Cedric shrugs. “So, go investigate. While their advice is sound I’m sure, it’s still ultimately your decision what you do. Jamie and I know that you can handle just about anything that comes at you. We all fear for your safety, but how are you to learn what being an Arbiter is if you don’t be an Arbiter?”
I smile and lift my bottle to him, “Thanks, Ced. I’m glad someone understands me.”
He reaches his glass over and clinks it against mine.
The door leading down to the second-floor bursts open, and one of the waitresses from downstairs looks to us worriedly.
“Oh, thank goodness. There’s a nasty fight brewing downstairs between a few Lupin and Strige over a human. We need a little help breaking it up and getting the human out of here,” she says.
I go to stand, but Felix waves at me to stay. “I got it, Mistress. You relax and decide what you’re going to do. I can handle this.” He gives me a wide, excited smile and heads to the door.
“Thanks!” I call after him, glad that I didn’t have to set my drink down. I’m not ready to stop drinking just yet.
“Umm, Mistress?” Lacey, one of my dancers asks sheepishly.
I turn on my seat to face her without speaking. I’m not trying to be a bitch, but I’ve just got too much going on in my head for pleasantries.
I pointedly look at her, and she sticks out her hand with the club phone in it, “A warlock from some place called Vixen Falls is on the phone for you.”
Taking the phone from her, I ask, “Did he say what he wanted?”
She shakes her head no and backs away to give me space. I take a breather before I answer, “This is the Apothecary, Nocturna speaking.”
A man clears his voice on the other end of the line, “Yes, is this the Arbiter?”
“The one and only,” I say before tossing back another shot that will be gone from my system in five minutes. “How can I help you?”
“My name is Zane, formerly of the Decatur Witch Coven, I was stationed to watch over a witch in Vixen Falls,” he says.
I’m still not exactly sure what this has to do with me, but I listen carefully as he continues, “I just thought that someone should know that a demon is possessing and murdering people. We took care of it the first time, but he’s not gone. It was a temporary fix.”
I’ll never understand why witches have such a hard time with our terminology when it comes to what were called. It’s not like we’re all separated a world apart. Maybe because they feel more connected with the earth and all that jazz, or maybe they believe some of the old teachings. Who knows, but that’s the least of the problem. There shouldn’t be a damned on this realm capable of possession, and if there is, it needs to be taken care of immediately.
“I’ll send someone to your location, so you can fill them in on all the details,” I tell him. After taking down his exact location, I call Lacey back over and hand her the paper to pass word along to the Rites. Maybe they can help him out better than I can. I sit there for another thirty minutes. My brain not stuck on the wrongfully placed damned but mulling over my options on what to do with my situation with Monroe.
On one hand, no one could really stop me if I decided to just up and leave. I could leave Cedric and Jamie in charge of the club until I get back. I doubt I’d be in Louisiana very long anyway. Chances were, Monroe would try to send me back the moment I got there.
Oh! Maybe I could seduce him into letting me stay. That could work. I’m part Succubus after all, so it’s not like it’d be hard to use my womanly wiles to worm my way into the investigation.
Would I really stoop to that level, though?
Yes. Yes, I would.
I was just planning how I would go about this plan, when a familiar figure exits the conference room where the Infernal and I had met the other day.
Saul, looking sordid and brooding as ever, walks hastily through the club towards the back entrance. His phone is at his ear, and his eyes are sweeping this floor uneasily. When his gaze comes to me, a glower darkens his face, and he quickly averts his eyes.
I raise my brow in suspicion as he disappears out the back. Well that looked entirely too shifty. There’s something going on with him that has my Arbiter sense tingling. It’s enough that I quickly jump from my chair and follow after him.
I quietly open the back door and peek out the crack. Saul is still on the phone and has his back turned to the door as he talks in hushed tones to someone on the other line.
I can’t make out what he’s saying, until he shouts.
