Serpent's Hold (The Last Serpent, Book 5)

by Morgan, Tansey

  I hugged him tightly before leaving, breathing into his chest before without saying another word. Everything that had to be said had been said, all that was left to do now was let the situation cool off. Maybe then I’d be able to get through to him.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Midnight was almost on us, and I hadn’t been able to cope well with the nerves. Leo had been cryptic as hell with his intentions, and that had caused my brain to go into overdrive, working through all of the possible scenarios I was likely to find myself in tonight, none of which I thought I was exactly ready for, even if Leo thought I was.

  Of one thing I was certain of—I was ready to sink my teeth into something. I had been ready to do something, anything, useful for days. Since that night at the club when I chased a vampire down across the rooftops of London it had felt like all I had done was sit and wait for things to happen to me, and that was no way to live a life.

  I knocked and let myself into Leo’s room at ten minutes to midnight, finding Leo and Aiden both waiting for me. Aiden had on a pair of black jeans, a black t-shirt, and a leather jacket that doubled up as a hoodie. Leo was similarly dressed, only his leather jacket had a faded lion embroidered onto the back of it, a banner with some words I couldn’t pick out, and patch with the initials MC on it.

  That I did recognize.

  “You didn’t tell me you were in a motorcycle club,” I said to Leo as I walked into the room.

  He shrugged. “You didn’t ask.”

  Aiden and I exchanged knowing smiles. “So, why are we here?” I asked, turning back to Leo.

  “First thing’s first; you’re going to need to shapeshift,” Leo said.

  “Shapeshift? Why?”

  “It’s just a precaution, but we don’t want anyone recognizing you instantly.”

  “Don’t you think the people hunting me have the means to pick me out of a crowd whether I’m shapeshifted or not?”

  “Maybe, but I’d rather make them work for it than give your identity away from the start.”

  I sighed. “Okay, but shapechanging for a long time really sucks it out of me.”

  “I’m sure loverboy over here will be happy to fix that problem when the time comes, now shapechange.”

  I shut my eyes, rolled my shoulders, and cracked my neck a little. As I did, pieces of my body began to change. In my mind I imagined an ordinary looking woman with no particularly striking features; plain brown hair, slightly pale skin, dull, brown eyes. Pretty, just plain. Instead of putting the energy into making the image attractive, I put it into making the image stronger, faster, and sharper. Maybe she was the captain of a women’s rugby team, someone whose body was muscly and toned, and stronger than she appeared.

  When I was done, Leo grabbed my hand and caused reality itself to collapse around us. My stomach flipped, then flipped again, like a washcloth being rung out over a kitchen sink. I shut my eyes for the duration, but the trip itself didn’t last more than a couple of seconds. Soon, the cold night air was touching my face again, and my feet were standing on solid—slightly wet—ground.

  “I’m never going to get used to that,” I said, groaning. Then, looking around, “Where the hell are we?”

  Aiden suddenly exploded onto the scene, leaving a whisper and a soft trail of black smoke as he materialized. He shrugged the sensation off much faster than I had, but then he was a demon, and I wasn’t.

  “East London,” Leo said, “A place called Hackney.”

  “And what exactly are we doing here?”

  “I’ve caught wind of an underground party taking place around here. Rumor has it someone’s got a supply of the drug. I want to know if the rumor is true, and also if whoever has the drug, got it from Elroy.”

  “And just how are we going to achieve that? We aren’t exactly low profile.”

  Aiden and Leo looked at each other. “We can turn into shadows,” Aiden said, “And you don’t look like Lilith anymore…”

  “Oh, so you want me to go to this supernatural party and ask all the questions while you two bozos hide in the shadows and watch?”

  “That’s the gist of it,” Leo said. “It’s the only way to make this work.”

  “Why do I have to do all the hard work?”

  “Because if you mess up, we can spring out and fix the situation.”

  “Comforting.”

  “It better be. Now, the place you want to go to is over there—down the street, make a left. It’s an abandoned pub. It’ll look closed. Just push the door open, go inside, and make like you own the place. Then start asking questions, find the drug, and we can find the dealer.”

