by Parker Blue
“Sure, but I can’t exactly go out in public.”
Oh, yeah. Sometimes I forgot his swirliness kept him limited. If it wasn’t for other demons providing a space where he could be his own swirly self, he’d never be able to get out. “Okay, how about I grab some food and bring it to you? Is there a place there where we can sit and eat?” Besides, I should probably meet the Underground here, too, especially after what David had said about there being something a little off with them.
Fang perked up at the mention of food and wagged his tail. DINNER?
“Yeah,” Shade said. “They have a staff-only section we can use. It’s quieter. I’ll let the guy at the door know you’re coming.”
“Will they let Fang in?”
“I don’t think so.”
I looked down at the hellhound.
NO BIGGIE, he assured me. GET ME A PIZZA AND I’LL BE HAPPY. I COULD USE A NAP.
“Okay, thanks.” We compared notes and figured out the Underground was within walking distance, so I didn’t need the car, even though Austin had given me the keys.
A card on the nightstand gave instructions on how to have food delivered, so I made arrangements with the concierge to have a pizza delivered to the room, telling him to open the door and leave the box on the floor.
DOES THIS MEAN YOU FORGIVE ME? Fang asked.
“Somewhat. It’s just that pizza is the easiest thing to order right now.” I tried not to think of what else the concierge would order in.
Jack tapped on the door and stuck his head in, looking hopeful. “Some dinner would go down mighty fine right now.”
I grinned at him. “I just ordered something for Fang, but I’m planning on getting some food to take to Shade. Want to come?”
“Of course.”
I started to walk out the door, then paused for a moment, considering. We were in vamp territory and I had to leave the room unlocked so Fang could get out. I didn’t care about any of my stuff, but… “I should probably take the books with me.”
Jack nodded. “Yes, you should.”
So, I slung the backpack over my shoulder and headed toward Sixth Street. We located a take-out Mexican restaurant, then found the seven-block party that was Sixth Street. There weren’t as many people as I expected, but that could be due to students going home for Christmas break.
This Club Purgatory was right in the middle of the nightlife. I nodded to the guy at the door who was dressed like a Goth version of Santa Claus, with black and gray where red and white should be, and fake blood trickling down from one of his “fangs” into his scraggly beard. Ick. Some things were just in poor taste.
I raised my voice above the music so I could be heard. “Shade told you we were coming?”
Dark Santa nodded and gave us directions to get downstairs. The basement at this club seemed bigger than the one in San Antonio, and thankfully none of the Purgatory theme showed up here. Instead, there was a bright, clean break room where Shade was waiting for us. I kissed him, feeling kind of shy in front of Jack, and since no one else was there, we grabbed a corner table in the large room. We ate, then I pulled out the books and thumbed through the first volume.
“What are you looking for?” Jack asked.
“I want to see if there’s any mention of chupacabras in the listing of demons, see what we can find out.” I checked and even had Jack double-check, but there was no mention of them anywhere.
“I’m not surprised,” Shade said. I touched his hand so I could see his features and he added, “I looked them up on my cell while I was waiting for you. I don’t think they’re real. The first sighting was in the midnineties and seems to have come from a woman who watched too many horror movies.”
I nodded. “So, if they’re not real, the goat-sucker is either a vamp or some other demon we’re not familiar with.”
Shade grinned. “I’m going with vamp.”
“Yeah, Lisette said a few were missing. She didn’t seem to think any of them would go rogue and suck on livestock though.”
“It could be rogues who aren’t affiliated with the Movement,” Jack said.
Could be. We’d had some trouble with them in San Antonio. “That’s what I thought at first, but rogues would more likely snack on people. I hear they taste better.”
“Maybe Lisette’s people drank some demon blood?” Shade suggested. “That made some of Alejandro’s people go crazy.”
“Maybe,” I said doubtfully. “But if the blood banks were tainted, Lisette would know by now. I don’t know of any demons who would volunteer to be dinner for a vamp, and the members of the Movement wouldn’t take it from anyone who is unwilling.”
“Are you sure about that?” Jack asked, looking skeptical.
I thought about it for a moment. “No, not really. Lily rose to become a trusted lieutenant in the New Blood Movement, and she didn’t think ‘willing’ was a necessary adjective for a snack.”
“Who?” Jack asked.
“Lily Armstrong. She was Dan’s ex-fiancée who turned vamp and tried to take over Alejandro’s organization by leading the rogues.”
“What happened to her?” Jack asked.
Shade grinned. “She lost her head. Literally.”
Decapitations-R-Us. I shrugged. “She was holding Dan, Fang, my stepfather and my sister captive and was going to kill one or more of them. I had to stop her.”
Jack nodded as if it were a completely reasonable thing to do. Thank goodness for demons who understood the world I lived in. “We cleaned out most of the rogues from the Movement in San Antonio,” I added, “but there could be some in Austin. So, no, I wouldn’t trust Lisette’s judgment on this.”
“Okay,” Shade said, tapping the screen on his smartphone. “Let me see what I can find out about these sightings so we can track them down.”
