Elven Blood (Imp Book 3)

by Dunbar, Debra

  “What do you think, Boomer?” I asked softly. “Is it an elf baby, or not.”

  He looked at me with a quizzical, angled head, and sniffed the ground around the stone. He did a thorough job, long strands of drool extending from his jowls to leave snail tracks of slime across the grave marker and the brown, frozen grass. He looked up, nodded, then poised a paw to dig, tilting his head in question.

  “Not yet, boy. We need to come back at dark. And I’m sorry, but you won’t be able to eat this one either.”

  Boomer looked disappointed. He’d had plenty to eat lately, so I refused to feel guilty, even as he fixed his big, sad hound eyes on me. Dogs have short attention spans though, even hellhounds. As soon as he got back to the Suburban with his massive rawhide stick in the back, he forgot all about the corpse and settled in.

  I was shocked out of my mind to walk through my front door and see Wyatt sitting at my dining room table. Catching my breath, I steeled myself for the coming conversation. The one where he told me he never wanted to see me again. The one that confirmed I’d lost him forever.

  “So have you made any progress on finding suitable corpse to pass off as Amber?” His voice was cracked, strained.

  “I’ve located a changeling corpse from around the time of Amber’s exchange. Boomer and I will retrieve it tonight.” I told him, standing as if I were giving a military report.

  Wyatt looked at me, his eyes demanding truth. “You said you’d fake a demon energy signature on the elf baby, to try and make it look like a hybrid. Will that convince the elves? What are the chances here?”

  “It will work,” I lied. “I’ll imbed the demon energy as deep as I can. There’s no way they’ll know the difference.”

  Wyatt’s eyes dissected me, digging past the lies to where I squirmed with doubt. “Sam, you’ve never even bred before. The one experience you had in practicing a formation, you killed the demon sire. How do you expect to make this look convincing?”

  “Leethu is helping me. She formed your sister, she’s formed many demons. She knows her life hinges on this. It’ll work.”

  “So Leethu thinks this will work?” he asked.

  “Yes, she’s confident it will work,” I snapped. I didn’t mean to take my anger and frustration out on Wyatt, it wasn’t his fault. This was the only option we had. Besides turning over his sister, that is.

  “Funny, because that’s not what Leethu told me.”

  Everything seized up inside me. When had he seen Leethu? Had he given in to her seductive pull? Sharp pain lanced through my chest. He was mine, and I didn’t want to share that part of him with anyone. But how could I possibly feel at all possessive, at all jealous after my little speech about not needing sexual fidelity? Hypocrite.

  Wyatt watched my face. “I spoke with her this morning, while you were at the cemetery.”

  I couldn’t help myself. “Did you? She and you?” Quickly I gained my composure. “I mean, because I had hoped to join in on that. Did you take pictures? Because I really want to see them.”

  I was a horrible liar.

  The silence stretched on as Wyatt and I stared at each other. I tried to look nonchalant.

  “Leethu is very good at turning off the pheromone stuff when she wants to,” he finally said.

  That didn’t exactly answer my question, but I really had no right to an answer anyway.

  “Leethu has her doubts,” I told him. “But I believe the plan is going to work. I promise you that. Amber will be as safe as she can be. And so will you, because the Haagenti issue is going to be resolved in the process. Problems solved, and we can all go on with our lives.”

  “Your plan is going to work?” His question sounded like an accusation.

  “Yes.”

  Which plan, I didn’t specify. Let him think the elf baby would pass, and the high lord would take out Haagenti. It was easier than him knowing I’d be dead. I thought this deception, this omission would work, but it didn’t.

  “The plan with the elf baby is going to work? Or the plan where you throw yourself at Haagenti like a virgin sacrifice?”

  How did he know?

  Wyatt waved an envelope at me and I froze. Leethu. That stupid bitch Leethu had given him the note. The one he wasn’t supposed to get until after I’d gone back to Hel. I scrambled to explain it away.

