We stationed a cop at each side exit, and two at the back of the building. The other cop covered the front door, and Novak insisted on coming inside with me.
“I’ll just hang out near the door,” he said. “Aeromancer, remember? I’ll shield myself, and if you come running for the door, I’ll shield you, too. It’s not going to hurt to have someone inside.”
He made a lot of sense, but I chuckled when he had to use his badge to bypass the line outside. I just walked to the front, winked at the bouncer, and licked my lips. I don’t think he even noticed the large pistol strapped to my right leg.
Once I was inside, I walked over to the bar and asked the devil pouring drinks where I might find Ashvial. He sneered at me. I held up the card the demon lord had given me.
“Your name?”
“Tell him it’s the brunette elf girl.”
He stared at me for a moment, then picked up a phone, and spoke into it. Someone answered, they spoke, the bartender listened, the bartender turned and looked me up and down, then spoke again. I was impressed. A demon who could use a phone. That made him a technological genius compared to most demons. Then I reassessed, wondering if it was some kind of demon magik that just looked like a phone. Demons were good with illusions.
When he hung up, he said, “Stairs over there. Go straight at the top, last door on the right.” He still sneered, only with a bit more mockery in it. Oh, well. I figured there were worse things in life than having people think I was a demon-loving bimbo. As I climbed the stairs, I tried to remember what those things might be.
Two demons—an oni and a troll—stood guard at the top of the stairs. The troll leered at me, but the oni saw my pistol and started to move in front of me. I had never figured out if I inherited any magik with my elven blood, but I was faster than other humans. I drew the pistol and leveled it at him. He stopped in mid-step.
“I’m here to see Ashvial, and he knows I’m coming,” I said. “Check, if you wish.”
The two demons exchanged glances, then the oni moved out of my way. I waited until I was past them before I holstered my weapon. Halfway down the hall, I stopped and sprayed myself with a couple of shots from the spritzer Kirsten had given me.
The last door on the right was open, and a lust demon—not a lilith, possibly a succubus—came out just as I reached it.
She gave me a leer and said, “Have a good time,” as she brushed past me.
The office was lit with red lamps, giving the place a demon-world ambiance. The desk and a couple of chairs were the only human furniture. Ashvial sat behind the desk on a throne decorated with carvings of demons ravishing humans. Very comforting.
On a pedestal behind him was one of the most striking statuettes I had ever seen. The body of a woman—a human woman—with the head of a dragon. Sharp ridges ran from the top of its head between its horns, down its back to the tip of its tail, which was curled around its feet. It looked almost alive, as though its skin would be soft and warm. Its eyes were demon red, glowing, and I felt as though they followed me.
I had seen it before, in dreams with my father. Once, it—she—had ridden him like a woman rides a man.
“Ah, Miss James.” His eyes briefly glanced down to my pistol, then returned to my face. “Is this visit pleasure or business?”
I stalked toward him and sat on the corner of the desk. His nostrils flared, and his pupils widened.
“Mostly business,” I said. “But I was curious to see you again.” I didn’t ask how he knew my name.
“Oh? And what were you curious about?”
“No one has ever made me feel like that. The challenge, I guess. Wondering if you just took me off guard.”
A feeling of warmth started between my legs and intensified, spreading up to my breasts, my throat and ears. I felt my face flush and was thankful for the red light in the room. But he didn’t need to see my reaction—he could feel it.
I could tell Kirsten’s potion was having an effect on him as well. His breathing quickened, and he leaned forward, inhaling deeply through his nose.
The more he got turned on, the more lust he projected, and the more I got turned on. An uncontrolled feedback circuit. My head swimming, I stood, turning away from him and going to the far side of the room. I picked up a grotesque little statue from a buffet and tried to concentrate on it.
“A man you’ve had business dealings with was killed the other morning,” I said.
“Yes, Martin Johansson. A tragedy.”
“Several people who are implicated in human trafficking have done business with both Johansson and you.”
“Is that so? A terrible business. Personally, I prefer to share pleasure with willing partners.” He stood and walked around the desk toward me. The lust he was projecting threatened to overwhelm my senses.
I turned to face him, the statue still in my hand. It was better facing him, because he didn’t look remotely human. His facial features resembled a medieval gargoyle’s more than they did a human’s. Standing in front of him, I estimated that Ashvial was at least seven and a half feet tall and muscled like a weight lifter. His red skin was an even deeper color in the red light, and the curved black horns projecting from his bald head made him seem even taller. His teeth were pointed like a dinosaur’s, and the black claws at the end of his fingers could easily rip my guts open.
“I was also hoping you might have some information about the murder of a demon, Lavessinel. He was a drug dealer.”
“He was a traitor and a thief. I don’t wish to speak of him.”
The lust he projected rolled through me, like waves of heat that were almost tangible. I found myself panting and knew he was feeding on my passion.
“We’re going to break the trafficking ring Johansson was part of,” I forced myself to say. “Him, Fredo, Doan Felspeth. Whoever is using vampires as enforcers. Anyone who is part of it. But if you’re not involved, we won’t have any reason to look in this direction anymore.”
He loomed over me, sniffing me. His eyes were fully dilated, almost glowing red.
