Impetuous

by Denise A. Agnew

  “What do you want from me?” Synna asked.

  Heidi stayed glued to one spot on the floor. “Your energy force. All humans have a life force. A very strong one.”

  Fear managed to trickle around the increasing lethargy in Synna’s body. “Why do you want mine? What have I ever done to you?”

  “When I read the cards tonight they revealed your plan to me.”

  Ah, damn. The tarot deck. “You weren’t really reading my future, you were reading your own.”

  Heidi sauntered toward her, and Synna tightened her muscles in preparation in case she needed to fight. Of course, if she fought, she had a horrible feeling she might lose. If her heart hadn’t been pounding ten thousand beats a minute, Synna thought she might actually find this conversation intriguing.

  “I never would have guessed in a million years that you were a demon,” Synna said.

  Heidi’s lips actually curled. “A weredemon. There’s a difference.”

  “Right.”

  “What are you planning to do?”

  “I think I need a new body. This one is getting a little tiresome.” Heidi approached, and Synna understood if she didn’t act soon, she’d be a goner in a heartbeat.

  Synna swallowed hard. “Tell me more about weredemons. I’d like to know how they operate. If I’m going to die, at least I’d like to know why.”

  Heidi stood over her, a devilish smile on her face and a red glow covering her eyes. “It’s simple. The weredemon are on a path to crush humankind. We will inherit the earth.”

  “That doesn’t tell me much. If you’re going to possess my body, the least you can do is explain how all this weredemon crap started.”

  Confusion played over Heidi’s face. “You think I’m going to take time to explain it to you? Are you insane?”

  “It’s the least you can do.” Synna crossed her arms and played her cards. “How long have you lived in that body? Or have you always been Heidi?”

  “I’ve been in Heidi’s body two years. I met her at a lesbian club. When she went to her room, that’s when I kissed her and possessed her body.”

  “And the body you were in before? What happened to them?”

  “I’d lived in old Elsa Crammer for too damned long.”

  “Old?”

  “Yeah. She was close to forty-five.”

  “Uh-huh.” Synna kept the inflection on the last sentence. “Yep, forty-five is absolutely ancient.”

  “Don’t be sarcastic. I didn’t want to be in that woman’s body anymore. I want to be young constantly.”

  “You’re not much different from the majority of people.” Synna couldn’t help a little snort of laughter. “That’s pretty funny, if you think about it. It makes you more human.”

  “I am partly human, you twit.” Heidi loomed over her, her cruelty running clear in her eyes and the tension rolling off her in waves.

  “Okay, so you are part human. How many bodies have you occupied?”

  “Twelve.”

  “My God.”

  The weredemon shrugged. “The first two were young kids. I tried them out but discovered ten year olds aren’t much fun to possess.” Heidi chuckled. “No, adults are much more fun.”

  “So you’ve been alive how long?”

  Heidi started to pace. “Three hundred years.”

  Although her insides felt like jelly, Synna kept up the banter. “That’s a lot of people.”

  Again, that unconcerned shrug lifted Heidi’s shoulders. “So.”

  Anger eroded Synna’s plan to keep the weredemon occupied. “So, you interrupted people’s lives. Don’t you feel any guilt?”

  “The Shadow Realm isn’t the same as your world. There is no guilt. We don’t understand it. We don’t take it on when we possess a human.”

  “Is that the Shadow Realm you’re talking about, or just you?”

  The weredemon rounded on her with a growl, and the sound filled the room like a lion’s roar. Synna flinched as the loud noise bounced off the walls.

  Synna managed to choke out another question. “Where will I be when you possess me?”

  The question sounded moronic even to her ears, but she wanted to understand.

  Heidi’s eyes snapped wide. “Gone. Just absorbed as a part of me. You see, there’s something people don’t know about weredemons.” She stopped, her stance only a foot away from Synna. “With each new possession, a weredemon absorbs their victim’s personality. We’re like a sponge.” Her eyes seemed to glow with the excitement of a kill almost accomplished. “I have a part of everyone I’ve ever taken within me. It makes me more powerful with each body I absorb. Someday I’ll be one of the most powerful weredemons alive. I’ll help the cause of the weredemons.”

