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

by Lexi Ostrow

  “Master Agardawes, I know this will not please you, but I’ve come across some demons. Illusion Demons. They’re dead, but I cannot fathom how to dispose of them.”

  A gnarled, older voice came through the device and Lucius took a step back, not really knowing why.

  “Eliza we will discuss your insolence at a later time. You have my thanks for neutralizing a threat. Give me your location and I will dispatch a team. If you are level headed enough to take on demons for your first time alone I should say your leave is over.” The voice stopped and the crystal ceased to glow.

  He heard Eliza mumble something, but he wasn’t sure what. His mind was already two steps ahead of hers contemplating what a cleanup crew would mean for him.

  “Love, these hunters that will be coming. They’ll have that darling technology that allows them to sense demon blood or energy or whatever it is you lot lock onto?” Comprehension took hold in her eyes and she gasped.

  “We have to get you out of here. Go.” She shoved his arm and he growled.

  “I am not leaving you alone in the night. Your Guildmaster might be foolish enough to think you did this on your own, but we know the truth and I will not leave you unprotected.” He swore he heard her growl back before she responded.

  “Go to the shops at the end of the alley, once you leave this side street. On the corner, Finnegan’s pub. An obnoxious Irish family runs it. I’ll be there and you can watch over, I’ll wait at the front of the street, off to the side. It’s a weekday, and unlike London, Halifax will not be bustling with people so late in the night.”

  “There’s no way around this. I’m learning that with you. That when you get that little hitch in your voice and put your hands on your hips, like you are now, that I can’t win.” He kissed her quickly and strolled out of the alley. For some reason, he felt things were going incredibly well. She didn’t realize it, but she was looking at him differently now, less like he was going to grow a second head and more like someone she wanted to touch, and not just in the heat of the moment. Her eyes had been playful much of their walk. He smirked and pushed open the pub door.

  Chapter 12

  Her stomach felt as if she was sure to lose the contents of her supper at any given moment. She looked behind her, at the small demons that lay dead on the floor. “You always wanted to do that.” She blew out a breath in hopes that it would settle her stomach. Wanting to fight a demon and then thinking she was about to be killed by one of the most brutal she knew about were two separate matters.

  Things had been going along fine enough prior. She hadn’t been able to stop wondering what he’d meant about the mating mark, hadn’t been able to stop wanting to strip him naked and find the bloody mark. Her body heated as she thought about it. He’d only touched her to comfort her, she knew that in hindsight. But his body next to hers, his hands on her back and his mouth on hers was not a sensation she was likely to forget. She looked down toward the pub and smiled as she saw him, essentially pressing his face against the glass to look at her. She laughed and lifted her hand, giving him a small wave. He returned it, but didn’t stop watching her.

  She would be the last one to want to have found a lover in a demon. Even after Felicia and knowing there were potentially more decent demons out there. She’d wanted to please her parents. She’d always had hopes that she would be able to bring a dashing noble to them one day. It hadn’t been entirely farfetched as they were the ones that funded the guild and the Alliance of Silver and Steam. But that didn’t mean they walked down the same halls as her, ate in the same rooms or slept beneath the same roof. Still, it had been her fantasy.

  Now Lucius was. He wasn’t the most noble man in the world. She could tell based on his character, his charm. Charming men were normally men quick to run from a fight. But he didn’t run away tonight. She told herself. He’d been on her mind since she’d run away on the train. Her thoughts were an alternation of lust and disgust on a never ending loop that was likely to drive her mad. Being with him this morning, seeing the concern in his eyes over her tears had been the start at overriding her disgust for him. Really, had she not known what he was she would have been enthralled. He was handsome, had some sort of money, was charming and brought her to a release the likes of which she’d never known. Her resolve had shattered when he’d looked at her like she mattered. His grand gesture hadn’t meant anything to her. She almost was upset by his betrayal of his kind. But she wouldn’t tell him that because she didn’t understand why she even felt that way.

  She hadn’t really expected him to save her if the situation came up tonight. She hadn’t wanted to need him too. She’d gotten so much more than that. She’d learned exactly what he would do for a kill. It scared her. All that power, the ability to unleash a fear and have someone drop dead from it, it scared her terribly. But he didn’t. The man, the demon, she wasn’t sure what she saw him as anymore. It was like a watercolor painting that someone tossed a cup of water on before it dried. Everything was dripping, running together and changing the picture that once was. She was ready to see what would happen. He’d saved her tonight. That was something she would always have to remember because she had a feeling that if she chose him, if she found some way to persuade the Alliance to leave him alone, that it wouldn’t be the last time she saw the demon he was.

  “Miss Dorley?”

  She almost jumped at the sound of the voice. She’d been so busy staring into Lucius’s eyes that she’d gotten lost in them. “Yes.”

  The man stuck out his hand. “Bradely Kempton. I’m the one sent to clean up.”

  She motioned behind her and he whistled low.

  “But how are they just dead? These guns pack a punch and leave evidence.” He lifted his weapon, the gun, and put it away as he walked around them. He pulled out a hachette and she flinched. She’d never understood how Felicia, or any one of them really, could do this part.