“What do you want of me?”
“A girl named Sarah Benning. We know Johansson had her. We want her back.”
He bent closer to me. “I don’t know where she is.”
“But if you could find her, let me know where she is. I would be personally grateful.”
“And you would come back to receive that information from me?”
“Yes.”
Lust consumed me. I orgasmed, sensation racing through my body. My back arched, and I spasmed uncontrollably. The world went blank as the feelings he filled me with exploded into pleasure.
When I regained my senses, I was sitting on the floor. Ashvial towered over me, seemingly larger than he had been when I entered the room. He was staring down at me, panting, and the tent in his pants was frankly terrifying. I was glad he wore pants. Clothing was something demons picked up from humans, and only wore them around humans.
The two of us stayed like that, motionless, for a few minutes, then he moved away from me, swaying a little and holding onto the furniture. When he reached his throne, he collapsed into it, his limbs hanging loosely.
We stared at each other for a long time. Eventually the shudders of pleasure diminished, and I was able to control my arms and legs again. I forced myself to stand.
“I will await word from you,” I said, my voice unsteady. “Sarah Benning. That’s my price to return.”
He opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. After a moment, he nodded.
I managed to walk to the door and out into the hallway on shaky legs. It didn’t occur to me that I still smelled of Kirsten’s potion until I was halfway down the stairs and realized the two demon guards had followed me. By the time I reached the exit, there were at least a dozen demons panting along in my wake.
Novak appeared out of the crowd. “Are you all right?”
“Yeah. Can you cast an air shield around me? One that cuts off smell?”
&nb
sp; “Done. Let me know when you start to run out of oxygen.”
“Let’s get the hell out of here.”
Ashvial had said he didn’t know where Sarah was, but he didn’t say he didn’t know who she was, or what happened to her. I considered that a major break and doubted he had noticed his slip. I wasn’t the only one being controlled by lust.
I asked Novak to drop me off at my house. I had left my bike at the police station, but I was in no condition to drive. Kirsten could give me a ride in the morning, and I could pick up the fixed wheel on the way.
“Want to come in for a drink?” I asked him.
He seemed to consider, then said, “I’d take beer.”
“Hang on a moment. Kirsten will have to let you in through her wards.”
I entered the house and found two women sitting in the living room. One I knew as a guardian on Osiris’s staff, and I assumed the other one was a guardian, also.
“Hi,” I said, then shouted, “Kirsten! I brought someone home for a drink. I need you to let him in.”
She came from the kitchen, drying her hands. “Okay. I was just baking banana bread.”
I opened the door, and she sketched a rune and said a Word. “Come on in,” she finished.
Novak walked in, stopped, and looked around. His eyes immediately came back to Kirsten. Yep, he was attracted to women.
“Ooo, he’s even prettier in person,” Kirsten said. “Want a beer?”
Novak’s face flamed red. “Yes, thank you.”
“Don’t mind her,” I said. “She doesn’t have much of a filter. Have a seat.”
Kirsten came back with two beers and handed me one. She got much closer than necessary to Novak before offering the other beer to him. “Hi, I’m Kirsten. I’m friendly. You should come around here more often.”
“M-mychal,” he stammered. His reaction to her was the same as most men’s—blown away, tongue-tied, overwhelmed.
“Hi, Mychal.” She took pity on him and turned back to me. “So, how did it go with the demon lord?”
“If you ever decide to market that stuff, I suggest you water it down.”
She laughed. “Nope. I have no desire to ever stand in a courtroom and try to justify selling a demon attractant. Police use only.” With that, she disappeared back into the kitchen.
Novak and I made small talk with Simone and Linda, the guardians, until he finished his beer. He said he would come by to get me in the morning, and then he took off. I finished my beer and went to bed. I had no trouble falling asleep, and if I dreamed, I didn’t remember it when I woke.
Chapter 31
Kirsten woke me up with a cup of coffee and the promise of breakfast when I got up. While I showered, I noticed that I still had a feeling of dissociation carried over from the previous night. My mind tried to shy away from my encounter—encounter hell! my tryst—with Ashvial, but I forced myself to think about it. I felt a little guilt, a little shame, but not as much as I thought I should. I had to admit, I enjoyed it. But he was a demon, for God’s sake. What did that make me?
I didn’t know. Most women who had sex with a demon didn’t survive the experience, except with some of the minor demons—succubae, liliths, devils, and incubi, mostly. Some women became addicted to vampires—both blood vamps and psychic vamps. I admitted that I had always sort of looked down on such women.
I showed up at the kitchen table in a robe with my hair wrapped in a towel, and Kirsten refilled my coffee and set a waffle with whipped cream and blueberries in front of me. She brought her own waffle to the table and sat down.
“Okay, spill. What the hell is going on? Why do I have all these guards? What were you doing last night? What happened with that demon? You came in all glassy-eyed and weird last night.” She shoveled a bite of waffle in her mouth and looked at me expectantly.
I started by telling her about my meetings with my grandmother and Osiris.
“So, who’s guarding you?” she asked.
