by D. N. Hoxa
My arms were free again, and I reached for Bob’s red handle, pulled the blade out before pushing it back in him again. And again. And again…I wouldn’t have stopped until he’d fallen to his knees, but luck just didn’t seem to be on my side that day. Before I buried Bob in the demon’s torso for the fifth time, the voice I expected the least to hear, reached my ears in a rush.
“I have to say, I thought your fighting would be more…clean. Too much blood already.”
My whole body froze as Nijaria, the fairy who had actually given birth to me, took a step forward. Shit. She was the fairy I’d felt. I jumped back, Bob and my katana in front of me, ready for whatever she had in mind. But she didn’t charge me. Instead, she crossed her arms in front of her chest, her short black hair perfectly arranged at the sides of her face. Her smile was terrifying, too much like my own, and for a short second, I was shocked to realize just how I looked to everyone with a similar evil smile plastered all over my face—something I did on a regular basis. Sick. Twisted. More than evil.
“This has nothing to do with you,” I said as my senses forced my body to relax. I wrapped my fingers tighter around the handles of my weapons. My guns seemed to grow hot against my back, begging for me to reach for them and fire at the fairy’s head.
“Absolutely not,” Nijaria said and took one disgusted look at the demon, who was still standing but held himself against the headrest of his tattoo chair, his huge hand over the wounds Bob had inflicted all over his torso. Shit. He’d soon heal and then I’d have to fight him all over again. “My dear Abrax, I don’t believe you’ve met my daughter before. She’s the Elemental everyone is talking about.”
Abrax’s eyes met mine, and he growled again.
“I’m not your daughter,” I hissed with every ounce of hatred I had stored in my chest for the fairy. She’d taken my real mother’s life in exchange for me. I would never forget that.
Nijaria waved me off like what I said was complete nonsense. “Daughter or not, I’d say you get on with what you came here for, because I simply do not have the time. I’m here on business.”
She took a step back.
I can’t say I wasn’t surprised, but I should have known. Nijaria wasn’t someone to care about anyone. She wasn’t going to stop me from kicking Abrax’s ass, and I didn’t have the time to wonder why, or even if she was going to try and trick me. I jumped at the demon again.
Unfortunately for me, before Bob’s tip reached his face, I froze. That’s when I realized his eyes had turned completely black, even more so than mine or those of the fairy standing at our side. Shit. The demon was trying to possess me. My defense classes in Lyndor had rarely been about demon possession, but I did remember the potion McGraw had made me drink, one mixed with my own blood that had worked like a drug, rendering me completely submissive for a couple minutes at a time. As the blood in my veins began to freeze, starting from the tips of my toes, the possession felt nothing like it, though. The power that put my senses into overdrive was much bigger, and I barely managed to drop my katana, before reaching for my gun. With the barrel pointed straight at the demon’s head, my finger froze on the trigger.
There was nothing I hated more than not being in control of my own body. I pulled my arm back to at least throw Bob at him, but he didn’t give me the time. He didn’t have complete hold of me, but he did make me move super slow, and that was a big no-no. So while my mind was still my own, I searched for a link with the air, and I ordered it to blow.
Compared to what I was used to, the power that flowed through me while commanding the elements while Illyon beat against my chest, this was pathetic. Not strong enough to throw the demon back, but strong enough to break his concentration. He was scared, I could tell. Who wasn’t, when an invisible enemy pushed you back on all sides, and you had no idea how to stop it?
I expected him to fight back. The wounds on his torso and back had healed. But instead, Abrax the demon turned to Nijaria.
“Stop her.”
I would have laughed had his voice not sounded like a pleading. My body was my own again, and the fact that he actually thought the fairy could stop me made me shoot him in both legs, right in his knees. He fell to the floor, howling in pain.
“Please, please…”
And there I was thinking no demon ever begged. They just didn’t give you that impression, but now, as I put my gun back in its place and walked over to the demon with Bob in hand, I realized that everybody begged. I would beg, too. Not for my life, no, but for the life of my loved ones. And the image of me begging Samayan to release Ella made the hairs on the back of my neck stand to attention.
I grabbed the demon by his shirt, and I dragged him back to the wall. Bob’s tip touched the side of his neck and that made him growl yet again, but not nearly as furiously as before.
“I’m going to give you one chance. Take it, or go back to hell.” I still had another demon to visit in London if this one proved to be worthless. His teeth were gritted as he fought another scream. His kneecaps were completely destroyed and bone took time to heal, even for a demon. And it hurt like hell, too, which was exactly why I’d shot him there.
“Fuck you,” the demon spit.
A smile stretched my lips wide. I loved it when they tried to act tough.
“Female vampires are disappearing from an independent coven in Manhattan. Who’s doing it?” There was no way in hell that Abrax was the demon involved, but I could only hope that Sam was right and he would know who.
But Abrax shook his head. I pushed Bob until an inch of its blade was inside the demon’s skin.
“Nijaria, stop her. I’ll give you the years,” he whispered.
I almost rolled my eyes. “Nobody is going to stop me, demon. You’re going to tell me who is strong enough to possess thirty vampires at once, or you’re going back to hell.”