“Fine! I’ll come to you! No! I don’t want you coming here!” His voice is angry, and smoke is practically coming from his ears as his hands fly with aggravation as he speaks. Suddenly, he quiets down and looks back towards the door.
I swiftly shut it just enough that it will still look closed and wait.
When I hear his muffled voice again, I press my ear to the crack and only manage to hear him say ‘the Arbiter’ before his voice goes normal in tone, and he says goodbye.
I peek again through the crack as his footsteps start to move towards the stairs. When he’s out of sight, I open the door and step out, hiding behind the wall a bit to watch him walk down the stone steps.
My suspicion that he’s up to something only heightens when he starts looking over his shoulder while walking towards his car. It’s like my Arbiter sense is tingling.
I know that the Damned are quite the mischievous bunch, but something isn’t sitting right with me about him. It’s more than just his overall shitty attitude and lack of empathic emotions. It’s something inside of me telling me he is far more than what he shows to the other Infernal.
It only takes me about two seconds to decide I’m going to follow him. I can feel it in my bones that wherever he’s going, is somewhere he doesn’t want others to know about. There’s nothing worse than a sketch looking Infernal Lupin running around the streets late at night.
Waiting until he’s settled into his shiny black, luxury car and pulling out of the drive, I race down the steps before hopping into my truck. The engine purrs as I start it and back out into the road. I’ve put just enough distance between us that it won’t bring notice to myself, especially if I don’t turn on the headlights. My vision is good enough to see without them anyways. Now, let’s just hope that I don’t pass any human cops on the way.
We drive for a good thirty minutes. Saul avoids the city like the plague and takes all the side roads that are available. At first, I think it’s because he knows I’m following, but after a little while I get the sense that our destination isn’t in the city at all. If this is who Larkan was staking out, then he was way off track of his location.
Another ten minutes and I finally see Saul’s break lights. I pull off into a small clearing in the trees bordering the road. Jumping out, I take off at a dead sprint through the trees being as careful as I can not to make any noise, and all the while hoping that I’m facing down wind. Otherwise, my scent will give me away before he has the chance to hear me.
By the time I catch up to him, he has already parked his car and has disappeared inside. Out of all of the places that I could picture us heading towards, I never would have guessed what’s sitting in front of me. An old cabin that looks like it just jumped straight out of a B-rated horror movie. There are vines and ivy crawling up the sides of the tiny dwelling, and it’s missing a few of its windows. The grass is as tall as my waist, and it makes a small rustling sound as it rubs together in the slight breeze.
Crouching behind a tree on the side of the house away from Saul’s car, I lose track of time as I sit there. It can’t be long, though, before Saul stomps back out of the house furious. He whips out his phone and curses it as he taps it aggressively. I’m just out of earshot of whatever he’s mumbling, so I decide to sneak a little closer.
Just as I go to move, hands snake around my middle and my mouth. My elbow stops halfway to my assaulter’s ribs as Larkan whispers in my ear, “Quiet.”
Instantly, I still in h
is arms. I was so intent and focused on Saul that I didn’t even hear or feel him come up behind me. That would have cost me my life if it had been anyone else other than him. It’ll be used as proof of my incompetence I’m sure.
“You’re a fucking idiot!” Saul yells into his phone, startling me. “You drug me out here in the middle of nowhere, and you’re not even here.”
He growls, “I’m not one of your minions that you can just order around. I…” He pauses at the last and winces before dropping the phone to the porch. The angry howl that escapes his mouth, sends chill bumps up my spine. It’s at this point that I am actually thankful to feel Larkan at my back. I may be the Arbiter with extra powers, but an angry Infernal Lupin is never something to take lightly. And he hasn’t even shifted yet.
Lucky for everyone involved, Saul cuts off his howl and picks his phone up from the decrepit wood porch. He says nothing as he marches back to his car and pulls away while spraying gravel behind him.
“Come on,” Larkan says standing up and walking towards the cabin.
I stand up and cock my head to the side, “You’re serious?”
