Night Lurks (2 page)

“I am in a hurry right now,” I say waving my hand in Alex's direction. “Marcus, do you think you are in good enough shape to travel?”

“Of course,” he replies simply.

“Alex, can you confirm we have a jet ready for transport? I want to get back home where I have more resources. I don't think anyone else will be much help around here.” Even if they could help, the display of my shooting skills will probably tie up a few tongues.

“Will do. There is at least one fueled and ready to go at all times.” He walks a little ways away to make the call.

“I am sorry I failed, my queen,” Marcus says as I attempt to make him vertical. It isn't an easy task with our height difference.

“Have you seen the condition you are in? I don't think there is much more you could have done. I imagine you need to take it easy for at least a few more minutes. I will leave my grilling until we get to the plane.”

“Sebastian would have loved the way you handled Alan. He has been dying to shoot the bastard for years, but it is against the rules,” he says and successfully draws himself up to his full height.

“I thought Sebastian made all the rules. Can't he just adjust them a little to better suit his needs?”

“He is too honorable for that. I do hope someone was taping the confrontation for him, though.”

It was something Sebby should have been here to witness for himself. We could have both had a great laugh over it, but instead I need to kick into full on search and rescue mode. I really hope someday soon we find a way to eliminate all of the threats hanging over our heads, so we can find a way to just settle down as one big happy family.

Chapter 2

News flash: Rhymes and riddles annoy me

When we get to the plane, I am happy to find there is a nice little holding cell to store Alan. Leave it to Alex to have a jet equipped with one. Alan's brain is back to functioning at full capacity and he isn't too happy about being trussed up, if his struggles are any indication. Dante added a couple of layers of duct tape to his mouth and that seems to be pissing Alan off more than anything else. Until we get him back to the dungeon, I prefer the silence, or at least the muffled grunts.

With him secure, I settle into my seat next to Alex. He immediately takes my hand and starts rubbing his thumb across my skin. At the moment, it is a welcome gesture. His touch grounds me and keeps my head from telling the rest of my body to just start killing things. I don't like feeling frustrated and not having a clear plan of extraction in place for retrieving Sebastian upsets me. I know he has only been gone about an hour, if that, but I want him now. I am not stomping my feet on the ground in a tantrum, but it is getting close to that point.

“Okay, I think you have had enough time to get yourself back together, Marcus. What can you tell me?” Marcus is sitting across the way from me, so I turn a little to face him. I wonder if the plane has a shower because with all the blood on him he could really use one.

“I am sure Dante has given you the information on what did the attacking, so I won't waste your time repeating things. I didn't get a good look at any of their markings, which means I don't know who they report back to in the demon world. Candace had to offer them quite a big reward for there to be that many in on the attack, though. To not be working directly for their legion master, that many Kurkua in one place, fighting for a common goal, is amazing.”

“What do you mean about not seeing their markings clearly?” I ask curious to find out more information.

“Kurkua and Shagles are minion type demons. They make up the bottom tier of a demon legion. If I could have seen who's mark they wear, then we could have gone to their leader and tried to find out more information on the ones that did the attacking,” he explains. “Their leader might not have been able to give us much, but it would be a place to start.”

“Dante, did you see any marks?” I ask knowing he would have already told me if he had. I hope that if he was aware of their significance, it would have been the first thing out of his mouth.

“Everything happened so quickly that I didn't notice.”

“Do all demons in a legion have the mark of their leader, or is it just the minions?”

“Everyone. They think of it as some sort of honor,” Marcus answers. “It really just marks them as slaves.”

If that is the case, then I have a demon to be really pissed off at right now. “Ben!” I yell at the top of my lungs. If I get a voicemail this time, I am so doing the palm tickling thing. I know a succubus that bears his mark and it leads me to believe that these minion demons are from his stables.

“You rang?” Ben says appearing and looking just a tad pissed at being summoned. For now, he can just join the club.

“She is yours,” I say not bothering to go into more detail.

“You are going to have to be a little more informative if you expect a decent reply from me.”

