by Jen Ponce
I shifted so I could see his face. His stormy eyes were on me, a small smile playing on his lips. “What?”
“I wonder if you’d like to kill someone with me.”
That dark part of me that always came out to play when I hunted rose to the surface, stretching its black talons in my brain like a cat readying itself to pounce. “Who?”
His fingers coaxed goosebumps to rise in their wake. “Harriet Lysander.”
The bitch who pepper-sprayed me in the park. “Absolutely. Could she enslave you again?”
“Yes. With a piece of me enslaved, I cannot change my name. She’s already held me entrapped by her magic, so she will be able to return me to captivity with little trouble on her part. She needs to die so that doesn’t happen.”
“She’ll be on the alert now that I’ve attacked her once. We’ll have to be extra careful and Poppy isn’t here for the video surveillance.” I was already going over what I knew about her, and all the many things I didn’t. We’d researched the layout of her house, we knew her work schedule, we knew she wasn’t dating anyone regularly, but I didn’t know if she had any weapons in her house or what types of magic she was proficient with. It took time to hack into the Conventud Academy’s records because they weren’t just safeguarded with the normal electronic protections, but with magical ones as well.
“Lux will assist us. He’s good at getting women to let down their guard.”
I snorted. “Are you implying that I’m easy?”
“I’m merely saying there’s a reason why he was always in high demand as a slave.”
“I’m sorry, what? Are you saying the Lodge uses you for sex too? Against your will?”
His expression was serious as he brushed my hair from my face. “They do a lot of terrible things, Korri, in the name of their god.”
Anger stirred inside me, as thick and black and deadly as a snake. Sometimes I wondered if it had to do with that darkness inside me, but deep down, I knew it was just who I was. “I wish I could kill them all.”
His lips, when they touched mine, were fierce. When he pulled away, teeth scraping across my lower lip before letting it go, he said, “I wish you could too, my sweet little assassin.”
14
I dressed in my hunting gear, which consisted of thin black pants and a shirt designed to take disguise spells seamlessly. I put two of those in my pocket so I would have options. When I got them wet with my spit and stuck them to my chest, they would make me look like a Lodge member in formal attire or a little mundane scurrying home from a nine-to-five job.
My knives went into sheathes along my forearms and on my thighs, a couple in each boot. I could have used a gun, but they were noisy and crude. I liked knives. It made their deaths personal. It meant I could be close enough to watch the light fade from their eyes.
When I turned, Malphas was dressed in grey pants and a grey shirt. He looked at me as if he wanted to eat me up and that made me horny all over again. “Are you able to change your appearance?”
The air blurred around him and Poppy stood before me, smiling slyly. “I can change how you perceive me.”
I walked around her—the glamour was flawless. “Can you do the same to multiple people?”
“Simple.” He shimmered and became the demon I knew and lusted after.
“And Lux?”
“He’s waiting for us at Harriet’s. Keeping an eye on things.” He held out his hand to me. “Trust me?”
“More than I trust any of the magi.” I plopped my hand in his, grinning.
“Not a spectacular feat, that. You’ll feel a pull.”
A pull. More like a complete wringing inside and out, then back again. I stumbled when we coalesced a couple blocks from Harriet’s, in the shadows of a couple tall pines. “What was that?” I whispered.
“Demonic transportation. Fun, isn’t it?”
I gave him a look that made him laugh silently. We slid through the neighborhood silently, the midnight streets quiet and still. Cars drove past on Ryuk Boulevard a few blocks down, but this sleepy little hollow was dead.
Soon, I hoped, Harriet would be too.
Lux stood in hellhound form near Harriet’s alley, his black body almost invisible in the night. He whined softly as we neared, taking the time to lick my hand when we stopped beside him.
“What’s going on?” Malphas tipped his head, then said, “She has company.”
Shit. We could go in and kill her and whoever her visitor was, but I hated not knowing what we’d be walking into. There could be a third-tier magus in there for all we knew.
