Tales from Harborsmouth

by E.J. Stevens

  I might have been pleased by her sudden appearance if she hadn’t placed herself unmistakably in harm’s way. Aiming one’s weapon, especially one filled with pointy objects, at a blood-crazed predator was not generally looked upon as a wise course of action. Not unless you struck without hesitation.

  “Might I suggest stepping aside?” I asked, hoping she’d take my advice. Jinx stood squarely in my way. I couldn’t unleash the flames in my grasp without risking her safety.

  The vampire, Cyrus, held himself completely still, head tilted as he sized up the situation. Unless Jinx had brought an army of Hunters as backup, we were running out of time. Soon the vampire would discern that, except for a basement full of corpses, we were quite alone. I could not use fire as a weapon without striking Jinx and she stood too close to the vampire to get off more than one shot with her crossbow.

  That made Jinx easy prey.

  In a blur of movement, the vampire snarled and rushed toward Jinx, razor-tipped fingers extended like claws. I spun to the right and propelled myself forward, hoping to close the distance and intercede before the vampire reached his target.

  I heard the twang of a bowstring a mere second before a stain blossomed on the vampire’s chest. It was an admirable shot, the crossbow bolt going straight through the heart, but the bolt must not have been made of wood. The vampire continued moving forward.

  Heart pounding, I lunged, pushed Jinx aside, and rammed the shaft of my walking stick through the vampire’s chest. In this case, the walking stick was more effective than the sword it encased. A wooden stake, or rather my wooden walking stick, causes paralysis when driven through the heart of a vampire. My sword would have done nothing more than anger the creature.

  Now the vampire was pinned to the floor like a ghoulish specimen. I had no idea what to do with the man, but such decisions could wait. Cyrus wouldn’t be going anywhere soon. The vampire would keep.

  Instead, I rushed to where Jinx leaned against a nearby wall. I’d pushed her away from the vampire as gently as I could, but I was a demon filled with the hum of immense ley line power. Jinx was strong, but she was human. I hoped she hadn’t sustained any serious injuries while I’d dispatched her opponent.

  “Are you alright?” I asked.

  Jinx shook her head, smiled ruefully, and pushed herself away from the wall.

  “Yes, I’m fine,” she said. She gestured toward the faerie woman’s corpse at our feet. “But I can’t say the same for her. We need to get her to a hospital.”

  The faerie woman was beyond the services of any medical institution, I’d noted the moment when her heart had ceased to beat, but I made a show of checking her pulse. No sense reminding Jinx of how very different we were from each other. I could share my ability to feel the transcendence of a soul from the flesh in a later conversation—if there was a later. I just hoped that she had come to the realization that I’d had no part in Puck’s blood sport.

  “I’m sorry, my dear,” I said. “She’s dead.”

  Jinx flashed a pained look, but covered it quickly. She nodded and continued to take in the grisly scene.

  “And him?” she asked, pointing toward the vampire, my walking stick holding him immobile.

  “Oh, he is still very much alive…as alive as any undead creature ever really is,” I said, moving toward the vampire.

  I smelt the layers of death on him. This one had taken hundreds of lives, and reveled in it.

  “You’ve been a very naughty boy,” I said, staring down at the vampire. “I’m sure the Vampire Council will be interested to learn of your arrogant disregard for the law.”

  His eyes flicked toward an open door and I turned to see a young girl hanging from the wall, her wrists shackled to the stone. Ribbons of flesh dangled from her naked body where it hung beside a table of sharp instruments. The girl had been tortured and then drained of blood.

  I grimaced, walked stiffly to the room, and closed the door. The girl was beyond saving, her life already expired, but perhaps I could shield Jinx from witnessing such horror.

  “Yes, the council will be very interested indeed,” I said. “Too bad they won’t have a chance to punish you for your crimes.”

  Flame danced along my fingers as I walked back to where the vampire lay impaled by my walking stick.

  “Say hello to Lucifer for me,” I said, letting my lips curl in a grin. “I’m sure the two of you will soon be well acquainted.”

  I pulled my walking stick from his heart and placed a fiery hand on his chest. The vampire immediately caught fire, burning to ash within seconds.

