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

by Lexi Ostrow

  “Fuck you, old man! She is a beautiful female and undeserving of being spoken about that way.” He rose and the chains on the cuffs pulled him back down.

  “ENOUGH!” Shouted the Guildmaster at the same time as Eliza shouted his name. “I was implying the problem lay with you. Your outburst will not earn you any favors, demon. We will continue now. Panel bear in mind that he has helped seek those who committed mass murder. But that he too has committed murder, freely and with no remorse. He is a demon we all had no knowledge of until recently, proof that there are so many more out there for us to rid the world of.” His tone rose and Lucius wanted to remind him he was remorseful or he wouldn’t be here. But it was Greyston who spoke.

  “May I point out I am a demon and I was helping your people kill mine long before we ever knew the other existed. You asked me to be a part of this proceeding so that fairness could be attained. I am sorry for the incident with your daughter in The Americas. But Lucius is here, has always been here and it is not appropriate for you to judge him for the actions of one. I will take his side forever should you walk such a line of hate. He has come, on his own, to help us in this fight. Much as I did when I knew I had no other choice. I fought against my kind for years in secret and I do so by your side now. Do not make me regret the side I chose. Do not forget what Lucius is truly capable of.” Greyston’s chest was heaving, his face red from exertion, by the time he finished and sat back down. He had never known how deeply Greyston felt against other demons, or how highly he now regarded himself.

  The older man appeared humbled, a frown crossed his face and he ran it over his mustache. “Forgive me. Greyston is right. I will not let the actions of demons in another part of the world interfere again.” He turned to Eliza. “I give you my word.” He turned back to the room filled with people hanging on his words. Lucius wanted to know what the fuck had happened but it wasn’t the time and it was sure as shit was not his place. “This demon is a Nightmare Demon. He can frolic in one’s head whilst they sleep and pull images from your minds, your greatest fears, and use them to kill you. He can create hallucinations while you are awake, but I am told it puts him at great peril and he will not try it in this room. He must kill to survive; it is in his blood to need the energy a dying soul gives off. Should we execute him, we save countless lives. Should we save him, he walks the streets with one of our own. Should we impression him, we must supply him humans, or demons, to murder so that he may live. We judge him now, for his crimes with the Fallen we know as Seraphina to enter this guild, to breach the Alliance secrets and to return them to her.”

  Murmurs rang out from the people in the room. The only ones not speaking were Greyston and Eliza. “We judge him now, once and only once. Do not let anything change your opinion based on the facts he will share in this room. All will have a vote, including Greyston and Eliza as Greyston is a member of our panel and Eliza lost her family due to this demon.”

  Nothing was said for a few moments and the one thing he wasn’t expecting to happen, did. Eliza stood up from her seat across the room and began to talk. “He came to me in a dream. Sometime in the spring. I didn’t know what he was and I was seduced by him. I met him almost a fortnight ago on the trains, and was once more seduced. I found out what he truly was from Felicia. When I confronted him with the knowledge he came clean. He told me of his kind and that I was his mate. I will ask that you do not ask to see this marking on my mate as it is attached to his rear end and that is mine to look at, mine alone.” He couldn’t help but grin at her words. She still was emotionless in her voice and her eyes, but her words meant enough. “In a show of faith he hunted down three demons for me, without my knowledge. Demons I reported to you. Then we went out to hunt, I am not allowed, and this I understand. Put me on trial as well then. But we did. I have never been out in the field and when we came across two Illusion Demons, Lucius used his own powers and comforted me when it was done. Shortly after he saved me from a Fallen. I fell in love with him. I will never apologize for that, but I will apologize that it was not sooner so that I could have been happier longer.” Again the room grew noisy and she stood and waited for them to cease. “I do not know when his deal with Seraphina was made, but I was attacked, along with my family by demons sent from this Seraphina. They told me Lucius was to use me to get to the Alliance. He told me it was true, but that he was going to give her false information and we would be free of her forever when he was done. I believe him. I’ve seen this man attack, make love and laugh. His words were true. But he would not turn his boss in, and that is where we fell apart.”