I pretty much used my phone for talking and texting only, but Shade used all its capabilities. This was the kind of stuff he loved—playing with electronics and researching stuff. Yep, he was totally hot and a geek. Who said they couldn’t coexist in one body?
While Shade surfed the Internet and took notes, I asked Jack to tell me more about being a keeper.
“What do you want to know?” he hedged.
“Tell me more about these powers the books gave you. How does it work?”
“You know they can’t actually talk? The voice you heard was me when I was trapped inside, and the voice urging others to do evil was the mage demon I’d imprisoned with me.”
I nodded impatiently. “But can you communicate with them?”
“I can’t anymore, but you can, since you’re the new keeper. The books know what you’re thinking, so you can ask them for certain abilities.”
“So I could get my strength and fast healing back?” I asked eagerly.
“Maybe, if the books want you to have it.” He shook his head. “But remember, those abilities are no longer part of you, so if you are granted those and use them, your succubus abilities will weaken.”
Would that be a bad thing? Sure, I’d come to rely on Lola, but the thought of never again having to keep my distance from men, or fend off advances from those who got too close and got sucked into Lola’s lustful energy field… well, it was very appealing. I had always yearned to be normal, but was it even possible now? Everyone in the vamp and demon communities knew me as the Slayer, and many wanted to kill me because of it. Giving up the best defensive weapon I had to gain more strength didn’t seem like a good idea.
Besides, having a normal life was little more than a pipe dream. The only way I could possibly lead a normal life was to go far away from everything I knew and everyone I loved and lose all my special abilities. I wasn’t desperate enough for that. Not yet.
But one thing I did want, was out of the contract with Alejandro. And to do that, I had to find this so-called chupacabra. If the books could offer help with that, I needed to use them. “Okay, the books know what I’m thinking, but how do they communicate back to me if they can’t ta
lk?”
“Like that,” Jack said, nodding at the table.
The second volume of the Encyclopedia Magicka was actually glowing. “Whoa, I didn’t know it could do that.”
The book started vibrating like a cell on mute. “Go ahead,” Jack said. “Open it. It’s all right.”
What was this? A cosmic telephone? Tentatively, I opened the glowing book. It trembled in my hand, then flipped pages rapidly on its own until it came to rest on one page where words seemed to burn themselves in fire across the paper.
Wow. Cool. When they dimmed to glow softly, I started to read them. “It says—”
“No, don’t read it aloud,” Jack cautioned. “It’s a spell that will give you a new ability, so don’t voice it unless you really want it.”
“You mean I’d lose part of Lola right away?”
“No, you wouldn’t lose any of your current abilities until you actually say the activating words of the spell with intent to use it,” Jack explained.
“What is it?” Shade asked, trying to read the book upside down.
I read through the spell silently. “It looks like it would give me the ability to locate mage demons within a certain range. Why would I want to do that?”
Shade snorted. “Maybe because a mage demon and his son tried to steal the books and rule the world with them?”
“Well, yeah, there is that,” I conceded.
Jack gave us a rueful grin. “This is the first ability the books offered me, too. That self-preservation thing I told you about. The only problem is, if you use a spell from the books, a mage demon can sense them. Remember, the books know they’re safe in the hands of a keeper. But in the hands of a mage demon…”
“. . . not so much,” Shade said. “They’d have access to every spell in the book.”
“Exactly,” Jack said with a decisive nod. “And some of them are very dangerous. You don’t think Trevor and his father were the only mage demons in the world, do you?”
I hadn’t thought about it at all, to tell the truth. And that was a real Catch-22. Use them to detect a mage demon and they could detect you. “I think I’ll pass for now.”
“Mage demons?” I heard a woman say behind me. “What do you want with mage demons?”
I turned around to see a voluptuous woman with long corkscrew blond curls in the doorway. She wore a curve-hugging red dress that slinked halfway down her calves… and only barely covered her rather impressive chest. From the stage makeup and the light succubus hold I felt she had on the two rather innocuous-looking men with her, I gathered this was the Underground leader here in Austin. Sheesh—she was seduction in one neat package. Unlike me, she’d inspire lust just by the sight of her—no succubus needed. And the men with her seemed utterly smitten.
Lola bristled at the appearance of another succubus, and I didn’t object as Lola reached out to lightly grab onto Shade and Jack’s chakras. If Lola had them, she couldn’t get them. “Dina Bellama, I presume?” I said, attempting to be polite.
I could feel her trying for my guys, but she wasn’t able to get hold of them. Lola had them too tight. “The Slayer, I presume,” she mocked me, apparently annoyed at being balked of her prey.
But if I was any judge of succubi, I’d say her tank of lusty energy was pretty well topped off for the night. She positively oozed sensuality. She didn’t need anything from Shade or Jack—she just wanted to assert her domination. Already, I didn’t like her. And Lola positively hated her.
Aloud, I said, “Yes, I’m Val Shapiro and this is Jack Grady and Shade.”
Shade and Jack had both stood up politely. Shade was doing his swirly thing and Dina, apparently fascinated, sauntered over to touch his face in wonder. Her eyes widened when his face came into view. “Well, well, what have we here? No wonder you’re holding on tight to this one. I wouldn’t let him get away either. But what kind of demon has that kind of mask?”
