Paranormal After Dark: 20 Paranormal Tales of Demons, Shifters, Werewolves, Vampires, Fae, Witches, Magics, Ghosts and More

by Rebecca Hamilton

  “What the fuck!” she said.

  “There has to be a way out,” I wheezed. The smoke was already clogging my throat.

  I reared back and forth, but she held tight.

  Her fingers dug into my arm. “Ok, stop. I’ll try to find something to dig us out.”

  The fire covered the walls, lighting the room in a violet luminosity. The stone blackened and disintegrated in a matter of seconds where the flames kissed. The shadows flickered as the inferno surrounded us. It was too late. My legs gave out from under me, and I curled up in a ball. Marge hovered around our blocked exit, looking for some point to kick away. She covered her mouth with her arm, her chest heaving in wracking coughs. It didn’t matter. Soon, the rest of the world would topple down upon us.

  The smoke drifted toward a corner near the ceiling where a hole formed. The concrete of the wall crumbled and mixed with the ash in the air. However, it didn’t fall like it was supposed to. My mouth hung open as the tiny bits debris shimmered, moved together, and began to form into a set of stairs as the hole grew. Adrian’s nanites were hard at work creating an escape for us.

  You brilliant man. Not that I would ever admit it to him out loud.

  I was on my feet in seconds. “Marge.”

  She turned, but I was already over to the steps. Adrian waved us up from outside a small hole. The steps remained solid under my swift run. I collapsed to my hands and knees on the gravel, gagging and gasping. My hands screamed at the rough grit that grated into the raw flesh.

  Pain never felt so good.

  Chapter 6

  WE SCURRIED DOWN an alleyway like rats trying to escape a fire, except it was the police and their unwanted questions that we ran from. Moments after Adrian rescued us, we could hear the sirens growing closer. I was the first to bolt, followed by the other two.

  Marge moved ahead of me with an unsteady gait. The debris had caught her as well, leaving her butt and the back of her legs a raw mess of burnt flesh. We stopped at the opening of an alley, six blocks away from the inferno while Adrian scanned the mostly empty street. A crowd had gathered on the corner to watch the blaze. I could only guess what they were whispering among each other. The place had been a drug den, so the police would most likely call this a chemical fire, but there would be the few who would wonder.

  “Wait here,” Adrian said. “I’ll get the van.”

  I leaned against the wall with my good shoulder and glared at Marge. “You rushed in again.”

  “And?”

  The van pulled up before I replied. I waved her to the back with my mangled hands and turned to wrestle with the door. Adrian pushed it open from inside. I hopped in and managed to close it by myself. He eased the car into gear.

  “What happened back there?” he asked in a voice as cold as the artic.

  “Rituals are volatile, especially summoning. They were pulling energy from another plane of existence. When Marge kicked him into the circle, it broke, and all that energy they had built up backlashed.”

  “But that circle that Adrian and Tres broke around the demon in Texas didn’t do that,” Marge said.

  Adrian and Tres had gotten into a fight when we’d had a demon bound for questioning. It escaped when the circle had broken.

  “It was a binding, a large symbol that traps the being inside it. The writings and sigils keep the entity bound. There’s not a whole lot of power put into it, unlike back there.” I jerked my head in the direction of the blaze.

  “So what?” Marge asked. “We shouldn’t stop a demon summoning?”

  “You have to ground the power without breaking the circle. Though any sort of disruption has interesting effects. As with banishing rituals,” I said.

  “What were they summoning?” Adrian asked.

  I shook my head. “Something from the Throne of Lust.”

  I knew that fire—dreamed about it often enough. Sometimes, instead of seeing the murder of my husband and child at the hands of the demon Allegra, I saw our home being consumed in purple flames. All that would be left would be me and Allegra. I was bound to her for eternity by this curse she laid upon me. I stared out the window and let the silence engulf the van as my chest tightened painfully. Once again, I was helping someone else, while Allegra roamed free somewhere. I took a deep breath. I had all the time in the world; Marge didn’t. Besides, this drug proved that events were deeper than just one demon.