  Eliza said nothing else, no words in his defense, no continuation of the story. She just sat down.

  “Thank you, Eliza. I know it was hard to keep personal feelings out and I will strike your assurance of his honesty from the records. Demon, it is your turn now.”

  “His name is Lucius. You will address him as such or I will walk away from the project you have me working on.” Eliza’s voice cut through the small room and the Guildmaster looked stricken. Lucius had no clue what she might be working on, but it was enough to make the older man scoff.

  “Lucius then, go on.”

  He bit his inner cheek to refrain from smirking. His mate was something all right. “I make no claims different from what has been spoken. In fact I will further it by stating that for the first thousand or so years of my life I killed with pleasure. The release of energy from a soul to a Nightmare Demon is the greatest pleasure a Nightmare Demon can know, next to having a family.”

  The talking started up then and he looked to Greyston who nodded and Eliza who smiled. They’d talked this part over prior to calling in. Every line and word from his mouth was rehearsed and set to draw the most positive response. But it didn’t make them any less true.

  “You humans have made a mistake with the demons. A mistake that Seraphina will undoubtedly take advantage of. You grouped us all together. You decided that we were all of one nature, of one mind. If one of us had black spiked teeth and yellow skin, we all hid that beneath the surface. If one of us kills for sustenance, not simply for a joy in a killing, we all do that. So where then do all the demons you DON’T notice walking around fit? The merchant who’s secretly an Illusion Demon living with his mate. The ice and fire demons that contribute to weather cycles you humans enjoy? The Incubus Demon parading as Captain of the Royal Guard and married to one of your own? Where does that leave them?” He stood as best as he could with his hand cuffs together and chained to the bench.

  “It leaves them right where they already are. Safely under your radar and harming none. What about the murderers amongst human men? They are not put down on the spot. The thieves are not either. Am I innocent? Absolutely not. I am a Nightmare Demon my friends. I like to cause pain and fear and I have survived longer than most of your entire bloodline doing it. But I have found the one thing that can change a part of me that I never could on my own. I found Eliza. Everything she said was correct. Only let’s cut to the part where now, since finding her, I’ve only killed when Seraphina ordered me too, a blood debt I have recently broken, and will kill for her no longer. Or to the man with alcohol on his breath that was about to rape a young girl running an errand for her mother, who now lays rotting in the Thames because I was there to serve justice. Or the thief who murdered someone in an attempt to get away with her jewels. I make no claims to who I was. I speak to who I have been since finding my mate, and who I will be to her once I am free.”

  The rioting from the small group of people grew so loud he dared to let the demonic cold seep into his eyes before he spoke the next part. “The Alliance of Silver and Steam is in place to protect the humans from the demons because the Angels told the Royals a story twenty years ago. You hunt, seduce, and kill without ever even double checking what we really are. Of the families who you, THE HUMANS, have ripped apart. We are no different from you. Some of us hunt to live, others hide to survive. You play executioner to all of us because you’ve never dare
d to look behind the curtain. So I’m daring you now. Look behind the human facade, see the demon I am and judge me. My sins are my own and my future is yours.”

  Lucius sat and the room exploded. Shouts and curses rang out like firearm shots. They had not wished to hear of their own flaws and he had shoved them into their faces. He sat back against the wooden back of the bench and his eyes connected with Eliza’s. Fear spread across her face, but he was not afraid. He had done the right thing by his mate and if this worked then he would be a new person in her eyes and maybe have changed the way the Alliance of Silver and Steam worked. Her eyes widened just as he felt two sets of arms wrap around his forearms. He heard nothing over the screaming and fighting in the small room, but he felt the lock on the chain disengage and saw Eliza frantically telling him not to run.