“Let’s slip over the fence into her backyard, case the place from there,” I whispered. She kept ornamentals back there, great hiding spots for all of us.
“No. They aren’t staying. Look.”
A car glided down the silent streets, almost soundless as it pulled up to the curb. Soon enough, Harriet’s door opened and Harriet herself stepped out, accompanied by a couple of keepers. Delight flooded me. She was scared enough to want bodyguards. That was a good sign.
We just had to get her alone so we could show her how scared she should be.
“Where are they going, do you think? Can you follow?” I asked him, then saw his grim face.
“She’s going to the Lodge.”
I scoffed. “At this time of the night?”
“Perfect time for summoning demons, Korri.”
Fuck. “How many of them do they need? Can we take them all?” I wasn’t going to lose him to that bitch, not now that I’d found him. Fucked him.
“We can’t. Come. We don’t have any time to lose.” He took my arm and moved us, and it was just as awful as the first time.
We ended up outside a small bookshop and apothecary called the Owl’s Roost. They were open for some odd reason despite the hour, and Malphas pushed through the door, the bell overhead tinkling our arrival.
The shop was packed with books and magical items from floor to ceiling, wall to wall. I’d never visited, hadn’t even known it existed until now. And since we’d popped in using whatever demonic travel ability Malphas had, I didn’t know exactly where it was. I made a mental note to ask so I could return with Poppy and we could explore.
Herbs hung from the ceiling, along with various objects of dubious magical properties. Some, like the trefoil flowers and paisley incantation strips, I recognized. Others, like the severed tails or tentacle-like vines that groped for me, I’d never seen before.
The man behind the counter was handsome in a quiet way. His honey blond hair hung in smooth waves to his shoulders, and his pale green eyes took us all in with curiosity. “Malphas,” he said by way of greeting, “Lux.” His eyes flicked to me.
“Korri,” I offered.
He tipped his head, studying me, then his nostrils flared, almost as if he were scenting the air.
What the fuck did I smell like to these guys?
“What’s going on?”
“I need you to put me into the crystal the way magi do. A big one to accommodate all of me.”
The man studied Mal, then nodded and walked along the counter stacked with books. Most of them, I noted as I followed, were illegal to even own in Bolger. “Where exactly are we?” I asked, suddenly wondering if I was in my own world at all. I glanced back at the front door, but it was darkness beyond, and I couldn’t see a thing.
Malphas smiled at me, then went back to his conversation with the proprietor as they sorted through a large bin full of crystals. They sparked and throbbed with magic, some of them bigger than my head, and some as small as my pinky finger’s nail. When Mal found the one he liked, he gestured to me. When I neared, he put it in my hand and curled my fingers over it, the thing almost as big as an apricot. “I need you to call me to this crystal before Harriet has the chance. She won’t be able to get hold of me if another magus already has control.”
“What? No. I’m not going to fucking enslave you—”
He tipped my chin up and kissed me, then brushe
d a thumb across my lips. “Better you than her. Besides, if she gets control over me, she’ll be able to force me to tell her who freed me. And I don’t think either one of us wants that.”
Shit. “I’ll let you free as soon as she’s dead.”
He shook his dead. “Until they’re both dead. Or until you manage to free the other piece of me. They’ll just keep trying, especially once her spell doesn’t work.”
“Are they doing it tonight?” the blond man asked. “Because we need to get this done if they are.”
“They are. Can we use your space?”
“Of course. But … who is she, Malphas? Can you trust her?”
Malphas lifted my hand to his lips. “She freed me and Lux. And she’s freed others. I believe we can trust her. Look. She’s touched.” He ran his fingers through the white part of my hair, then gestured to my one green eye. “I don’t know exactly what she is, but she’s one of us.”
The man-made a noncommittal noise, but his eyes studied me intently. “If you wish to risk it, let’s get to it. Come on.”