I heaved a sigh. “I assume you’ve got the B team, and I probably have at least three members of the A team guarding me around the clock. I’ve spotted a couple of them, and it’s not a coincidence that they’re the same guardians who used to follow me when I was in high school and university.”
Kirsten smiled and nodded. “I remember.”
She noticed that I skirted around my meeting with Ashvial. “What aren’t you telling me? What happened with that demon?”
So, I told her. After all, she was the one who supplied me with the charm and the potion.
“And how do you feel about that?” she asked when I’d finished.
I thought about it. Really thought about it, and examined my feelings.
“I’m terrified,” I finally said. “For the first time, I understand how someone can become addicted to Rifters. My God, Kirsten, I’ve never felt that good in my whole life.”
She nodded. “Well, we’ve finally confirmed that you’re normal. Dani, that’s what demons do. That’s why we fought them—to prevent them from subjugating the whole human race. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, just something to be aware of. You’re too strong to allow him to take over.”
I allowed what she said to sink in. “You don’t think I’m a weak-willed demon slut?”
Kirsten laughed. “Not at all. A dumb fool sometimes, but never weak-willed or a slut. Finish your breakfast.”
“Thanks for the rousing vote of support.”
“Do you need a ride to work?”
“No, Novak’s going to pick me up.”
“Oh, well, I’d better get a little more undressed, then.”
Most people would have meant that as a joke, but Kirsten purposely dallied and answered the door in a bra and panties when Mychal rang the bell. She made a pretense of being embarrassed, yelled for me, and then ran upstairs. He still had a gobsmacked look on his face when I appeared a couple of minutes later.
Novak took me by the motorcycle shop, and I picked up my bike’s repaired rear wheel, then we went in to the station.
I didn’t expect to hear from Ashvial soon, if at all, so Novak and I dove into tracing out all the connections to our suspect list. He had a talent on the computer, and seemed to enjoy following a records trail, so I let him go in that direction.
I made an excuse that I had personal errands I needed to run, put my bike back together, and went back home. It was much easier to drop my consciousness into the matrix of the datanet when I didn’t have to pretend to type.
When I jacked in, I checked on Johansson’s accounts again. Most of them had a hold on them, the banks having been notified of his death. A couple of the large business accounts had multiple names on them, and those were still active. His oldest son from his first marriage seemed to have taken charge. I made a mental note to check on the Family and its inheritance structure. There wasn’t any standard model, and each Family had its idiosyncrasies.
But the main line of inquiry I wanted to pursue was Ashvial’s monetary dealings. With demons’ inability to comprehend human technology, and their lack of experience with human commerce, I knew he had to employ humans to run his financial affairs. And all human finances went through banks. I had no idea how they handled such things in the demon world. I had never asked anyone, but I had a vague idea that they sat on their hordes like mythical dragons.
Most banks and accounting firms were extremely reticent to divulge their client lists, so the first thing I had to identify was who he did business with. Hacking into the computers of the major liquor and food distributors in the area was fairly simple, and I soon identified his suppliers. From there, it was easy to find his payments and trace them back.
Ashvial contracted an accounting firm, but employment records also showed that he had a large internal accounting staff. Larger than should be needed by Lucifer’s Lair. He also had two banks, one used by the external accounting firm, and the other used by his internal staff.
Four hours later, I had a pretty good idea of what was going on. The int
ernal accounting staff and the Caribbean bank they used did business with Martin Johansson, Fredo’s Fantasies, Dorothy’s Dungeon, and a dozen other similar businesses in the metroplex. Ashvial also did business with the Akiyama shipping company Johansson had connections to. Along the way, I found that Ashvial and Akiyama were the source of funding for Johansson’s investment in the North African casino.
Nothing of what I’d found could be used in court, and none of the Families would be pleased to have Akiyama’s and Johansson’s dirty laundry aired in public. But one Family would be happy to have the information. I picked up the phone.
“Hello, Grandmother. Are you busy this evening? Oh, I thought I might drop by for dinner and we could catch up. About seven? I’ll see you then.”
Chapter 32
I paid attention at shift change, and as a result, identified all of the day and evening crew guarding me. My grandmother and Osiris were more worried than they let on. My guardians were the best Findlay could field.
The Families were rich and powerful, but most people didn’t understand how they came to prominence. During the Rift War, the strongest mages led the fight that defeated the demons and their vampire allies. Not all mages were equal in power, and the differences in power were significant. Oliver Findlay, my grandmother’s father and founder of the dynasty, was a storm mage who could call down the wrath of heaven on his enemies. Great-grandfather Oliver hadn’t survived the war, but he took legions of demons to the afterlife with him. My Granduncle George had that kind of power, too. The electrokinetic talent I inherited was like the difference between a match and a blowtorch.
Inheritance wasn’t perfect, and genetic combinations were unpredictable. Powerful mages from outside the Families could strike out on their own, attempting to build their own empires. Or, they could go to work for the Families. Magikal power didn’t necessarily imply ambition or intelligence, so the Families attracted mages from outside.
Osiris was an example of a mage who was strong in magik, very intelligent, but only moderately ambitious and not much of a risk-taker. The perfect employee, and Findlay richly rewarded him.
Magitek (The Rift Chronicles Book 1) Page 15