  “I assure you I did nothing extraordinary.” The lie slipped out easily, possibly because she hadn’t done anything so it wasn’t a lie. She held up her gun, hoping the green crystal would throw him off as the only other person who had one was Kellan. “It stuns, stops the heart from beating. Just like that.” She bit the inside of her cheek to force the actual lie out.

  The hunter was already slicing into the demon closest to her. The sound made her queasy and she felt her dinner threatening to make an appearance. “Interesting. The transmission mentioned you designed these guns. I’m not normally in the field, I’d love something I could stun one with and see what makes it tick.” Ahh so he was intelligence. Her stomach dropped because she had a bad feeling she now needed to figure out how to much such a gun.

  “If you don’t mind I’d like to get back home.” She started to walk away when the familiar noise of a communicator stopped her.

  “Kempton here.”

  “Kempton, this is guild leader Morely.”

  She’d heard the name a time or two around the London location halls, but she had yet to meet the man in charge of the Halifax sect.

  “We’ve picked up disturbance of one badass demon out there. A Fallen if the graph pulled it in right. It appears to be, well ironically near the citadel. North Park Street and Cogswell Street.”

  She had some soul redeeming to do after cowering in a corner anyway and taking down a Fallen might be just what she needed.

  Kempton said nothing as he ended the transmission.

  “Mind if I tackle that one?”

  He raised a brow at her.

  “I want to see what these guns can really do. If you want, come a ways behind me, for protection.” Now all she’d need to do was knock him out and persuade Lucius to take on a Fallen.

  “If you’d like, Miss Dorley. As I said, I’m not typically out here. I was going to run to the quarters and see if I could fetch help. Best if I do that. You head over, but do not get seen.”

  She nodded obediently. He nodded back and took off on the cycle, this time she heard the loudness of its dep
arture and was momentarily bitter about the fact that the quieter one blew up in her face.

  She walked quickly to meet Lucius, but he was quicker and met her as she got halfway to the pub. “Remind me, I do not like seeing you alone with men.” He grabbed her, right in the middle of the street and kissed her until she could hardly remember her name.

  “Lucius, I-” she said nothing else, rather tugged him down and kissed him a second time, relishing the taste of him; something dark and spicy. She let his shirt go and his black eyes smoldered at her. “We aren’t done. There’s a Fallen. I want to see how serious you are.”

  His face contorted and she was concerned he was going to unveil everything was a big lie.

  “I can’t, I can’t work my skills on a Fallen, Eliza. We can track it down, try your gun or better yet, let me use it. But if it gets ugly, you run. Understand?” He grabbed her chin and tilted it up, his eyes bore into hers and she almost cried out at the passion, not lust, she saw in them. “You run like hell and get out of there. Now where is it?”

  “Cogswell and North Park. We need to be quick, though, I only found out because the other hunter, well he’s not really a hunter he’s intelligence, but anyway, was called to look because he was out.”

  Lucius didn’t say anything, he just nodded and grabbed her hand. Not even thinking for a moment that someone might see, she let him tug her along.

  They didn’t speak as they walked. The frivolity of the earlier portion of the night seemed to have drained out of them. She liked him intense. More though, she liked the way her hand fit into his and how safe she felt next to him. So long as this Fallen didn’t turn out to be a trick, a friend of his, she would be done second-guessing him. She wanted him and she wasn’t going to let his species get in the way if other people could look around it. Besides, he looked human, felt human and had all the human parts; she knew that first hand.

  Her feet were beginning to tire just as Lucius jerked her arm. “Very slowly, look up.” She wanted to tell him to stop ordering her around, but now didn’t seem to be the appropriate time. She’d never seen a Fallen before, very few people had and being an indoor sort of member she wasn’t among the ranks. Eliza wasn’t prepared for the splendor of the creature that was perched on the rooftop a building to the left. He was shirtless, wearing only black pants. His body looked as if it was molded from fine clay and lathered with a preserving oil. Every ripple of muscle, every inch of skin was a deep brown, almost black and it called to her. His head was shaved and she was unaccustomed to such a look, but it worked on him. There were no wings sprouting from his back, which she supposed made sense given he was not an angel anymore.

  “He’s stunning, Lucius.” The demon next to her, her mate, scoffed his disgust and utter disagreement.

  “ I’ll let that go since angels by design are an appeal to one’s senses. It’s part of the reason why humans don’t see them for the demons they actually are and think they’re something special.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him, wanting to lash out for some reason, to contradict him.

  “Any sort of compulsion you feel, any desire to act out against the normal is angel born. Easily pushed aside once you’re aware of it, but I can see by the daggers you’re throwing at me with your eyes you’re keen to protect that Fallen, even get into a row for the creature. But I need you to close your eyes and shake it off. It’s a visual allure.”

  She didn’t want to, but she closed her eyes. It was as if someone dumped a bucket of freezing water over her. All the warmth and protection she’d felt vanished. She gasped and her eyes darted open, but instead of looking up, she kept her eyes on Lucius.

  “That’s it, love. Just focus on me. I need to know how that gun of yours works. If I’m to fire it properly, I need to understand what the desired effect is.”