Hell must be something even worse than we all imagined because demons were terrified of it.
Abrax shook his head and bit down hard on his lips. “I don’t know.”
It was in moments like those that I wished I had Aaron with me the most, because as terrifying as it was, the demon looked completely sincere. I wanted to shake him until he told me at least something that would spare me some time, but I knew it wasn’t going to work. And I’d promised him one chance only. I reached for my gun again. A bullet to the brain would be much faster and cleaner than cutting his throat, when…
“Perhaps I can be of help.”
Nijaria’s voice iced the flames that had fired up my blood. My finger was on the trigger. I could end this in less than a second and be on the way to London—or I could listen to what the filthy fairy behind me had to say.
Time, time, time is wasting, the voice in my head said. It was enough to make me turn my head to Nijaria, but the barrel of my gun was still pressed to Abrax’s bloody cheek.
“Not with this specific case but I don’t think I’ve given you all the details regarding your demon shifter.” If I thought I was frozen before, now I was pure ice.
“What?”
“Your demon shifter,” she repeated, that awful smile still on her face. “The son of Mara?”
I dropped Bob on the floor and reached for my other gun. I aimed it straight at her pretty face in less than a second, and the smile she sported disappeared. Nijaria didn’t look scared, though. She looked pissed.
“Speak, right now, or I swear—”
“What? You’re going to shoot me? What do you think that’s going to accomplish?”
“It’s going to give me enough time to tear you limb by limb in silence,” I hissed.
“Oh, your poor little thing. You made a deal with me, remember? You can’t kill me. Not without delivering, and I would’ve heard by now if Seriel was dead.”
“What are you going to do once you’re dead, haunt me? I don’t care about the fucking deal if you don’t tell me what you know, right now.”
Nijaria uncrossed her arms from in front of her and took a
couple of steps closer to me. I was kneeling still, one gun at Abrax’s face, and the other at hers. It’s true—killing a fairy I was in debt to was a big no no. Not just because I would be hunted by every fairy alive for breaking one of their most sacred rules, but the debt would never be repaid and I would be a fairy slave for the rest of my days.
Still, that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try.
“I’m simply offering you another deal. Demon years are my favorite years, you know. Not only immortal, but undead, too. Extraordinary value. I’ve been trying to convince Abrax here to tread with me, and now that he has agreed, I would like for him to still be alive, up here on Earth.” Her brow rose as she studied my expression. I tried to give nothing away, but I was too angry to be sure she couldn’t read me. “In exchange, I can tell you the small detail I forgot to mention in our last meeting, something I only now remembered what will all the talk about possession. I assure you, you’ll want to hear it.”
Of course I wanted to hear it! This was Aaron we were talking about.
“Does that mean you cheated?” I asked, because she’d made a deal with me, too. Not that I had much hope because if fairies were known for anything, it was for manipulation, and that involved their own rules, too. She wouldn’t have said anything if she’d cheated the rules.
The smile on her face confirmed it. “Unfortunately for you, no. I never said how much of the truth I was going to share with you. That’s the thing about deals involving information.”
Sneaky, filthy fairy. “So why should I agree to another one of those with you?” I was already succumbing to her and she could tell. I hated it, but if Abrax wasn’t going to tell me anything, I had to take a risk. He was no good to anyone dead and back in hell, anyway.
“Because you’d complete it right here, right now. No debt,” Nijaria said. She was so calm, it was like she already knew it was done. She threw another disgusted look Abrax’s way. “Although, I have to say, I thought he was stronger. Couldn’t even possess you properly. Maybe he isn’t worth that much, after all.”
“It’s her,” Abrax said, barely moving his lips. “I can’t…I can’t possess her.”
“Well, would you look at that?” Nijaria turned her lifeless eyes at me. “Being an Elemental sure has its perks.”
A handy piece of information to have, in fact, that demons couldn’t easily possess me. But that wasn’t important yet. My mind was already made. I’d trade Abrax’s life for information. Like the fairy said, the debt would be paid in full, right now, so what was the worse that could happen?
“I’ll spare Abrax’s life in this body if you tell me the whole truth about Aaron.” Not sure how specific that was, but I had to trust it would be good enough.
Nijaria’s face broke into a huge smile. “Just when I thought the day couldn’t get better.”
She walked ahead, past the chair and us, and she went to sit on one of the armchairs at the other corner of the shop. What the fuck was she doing?
“You may let him go now. He’s not going to move for a while.” Nijaria patted the armchair next to her.
I could either argue with her to just talk already and drag this on even more, or I could just walk over to the fucking chairs and indulge her. I chose the latter. The demon wasn’t going anywhere, anyway. His knees had only healed halfway so far.
With all my weapons on my person again, I moved to the armchairs and waited. Looking the fairy who had given birth to me in the eye was like looking in the mirror—something I didn’t do very often, especially lately, but I made myself do it because I couldn’t afford to show any sign of weakness. Not in front of her. Thankfully, she began to speak right away.
“When Mara gave me her firstborn, and when Thomas the shifter came to claim him from me, I was ready and willing to make the deal. However, the fairy rules dictate that no fairy slave leaves our Realm on the account of a deal only.”
