Darkness Taunts

by Susan Illene

  An ashy taste filled my mouth. Flashbacks to the time Variola had tortured me in a basement flickered through my mind. I’d thought I could handle anything, but when her minions worked me over I’d wanted to die. To this day I didn’t know how many of my bones they’d broken. Blood from open cuts had covered my body as well. They’d let me suffer my wounds for hours before healing me and threatening to do it again. It had been one of the lowest moments of my life. No one other than Emily knew it, but nightmares where I relived every moment still cropped up once in awhile.

  I pushed the memory of that time out of my mind. It wouldn’t be me confined and locked in chains now. That gave me a small measure of comfort, but the ashy taste in my mouth continued to get stronger. My coffee helped get rid of the worst of it until I stopped drinking. I didn’t care for basements anymore, but I usually didn’t get that kind of reaction from being in them.

  A dozen or so steps into the hallway and an intense heat hit my senses. It was almost like fire sizzling at the edges of my mind. It hurt my head, but I’d been around sups long enough their various sensations didn’t hit me as hard as they used to. At least I could finally pinpoint where the demon was located in the basement—about a hundred feet ahead and to the right. This place must have been built a long time ago to be so large.

  “Lucas, I sense him.”

  The nephilim stopped and turned toward me. “Tell me.”

  I described everything I’d felt.

  “What did Nik say about it when you spoke with him?” Lucas asked.

  I burrowed into my leather coat. My mind might feel like it was on fire, but my body had grown cold in the chilly basement. “He gave me some translations from his family book to read. I haven’t had much time to go over them yet.” More like no time at all.

  He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “This is important. You should have prepared yourself better.”

  Who the heck did he think I was? Superwoman? “Rome wasn’t built in a day, Lucas. I can’t just drop everything in my life, come here, and jump into something I’ve never dealt with if you don’t give me enough time.”

  He stepped up closer to me. “I’m not asking you to build Rome. You had a full day to get as much information as you could.”

  I threw my hands up in the air. “And I used it to get as much done as I could, but I also had personal stuff to take care of before leaving—not to mention getting attacked by a vampire. Excuse me for being a little busy.”

  His eyes ran over my body. “What do you mean you were attacked by a vampire?”

  “One of Nik’s guards attacked me when I came over to his house. Apparently the guy didn’t approve of my existence. I’m sure you could relate. Anyway,” I took a step back because Lucas was getting too close, “I shot him in the head and Nik executed him later when he found out. It’s over.”

  He closed the distance again. “Were you hurt?”

  I shrugged. The amount of attention he was giving the incident was disconcerting. Lucas had never cared that much when I’d been injured before, but I could sense his concern in his roiling emotions now. “My face got banged up and bled a little, but Nik made me drink some of his blood so it’s all healed.”

  His fists clenched. “Show me where.”

  I wanted to push him away, but so long as I didn’t touch him I wouldn’t say or do something stupid. “It’s not a big deal. You’ve seen me a lot more banged up than I was this time.”

  “Show me.”

  Good grief he wasn’t giving up. I tilted my head to the right and pushed my hair back from my face to expose the spot. “He shoved me into that armor Nik has hung up in his foyer. It scratched up my left cheek a little, but you can see it’s fine now.”

  Lucas ran a finger across my cheek. “Why did no one inform me of this?” he asked.

  I let go of my hair and took two steps back. What the hell was wrong with him? “Probably because we didn’t need your help to deal with it,” I said. “If it had been up to me, Nik wouldn’t have gotten involved either. It was my problem and I’d already handled it.”

  “By shooting the vampire?” He turned his gaze upward before giving me a hard look. “I doubt he took it as the kind of lesson you hoped for. The next time he came after you, you might not have survived.”

  “Then maybe,” I pointed at his chest, “you shouldn’t have forced me to stay in Fairbanks where I’m a walking target for every supernatural that doesn’t like me being there. The only way I’m going to survive the damn place is if I stand up for myself. Every time one of you helps it only makes the problem that much worse.”