  Everything in him centered on the two men holding him. He crept inside their minds and froze when he saw what they both feared the most. It was him. In this moment the two hunters that had been guarding Eliza were terrified of him. The knowledge seeped through him and his eyes were closing into a trance before he knew what was happening. His hearing faded as he entered into the trance before he could stop himself. He wasn’t certain what the room saw, all he was certain of was the truth staring at him from his mate’s eyes. He’d crossed over the line. He’d forgotten to be what he’d promised he would, instead he’d become the creature they thought he was.

  With a scream he forced himself out of the trance, let the hallucination drop, never having seen through his victim’s eyes to know what they truly saw him as. Or worse, what his mate had seen when he’d unleashed his power.

  “That is enough! Get him the hell out of here even if you have to shoot him to do it.”

  “No! No you can’t!” He saw Eliza as she shoved Greyston out of the way. Everything moved slowly, as if someone had found a TimeTurning Demon and reset the seconds. He watched as Greyston wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her, violently, back against the wall. His eyes were solemn as he nodded his head at Lucius and Lucius put his hands up in the air. His eyes closed, pain streaked through him for his mistake. He almost didn’t feel the weapon that cracked against his ankles and sent him crashing to the floor. He couldn’t hear anything but the sound of his chance snapping like a twig beneath his boot.

  Hands still raised in the air, Lucius laid his head on the green lined marble floor and did nothing as arms wrapped around him and something collided with the back of his head, sending him into immediate darkness.

  Chapter 20

  “Sit down, Miss Dorley, and quite frankly shut up.” The harshness in Master Agardawes’ tone threw her for a loop and she found herself lowering into the chair. It was a deep, bellowing pitch that made her feel like a small child being scolded for eating an extra sweet after dinner. “It is by the grace of God that he is not dead as we speak. Your closeness with Felicia and her own mated demon are the only things keeping that creature alive and I will not remind you again to watch yourself, girl.”

  She had never heard him raise his voice to anyone. For the entirety of the time she had been at the guild she’d never heard him above a dull roar. He was intimidating, but never cruel or terrifying. He was both right now and had been for the last hour and eighteen minutes since she had stormed into his office with Greyston.

  “He got overwhelmed. Don’t you understand that? You heard the comments in the room. You saw the way Philippe and Kellan advanced on him! He was protecting himself. If anyone failed to do what they should have in that trial it was you! You are the one in command, you could have silenced everyone and you let them provoke him. Let them shout about his death being needed and how all demons were nothing more than abominations. You sat and watched as the room exploded into chaos. His mistake is on your hands.” Her whole body felt like it was on fire, being eaten alive with rage and the sudden urge to strike the man she’d admired most of her adult life. Her breath was coming out in quick pants and her nostrils flared even as her nails bit into her palms. She felt the blood slide down them, just as she had the three times prior when she’d been driven to control her emotions by inflicting pain to herself.

  “You have stepped out of a line, Miss Dorley. You must remember who you are speaking to.”

  “And you must remember that there is a demon in the room with us. One you damn near are about to treat as your own son. How do you think he feels about what was said? About your choices and actions?” Tears stung her eyes and she let them fall. She had lost everything; her family, her mate, her respect for what she had thought was the greatest man alive - there was nothing left to lose and no reason to hide her fury and pain.

  Thomas Agardawes’ clear blue eyes slid to Greyston, who was standing in the corner of the room, blackness filling his own eyes. He took his spectacles off and put them on his desk. “What would you have me do?” The question wasn’t directed at her but at Greyston. She barely recognized the anger that blazed in his voice when he responded.

  “I would expect you to be a leader. Too open your eyes and see that while he lost control, so did every one of your Alliance members and that fucking Royal snob, Jacob. I do not disagree that he needed to be contained. A Nightmare Demon in a small room would have been fatal, regardless of what he wanted. I cannot speak for what everyone saw, but I have a pretty good guess that it was themselves. Because in that moment every fucking one of us should have feared nothing more than that. Because we kill without asking, without remorse. We are no better than the demons we hunt. The only difference is as a demon I can tell who needs to be put down and who should be allowed to run free.”