  I stood and brushed dust and ash from my hand, slipped the glove from my waistcoat pocket, and tugged it on. I took my time, afraid to see the judgment waiting in Jinx’s eyes. I’d made my decision to terminate the vampire when I smelt his ecstasy in the room where the tortured girl still hung. A rogue vampire would never change, only becoming more twisted over time, but Jinx may not know that. All she’d seen was a demon burn a man alive.

  How could she possibly accept me after witnessing such a gruesome sight?

  I sighed, raking a hand through my hair. Might as well get on with it, I noted grimly. I pasted a smile on my face and spun around, hoping to make light of the situation, but Jinx wasn’t scowling in disgust or wringing her hands. I relaxed as a slow smile spread across her face.

  “Thank you,” she said.

  Jinx stepped into my arms and tilted her head back to look me in the eye.

  “For what?” I asked, dumbfounded. For once, I, the great Forneus, Great Marquis of Hell, was at a loss for words.

  “For killing that creature, for looking out for me, for saving my life,” she said.

  Jinx reached up to touch my face, her fingers tracing my lips, my jaw, and down my neck. Her lingering touch was excruciatingly tender. I sucked in a breath, afraid to move for fear of breaking the spell that granted me my innermost desire.

  She raised an eyebrow and I struggled to think of an appropriate response. But my body didn’t want to reply with words.

  “I am always at your service,” I said softly, leaning closer. “If you will have me.”

  Jinx lifted herself onto tiptoe, closing the distance between us.

  “Yes, Forneus, I will,” she said, lips brushing mine.

  I groaned as she tilted her head, slanting her mouth across my own. I ran my hands over her bare shoulders, fingers tracing the tattooed skin. They continued their descent down her back, pulling her closer. Her lips parted, and our kiss deepened. Oh, great Lucifer, yes! I could spend eternity kissing Jinx.

  Too bad her friends chose that moment to interrupt.

  Ivy and Torn rushed into the room, yelling for Jinx and brandishing weapons. As Jinx and I parted—eyes glassy and skin flushed, I daresay—her friends took in the crumpled bodies of Puck, the Unseelie bartender, and the vampire-shaped pile of ash.

  Ivy’s eyes darted around the room, finally landing on her friend.

  “Are you okay?” Ivy asked.

  Jinx blinked and slowly nodded.

  “Yes, I’m fine,” she said. “Thanks to Forneus. You were right about Puck. The guy was an asshat. I didn’t catch all the details, but I’m pretty sure he was drugging and selling girls to sicko vamps who got off on torture.” She bit her lip and flicked her eyes my way. “I saw that girl…hanging in the other room, but I appreciate what you tried to do.”

  Ah, so I hadn’t been quick enough in my attempt to hide the terrors of the tortured girl behind the closed door. Jinx was tough—it was one of the many qualities I adored—but I’d hoped to spare her that particular nightmare.

  “I only wish I’d arrived sooner,” I said, reaching for her hand. “I would have preferred to have saved the girl and to have kept you from seeing the depths of such depravity.”

  She gave my hand a light squeeze, face upturned. I wanted to pull her to me, but I never had the chance.

  Puck, like a cat with nine lives, sprung to his feet and pounced on Jinx from beh
ind. We’d made a terrible mistake; the trickster was not dead, only wounded. I should have reached out with my demon magic and searched his body for a soul, but I hadn’t been paying attention—and now the trickster was armed.

  He’d pulled the ice pick from his chest and had retrieved the jeweled dagger from the Unseelie faerie’s lifeless hand. The amputated arm carrying the blade had been tossed aside by the vampire and I hadn’t spared it a second thought.

  If harm came to Jinx, it would be my fault for not being more thorough. Lucifer knows, I should have checked Puck’s body for signs of life, but I’d been too distracted by my own desire. I’d given the trickster the perfect opportunity for revenge.

  Ivy and Torn had apparently come to the same conclusion.

  With painful clarity, I took in the details of the situation. Ivy’s face paled and her skin began to glow. Her hair lifted to dance around her head with unspent magical energy, but the wisp princess hadn’t yet learned how to direct the powers she’d inherited from her faerie father.