  Synna’s body shook now as if with fever. “W-what cause?”

  “I told you. Domination of the human race. We’re more capable. Stronger. You humans are mucking up the entire world.”

  Fury gave Synna a little more strength. “So you don’t feel any remorse that you’re going to kill off the human race? What qualifies you to run the earth? You’re not even from our dimension.”

  Heidi threw her head back and laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding. Why? The human-weredemon hybrid is a wonderful thing. Take consolation in knowing your absorption will help build a newer, stronger race. We can run your so-called dimension a hundred times better than you can. And better yet, we can go back and forth between the dimensions at will, something humans can’t do very often, if at all.”

  Growing dread assaulted Synna. She tried to stand and found her legs still wouldn’t hold her. As she sank back onto the cot, her stomach rolled. She put one hand to her stomach and barely stifled a groan. For a sickening second, she gave up. Humiliation for failing rose inside her.

  Pain lanced like needles into her heart. She would miss Ian.

  No. Agony ran through her at the thought of never seeing him again. She loved him with soul-deep certainty.

  Mixed with the knowledge she loved him came a desire to understand one thing.

  “Do you want Ian?” Synna asked as the nausea eased.

  Walking from one end of the room to the other, Heidi smiled with self-assured arrogance. An ethereal breeze ruffled her colorful costume, lifting the material into a delicate dance on the air. It would be almost beautiful if Heidi weren’t so evil.

  “Ian’s a side benefit. Since I’ve been in female forms all my lives, I’ve developed a taste for human sex. Ian won’t even know you’re dead.”

  Synna shivered. Never. She couldn’t let this horrid creature have Ian. “He’ll know it’s not me.”

  Heidi sniffed. “Right.”

  Rage boiled up inside Synna unlike anything she’d felt before. Emotion punched up from her soul with blinding resentment.

  She wouldn’t allow any stinking weredemon to harm Ian. Then, in what might be her last reckless act on earth, Synna tried standing once more. Her legs held. “You will not hurt Ian.”

  Heidi stopped pacing, her fiery eyes and expression held surprise. “What?”

  “You won’t have sex with him.” Synna took a step toward the weredemon, then another. “Besides, you can’t possess me. I’ve already made love with Ian. Unprotected sex.”

  Heidi barked out a short laugh. “You think that is going to save you from me. Taking Ian’s semen into your body just kept Tyler from taking you as a weredemon bride. It doesn’t keep me from possessing your body.”

  A wave of terror, sudden and almost crippling, made Synna’s resolve waver. Then she stiffened her spine and took a deep breath. “Well, then. Fuck you and the horse you rode in on.”

  Heidi glared, her teeth bared in a snarl as she met Synna halfway across the room.

  Synna’s pulse drummed in her ears. She came nose-to-nose and glare-to-glare with the weredemon and straightened to her full height. “This is my dimension, not yours. I’m not going to let you or any other badass creatures take over. Do you hear me you…you bitch!”

 
Synna’s temper boiled over and she slapped Heidi across the face with a loud crack that resounded in the small room like a rifle shot.

  Heidi’s eyes went furnace-blast crimson, pupils and irises obscured by a temperature more heinous than hell itself. She sent a huge energy shaft down on Synna, blue spraying from her hands like water from a fountain. Agony seared Synna, lightning-hot. She crumpled to her back and gasped for air. All her nerves felt on fire, the flash of pain almost unbearable.

  Heidi’s hateful voice continued. “Allow me in and your torment vanishes. You’ll never feel pain again.”

  Synna tried to speak, her throat tight and closed to everything but a pitiful moan. Defeat cloaked her. She couldn’t fight. She couldn’t think beyond the horrible sensations prickling and dancing through her nerve endings like electricity through wire. Synna struggled with darkness as night tried to envelop her thoughts, to vanquish her forever. Light dimmed, and her heart slowed to a dull thud. Trickling like a small waterfall, her mind asked a question and got no answer. If Heidi took over her body, would Synna die? Simply blink out like a light bulb extinguished?

