t expect field work so early on.”
“Leon isn’t the type to take things slow. He’s a sink or swim kind of teacher.” She glanced over at him as she said this; he was walking several steps ahead of us, his pace a ground-eating lope. “Besides, you helped me catch that guy who murdered the frat bro over a girl. That was field work.”
“True.” I tried to relax, desperate to change the subject. “What’s the deal with you and Leon, anyway?”
“Oh. That.” The trademark grimace I’d come to expect from Naomi turned the corners of her mouth down. “I dated his sister. It didn’t end well.”
For some reason I’d been expecting something less mundane. Even in the fae world, though, people had family drama and exes they didn’t like talking about. It was almost a relief; not everything was changing in my life after all.
Ahead of us, Leon suddenly stopped and glanced down at a side street between two apartment buildings, his golden brows furrowed. “Do you sense that?”
Naomi cocked her head and prowled towards the entrance of the street, a knife glinting at the edge of her sleeve. “I’m not sure. Whatever signal I’m getting, it isn’t clear.”
“I smell fae.” Looking around, Leon grimaced. “It’s too bright and busy here for me to shift into my more useful form.”
He meant the wolf he called his “beast,” which I’d never seen. Leon was taciturn and matter-of-fact about his powers; I’d asked him if he ever used his double for fun things, and he’d glowered at me like it was an insult. But I was curious to see what it looked like when he shapeshifted or turned into two people.
“What do we do?” I asked them, wary of the street in front of us even though it looked decidedly normal.
Naomi was the one who answered. “We wait. Not here, though.” She indicated a wine bar across the street with a patio. “It’s just a few buildings down from our meeting point, so he’ll have to be in the area soon to make it on time. Who wants to get day drunk?”
The answer was, apparently, the three of us. Though the waiter standing outside the wine bar looked at us a little oddly for showing up right when they opened, we took a seat and ordered three glasses of water—and a bottle of wine for Naomi. I watched her fill her glass liberally, swirling the dark liquid around.
While we observed the buildings nearby for any odd activity, Naomi took her phone out and once again showed us the symbols she’d found in the cellar of the house where it all begun. “I just don’t get it,” she mused, cocking her head as if staring at the symbols differently would tell her anything. “No one I’ve talked to has ever seen symbols like this before. I don’t know of any summoner who would use them.”
“Are you sure that’s what they’re for?” Naomi gave me a perplexed look. “I mean, we know the summoner can do his thing from anywhere in the city.”
“Yes, but he needs to draw power from somewhere. Most likely from darkness that was already slithering through the city.” She thumbed through the various photos, sipping her wine the whole while. “There’s a reason why the summoner targeted people with revenge fantasies and darkness in their hearts. Their discontent is a hole that the demon can use to get in.”
“Just give up on those symbols,” Leon told her, annoyed. “You don’t even know that they have anything to do with this case.”
Naomi lifted her chin stubbornly, eyes flashing at Leon. “My senses tells me they’re related. But first I need to figure out who put them there.” She tapped her foot against the ground, looking across the street occasionally to observe what was going on there. “The way the rug was placed makes me think the symbols were put there by the homeowners and not whoever was renting. But if that’s the case, why? It’s also like Marshall’s uncle was choosing to have his family’s energy drained for the summoner to use.”
Leon observed, “Stranger things have happened. A cult in New Jersey once worshiped one of the cannibalistic dark fae who lived there. They cut off pieces of their own flesh for him to eat for sustenance. Next to that, worshiping a demon summoner seems almost quaint.”
I shuddered. “I really, really, really don’t want to meet any of the fae who eat people.”
“Why not?” Naomi grinned a feral smile at me. “If you do, just eat them right back.”
I grumbled at her. “I thought you said you were going to stop doing that.”
“I’ll stop lecturing you, Rookie, not teasing you.”
The
re it was again: that terrible nickname. Ignoring my wine—I wasn’t a red wine person anyway—I stared across the street and tried to tune out Leon and Naomi’s conversation. They were discussing the grossest fae they’d ever arrested, and the details were enough to turn my stomach.
Because I was the one who was looking across the street, I was also the one who saw the skulking figure come out of one of the buildings and drag something suspiciously body-sized out in a big black bag. He was joined by a young man who hurried down the steps and grabbed the other end of the body bag. They headed down the alleyway we’d been watching, towards a white van.
“Guys.” I got their attention. “Think that’s them, here early?”
“It looks like our honeypot target brought his boss with him to do some pre-meeting work.” Leon was up in a flash. “We might actually get our summoner. Let’s go.”
That thought made me even more nervous than before, but I couldn’t show it to the others. They were keen for a fight. Sparing only enough time to drain her wine glass and put a twenty dollar bill down on the table, Naomi followed on Leon’s heels. I spared a second to apologize to the waiter and then joined them, jogging across the street and pausing in the middle for traffic to pass.
Naomi was the first to get across, somehow dodging through the passing cars like they were nothing. “What do you think we’re dealing with here?”
“Something that doesn’t mind the smell of rotting flesh,” Leon speculated. “A graveyard fae. Maybe a cannibal making due with expired food.” I made a face, and he shrugged. “It happens.”
We slowed down as we approached the van, trying to look normal. I reached into my jacket for my borrowed knife, holding the heavy handle of the blade in a nervous hand. Naomi and Leon were between me and whoever these guys were, but you never knew.
Ahead of us, the car started, and Leon gave Naomi a signal with his fingers. She nodded sharply and headed towards the passenger side of the van, crouching down so no one could see her through the rear view mirror. Meanwhile, Leon took a deep breath and did... something. I didn’t quite know what, but all of a sudden another man was walking out of his body.