He throws a look over his shoulder as he raises an eyebrow in question.
“You’re going to allow me to go with you inside without any kind of beratement for following Saul alone?” I ask as I wade through the grass to catch up to him.
Letting out a short bark of a laugh, “Not like it would do much good anyways, right? You know good well how dangerous it was coming out here alone. As you saw for yourself, it could have gone to Damnation in a handbasket real fast. All I ask is next time, wait for me, and I’ll come with you.”
To say that I’m shocked at his words would be a complete understatement, but I’m not going question it at the moment. Instead, I focus on the cabin that now looms in front of us. The stairs creak as we make our way up to the door. My heart is racing, but not from fear of whatever Saul has been up to. I’m terrified to see what we will find once we are on the other side of that door.
Larkan pulls out his blades and nods to me, before kicking the door in. Between Larkan’s strength and the outdated wood, the door cracks into splinters and falls from its hinges with a loud bang. Well, if there’s anyone inside, they know we’re here now.
He rushes in, and I follow. We stalk from room to room checking to make sure it’s clear. I cover his back as he enters each one. Once we confirm that there isn’t anyone left in the cabin, Larkan pulls out his cell and calls into his superior. I wander into the first room by the door. Moonlight filters in from the window providing enough to light so the room isn’t pitch black. There’s a chair sitting by the wall that has a weird smell coming from it. I didn’t notice it before. An easy miss when you’re trying to make sure that you’re not going to get ambushed.
I’m only a few steps away from the chair when the scent of Damned blood hits my nose. A glint of silver catches my eye wrapped around the leg of the chair. As I bend down to examine it, I see a silver chain with cuff tangled around the bottom.
“Motherf-”
“Nocturna?” My word is cut off mid-sentence as Larkan comes back around the corner. “What is it?”
I stand so he can see around me, “Can’t be certain about this, but it appears to me that Saul has been playing everyone from day one. Whoever he’s working with him might have killed the person strapped to this chair, when they weren’t supposed to. Either way, this whole thing looks just like the setup of the Strige video. I’d get your people back on the phone and let them know to be on the lookout for Saul.”
Monroe
The flight from Maine to Louisiana takes longer than it did the first time, even in my own private jet. It’s a possibility that it just feels that way since for once, I feel like I’m leaving a part of me behind. Never have I ever fallen so deeply for anyone so fast in my life, but I’m guessing that’s because I’d never met Nocturna before.
She's most certainly one of a kind, sarcastic, protective, smart and sexy as fucking sin. The best of all worlds. I'm worried about leaving my people down here unprotected without me, but they're more than capable of taking care of themselves. I've lived for others my entire life. One person after another, and I'm feeling very selfish for wanting to be back with her instead of on my way back to the plantation. After everything is said and done, it's not out of the realm of possibilities for me to make a more permanent move closer to Nocturna. I need to handle the current situation first and make sure that all of my people are ok. I fall asleep with Nocturna being my last thought.
“My Liege, we’ve arrived,” Rafael says shaking me awake. I stand and stretch my arms to the ceiling before following him to the waiting car outside. A light rain is falling, doing nothing to help the Louisiana humidity. My shirt is already starting to stick to me underneath my leather jacket. When I slide into the air-conditioned car, it’s most welcome.
Rafael gets in the passenger seat as my driver, Sam, finishes throwing our bags in the trunk and takes his seat. He adjusts the mirror and catches my eye, “Are you glad to be home, my Liege?”
It is good to be here, even if I do still miss Nocturna. Thinking of her puts a smile on my face as I answer, “Yes, I am.”
The rest of the ride is quiet as the three of us become lost in our own thoughts. About a mile or so away from the estate, Rafael’s phone rings. Even without my exceptional hearing, I would have been able to hear the yelling on the other end.
They only get two sentences in before the car is rammed on mine and Sam’s side. My head cracks against the window hard enough that I feel as if I’m going to pass out instantly. Black spots dance in my vision as Sam groans in the front seat.