  She was, however, skilled at slicing, dicing, and bashing things over the head.

  Throwing knives slid from wrist sheaths to hit her palms, but at that angle, she’d be more likely to hit Jinx than Puck. She started to strafe to the side, but she’d never be fast enough, wisp powers or no.

  Torn twisted in a flanking maneuver—a fierce shadow with speed to rival a cheetah—but he too had been far across the room. The cat sidhe’s attack would never land in time. There was only one person who could possibly save Jinx, and that person was me.

  Jinx’s eyes went wide as Puck grabbed at her hair and yanked her head back, baring her throat. The jeweled hilt of a dagger flashed in the wisp light and I knew with certainty that Puck intended to slit her throat. My mouth went dry, but I pushed away physiological distractions. Fear had no claim on me.

  I was a demon.

  Fire burned within my veins, building to a fever pitch, but I held it firmly with my will. I could not risk harming Jinx with jets of flame. No, I would have to be precise, methodical in the execution of my attack.

  In a microsecond, I determined the most salient course of action. As Puck’s blade came arcing toward Jinx’s neck, my fingers still entwined with hers, I yanked her forward out of Puck’s grasp. I winced at the sound of hair tearing from flesh and hoped that Jinx would forgive me later—if there was a later.

  Never in all the centuries of my existence have I worried so for what the future may bring. Funny how one person could turn everything on its head.

  Puck was still holding a chunk of Jinx’s hair and swung his blade downward as I flung Jinx toward Torn with a flick of my wrist. The two went down with a sickening thud. When this was all over, Jinx would likely have bruises and a possible concussion to add to the bloody patch on her scalp, but my priority was saving her life. I had to hope that her friends would have the wherewithal to administer first aid. I couldn’t yet risk a glance to check on her health.

  I had a faerie to kill.

  With Jinx out of harm’s reach, I let down the rigid mental barriers I kept between myself and Hell. This time ley line power was not enough. I had to ensure that Puck would not live through this night. I would not make the mistake of underestimating the trickster again. As the mental fortifications crumbled, the screams of the damned flooded my mind. I pushed aside the echoes of torment and reached for the power that was my birthright.

  Tapping into such power was not without consequence. Horns erupted from my head, ripping painfully through my scalp, and leathery wings tore through my back and clothing, ruining a perfectly good waistcoat. My cloven hooves sent up sparks where they met the basement’s stone floor and I looked down at Puck with glowing eyes.

  This all happened in less than a second, but the smirk had fallen from Puck’s face and fear was growing behind his widening eyes. I didn’t dare glance at the others in the room. I hoped that Jinx would not judge me based on my unfortunate physical transformation. This was not at all what I’d had in mind when I’d pictured our first date.

  And hopefully, her friends wouldn’t take it upon themselves to do a little demon hunting. The psychic detective and I had an arrangement that benefited us both, but she’d never been confronted with this form. Ivy had been raised as a human, and had human blood in her veins, and humans have an instinctual dislike for Hellspawn.

  I was filled with an immeasurable amount of raw power, but this form was vulnerable on the mortal plane. If Ivy stabbed me in the back now, I would die a true death.

  At least I’d had that kiss. A demon could die happy with the memory of that kiss fresh on his lips.

  Speaking of dying, Puck was still alive. I’d reached out absently and held him in my grasp. Now I held his gaze and shook my head.

  “I warned you before, trickster,” I said. “I told you not to mess with those whom I care about. You were a fool not to heed my warning.”

  The souls of the damned filled my head and I pushed their anguished cries down through my veins and out through my hands—and into Puck. The faerie screamed, his face contorted, mouth open wide as the damned devoured him from within. Flames dotted his skin, charred holes forming blackened craters. In a matter of seconds, the hungry souls had added one more to their number. The physical body of Puck crumbled to ash and the souls of the damned disappeared into the stone floor, returning to Hell.

  I stumbled and gripped my head, closing my eyes against the spinning room. My fingers met the warm, smooth surface of my horns and I sighed. It was time to resume what I’d come to think of as my proper form—the form Jinx might someday come to love.