  I sighed, rolled my eyes, and started walking. “Yeah, yeah, I know how to find drugs at a party. Also—” when I turned around to look at them, Leo and Aiden were both gone. “Guys?” I asked the dark, quiet alleyway around me.

  The wind carried a whisper, and the whisper was Aiden’s voice. “I’m here,” he said, almost as if he were speaking directly into the back of my mind. Only his voice wasn’t quite normal; it echoed, but the echo wasn’t his voice at all—it was a raspy, almost hissing kind of voice that gave me the chills.

  I shuddered. “Okay, let’s not do that too often,” I said, then I turned around and started walking in the direction Leo had told me. There was a pub at the end of the road alright, only it didn’t look like a pub at all. The entire building looked foreclosed, or condemned. There were wooden boards on the windows, and the front door had a faded eviction notice slapped on it. The door, however, did have a handle, and Leo had asked me to just open the door and walk in like I owned the place, so that’s exactly what I did.

  The thumping bass of trance music suddenly hit me followed by the heady waft of pot smoke, an aroma I could have easily attached to any number of seedy clubs and bars I had been to back at home. Someone else may have been intimidated by the music, the smoke, the dimness and or the crowd of undesirables, but none of it really bothered me, so I walked on inside, shaking my hair loose and roughing it up a little.

  Nobody looked at me like I was out of place, nobody asked me who I was, or why I was here. In fact, nobody so much as glanced at me as I wound my way through the pub’s smoky interior, weaving in and out of clusters of people, wayward stools, and small round tables, all the while keeping my eyes peeled for anyone who might look like a supernatural drug peddler. In this place, however, that could have been one of fifty different people.

  I had my work cut out for me, but I wasn’t about to let that discourage me from what I had to do, so I decided to start with the DJ, since this wasn’t exactly a functioning pub, and more like an abandoned building that was being squatted in. Without thinking much of it, I grabbed one of the beers sitting in the cooler next to the DJ, whose set up consisted of a laptop attached to a pair of old speakers, and dropped a couple of coins in the tray next to him.

  The DJ, a tall black man with dreadlocks and goggles on his eyes, turned to look at me when I hadn’t immediately left his side.

  “What?” he asked, his silver teeth glinting in in the dim light.

  “I’m looking for someone.”

  “Ask someone else.”

  “I’m asking you.”

  “And I don’t give a shit.”

  I pulled a £20 note from my pocket and handed it to him. The DJ stared at the note, took it, and stuffed it into his pocket. “Who are you looking for?” he asked.

  “I don’t know his name.”

  “Can’t help you then,” The DJ made as if to exit the conversation, but I snatched the side of his t-shirt and pulled his attention back on me. “You’d better get your hand off me.”

  “I don’t know his name,” I said, “But I know he’s dealing.”

  “Dealing what? Smack, charlie, pot? Take your pick.”

  I shook my head. “I don’t think you understand me.” With a moment of concentration and the blinking of my eyes, I made my pulpits become serpentine, and turned my eyes a glowing shade of amber. Blinking hard again,
my eyes returned to normal.

  The DJ narrowed his eyes. “You’re looking for Eddie. He’s over there. Tell him I sent you.”

  “Why should I do that?”

  “Because I’m in for a cut of whatever he sells.”

  Glancing across the abandoned, makeshift pub, sending my eyes to the spot where the DJ was pointing, I noticed a booth where four guys were sitting. Each of them looked like they’d served time in prison for a number of different, aggressive crimes, but there was one who looked a little more distinguished than the others—maybe because he was wearing a cheap suit, instead of the classic leather jacket and jeans combo most other people in this place, myself included, had picked to go out in.

  I nodded at the DJ, then slid away from his control station, bringing my beer with me. Straight away, one of the larger guys stood and sized me up. He was easily twice my size, maybe larger, but that didn’t faze in the slightest.

  “There’s nothing for you here,” he said.

