A Darker Crimson

by Carolyn Jewel

  From the corner of her eye, Claudia saw the other woman back away from the brown-eyed demon, toward the door they’d come through. Deliberately, she refused to make eye contact. If the woman wanted to make a run for the door, Claudia wasn’t going to stop her, but she wasn’t going to endanger Holly, either.

  Tiberiu Korzha lifted his head. Claudia held her breath. Was the vampire going to betray her? He gave no sign of definite understanding, no sign of his intentions, but she figured he knew what was up because she could see his eyes narrow. Korzha was seriously handsome. No wonder all the women in the department got flustered when he was around. She wasn’t the promiscuous type. She didn’t sleep around. In fact, she hadn’t slept with anyone in ages, which was part of the reason Jaise had tempted her so. She hadn’t wanted to sleep with anyone in even longer, which, besides Holly, was the reason she’d told him no. She cleared her throat, and kept her hands behind her. The muzzle of her Glock pressed against her spine and burned her through her shirt.

  “Jaise,” she asked. “Where are we?”

  He turned to look at her, throwing his comm unit on the floor to join his pants, cell phone and car keys. His irises thinned, became so pale she thought she must be able to see through to the other side. “Home,” he said.

  “Home where?” The escaping woman was about three feet behind her. “Home,” she repeated for the sake of distracting Jaise. She had to pray the other demons were similarly engaged. “Home like Beverly Hills? Or home like somewhere in France?”

  Jaise let out a breath. “Biirkma city.”

  “Never heard of it.” She shifted to block his view of the door. “Is that anywhere near Van Nuys? The Valley? No? North of the city, maybe?”

  One of the demons started laughing. But another had at last noticed the woman.

  “What’s so funny?” Claudia asked. She balanced her weight on the balls of her feet and prepared to throw herself at Aslet. If there was going to be trouble, she wanted to be near Holly, and that meant taking out the platinum-blonde freak.

  But the woman caught her off guard, completely sucker-punched her. She wasn’t trying to escape, at least not yet. She got behind Claudia and instead of lunging for the door, grabbed Claudia around the knees. Claudia fell forward and got her hands out just in time to prevent her head from hitting the floor with an unpleasant crack. The woman smelled of sex and old sweat and fear, and she was a hell of a lot stronger than she looked. The brown-eyed demon let out a screech that just about shattered her eardrums.

  “Go,” the woman cried. “We have to go now while there’s still a chance. Come on. I can’t anymore. It won’t work, it won’t work without you. You’re the only one who can open the portal! You have to be touching the portal or it won’t work.”

  Claudia fought a wave of dizziness. She turned herself over, scrambling to her feet. The woman released her legs, grabbed her by the arm and hurled her toward the door. Claudia’s booted feet slid on the stone floor, and she lost her balance. Aslet, with Holly in his arms, looked over his shoulder just as she hit the ground. She rolled again and sprang toward him.

  From behind her the woman got an arm around Claudia’s throat, cutting off her breath. Claudia grasped the other woman’s forearm, yanking down, trying to ease the pressure. Someone said a guttural word, but Jaise roared a denial. She heard a thunk. Something hit the door. The planks rattled in the frame. Off-balance, Claudia threw out her other hand, slapping the surface behind her. The feeling in her arm disappeared. Pain rushed through the rest of her body, agonizing pain. But then she felt a quiver, a sense of elongation. Her hand disappeared up to her wrist, then up to her elbow. She smelled the derelict basement with its werewolf musk. She threw her hand forward, out of and away from the door, and stretched toward Aslet. “Holly!” she cried.

  The brown-eyed demon leapt forward and, in one bound, had the woman by the elbow, hauling her back. Claudia felt her air cut off as she was dragged. But the woman kicked out and clipped the demon in the gut. He went down. In one motion, the woman took Claudia’s gun and pressed the barrel to her temple. “Come with me,” she said, “or you’re dead right now.”

  “Not without my daughter.”

  The woman laughed and tightened her arm around Claudia’s throat. The Glock’s trigger clicked.

  Nothing happened.

  Claudia, facing Aslet and Jaise and the others, couldn’t breathe. In another few moments it wouldn’t matter that her gun had misfired. The brown-eyed demon approached.