  Sparks all but shot out of his eyes. “Strike enough fear into their hearts and I promise they won’t lay a hand on you. Nik and I are capable of that, but you are not.”

  “I hate you, Lucas.” It came out childish, but I couldn’t help myself. He had a way of bringing out the worst in me.

  He stood completely still. This time I couldn’t tell what emotions he felt—they didn’t come out all that clear. After a moment he relaxed. “Good. Keep your hate and use it. We’ve got demons to deal with.”

  “Fine. What’s the plan?” The sooner we distracted ourselves with something else the better.

  “I’ll handle the questioning,” he said.

  I stiffened. That was not what I’d had in mind. “But…”

  He shot me a pointed look. “The only thing I need from you is to tell me when the demon speaks the truth—which probably won’t be all that often. Nod, but don’t ever say a word. We can’t afford for him to learn who you are or anything about the rest of us.”

  My hands shook. The basement didn’t feel that cold anymore now that anger had warmed me up. “I’ve done hundreds of interrogations. This isn’t new to me even if there is a demon involved this time. Let me talk to him. I’m good at this.”

  “I know you are,” he conceded, “but you’re not ready. Watch and learn. That’s all I want from you right now.”

  He had a lot of nerve dragging me into this only to keep me on the sidelines. Either he let me do things my way or not at all. Resolve filled me. “Then do it yourself since you’re such an expert and so much better than me. I’m done, Lucas.”

  I turned and started walking back toward the stairwell. There was no point in me being here except to use my abilities when it was convenient for him. The army might have made me do things I didn’t want, but I’d be damned if the sups did it too. Each step away from Lucas felt liberating—like I was taking back control of my life. He could threaten all he wanted, but in the end I decided what I would or wouldn’t do.

  The door loomed before me. I jerked on the handle, but it didn’t budge. All the electronic security gadgets mocked my resolve. I had no way out. A look back confirmed what my senses already told me. Lucas had gone on to see the prisoner. He’d left me to figure things out on my own.

  I had my Sig holstered at my back. Maybe I could shoot my way out, but then again, maybe not. Just because it worked in the movies didn’t mean it worked in real life. Those heavy locks were electronically controlled and might not release if the control mechanism was shot. Maybe it would even trap us down here.

  My shoulders slumped. Lucas had known I couldn’t leave. That’s why he didn’t come after me or try to stop me. I could feel him and the demon together. My distance from them was enough to avoid the spill of emotions, but my mind conjured up what might be going on in there. A part of me recognized Lucas might be right. I didn’t know enough about demons to do an effective interrogation.

  An interrogator always learns all they can about the person they’re going to question before walking in. It’s about knowing the person’s strengths and weakness. You don’t always have much to go on, but you worked with what you had. Right now all the information that might be of use sat in a notebook at Lucas’ cabin. Maybe after reading through it I could convince him to let me participate.

  I steeled my resolve and headed toward the room.

  Chapter Twelv
e

  Lucas didn’t acknowledge me when I came through the door behind him. He stood a few feet in front of the demon strung up on the St. Andrews cross. If not for my senses telling me evil lurked inside the human body, it would have been hard to believe. The man didn’t look all that sinister. His face was haggard and a few strands of his mangy hair fell over his eyes, but nothing said “I’ve come for your soul”. The ashy taste in my mouth and the burn on my senses reminded me, though.

  “Tell me how you inhabited this body,” Lucas demanded.

  The guy stared at the ground and kept his lips sealed. No reaction at all. I didn’t know how strong a demon’s powers were at night, but right now they didn’t rate high. No emotion came from him either. If his eyes hadn’t darted over to me when I’d first entered, I’d have thought he’d fallen asleep.

  Lucas moved closer to him and leaned down by his ear. “Tell me your name?”

  He’d put the full force of his compulsion into it—enough to shoot a spark of pain through my head. Still nothing.

