by J. C. Diem
We climbed back into the SUV and waited for the van and the station wagon to pull out onto the road before following them.
“Is it just me or are the Sweepers slightly sinister?” I asked.
“It’s not just you,” he confirmed. “They have the power to wipe the memories of just about anyone. I’d hate to be at their mercy.”
“Could they erase our memories?”
“I’m not sure. I haven’t read any records of them ever trying to mind-wipe shifters. I’d rather not find out for myself.”
We had some resistance to telepathic powers, but who knew whether we’d be able to stave off chemicals and hypnotism?
“Do they have names?” None of the agents had introduced themselves, which had seemed rude to me.
“That’s above our clearance level.”
“Even yours?” He was level five and I was a lowly level one.
“Even mine,” he shrugged. “Mark probably knows who they are.” He was level eight, only two levels below the highest people in the PIA.
Turning off the main road after about ten minutes, we drove deeper into the woods. The van eventually bumped over a rutted driveway. A sign warned people not to trespass on the property. A rusty old chain had been discarded beside the dirt track. A quick glance told me that it had been recently cut.
As we angled uphill, a roof appeared through the trees and a dilapidated old house came into view. “Yeah, that’s not at all creepy,” I muttered.
“Do you see any ghosts?” he asked half-seriously.
“Not yet. I’ll let you know if I do.” Now that he’d mentioned it, I hadn’t seen a spirit since the ghosts had torn the dark coven to pieces. Maybe I’d only been able to see them because they’d been trapped on our plane of existence by a spell. It was the only theory I had and I was sticking with it.
Up close, the house was in even worse repair than it appeared from a distance. Two stories high, the roof was missing shingles and the walls were covered in ivy. Dirt and dead leaves were scattered on the sagging porch. The front door was standing open. One of the agents had kicked it open hard enough to splinter it in half.
Another black van was parked near the house and we pulled in behind it. All five agents climbed out of the second van to carry the slumbering campers inside. They were a person short, so Reece offered his assistance. He and the lone Sweeper retrieved the camper from the station wagon and lugged him inside the house.
Dreading entering the building without knowing why, I was the last one inside. It took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the dimness then a bright light flared ahead. I was in a long hallway that stretched the entire length of the house. The light was coming from the first door on the left.
Entering what had probably been a living room, I squinted at the harsh brightness. Battery operated halogen lights had been set up around the edges of the room. The agents had already set up a temporary laboratory in anticipation of their task. A hospital bed sat in the middle of the room. Monitors and other medical equipment were lined up beside it. One of the campers was in the process of being strapped down. The other two had been taken somewhere else inside the house.
Hearing someone new approaching, I turned to the doorway as a small man entered. Barely five foot-three, he had a slight frame, narrow shoulders and wore a rumpled black suit. I doubted that he weighed a hundred pounds. Far from handsome, he was hollow cheeked and completely bald. His skin was so pale that I could see his veins. His eyes were overlarge and so light a blue that they almost didn’t seem to have any color.
He spared me a glance as he walked past and I suppressed a shiver. Looking into his eyes was like staring into an abyss. There was an otherworldly strangeness to him and I sensed that he wasn’t human. His pointed ears were a dead giveaway. His scent was sweet and reminded me of flowers. I wasn’t sure whether he could tell that Reece and I weren’t human.
A metal case lay on a fold out table next to the bed. Opening it, the bald agent withdrew a syringe and squirted a tiny amount of fluid to release any bubbles that might have formed. He inserted it into the camper’s vein then watched him carefully as he injected the contents into him.
It only took a short time for the drug to work. Coming awake with a start, the camper stared up at his small captor. His pupils were huge and a dopey smile stretched his mouth wide. “Wow. You kind of look like an alien,” he said in a dreamy voice. “Are you going to probe me? I’m not really into dudes.” Reece elbowed me when I almost sniggered out loud.