  Adrian pulled into the underground garage of the office and parked beside a black sports car. “Esais and Tres are here.”

  Marge made a limping rush to the door, and I was not far behind. I closed my eyes and counted to ten, letting out a slow breath. Each step sent a sharp bolt to the burns on my back. Marge shook her head at me and headed up the stairs. Esais and Tres waited in the infirmary, and their faces filled with concern when the two of us stumbled in.

  “What happened?” Esais asked.

  “Just a little fight with hellfire,” I said.

  “You should see the demons,” Marge said. “Crispy.”

  Esais raised one eyebrow. “You found something?”

  I pulled the bag of powder from my pocket and handed it to him. Tres pointed me to the two exanimation tables in the back of the room. I wrinkled my nose at the astringent smell of alcohol.

  “I finally get to see the sexiness under all that leather.” Tres peeled off my jacket and the long sleeved shirt beneath it.

  I gasped at the sting of the fabric pulling from my burned flesh. A rush of cool air soothed the raw agony. Marge hobbled to the other examination table, and with a strange hopping climb, she got on top to lie on her stomach. Esais leaned against the doorframe, studying the contents of the bag. Through winces and sharp intakes of breath, I told them what happened.

  “So, this is the drug from Texas?” Esais asked with a frown.

  “I think so, but I never saw one of the patients in Texas before they were possessed by a demon,” I said.

  “So you somehow screwed up,” Esais said.

  Tres stared at him with his jaw slack. I opened my mouth to give him a snappy comeback and froze when our gazes met. My flesh prickled as I broke out into a cold sweat. His eyes had paled to white, like quartz crystal, but that wasn’t the worst. It was the look. He could end my existence with a thought, and no part of my curse would bring me back. Eternal peace was in those eyes, and damned if I didn’t nearly fall to my knees and beg for it. I looked away, frowning. What was I thinking? This was Esais.

  “You were there, too, Saint Esais,” Marge said with a snort. “And this isn’t Menrazine, unless people decided to free base an anti-psychotic.”

  “With this city, anything’s possible,” Adrian said as he pushed past Esais.

  Esais stepped back into the corner of the room and stuck his hands in his pockets. His eyes had darkened to their normal steel blue color, and his face wore a troubled look as he listened. What the hell had that been about? He was upset the drug had been let out, but was that other just a part of his telepathy? I was going to have to watch him.

  “And the demons in the basement mean the formula somehow got out,” I said.

  “We’re going to need to analyze it,” Adrian said.

  He looked to his brother who shook his head as he swabbed a cotton pad over my wounds. I hissed as the alcohol seeped in, sending the burn through my veins.

  “I can take a look,” Tres said, “but I don’t know what to look for.”

  He pressed his hand against my wound. The burning faded, and more comfortable warmth replaced it. After Tres was finished, there wouldn’t even be a scar. Unfortunately, he would have to cause pain on another living being to balance what he healed. It was the way his gift worked.

  “I can contact Jonah,” I said. “He knows alchemy and can see if it’s brimstone.”

  “He’s the one you sent Menrazine so he could destroy it in the first place,” Marge said. “Who says he’s not the one who let it get in the hands of someone else.”

  Esais threw
his head back and laughed. “Impossible. Jonah would be furious even hearing that.”

  “So? He could be lying.”

  Adrian snorted and shook his head while Tres cast a doubtful glance at Esais.

  “Impossible,” Esais said, still chuckling. “I’ve known Uncle Jonah my whole life. He wouldn’t do such a thing.”

  Tres said, “The stick wedged up his ass wouldn’t let him do anything dirty.”