  A growing sense of wellbeing should have given her pause. Instead, she went with it, taken over by the knowledge nothing mattered but giving in to the darkness. Heidi planned to remove her from the picture. What could she do?

  Heidi smirked. “That’s it. Give into the torpor. Know once I’ve taken your body, Ian will also be mine.”

  Synna screamed in her mind, fear and hate bursting forth in a great tide. She screamed and screamed and screamed.

  Splintered by Heidi’s energy, she took a last breath and gathered enough strength to eject a thought.

  I love you, Ian. Please help me.

  * * * * *

  “Hey, something wrong?” Ben Darrock asked Ian as they stood near the dance area.

  Ian scanned the crowd and frantically searched for Synna. Where the hell was she? “Synna should be here.”

  “Maybe she’s talking with Heidi. I don’t see her anywhere either.”

  Pain hit Ian in the solar plexus, and he grimaced as he stepped back against the wall. Something was wrong. Really wrong.

  Synna. Oh shit.

  Ben reached for Ian’s arm. “Are you all right?”

  “Tyler’s not anywhere in sight either. Come on. We’ve got to find her. Son of a bitch, I shouldn’t have let her out of my sight. If anything’s happened to her—”

  “Easy. We’ll find her.” Ben grabbed his shoulder again. “It’s better if we split up. I’ll head this way.” Ben retrieved his I-Doc communications device and spoke into it. “Team Six, we’ve got an emergency.”

  Ben took off toward the garden entry double doors. Grateful for the Scot’s assistance, Ian’s mind ran at high speed as he kicked himself for not keeping her in his sights at all time. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

  Searing worry gripped him, a physical pain like fire in his body. The woman he loved could be in grave danger right now. Wrenching self-recrimination tore a hole in his heart. Scalding emotion drove him. His throat tightened as he jammed down the desire to run through the halls screaming her name. Instead he pulled out his I-Doc. After contacting the other agents assigned to the case tonight, he continued his search.

  Frustration mixed with continuing fear as he strode out of the dance area. He made a turn in the long hallway, past the room where he’d made love with Synna tonight.

  The door popped open. Ian’s right hand went to the hilt of his sword. All his muscles gathered tight for action.

  Tyler stepped out of the suite, wide-eyed and startled. “What are you doing here?”

  Ian kept his grip on the weapon. He stalked toward the man and gripped him by the collar. He drove him back against the wall near the suite door. Tyler didn’t struggle, his eyes frightened.

  “Where is she, Hessler? What the fuck did you do with her?”

  “Who?” Ian twisted the collar so Tyler’s voice came out as a whisper. “If you’re talking about Synna—”

  “Yeah, I’m talking about Synna. Where is she?” Ian knew he should keep cool, interrogate the suspect rationally. He couldn’t, his voice rasping harshly. “I swear to God if you’ve hurt her, I’ll kill you myself.”

  Tyler’s eyes flashed red for a second. “I was looking for her myself. She said she was going to the ladies’ room, but that was almost forty-five minutes ago.”

  Sheer disbelief ran through Ian. “Right. She’s been gone that long and you didn’t think to look for her before that?”

  “Well…I…not exactly. I had other pressing business.”

  “What kind of business?”

  Tyler’s gaze shifted right, then left. “It’s personal.”

  “That’s bullshit.”

  Tyler stayed mum, and Ian made a decision. He kept tight hold on the smaller man’s collar. “Let’s put it this way, Hessler, we know who you are and what you are. I could use this sword on you right now without giving you a chance to redeem yourself.”

  Tyler’s dark brows winged up. “No. You don’t understand.”

  Ian almost growled. “I don’t understand? Either you tell me what you’ve done with Synna, or I’ll make sure you’re back on the express train to hell.”

  Tyler’s jaw sagged. “You really do know what I am.”

  “You’re damned right.”

  “You wouldn’t send me back to the Shadow Realm.”

  “I not only can, I will. This weapon doesn’t play around. It hurts like a son of a bitch. You want to try it on for size?”

  “No, no.”

  “Good. Then tell me where you’ve taken Synna. If she’s hurt in any way, I’ll make you sorry you were ever born.”

