Then the blond man walked out the door with the succubus on his arm.
Lexi let the video play, but there was nothing more to see. Closing the file, she happened to notice the time on the computer.
“It’s going to be getting dark soon,” she told Darius. “We don’t want to be here when the vampires start waking up.”
He nodded. “Let’s go.”
She stopped the video, closed the files and turned off both the security and computer systems. Then Darius was able to locate the mechanism to return the bookcases to their previous position and they left the office. When Lexi turned to look back at the door, it was gone, replaced once again by the hanging panel of drapes.
They walked through the club and as they reached the door, Lexi saw the board where the bouncer had tacked the card. She found the one posted in the video and took it down.
“If the succubus is as dangerous as you say, maybe we should pay this Howard Parks a visit,” she suggested.
“Good idea,” Darius said. “Let’s go.”
They left the club, taking care to lock the door behind them. As they headed down the sidewalk, Lexi pulled out her cell phone and called Mai’s apartment again. There was still no answer. She tried Mai’s office and cell phone in turn, with the same luck. Lexi was starting to get concerned now. This wouldn’t be the first time her wood-nymph friend had gotten into trouble during an investigation.
Five years ago, Mai had infiltrated the inner circle of a major con-artist ring. But she had let herself get too involved with the thugs running the show. The only reason she was still alive was because she’d been arrested on minor charges for involvement in one of the scams before the ringleader had a chance to discover what she was up to and kill her.
Already into her next project, Mai had been too distracted to remember her court date and ended up in Lexi’s in-box as the skip of the day. And they’d been friends ever since. Lexi just hoped Mai’s luck was still holding out.
Darius was silent for much of the ride to Howard Parks’s apartment. Lexi thought they were going there to question the man about the succubus. Darius just hoped Parks was still alive. For the succubus to leave the nightclub, she must have felt very confident about her safety. The demon lord’s power and influence was even greater than Darius had first thought.
When they reached the apartment building, Darius found the front door locked.
“We can’t get in without the access code,” Lexi told him.
He started to reach for his key, but she put out a hand to stop him. “I don’t think that will work this time.” Instead, she turned to the panel of buttons beside the door and ran her finger down the list of names beside each button. When she stopped, she was pointing at the name “Parks.”
She pressed the button and then looked at him. “Maybe he’ll let us in.”
They waited for a full minute, but nothing happened. “If not”—she continued pressing the rest of the buttons—“there’s a chance someone else is home and expecting company.
To Darius’s surprise, he heard a slight buzzing noise followed by the sound of the front door unlocking. Lexi grabbed it before it could lock again, and the two went in. They took the elevator to the fourth floor and Darius followed Lexi down the hall.
“This is the address on the card,” Lexi told him, stopping in front of one of the doors. She looked at him. “You know that this guy might not know anything.”
Darius nodded.“Let’s see what he has to say anyway.”
She knocked on the door and waited a full two minutes before knocking again. After the third time, Darius pulled out his key.
Inside, it seemed like an ordinary apartment—clean but lived in. Everything was turned off, like the owner had left for the day.
“Doesn’t look like he’s home,” Darius said. Lexi didn’t respond, and when he turned to look at her, she had a peculiar expression on her face. “Lexi?”
“I don’t know,” she said slowly. “Something doesn’t smell right.” Without another word, she walked to the back of the apartment and disappeared into one of the three rooms.
Darius followed more slowly. He was noticing the trail of men’s clothes that started in the living room and continued down the hallway. They lay in heaps, like someone had taken them off in a hurry and forgotten them. In an otherwise tidy apartment, he knew what it meant. Parks hadn’t been able to pick up his clothes after sex with the succubus.
“Found him,” Lexi hollered a second later, and Darius didn’t need her to tell him Parks was dead.
In the back bedroom, he saw Lexi standing beside the bed, looking down at a very still form. “If I didn’t know better, I would say he died of old age.”
Moving to stand beside her, Darius looked down at the body. Howard Parks, whom he’d guessed to be thirty-four or thirty-five from his image on the video, now looked ancient. His face had aged, the skin withered. His blond hair had lost its luster and appeared gray. Even the hands, resting on top of the blankets, looked frail and worn.
“I’ve never seen a demon do this,” Lexi said softly.
“Not a demon,” he corrected. “A succubus. They’re a thousand times worse than the demons you’re used to seeing. They don’t just feed off living magic. They suck their victims dry, leaving behind this dry, withered shell. It’s why the Mother Goddess destroyed them all those years ago.”
“All except this one,” Lexi pointed out.
“Yeah. All except this one.”
“Damn it,” Lexi suddenly swore. “I’ve got to get out of here.” She was already heading for the door.
“Wait, where are you going?”
She stopped and stared at him, for the first time truly understanding how he felt about his brother Tain. “My best friend was with this guy last night. I don’t fully understand what’s going on, but I’ m afraid Mai is somehow mixed up in it. I’ve got to find her—now.”
CHAPTER NINE
Lexi left Darius to further study Howard Parks’s apartment and caught a cab to Mai’s building.