  Moaning, the woman dragged Claudia backward toward the door. Claudia managed to trip them and the two of them went down in a heap. Claudia jackknifed and slid sideways. Her leg slammed into the door and went through the wood like it was water. She screamed in pain. Near her, she saw the woman’s eyes go wide. The brown-eyed demon roared and lunged for the portal. Claudia watched him put a hand on the surface and keep going. His arm disappeared and then his shoulder, then he slid through, and was gone. One of the other demons grabbed the woman and hauled her back.

  Jaise grabbed Claudia by the arms and hauled her into the center of the room. The moment she lost contact with the door, the buzzing, dizzying hum in her head ceased. Steam rose from her gun where it lay on the floor. She got free of Jaise and lunged for the weapon. She rolled, brought it up and pointed it at Jaise. “Give me back my daughter. Now.”

  The demon Aslet shook his head, amused. “She belongs here,” he said.

  “The hell she does.” She glared at the white-haired demon. “Give her to me or your boss is dead.”

  Aslet laughed.

  Claudia squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened. She lowered her sights, aiming for Jaise’s chest, and pulled the trigger again. In the blink of an eye, the metal turned white hot, searing her hand. She screamed and dropped it. The weapon sizzled as it hit the ground. All the synthetic parts went up in smoke. The metal parts collapsed in, distorting and bending until she didn’t recognize the parts.

  In the meantime, Jaise strode to the captive, now sobbing near the door. He hauled her to her feet and, with a snap that reverberated in Claudia’s head, he broke her neck. The woman’s body hit the ground and didn’t move.

  Jaise whirled and returned to Claudia. He pushed her away from the door. “Overworld technology doesn’t work here.” He ripped off her comm and pressed one of the buttons. The circuit imploded. “You see?” He threw the unit on the ground. “Your technology is useless here. We are in Orcus, Donovan. My world, not yours. Our world,” he said. “Our rules, not yours.” He stared at her and she could swear she saw flames in his eyes. “Overworlders cannot live in the demon world. If you were not bound to the Elismal demons by the portal spell, you would be dead, like the others.” He nodded toward the door they’d come through and to the red mist on the stone floor.

  “Korzha’s not dead.”

  “Some might say,” the vampire said, “that is something of a misstatement, Officer.”

  “Only demons and half-demons can live in Orcus,” Aslet said. “Humans must be bound as I bound you, or they die.”

  “What have you done to Holly?”

  “Not what you think.” Alset smiled. “Your daughter can live here because she is half demon.”

  Claudia fought to control her anger. “Like hell.”

  “Aslet is right,” Jaise said. “She belongs here.” Jaise faced her and pressed his palms together. The demon touched the tips of his fingers to his forehead. Her skin flashed hot. He opened his eyes. After a moment he said, “I am called Jaise. I am an Elismal demon.” He held out his hands at waist level, like anyone should have known that.

  “Thanks for the news bulletin. Now give me back my daughter.”

  “Aslet,” Jaise said, turning to his cohort. “Take the child to Biirkma palace.”

  “No!” Claudia darted toward Holly. Her voice sounded shrill, high and thin. “Jaise, no! Please. What are you doing?” Jaise took her upper arm in a tight grip. She whirled and struck at him, leaning all her weight in the o
ther direction. Her heart slammed against her ribs. “Holly!” Aslet turned and headed for the other door with Holly in his arms. Claudia’s breath stopped. Her world stopped. “Holly!”

  Jaise twisted her arm, wrenching her shoulder in its socket so that the pain sent her to her knees. Claudia stared at the erstwhile B-Ops commander. “No,” she said through the pain. “For God’s sake, Jaise, where is he taking her?”

  “Claudia Donovan,” Jaise said in an amused voice. “You have nothing to fear. Aslet will keep her safe. Unless I tell him otherwise.”

  Claudia turned to Jaise again and said, “Hurt her, and I swear I’ll hunt you down and tear out your eyeballs.”

  Jaise laughed and stepped close. “You could try.” His fingers brushed the line of her cheekbones. Her stomach bottomed out. “We are in the demon world, now, Donovan, and you and your child will never leave here without me.”

  Aslet disappeared. Along with her daughter.

