Undone: Succubus Undone Part 6

by Frost, L. L.

  When I slow, then finally stop talking, Emil cups the back of my head, his fingers threading through my hair. Ice crystals bloom across my scalp, but I only press closer, accepting that frostbite is the cost of his comfort.

  “They’ll return,” he says at last. “You said Tobias vanished. He probably met up with Kellen and they’re filing a change of location while they’re there, since so many humans saw them die.”

  Straightening, I blink frost from my lashes. “Yeah, that must be it. Tobias said we’d need to move at some point.”

  Emil cups my cheeks. “Yes. Somewhere warm this time. The Caribbean.”

  I sniffle, the cold burning my nose. “I’ve never been to the Caribbean.”

  “You’ll love it.” He leans down to rub his nose against mine. “The ocean there is warm, and the beaches have sand so fine it feels like sugar.”

  “That sounds beautiful,” I choke out.

  “We’ll drink out of coconuts and nap under cabanas.” A light kiss flits over my lips, there and gone before he tempts me. Then, his hands drop to the box I hold. “You brought Torch with you?”

  “Yeah.” With a jerky nod, I step out of Emil’s arms and slide back the safety lid to the box.

  Torch flickers in welcome, his flames running the gamut between red and white as he waves his little arms and hops up and down.

  His adorableness pulls a wet chuckle from me. “I think he’s asking for up-sees.”

  “Well, we can’t leave him wanting after how brave he was.” Before I can stop him, Emil reaches down and scoops Torch out of the box.

  His skin hisses, and steam rises, but Torch only takes that as a challenge and burns blue with heat.

  Emil releases a sigh of appreciation. “That feels nice.”

  “I didn’t know you could hold Torch.” I reach out to rub his little belly and ignore the flash of pain. “I should have been bringing him home every night so you could play with him.”

  Torch flickers his agreement while panic fills Emil’s eyes.

  Quickly, he returns Torch to his metal box. “Now, let’s not be hasty. I already have Tac to care for.”

  “But isn’t he cute?” I lift the box toward Emil’s face. “And warm?”

  Emil’s gaze drops to the open box, and another sigh of appreciation escapes him. “Maybe just a little more playing.”

  Torch flickers with excitement before he stills, his flames banking to a dull-red shine. I frown at the sudden change, and Emil pauses, his hand hovering over the box. Then a rush of tingles dance across my skin, and everything happens in fast forward.

  Emil pushes me behind his back as portals open in his office and council guards suddenly appear around us. I fumble Torch’s box, almost dropping him, and a streak of red rushes past. For a second, I think Torch escaped again, but then Emil suddenly vanishes from my side.

  A crash comes from his desk area, and I whip around to find Cassandra pinning him down, her lips latched over his.

  Rage spikes through me, and Torch flares blindingly white in response. But before I can rush to Emil’s aid, strong arms grab me from all sides, holding me back.

  “No!” I shout, my anger making the ley line magic inside me bubble and stir. “Let him go!”

  A tall figure steps in front of me, blocking my view, and I look up into Lord Marius’s hard eyes. “This is what must be done, Adeline Boo Pond.”

  “You’re wrong!” I fight against the guards, and Torch’s box falls from my hands.

  The small ignis demon leaps free and runs to the guard on my left, trying to light the slag demon on fire, but stone won’t burn. The guard kicks his foot, and Torch tumbles away, leaving a trail of burnt carpet in his wake.

  “Calm yourself,” Lord Marius commands. “You can do nothing to stop this.”

  “You’re wrong,” I seethe, the anger in me growing stronger, and my skin begins to glow with iridescent light as my wings slip free from hiding.

  The guards who hold me disintegrate, and I feel their power sink through the foundation to the earth beneath, then farther down to the thin stream of a ley line.

  Lord Marius’s eyes widen, and he gestures for more guards to come forward. They hesitate, their eyes on my glowing skin, before they stomp finto action.