The doorman greeted her by name as she entered, but Lexi had no time for pleasantries. She had a hard time holding still during the elevator ride. When she reached Mai’s apartment on the tenth floor, she knocked and listened closely.
Knocking again, she waited. When Mai still didn’t appear at the door, Lexi used the key her friend had given her.
“Mai, you home?” she hollered as she opened the door, not wanting to surprise Mai if she was in the bedroom entertaining a guest.
A quick inspection of the apartment showed that it was empty. There were signs that Mai had been there, however. The dress Lexi had seen her wearing in the video was lying on the bedroom floor beside the closet. There were dirty dishes in the kitchen sink, and an unfinished glass of soda was still on the table. The ice had long since melted, but when Lexi shook the glass, the soda still fizzed. Mai had been there sometime in the last couple of hours, which went a long way toward easing Lexi’s worries.
She walked over to the kitchen counter, looking for a notepad so she could leave Mai a message to call her. Noticing Mai’s calendar lying open, she turned it toward her and read the one appointment Mai had entered for the day—and it left her feeling cold. 9:00 p.m., The Crypt, Domino Costume Party—Party room in back.
By 8:45 p.m. Lexi had turned down several offers to have sex. She was standing in the back of the Crypt, near the registration desk for the party room, so she supposed it was natural that men would assume she was looking for action.
Not for the first time since they parted that afternoon, Lexi wished Darius were at her side. As frustrating as he could be sometimes, at least he was someone she could confide in—someone she could trust. They hadn’t made plans to meet up again, but she figured he’d be back at the apartment when she got home.
Home is looking better and better, Lexi thought as she waited in line for the domino party. She had hoped to find Mai before it started. After running home from Mai’s place to chang
e clothes and make a quick call to Heather, she’d immediately returned to the Crypt, but she still hadn’t spotted her friend.
Lexi was beginning to grow anxious. She just wanted to find Mai and get the hell out of there. The longer she stayed, the greater the chance she’d actually have to participate.
She glanced at her watch and saw it was 9:00. The party hostess was gesturing to her. Did she really want to go through with this?
The image of Howard Parks’s withered face flashed before her, and she knew there was no decision to make. She pushed away from the wall and followed the hostess into the back.
There, she was shown into a dressing room, instructed to remove her clothes and don the black hooded robe hanging there. She was handed a shiny white domino mask and told not to leave the dressing room unless she was wearing that mask. It was not to be removed under any circumstance for the duration of the party.
Once she was in costume, Lexi turned to examine her appearance in the mirror. It was startling. The mask covered most of her face so that she was completely unrecognizable. With the cloak and hood on, it was difficult to tell if she was male or female. Distinguishing Mai from the rest of the guests would be next to impossible. But right now, this was the best option she had.
When Lexi left the dressing room, she was shown into the large group-sex room. Though she’d never been there before, it looked just as it had on the video. It was a large open room with area rugs laid out in two rows, so that the room seemed divided in half. On each rug there was either a collection of pillows or an overstuffed bench that reminded Lexi of a narrow twin-bed mattress.
Hidden behind the mask, Lexi felt more comfortable moving into the room. Other guests were arriving, and Lexi noted that while some guests wore the white domino masks, others wore black ones. She hoped this was how she could tell the men from the women.
Lexi walked about the room, taking a closer look at each figure, trying to decide which of the whitemasked people might be Mai. She was distracted from her search when a black-masked figure walked up to her and let his hand trail down her arm.
“Have I got a treat for you, pet,” he said in a selfassured tone that grated on her nerves. Before she could think of anything to say, he opened the front of his gown, proudly displaying his erection.
“Impressive,” she said. But was it real? She silently spoke the incantation Heather had given her and generated enough of her magic to give the incantation strength. Immediately the man’s aura shifted to black, and Lexi knew she was facing a demon. “Not interested,” she said and moved on before he could stop her.
She invoked the incantation again and immediately saw that while most of the females in the room were human, most of the males weren’t. There were only a couple of men whose aura showed the white of a living-magic creature. Lexi made her way toward them. If she were going to have sex with anyone tonight, it was not going to be with something of death magic. These times were too dangerous. But if she didn’t find Mai soon, she had to get a partner, or they’d make her leave.
Spotting a tall, cloaked figure with a white aura, she made her way toward him. She was almost to him when she noticed another figure in a white mask moving his way. Before Lexi could get close enough to draw his attention, the other figure opened the front of her cloak, exposing her charms.
Almost immediately, several other males rushed to her from across the room. The male who had been the intended target merely walked past them—and away from Lexi.
By now, couples and small groups were forming. Lexi saw that the other living-magic creature in the room had taken a partner, which left her with the choice of a demon or the tall man. Though the demon was closer, Lexi hurried after the tall man, catching up to him just before he reached another woman. Lexi grabbed the back of his cloak and gave it a tug, to get his attention. When he turned around, she gave him a slow, seductive smile.
He reached out to brush the back of his fingers against the lock of hair escaping from her hood. His hand dropped from there to run lightly across her breasts. Her nipples immediately stiffened. She blushed, embarrassed to have such a reaction to a complete stranger, especially when he seemed to notice.
