Corpse Curses

by Jen Ponce

  I shook my head. “Thanks though.”

  He laughed, then reached out and drew something on my chest with Kyle’s blood.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, my eyes crossing as I tried to discern what he’d written.

  “Marking you. I’ve heard whispers of a mortal savior. A woman setting us free. I didn’t know she would pay me a visit.” He shifted, moving close, and every warning siren in me going off. This demon wasn’t all there. He had a slightly unhinged look in his eye that made me wonder when he’d snap and yank my head off.

  “Marking me?”

  “A reminder that you’re … safe.” He tipped his head, eyes unblinking, like a snake eying its prey. “So I don’t forget and kill you.”

  Shit.

  He sniffed then, leaning even closer. “You smell familiar.”

  I fucked a couple of your kind, I thought. “I—”

  “Lux. Mal.” His eyes dropped to my breasts, but before I could block his hand, he was digging between them to find the crystal. “Why do you trap him?” he roared.

  “I didn’t,” I said, working hard to keep my voice even and calm. My death was in his eyes. “He asked me to hold onto him until I can kill the ones who enslaved him. Lux can vouch for me, as can Stolas.”

  His fingers tightened around the crystal. He was obviously debating whether or not to believe me. I wished I had a way to call Lux so I could have him explain to crazy pants why I had Mal in a crystal around my neck. “I will ask them.”

  I nodded. “If you break it and release him, he’ll be in danger of being taken by the Lodge again.”

  “I can protect him. Unlike you, little mortal.”

  “You were in a fucking crystal seconds ago, dude. I saved your ass. Now what you need to do, if that’s all of you, is go to Hell and change your damn name so they can’t summon you again.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “How do you know so much about us? They are letting secrets slip, aren’t they? They’ve forgotten what they are.”

  Since I wasn’t about to argue with the crazy demon, I just stayed quiet.

  “I’ll be back, little mortal. If I find out you’ve lied to me, I will peel the skin from your body.”

  What did a person say to that? Yeah, okay? Thanks. Be seeing you? Sounds good?

  He moved to the far wall and knocked the painting aside. Behind it was a wall safe, its digital light glowing softly. He didn’t bother trying to crack it; he punched through the door and yanked it free.

  Holy crow he had a lot of power.

  He tossed the door to the floor and reached back in to pluck a crystal the size of my head from the safe. It glowed the same color as the one that had hung around Kyle’s neck and when he smashed it, power filled and filled the room. Dear sweet Hecate, who the hell was he?

  “Goodbye, little mortal.” He left with a pop of sound and his power left with him, leaving me feeling empty.

  And lucky.

  He could have killed me with a blink of his eyes.

  My eyes went to Kyle, to the grey-black mist that was slowly curling off his body. His death spirit. Finally. I leaned in and dipped my face in it, eyes going shut at the calm that stole over my body. His spirit filled and filled me until I was twitching with it and then the last of it slipped free of him and into me and I slumped on the floor for a long, wild moment.

  All my muscles relaxed, sated. I sighed and smiled up at the ceiling. Poppy had asked me once what it was like. It had taken me a good long while to answer her. “An orgasm, the really good kind mixed with that lazy, unrolled feeling you get from weed. I don’t know. Whatever it is, I like it … that dark part inside me likes it, shuts her up.”

  I knew I shouldn’t wallow, but I allowed myself twenty minutes to do just that and when the floaty feeling finally faded, I got to work cleaning up behind myself. I wiped down every surface I touched, then used magic to incinerate every bit of evidence that I had been there. I didn’t burn Kyle or try to wipe up the blood, but I did smear it all over to hide any stray fingerprints—including the blood on his body.

  I wondered what they would think of it, the Keepers who would be called in to investigate. His body, drained of blood. Viciously attacked. I considered writing something about Poppy on the wall in his blood, but anything I wrote would give her and me away, so I merely walked through the place one more time, double- and triple-checking that I hadn’t left anything behind but death.

  I showered then covered my tracks there, too.