  “It’s just standard stuff, Wyatt. Like this past summer with Althean and the werewolves? Just making sure things are in order, because something could happen. Everything will be okay.”

  He continued to wave the envelope at me, his voice choked. “Leethu says you’re not coming back, Sam. That this elf baby isn’t going to pass. That you’re going to just hand yourself over to Haagenti. He’ll kill you, Sam. He’ll kill you.”

  I forced myself to walk over to the table and sit in a chair next to him. “I hope the elf baby passes, and they take care of Haagenti for me, but if not, I’ve got to face him. Gregory is right. I should have faced him before this. Instead I was a coward. I hid, and put you at risk. Put all my friends at risk. I’m not going to turn myself over to him; I’m going to fight him.”

  The end result would probably be the same as if I turned myself over to him, but hopefully I’d get in a few licks and save a bit of face before he killed me.

  “And what do you think the chances of you beating Haagenti are?” Wyatt asked, his eyes looking suspiciously wet. “Significantly better than this elf baby passing as a hybrid?”

  I shook my head. There was no sense in continuing to lie at this point. Wyatt knew how uneven this fight would be.

  “So you were just going to sneak out? Head back to do this without even a word to me? You’d return to Hel, leaving me nothing beyond this note that I assume I wasn’t supposed to get until after you were gone. With the distinct probability that you’d be killed?” He stood and took a step toward me before clenching his fists and turning away. “You’d do that to me? I’d have to live my whole life with this note, having never had the chance to say goodbye. Never having the chance to tell you one last time that I loved you. I’d have to live my whole life with that burden. I know you’re selfish, Sam, but sheesh, that is really low. Even for a demon.”

  I put my head in my hands and stared at the table. Nothing I did was right. I was a lousy demon, a lousy girlfriend, a lousy Iblis. I even stank at trying to be a human. I wanted to hide. To crawl under a rock and let the world pass me by. There will be no more rocks, a voice said from my memory. Gregory. And he was right.

  “I couldn’t face you, Wyatt. Couldn’t bear to see that look in your eyes, the one you had last night in the barn. I couldn’t bear to have you back away from me. I may be selfish, but mostly I’m a coward.” I raised my head and looked at him. “I’m not sure you can forgive me or feel the same way about me again. I just wanted to sneak away and pretend that last night didn’t happen. I wanted to remember the good parts, the wonderful things we shared. I was afraid if I faced you, all I’d remember when I died was a look of hate in your eyes. I’m too much of a coward to go through that.”

  He made as if he were going to move toward me, but stopped. “I don’t hate you, Sam. You are who you are, and I’m a fool for thinking otherwise. I’m like those animal handlers who imagine the lions are fuzzy kitties, with the same emotions and thought processes as a human, and then feel betrayed when they get bit.”

  Unable to hold back any longer, he walked toward me and put a hand on my arm, squeezing it gently. “I can’t make that mistake again, Sam. If I’m going to have any sort of relationship with you, I can’t keep pretending you’re human. I can’t keep ignoring that you’re a dangerous predator, with a completely different set of ethics from me. I can’t keep compromising my own ethics to suit yours.”

  “You don’t hate me?” I tried hard to keep the waver out of my voice.

  He moved behind me and wrapped his arms around my shoulders, snuggling his face in my hair. “I love you, Sam. I’ll always love you. I don’t know how to handle what h
appened. I want believe you when you say you weren’t going to kill Amber, but I need to process it. I need space to think about things. But I’ll always love you. Nothing will change that.”

  I closed my eyes and took a breath, feeling his arms around me and his face against my hair. For a second, I imagined that things were okay between us; that we were in love without a care in the world, that his sister was a human, that no demons were out to kill me and that the sword of the Iblis was back in the hands of the vampires. It was a brief indulgence, a fantasy of how things might have been. But there were no more rocks to hide under, and I had things to do. I gave Wyatt’s hands a quick squeeze and got out of my chair.

  His voice tense, Wyatt asked, “So how exactly do you plan on taking care of Haagenti?”

