by Sam Cheever
The grin on his face widened. “Go talk to Raoul, Astra.”
With a final glare I left and took the damn stairs down to the parking level.
* * * * *
Raoul was in his backyard, on his knees digging in the dirt of what looked like an herb garden. Having never dug in the dirt in my life, my first thought was that Raoul had gone over into his happy place and would be lost to retrieval.
He heard my approach and looked up, sexy brown eyes narrowing as he smiled in welcome. “My day is looking up.” He stood and turned toward me, brushing dirt-coated hands on his soft, gray pants. “How’s my favorite demon hunter?” He walked over and put his arms around me, careful not to touch me with his hands.
I wasn’t sure how to react to the hug. Although Raoul and I had moved into the realm of comfortable with each other, maybe even close to friendship, over the last couple of years of working together, we’d never before shown any kind of outward affection toward each other. I stood with my hands at my sides for a few beats and then placed them uncomfortably on his back, patting him. It came across as clumsy and insincere.
When he finally stepped back he gave me a wry look. “I’m afraid to ask why you’re here.”
I grinned. “You should be.”
He nodded. “Let’s go inside, I could use something cool to drink.”
I followed him into his place, which was light and cool and filled with natural fibers and potted plants. It looked like a girl’s place.
He caught me looking around and smiled. “I know, it looks like a woman should live here right?”
When I shrugged my shoulders he laughed. “People tell me that all the time.” He looked around. “I guess, in my line of work, everything’s so dark, it soothes me to come home to light colors and natural things.”
“That makes sense.”
He nodded. Moving into an abbreviated food service area, he washed his hands and then pulled two cold tubes from a small refrigerated unit and handed one to me. I pulled open the corner of the foil tube and took a sip. It tasted like fruit and stuff, very sweet but it felt cool and creamy in my mouth.
Raoul lowered his butt onto one of the tall stools at the counter and looked at me. “So, what can I do for you, Astra?”
I followed his lead. Dropping my own butt onto the stool next to him, I took another sip of my fruity concoction, stalling for time, before I answered him.
I stared at him for several beats, reluctant to ask for his help when I knew it would most likely drag him into my mess. But, like earlier, I couldn’t see any way around it so I took a deep breath and dived in. “King Dialle the First summoned me to his rooms to tell me that the demons are staging a revolt to try to win independence from the royals. He believes they will go after humans to create a stir, which the royals can’t afford.”
Raoul whistled softly. “I’ve been afraid of this happening. The royals have infiltrated the human way of life so completely it’s made them vulnerable. The demons do have some leverage if they can create fear and use it against the royals.”
I nodded and watched him. Raoul’s mind was very sharp and he’d been working in the Strange Deaths department of the police for over a decade. He knew his dark worlders. Suddenly he looked up at me. “What aren’t you telling me? Why are you coming to me with this?”
“The king has heard that the local coven is pulling the strings of the revolt.”
Raoul set his drink down with more emphasis than was strictly necessary. “That’s preposterous!”
“He’s not the only one who’s heard this.” I was praying he wouldn’t ask me who else had heard the rumor. I didn’t want him to know it was Emo.
His sharp, brown gaze locked onto mine and I felt myself wanting to look away. “Who else has told you this lie?”
Hades! “That isn’t important…”
“To me it is.”
His normally calm face had become a storm cloud before my very eyes. His reaction seemed a bit extreme to me.
“Raoul, how well do you know your Supreme High Witch?”
It was his turn to stare at me. His light brown face had grown tight with anger, his lips pressed together into a thin, disapproving line. “I know her very well.”
“Then you would know if she had…shall we say…delusions of grandeur?”
Raoul just sat there staring at me, his face changing color from smooth light brown to a deep, mottled purple. I stared back, knowing that what I was asking him wasn’t going down well but not knowing what to do about it. If Raoul had information about the coven that would help me I had to get it from him. Human lives were at stake.
Finally he took a deep breath and stood up. “If I knew any such thing I wouldn’t tell you, Astra. Coven business must remain in the coven. It’s one of our strictest laws. Anyone who opens coven business to outsiders risks expulsion.” His angry gaze turned soft around the edges until it gained a pleading quality. “I can’t face expulsion now, Astra. I need my white witchcraft to survive.”
I reached for his hand, which was clenched into a sweaty knot on the countertop between us. “I understand that you’re dealing with some personal issues, Raoul. Believe me when I tell you I never wanted to bring any of this to you. But you’re part of the coven and I need your perspective, that’s all.”
He stared at me for a beat and then looked down at our hands, sighing. Turning his hand to clasp mine, he gave my hand a squeeze and then pulled his hand away. “What you are talking about is black witchcraft. My coven practices white witchcraft. There is no place for dark magic in our world.”
“I know that’s how the coven started and even that many of your members, like you, are strict practitioners of white magic, completely shunning black. But you can’t possibly be naïve enough to think no one in your coven has dabbled in black, Raoul.”
His fist came down hard on the counter. “Damn it, Astra, let it go!”
“I can’t.”
