Death of a Succubus

by Kim Schubert

  He slid into the passenger seat, having just enough time to close the door before Anna gunned it.

  Logan inhaled, his lion pushing to the surface.

  “Stop. The. Car,” he demanded.

  “No, it’s the best equipped vehicle. I need her weapons.”

  “You will not drive her SUV.” Logan’s claws extended.

  “She didn’t only belong to you,” Anna hissed, taking her eyes off the road to glare at Logan for a moment.

  “She is my mate!” he roared.

  “Right, care to talk about how she entered into that role without her permission or knowledge?”

  Logan growled, “If you value your life, you will stop speaking.”

  Anna smirked and Logan’s claws dug into the seat, but she kept her silence.

  …

  Logan stood looking up at the sheer rock face, his foul mood riding him hard from being in Olivia’s vehicle, not to mention the poor company inside of it.

  “So you ready for this, big boy?” Anna taunted.

  Logan gave thought to using his claws to score the gray stone; he could see still the marks from his first visit here with Olivia. Given that he needed The Oracle’s help, he decided it would be in his best interest not to upset her.

  His hands found the holds from his earlier visit easily. He assumed it was the magic. Anna huffed next to him, her shorter legs making her work harder.

  Good, she deserved it.

  He still didn’t understand how Olivia had ever befriended her or had faith in her to run the Council. Nor was he asking. He preferred her labored breathing to whatever tactless observations she would make.

  Halfway up, Logan’s beast pressed close to the surface, anxious to have his mate returned to him. He cast a look at Anna, surprised she was keeping up so well, her long fingers moving easily from hold to hold.

  He grunted before returning his attention back to his climb.

  A few moments later Logan stopped, quieting his breathing, hearing a voice. He looked to the stone in front of him and above him, seeing no faces in the rock like he and Olivia had encountered.

  He opened his mouth to ask Anna if she also heard it, but the words died on his lips. Several rock faces were surrounding her, whispering words the wind took away from him his exceptional hearing. She kept climbing, her jaw clenched, eyes narrowed.

  Logan debated calling down to her, deciding not to. Whatever demons she had, they were hers.

  After several more long minutes, Logan’s fingers curled around the base of the arched opening and he pulled himself flat along the gray surface. He turned, keeping his stomach flat against the rock, reaching a hand down to Anna.

  She grasped it and he hauled her light weight up next to him. Her chest heaved with the exertion.

  “I hope you have hidden reserves, that is how we leave as well,” Logan warned her, or rather reminded her, since she had been here before.

  Words were beyond her as she sucked in air desperately. Logan grunted, a smile playing over his lips, enjoying her silence. He rolled away from her, standing before turning right down the long, smooth hallway. He expected taunting, as Anna had endured during the climb, but nothing came for him.

  That was cause for alarm.

  He heard Anna’s steps behind him as they entered the large, domed cavern.

  The Oracle sat facing away from them on a stone, backless couch. The arms curved upward, decorated with intricate carvings.

  “Much is amiss,” The Oracle stated, her voice so different from what Logan remembered.

  “The broken child has returned,” she continued, inclining her head slightly towards Anna, still not averting her gaze from the ever-changing rock wall in front of her.

  Anna crossed her arms over her chest, a sneer on her face, ready, no doubt, with something foolish to say. To Logan’s surprise, the only movement from her mouth was the grinding of her jaw.

  Logan turned his attention back to The Oracle, who had turned to face them, resting her delicate stone chin on her hand. She was adorned in a flowing Greek dress with a thin band around her throat, bracelets dangling from her wrists.

  “Do you remember what I said to you last time?” Still her attention was only for Anna.

  Anna raised her chin. “I do.” Her voice a whisper.

  The Oracle nodded, staring at Anna intently. “You are not the one I hoped to see here.”

  Anna bristled at the open insult. “I am all they have.” Logan wasn’t sure who the “they” were supposed to be. The kids had him, Ali and Grant.