  “No idea.” I remembered Gregory’s words. “I’ve been told I should go in with a ‘mighty show of power’. Maybe I need to channel my inner Dirty Harry.”

  “So you’re going to tell him to go ahead and make your day?” Wyatt smiled. It was a shaky, lopsided smile. I knew he was trying to cheer me up, pull me out of the doom and gloom slump I was in.

  “I was thinking of asking him whether he thought I fired six shots or five.”

  Wyatt looked thoughtful. “Actually I see you more as Eastwood’s character from The Good the Bad and the Ugly, than Dirty Harry.”

  “So I should go after Haagenti wearing a poncho with a six–shooter in a hip holster? The poncho might get in the way, although I guess I could throw it over his head and attempt to suffocate him.”

  “Okay, so the poncho is a bad idea. The attitude is right though. I can’t see you doing a ‘mighty show of power,’ but I can see you as the lone gun, the stranger who walks into town and sets everything right. The one who sneaks in shots from the roof of a building, then walks the lonely road out of town while the gun smoke clears.”

  I liked that vision, especially without the poncho. Wyatt was probably right, but I didn’t know how sneaky was going to work. Haagenti had people everywhere looking for me. I couldn’t exactly creep around Hel, picking off the entire demon population one at a time. First things first. I needed to take care of things this side of the gates so Wyatt and his sister could be safe. Then deal with a probably enraged elf lord, or two. Then I’d worry about Haagenti.

  24

  Wyatt headed back to his house to kill some zombies and presumably have some alone time. He’d just left when Dar called. I hit the button, eager for his news.

  “Mal, I need your help.” His voice was strained, oddly quiet. “I have information for you, but it’s not safe, and I need to give it to you in person. I’m trying to make it through the gate, but the guardian attacked me the second I got through. I had to jump back. Now I’m hiding because there is a shitload of Haagenti’s men patrolling the gate.”

  I was pissed. That fucking guardian had let every Low through, but killed Dar’s messenger? Attacked Dar with intent to kill? How the fuck was I supposed to get anything done?

  “I can probably sneak through, but I’d need to be quick, and I need to make sure I don’t get chopped to bits once I’m on the other side of the gate. There’s no way I’ll be able to jump back to this side again. Haagenti’s guys will grab me. And they allegedly have orders to kill.”

  “Wait there. Give me fifty minutes.” Thirty to get to Columbia Mall, twenty to find the gate and take care of the guardian. “After fifty minutes, take your best opportunity and get through the gate. Okay?”

  “Got it. Thanks, Mal.”

  I drove down to the mall and anger built inside me with the passing of every mile. I felt cornered, with everything closing in on me. This was the final straw. I was going to smack–down this gate guardian. I was so pissed off by the time I arrived, I yanked the Corvette into a handicapped spot and jumped out, running into the mall and knocking aside several shoppers leaving Nordstroms. The mall was busy, but I strode purposefully through it, looking for the gate and that bitch guarding it.

  I recognized her right away. Heck, I’d seen her every couple of days for the past few months when I lobbed demon heads through the gate to Hel. She was an elderly lady, impeding traffic as she hobbled, bent over a cane in front of the jewelry store. The gate was by the cell phone kiosk, but I ignored it and went right up to the guardian.

  The humans gasped in alarm as I grabbed the elderly lady and slammed her up against the glass that held an array of engagement rings.

  "A member of my household is going to come through the gate to meet with me,” I said, trying to keep my voice low. “You will allow this.”

  “I cannot,” she gasped. “I’m forbidden. None of your household is allowed to pass.”

  She really did look like a harmless old lady. At any moment I was going to have a helpful citizen attacking me. I needed to act fast.

  “Tell your boss to meet me at my house and I will take this up with him. In the meantime, Dar is going to come through. If you do anything to stop him, make any move to harm him, I will tell the Ruling Council to replace you. I’ll tell them you let a Low through last fall, that you continually leave your post, seduced by gluttony.”

