Succubus Ascendant: An Urban Fantasy (The Telepathic Clans Saga Book 4)

by BR Kingsolver

  “I’m Irina. What’s your name?”

  “Harold.”

  “Is there a way to dim the light?” Irina asked, taking off her bra. The duct tape was irritating her skin, and she wanted to nothing more than to rid herself of it so she could scratch.

  “No, there isn’t,” he said.

  She leaned down and skimmed her jeans down to her ankles. His eyes followed her breasts. She stood up straight and his eyes rose, never losing sight of his targets. Then he realized what she’d done, and she saw his eyes dart lower, to the neatly trimmed blonde hair between her legs.

  She kicked off her pants, stood, and neatly folded her clothes. Turning away from him, she bent over at the waist, leaned across the bed, and put the clothes in a pile on the far end. She began projecting her Glamor at a low level before she turned around.

  “Well, I guess I can sleep with the light on,” she said, yawning. She pulled back the covers and crawled into the bed, covering herself only with the sheet.

  “Good night, Harold,” she said, smiling at him.

  “Good night, Irina,” he whispered.

  She closed her eyes and slowed her breathing to a steady pace. The dynamite made the pose wildly uncomfortable, but she lay on her back, inhaling deeply and pushing her chest up as she did. A bit of stimulation directed to her nipples contracted them to points. Harold’s breathing became louder and more ragged, indicating that he was anything but relaxed. Figuring that men like women who smile, she didn’t even try to control her facial muscles.

  A soft knock at the door brought Harold to his feet. He answered it, and she heard Walter whisper, “Is everything all right?”

  “Yes, she’s asleep.”

  “We’ll have someone relieve you in three hours,” Walter said. “You’ll be okay that long? You’re not sleepy?”

  “No, I’m fine.”

  “Call someone if you need to. Remember that in this small a space, that dynamite will kill you, too.”

  “I know. Believe me, I won’t fall asleep,” Harold said, a bit of exasperation shading his tone. He closed the door and sat down again.

  *Rebecca,* Irina sent, *I have about three hours. What time is it?*

  *Just past midnight,* Rebecca answered.

  *Time to go to work,* Irina said, kicking up her Glam a bit more and restlessly rolling onto her side, facing Harold. As she did so, the sheet slipped down, uncovering one of her breasts. She released more pheromones and watched him through her eyelashes as he squirmed in his chair.

  Over the next hour, Harold became more and more restless as Irina saturated the room with pheromones. She was beginning to wonder what it would take to arouse him when finally he rose to his feet and approached the bed. He stood looking down at her, practically panting, the bulge in his pants prominently displayed.

  She opened her eyes, blinking and feigning sleepiness.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked, making an abortive effort to sit up, which caused the sheet to fall to her waist.

  “Yes, everything’s fine,” he whispered. “You’re beautiful.”

  “Thank you,” she said with what she hoped was a sleepy-looking smile. “You’ve all been so nice to me here, but I’m still scared. I feel so alone. I just want someone to hold me and tell me everything’s going to be all right.” She punctuated her speech with a large pheromone burst and pull of her Influence.

  Harold took a deep breath, which proved his undoing. She watched his eyes dilate and his breath quicken even more.

  Giving him another burst, she said, “Could you hold me? Can you do that and still hold on to the switch?”

  He sat beside her on the bed and reached out to her. She flowed into his arms, holding him and pushing her breasts against his chest.

  “Thank you. Goddess, Harold, I’m so afraid. Hold me, please hold me.”

  He looked down at her face, and she kissed him. He returned the kiss and she gave him a massive dose of pheromones. With a moan, he found her breast with his free hand. In response, she slid her hand down to his lap and stroked his erection through his pants.

  During the awkward fumbling to get his cock out of his pants, she managed to move the slide switch on the dead man’s box to the off position. Irina pulled his pants down around his knees, pushed him back onto the bed, and mounted him.

  “Oh, Goddess, Harold, you don’t know what this means to me. You’re the most incredible gentleman, to comfort me like this,” she said, leaning forward and kissing him as she began to ride him.