  Ben walked up, his I-Doc clutched in his hand and a fierce expression marring his face. “Has he said where she is?”

  Ian almost growled the words. “No. Apparently he’d rather I just barbeque his hairy ass right here.”

  Ben’s grin took on an evil bent. “If that doesn’t sound like a damned lot of fun. Let’s do it.”

  “No!” Tyler squirmed in Ian’s grip, but Ian held tight.

  The weredemon’s strength gathered under Ian’s fingers, and he knew if Tyler wanted to, he could fling Ben and himself away like annoying fleas.

  “I’m too fast for you, Tyler. And you don’t want Ben to get his hands on you.”

  Ben grinned. “No, you don’t want that.”

  “If you tell us where she is, and she’s unharmed, we’ll consider letting you live. In the Shadow Realm.”

  Tyler’s eyes went from crimson to cinnamon in a microsecond, and his breath heaved out. “I don’t believe you.”

  “Tell me what you’ve done with Synna—” Ian held the sword to the creep’s throat, “—or I won’t bother with sending you back to the Shadow Realm. I’ll just deal with your rotten carcass right here, right now.”

  “You wouldn’t.” Tyler’s voice squeaked. “You’re the good guys. The SIA. You’re not supposed to kill weredemons.”

  Ian snorted. “Where did you hear that bullshit?”

  Ben laughed. “Yeah, where did you hear that?”

  Tyler gaped, his face pale. “Okay. I’ll tell you. It’s just not…it’s not what you think. I didn’t hurt her.”

  “You put your lips on her, asshole.” Ian’s anger gripped him, his breathing heavy as he glared at Tyler. “She’s mine. Do you hear me, she’s mine!”

  Tyler’s eyes went wide. “Yeah, I hear you.”

  “Where the fuck is she?” Ian asked, gritting the words through his teeth. “Tell me.”

  “Heidi is a weredemon, too. She’s my sister. We’re both three hundred years old, and we’ve…we’ve been out of touch for a while. But she found me here. I didn’t want her here. I didn’t want her mucking everything up like she did the last few lives.” Tyler’s voice shook. All the demon hell seemed drained from him.

  “What are you bloody babbling about?” Ben asked.

  “Heidi’s my blood sister. Bu
t she’s taken on different bodies since we were both born in the Shadow Realm. So have I, but I don’t hurt nice people. I only take the bodies of mean people. Arrogant, greedy, nasty people.”

  Ben snorted. “Right. Like I bloody well believe that.”

  Ian tightened his grip on the weredemon, rage threatening to send his last bit of control into meltdown. “You lying sack of shit. You kissed Synna against her will and you weren’t concerned about what she wanted or felt.”

  “I’m telling the truth! When I realized that Heidi wanted to possess Synna, I decided I had to do something about it. When Heidi possesses another woman, she takes her body. Synna’s body won’t die, but it won’t be the Synna you know anymore.”

  Ian’s heart thumped loudly in his ears as Tyler’s words sank in.

  Tyler continued, explaining how Heidi planned to murder Synna in cold blood. “I think she plans to take Synna somewhere underground. I don’t know where for sure, but Heidi has always liked places underground to do her dirty work.”

  Ben snapped his fingers. “Maybe the outbuildings behind here. There’s a basement in there.”

  “That’s it. That would be a good place for her to take Synna,” Tyler said.

  Ian’s grip tightened on the weredemon’s collar. “I swear to God, Tyler Hessler, or whatever your real name is—”

  “Adromedus,” Tyler whispered. “Adromedus.”

  “You’re a dead demon if you’re lying. Dead.” Ian glanced at Ben. “Come on. Let’s find somewhere to put this piece of shit.”

  Ben grinned evilly. “Here, let me take him off your hands.”

  Ian relinquished his grip on the weredemon long enough for Ben to grab him by the collar and march him down the hallway.

  “Here, let’s put him in here,” Ian said as they stopped next to the suite where he’d made love to Synna.

  Ian used the key card and let them inside. When they entered, Tyler wrenched around and took a swing at Ben. The haymaker landed on Ben’s jaw and knocked him back into a table. He went flying and landed with a hard thud on his back.