  Chapter Nine

  In the velvet night of Orcus, a red-tinged moon filled the sky. Stars shimmered like diamonds scattered across the heavens by a careless god. Korzha was, for a moment, taken back to a time when walking in the dark of night meant a heavenly vault that took your breath and reminded even an immortal that life sometimes required passionate embrace. The air had a peculiar taste, with a sharper scent that was cleaner and older. A resonance echoed through him. Familiarity. Recognition. Not only demons were here in the city of Biirkma.

  The air around him pulsed, and he smelled that peculiar burnt scent that had so tickled his senses at the construction site that he’d let Officer Donovan see him there. He turned to look around, and, half a heartbeat later, Donovan collapsed. One of the demons bent over her. Jaise shouted. Korzha made the mistake, a rare one for him, of assuming the attack had been aimed at her. He reacted on instinct. After centuries of indolence, centuries under a diminishing sky, old habits, original habits, weren’t so far away. He still could not stand to see a woman hurt, particularly one whom he’d already failed by not protecting her daughter as promised.

  Because of his previous dealings with Jaise, he knew more about demons than just about anyone in Crimson City, but he had a great deal more to learn. One thing he did know was that in addition to being extremely long-lived, upwards of several hundred years, demons approached sex, mating, they called it, in a manner that, to a human, seemed highly casual. For a demon, mating was like food. They were a hungry lot. For all that Donovan was a cop, she seemed too delicate to withstand the sustained sexual attentions of demons. She played tough, talked tough, but underneath, she was decent and that made her vulnerable. What a pity, he thought. She’d never see her daughter again. This was his fault. His.

  That was when the equivalent of a freight train hit him between the shoulder blades. He felt the nerve-slivering pain of bones breaking, puncturing internal organs. Even if he’d possessed the robust strength of the recently-fed he’d have had a time recovering from the blow. Something electric shot upward from the locus of the impact and sizzled in his head. He struggled to keep his feet as his injuries spread, and the new demon who’d appeared, whose lust for Officer Donovan broadcast itself even now, put rough hands on her.

  Behind the demon who held Donovan, Jaise said something low and guttural. Korzha’s last thoughts were that he pitied the woman, then light flashed, pain burst through him, and Korzha lost consciousness.

  • • •

  When he next opened his eyes, it was to a windowless room with but one door and no window. Tiber’s internal clock seemed to function here in Orcus. If that was a correct assumption, at least one night had passed since he’d followed Donovan through the portal. He tended to wake early and always had. Over the centuries, his rising time had increased perhaps a second or two a year, and eventually that meant he rose to sunset rather than full dark. The receding sun echoed in his bones. The injuries he’d suffered were healed, but they’d been extensive, and he was correspondingly hungry. For now, he had to tuck away the hunger and take stock of his predicament.

  The room was too large to be a jail and too clean to be a dungeon. He’d been in his share of both. The pallet on which he lay provided no protection from the frigid stones beneath. On the other hand, there was no smell of staleness or unwashed fabric. No fleas, no ticks, no lice. No vermin of any sort. Just cold, bare walls. In another corner there were the necessary fixtures for a human, pleasantries for a vampire: shower, toilet, sink. But nothing else.

  He closed his eyes and let his senses drift. Demons did not feel so different from humans, and not all were as insistent as the ones who’d been at the portal. Of course, some of them were more insistent. Wherever he was locked away, demons weren’t far. Nor were humans near. The veil between the worlds was supposed to be sealed, but, as Jaise had claimed, demons had found a way through, one that involved humans. He wondered what, exactly, they’d done to Donovan to enable her ability to open the portal. He wondered, too, if Officer Donovan was still alive. He hoped he was wrong about her fate. Her death would be intolerable. A woman and a child? Intolerable to have such blood on his hands.

  As for being locked away, he doubted the door would withstand his concerted effort to defeat it. Of course, it wouldn’t be easy, either. A layer of what he could only characterize as a sort of electrified oil coated the lock and defied his attempts to engage the tumblers from this distance. He did prefer the elegance of moving the parts without physical effort, but sometimes need dictated action. With the growing fullness of night, trenchant hunger licked at him, ate at his belly, whispered to be fed. Just as he prepared for a brute force attack, the door opened. Korzha flowed to his feet, and the demon Jaise walked in.