  She paled. She’d told me once she couldn’t wait to go back to Aaru, but I’d seen how she’d worshiped those containers of sweet and sour sauce. I knew she’d not be happy to leave that behind.

  “No more sweet and sour pork for you,” I whispered.

  “Okay, okay,” she squeaked.

  I let her go and faced the hostile crowd.

  “I caught her groping up my three year old son in the bathroom,” I told them. “Sick pervert.”

  The gate guardian shot me a look of pure hate, and took off, much faster than an old lady with a cane should be able to go. As the crowd raced after her, I turned and saw Dar. He looked at me with a combination of surprise and admiration.

  “Nice job. Think they’ll catch her?”

  “One can only hope.”

  Dar walked along beside me as we made our way back through the mall to my car. “I have the information on the human servant for you,” he said, passing me another small card.

  I broke the warded seal and looked at the name and address it held. Jacob Bara in Mount Airy, Maryland. Hopefully he’d be home tonight when I came calling. An easy kill, just to make sure no one could track Amber through him, and then I’d grab Boomer and head to the cemetery.

  “I have the other information you wanted too,” Dar added.

  I drew a blank. Had I asked him for something else?

  “About stripping a demon of their energy?” Dar reminded, seeing my confused look.

  Oh yeah. The head Gregory brought. Not that I needed the info anymore since he insisted it hadn’t been a demon after all. I hated to tell Dar that, after he’d gone to all this trouble, though. Besides, I still had that feeling that there was something going on that Gregory wasn’t tell me, or the Ruling Council, about.

  “Elves can interrupt a demon’s ability to use their energy, but they can’t drain a demon of stored energy,” Dar said. “A powerful sorcerer can completely hamper a demon’s abilities, blocking their use of energy or prohibiting conversion of energy to matter.” Skilled humans, including sorcerers, had always been able to bind a demon, rendering them helpless, but draining them was something different. And binding was always a temporary state—unless the angels did it. Dar continued. “No one has ever been aware of a sorcerer who could actually drain stored energy from a demon, although it seems feasible.”

  So it was all conjecture at this point. Maybe they could, probably they couldn’t. And it didn’t really matter anyway, since the head had been human after all. I should have just dropped the topic, but my mind kept gnawing on it, exploring the possibilities.

  “What about personal energy?” I asked Dar.

  He held the Nordstroms’ door open for me. I was happy to see my car hadn’t received a citation for my illegal use of the handicapped spot.

  “Our spirit self disburses when we die, you kno
w that.”

  “Yeah, but there are traces, there’s a signature that identifies the corpse as one that held a demon. What could wipe those away?”

  Dar looked amused. “Who would care? The demon is dead. Who would care if some trace remained?”

  I beeped the alarm off on my car. “Humor me, Dar. Let’s say someone wanted to hide the fact that the corpse had been a demon, wanted to make it look like a human. Or someone was greedy and didn’t want any energy whatsoever to remain.”

  Dar laughed. “Like you? A devouring spirit could probably suck every last trace of personal energy from a demon, leaving a shell behind.”

  I started. Me? “Are there a lot of devouring spirits around? I’ve never met another one.”

  “Thankfully no. So unless you’ve been running around draining demons, I doubt it’s happening.”

  Dar gossiped about all the goings–on back in Hel as I drove home. All this conjecture about the head and energy draining was intriguing, but I had far too much on my plate right now. I shoved Dar’s information into the back of my thoughts and returned to fuming over the issue with the gate.

  I was still pissed. I’d taken my anger out on the gate guardian, but it was Gregory who was really at fault. I know he wanted me to return to Hel and deal with Haagenti, but I’d had enough of his interference. I couldn’t keep track of everything I was supposed to be doing. I needed to be in contact with my household, with elves and demons to do my job as the Iblis. And sensitive information couldn’t always be relayed over the mirror. I needed them to come and go freely. If some miracle happened and I managed to off Haagenti and make it back, I needed to be able to use this gate. As the Iblis, I should be allowed this privilege.