I stood for a few seconds, and then nearly fell back to where I was sitting. My head was spinning like I had been drinking too much. Gabe held me steady in his firm hands, guiding me to sit in the back seat of his car when he opened the door. I wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon, it was ample time to give him an update, a lot had happened during the day.
I told him about our summoning experiment, the Mandragora that attacked, the fight that broke out at the club, and the fact a Mandragora knew that Alice, who seemed to have been possessed by a Dryad, was there to kill the Russian mob and their demon allies. I also shared the info I got from Giovanni, omitting the sexy time that happened of course, that lead to his possession. I cringed at those memories, just another mystery I had to juggle. Finally, I ended with the story of what Emily did, running into the park as a cat, spooking the FBI agents to chase her.
“Emily could enter the park …” Gabe said, rubbing his dark face.
“Same with FBI people, but I can’t for some reason,” I said, thinking back to the barrier that knocked me the fuck out.
“Lux magic is the perfect counter to anything Umbral,” he said. “In fact, enchanted weapons are partially infused with it, that’s why they kill demon souls.”
“So, if a demon gets dropped by a fae?”
“It’ll be like shooting one with an enchanted bullet.”
In other words, I got fucking lucky. The Lux energy I still had in me, absorbed from Giovanni, was probably what kept me alive, while the Umbral energy was what got me kicked away from the park. If I had tried to walk in there as my regular self, I’d probably be dead now.
If that’s what happened to me, then what of Emily? I didn’t have to guts to ask.
A whole lot of nothing happened after that. Gabe took the time to explain that he and his team had found the park slowly changing into a magical realm, most likely by the fae and the flowers Alice grew for them. It was their discovery of it was what prompted the FBI to roll in and take control, pushing the NYPD back to assume a supportive role, just like with the docks, the flowers and contaminated blood left behind there, which nobody knows what became of them, except the FBI.
There was no sign of a tabby cat slipping away from the park. I had a feeling that was going to be a common sight no matter how long we sat there waiting, while FBI agents secretly went in and out of the park.
“Where’s Giovanni now?” Gabe asked.
I didn’t have an answer for that, well, not one he was going to be cool with. “Uh, probably taking a nap, after he dipped.”
“And you’re sure his sister is Alice who’s now a Dryad?”
“Positive,” I said. Alice and Giovanni Mancini. He said something about their parents being fae too. “You know something, don’t you?”
Gabe nodded. “Donovan wasn’t the only fae living in the city I knew of.”
“I suspected as much.”
“The Mancinis, as you figured out, are fae too,” he said. “On the outside they’re just a wealthy couple, making investments in corporations.”
“But they’re fae on the inside.”
“And if what Giovanni said was right, someone else knew and tricked him and his sister into taking flowers from the Lux and growing them in that greenhouse.”
“Right, now a Dryad partially controls Alice and took over Central Park.” I put the last part of the puzzle in place. “And the feds are in on it.”
“That’s assuming he was telling the truth to you, Reika.”
“I laid on the succubus charm, there’s no way he lied.”
“Did you fuck him too?” I didn’t answer that one, but my succubus half thought back to the sex. A warm lustful smile spread on my face because of that. “I really hope you didn’t, Reika. Amethyst charming Donovan is proof that succubus can not only do that but contaminate their souls.”
Amethyst and Donovan, me and Giovanni, we were two succubi that did the impossible to a fae. What made us so special? The answer to that lay in the pills from the bottle I stole from Charles’ lab. I still had bits of Amethyst’s memories, and come to think of it, she might have been using similar meds developed by Tanaka Pharmaceutics. I vaguely remember her discarding a bottle of pills before she got down and dirty with Donovan. It would explain why that stripper I encountered, who was a friend of Amethyst, was also taking those pills, she must have recommended them to her without knowing of the magical side effects.
Amethyst must have used the pills the night she tainted Donovan’s body, and I took them prior to the club attack. Evidently, the pills had a hidden side effect after all; a succubus can kill fae with sex. And sex with a fae, at least for me, gave me the power to leech away their Lux energy, transferring it to me temporally.
I stood up and away from Gabe’s car. A new idea and plan took shape in my head. “Gabe,” I said to him. “Think you could arrange a meeting with the Mancinis? It’s pretty obvious all this shit started with them.”
“I’ll see what I can do. No guarantees though, especially if the FBI is playing along with the fae.”
I gathered Emily’s clothes still lying on the street where she shifted, handing them off to Gabe when I returned to him. “Keep an eye out for her,” I asked him.
He took her clothes, then her phone which I gave him and nodded. “I will,” he said. “And I’ll tell the others as well.”
I was alone now, with only my succubus half and my vengeful demonic half to rely on for help. Goddamnit, I’m so fucked up.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I didn’t sleep much.
Every time I tried shutting my eyes, horrific images of Giovanni taking his last breaths flashed and replayed like it was a cheap horror flick. He was my target. He was the man I was supposed to save. Then I fucked him to death, totally on accident, then brought a demon into his body, and had to kill him again. I had to make his death count for something. I had a feeling I was on the verge of doing that soon.