  The Oracle tsked, tilting her head. “The broken Seven returns.”

  Logan looked at The Oracle, surprised by the name she used to address Anna and confused by the term broken.

  Anna took a step forward, before remembering herself and pulling back. “I am the same as Olivia.”

  The Oracle laughed. “I wish, dear girl. Olivia embraces her damage, it’s what pushes her, what drives her. She has accepted her blood lust and revels in it. The past may have a hold on her, but your past is going to destroy you.”

  “I. Am. Fine.” Anna hissed.

  The Oracle twirled a strand of hair around her stone finger. “Your future is littered with choices. Your salvation or your damnation lies here.”

  She uncrossed her legs, the fabric flowing around her, resettling to give the impression of knees under her dress.

  “You have come about Olivia,” The Oracle stated, acknowledging Logan. She stood, crossing the room in one fluid movement to a drink cart. Logan couldn’t say if it had been there before and wondered what a being made of stone would drink.

  A stone glass made its way to her lips before she turned back to Logan. While he found her delay annoying, he heeded the warning Olivia had given him before, The Oracle was not to be trifled with.

  “The events unfolding are bleak, indeed,” The Oracle hinted yet again.

  She sat back down on her stone couch, resting the cup next to her.

  “But you are not here about future events, only your Mate.”

  Logan nodded. He had spent the drive here carefully choosing the wording to ask The Oracle where Olivia would be.

  “I need to know where and when I can rescue Olivia.” He hoped it was the right language, simple seemed to be better.

  The Oracle picked up the glass again, touching it to her lips before resting it on her knee, tapping her index finger against it.

  “Under normal circumstances, this is where I would play with your emotions. Question if you actually believe she lives, and if you are strong enough to save her.” The Oracle sighed, her chest moving in sync with the exhale.

  Logan was growing anxious, but he kept his silence.

  “However, I fear for our future.” She shook her head, tendrils of stone hair bouncing as she did.

  “Here is what you need.” She waved a hand and Logan’s sight was taken.

  He felt his knees hit the stone and Anna’s arm around his shoulders.

  He saw Olivia on a table, men in surgical masks and gloves surrounding her naked form. Anger coursed through his blood and he roared.

  “Pay attention to the details,” Anna whispered, close to his ear.

  Logan tore his attention from his mate lying prone on the stainless steel platform to the building: no windows, gray concrete floors, dust collecting in the corners. The vision changed again, flinging him to what he assumed was the exterior of the building. Logan spun in a full circle, seeing thick trees surrounding the structure, the grass growing wild, weeds climbing up the cracking concrete face.

  The fading painted sign on the door gave him hope. “Cooper’s Mechanical,” he said out loud for Anna’s sake.

  As Olivia had described to him previously, it was like Logan was looking at his phone calendar.

  “Twelve hours from now,” Logan grunted out, the pressure in his head lessening as his vision forced its way back. He blew out a breath, giving himself a minute to regain his equilibrium before he tried standing.
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  He didn’t brush off Anna’s arm like he wanted to. Perhaps he needed to be a little kinder with her if The Oracle’s words held any truth. While he might not understand everything she said, he knew it all to be the unbiased facts.

  “We need to get going,” Anna warned him, worry and fear playing across her features.

  Logan nodded. He thought about bringing up the issue of payment in the form of a memory, but he chose not to. If she was willing to give the information freely, he was going to take it.

  The Oracle said nothing more, watching them leave.

  …

  Anna was faster going down than Logan. Swinging from the hand holds, she dropped the final few feet. Logan landed after her, making the short walk to the already running SUV.

  As he clicked his seatbelt in place, Anna put Olivia’s SUV into drive, carefully turning around before getting back on the gravel road.

  “Do you know about her past?” Anna asked softly, obviously rattled from The Oracle’s words.

  “Olivia’s?” Logan clarified, though he didn’t really think they were talking about The Oracle.

  Anna nodded.