“What is your name?” the agent asked in a calm and soothing voice. It was much deeper than I’d have guessed from his fragile appearance. He had an accent that sounded German to me, but he might have been from somewhere else in Europe.
“Todd Grant.”
“Did you see who took your friend, Mr. Grant?”
His smile faded and fright took over. “Yeah,” he whispered.
“Who was it?”
“It wasn’t a who, it was a what.” His shudder was hard enough to make the bed rock slightly.
“What was it, Mr. Grant?”
“Some kind of witch with gray hair and glowing yellow eyes.”
“It wasn’t really a witch, was it, Mr. Grant?” baldy said cajolingly. “You merely saw moss hanging from a tree and a pair of fireflies.”
Todd frowned and shook his head. “No. I saw a monster.”
“There’s no such thing as monsters,” the agent said and reached for another syringe. “Monsters don’t exist,” he went on when he injected the drug. “What happened to your friend?”
“A witch took him,” Todd replied in a slurred voice.
“No, Mr. Grant. You’re wrong. There is no such thing as witches.” He took a necklace from his pocket and held it up. A shiny silver pendant hung from it. He twirled the chain and the pendant began to spin. Todd’s eyes followed it and his face went slack. “Repeat after me. There’s no such thing as monsters.”
The camper did as he was told, but his tone was doubtful.
“Hmm,” baldy mused. “It seems that Mr. Grant is resistant to hypnosis. We’ll have to do this the hard way.” One of the other agents grimaced, but smoothed his face out before the others noticed. Baldy had seemed almost glad that Todd wasn’t falling beneath his spell easily.
Taking another syringe out of the case, the agent injected it and Todd’s pupils constricted to tiny pinpricks. His eyes darted from side to side and sweat broke out on his brow. “What’s happening?” he gasped. I could hear his heartbeat. It was too fast and erratic.
“You’re not being very cooperative, Mr. Grant. You refuse to acknowledge that monsters aren’t real.” His tone was disappointed, yet I saw his glee. So did Reece and he stirred beside me. We were standing close enough for our shoulders to brush. Even that small amount of contact between us helped to settle me.
“I saw her,” Todd insisted. “She was beautiful one second then she turned into a hideous crone the next. She was a monster!”
“Do you want to see a true monster?” baldy whispered then leaned in close. He flicked a sly glance at me and I started when I saw that his eyes had changed color. They were now a vivid dark blue and the irises were spinning in rapid circles.
Staring up into the agent’s eyes, Todd was transfixed. His expression changed from frustrated to scared then quickly became terrified. Baldy put his hand over the camper’s mouth when he began to scream.
What the hell? Reece glanced at me when I sent him that frantic thought. What is he doing to him?
I don’t know, he replied. Maybe some form of telepathy?
Our interaction with telepaths in the past had been far from pleasant. Baldy wasn’t much better than the Seven Deadly Sinners from what I could see. He clearly enjoyed torturing Todd with his mind.
Driven to the point of collapse, Todd fainted and went limp. “Let’s give Mr. Grant a few moments to recover,” baldy said and stepped back from the table. He wasn’t wearing a lab coat, yet he seemed as clinical as a scient
ist. He gestured for Reece and me to join him and we moved away from the other agents.
“Who are you?” he asked without preamble when we joined him. His teeth had been filed to sharp points like a primitive cannibal.
“Agents Reece Garrett and Alexis Levine,” Reece replied.
His lips pursed in an almost smile. “Let me rephrase my question. What are you?”
“What are you?” I shot back quietly. He raised a hairless brow at me. His pupils had stopped spinning and were back to being pale again.
“I am human,” he replied then shrugged when we both gave him a doubtful stare. “Partly.”
“What else are you?” I asked. “I’ve seen ordinary telepaths before and you’re nothing like them.” The fact that I could think of telepaths being ordinary in any way spoke about how much I’d changed since joining the squad.
“I am half fae.”