  “Yes, there is,” I said, “I’m looking for Eddie.”

  The big man stepped aside, and the man wearing the suit tilted his head and narrowed his eyes. He was a wiry man, with sunken cheeks and thin, greasy black hair, but his eyes were sharp. Sharp as a shark’s tooth, I thought.

  “Who are you?” he asked, his voice oddly smooth, and calming.

  “I’m Alice,” I said, approaching and placing my palms flat on the table, “And I’ve heard you’re dealing.”

  Eddie grinned.

  CHAPTER NINE

  As it turned out, Eddie wasn’t the kind of drug dealer to simply make the transaction and send you on your merry way. Before I knew it, I was squashed in the booth between two large men, with Eddie sitting across from me, looking equally squashed, but twice as comfortable. I watched him reach under the table, and produce a briefcase which brought my mind back to the night at the Viper’s Nest VIP Lounge.

  When he opened it, the same prismatic glow emanated from inside, the source of which were many small phials, each set into cut out sections of a foam board. Eddie scanned them with his fingertips, which were covered in rings, and delicately plucked one out of the briefcase. He then handled the phial in his hand, staring at the way the light would swirl around inside.

  “This one,” he said, turning his eyes to look at me. In this light, he looked downright menacing. “This one is perfect for you.”

  “How do you know?” I asked.

  He handed it over. “Feel it.”

  I reached for the phial, feeling my heart start to race even faster, and harder. It was cold to the touch, and seemed to vibrate against my hand. I watched the light inside, saw the way it seemed to bounce around inside, millions of tiny balls of glittering light following an invisible stream. I thought if I listened closely enough, I may have been able to hear it sing.

  But that was stupid, wasn’t it?

  “Well?” Eddie asked.

  “Well what?” I asked, snapping out of the moment.

  “Intoxicating, isn’t it? And you haven’t even opened the phial yet.”

  “It’s definitely something. Where’d it come from?”

  “Why do you wanna know that?”

  “Because the last time I was on the client end of a drug deal some asshole tried to sell me coke mixed with flour, thinking a woman like me wouldn’t notice, so I snapped his arm and pinned his other hand to the table with the knife he’d used to slice the block open.”

  Eddie’s eyebrows went up, but then they narrowed with suspicion. “You expect me to believe you did that?”

  I leaned over the table. “I play rugby,” I said, “Why don’t you go ahead and try me?”

  One of the men next to me put a hand on my shoulder and forced me to sit more comfortably in the booth. By the look in his eyes, I had rattled Eddie. But he had four bodyguards with him who were way bigger than he, or I, was. I hoped to all of the Gods that had ever existed, that Leo and Aiden were watching from only a few feet away, because if anything went down, I wasn’t sure I would be able to get away from the big guys keeping me pinned to the booth.

  “I like you,” Eddie said, “Feisty.”

  “So?” I asked, “Are you going to answer some questions about this before I put my money down, or are you going to try and give me the run around?”

  “I’ll tell you what. I’ll answer your questions, but after, if you’re going to buy, I want to see you do it in front of me.”

  “You… what?”

  “That’s right. I want you to open the phial, and I want to see you take it. There’s something about the look in people’s eyes when they do the drug that is just… inescapably beautiful.”

  Inescapably beautiful? Where’d a greasy thug like him learn that kind of language?

  Reluctantly, I nodded, though I had no intention of taking the drug—not here, not now, and not later. But if agreeing meant Eddie would answer questions which would help us find the source of, at least, this particular batch of drugs, putting us one step closer toward ending the entire operation for good, then why not lie?

  “Alright,” Eddie said, “So, ask.”

  I thought about my question hard before speaking. “Who supplies the drug?” I asked.

  “You want me to tell you who my source is?”

  “You don’t have to name them. I just want to know who made this batch.”

  “Why?”

  “Because this isn’t my first rodeo, Eddie, and I want to know that you aren’t about to give me second rate shit.”

