Nightmare in Steam (Alliance of Silver and Steam Book 1)

by Lexi Ostrow

  He nodded to the kind older man sitting behind the inn desk and strolled out onto the street. The night air was warm, even for summer. But he didn’t mind. His mind was far too focused on his only chance to free himself and save Eliza to worry if he might develop a musk from walking to meet her. Between thoughts of escape and thoughts of how there would be no other end to this patrol except with her screaming in pleasure beneath him. He walked quicker than he realized and found himself staring up at the familiar iron gate to her house. He decided to be bold and pushed open the gate. He would meet his mate at the door even if he had to put her family in a trance and make them believe he was the wealthiest lord from some far away nation.

  Just as he reached the door it swung back and Eliza bumped into him. His prick hardened immediately as he took in her scent. The chocolate seemed to have vanished, a sign that she had been eating sweets prior to their last meetings, but the smell of lavender was never stronger. He put an arm behind her to steady her should she lean back or lose her balance. To his dismay she didn’t.

  “What are you doing at the door?” she whispered in a rush and stepped out, closing the door behind her. “Do you have any idea how terribly difficult it was to convince my mother that I was a grown woman and could attend an evening dinner at a neighboring house?”

  He laughed; he really enjoyed this spitfire side of her. He had yet to see this personality prior and was quite intrigued. Inventor, scientist, intellect and spitfire. He chuckled again.

  “I see nothing funny in this, Lucius.”

  “You look beautiful.”

  She glowered at him, but it did nothing to change his mind. She was lovely, her blonde hair tugged back into a fashion that held it high on her head and draped down her neck, much akin to a horse’s tail really. She wore a beautiful, deep red dress and he could tell from the way her breasts sat, she had forgone a corset as she had earlier. Intoxicating.

  “Forgive me. And stop walking off, Eliza. But you forget, I am a Nightmare Demon.”

  “Hardly.” Her statement was dry and she rolled her eyes.

  “But I have brought you far more than Nightmares.” He assumed if there had been more light he would have seen her cheeks turn red. “I can control people while they are awake. Make them see what they fear most, or what they desire most. Something tells me that your parents would be elated for a rich suitor to come and ask to court their daughter.” She huffed but didn’t say anything.

  “I’m glad you’re in such a chatty mood. I have questions, and not just personal ones. I want to know all about your species long before we get to the stuff that concerns you and I.”

  “I’m happy to oblige. More than happy, just don’t forget the point of this. I want to show you I’m onboard with the Alliance. I’ll never work for them. But if it makes you think I’m not a threat to your relationship and standing there then I will do what I can.”

  She stopped walking and spun to face him. “I lied. I want personal first. Why would you do that? Felicia explained to me when she first accepted her bond with Greyston that a mating isn’t romantic. That it’s animalistic, raw, mind blowing.”

  Her voice rushed out on a gasp and his cock was throbbing hard. Her words were like a hand wrapping around it and stroking it. He wanted to lean down and kiss her, to press against her and prove her words were right. But that wasn’t what she was looking for.

  “Because sometimes they are more than that. Because sometimes romance makes the mating worth it.” He carefully stepped past her, gritting his teeth together to stop the pounding of his cock. He would take her tonight, but he wanted to show her there was more in the works than just a mating bond.

  “Oh.” Her voice was quiet, but she quickly picked up the pace to walk beside him again, and he offered her his elbow. They walked in silence, the crickets the only sound around them. The questions that passed between them were trivial, as if each one of them was testing the waters. Seeing just how far the questions could go. He knew her favorite Shakespearean play - A Midsummer Night’s Dream - and he knew her first love in life would be tinkering in a garden. The pair of answers seemed wholly unuseful and yet paired together it showed that she lived with her head and heart partially in the fantastical and that she liked to care for things. Things that were hardly worn on her sleeve as an inventor at the Alliance.