  “Pieces, it’s not something she enjoys speaking about. Now that we are mated, I have felt the shame and misery she holds onto when she remembers it.”

  Anna only nodded, chewing on her thumbnail before drawing a breath.

  “She’s the only reason I made it out of there alive. What they made us do—” Her voice cracked before she reassembled her composure.

  Logan debated, reach out or shut her down? The Oracle’s words sounded in his ears, salvation or damnation.

  His own capture and torture wormed its way out of the locked box he tried to keep it in.

  “We have all done things, been forced to do things, we are ashamed of. Olivia tells Mindy all the time, just because they took your body, they didn’t take your power.”

  Anna didn’t look at him, nodding and rubbing at her eyes. He hoped it was enough.

  Logan sighed, rubbing his forehead. “I need to make calls. Are you alright?”

  Anna nodded, clearing her throat, “Right as rain.”

  Logan nodded, pulling out his phone and dialing Tommy. He answered instantly.

  “What did she say?”

  “Olivia is being held in an abandoned building named Cooper’s Mechanical. Can you find it?” Logan asked.

  He heard the keyboard clicking in the background. Anna shifted in her seat and he put the call on speakerphone for her benefit. Once Olivia got back, she was going to explain to him what the hell she was thinking when she wrote that will.

  “It’s in a small town called Blue Ridge in Alabama, outside of Montgomery. Drive time is eight hours, flight three,” Tommy rapidly spoke. “What else did she say?”

  “Nothing about Olivia. There were some vague references to the future being bleak.”

  “That’s helpful,” Tommy grunted.

  “Right,” Logan agreed. “Alright Tommy, I need to make more phone calls. Have you heard anything from Becky on the vampire hostages?”

  “Only that Blue has outdone his own creative techniques, and she had to stop watching the video once he started feeding them each other’s entrails.”

  “That is creative,” Logan grunted. Olivia had trained him well.

  “You want me to call the plane and get it ready?” Tommy asked.

  “I’m not sure you have authorization for that.”

  “I do. I added myself to all your online accounts.”

  “Tommy, don’t go spreading that around.”

  “Got it, boss.”

  Logan hung up, calling Hudson.

  He answered shakily, “What’s up?”

  “Doing okay?” Logan questioned.

  “Great, just watching the kids. Please tell me you have a new task for me.”

  “Call everyone. We know where Olivia is being held.”

  “Everyone?” Hudson asked.

  “Everyone. Even Mal and Raphael. I want every asset we have ready to take off in an hour.” Logan ended the call. He rubbed his chest, a piercing sensation growing from between his shoulder blades to his sternum.

  “What’s wrong?” Anna asked.

  “I don’t know. I just—“ Logan clutched his chest, coldness seeping into him.

  “No, oh by the Gods, no,” she muttered.

  Logan let out a ragged breath.

  “It’s Olivia, isn’t it?” Anna whispered.

  Logan grunted, bearing down on the sensations, refusing to believe she was dying. The Oracle — The Oracle never said Logan would find her alive; rescue, that was the word he’d used. It was implied she would be alive, yes, but he had never clarified it.

  “Anna, what if The Oracle is sending us to pick up a corpse?” Logan asked.

  She looked over at him, startled. “You used the word rescue…“ Her voice trailed off; she was probably following the same line of reasoning Logan had.

  “Shit, call Hudson back,” she said, her tone suddenly forceful. “Our flight has to leave immediately. We can have the others follow behind us. Tell him to bring the entire armory.”

  Logan nodded, making the call. She was right, not that he had plans to admit it.

  Chapter 7

  The worst of the pain edged away, clearing out of my head like fog lifting away, only to heighten my awareness of the agony that remained.

  I groaned, reaching up to cradle my pounding head.

  “Olivia, are you ready?” my father asked.

  I groaned again, such an intelligent response.

  “We don’t have much time,” Doyle warned.

  “Olivia, grant me permission to put you into this orb,” my father implored.

  I cracked my eyes open, seeing the small, empty glass orb.