Shade, looking annoyed, backed away from her hand so he became one big mass of roiling ropes of energy again. I raised an eyebrow at her, silently reminding her it was rude to ask that in the Underground.
“He’s a shadow demon,” one of her two pets told her, glaring at Shade. “He can bring full demons into this world through a portal.”
Well, yes, that was technically true, but Shade was so much more than that.
She whirled on me, eyes sparking with anger. “And you’re looking for mage demons, too? Are you trying to destroy the world?”
Jack stepped forward with a frown. “Your assumptions are incorrect. Just because he can bring demons through a portal doesn’t mean he will. And this shadow demon is the reason we were able to shove two mage demons in San Antonio through a portal and lock them away forever.” He paused, then added, “In answer to your second question, we aren’t looking for mage demons. We’re looking to avoid them.”
I suppressed a smile. Go, Jack. He said it much better than I could.
Dina looked down her nose at him. “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m the former keeper of the Encyclopedia Magicka. Val is the new keeper.”
“Yes, Micah mentioned something about the books.” Dina’s gaze flicked to the table. “Those?”
“Yes,” Jack said.
Darn, I wish he wasn’t so fast with the answers. I wasn’t so sure I wanted her fondling anything that belonged to me. I moved to block her way to the table.
Instead of pushing past me, she looked down at me with amusement. “Selfish, are we?”
“Just protective. After all, the books can have a bad effect on anyone who isn’t a keeper.”
“Well, I’m afraid I can’t let you run loose around my town with dangerous books or a shadow demon. You’ll have to leave them both here while you play with the vampires.” Her eyes narrowed and she added, “I insist.”
Leave Shade and the books? Not a chance in hell.
Chapter Eight
My first instinct was to attack Dina and her two henchmen, then grab Shade and the books and get the hell out of here. But that would tick off Micah and defeat the whole purpose for coming here in the first place. David had said there was something hinky going on in the Austin Underground, and I had a feeling he was right. I just needed to stay on their good side long enough to find out what.
So, I beat my first instinct into submission and tried reason first. “Don’t be ridiculous. They’re not a threat, especially in my hands. Didn’t Micah tell you that?”
Dina slinked back to her two henchmen. “Micah said a lot of things. I prefer to make my own judgments.”
Jack took a step forward. “You can’t have the books. Val’s the keeper.”
Dina shrugged. “So? If I have the books, I’ll be the keeper.”
“It isn’t that easy,” Jack protested. “The books choose who protects them. They chose her, not you.”
“Oh, I don’t plan to protect them,” Dina assured him. “I plan to destroy them.”
“No.” Jack and I yelled simultaneously.
When she took a surprised step back, I added, “Destroying them would be much, much worse. You’d obliterate half of Texas, release wild magick into the world, tear a hole between our reality and the demon world, and let full demons through.” Or so Trevor had claimed. Personally, I didn’t want to test it.
“Well, we have to do something with them,” Dina said. “A mage demon came through here looking for those books.”
“What? When?” Sure wish I had Fang here right now to pick her brain free of everything she knew.
“A couple of days ago.”
“What did you tell him?”
Her gaze narrowed. “Do you think I’m an idiot? I lied to him, made him believe they were in New Orleans.” She fondled a large teardrop crystal in her décolletage, bringing attention to her impressive cleavage again, and smirked. “I can be very persuasive.”
Yeah, the Lola kind of persuasion. More calmly, I asked, “Why didn’t you tell Micah?”
“I planned on it, but a
few things came up since then.”
“Like what?” I demanded. What could be more important than that?
“Like missing members of the Underground. A number of people have vanished, two in the past few days, and we can’t find any trace of them.” To her credit, she looked worried.
“I’m sorry about that,” I said, “but didn’t you think it might be the mage demon doing this?”
“Of course I did,” she snapped.
“Then why didn’t you call on us for help? You knew we’d contained one mage demon already.”
“Because I took care of it. And if he comes back again, I can control him long enough to feed him to Micah’s Memory Eater. But what if a female mage demon I can’t control comes looking for them? Apparently, the Slayer blasted the damn books into wakefulness enough so any mage demon in the country knows they’re active.”
“That’s not how it happened,” Shade protested and reached forward to lightly clasp my arm and bring his features into view. “Besides, mage demons are pretty rare. I’ve done some research in the Underground records across the country. There’s only one other mage demon in the country, and you just sent him to New Orleans.”
Dina cut him off with an upraised hand. “Doesn’t matter. The books are dangerous. If we can’t destroy them, they need to be neutralized somehow.”
“What about me?” Shade asked softly. “You think I’m dangerous. Do you plan to destroy me, too?”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Dina said, caressing him with her gaze. “You’re one of us. I just want to keep an eye on you, keep you happy, ensure you have no reason to lose your temper and bring an army of full demons into our world.”
Did Micah tell her all our secrets? Exasperated, I said, “I’m the keeper. I keep the books neutralized and I keep Shade happy.” Shade gave me an odd look and I wished I’d phrased that differently. Before she could protest again, I added, “We don’t need you or your permission to be here.”