  He studied her profile, the way her hair spilled down her back, the pointed curve of her nose and the full pout of her lips. They weren’t going to get anywhere, discover anything meaningful about one another if someone didn’t push the societal boundaries and ask some unacceptable questions.

  “Bed partners?” The words choked out, but he couldn’t look at her.

  Her laughter was boisterous and infectious. He was chuckling after a few moments with her. “I presume you seek to find out how many times I’ve sinned, Sir Willan?”

  “Well I suppose I was, Miss Dorley.” He tilted his head and smiled at her.

  “I am not inexperienced, if that is what you wish to know. But I do not whore myself out for the Alliance cause, nor sleep with just any superbly handsome gentleman on a train.”

  So she could be playful as well. He nodded. “I cannot answer if you ask, so you know. Felicia was not spinning tales. I am a Casanova. I have enjoyed the pleasures of more women than I could ever hope to count and now I wish to focus on the one woman who matters.”

  She flushed and kicked a small clump of dirt that was before her, but said nothing and the silence returned.

  “Tell me, why join the Alliance?”

  “I belonged.” For a moment he thought she was going to leave it at that but then she continued. “My parents wanted a son to pass the family name onto, there are no children as of yet with my father’s brother and my mother’s sister’s family passed of a fever years ago. So they made the mistake of sending me to Cambridge. To show their child off. Only I fit in, I fell in love with science. A professor introduced me to the guild, I knew only that they had funding to work on projects far beyond the realm of most. It wasn’t until longer than a year of working for them before I knew what they truly did. What they fought.” Her voice dropped and she looked at her feet, possibly embarrassed due to him being what they fought. “Then once I found out, how could I not help? I remembered then, about the Halifax Slasher. Did you hear of it?”

  He nodded.

  “It turns out it was far more than self mutilation. A demon was controlling those humans. The Alliance never found out why, but he impaled himself on a spear in his haste to get away once the hunters had cornered him. They brought him in and I was allowed to see him. A Mumbasta Demon; blue and scales like skin covered his body. But it was the blood red eyes that scared me most.” He knew as much before she’d said anything. That breed of demon was able to mind control if he could get someone to look into his eyes long enough. “ I knew then that I was where I needed to be. That someone needed to get such creatures off the streets and if the Alliance of Silver and Steam was the only faction doing so, I wanted to help. My turn. Explain your powers, more.”

  They rounded a corner and the gas lamps of the main Halifax area started to flicker in the distance ahead of them. “There isn’t much to tell. You already know all demons have powers. Mine are over dreams. I am sure at some point there were factions of my kind that did various dreamscapes. But I am very old and I can assure you that since my childhood, all we’ve dealt in was nightmares.”

  “How old?”

  He looked sideways at her and grinned. “Over a thousand years.”

  “God.”

  “He doesn’t exist. You know that already.”

  She frowned. “We can’t know for sure deities don’t exist. Demons certainly do and I’d like to believe there is some balance between you.”

  “The angels.”

  “What?”

  He stopped walking just as they would have passed a pub. “Nevermind. It is not my place to speak of other demons. As I said, my intent is only to show you I will be loy
al to you. Not that I plan on helping the Alliance in anyway. I will protect you with my life, Eliza. But I will not protect your guild.” He pulled away from her and stuck his head down a corridor. No sign of anything. He heard her footfalls as she raced to catch up to him. He expected her to comment on his harshness, but she didn’t.

  “How do I know you aren’t just working for Seraphina? How do I know you didn’t put that mark somewhere on you - which by the way, where is it?”

  The questions and suspicion caught him off guard. He wanted to tell her, that yes he was something of a conspirator. But that he was on her side, that he was going to be doing everything for her safety, and his freedom. But there was no telling what matter of demons Seraphina had littering Halifax now that she knew for sure he was there he’d bet she’d transported a few dozen to watch him. “You’ll find out when you decide you trust me.” He grinned at her and then suddenly stopped and put a finger to his lips. “Shh hold on a moment.”