Referring to Aaron as a slave, even more so when he had been just a baby, made me shiver, but I held my tongue.
“A guarantee is needed in most cases, a guarantee from someone, or something of high power.”
“Tytania,” I breathed. She’d guaranteed for Aaron.
But Nijaria shook her head. “No, a former queen without power cannot be a guarantee. For one, the baby shifter wasn’t a fairy. It was demon. So a demon had to pledge an oath to the Courts to relieve Aaron of his slave duties to me.”
The ground shook beneath my feet. “Azazel.”
And the fairy nodded. I jumped to my feet so fast, I thought I was going to get lightheaded. The door, though only three feet away, seemed to be in another continent. Azazel. Azazel was one of the strongest demons to walk the earth. Almost invincible. The things I read about him…
“Wait.” Nijaria’s voice crashed the bubble that had formed around me and stopped that horrible noise in my head. “You did ask for the whole truth, I reckon.”
I didn’t want to know. No good story was going to come out of the fairy’s mouth. Yet, despite myself, I turned to face her one last time. I just looked at her eyes that threatened to swallow me whole because I wasn’t sure I could produce a strong enough voice.
“When Azazel swore an oath to the Courts, one way he could ensure that it wouldn’t be broken was to connect to the little demon shifter.”
“Connect?” I was right. It was barely a whisper that left my lips.
“Yes, connect mentally, if you will, as he is connected to many of his demons on Earth. And since you can’t seem to be able to speak—and I do love to render others speechless like this—I’ll even tell you what that means. It means that your little demon’s mind is Azazel’s to explore. In fact, that little demon is entirely Azazel’s.”
I couldn’t blink for the longest second, and my eyes were glued to Nijaria’s face. Perhaps that was why I could never again get that sickening smile of hers out of my mind.
***
It took me the whole ride back to Frosty’s coven to get hold of my thoughts. Once my head was a little clear, I thank God the vampire had made me eat. I would’ve fallen to the ground long ago, if he hadn’t. The ideas that invaded my mind were terrible to say the least. Treason. Betrayal. Helplessness was a big part of the emotional ball that seemed to have stuck in my throat and was determined to make it hard for me to breathe.
When I finally made it back, I was greeted by a very excited Frosty.
“Thea woke up. I think you want to hear what she has to say.”
I definitely did. Couldn’t be much worse than what Nijaria told me, could it? So with a nod, I walked past him and made my way straight for the stairs. He wouldn’t have any trouble picking up the pace.
The new vampire had been put in a different room, two other males by her side. To my surprise, she looked a lot better than the ones who came before her, or maybe she’d had more time to recover. Her long black hair was a greasy, tangled mess, but her face looked pretty much like a normal face of the dead. Her smudged mascara gave her a look you could only find in horror movies. Since vampires couldn’t produce tears, my guess was that she had been tortured with water. Other than that, there was no other wound I could see on her body. She’d had enough time to heal.
She looked up when we walked in but didn’t exactly look afraid, which was always a plus. I couldn’t have her freaking out right now. Frosty kicked the two male vampires out with a nod of his head and closed the door behind them.
“Thea, this is Star. She’s helping us find the others and hopefully get them back,” he said. “I want you to tell her what you told me.”
Thea pressed her lips together tightly as she took all of me in with a curious spark in her light eyes. I couldn’t make her speak fast enough because she wasn’t going to break down like Kirsten. At least she didn’t look like she would.
“It’s okay. You can tell her. Go ahead.” Frosty’s voice was light and soft as if he were speaking to a child. Good for him. He really did care about his vampires.
And The
a seemed to appreciate it, too. With a nod, she spoke, her voice still scratchy.
“I went to the toilet to refresh my makeup,” she started. “The next second, I was strapped to a chair and held down with silver along with a lot of others from the coven.” She closed her eyes and exhaled loudly. “We were underground somewhere—stone walls and a dirt floor. The chairs were placed in a perfect circle and h-h-he stayed right in the center.”
“Who was he?” I asked and her hands began to shake.
“I don’t know,” she whispered. “We couldn’t see his face.”
A description would have been handy, but I didn’t want to push the poor girl. She looked so young—no older than my Ella.
“What else do you remember?” Frosty asked as if he knew that the question would be much better answered if it came from him.
“There was blood,” she said, her eyes closed again. “We were tied to it somehow, and he…he used it—and us—to call something. Someone.”
“What do you mean?” I looked up at Frosty who had his eyes still on Thea’s face, his lips pressed.
“I don’t know.” Thea shook her head, her eyes squeezed shut tightly now, as if she could see. I hated to do this to her, but we needed as much information as we could get our hands on. So I pressed.
“I know this sucks, but there are others out there who need our help. The more we know, the faster we’re going to find them.” If we ever did, I thought, and that was dangerous all on its own.
“He took over me. Over my mind. I couldn’t m-m-move.” She covered her face with her hands. “All I could see and hear was the blood. I wanted to find it, to drink it, to own it.” Her nails were almost digging through her skin now. I couldn’t even imagine what she was going through. “And then we found it. He found it. But by that time, I was no longer…there.”