  I slipped out the back door and over the fence, hiding in shadows as I ran through the alley. Four blocks down, I called a cab and walked three more blocks before I caught it, not wanting the cabby to associate the barefooted girl with Kyle’s neighborhood at all.

  19

  When I got home, I put the dress in my closet and fell into bed. It wasn’t more than two minutes later that Lux showed up with Crazy in tow. I pushed myself to an elbow and shoved hair out of my face. “I hope you told him I’m the good guy.” I thought of Kyle’s body, of stabbing him multiple times. “Sort of.”

  “This is Abaddon. He’s …” Lux trailed off and we both watched the demon poke around the room, looking into my dresser drawers, sniffing my …

  “Hey, stop that.”

  He looked up from my panties and grinned, then tossed them across the room. “Hell is abuzz about you, little mortal. What’s left of it.”

  “Good?”

  “Lux seems inclined to like you. Malphas trusted you with a piece of himself. Why?”

  “I don’t fucking know. I saved them. Saved you,” I reminded him again, in case he’d forgotten. He didn’t seem exactly stable. “I guess they think that makes me a stand-up gal.”

  “Hmm.” His eyes flicked over me and away. I was in my underwear, which was better than being naked, but only by a little bit. Lux’s eyes were on me, his grin wolfish, and I wished Abaddon would fuck off so Lux and I could play. “What’s the plan?”

  I blinked, figuring he probably wasn’t talking about a sex plan, though my mind had already gone there. “Plan?”

  “Killing the mortals that hold Malphas hostage.”

  Right. “My friend Poppy is setting up Harriet. She’s trying to find dirt on her so we can lure her to a spot of our choosing. As for the other …” I heaved a sigh. “Adam Windhaven will be more difficult to catch out. He’s Grand High Exorcist of the Conventus and he isn’t exactly without power.” And I’d told him to go fuck himself with a sharp spoon and called him an ass-nugget. Shit.

  “Adam Windhaven. I know this one. The mortal who kept me talked of him often. Jealousy was the prime emotion. Envy. Anger. Sick fascination.” Abaddon stretched, the muscles under his many tattoos flexing in a lovely way. “All right, little mortal, let’s plan our next kill. I find I wish to drink blood with you.”

  “Um. I … don’t drink blood.”

  He fell backward on the bed, bouncing me up but his hand whipped out and caught me before I tumbled to the floor. His fingers were hot on my thigh and I flashed back to that moment when I was six and the … whatever it was … reached from the middle of my grandparents’ circle and tried to drag me into it. My leg had burned and burned for several weeks after, though my parents hadn’t been able to figure out why I cried. And as a six-year-old, I hadn’t been able to articulate what I was feeling. He cocked his head curiously. “Do I know you?”

  I shook my head, though something in me wondered …

  His eyes took on an almost dreamy cast as he stared. “I want to see you covered in blood.”

  Lux joined us on the bed, his face relaxed and amused, which made Abaddon a little less intimidating. A little. “We have to be careful, Abaddon. Kill too much, too extremely, and all the mortals will be scared and on the lookout.”

  “She killed extremely. So many punctures. So much pain. So much blood. Are you sure you aren’t a demon, little mortal?”

  “I’m sure,” I said, finding myself getting lost in his crazy eyes. They were compellin
g, a little bit hypnotic, and a whole lot of beautiful. “Poppy and I have a list of Conventus Magi that we want dead. We have notes on where they live, what their habits are, things like that. I just don’t want to cut her out completely. This is her deal as much as it is mine.”

  “Why does your friend wish to free us?” Abaddon asked.

  “Neither of us knew anything about you. We were doing this to avenge her, to avenge other witches who have been hurt by the magi. We’re hunting them. We’re hunting the ones who allowed them to get away with murder too.” I considered the magi who ran in my grandmother’s circle. They hadn’t been on our hit list. One, they were too powerful, and two, they hid their perfidies better. The richer they were, the higher up, the more untouchable they became. They would have more powerful demons, though. And with every free demon, my work would become easier. If, of course, they would work with me, help me. As for Abaddon’s wish to murder some magi … “Hold on, let me grab something.” I got off the bed and left my room, grabbing our kill list out of our latest hiding spot. I brought back a membership list of the main Lodge in Bolger and spread it out on the bed. I circled Adam at the top. Put a red X through Oscar’s name and a few other magi’s names that we’d already taken out. I wondered what had happened to their medallions. I hadn’t bothered grabbing any of them until my run-in with Oscar. Did they give them to the family to pass on? That made the most sense. It annoyed me, though, that I’d missed an opportunity to free more demons.