“You’re a faery?” Reece said incredulously, but quietly. “I thought they were extinct.”
That made baldy grin. Reece didn’t seem to notice his too sharp teeth or his pointed ears. “My kind is far from extinct. We have merely learned how to hide ourselves from humans.” He studied us closely and curiously. “I knew immediately that you two weren’t human.” Reaching out suddenly, he grabbed us both by the forearms. His expression went intense then he looked at us in surprise. “You are shifters, but I sense death magic in you both. How is it possible that you are tainted by a vampire, yet you still live?”
“We don’t know,” Reece replied with an uneasy shrug.
“I have lived for a very long time and I have never seen anything like you two,” baldy said and shook his head. He looked around forty and I wondered how old he really was. His gaze rested on me longer than it did on Reece. “Are you aware that you are dying?” he asked conversationally.
It was a shock to be reminded so starkly of our fate. “We’re aware,” I replied. “We’ve already killed the master vampire. Now we just need to hunt down the vamp that bit us and that should rid us of the taint.” That was Beatrice’s theory anyway. We wouldn’t know whether she was right or not until after my mother was dead.
“Of course,” the agent said, but he didn’t sound convinced. “None of my colleagues are aware that I am…different,” he said in an abrupt change of topic. “I have a type of glamor that hides my true nature. I will keep your secret, if you will keep mine.”
“What is your name?” I asked, wondering how anyone could possibly think he was in any way normal. I took a quick peek in Reece’s mind and his idea of what baldy looked like was very different from what I was seeing. He saw an average looking man with light brown hair, light blue eyes and no outstanding features.
He gave me a sly smile. “It is very rude to ask a faery their name,” he chided me. “Knowing my name can give you power over me.”
“I’m sorry,” I apologized immediately. “I didn’t realize.”
Seeing that my contrition was genuine, he looked thoughtful. “You may call me Kurt Jorgen. It is as good a name as any.”
“We’ll keep your secret, Agent Jorgen,” I promised and Reece nodded.
“Good,” he replied then looked at me intently. “I have a feeling that you will require my assistance soon.” Taking a card out of his jacket, he handed it to me. Plain white, a cell phone number was printed in black on one side. I tucked it into my pocket. “Please do not hesitate to call me,” he instructed. “Now, if you will excuse me, I must return to my subject.”
He halted when I reached out and touched his arm. His skin felt slightly slick and far from normal. I resisted the urge to wipe my fingers on my pants. “What are you showing him?”
“The worst creatures that I have encountered during my long life,” he said. “Each time he refuses to believe that the succubus wasn’t real, I show him what true monsters look like. Eventually, the mere thought of her will frighten him so badly that he’ll bury the memory so deeply in his subconscious that he’ll be unable to access it.”
He wasn’t doing this just because it was his job. He got a lot more out of it than that. I’d promised that I’d keep his secret, but it wasn’t easy to watch him resume his interrogation.
When Todd passed out a second time, Kurt turned to us. “Mr. Grant is proving to be very stubborn indeed. This is going to take longer than I thought. You may leave, if you wish. We’ll return these men and their vehicle to their hotel when we’re done.”
Reece nodded and I shared his relief that we wouldn’t have to stick around to witness the rest of the mind wipes. Jorgen wasn’t done with Todd yet and I’d already lost my stomach for watching the process. The other agents might be used to seeing the bald faery in action, but they didn’t particularly seem to like it either.
₪₪₪
Chapter Sixteen
We backtracked to the campsite and parked in the lot again. It was still early and we had the rest of the day to search the area, not that our job would be easy. The rain had penetrated the trees to soak the ground. Any tracks that might have been made by the succubus or her victim would have been washed away overnight.
“I doubt we’ll locate him today,” Reece said as he climbed out. “But we might find a clue to point us in the right direction.”
“Should I bring my rifle?” The weight wouldn’t slow me down and I could assemble it quickly if I needed to.