  He squeezed her arm before taking off at a trot down the street. He’d felt demon energy. It wasn’t always the easiest thing, but typically when they was close enough, all demons could detect each other, even if they didn’t know just what kind they were. He heard her trailing behind and wanted to shove her backwards. But he’d been the one to ask for a demon hunt. Rubbish really, he should’ve known something would be out here. They lurked in all the big cities and Halifax, while it wasn’t grand, was by far larger than it had been twenty years prior. She caught up to him and grabbed his hand. He tried to ignore the warmth of it and looked down at her. Words stuck in his throat when he saw she was holding one of the crazy weapons. Hers was emitting a faint green glow. “Bloody hell, woman. Why do you have that thing?”

  “Because you invited me to go demon hunting and I should hope for some protection should we come across one.” She sounded rather cheeky for a woman who must know demons lay ahead.

  “I hope all human women aren’t as crazy as you, Eliza. I’ve never gotten to know one before and I can easily see you driving me quite mad.” He pointed under the gas lamp to a couple. Two women stood, barely touching, underneath it. “Do you see that pair there? Well that’s an illusion. They’re Illusion Demons, ugly little buggers really, but I can’t find a way for you to see through the guise.” He started to walk forward and she called his name.

  “Lucius. Don’t take another step.” He looked back to see the barrel of the gun pointing square in his face. “Those look like normal people. I don’t have anything that can sense a demon’s structure, like the hunters do. If you’re to hunt them down, in proper Alliance fashion, I should like proof that you’re not about to have us slaughter an innocent couple.”

  He wanted to kill her. She was questioning him again. They were never going to get anywhere if every step of the way she painted him the bad guy. It didn’t help that he knew he wasn’t good enough for her on a moral scale. But he’d wanted to try to be, to see where this could go because every second with her seemed worth it. But this? Pointing a gun at his head that she knew could kill a demon, that was enough. He let the remnant of the soul he had seep out of his eyes, until they were cold and dead.

  “It’s called trust, Miss Dorley. Either you believe me or you don’t. But if you choose not to, a couple of rather nasty demons are going to remain in Halifax. I assure you the choice is yours, but if you choose to be wary of me, take note that there will not be another time coming. This will be our farewell encounter and mating mark or not, there will be nothing between us.” He didn’t wait for her. If Seraphina was really watching his every move on the streets he needed to make it look real. Killing a demon really held nothing but energy for him and if he was going to put on a show he might as well prove to his mate that his mind tricks were indeed deadly.

  Just as he went to lean against the wall, Eliza pushed past him and walked straight up to the couple. He felt as if he’d swallowed a lead ball as he watched. He’d seen plenty of hunter strikes and normally it involved a rush of arms and a display of strength, neither of which he was certain Eliza could pull off. He walked behind her just as she approached the two whores, pulled some coin out of her skirts and slipped her hands into the black haired female’s hand and walked to the alleyway.

  It took every breath in him not to charge after her. He had to assume she knew what she was doing. A flare of light came from the alley as he reached it’s opening and an inhuman shriek followed. Dropping to the ground he let himself feel the two illusion demons, both fearful of a Thrasher Demon they owed money. His eyes closed and without a second thought he conjured up the scrawny, yellow, deadly demon in the alley. He didn’t need to do anything else, just stay focused on holding the illusion long enough to make it effective.

  The next scream he heard was distinctly Eliza’s and he wished he could shout to her, to warn her that it’s ok, that it’s just him. But doing so would mean letting go of the trance, something that may just happen if she didn’t stop screaming loud enough to pierce his eardrums. Lucius squeezed his eyes shut, color mixing with the blackness from doing it so hard until he could once more focus on his own illusion, his fear hallucinations. The creature jumped on the first female, his nails sliced through her throat and dropped her lifeless on the floor. Blood spilled and trickled, even though all that had done the demon in was fear. Then the other female lunged at the Thrasher. She slipped right through and didn’t notice, merely turned around and went to use her own claws against the image, but was too late as the hallucination demon dragged its huge nails upwards through her torso, and the body dropped to the rocky alley floor, dead.