  I opened my mouth and closed it. I’d known Jonah even before Esais was born, and there were things he’d done with alchemy that would make all three brothers blanch. Brimstone was a substance similar to sulfur, but like quicksilver, it held other properties. Hellish ones. We had determined before that the base of the drug was made with brimstone. Who’s to say that he didn’t want to experiment with this new drug? Knowing Jonah, he had probably already experimented with the stuff. Still, he wouldn’t betray them, and he definitely wouldn’t let something as dangerous as that drug out, unless by accident. I bit my lip and held my doubts to myself. I would talk to Jonah first.

  Tres moved over to Marge and held up a pair of scissors. “Looks like we’re going to have to get you naked.”

  Marge glared at him until the grin faded from his face. He couched and started cutting her pants from her. Marge’s jaw stiffened at the first touch of his hand. The red mass of raw flesh became smooth and white as his hands passed over it. With a silent chuckle, I stood up and stretched.

  “There’s another option,” Adrian said. “Who analyzed Menrazine in the first place?”

  I paused with my arms sill raised in the stretch. “John? I doubt it.”

  “Why do you say that?” Adrian asked. “What has he done to prove himself? Supply you with information every now and then?”

  My lips pressed in a thin line. “He wouldn’t betray me like that.”

  “What? Not after he slept with you?” Adrian smirked. “No, that doesn’t ever happen.”

  Heat traveled from my neck to my face. “No, he’s been there for me since I saved his life.”

  “People change,” Adrian said.

  “So, your precious Uncle Jonah could have, too.” Marge held up her hands when all three brothers glared at her. “I’m just saying, we shouldn’t rule him out because you consider him family.”

  “Look.” Esais raised his hand. “I don’t really trust him, either, but we need to prove this is the same . . . What was it called?”

  “Brimstone would be the base. The new drug is called Blasphemy.” I tried to keep the heat from reaching my voice. “I’ll call Jonah and see if he can look at it.”

  “Does he have to come here?” Tres asked, looking like a child with his hand caught in the cookie jar.

  “I think he’ll be too busy to care what girls you’re seeing.” Esais chuckled.

  “He’ll still give me that disapproving look,” Tres said.

  “How about you concentrate more on fixing me and less on whining,” Marge snapped.

  Adrian chuckled and headed to the door. “Well, now that we’re moving to unimportant talk, I have things I need to work on.”

  I glared at his back as he left. How could one man get me so riled up? True, he didn’t know John like I did, but that didn’t mean he had to suspect every person. John had always been ready to help me when I called, and he’d always come through.

  So, why couldn’t I push the tiny voice in my head saying Adrian and Esais might be right?

  Chapter 7

  I LEFT TRES to tend to Marge’s wounds. Esais remained in the doorway with his arms crossed and his forehead wrinkled in thought. With a deep breath, I traveled up the stairs to the second floor. The air in the hall was thick with new paint smell from the white walls. My feet made no sound on the new red carpeting as I found an empty room to call Jonah in privacy. He answered on the third ring.

  “Ms. Di Luca.” His London accent rang through the background noise of conversation. “What can I do for you?”

  “You sound like you’re in the middle of something,” I said.

  “I’m in Italy actually. I’m attending a conference at the Vatican.”

  I gritted my teeth and forced a laugh out. “Oh, your expertise has become invaluable.”

  “Possibly, a panel has been called on the fact Hell is using modern means to damn humanity. I’m here to present the Texas case.”

  “Why my case? Couldn’t you find another for them to steal?”

  “Gabby.” His voice rang with an exasperated patience. We’d been over this before. “The church has changed over the centuries.”

  “They may not burn heretics at the stake anymore, but they’re still judgmental asses.”

  “They are becoming more accepting.”

  “Only because their dirty laundry has been aired.” They deserved it, too. The big group of hypocrites spent centuries persecuting others only to commit the worst of sins.

  “What was it you wanted?” A change of subject. Smart man.

  “I found a drug that has similar effects as Menrazine.”

  “That is unfortunate. I destroyed the batch you brought to me. Are you sure it was the only one?”

  “Ose was working alone. He wouldn’t have shared with anyone else.” I bit the inside of my cheek. “You didn’t keep any for your experiments?”