  It was over quickly. When he spent in her, she drained him and watched his eyelids flutter and close. She took the box from his hand carefully, replacing his thumb with hers. She thought it was turned off, but she wasn’t taking any chances.

  She searched his pockets and found a large folding knife. As she cut the tape, her hands shook so much that she nicked herself a couple of times, but the adrenaline was flowing strongly through her system and she didn’t feel it.

  Beginning to dress, she sent, *Rebecca? I’m free. Send in the cavalry.*

  *Are you someplace safe? Someplace out of the way?*

  *Don’t shoot anything into the attic and I’ll be okay.*

  *Hang on.*

  Irina looked at the box in her hand and suddenly had a thought.

  *Rebecca, wait! If our people assault the house, some of them might get hurt. Are you physically here?*

  *I’m about half a block away. Why?*

  *There’s a dormer window in my room. I was thinking that there might be a way to lower me to the ground.*

  *Not a bad idea. I think I can arrange a ride for you.*

  Irina took the dynamite and taped it to the door of the room. Then she moved the chair in front of the door and tipped it up, gently setting one leg down on the red button on the box. Holding her breath, she moved the slide switch into the on position.

  *Rebecca?* Irina sent, and followed her hail with an image of what she’d set up.

  *Got it,* Rebecca replied. *Give us one more minute, then go to the window.*

  Irina counted the seconds. She was at one hundred fifty-six when she heard Collin’s mental voice in her head.

  *Go to the window and open it,* he sent.

  She couldn’t reach the latch. Cursing, she searched the room. She found a small stool in the closet and dragged it to the window. Standing on her tiptoes, she was able to open the latch and push the window open.

  *Okay,* Collin sent. *I see it. Can you crawl onto the windowsill?*

  Silently thanking Rebecca and Brenna for harassing her into a regular exercise routine, she managed to pull herself up and knelt on the sill. Staring out into the night, she couldn’t see anyone. The residential neighborhood was quiet.

  *Time for a flying lesson,* Collin sent. *Put your hands together over your head, and when I lift you, hold your legs together.*

  *That’s the first time a man ever told me that,* she responded with a giggle.

  She did as he said, and felt herself enveloped in an invisible force that lifted her into the air. Her heart in her throat, she felt a moment of disorientation and fear of falling. The next moment, she was flying through the air like Superman. She took a sharp right turn, and followed the street, gradually dropping and slowing until she slipped under the branches of a tree and found herself in Collin’s arms.

  “Wow! That was great!” she said, throwing her arms around his neck and giving him a kiss that rocked him back on his heels. “You are a wonderful man!”

  He set her on her feet. Whirling around, she looked back the way she’d come. She could barely see the open, lighted window in the attic of a three-story house halfway up the street.

  “Now that you’re safe, we can go in and take them out,” he said grimly.

  “Do you want to risk your men?” Irina asked.

  “Not really. Why?”

  “Just toss some tear gas through the window and stand back. We can dig the survivors out of the wreckage if you want prisoners.” She sent him an image
of the trap she’d prepared.

  He seized her arms and leaned down close to her face. “Did they hurt you?” His voice was fierce.

  “No, they were actually fairly nice. Other than taping a stick of dynamite to my back. That kind of pissed me off.”

  He stared at her. “Remind me never to piss you off.”

  “I’m a succubus, sweetie,” she said, with a predatory smile that caused him to shiver. “Don’t mess with me or mine. Morrighan calls us the protectors of the Clan. Hugh started this. They blinded one of my lovers. Tried to kill my best friends. Do you really think I give a damn about whether they all go to hell now or later?”

  He straightened and she could tell he was sending orders to the Protectors who must be hiding in the darkness all around them.

  Seconds later, she heard several muffled explosions and saw several glowing, smoking canisters fly toward the house. One went in the open window in the attic, the rest broke windows on the first and second stories.