It’s just because of the full moon, she told herself, though it was difficult to form the thought as the man was now palming both breasts through her robe. She felt a tightening between her legs and struggled to remember why she was there in the first place: to find Mai.
He kissed her then, and the hunger rose. The wolf in her demanded that she mate with this male, that she alleviate the need growing inside her. Her senses turned lupine, and suddenly everything in the dim room seemed more intense. The music being piped in rang clean and clear, distinct from the gasps and moans coming from the couples all around them. And the smell of sex was everywhere.
Lexi felt moisture pool between her legs, and when the man opened her robe and pushed the fabric aside, she welcomed the cool breeze against her overheated skin. When he ran his hands across her, his roughened palms created a delicious friction that left her shivering.
Individual actions were lost as her entire being was focused on the sensations he aroused. She was barely conscious of having moved to lie on one of the beds. When the man climbed on top of her, she didn’t care that he still wore his robe—she only cared that his erection was merely pressing against her while she wanted it inside her.
She rubbed herself against him until he lowered his mouth to the nape of her neck and gently sucked at the skin, pulling a reaction from deep within her belly. She responded by reaching down between them to take his pulsing member in her hand and, closing her eyes, guided him to her where—thank the goddess—he finally took the hint.
She felt the rounded end of his shaft probing the opening between her legs as he used her moisture to coat the head of his penis. Her body stretched to accommodate him as he pushed into her, and she had the fleeting thought that this was the second time in less than a week that she’d been with a man who filled her so completely. Then the thought was gone and she was consumed with a hunger so fierce, she thought it might devour her whole if she couldn’t satisfy it. She contracted her inner muscles around him, squeezing with enough pressure that his hiss of breath brushed against her neck.
Opening her eyes, she saw that the man’s robe had fallen open. A rush of white-hot desire shot through her, and she didn’t even try to suppress the urge to let her hand travel across the expanse of his chest, pushing his robe back.
Lost in the tactile sensation of all that male virility, she didn’t at first notice the textured pattern of colors across his chest. When she did, she had to blink several times to make sense of them. Then, to her horror, she realized she was looking at a golden serpent in the shape of a figure eight tattooed over his heart and a smiling dragon tattooed on the opposite side.
“Darius?” she croaked, pushing at his chest until he stopped. “Mother Goddess—Darius, is that you?”
He blinked down at her several times as if waking up from a dream and forcibly swallowed. “Yeah, it’s me.”
“What are you doing here?”
He sort of shook himself and then glanced down to where their bodies were joined. “I would have thought that was obvious.” He moved his hips, and it was enough to drag a gasp from her. She couldn’t help moving her own hips in response.
“Mighty Re,” he swore, “give me strength.” He pulled off his mask first and then hers. “I thought I could…” He swallowed again. “I was wrong. You feel too good. I…”
He looked off into the room, like he wasn’t sure what to do. Then his head jerked up a little further and she heard him mutter, “There she is.” Then he was unceremoniously scrambling off her. “Lexi, I…” He looked across the room once more. “I’ll explain later—I have to go.”
She hadn’t even had a chance to bring her knees back together before he was running away, leaving her more humiliated and angry than she’d ever been before.
Whipping her robe about her, she g
ot off the couch and raced from the room, pushing through the crowd. She was barely conscious of being out in the cool night air. With her head down, she had only one goal—to go home—but she’d only taken a couple of steps when she ran straight into a warm, hard male body. She gasped an apology and tried to make a quick escape, but the arms holding her wouldn’t let her go.
“Whoa, Lexi. It’s me.”
Startled to hear Ricco’s voice, she looked up. “What are you doing here?”
His smile turned to a frown. “I’m looking for some missing members of my gang, but more important—are you all right? You’re crying.”
She shook her head, unable to find the words, but when she tried to move past him, he wouldn’t let her. “Did someone hurt you? Because if they did—”
“No, it’s nothing.” She wiped at her eyes and tried to offer him a reassuring smile, but couldn’t. Thanks to the full moon and recent events, her emotions were raw and her hormones were, apparently, beyond her control. Tears of hurt and anger started coursing down her face.
“Here, now,” Ricco said, leading her away from the club and around the corner, where he pulled her into his arms and held her. It felt so nice to be comforted that, before she knew it, the tears were really flowing, but she couldn’t bring herself to tell him why. That would have been too embarrassing.
After a few minutes, she’d stopped crying and felt more in control. “It’s my fault. I should know better than to go into a party like that so close to the full moon. How could I possibly have thought I could stay detached?”
At that moment, Lexi heard Darius calling her name. She must have tensed, because Ricco glanced down at her. “Is that the guy who hurt you?”
“Yeah, but I don’t feel like talking to him right now.”
“Well, I’d like a few words with him.”
Alarmed, Lexi grabbed Ricco’s arm before he could walk off. “No, Ricco. Please don’t. It’ll just make the whole thing more…humiliating.”
The Darkening (Immortals) Page 11