“It can’t hurt,” he shrugged. “You never know what else might be creeping around in the woods.”
I left my jacket in the car so it wouldn’t be ruined by our coming hike. In the off chance that we’d run into another hiker, I left my holster behind as well. I slipped my gun into a pocket of my cargo pants. Reece was also loading his pockets with his gun and spare ammo. It was doubtful we’d need to use our weapons, but it didn’t hurt to be prepared. Our pockets were bulging by the time we were ready to move.
Mark had loaded the SUV with supplies before we’d left the compound. It was likely that we’d be out here for hours, so we stuffed food and water into our backpacks. There were no cafés out here to stop in for a quick snack or for a cup of coffee.
“We need to return to the SUV before nightfall,” Reece said after locking the vehicle securely.
“Why?” Surely we would be the most dangerous creatures in the forest once darkness came.
“What do you know about succubae?”
“Not much,” I admitted. I hadn’t even known that the plural of succubus was succubae. I was still woefully ignorant about the creatures that went bump in the night. Like me, Reece enjoyed reading through the old PIA records. He wasn’t as knowledgeable as Mark, but he knew a lot more than Kala and Flynn.
A sign pointed to a path that would take us to the campsite. It was a five mile hike, but we weren’t daunted by the distance. Reece slung his backpack over his shoulder and took to the trail first. There was only room for us to walk in single file, so I was treated to the sight of his firm backside.
Sending a glance back at me, he shook his head at the track my thoughts had taken. He steered me back to the topic at hand by explaining more about our target. “Succubae take the form of beautiful women when they’re searching for a new meal. They lure their food, usually men, away with their beauty and with a form of hypnosis.”
It seemed ironic that Todd Grant was being bamboozled by a faery while his missing friend was being subjected to a similar treatment by the succubus.
“They put their victims into a dream state that seems real to them,” he continued. “They think they’re living in their personal version of paradise. They have no idea that their life force is being drained the entire time.”
“How do the succubae drain them?”
“It isn’t pretty. They have needle sharp teeth and latch onto their victims at the base of their necks. They suck the juices out of their prey over the course of a week or so. When they’re done, only dry husks remain.”
“Wow, I can’t wait to meet her,” I said with false enthusiasm. “She soun
ds awesome.”
“The last thing we want is for her to know we’re hunting her,” he warned me without the least sign of humor. “We’re the equivalent of catnip to her kind.”
“What do you mean?” I didn’t like the sounds of that at all.
“Our life forces are far stronger than a mere human’s. She’ll hunt us both down and add us to her pantry if she knows we’re here. With food like us, she’ll take great pains to make sure we survive for as long as possible. She’ll keep us alive so she can feed from us for several weeks.”
“The whole time she’s feeding from us, we’d be trapped in a pleasant dream?” I asked and he nodded. “How likely is it that she could capture us if she knew we were here?”
“Very. Her kind can move almost silently and they have very little scent. They’re adept at blending in with their environment. They can be very difficult to spot when they don’t want to be seen. They sometimes hide in the trees and drop down onto their victims. One bite can paralyze us, if she doesn’t capture us with her eyes instead.”
“They sound like the ultimate predators.” They also sounded a lot like vampires, except succubae drank all bodily juices rather than just blood.
“There aren’t many of them left now. The PIA has eradicated most of them. From the US at least. They are still fairly common in some European and Asian countries.”
Sticking to the trail, we fell silent and jogged the distance to the campsite. Reece stopped when he came to the end of the trail and I moved to stand beside him. The campsite was large enough to hold several tents. The ground was bare dirt, which had turned to mud from the rain. As we’d expected, any footprints that may have been left behind had now been washed away.
Utterly devoid of grass or plants, the area was well used and appeared to be a popular destination. The sheriff and his deputies hadn’t cordoned off the area with crime scene tape. They only had the word of Todd Grant and his friends that Reggie had been lured away by a blond woman. There was no sign that anything untoward had happened here at all.