Club Nexus (Ivy Granger, Psychic Detective) (9 page)

Ah, so I hadn’t been quick enough in my attempt to hide the
terrors of the tortured girl behind the closed door.  Jinx was tough—it was one
of the many qualities I adored—but I’d hoped to spare her that particular
nightmare.

“I only wish I’d arrived sooner,” I said, reaching for her
hand.  “I would have preferred to have saved the girl and to have kept you from
seeing the depths of such depravity.”

She gave my hand a light squeeze, face upturned.  I wanted
to pull her to me, but I never had the chance.

Puck, like a cat with nine lives, sprung to his feet and pounced
on Jinx from behind.  We’d made a terrible mistake; the trickster was not dead,
only wounded.  I should have reached out with my demon magic and searched his
body for a soul, but I hadn’t been paying attention—and now the trickster was
armed.

He’d pulled the ice pick from his chest and had retrieved
the jeweled dagger from the Unseelie faerie’s lifeless hand.  The amputated arm
carrying the blade had been tossed aside by the vampire and I hadn’t spared it
a second thought.

If harm came to Jinx, it would be my fault for not being
more thorough.  Lucifer knows, I should have checked Puck’s body for signs of
life, but I’d been too distracted by my own desire.  I’d given the trickster
the perfect opportunity for revenge.

Ivy and Torn had apparently come to the same conclusion.

With painful clarity I took in the details of the
situation.  Ivy’s face paled and her skin began to glow.  Her hair lifted to
dance around her head with unspent magical energy, but the wisp princess hadn’t
yet learned how to direct the powers she’d inherited from her faerie father.

She was, however, skilled at slicing, dicing, and bashing
things over the head.

Throwing knives slid from wrist sheaths to hit her palms,
but at that angle, she’d be more likely to hit Jinx than Puck.  She started to
strafe to the side, but she’d never be fast enough, wisp powers or no.

Torn twisted in a flanking maneuver—a fierce shadow with
speed to rival a cheetah—but he too had been far across the room.  The cat
sidhe’s attack would never land in time.  There was only one person who could
possibly save Jinx, and that person was me.

Jinx’s eyes went wide as Puck grabbed at her hair and yanked
her head back, baring her throat.  The jeweled hilt of a dagger flashed in the
wisp light and I knew with certainty that Puck intended to slit her throat.  My
mouth went dry, but I pushed away physiological distractions.  Fear had no
claim on me.

I was a demon.

Fire burned within my veins, building to a fever pitch, but
I held it firmly with my will.  I could not risk harming Jinx with jets of
flame.  No, I would have to be precise, methodical in the execution of my
attack.

In a microsecond, I determined the most salient course of
action.  As Puck’s blade came arcing toward Jinx’s neck, my fingers still
entwined with hers, I yanked her forward out of Puck’s grasp.  I winced at the
sound of hair tearing from flesh and hoped that Jinx would forgive me later—if
there was a later.

Never in all the centuries of my existence have I worried so
for what the future may bring.  Funny how one person could turn everything on
its head.

Puck was still holding a chunk of Jinx’s hair and swung his
blade downward as I flung Jinx toward Torn with a flick of my wrist.  The two
went down with a sickening thud.  When this was all over, Jinx would likely
have bruises and a possible concussion to add to the bloody patch on her scalp,
but my priority was saving her life.  I had to hope that her friends would have
the wherewithal to administer first aid.  I couldn’t yet risk a glance to check
on her health.

I had a faerie to kill.

With Jinx out of harm’s reach, I let down the rigid mental
barriers I kept between myself and Hell.  This time ley line power was not
enough.  I had to insure that Puck would not live through this night.  I would
not make the mistake of underestimating the trickster again.  As the mental
fortifications crumbled, the screams of the damned flooded my mind.  I pushed
aside the echoes of torment and reached for the power that was my birthright.

Tapping into such power was not without consequence.  Horns
erupted from my head, ripping painfully through my scalp, and leathery wings tore
through my back and clothing, ruining a perfectly good waistcoat.  My cloven
hooves sent up sparks where they met the basement’s stone floor and I looked
down at Puck with glowing eyes.