He led us down a set of wide stairs to a large, empty basement with nothing but a gigantic pentagram etched into the floor. He wasn’t wearing any shoes and in a blink, neither was Malphas. I was the one who had to sit and untie my laces, then ease both my boots and socks off my feet.
“Come.” The blond led me to the outer edge of the circle and had me sit. He placed the crystal inside the point closest to me and Malphas stood in the middle. “This will be easier because he’s willing and he’s already here. But you’ll still have to focus your intention on the crystal.”
“My intention to trap him inside it, you mean?” I asked, wrinkling my nose.
“Just so.”
I sought out Malphas, and he nodded, looking relaxed and not the least bit worried. He had more faith in me than he should have considering we barely knew each other. “Just so you all know, I suck ass at intention magic. I don’t have the longest attention span.”
“Lux? Can you help her focus?”
Lux whined, then trotted over, still in hound form, to curl around my back, his front paws on my left, his back paws curled around on my right. He was a big fucking beast. Some parts of him even bigger in witch form.
I scratched him under the chin, then turned my attention to the crystal at the point of the star.
The blond man began to chant and as the magic spun out and away, I caught it up and tangled it around me, directing it into the stone, guiding Malphas into the stone. When the blond man began feeding me words, I repeated them, feeling the magic thicken and grow stronger with intention. The words were an ancient form of our language, long ago written in rune form on tablets and on cave walls, teaching us how to summon demons, call them to us, and solicit their assistance. The Lodge had long since banned the practice, citing how dangerous it could be to summon them.
Lies. Their entire order was founded on them.
“Concentrate,” Malphas whispered and Lux shifted behind me, whining.
Concentrate. Right. I focused on the crystal, repeating the words under my breath, directing the magic to move Malphas into the crystal, pleading with it to hide him there, to keep him safe until Harriet and Adam were both dead. Just when I thought my head might explode, Malphas went all misty like the demon I’d freed in my kitchen. In seconds, he was gone and the crystal on the ground in front of me pulsed sparkling midnight before settling into a mild, golden glow.
“Did we do it?”
The blond man was staring at the crystal as if he’d seen a ghost. Then he nodded. “Yeah. Looks like we did.”
I tipped my head to look at him. “What is it?”
He stared at me a lot longer than was polite. Finally, he shook himself. “Nothing. Come on. I’ll find you a pendant to hold it for you.” He didn’t wait for me, just went back up the stairs and left us behind. I put my shoes and socks back on and trotted up the stairs with Lux, then found the man behind the counter. He gave me a beautiful necklace with a delicate silver cage hanging from a dainty silver chain.
I trapped Malphas’s crystal inside and hung it around my neck before dropping it into my shirt. “Thank you.”
“Don’t let him down. And if you take advantage of him while he’s in there …”
I pulled a knife from my forearm sheath and made a long, slender cut along my palm, then held out my hand. “I swear I won’t take advantage.”
His gaze went to my face to the blood that dripped from my hand to his counter. “Blood pacts are dangerous.”
“So is trusting strangers.”
With a flick of his wrist, a sharp, black claw emerged from his ring finger on his right hand. He drew it across his flesh and blood welled. He shook my hand and when our blood touched, magic zinged through us both.
When that little working was done, I took the tissue he offered and wiped up my blood. “What’s your name?”
“Stolas.”
“Nice to meet you.”
He plucked a business card from a nearby holder. “Rub the owl when you wish to visit. Only way to find me.”
The card was black, and an owl embossed in red glimmered on the paper. I slipped it into a pocket and wondered again where exactly I was.
“How did you meet him? Malphas? And Lux? They’ve been … gone for a long time.”
I put my hand on the hellhound’s head. “I killed the magus who held Lux’s crystal. Broke it and freed him. I was tracking the woman who had Malphas’s crystal, but she got away from me before I could kill her. I’ve freed a few others, but none as,” handsome, well-hung, talented, “intelligent as Malphas and Lux.”