  “We can do this the hard way if you prefer,” he said.

  The demon looked up and grinned. The grating voice that came out of him rested any doubts that a human mind controlled the body. “Oh, good. You were beginning to bore me.”

  Lucas stepped forward and gripped his neck. “How about a little pain?”

  I almost jumped when he shot a surge of light out of his hand. It hit the demon and jerked his body like it had been zapped with electricity. The smell of skin and hair burning reached my nose. What the heck had Lucas done? I’d never seen him do that before.

  It took the demon a minute to recover, but when he did he laughed. “A baby smite? It hurts so much worse when the angels do it.”

  He spoke the truth. I hadn’t known the nephilim inherited that ability—or at least what appeared to be the weaker version of it.

  “Why did you come here?”

  The demons eyes reddened. “To have a little fun.”

  Lucas glanced at me, but I kept my head still. The demon had lied. For whatever reason he’d come here, it hadn’t been for fun—even if that came as a bonus.

  “What kind of fun?” he asked.

  “Hmmm,” the demon glanced at me, “give that one to me and I’ll show you.”

  A nerve ticked in Lucas’ jaw. “Tell me your plans. I know there are more of you.”

  A sickening leer spread across the demon’s face as he turned his attention back to me. “I’ll tell you what I’d do with that one.” He licked his lips. “I’d strip her down and chain her up. Then I’d flay her skin over and over while fucking her bloody body to death. Her screams would be music to my ears.”

  I shuddered. There were times when I really didn’t like knowing when someone spoke the truth—now was one of them. Lucas took the taunt even worse. He thrust his hand into the demon’s body and ripped out the still beating heart. Blood coated his fingers as he held it up and crushed it in front of the demon’s still grinning face. He tore the head off next and crushed it underneath his feet, until the shattered skull was flattened. Brain matter and bits of bone stuck to the soles of his shoes. I’d seen my fair share of nasty deaths, but this one had me choking back my bile.

  “We’re done here,” he said, pulling the door open.

  He didn’t look at me and I knew he barely held his rage in check—destroying the demon hadn’t been enough to satisfy his need to kill. The next person to come near us might not get much better treatment. I’d have to handle him with care.

  “No kidding.” I stepped over a piece of mushy brain. “Think next time you could cut down on the blood splatter? These were my favorite jeans.”

  He eyed me up and down and his lips twitched.

  “I’ll try, but I must admit I like seeing you coated in our enemy’s blood.”

  I threw my hands up in the air. “You would.”

  We started walked down the hallway side by side.

  “You changed your mind about participating,” he said.

  I brushed my hair out of my face and made a note to wash it later. Lucas really did make a mess when he killed the demon host. “You didn’t exactly make it easy for me to leave.”

  “You could have waited for me to finish. I would have let you go,” he said.

  “That’s a shocker.”

  He kept looking forward. “I’ve learned how you think. You’d have come back for no other reason than it would’ve bothered you to allow innocent humans to die.”

  I stopped and put my hands on my hips. “You’re so sure of yourself?”

  He kept walking. “Always.”

  I didn’t say a word when we met with the werewolf day guards upstairs. Lucas ordered them to clean up the mess in the basement and we left. Two questions kept swirling through my mind. Why had he reacted so violently to the things the demon said and how had he figured me out so well?

  Chapter Thirteen

  I sat on the sofa in the living room at Lucas’ cabin trying to decipher Nik’s handwriting. Doctors had better penmanship than this. It took all of my concentration to make out each sentence, never mind the actual meaning of them. Another notebook sat in my lap where I translated the translation. At this rate I’d never get a handle on how these demons operated.

  “Didn’t they used to make a big deal about handwriting back in the day?” I asked.

  Micah worked in the open kitchen making some kind of stew that smelled good enough to make my stomach rumble. He looked up from stirring the latest ingredient in. “They did, but with every new language you learn over the centuries you start to slack off on how well you write it.”