Gabe was kind enough to keep me updated on the situation with Central Park. Emily didn’t come back to retrieve her phone and clothes, meaning she didn’t leave. The FBI still had the park on lockdown, working around the clock to do whatever it was their fae partners wanted of them, most likely final preparations for their war with the Umbral.
As much as I don’t care about Umbral demons, turning the city, my city, into a warzone wasn’t cool with me. You want to wage war here? You need my fucking permission. People aren’t respecting my power and authority. It was time to send a message. New York was my domain, and Alice was not going to dethrone me.
The door to Charles’ apartment suite was still off the hinges when I made my way back to it. Needless to say, I didn’t bother knocking; it just would have fallen on the floor. I kind of wish I did when I waltzed in uninvited, moving the busted door to the side. I caught Charles and Belyana sitting really close to each other on the couch, laughing, giggling and probably seconds away from making out.
Awkward didn’t begin to describe the feeling that filled the air between us as the two quickly moved apart, acting like no tomfoolery was going on.
“This your day off or something?” I said to Charles. “’Cause you know, there’s some weird shit going down with Central Park.”
“I, er, called in.”
I looked at the two, Belyana adjusting her top quickly hoping I wouldn’t notice. But I did, I was her age once, tempting men to stick their hands up my shirt when the mood took me.
With a touch of sass in my voice, I said. “I can see, why.”
“Reika, we made a discovery last night,” Charles said.
“The discovery of what? What it will take for you to lose your virginity?”
Charles’ face flushed in three seconds flat. “Wha… what?”
“We’re dealing with not one,” Belyana cut in, grabbing her tome, “but several fae Dryads.”
“And that shit in Central Park?” I asked with arms crossed.
“It has to be them,” Belyana said. “Dryad hosts n
eed to be in close range of their trees and other sources of nature.”
“They probably set up shop in Central Park,” Charles added. “It’s the largest concentration of nature you’ll find in the city.”
I suspected that was the case, but hearing it come from Belyana and Charles as well only confirmed it a hundred percent.
“The fae must have been using the greenhouse to grow their flowers,” Charles said.
“Yeah, kinda figured that part out.”
“Did you know that the flowers had multiple uses?”
“Such as?”
“Some grow into Mandragora, others release spores that lure people to Dryad possessed trees, and others infect the soil they get planted in with Lux energy leading to the development of new Dryad trees and Lux energy producing plants.”
“That greenhouse mailed out a lot of flowers throughout the city,” I said, my eyes narrowing at the connections being made. “I guess that was the fae trying to lure as many bodies as they could to the Dryad trees. The missing people, that’s why they went missing.”
“The fae delivered the flowers to random people in the city,” Belyana said. “Those people probably accepted the flowers thinking they were a gift from a friend, family member, or secret admirer.”
Belyana showed us the pages in the tome that illustrated the process of people becoming mindless slaves when inhaling the fae flower’s spores.
“Then bam!” Charles exclaimed while smacking his left fist into the palm of his right hand. “The spores get in their body, and they walk away from their homes, never to return. Throw in the Mandragora turning people to zombies, and the city goes nuts with a flood of missing person reports.”
“And Central Park was turned into a storage base without anyone noticing it,” Belyana added. “Anyone that went to take a stroll through the park probably never came out either, adding to the missing person reports. The Lux barrier around it made things look like nothing’s wrong.”
Charles nodded to her. “Human slaves to help with their plan to eliminate the demonic population of the city.”
“Which wouldn’t be a bad thing,” I snorted. “If I wasn’t part of that club.”
Charles grimaced. “Or Emily.”
“Yeah about that,” I mumbled, my hand reaching up to scratch the back of my head. “She went into the park. I haven’t heard from her since.”
“Oh no …” Belyana said with sorrow in her voice. “She might be—”
“Don’t say dead.” I didn’t want to hear that or remind myself of the way she handed her phone over to me.
“Lux energy will kill those with Umbral,” Belyana explained.
“Emily’s a Yōkai,” Charles cut in, rubbing his chin, and pacing about in the living room. “Maybe it will be more lenient on her?”
“Maybe,” I said, my thoughts still clinging on to that faint glimmer of hope. “But she’ll still be outnumbered by the fae, and the FBI. They were freely walking in and out of the park.”
“You think they’re working for the fae?” Belyana asked me.
“Gabe thinks so, and so do I. I know that at least one person from the FBI was on the delivery list to get the flowers too. I’m going to assume he did something to the rest of the force that made them ally with the fae.” I was impressed. Belyana and Charles made a good team. “You two keep going through that book, keep me posted.”
Belyana made a worrying face. “I’m going to have to head to work so …”
“Fuck ‘em,” I said. “Call in sick like Charles. If we don’t figure this shit out, getting fired for not showing up for work is going to be the least of your worries.”
I left the two after the chat, hoping they’d stay focused on the task, and less on hormonal desires, unlike me. My phone rang, the caller ID showing the name Detective Wilson.
I answered it. “Tell me you have good news, Gabe.”
“I got good news.”
“Thank fuck.”
“But I’m just telling you that because you asked,” I heard him sigh. “In reality, I got bad news.”