He pushed his face so close to mine I inhaled fruity drink fumes from his breath. His lips looked soft and plump and for the tiniest fraction of time I wondered what it would be like to kiss him. Then he grabbed my wrist in a hard grip and gritted his teeth at me and kissing became the furthest thing from my mind.
“You, of all people should understand how dangerous the Supreme High Witch is, Astra. I will deal with her and the coven. You have to trust me in this.”
My eyes had grown very wide. I tried to tug my arm away from him. It hurt more than a little bit. And, although I was very brave, I felt a girly-type whimper building and I was afraid I might embarrass myself.
After a few insistent tugs he seemed to realize what he was doing and looked down at my arm, dropping it as if it held an electrical current. “God, I’m sorry, Astra. I just haven’t been myself lately.” He turned away and grabbed a tall, clear tube of amber liquid off the counter by the sink. He tilted the tube into his mouth and took two long swallows of the liquid inside and shuddered before turning back to me.
“I’ve asked for some personal leave from the Strange Deaths Department. I need to get my head screwed back on straight before I can go back to solving gruesome murders and dark world dilemmas.”
I nodded and sat back down on the stool. “I know that and I’m sorry to dump this on you. But if the demons make good on their threat, a lot of human blood is going to be spilled. I have a feeling that I don’t have much time to get ahead of this. I need your help.”
His shoulders drooped a bit and he took another swig from the clear tube. “What do you want me to do?”
I sighed inwardly. His voice sounded so strained. “I need you to be my eyes and ears inside the coven. Anything you can find out about the witches’ involvement in this will help. Can you do that for me?”
He stood in front of the sink staring down at the floor. His dark brown curls drooped over his forehead, hiding his eyes from me. But I knew what I would see there if he looked at me. He was weary and frustrated. He was fighting some kind of inter
nal battle that was overwhelming him.
And I was piling more stress on.
After a moment he nodded. “I’ll see what I can find out, Astra.” He looked up at me, “But I’m not making any promises. I won’t spy on my coven for you.”
It wasn’t perfect but it was better than nothing. “I understand. Thanks, Raoul.”
I left him still staring at the floor, the clear tube clutched in his right hand.
Chapter Three
Bad Demon!
Her scaly foe did look at her, with eyes afloat in fear
That big bad demon hunter girl, should zap him in the ear.
Astra, come to me.
I jumped as my mental drawers were invaded and cursed. Hades, Dialle, you shouldn’t sneak up on a girl that way. I almost peed myself.
I heard his soft chuckle in my mind and shivered under the heat it left behind. Kinky but I’ll give it some thought. I need you here with me, now. Gerch and I have Alcott’s second and we need your…talents…to break him.
What! Have you lost your frunkin’ mind?
There was a significant mental pause and then, I don’t believe I’ve gone mad. However, if I have to spend much more time with you and I am not able to plunder your love cave with my joy stick I may indeed lose my mind.
I burst. I was laughing so hard I had to lean against the Viper to keep from falling down. No way did you just say, “plunder my love cave with your joy stick.”
I could hear the grin in his voice when he responded. Alas, that’s exactly what I said. I’ve been reading human sex novels just to get an idea how I might woo you more successfully.
I wiped tears from my cheeks, still laughing. A couple of retro Goth types passing by on the street turned to look at the crazy lady laughing to herself and I gave them a little mad lady wave. Well talking like that won’t seduce me. I might crack a rib laughing but rolling around on the floor in hilarity isn’t exactly conducive to hot monkey sex.
Dialle sighed in my mind. I guess I’ll just have to throw you on the floor and have my way with you then.
I was pretty sure he was joking. Maybe. But thoughts of my recent elevator experience brought color, bright and red, to my face and I could feel my heartbeat in my cheeks as they pulsed in embarrassment.
Where are you? Good job changing the subject, Astra.
He gave me the address and I climbed into the Viper, programming the location into the built-in navigational system. “Engage and climb,” I told the sleek red Viper and then sat back with a sigh in the soft leather seats.
All joking aside, I still wasn’t sure how I was going to handle the “relationship” thing with a royal devil. Charming though they might be, the royal devils were the most powerful and dangerous of all the dark worlders.
With a family heritage that included fallen angel, royal devil and possibly even some witch, I had always walked a fine line between good and evil. Especially since my line of work included vaporizing demons and other dark worlders when they got out of line.
The last thing I needed was to get involved with one of the royals. But unfortunately I hadn’t been allowed to make that decision for myself. Prince Dialle had claimed me with a magic daemon hickey that throbbed when he was near and gave off sparks whenever any other male type creature tried to move in on his territory. It was juvenile and outlandish. And I’d been told it was, for all intents and purposes, pretty much a solid contract between me and my luscious royal devil. Even though I definitely did not remember signing that contract, with or without my blood.
I closed my eyes and sighed, deliberately pushing the recent elevator memory and my encounter with King Dialle to the back of my mind. I could only deal with one dilemma at a time. My life was the last circle of Hell and my soul was definitely cooked.
I touched down in Angel City Cemetery and emerged from the Viper, looking around. This is such a cliché Dialle, you know that right?
I am aware of a certain vampire-in-the-cemetery aura to the location but I didn’t want to take him back to the court until my father cools down and Demonica was out of the question for this.