  “I won’t fit,” I grunted.

  “Daughter, please,” my father whispered.

  I blinked, hearing the pounding on the door, the screaming of my mother.

  “Permission granted.”

  What the fuck did I have to lose, anyways?

  …

  Logan, Anna, Hudson, Mark and Jerry stood outside the building from Logan’s vision. They had arrived in two rented SUVs after the short flight.

  “I don’t suppose she gave you any hints on what’s inside?” Jerry asked, adjusting his leather cross body bag.

  “No, what is in your bag?” Logan questioned.

  “Spells and potions. Plus some explosives.” He shrugged on the last part.

  “We are ready. There is no more time to waste. I will go first, follow at your own risk,” Anna announced before sliding off into the shadows. She was silent, even to Logan’s ears.

  He followed her, not about to be last to this party.

  …

  Cramped wasn’t the right word. I didn’t have long to focus on the sensation before it felt like my father had thrown the orb. If I’d had a stomach, which in that cramped form I didn’t, I’d have lost the contents of it.

  Spinning, around and around, until I wished I couldn’t feel a damn thing. It occurred to me now what a vulnerable position I had put myself in. I had just willingly shoved my soul or essence or whatever the hell I was made up of into this thing, at the mercy of The Magician, my father.

  That should count for something, right? There should be some inherent family trust, even for the one who gave me to Selena.

  There wasn’t. I feared I had made a mistake.

  Finally, it ended and I was back to feeling cramped. I could almost make out sounds and muffled voices, but it was all too far away to focus on.

  …

  The door broke in easily under Anna’s kick, old rotted wood splintering willingly from the doorframe. She moved to the left following the swing of the door, while Logan took the right. He inhaled once as both of them scanned the dimly lit room. Boxes and crates littered the dirty concrete floor. Hanging overhead were large industrial lights, many of them broken.

  “Vampires,” Logan warned, before mo
ving to the first stack of boxes and kicking it over.

  Anna had gone with leather, like Olivia always did, with an impressive arsenal strapped to her. She pulled her sword first.

  Logan had chosen gray sweats, they would be easy to shred when he decided to shift. Vampires, like cockroaches exposed to light, scampered out from their hiding places, swarming Anna and Logan.

  The first vampire came at Logan, fangs bared. Logan reached out, crushing his head. His other hand partially shifted, claws extending and slicing off another cockroach’s head.

  “Mark, you keep your furry ass where I can see you!” Jerry yelled.

  A vamp latched onto Logan’s shoulder as he turned to see Jerry launching a blue bottle into the horde of attacking assholes. It splattered, sending indigo smoke up into the air. The vampires continued their advance, heedless of the smoke. Not one made it through.

  “Nice job, Jerry,” Logan complimented the mage.

  Jerry smiled giving a small bow.

  Two more vampires latched onto Logan’s back, fangs and claws cutting through the cotton sweatshirt and into his back. Turning both his hands into claws, he reached back, pushing each digit through the vampires’ necks and yanking. Both heads came off in a bloody spray.

  Hudson had shifted, protecting Anna’s back while she sliced through the horde of vampires descending on them.

  There were too many. Logan knew it. He felt it in every fiber of his being. The Oracle must have known this awaited him. Perhaps that was the reason for her melancholy; she knew if Logan stayed with her timetable, Olivia would be dead.

  With the choices he had made instead, it was possible they all would be.

  Logan’s body shifted as the next three vampires came at him, his bones popping. They tried to take advantage of his shift. As his paws hit the ground, Logan bent his knees, using the momentum of his shift to toss the vampires over his shoulders. He walked over each them, his claws slicing through their chests to pierce their hearts.

  He ripped upward, roaring on his hind legs. The numbness in his chest stopped spreading, but it was still there, still lingering.

  Jerry threw another jar, the same blue smoke dusting the vampires rushing down the stairs from the upper floor. Logan took a guess the smoke wouldn’t hurt him and tore up the stairs, following the trail of vampire dust.