  A small crackle of static filled the silence of his pause. “You believe I would have been foolish to risk such a thing?”

  “I don’t know, Jonah. You play with other questionable substances. Who’s to say you weren’t trying to find a better way to keep yourself alive?”

  “I do what is necessary, but within limits. I wouldn’t do something like that when we have seen only negative consequences.” Jonah’s voice held an icy stiffness to it.

  “But that’s how experimentation starts,” I said. “If you say you didn’t, I believe you.”

  “Who is in control of this new drug?”

  I explained my night’s adventures. “We’re not sure if it is the same. We need your expertise to verify.”

  “So, you question me but still want me to verify?” Jonah sighed. “If this leaves the city, it has the potential to spread nationwide.”

  “I’m aware, Jonah, but we need to know what we are dealing with.”

  He cleared his throat. “I cannot leave. Send Lucy to me with your sample. I will look into it and contact you when I know more.”

  “She’s probably still unconscious, but I’ll leave her a message.” My phone chirped in my ear, and I glanced at the screen. “Jonah, I have another call coming in.”

  “I will call when I know something.”

  I took a deep breath and switched to the other call. “Ciao, John. This is a surprise.”

  He chuckled, his voice sending a delicious shiver up my spine. “I hope it’s a nice surprise.”

  “Well, that would depend on why you’re calling,” I said.

  He sighed. “Unfortunately, it’s not good news. What happened to the drug you took from Texas?”

  The delicious shiver turned to ice. “It was destroyed. Why do you ask?”

  “I’m working on an article for a company named Erebus. I’m in New York for a press conference. One of their subsidiaries, Acesco, is releasing some sort of super drug. I’ve heard rumors about the testing. The kind that makes me think maybe Menrazine isn’t gone.”

  A sick feeling settled in my stomach. “I’ve run into a similar situation. As I said, what I had of the drug was destroyed.” I paused. “What happened to the sample I gave to you?”

  Horns honked and the indecipherable buzz of background conversation feed into the line. “I gave it back to you. Don’t you remember?”

  An image of Ose’s long fingers reaching for me flashed through my mind followed by a rush of fear. Darkness surrounded me, and once again, I was in the coffin that devil had trapped me in. I rubbed my eyelids and swallowed hard. Ose had driven me to the brink of madness, but I’d made it out. It was over.

  “You might ha
ve.” I tried to keep the shakiness out of my voice. “Texas is a little unclear for me.”

  “You think I would have sold the drug?” The quiet hurt in his voice reached me through the phone.

  “No, but I had to check. I don’t understand how it got out.”

  “It looks like I’ll have to prove myself all over again.” His voice lightened. “Care to join me for the press conference tomorrow? Say Nine AM?”

  I smiled and swallowed the ache I felt. “That sounds like an excellent plan.”

  He gave me the address. “I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.”

  “Me too.”

  I hung up and tapped the phone to my cheek in thought. I would need something to find this company’s secrets. Lucky we had an expert in technology just down the hall. Adrian sat at a desk in one of the offices, typing on a laptop with various tools and pieces of mechanical equipment scattered around him on adjoining tables. I blinked as one of the machines grew before my eyes. New chips formed on a board out of thin air and a round glass lens became surrounded by black plastic.

  “Is this a camera?” I asked.

  He glanced up from the laptop to the device I was pointing at and nodded before focusing on the screen again.

  “It’s really amazing seeing your tiny robots in action.” I leaned in for a better look. “How are they building from nothing?”

  He pointed to a pile of pipes, discarded cellphones, and CDs. “They’re breaking down those on a molecular level. The molecules are being used to build the new device.”

  I tilted my head. “This still sounds a lot like magic.”

  He snorted. “When you get science this advanced, it tends to seem like magic to those incapable of understanding it.”

  Did he just insult my intelligence? “But magic was the basis for modern science. What would chemistry be without alchemy? Astronomy without astrology? Even your robots could be attributed to ancient Jewish golem creation.”