Which crypt are you in?
Diablo. It has a very large angel on the door. From what I know of the Diablo clan that’s a sacrilege in itself.
I quickly found the Diablo crypt and pulled the heavy door outward. Of course it creaked like a bad horror movie set. Cobwebs hung in tatters down both sides of the door, giving evidence to the recent passage of several bodies through the door.
It was dim in the crypt and had an earthy smell, overlaid with mold. I squinted toward the back of the small building but saw nothing except stone shelves with skeletons on them. “Dialle?”
Below the earth, Astra.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
I don’t think that I am, no. There are caverns below this crypt. My people have used them for centuries to move about the city.
I noticed for the first time that there was a slight glow at the back of the crypt down toward the floor and started moving toward it. I stepped carefully through the cluttered space, praying that the cracking noise I was hearing under my soft leather boots was not somebody’s delicate finger bones.
I realized as I reached the back wall that there was an opening in the floor and a ladder connected the dirt floor of the crypt to a seemingly borderless cavern below. The light in the space below the crypt was only bright enough to illuminate the floor at the bottom of the ladder.
As I stood there looking down a cold draft traveled up from the cavern, bringing with it the smell of death and decay and something that wasn’t dead but smelled like it should be. Demon.
I turned and reluctantly lowered myself down the ladder. I am so going to kill you if I ruin my sexy new boots in this cavern, Dialle.
You can try lovely Tweener but I still think Gerch and I can best you.
I snorted. Two against one. Bad odds for you.
Au Contraire lovely Astra, in the past I have found this particular formation to work very nicely for me.
Pig.
Oink, oink.
I snorted again and looked up from picking my way through marshy patches of ground to see Dialle and Gerch, with a very unhappy looking demon chained to a chair between them.
Dialle smiled at me. “Welcome, Mx. Phelps. Are you ready to perform a service for the king?”
I slanted my sea green orbs at him and raised one eyebrow. Apparently Dialle didn’t want the big bad demon to know we were…ummm…friendly. Okay, I could play that game too.
“I’m ready to hear what you are requesting, Prince Dialle. I can’t promise to help you until I know what you want me to do.”
The demon’s beady wet eyes darted back and forth between Dialle and me. It was obvious Dialle had pumped up my rep a bit and had the demon scared out of his scaly skin at the prospect of what I would do to him.
Astra Q Phelps, boogeyman.
Dialle looked from me back to the quivering mountain of gray leather in the chair and smiled. It wasn’t a nice smile. “I want you to ask Alcott’s second a few questions. He hasn’t been forthcoming with his responses to this point.” He turned away from the demon and faced me. His smile became less scary and more intimate as he met my gaze. “I think you can get the answers I want.”
I stared into his suddenly blue gaze and gasped. Don’t pull that great unifier shit with me, Dialle. I doubt the angels would sanction this questioning.
He inclined his dark head just the tiniest bit as if he were ceding me the point. You might be correct, my princess. But you know they will sanction the results if we keep the human cattle from slaughter.
I thought about that, wondering what my guardian angel, Myra would say. Then I decided she would tell me to do whatever I needed to do to save the humans. At least I think that’s what she would tell me. She can be hard to read at times, being a cranky, contrary bitch.
I gave him just the tiniest of nods.
Walking toward the demon I resisted an impulse to
hold my breath. There was nothing worse than eau de demon, especially when you had to be up close and personal.
I stared into the creature’s darting, beady eyes and smiled. My smile wasn’t a nice one either. Poor demon.
“Give me your name.”
He just looked at me, the oily discharge that passed for sweat in a demon oozed out of his overlarge pores at an accelerated rate but he didn’t speak. I gave him two points for guts and one point for brains. It was only a name after all.
I reached out and placed a finger on the very tip of one large jagged ear. An electric current raced from my finger into the sensitive tip of the ear and he screamed, jerking in the chair. Then he opened his wide mouth and showed me brown teeth, panting. “Depla.” His voice was clenched with lingering pain. The demon is oh-so very tender about the ears.
I nodded. “That’s good, Depla. That’s a good start. See how we’re getting along now?” I smiled a slightly nicer smile at him and reached toward the other ear. He tried to jerk away from me but he was chained too tightly to the chair to go very far.
I touched the tip of the ear but didn’t release my power into it. “Now if you answer my questions we won’t have to cook the other ear and, eventually, you’ll be able to slither back under the rock you climbed out from this morning.” I leaned as close to his oily face as I could force myself to go. “How much pain you feel right now is totally up to you, Depla.”
He glared at me through beady red eyes. Tears had gathered in the corners. Not a very brave demon after all.
“Why are the demons trying to break away from the royals?”
Depla shrugged, apparently that was an easy one. “King Alcott is tired of being under King Dialle’s thumb.”
He is no longer allowed to call Alcott king, Astra. My father has decreed it and he knows it. He needs to be reminded of that.
I gave Depla a jolt. As the demon screamed and writhed I walked away a couple of steps. I pretended I was giving him some space but I really just wanted to take a deep breath of air that wasn’t awash with rancid demon.
When he grew quiet again I stepped forward, placing a hand on his rock-like shoulder.