  A growl rips from my throat, and I grab onto the stream of magic deep beneath the ground, yanking it to me. Power floods my body, and rainbows splash through the office. There’s no time to fix on a single purpose, or try to finesse this power into something I’m used to wielding. All I can think is Die as I dart away from the guard. Their bodies puff to dust, and I yank their energy to me, fueling the magic to grow stronger as more guards rush forward.

  These, too, turn to dust, and through their ashes, I see Emil’s limp body being carried toward a waiting portal. Cassandra strides beside them, a victorious smile curving her lips, and my anger rushes out of me in a tide of magic that unmakes the space between us. Carpet disintegrates and chairs unravel. The floorboards buckle, foundation crumbling, until a cavern of darkness rushes toward her.

  Cassandra’s smile falters and fear widens her eyes a moment before she vanishes in a streak of red, taking Emil with her.

  “No!” I shout.

  As I lurch forward, the portal snaps shut.

  It’s too late.

  Around the room, the rest of the portals close, leaving me alone.

  I fall to my knees, screaming out my denial that the last of my loves, my ice demon, my stuffy Emil, has been ripped away.

  The bank security arrives only after the fight is over, but I can’t dredge up the effort to punish them for their failure to protect Emil.

  How can I blame them when I stood in the room and could do nothing?

  The head of security kneels in front of me, his neon-green eyes filled with a respect that didn’t exist the last time we met. “Ms. Pond.”

  “Leonard,” I acknowledge. “Your timing sucks, as usual.”

  “We cannot stand against the high council.” His eyes sweep the room, taking in the destruction. “Though, it appears you did okay.”

  “I did nothing.” Smoke tickles my nose, and I glance over at Emil’s desk, where fire flickers around the base. “You might want to get a fire extinguisher. My ignis demon is setting the office on fire.”

  As one of the guards hyper-speeds out of the room, I grab Torch’s box and crawl over to the desk. “Come on, buddy, time to go.”

  He waddles out from under the desk to belly flop into the open box.

  “Yeah, I bet you’re tired. You’ve been setting all sorts of things on fire today, haven’t you?” I hug the box against my chest. “You’re such a good ignis demon.”

  He flickers and rolls onto his back, stubby arms patting his stomach.

  I glance around, and my eyes settle on a pile of sawdust where one of Emil’s fancy chairs used to be. Reaching out, I scoop up a handful and sprinkle it over Torch, who flickers happily as he burns it away.

  The security guard returns with the fire extinguisher and sprays down the desk, covering the entire front with white foam.

  Leonard’s voice rises over the noise. “What will you do now?”

  I twist to peer over my shoulder at him. “I’m going to the demon plane. I need to find where they took Emil.” My heart lurches, and I swallow the sudden lump in my throat. “And why Tobias and Kellen haven’t returned.”

  Because, no matter what Emil said, they wouldn’t have left us wondering this long.

  Leonard stares down at me. “Sophia said you wanted a gathering. That you would take down Cassandra.”

  Clutching Torch’s box tighter, I stand so Leonard no longer has the advantage of looming over me quite so much. “Yes.”

  “We had a good laugh about that. A baby like you, taking on that monster.” He looks around the office once more. “No one is laughing now.”

  My pulse quickens. “Then you’ll come?”

  His neon-green gaze returns to me. “Landregath used to boast that y
ou would become the best of us. We laughed about that, too, behind his back. Laughed about how he had become doting in his retirement. We thought he meant you’d become human, with your bakery and your refusal to feed properly.”

  My heart beats faster to hear that Landon thought so highly of me, even when I continued to fail.

  “Today, seeing what you did here...” He straightens his spine. “Bring back the demons of destruction, and we’ll stand with you against Cassandra. We will follow you, Adeline Boo Pond, to whatever end you lead us.”

  My wings shiver against my spine, and my lips part, tongue flicking out to taste the promise in the air. This has the feel of a contract, of a binding, not just with Leonard, but with every incubi and succubi within the city.

  I pull my shoulders back and lift my chin. “I’d bring them back regardless. They are mine.”