This all happened in less than a second, but the smirk had
fallen from Puck’s face and fear was growing behind his widening eyes.  I
didn’t dare glance at the others in the room.  I hoped that Jinx would not
judge me based on my unfortunate physical transformation.  This was not at all
what I’d had in mind when I’d pictured our first date.

And hopefully, her friends wouldn’t take it upon themselves
to do a little demon hunting.  The psychic detective and I had an arrangement
that benefited us both, but she’d never been confronted with this form.  Ivy
had been raised as a human, and had human blood in her veins, and humans have
an instinctual dislike for Hellspawn.

I was filled with an immeasurable amount of raw power, but
this form was vulnerable on the mortal plane.  If Ivy stabbed me in the back
now, I would die a true death.

At least I’d had that kiss.  A demon could die happy with
the memory of that kiss fresh on his lips.

Speaking of dying, Puck was still alive.  I’d reached out
absently and held him in my grasp.  Now I held his gaze and shook my head.

“I warned you before, trickster,” I said.  “I told you not
to mess with those whom I care about.  You were a fool not to heed my warning.”

The souls of the damned filled my head and I pushed their
anguished cries down through my veins and out through my hands—and into Puck.  The
faerie screamed, his face contorted, mouth open wide as the damned devoured him
from within.  Flames dotted his skin, charred holes forming blackened craters. 
In a matter of seconds, the hungry souls had added one more to their number. 
The physical body of Puck crumbled to ash and the souls of the damned
disappeared into the stone floor, returning to Hell.

I stumbled and gripped my head, closing my eyes against the
spinning room.  My fingers met the warm, smooth surface of my horns and I
sighed.  It was time to resume what I’d come to think of as my proper form—the
form Jinx might someday come to love.

There had been that kiss, after all.

Jinx had finally shown her feelings for me, but I wasn’t
doing our newfound relationship any good by remaining winged, horned, and
cloven hoofed.  With a deep breath, I focused my will and began to rebuild the
walls around the ember of Hell that resided in every demon.  After a few
minutes, but what felt like an eternity, I opened my eyes.

My clothing was torn, and I’d lost a shoe, but my body had
returned to normal.  I was Jinx’s dashing suitor once again, and it was time
for our heartfelt reunion.  I turned toward Ivy and Torn where they hovered
around Jinx’s body crumpled body.

“Is she…?” I asked.

I reached out with my magic and could feel the warmth of
Jinx’s soul.  She had not left us, not yet.

“She’s alive,” Torn said, brushing a stray hair from Jinx’s
pale face.  “She’s surprisingly feisty for a human.”

The cat sidhe lord looked down on Jinx with such open
curiosity that I had to stuff my hands inside my pockets to keep from
strangling him.  If Torn had any sense of self preservation, he’d keep his
distance from Jinx.  Curiosity killed the cat, and all that.

“Head wound,” Ivy said.  “We’re taking her to The Emporium. 
I want Kaye to have a look at her injuries.”

Madame Kaye was not a fan of demons, and she was a powerful
witch.  Her occult shop would be heavily warded.  They were taking Jinx
somewhere that I couldn’t follow.  That left me with a hollow feeling in the
pit of my stomach that I wasn’t quite ready to define.

“Then let me be of assistance,” I said, moving forward. 
“Allow me…”

Ivy held up a gloved hand and shook her head.

“I don’t think that’s such a good idea,” she said.  “Torn
and I can take it from here.  Plus, Kaye would sooner trap you in a circle, or
blast you back to Hell, than let you cross her threshold.”

“Yes, of course,” I said, letting my arms hang at my sides. 
“You seem to have the matter well in hand.”

I bit the inside of my cheek as Torn lifted Jinx into his
arms.  It was all I could do not to throttle the man.  It should have been my
chest that Jinx slumbered against, not the bone and fur laced leather vest of
the unscrupulous cat sidhe.