  They waited. Less than two minutes later, the top of the house exploded. The roof collapsed, and then so did the rest of the house.

  ~~~

  Chapter 8

  You see things; and you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?' - George Bernard Shaw

  Collin had more than two hundred Protectors staged to assault the house where Irina was held. When the house collapsed, they scooped up Hugh’s fighters that managed to crawl out of the wreckage.

  As the emergency personnel showed up on the scene, the Protectors took control and directed the ambulances to the small hospital in Dunallen. Memories were implanted and the police and fire services believed that the house was unoccupied at the time of the “gas explosion.”

  Between the hacking of Hugh’s computer network and the interrogations of the survivors, Collin was able to build a complete picture of Hugh’s operation. Over the following three days, Collin’s troops spread out and surrounded all of the safe houses and hiding places of Hugh’s forces in the Glasgow area. When they could, they quietly captured rebel fighters on their way in or out of such places.

  A major force moved quietly toward the town of Ayr, south of Glasgow on the coast facing Northern Ireland. All indications were that Hugh was running his rebellion from an estate outside the town.

  Collin’s strategy concerning the shipyard was working. Since cutting the utilities, over two hundred workers had come out and given themselves up. They told the Protectors that food was becoming a problem with no refrigeration. The more immediate problem was sanitation. With no working toilets, almost all of the few women inside came out.

  Rebecca joined the force heading to Ayr. As she scrambled into a van filled with Protectors, she heard someone call her name. Turning, she saw Rhiannon running toward her.

  “What are you doing here?” Rebecca asked.

  “I flew in from Dublin. I heard that you’ve located Hugh O’Neill.”

  “We think so,” Rebecca said cautiously.

  Rhiannon looked into the van. “Teddy,” she said to a man sitting there, “catch the next ride.” She punctuated the order by gesturing with her thumb.

  He blinked. “Who are you?”

  “I’m Corwin O’Neill’s granddaughter. Out, or I’ll tell the world about what your mum used to do on Wednesday afternoons.”

  Teddy’s eyes grew wide, and he scrambled out of the van.

  “That’s a good boy,” Rhiannon said with a wink. “I’ll bring you some of those cookies you like when I get back.” She crawled into the van and took his seat.

  *What was that about?* Rebecca asked as she got into the van.

  *Teddy’s mum used to get together with Corwin on Wednesdays when Teddy’s da was in Derry on business. Corwin bought him off with cookies.*

  *You’re shameless. Do you know that?*

  *I didn’t ask for Corwin’s death gift, but knowledge isn’t any good unless you use it.*

  *But ... blackmail?*

  Rhiannon turned a beatific smile toward her, one that reminded Rebecca of the visions she’d seen of the Goddess.

  *Rebecca, I’m a licensed private investigator. I’m not your run-of-the-mill blackmailer. I’m a professional.*

  *I’ll remember that.*

  They rode for an hour in silence, and then Rhiannon sent a spear thread into Rebecca’s mind, *You’re one of those people who can’t be blackmailed.*

  *Why do you say that?* Rebecca asked.

  *Did Brenna explain what happened when we shared Corwin’s death gift?*

  *Not in detail, no. But I was there, and I’m linked to both of you. I could feel the chaos.*

  Rhiannon laughed out loud.

  *Chaos? You have no idea. Rebecca, when we shared Corwin’s mind, we also shared each other’s.*

  Rebecca turned to her, mouth gaping.

  *You called me shameless, but I’m really not. My skeletons are legion. Most people are that way. People don’t understand blackmail. You can only blackmail someone if you can find something they’re ashamed of. You have no shame.*

  *You’ve been in Brenna’s mind and you think that?*

  *You’re not the girl you used to be. The woman you are is shameless. You made a conscious decision to dump shame in the toilet and flush it. Instead of feeling shame, you just get angry at people who try to shame you.*

  Rebecca thought about that for several minutes. *Is that what Brenna thinks?*

  *It doesn’t matter what Brenna thinks, or what I think. Tell me one thing that you’re ashamed of.*

  To Rhiannon’s surprise, Rebecca blushed. *I forgot to brush my teeth this morning. It’s been bothering me all day.*

  Rhiannon erupted with laughter so loudly that the men in the front seat of the van turned to look at her.

  “Oh, Goddess, I forgot how much I enjoy you,” Rhiannon managed to sputter.