“Higher-order,” Stolas said. “They’re higher-order demons. Malphas is a prince. Lux is a hellhound, one of thirteen first created by our High Lord.” He looked thoughtful, then said, “You speak of killing as if it’s easy for you.”
I shrugged. “Not easy, necessarily. Some of them fight back.”
It surprised a laugh out of him, which made me grin in return.
“Are you a demon too?”
He nodded.
“How have you stayed free of the Conventus?”
His smile faded and tension rose in the room. I wasn’t sure what I was missing, but these three didn’t have the same easy relationship as Lux and Malphas alone.
“Well, it was nice to meet you, Stolas.” He didn’t answer, but that was all right. I touched Lux’s head. “Can you get me home? We need to talk to my friend, and I need some sleep.”
Before the words were completely out of my mouth, we were home via that twisty, uncomfortable magic. I sat on my bed with a huff of air, my hand going to the pendant nestled in my cleavage.
Bones cracked and flesh tore. Lux was changing.
Was it wrong to get a little excited about that? Maybe. Still, I watched as he shifted, wincing at the pain he had to be feeling. When he was finished, he shook himself off, brushing his long, black hair from his face. I thought it interesting that despite the fact he was a hellhound, his witch form was pretty much hairless. No chest hair, no armpit hair, just jet-black eyebrows and long, thick hair, glossy and straight.
“Fuck,” he said, and I patted the bed beside me.
“Need anything? Water? Pain killers? A drink?” A fuck?
He eased himself down as if everything still ached just a bit. “Thank you for helping him.”
“Of course. Why wouldn’t I?”
He eyed me. “Witches have long since been cowed by the magi. And the magi themselves are too cowardly to face us without their entrapping magic and too arrogant to believe that working with us could be more beneficial than enslaving us.”
“I wish things were different.” I reached for his hair, paused, and asked, “Can I?”
He nodded, surprised by me asking for permission, I think. I ran my fingers through his mane, loving the feel of the strands pulling through my fingers. “Feels good,” he said, his voice still gruff and growly.
“Sleep with me?” I a
sked. “Actual sleep, I mean, not fucking, though we can do that too. But I need to catch some Zs since I have work in the morning and it’s,” I looked at the clock and groaned, “an hour until I have to get up. Damn it.”
“I have an idea.” He pulled me into his arms and did that weird, shifty pulling thing. The world around me was different, silent. Heavy, like the air was full of magic.
“Where are we?” I asked as I took in the soft furs in a large pile tucked beneath a rocky overhang.
“My home.”
“Hell?” I squeaked, taking another, longer look around. Cave. Furs. Darkness. “Is this where Stolas’s shop is?”
“Mm. Another part, yes. This is my home, though. Where I was whelped.” He tugged me to the furs, a small grin on his face. “You can sleep here however long you want. If we hold the magic, then time will not pass in your world.”
“Seriously?” Holy crow. I could sleep forever here. I could learn fifty thousand languages. I could fuck all I wanted without having to worry I’d be late for work.
He laughed. “Eventually, we would need to let it go. The longer we held it, the harder it would pull on us until eventually it would snap. But, we can easily hold it for a week. Or two.”
“This is amazing. So peaceful.” I kissed him, a long and leisurely kiss that was so different than the desperate, lustful ones of before. “Thank you for bringing me here.
“I’m glad I can share this with you.” His face grew solemn. “They tell a lot of lies about us, but of course, the best lies are steeped in truth. We can be dangerous, Korri,” he said, sliding his hand over my hip and up my side. “We are killers.”
“So am I.”
He brushed a piece of my hair behind my ear. “Yes, you are. Perhaps that’s why you smell so good,” he said, though I didn’t think he believed that was the case. No, there was something about me, something different that made them all sniffy around me.
Maybe I just had demon pheromones.