  Here in Orcus, the arrogance of Jaise’s face suited him. In Crimson City, the expression had made him appear careless, though he hadn’t been careless at all. In the light from the corridor, Jaise’s hair gleamed with bronze highlights amid dark honey. “Vampire,” he said.

  “Demon.” Tiber spoke with a chill that any member of Family Korzha would have known meant trouble. He brushed off his sleeve. In his human life he’d had more than one moment like this. He’d had many as he solidified his position with King and country, and more again as a vampire in control of Family Korzha. In the last three hundred years, no one had questioned his rank or status, yet the politics of establishing one’s standing remained instinctive.

  Jaise was nearly his height, but broader through the torso. Even here, in Orcus, where demons naturally made no attempt to hide their nature, at first and even second glance he might easily pass for human. But red flickered behind his translucent grey eyes. Even a dog or a fang, as the paranormals were called in Crimson City, might have been fooled. He had warm skin, and all the scents of a living body, a beating heart, blood in veins and arteries, peristalsis, muscle, sinew and cartilage. Yes, he was warm, perhaps too warm. For a human, he’d be in a constant state of fever. But here, the demon did not hide his un-human nature. And with Jaise so near, Korzha felt the difference between them in his bones.

  The demon put his hands on his hips. “Sorry about the accommodations, fang.”

  Korzha cocked his head. He might, probably could, reach the door before Jaise could react. The question was whether he wanted to. “This is temporary, yes?” he said. One did not treat Tiberiu Korzha as if he were due anything less than the utmost respect. Jaise nodded, smiling oh so slightly. “Then I will overlook the affront to my dignity. Instead, we will discuss my safe departure from the lovely city of Biirkma.”

  “As you know.” Jaise gave a disconcertingly human shrug. “Without the Council’s agreement, our terms are not official.”

  Korzha crossed one arm over his chest and propped his elbow on his fist, settling his free hand near his mouth, as if he needed to think. He ran the pad of his thumb over the tip of a fang. Ruthlessly, he tamped down his hunger. “You insist demons keep their promises. Perhaps that is so. Unfortunately,” he said so softly that Jaise moved forward to hear. A
step farther from the door. “Unfortunately, demon, without honor, there is no trust. You have not acted with honor. Therefore, I cannot trust you.”

  “My promise is enough, vampire.”

  “Our agreement is null and void and became so the moment you tried to kill me.”

  “It was an accident.” Jaise lifted his hands. “I meant to hit the demon who touched Donovan without my permission.”

  “How clumsy of you. And how distressing for me to learn so late of your deficiencies. I’ll meet with your Council, Jaise, but the terms we negotiate will be somewhat altered. There must be compensation for my increased risk. Your lack of honor, demon,” he added, pleased to see Jaise scowl. “There is yet more risk in allying Family Korzha with someone who cannot punish when he means it.” He smiled and let his fangs show. “I have not made such a mistake in over five hundred years. It will not happen again.”

  Jaise’s eyes flickered red, obliterating all trace of grey. “You’re here, fang.” He invested that last word with the usual insult B-Ops intended for a vampire. “In the Underworld. As I promised. That’s no accident.” It was a threat, and a reminder.

  “I hope it was not.” He moved and had the satisfaction of knowing he’d unsettled the demon. “Let’s move on to the reason I came here, shall we? Tell me about the rogue.”

  “I’ve told you all you need to know.”

  “So you say.” Korzha pressed his palms together and, for a moment, touched the outsides of his index fingers lightly against his lips. “But you lack honor, so, alas, I must ask you now for a gesture of good faith.”

  Jaise’s eyes flared again. “I am Nir of the Elismal demons, fang. I promised the Elismal demons will protect you and your Family Korzha. In return for your intervention and influence with the other vampires.”

  “Perhaps the Dumonts would be willing to negotiate with you.” Korzha let the corner of his mouth twitch. Jaise wanted his Elismal demons, not some other branch of demons, firmly ensconced in the political structures of Crimson City. Where better to start than with the wealth and power of the vampires? “Fleur Dumont is quite beautiful. I’m sure you’ll enjoy coming to terms with her.”