  ~~~

  The force driving down to Ayr from Glasgow numbered almost five hundred Protectors. They were joined by another three hundred that flew in from Edinburgh and two hundred that arrived in Ayr harbor by ship out of Glasgow. Collin had no intentions of letting Hugh or any of his adherents escape.

  The shipboard troops disembarked and quietly took control of the harbor. Half of those who came in by plane took the airport, and the rest fanned out and cut off all the roads out of town. Masquerading as Scottish National Police, one hundred Protectors took up stations in the city.

  The force Rebecca and Rhiannon rode with donned battle gear and surrounded the estate where Hugh had his headquarters. At noon, the Clans’ Protectors moved on the rebels throughout the Glasgow region, in concert with the opening attack in Ayr.

  The response from Hugh’s forces at the Ayr estate was immediate and violent. Heavy machine guns opened fire. Fireballs were launched at the attackers. Despair and futility were broadcast using Empathic Projection.

  The Clan forces responded in kind with rifles, submachine guns and fireballs. With both sides protected by air shields, it was a lot of noise and flash without much damage.

  A telepath’s power comes from his or her own physical and mental energy. Part of Collin’s plan depended on getting close enough that the six Druids, augmented by Rebecca and some others, could begin to use their Energy Draining Gifts to drain energy away from the defenders and feed it to the attackers.

  “We need to get closer,” Rebecca said. “I can’t do anything from this distance.”

  She turned to the Druids crouched with them behind a stone wall. The closest one shook her head. “I can’t either.”

  “Well, hell,” Rhiannon said. “I can do something. We don’t have time for this.”

  She stood, and began walking forward, covered by her air shield. The front door of the manor house suddenly crashed inward, the thick wood shattering. The next thing Rebecca noticed was the machine guns, one by one, going silent.

  A fireball splashed off Rhiannon’s air shield. Bullets ricocheted off of it. She continued to walk, and the sounds of battle di
minished. The Clan forces held their fire, staring at her in awe. The entire battlefield fell silent.

  Rhiannon stumbled, caught herself, then sank to her knees.

  *Rebecca, I can’t hold my shield,* she sent, then fell on her face.

  Rebecca raced from her cover and, reaching her friend, extended her air shield to cover them both.

  “What the hell?” Rebecca said to no one in particular.

  “She expended too much energy. She’s exhausted herself,” a redheaded Druid who had followed her said. “She needs an energy infusion.”

  The Druid put her hands on Rhiannon’s back and Rebecca could feel the energy flowing.

  “Be careful. Don’t exhaust yourself,” Rebecca said.

  “No danger of that,” the Druid said with a smile. “I took five lads last night to prepare for today.”

  “I’ve never seen anyone pass out like that,” Rebecca said. “I’ve seen people tired after a battle, but not like that.”

  “You’ve never seen anyone release that much power before,” the Druid said. “Hell, I’m fifty years older than you are, and I’ve never seen that much power released either.”

  Rhiannon stirred and they turned her on her back.

  “What the hell did she do?” Rebecca asked.

  “Listen,” the Druid said.

  “I don’t hear anything.” Indeed, total silence had fallen on the battlefield.

  “Exactly,” the Druid said. “She killed them all with a massive blast of Neural Disruption.”

  “But we’re still three hundred yards from the house,” Rebecca protested.

  “I’m aware of that,” the Druid answered.

  “Holy Goddess,” Rebecca breathed.

  Another Druid reached them and extended her hand to touch the fallen woman. Rhiannon’s eyelids fluttered and then she opened her eyes, looking at Rebecca.

  “Well, I’m not dead,” Rhiannon said, “because you’re no angel.”

  She turned her head and smiled at the redheaded Druid. “But you might be.”

  The redhead laughed. “Nay, not in this life. I’m just Emily. That was a pretty impressive display.”

  “Stupid,” Rhiannon said. “I got angry.”

  “You have the Krasevec Gift,” the other Druid said, referring to what was commonly called Distance Communication. It enhanced a telepath’s other Gifts. “But that was still impressive.”