  Lucius absorbed the energy, felt the incredible sense of power as their souls began to depart their bodies and he reached out with one hand, and as if magnetic, they came to him. He didn’t relish in the kill, as he normally would. His eyes flew open. He pushed off the ground and ran down the alley. He cursed when he saw Eliza. She sat, her red dress curled up around her, with her back pressed against a building and her hands over her head. Whatever she thought she could handle, the Thrasher Demon hadn’t been on the list. He sprinted the short distance to her and squatted down, tugging her against him. “I couldn't have known Thrashers were a fear of yours as well. Otherwise you should have seen nothing, Eliza. Shh, shh, Eliza. I’m sorry. It’s just me. I promise it’s just me.” He stroked a hand over her head, over and over again trying to calm her down. She wasn’t making any sounds, she wasn’t moving. Slowly, she lifted her head and her voice trembled as she spoke.

  “What else can you do?”

  He kissed her then, just bent his head down and captured her for his. She was hot and needy as she wrapped her arms around him. Her body was warm from the air and she mewled as he ran a hand down her back, more to pick her up than anything. Lust burned in his gut but this wasn’t about lust. This was about letting her know who he was, that she was safe and cared for. So he just held her. Once he picked her off the floor he held her and kissed her as if he’d almost lost her. Finally, when he felt the thrumming of her heart calm he pulled away.

  “I’m so sorry, love. I should have warned you. I should have told you how it worked.” She looked back up at him, her eyes radiating lust and her body pressed against his. She pulled her hand back and slapped him. The sting was minimal; she was far to dainty to hurt him. But he recoiled his head to make her think it had been a devastating blow.

  “That was for not preparing me.” She slapped him again, a bit harder this time, but still the sting didn’t last more than a few seconds. “That was for not letting me handle them on my own.”

  He pulled back, confusion marring his brow as he stared into her heated expression. “Not letting you handle them on your own?” His tone was laced with incredulity.

  “Yes.” She took a step back from him and touched her hair and pulled on her dress. “I had thought to have a go of demon hunting, which means as the Alliance does it. Not in some uncivilized fashion.” Her words stung, she didn’t realize it, but the insult ran d
eep.

  “Love, might I point out that you screamed and that thing that your shot hadn’t damaged either of them?”

  Eliza huffed, glared at him, opened her mouth agape and the closed it. “I didn’t get a fair chance.” She crossed her arms over her chest, pushing her lush breasts up toward him. His body, still on fire from simply touching her, growled at him to take her. But it wasn’t time. She wasn’t ready he could tell she didn’t trust him. Not yet.

  “All right, love, you tell yourself that. Now, in proper Alliance fashion, where do we dispose the bodies?” The color drained from her face and he thought her saw her gag slightly. The demons were exposed now, showing for what they truly were. Little brown bodies, covered in black lumps with beady white eyes. He wasn’t certain if their sight was what blanched her color, or the idea of disposing of bodies.

  “We would dismember them. Chop them up into small enough sections that they could fit in burlap sacks and attach them to cycles and take them to the Alliance, to the incineration room.” She nudged the nearest body with her foot. “But we don’t have anything to do that with.” She rolled up the red sleeve of her dress and revealed the communicator he’d seen the hunters use prior. Interesting that they all received them. When he’d assumed she had one on the train he’d thought she’d snuck it out. But if she could contact the guild with it, then she was allowed. Damn what I wouldn’t give to know how half of this bloody shit works.

  “Love, what are you doing?”

  “We have teams in various areas, most are recon and intel that are outside the London Guild, but they can do cleanup. My communicator wouldn’t know the proper vibrations to reach them, but the guild will be able to help.”

  His mind couldn’t even grasp how it worked, unless an angel had helped them, in which case, all of their mysterious technology made a lot more sense. He watched as she twisted a number of knobs and he saw there were gears on the underside just above a purple crystal. Interesting.