There’s a click of a gun in the front as Rafael says, “Don’t move, my Liege.”
He barely gets the words out of his mouth before a shadow falls over both doors on his side. They are ripped open, almost at the same time. A shot rings out. As a second one resonates through the car, a silver net is thrown in on top of me. I hiss in pain as it cuts through my skin making me immobile.
This all happens in a matter of less than a second, so I have no time at all to react, especially when I just about got knocked the fuck out on the window. Infernal are stronger than humans, but that doesn’t mean we can’t be injured or weakened. Two hands reach in to drag me out by my hair, making my head feel like it’s going to explode. I get a quick glimpse of both Rafael and Sam slumped over in their seats. If they die, whoever is in charge better make sure that I’m dead too. Otherwise, I will assuredly hunt them down and drain them dry.
I’m hauled out of the wrecked car and into the back of a black SUV. A heavy weight slams down on my head as I feel a prick on the inside of my elbow. Then the nothingness takes me.
Nocturna
“I just don’t get it,” I say more to myself than anyone else in the room. After our findings in the cabin, Larkan had called everything in to his people, and then said that we needed to get the hell out of there. Something about not wanting to explain my presence there on scene. Which, is totally fine with me. There’s enough going on in my weird ass head that I didn’t feel like dealing with Rite enforcement too. Larkan, who parked his car in the same turn off, followed me back to the Apothecary.
We now sit in the meeting area with Jamie, Cedric and Enoch. The latter hasn’t spoken a word since we got back, and I can’t exactly say that it’s going unappreciated. More accurately, however, they are sitting. I’m pacing a hole into the floor.
Felix shifts in his chair, “What don’t you get, mistress?”
I’m stuck in my head, so I answer without a filter, “Why in Damnation would Saul do something like this? I understand that he has a hatred for all things not Lupin, but it just doesn’t make any sense. He’s an Infernal for fuck’s sake. Life can’t be all that bad for him.”
He, Larkan and Jamie go into a debate on motives, but I zone them out. My skin crawls as a weird sensation creeps up my spine.
“Nocturna,” a voice whispe
rs in my ear. The same voice from my nightmare the other night, but it feels so real. It’s more than a sound. I can feel the heat of his breath caress my neck; his fingers trailing along my shoulders as my hair is gently pushed to the side. The smell of sulfur rises to my nose, and the sound of death echoes around me. I gasp as I jump back and spin to make sure there’s no one behind me. My second form flashes defensively.
Jamie yelps in surprise at the reaction from the guys. The table behind me gets flipped to rest against my back, scattering our glasses and their contents everywhere. Larkan has his blades whipped out and jumps in front of me as Enoch comes flush with my right side. All the while my heart has yet to stop racing, but the thought that I can’t protect myself against it, coupled with their actions, angers me.
“What the fuck is your problem?” I yell shoving the two of them away from me.
“Us?” Enoch asks speaking for the first time. “You spooked so bad that your second form came out, and there’s something wrong with us?”
I relax until my second form recedes, “I’m fine, just stressed from all the shit going down, ok? So, stop freaking out every time I move.”
He glares down at me but moves back to the other side of the table to help Cedric pick it back up. He mumbles something low enough for my ears not to be able to catch it, but I choose to ignore it. In front of me, Larkan has turned and is putting his blades away, “You sure you’re ok?”
When I nod, he looks skeptical and says, “I’ll accept that for now, but you’re going to have to trust me enough to confide what’s really going on. It’d be easier if it was sooner rather than later.”
I nod again, and he moves back to his seat. As weird as it is for me to say, even to myself, I miss Monroe. He helped keep me stabilized so that my powers wouldn’t fluctuate like what just happened. Between the good I feel tugging at me around Larkan and the darkness that surrounds Enoch, it’s as if Monroe is my balance to keep me steady. I let out a deep sigh and turn back towards them.
The Arbiter: Divinely Damned Book One Page 13