  “Is that your way of telling me you’ve made your own rules for your job as both Captain of the Guard and a hunter?” Agardawes tone was incredulous, his eyes wide with curiosity and betrayal.

  “You’re damn right I have. Do you know why? Because I. Am. A. Demon. I will protect all innocents the same and hunt all evil, regardless of what form it comes in, the same way. I am sorry for your loss, Thomas. But you are in London. You are the one running the show and it is time to pull your head out of your arse and open your fucking eyes because if it’s one thing I know it’s the lengths a mate will go to in order to protect each other. You, and every other non-mated demon cannot understand the strength and force of the fated bond. It goes beyond everything deemed needed by your silly bible and laws. It is survival and I can tell you this one right here, the beautiful blonde female shooting daggers at you with her eyes, is ready to unleash hell, Thomas. So it is your turn to pick. Do you fight your daughter’s battle in America or do you be a damned leader and work with what’s right here? I will never fail to protect this city and Felicia. However, this fight is not with me and trust me, do not make it so.” He didn’t speak as Master Agardawes straightened up in the chair behind his desk. Emotions flew across his face that Eliza couldn’t comprehend. But Greyston was long out the door, and it slammed shut so hard the hinges shook.

  Silence fell in the room. Two occupants, both ready to do what they felt was best. “He is correct.” Her mentor, Master and family member looked up at her then, astonished.

  “Whatever do you mean, Miss Dorley? I fear he made more than one appropriate point. I am not apologizing for anything, I will not be questioned. But I am willing to hear what you have to say. Fifty years in a cell, with victims brought for him to slaughter so that you might retain your mate alive in some fashion is more than generous. He would have killed us all. I should see him put down, I really should.”

  She ignored everything he said. None of it mattered. While she’d sat and listened to Greyston she had determined her next move and the game would be hers. There was too much to lose for it to go any other way. “About what we will do to protect our mate. I am not saying he does not need a punishment of sorts. His actions were violent, but not unnecessary as he most likely felt we were going to attack him. Which ironically happened since I watched his limp body dangle from Philippe’s arms as he was carried off to the dun
geon. Before you tried to run to your office and pretend you weren’t responsible. You know what he said was right.”

  “Nothing that he said was right.” His voice was cold and Eliza recognized it from her own dismissal of his comments when he wouldn’t help with Seraphina. But he wasn’t wrong.

  “We are no better than the demons. We ask no questions and slaughter the moment they talk or they enter a room. Not all demons are Thrashers or Kappa Demons. We’d be foolish to think we have spotted out every demon, how could we without each and every type of blood to drop onto a crystal? I told you there would be a time when the secrets needed to come out. Well an angel supplied us with the crystals, I know that without a doubt, but I don’t know the rest of the story. What I do know is that you have quite a lot to lose, Thomas.” She folded her arms over her chest and leveled a stare at him. “You have an awful lot to lose.”

  “Just how do you figure that, Eliza?” There wasn’t a semblance of worry in his voice. She almost felt guilty before she got ready to speak. This had been her home when she wasn’t good enough for her parents and now it was the only home she had. But she would never stay if Lucius suffered death or fifty years locked away to be tortured and questioned and probably tested upon by the true alchemists that worked in the labs.

  “No one, not you and not the Royals and not even the demons themselves want their lives to be public. I will make it so. I have Greyston who would gladly bare his eyes and seduce an audience to expose the secret.” She didn’t add that they’d never actually discussed anything. This was a rouse and if it was too transparent, everything was over. “If that did not work I have six pieces of technology hidden away at the estate, the task is being done even as we speak. It was set up long before Lucius and I arrived this morning, or rather before you dragged him in. Not including the motor bike safely tucked away with Felicia in a location that you will never know because she left her communicator, and therefore her tracker behind. I may fail to expose the demons, but I will not fail to start a revolution over the secrets the Royals have been keeping. You ask yourself, is that enough blood on your hands, Thomas?”