  “Most of the magi Poppy and I are after are in the lower two tiers. Their families’ wealth can only carry them so far. After they graduate from the Academy, they pledge to the Lodge and then have to rise in rank on their own merits. Each one is farmed out to smaller Lodges around Bolger to attain their rankings sooner than if they all attended the same place.” There were ten Lodges in Bolger, which seemed like a lot until you realized the rich assholes were trying to get their golden boys and girls to rise through the ranks faster than if there’d been, say, two or three. The main Lodge sat in the middle of the Conventus part of town. Each small Lodge sat at different distances all around the main one and if you drew lines from one to the other, you’d have yourself a nine-pointed star. The lines worked to power each Lodge, and those that lived in between Lodges received a boost of power. It was why property that fell along the lines was worth so damn much.

  It was why Adam’s house was smack dab in the middle of the line between the small Lodge where he was Grand High Exorcist and the main lodge where his daddy ruled over them all.

  “If we could figure out how to disrupt this energy, we’d go a long way to helping Malphas and bringing down the Lodge altogether.” I said that as if it were an easy thing I was talking about. Just toodle on down to the supermarket and buy a line-breaking kit for thirty-nine bucks.

  Abaddon rolled his eyes up to look at me. “This is boring. Who do we kill?”

  Poppy and I had so many debates over this topic. She thought killing the top tier magi would cause the Lodges to fall, but I thought taking out the small fry would help us reach the same end. Take out the top and someone stepped in to fill the role. Take out the bottom and the top no longer had their minions. Work our way up.

  I tapped on the Lodge nearest Hell’s Mudroom. “This is the weakest Lodge with the weakest members. Many of them are mean assholes since Lodge 10 is where they send the ones who don’t play well with others.”

  “Good. I want to drink them all down and watch the life drain from their eyes.” He was caressing my leg as he said all this, though I didn’t think he realized it.

  I yanked my pen’s cap off with my teeth and scratched out Kyle’s name. That was more satisfying than I’d expected. Of course, because of the utter brutality of his death, the Keepers would be out in full force looking for the culprit. I hoped to Hell I hadn’t left anything for them to find.

  Speaking of … I grabbed my phone and scrolled through the news posts for any mention of Oscar but didn’t find any. Either he hadn’t been found yet or they were keeping it on the down low. Considering his body was in an alley and it had been a couple days, someone had to have found him. I hadn’t exactly tried to hide him, after all. Which meant they were keeping it a secret.

  Now, why would they do that … unless his broken medallion was worrying them.

  What would they think about that? What would their process have been? Find Oscar’s body, see the broken medallion. They’d probably try to recall Lux, which would mean they either all knew each other’s demons, or they had a list. By that time, Lux had already changed his name. So they were out of luck. Why keep it secret then?

  Because their secret was out. Someone knew they kept demons in the medallions. Or that Oscar had.

  “They’re going to trash him in the media,” I said to myself.

  “Mm?” Lux asked.

  “Oscar. The magus who’d enslaved Lux. They haven’t reported his death to the media. That means they are worried someone knows he had a demon in his medallion. So, they’re going to cover up that info by framing him. Watch. It’ll be all over the news shortly. Then they’ll have to explain why they all wear medallions like the one Oscar had and why he’d stored a demon in his while they would do no such thing.” I couldn’t wait to tell Poppy and almost texted her, but there was the little matter of demons in my bed.

  Horny demon on one side and Crazy on the other. And here I was, stuck in the middle. That’s cool.