  He nods approvingly and tilts his head toward the doorway. “There’s an access point in the security control room.”

  “Won’t work,” a familiar voice calls, and a moment later, Sophia appears in the office. “They’re locking down the borders. I barely made it back.”

  Happiness fills me at her fast return, followed by panic as her words register.

  When her eyes find me, sorrow fills them. “Adie, they’re gathering up all the powerful demons and locking them in the Between. Your demons of destruction were the first to go.”

  “That’s not...” My mind struggles to accept her words. “They can’t...”

  She walks farther into the room. “With everything that’s been going on lately, the higher ups are worried about humans finding out about us. The way station is shut down, too. If we go to Dreamland, we won’t be able to return here.”

  The security guards in the room still. As incubi, Dreamland is their primary hunting ground unless they’re willing to risk feeding on humans here, where the temptation to take everything is so strong. If humans start dying from feedings, succubi and incubi will be pulled back to the demon plane, too.

  It’s exactly what Victor Hesse warned would happen. The higher-ups are afraid of another war with the humans, and they’re pulling back when they should be moving forward to figure out safer ways for us to openly cohabitate. Because hiding is no longer working. We need a different solution, a better way.

  “We need the witches,” I whisper, my mind latching onto the idea and running with it.

  Everyone in the room stares at me in confusion, but I shake my head, unable to explain the thoughts forming.

  Instead, I stride toward the door. “We need to go back home.” I reach into my pocket and toss my cell phone at Sophia. “Make the call. Tell everyone to meet us there.”

  Eyes wide, she starts dialing as I walk from Emil’s destroyed office and out into the hall. Demons stand silently in the open doorways to the smaller offices, their gazes following as I stride past. Word is already spreading, and the scent of fear burns against my nose.

  Out on the street, cold wind whips my hair into my face, and I hold Torch’s container closer until we reach the car, where I carefully buckle the box into the backseat.

  Still talking into the phone, Sophia climbs into the passenger seat.

  When I glance back at the bank, demons hover in every window, staring out at us. My stomach squeezes tight, seeing them on one side of the glass and us on the other. It’s like they’re already locked up, unable to escape their cage.

  Unwilling to accept that future, I turn away and slide behind the wheel.

  * * *

  When we pull up in front of the house, cars fill the driveway and line the street, alerting us that the others have already arrived.

  I grab Torch from the back seat, and we head inside. The imps huddle together on my floral couch, and Sophia immediately goes to them, lifts Jesse, and settles in among them, with my smallest imp sitting on her lap.

  Jesse snuggles in with a relieved, “Lazy succubus.”

  Around them, the others huddle closer, welcoming Sophia as if she’s one of their own.

  My heart lifts for a moment as I remember how much they started out hating each other. They’re proof demons can change, that the way we are is not how we must remain.

  Tac squats in the stairwell to my and Emil’s rooms, with Fuyumi perched in front of him, Prem cradled in her arms while Merp sits on her folded knees. Ice coats Fuyumi’s skin and forms icicles on her chin. She’s never once tried to pass for human, and Tac can’t. Tac’s not even considered a demon, though his whelps would be half-breeds. What happens to them under these new restrictions?

  Tally stand with her witches near the archway, further proof of how we can change and evolve. Proof that our differences don’t have to keep us apart.

  Next to them, Flint, Pen, and Marc stand at an uneasy distance from Gavin, who leans against the wall, his arms folded over his chest as he takes in the rest of the room.

  The only people missing are my demons of destruction, and I intend to change that, right now.

  Setting Torch’s box down, I turn to face Xander. “It’s time.”

  His brows sweep together, and he exchanges a look with his brother before facing me once more. “Time for what, Adie?”

  “Time for Kellen’s contingency plan.” Stepping into the center of the room, I drag the coffee table out of the way as I continue to speak. “You were gathered together and given a singular task. To study the ley lines.”

  “Yes,” Xander says slowly, his confusion still clear.

  “Kellen assumed he would be here to launch this grand scheme of his, but he was wrong, so we need to move forward without him.” I leave the table against the wall and go back for Tobias’s chair, shoving it out of the way, too.