  “When you pull the trigger it’s much like any other gun shooting bullets, like the guard uses. However, the trigger depresses into a set of four cogs that the pressure from the trigger pushes them into motion, which causes them to grind-”

  He put his finger up to her lips and for an overwhelming moment she wanted to suck it gently into her mouth. But she didn’t.

  “Love, I mean what is it supposed to do.”

  “Oh. It will fire a concentrated ray of light. It shouldn’t be able to travel much over two-point-five meters, so you must be fairly close. You cannot get an effective shot with him perched upon the roof like a gargoyle.”

  “Bollucks. I should’ve known it wasn’t going to be easy. Here’s what we are going to do. I’m going to take the nice gun from you and you’re going to walk into the street. I want you to make as if you know the Fallen angel is there.”

  “You want me to do what?”

  “I need you to antagonize him. Pure Angels do not like to be bullied in any fashion. Fallen have never appeared to enjoy it much more. You’re going to wait until I’m in place. It may take me a little. I’m going to walk round back of those houses and come out in the alley over to the left and just behind this spot.” He was pointing in various directions, but that had never been her strong suit, the words flew over her head.

  “How will I know when to begin?”

  “You’ll see me in place. Just watch that spot, right over there.” He didn’t stop to kiss her, which disappointed her on a large scale. “And, Eliza?”

  Her head raised and she looked into his eyes. So many times now they shifted back and forth - from dead inside to alive with fire. They were alive now and she could almost swear she felt his hand brush her cheek. “Yes, Lucius?”

  “When we make it out of this, when I’m done proving to you that this creature will never have my loyalty, that it’s yours for as long as you would like it, I’m taking you to my inn and I’m locking you in until I’ve explored each and every meter of your tanned skin, with my tongue.”

  A shudder raced through her body and she nodded, unable to form any thoughts. Which was fine because he hadn’t waited. She watched as he appeared to scamper through the night. He moved so silently, so swiftly, and yet she was able to follow his movement until he disappeared behind a house. She felt vulnerable without her gun even if she was untrained in using it. Being unable to defend herself, and unable to even look at the Fallen without compromising her logical thought, was unnerving. So she focused on Lucius. On the way his hair fell just into the centers of his eyes. On the way his whole chest seemed to bounce when he laughed, on how his laugh made her feel. She wasn’t a believer in true love; love took time and learning of the other person. But she could not deny the strength of emotion she felt for Lucius anymore than she could breathe without air.

  The thought should have sent her running in the opposite direction, fleeing and leaving Lucius to fend for himself. But she couldn’t and wouldn’t do that. He was proving himself. They hadn’t spent mountains of time learning one another as she’d hoped, but she did know him, from the train ride. He hadn’t been falsifying himself. He was daring and charming. And now she also knew he that he knew a woman’s body and was ready to be loyal to her if it meant she would trust him. It all felt like it was happening so fast and yet it was as natural as courtship season as it had begun more than three months ago when he first entered her dreams. It was early September now and the dance had begun sometime in May. She was ready for him, and she wasn’t going to let anyone’s opinions get in her way, even if they were the Alliance leaders.

  A noise to her right jerked her from her thoughts. Twice in a span of two hours she’d allowed herself to drift so far into thought and be startled. She looked and saw a rock. Another came flying at her. She looked up and saw Lucius, getting ready to throw another in her direction. He stopped when he realized she was looking and raised his hand and counted down from three to one. When his index finger lowered she stepped out from the house she’d been hiding against. The street was quiet, thankfully. Taking a deep breath, she pulled her dress sleeve up and raised the arm with her communicator on it.

  “
I’m at the location. I have seen no sign of the Fallen. I have no backup I would appreciate assistance from at least the local inspector.” A hiss filled the air and her blood ran cold. It worked. As she turned to look behind her, to see if Lucius was ready to fire, a shout came from the other direction. Her head whipped around, the blonde strands streaked across her eyes painfully and she saw Bradley. He’d managed to catch up.

  “Miss Dorley, get down, your weapon did not work. Step out of the way.”

  As she drove up on the bike, two others fell behind him, another male and a female. However, they were clearly regular hunters. They wore attire similar to the London branches. The female in a corseted top and long skirt, the male in a black shirt and trousers. Both donned radiation glasses and for a moment she thought she might be sick. Lucius didn’t have anything to protect his eyes from the toxic smoke the crystals gave off. Her eyes widened as the three bikes speed past her, all firing their weapons at the Fallen. She was almost too stunned to notice the brush of the demon’s hand through her hair. The familiar sound of the crystal burning emanated through night and she didn’t hold back a smirk as she saw a hole burning on the demon’s arm from the corner of her eye.

  The affect of looking at him was instant. The goggles must be protecting the other three, but she was fighting an urge to chase after the hunters, to tackle them to the ground and save the Fallen. Instead she was the one that hit the ground. Her chin cracked onto the dirt road and she cried out, only to have a hand slid over her mouth at the same time as she felt someone trying to lift her. “Eliza, it’s me. Don’t fight me on this. Let me take you out of here, before the demon sensor thing you lot dreamed up points to more than just the Fallen. Let them handle it.”

  “But I can’t just leave them.”