“We do,” she said, gesturing at the corpse littered floor. 
“Why don’t you take care of this mess and help deliver the human bodies
somewhere the authorities can find them.  We may not be able to explain what really
happened here, but the families of the dead deserve to know that their loved
ones are gone.”

I’d just been relegated to the cleanup crew.  How very
unnerving.

“Miss Granger?” I asked.  Ivy looked over her shoulder, brow
raised.  “Take good care of her.”

“That’s the idea,” she said.

Ivy walked out of the basement, leaving me to the unpleasant
task of informing club security about Puck’s nefarious little side business.

Three days later, I entered the offices of Private Eye.  I’d
kept busy after that night at Club Nexus.  I devoted myself to my work, closing
a complex legal case and reaping enough souls to fill my annual quota, but
worry over Jinx consumed me.  I’d tried to be patient, to wait for her to call
for me, but after the third day of pacing the streets of Harborsmouth, I’d had
enough.  I had to see her with my own eyes.

I had to know that she was alright.

I stepped through the door and felt my heart lighten when I
saw Jinx standing beside her desk.  She was busy talking with Ivy and a client,
her back to me, but I could see that she was standing easily and without
assistance.  I observed her for a minute longer than necessary, savoring the
moment when she’d turn and see me waiting for her.

Would she come rushing into my arms?  I imagined the smell
of her hair and the feel of her skin beneath my fingers, and smiled.  I shook
my head at my flights of fancy.  The woman was driving me mad.

With a purposeful jingle of the door, I strode into the
office.  I was surprised to see that their guest was Torn, the cat sidhe lord,
but I hardly paid it a thought.  Ivy could keep her new ally busy.  My
attention was riveted on Jinx.

Jinx turned, and with a haughty toss of her head, demanded,
“What are
you
doing here?”

It was not the romantic welcome I was expecting.

“Come now, darling,” I said, spreading my hands wide. 
“Aren’t we beyond this charade?  I know your true feelings for me, as do your
friends.  They witnessed the kiss we shared.  There’s no sense pretending we do
not care for each other.”

Jinx rolled her eyes and walked to her desk.  She opened the
top drawer of her desk, lifted her crossbow to her shoulder, and shot me in the
stomach.

“Demons,” she spat, turning to Ivy.  “I warned him never to
call me darling.”

I felt like I’d been punched in the gut, which, in fact, I
had.  The crossbow bolt burned, evidently having been doused in holy water, but
I’d survive the wound.  I was not, however, sure how I could endure Jinx’s
disdain.

She didn’t remember our kiss.

I stood there pole-axed.  She’d suffered a blow to the head
and no longer remembered our kiss, that precious moment that had filled the
last three days with such meaning.  Jinx’s loss of memory hit me with a
crushing might worse than the moment Puck’s blade flashed in the club’s
basement.  An armed opponent was something I’d prepared for over the course of
my long life.  But how does one take up the gauntlet against something that is already
lost?

Having Jinx’s feelings for me ripped away was like
undergoing surgery without the anesthesia.  But I held onto the pain, because
it was all that was left of the moment we’d shared.  I wasn’t willing to let
her go.

I turned to Ivy, who grimaced, but met my gaze.

“Why did you keep the truth from her?” I asked.  My body
felt cold, but I resisted a shiver.  “How could you?”

“How could I not?” she whispered.  She’d spoken too softly
for human ears, but now raised her voice for Jinx’s benefit.  “I told her all
she needed to know of that night.  She was attacked by Puck, but Torn and I got
there in time to save her life.”

Ivy had seen me transform in the basement into something out
of nightmare.  Fueled by Hellfire, I’d grown horns, wings, and cloven hoofs. 
It should not have changed anything.  Jinx had known I was a demon when she’d kissed
me.  But Ivy apparently thought she was protecting her friend by concealing the
truth.

“I will not give her up,” I whispered.  “And I will never
forget this.”

I spun on my heel, hand clutched to the crossbow bolt
protruding from my stomach, and limped as gracefully as I could from the office
and out onto the streets of Harborsmouth.

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