  “Poppy gave me a name. Marcus Arrelias. He’ll be available tomorrow night—”

  Abaddon made a disgusted noise. “I’m not waiting until tomorrow. Not for a single victim.”

  I pursed my lips, thinking, my eyes skimming over the list. After a moment’s thought, I said, “If you want blood, I think we should pay the Prideful Pig a little visit. It’s the place Lodge 10 Keepers go after a hard day of beating witches and tormenting innocents.” I flipped through our notes. “There have been eighty-two witch murders in the last year in this district alone and ninety-five percent of those were committed by Keepers.”

  Abaddon smiled. “Then let’s pay them a visit tonight and make them pray each breath is their last.”

  It made me feel guilty, planning to take out magi without Poppy running backup, but she wasn’t here and I wanted to play along with Abaddon’s bloodthirsty plan. He had power, a lot of it. Maybe he could help me—help Poppy and me both—make a substantial dent in the magi population.

  To be honest, I wanted to kill with these beautiful demons at my side. I wanted to hunt, I wanted to scare, maim, and murder the assholes who had hurt Poppy, who were hurting witches every damn day, who’d hurt my daddy and mama.

  I wanted them all dead, or, if not dead then neutered. I wanted them powerless, wanted to even the playing field.

  “Yes?” Abaddon asked, as if he’d been waiting for me to make my decision.

  “Yes,” I agreed. I took his hand, took Lux’s, and nodded. “Let’s make some magi bleed.”

  20

  My long night was turning into an even longer one. It was already ten, but I didn’t have work in the morning, so I was all right with staying out all night, especially if it meant fewer Conventus Magi in the world.

  My mama would have been horrified at what I’d become, Daddy too if he knew, but I was doing this for them, for Poppy, and for every one of the witches who’d died or been screwed over by the magi. And now that I knew what was fueling their power, it made me even more determined to stop the bastards. Even if it meant killing a bunch of them to get my message across.

  No way I could stop them all. Not little bitty ole me, but perhaps we could release enough demons that they could help destroy more and more until there was nothing left of the magi or their hierarchies and prejudice and hate for all those unlike them.

  I dressed in a blank suit and popped a disguise on, this one of a middle-aged man with a bit of a potbelly. It didn’t work at all on Abaddon, which kind of freaked me out. “If you can see right through this, why hav
en’t the magi seen through it?”

  “We don’t tell them shit unless they force us. Even then, we try as hard as hell to lie about what we can.” Abaddon was still shirtless, though he had pants on—my yoga pants of all things. Lux was dressed too, looking fucking delectable. I wanted to rip the clothes back off him and fuck him, but we were off to hunt some monsters, so I resisted.

  “Later,” I mouthed, and he grinned.

  “Later what?” Abaddon stepped close and sniffed. “Ah, like a bitch in heat.”

  “Rude,” I said, heat staining my cheeks. True, but rude.

  “Are you not panting after the hellhound?”

  He didn’t look anything like a hound now, just an incredibly sexy man. “I am, but that doesn’t mean you get to say shit like that without provocation.”

  “We will soon be elbows deep in blood and viscera and you’re upset by a few words.”

  “Yep,” I said, more for the principle of the thing than actual offense.

  “I can see why you want him,” he said. “He’s beautiful.”

  “He is,” I said.

  “Do you think I’m beautiful?”

  Chaotic. Dangerous. Five degrees off-kilter. But beautiful? I cut my eyes to Lux, looking for any indication of the right thing to say but his enigmatic smile gave me no clues. Finally, I said, “I think I want to see what you look like covered in blood.”

  His laughter filled the room. “Good answer, little mortal.”

  Abaddon took us to the part of town we needed to be in, another gut-wrenching sideways trip that made me glad for public transportation. I wondered if it felt as shitty to demons but wasn’t going to ask crazy-pants.

  The Lodge in each district was responsible for the policing. The Keepers would patrol, make arrests, write tickets, that sort of thing. It was the first job within the Lodge all pledges had, which was ridiculous in my mind. They had a mere eight weeks’ training and then they were loosed on the world with a license to kill and itchy trigger fingers.