  There had been that kiss, after all.

  Jinx had finally shown her feelings for me, but I wasn’t doing our newfound relationship any good by remaining winged, horned, and cloven-hoofed. With a deep breath, I focused my will and began to rebuild the walls around the ember of Hell that resided in every demon. After a few minutes, but what felt like an eternity, I opened my eyes.

  My clothing was torn, and I’d lost a shoe, but my body had returned to normal. I was Jinx’s dashing suitor once again, and it was time for our heartfelt reunion. I turned toward Ivy and Torn where they hovered around Jinx’s body crumpled body.

  “Is she…?” I asked.

  I reached out with my magic and could feel the warmth of Jinx’s soul. She had not left us, not yet.

  “She’s alive,” Torn said, brushing a stray hair from Jinx’s pale face. “She’s surprisingly feisty for a human.”

  The cat sidhe lord looked down on Jinx with such open curiosity that I had to stuff my hands inside my pockets to keep from strangling him. If Torn had any sense of self-preservation, he’d keep his distance from Jinx. Curiosity killed the cat, and all that.

  “Head wound,” Ivy said. “We’re taking her to The Emporium. I want Kaye to have a look at her injuries.”

  Madame Kaye was not a fan of demons, and she was a powerful witch. Her occult shop would be heavily warded. They were taking Jinx somewhere that I couldn’t follow. That left me with a hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach that I wasn’t quite ready to define.

  “Then let me be of assistance,” I said, moving forward. “Allow me…”

  Ivy held up a gloved hand and shook her head.

  “I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” she said. “Torn and I can take it from here. Plus, Kaye would sooner trap you in a circle, or blast you back to Hell, than let you cross her threshold.”

  “Yes, of course,” I said, letting my arms hang at my sides. “You seem to have the matter well in hand.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek as Torn lifted Jinx into his arms. It was all I could do not to throttle the man. It should have been my chest that Jinx slumbered against, not the bone and fur laced leather vest of the unscrupulous cat sidhe.

  “We do,” she said, gesturing at the corpse-littered floor. “Why don’t you take care of this mess and help deliver the human bodies somewhere the authorities can find them. We may not be
able to explain what really happened here, but the families of the dead deserve to know that their loved ones are gone.”

  I’d just been relegated to the cleanup crew. How very unnerving.

  “Miss Granger?” I asked. Ivy looked over her shoulder, brow raised. “Take good care of her.”

  “That’s the idea,” she said.

  Ivy walked out of the basement, leaving me to the unpleasant task of informing club security about Puck’s nefarious little side business.

  Three days later, I entered the offices of Private Eye. I’d kept busy after that night at Club Nexus. I devoted myself to my work, closing a complex legal case and reaping enough souls to fill my annual quota, but worry over Jinx consumed me. I’d tried to be patient, to wait for her to call for me, but after the third day of pacing the streets of Harborsmouth, I’d had enough. I had to see her with my own eyes.

  I had to know that she was alright.

  I stepped through the door and felt my heart lighten when I saw Jinx standing beside her desk. She was busy talking with Ivy and a client, her back to me, but I could see that she was standing easily and without assistance. I observed her for a minute longer than necessary, savoring the moment when she’d turn and see me waiting for her.

  Would she come rushing into my arms? I imagined the smell of her hair and the feel of her skin beneath my fingers, and smiled. I shook my head at my flights of fancy. The woman was driving me mad.

  With a purposeful jingle of the door, I strode into the office. I was surprised to see that their guest was Torn, the cat sidhe lord, but I hardly paid it a thought. Ivy could keep her new ally busy. My attention was riveted on Jinx.

  Jinx turned, and with a haughty toss of her head, demanded, “What are you doing here?”

  It was not the romantic welcome I was expecting.

  “Come now, darling,” I said, spreading my hands wide. “Aren’t we beyond this charade? I know your true feelings for me, as do your friends. They witnessed the kiss we shared. There’s no sense pretending we do not care for each other.”

  Jinx rolled her eyes and walked to her desk. She opened the top drawer of her desk, lifted her crossbow to her shoulder, and shot me in the stomach.