  “Second… second rate?” Eddie laughed. “It’s one thing to mix coke with flour, but there’s no way to fake this drug. You either have it, or you don’t.”

  “I know that, but I also know that different types of supernaturals offer a different kind of high. I’m looking for one kind in particular.”

  “Oh yeah? What kind is that?”

  I paused. “Incubus,” I said.

  “Incubus? Are you crazy? Do you have any idea how expensive that is?”

  “What about succubus?”

  Eddie laughed. “Succubus?” he asked, “You’re an even bigger fool than I thought if you think there are succubi around.”

  “I’ve heard rumors. I’ve also heard that you know how to get some, but if you aren’t the guy I thought you were, I can take my business elsewhere…”

  I went to stand, but Eddie called out. “Wait,” he said, shifting uncomfortably in his seat. “I’m the guy, but succubus is expensive, do you understand?”

  “So, your source had some to sell?”

  “Don’t ask me how that’s even possible, but yeah. Are you telling me that you came looking specifically for the only two kinds of drug I don’t have on me right now? Because I could convince you that what you’re holding right there is the real deal, the bee’s knees, the Mona Lisa of highs.”

  “Who’d it come from?”

  “Mage, I don’t know the name of the donor, but it was a mage.”

  Donor, more like victim. “What’s the name of your source?”

  “I ask again, why do you need the source’s name?”

  “Because if you can’t give me any succubus, I’ll have to take my business directly to them.”

  “Fat chance of that. The source only meets directly with certified dealers such as myself. However, if you had the cash, then maybe I could special order it.”

  “Let me guess, I’d have to pay up front?”

  Eddie grinned. “How else am I supposed to acquire the goods? I don’t have that kind of moolah.”

  I scanned my immediate surroundings, hoping to catch a glimpse, or even a whiff, of Aiden or Leo, but if they were there, they weren’t making themselves immediately known. “Fine,” I said, “What if I had the cash?”

  “I’d say first I want to see you do that phial.”

  “What? I told you what I want.”

  “And I think you’ve asked a lot of questions, and I want to see if you’re really a paying connoisseur of this particular type
of supernatural narcotic, or you’re just trying to figure out who my source is for reasons unknown.”

  “What if I don’t want to pay for this?” I asked.

  “I’d tell you what every good drug dealer worth his salt tells his newest clients; the first one’s free.”

  Fuck, fuck, fuck… I stared at the phial, carefully considering what I had just been asked to do. Making a break for the exit was an idea, but there was the matter of the two brick shaped men sitting on either side of me, as well as the other two opposite the table from me. I also didn’t know exactly what kinds of supernaturals I was exactly dealing with here.

  Mages? Vampires? Werewolves? The last time I had come face to face with a single werewolf, it had almost killed me, and this time I was fresh out of ancient, powerful magic with which to put the werewolf down. There were a ton of factors I simply couldn’t consider because I didn’t know enough about what I had just gotten myself into, and this meant that making a break for the exit would likely result in serious injury followed by an equally serious interrogation at best, or my swift death at worst.

  “Do it,” Leo’s voice came through loud and clear, like a spike drilling into the back of my head.

  Do it? I thought, hoping he could hear me.

  “Yes. Do it. We’re nearby.”

  Hearing his voice helped, and knowing that Aiden was close helped even more. Biting my lower lip, I popped the cap off the phial and immediately drew it close to my mouth. Opening my mouth slightly encouraged the tiny sliver of mist to travel up the tube and into the gap between my lips, and disappear quickly into my throat.

  The effect was instantaneous.

  I pressed my back against the seat, curled my toes, and grabbed hold of the table with my hands, dropping the phial and forgetting about it entirely. The feeling wasn’t entirely different to having a powerful orgasm, only multiplied by a factor of ten. The sensation was everywhere, from my head to the tips of my toes. I couldn’t escape it, like a rush that wouldn’t end, and the more I experienced it, the more I likened it to the transfer of energy from another person to me. Both sensations were similar, but also slightly different, and it was at the apex of the rush that I realized what the difference was.