  “But, he never told us what the plan was,” Xander protested. “He just threw books at us and told us to learn as much as possible.”

  “He thought you’d be able to break me out of jail, if it came to that.” I push Kellen’s chair against the wall, too. “That means he thought you’d be able to access the demon plane. And if you could access that, then you can access the Between, where they’re now locking people up.”

  “We don’t have enough power for that, though.” Reese shakes his head. “We barely opened a way to the Between with the help of Landon, Kellen, and the Librarian. With just us, it’s impossible.”

  “Yeah, I know.” I stride across the room and grab the leather couch on one end and drag it out of the way to leave the gold circle engraved into the floor fully exposed. “Which means he didn’t want you to open a way to the Between specifically. But what he wanted from you would allow him to access any part of the demon plane, including the Between.”

  “You’re not making sense,” Jax says. “He didn’t want into the Between but he wanted into the Between?”

  “Yes, exactly.” Straightening, I return to the circle. “The Between didn’t always exist. The same way Dreamland didn’t always exist. It was created, which means it requires power to continue to exist.” I turn to stare at the witches. “There’s only one reason he would have you studying ley lines.”

  Realization sweeps over Xander’s face. “Because these pockets of reality are powered by ley lines.”

  “Which means we need to pull the ley lines away from where they’re holding the demons of destruction.” Reese glances at Tally. “But what will happen to Dreamland if we do this. And I’m not saying we can, but if we take away the power…”

  “Dreamland exists from the minds of thousands of demons and millions of humans. It doesn’t need to be powered by the ley lines anymore,” she says.

  He nods and looks at his brother, then at Jax and Slater. “But... There’s no way we can do that with just the four of us. Not at our current level. I don’t know if we could even do it with a dozen more years of study. We’re talking about pulling on the magic of creation and asking it to move.”

  “We’re not asking it.” I slash a hand through the air. “You’re always going on about intention. So we’re going to
give it a very precise intent to move. I’ve been in the ley line before; I’ll go back into it. All you have to do is be my anchors on this side, help ground me and remind me of my purpose.”

  “But you’d need direct access to a ley line.” Reese’s brows sweep together. “We don’t have that here.”

  “No, but we have it on the demon plan. They sit on the surface in the wastelands. That’s how I got into it the first time, and it’s how I’ll get back into it.”

  “The portals are closed, though.” Sophia points out as she hugs Jesse closer. “Even if you go to Dreamland, you won’t be able to get to the way station, let alone out to the wastelands.”

  I turn to face Flint. “Which is where you come in.”

  He lifts a brow. “It is?”

  With a decisive nod, I pull my shirt over my head, leaving me covered by only my bra, and point to the spot above my heart. “You’re going to complete this symbol. Victor Hesse is on the demon plane right now, and he’s too smart to leave things to chance. If this is the leash that binds me to him, then all we have to do is complete it, and it will pull me through the veil, shut down or no shut down.”

  “This seems like a foolhardy mission,” Marc points out as Flint and the other witches join me in the circle, and Flint pulls a sharpie from his pocket.

  Flint twirls the pen between his fingers as he studies my cleavage. “Are you offering an easier way across the border?”

  Surprised, I glance over at Marc. “Is that an option?”

  Pen looks up at him, too. “Yeah, Marc, is that an option?”

  Something dark flickers through his eyes before he looks down at his partner. “What are you offering in payment? I don’t need the succubus’s money.”

  Pen folds her arms under her breasts. “You’re a real asshole, you know that?”

  “Wait.” I turn to face Marc fully. “Is that an option? Can you make portals like the Librarian and Lord Marius?”

  Pen’s lips twist with distaste as Marc’s focus shifts to me. The creature who stares back is very much not human, or the person I’ve been dealing with up to now, and my wings razorblade against my spine in warning. I’ve gotten glimpses of the demon who lives inside Marc before, but never to this extent, and it sets off all my alarm bells.