“I’ll take that thank fuck back then.”
“Lorenzo and Francesca are arguing a lot.”
“Who the fuck are Lorenzo and Francesca?”
“The Mancinis, Alice and Giovanni’s parents. Remember you wanted me to get a hold of them?”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“Well yeah, having a hard time. Even fae have their marriage problems.”
“And that’s why I’m glad I’m single.” And because it allows me to fuck whoever I damn well, please. Thinking back to the last relationships I’ve been in brought too many painful memories I’d rather avoid. So I keep telling myself.
“I wasn’t able to get a lot out of them,” Gabe continued. “I’ll try again later.”
“How do you know they aren’t bullshitting you? If I’m right, they’re the source of all this.”
“I’ve known them for years. They’re not here to cause trouble; they’re here to prevent it if anything. Someone knew they had Lux plants in storage, and tricked Giovanni and Alice into taking and growing them. I want to know who that someone is as much as you.”
“Exactly how long did you know them?” Yeah, I was fishing for info. Gabe never did reveal why he knew of the fae in the city like he was some kind of keeper of them. All I heard was silence and a sigh on the other end.
I meandered throughout Charles’ place, keeping the phone to my ears, waiting for Gabe’s next words, assuming he had any for me. A newspaper lay on his kitchen countertop, opened up to an article about the recent missing people in the city. One particular article caught my attention; I scanned its contents briefly.
… The family of a missing therapist Grace Lim is urging the public to come forward with information of her last known whereabouts. Grace is one of a growing list of missing people reported missing within the last week …
The report got me thinking about the similar appearance the missing sex therapist and I shared, and the half joke about me taking her identity, as an excuse to feed on her sexually frustrated clients. It made the gears in my head spin real fast.
“Never mind, Gabe, I’ll ask them myself.”
“Reika, what are you planning?”
I left Charles’ place in a hurry making my way down the hall to the elevator. “Give me their address; I’ll get ‘em talking.”
“If this involves vigilante shit—”
“Naw, relax.” The elevator doors slid open, and I made my way inside. “This involves succubus PI shit.”
“I can’t risk it.”
“Let me try it, and if it doesn’t work, you continue with your thing.”
“You might force them underground.”
“I think that’s exactly what you’ll end up doing to them, because of who you are. They have a reason to fear you, Gabe. They don’t know who I am and have no reason to go into hiding when I start asking questions.”
Gabe gave me the address to their place, and I plugged it into Google Maps when I got into my car. Before I went to their home I went back to my office, there were a few things I needed to bring, and the first item was a solid game plan. I needed to not fuck this up, bad enough I did kind of murder Lorenzo and Francesca’s, son, Giovanni.
I wasn’t going to meet up with them and talk about what I did to their son. I needed their bodies to test a theory. The Umbral pills hadn’t been in my system for a day, and if I was right, that was the reason Amethyst and I were able to contaminate the soul of a fae and get them possessed.
As deadly as Lux energy was, I seemed to have gained the ability to absorb it when I fed off fae. It was that small trace of Lux in me, that prevented my death when I tried walking past the Lux barrier in Central Park. If I were to guess, only fae and humans can enter past the barrier since neither have Umbral energy. If I wanted to get into Central Park, I was going to have fill my body with enough Lux energy to pass as a fae.
Lorenzo and Francesca were going to be
the fae that will give it to me.
My succubus half really liked the idea. My other half really hoped I was right about the pill theory. If not, then that’s going to be three dead fae thanks to my pussy.
I’d be making the Umbral and Lux war worse.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Lorenzo and Francesca Mancini were predictable people, despite being fae in control of human hosts. I played my role as the slick PI, sitting still in my parked car across from their expensive as fuck house, taking all sorts of photos with my camera.
Everyone has secrets, and Lorenzo Mancini was no exception, fae or not. I followed him around town for a bit, snapping photos of him looking at younger women. When he left his home, he seemed joyful, when it was time to come home, he was sulking. That’s if he came home on time at all, some days he’d slip into a strip club and stay there for hours. Why would a married man do that? As if I didn’t know. Their marriage problems were likely the result of lack of playtime, I wouldn’t be surprised if Francesca had a vibrator stashed away in their place when he wasn’t home.
It was a sexually frustrated couple, and I’ve dealt with a handful of clients like that in the past. Usually one of them ends up caving in trying to summon a succubus or incubus to fill that void in their life. Enter me having to fix things.
I found the name and address to the missing sex therapist, Grace Lim and went to put my plan in motion. Her office was easy to find, the stack of her business cards sitting at the front reception desk was even easier.
I swiped the cards, brought them back to my office, and then used my printer’s built-in scanner, digitizing them into my laptop’s screen. A quick alteration in Photoshop changed the business card’s number to mine. From there, my printer spat out the newly printed business cards, you couldn’t tell the difference between them and the originals.
With my phone in my pocket, I strategically left the altered business cards on the windshields of Lorenzo and Francesca’s cars, and one on their front porch, just in case they missed those. After that, I sat back, and waited.
Deception of the Demon Girl Page 15