  Made sense. I had enough trouble keeping up with English. The army had sent me through school to learn Persian Farsi, but I’d dumped most of it since getting out. My writing had never been that good with their alphabet either.

  “Getting good with the modern lingo aren’t you?” I asked. His brother always spoke so much more formally.

  Micah shrugged. I still hadn’t gotten used to seeing Lucas’ face on him. “One of the advantages of ‘The Sleep’ is it refreshes the mind and makes it easier to assimilate new information.” He paused. “It also helps that television programming and movies have improved considerably during my absence. Those reality shows are teaching me a lot.”

  I groaned. “Please tell me you’ve been watching something else besides those.”

  The kitchen counter blocked my view, but I could hear him chopping something up. He kept his concentration on that as he spoke. “There is a particular show called Sons of Anarchy that I’ve found quite entertaining.”

  I shook my head. “That’s not exactly going to teach you how to behave in society.”

  “Really?” he asked, dumping his latest ingredients into the pot. “Here I was plotting ways to sell illegal arms as an investment for my future.”

  He was baiting me. I refused to take it while I had the chance to grill him for information without a certain other nephilim’s interference. “Hey, does Lucas ever go for The Sleep?”

  “Not for a very long time. He’s never been the most pleasant brother to have, but too many centuries of going without The Sleep has made him increasingly irritable to be around.” Something in Micah’s voice and emotions told me this bothered him more than he wanted to let on.

  “Then why don’t you encourage him to take his turn?” I asked. Maybe Lucas could sleep long enough to give me peace for the rest of my life.

  Micah’s face hardened. “He doesn’t have the luxury to go for The Sleep.”

  I’d suspected he’d say something like that. “Why not?”

  “You’d have to ask him.”

  I didn’t get a chance to say more. Micah stalked from the kitchen and out the front door. He didn’t go far—he was supposed to be keeping an eye on me in Lucas’ absence—but he went far enough to make it clear he didn’t want to talk. Whatever the problem was, it appeared to be a sore subject. Maybe if I asked the right questions between him and
his brother I could figure it out.

  For now, I had to concentrate on the indecipherable notes in front of me. Nik’s piss poor writing couldn’t wait. Lucas would be back tonight to take me out for some kind of meeting with the club owner whose place had been attacked by the demons recently. He wanted me to pose as a demonologist working with him on the problem. I had to learn all I could between now and then.

  Thirty minutes into it and I found something that caught my attention. I reread the lines to make full sense of them.

  A demon is at its weakest when it enters the host. Humans are almost always the target as they are the easiest to possess and control. Once a demon has taken hold, a battle is waged for the human’s soul. A strong one may last for up to five days, a weaker one for perhaps two. In the early stages a host’s emotions will be especially volatile to the senses. As time passes, they will weaken. Once the soul is lost, the human’s presence will no longer be discernible and the demon will be in full control. No mortal can survive if intervention does not arrive before this occurs.

  It went on to say how to properly kill a host if the demon had fully taken over—by beheading. If the soul still fought, then feeding the human sensor blood would end the possession. Either way, the demon didn’t die. It went back to hell, but their time on earth would leave them too weak to come back for centuries. How they knew that part, it didn’t say.

  I thought back to my experience with the demon that morning. It should have bothered me that Lucas had killed the host, but it hadn’t. Maybe my sensor instincts recognized the host had already been lost. At least now I had a better idea of what to do if I ran into one.

  The next couple of pages described specific instances of demon possession. Nik’s handwriting hadn’t gotten any better, though, so it took time to make out each line and rewrite it. My head had started to ache by the time Micah came back. He went straight into the kitchen with only a brief glance in my direction.

  I didn’t want to befriend him. My instincts still told me to run whenever a sup came near, but he might be the only one who could give me more information on Lucas. Something told me I’d never get rid of that man and the more I knew about him the better. At least Micah would talk without all the ambiguity.