“Don't give me that shit. Candace is your succubus.”

“Yes, well, that is a true statement. I was just questioning someone who brought her name up. If you wouldn't have called me to join you, I might have gotten more information,” he says with a huff and takes the seat open closest to me. It is directly in front of me, and thankfully, it swivels so he spins it around. I want to be able to look at his eyes while we are talking. I don't believe for a second me summoning him really took him away. If he was truly busy, he could have turned on the stupid voicemail.

“Can't you just call out to her and tell her to report in for questioning?” I ask. If he is in charge of the legion she belongs to, it seems like a perfectly good question.

“Most of the time that would work, but Candy Cane and I have a very unique relationship. She isn't required to report when called like all my other work monkeys.” Great. I imagine their special relationship involves a lot of special tickles. It was bad enough having to think of her molesting Sebastian, but I doubt Ben was unconscious for their intimate relations and the things that demons consider a good time are probably not pretty. It is yet another reason why his requests to impregnate me are being turned down. Don’t get me wrong; even if he promised to keep things “normal”, it wouldn’t be happening.

“Do you at least know where she hangs out?” I ask. “Maybe I can find someone that knows where she would hide a centuries old vampire.” I wouldn't mind finding her at the location as well. With her target caught, I don't believe she will want to be away from him for too long. She should know Sebastian well enough to figure out he is sneaky and no room will hold him forever.

“I know she sticks to the paranorm communities. She gave up feeding on humans ages ago because she claimed they gave her indigestion. It is more likely that they didn't give her enough energy. Aside from that, I don't know what else I can tell you. We haven't seen each other since I started my quest to become a daddy. Candy didn't understand my reasoning and we had a bit of an argument about the logistics.”

“What? She didn't want you sleeping around on her?” I ask laughing at the idea of a succubus wanting fidelity from anyone.

“That would be her way of thinking. She likes to be dominating in her other relationships, but that doesn't work for me. I was the only person she allowed to top her and she was afraid of losing that relationship if my mission was successful,” he explains. “She lost it anyway because she wouldn't back down when I told her I was still going through with it.”

A little more information than I wanted to know, but okay. As long as he doesn't let their relationship get in the way of me killing her, I am just fine. Them having a falling out may eventually work in my favor.

“Does she have any acquaintances we can squeeze for information?” Alex asks getting back to the questioning.

“Sure, but it is best if I handle that part. I don't think anyone in that crowd will open up to you. Plus, we don't need them figuring out what Nyx is,” Ben replies directing the comments towards Alex.

“Can just any demon come in contact with Nyx and instantly know what she is?” Alex questions continuing their conversation about me like I am not in the room. Sure, it has only been a couple of sentences, that doesn't make it any less irksome.

“No. You have to be a certain level of demon to be able to detect that sort of thing. The kind of people Candy hangs out with meet that requirement. They would know the second Nyx walked into a room just what she is. Reactions would probably vary, but most wouldn’t be happy to see her.”

“We know Candace is past the level already. She is going to find out just what she is up against in a couple of days,” I say rejoining the talk.

“How do you know that?” Ben asks zeroing in on me.

“I just do,” I reply not wanting him to know about my dreams. I try my hardest to put some kind of wall around my brain just in case he is able to take a peek. I know how to build walls to keep regular vampires that have the ability to read minds out, but I know the same method doesn't work on Alex and Sebastian. I hope it is enough for demons.

“You know, this information thing is a two-way street. If you want something from me, I expect to be kept apprised of any learned information. You knowing something that is going to happen in the future would be covered under that umbrella.” His eyes have narrowed into slits of red that look really wrong on his face.

“Are you going to tell me how to kill Candace?” I ask wanting to make the point that I doubt he will just hand over all of his information. There have already been times in the conversation where I have felt he was sidestepping. I couldn’t pinpoint them if you asked me, but his eyes seem a little shifty.

“Why kill her? You can just banish her and she will be out of your hair.” What a useful answer to my question. Not.

“If you need to ask that, you don't know me at all. Rest assured, when I catch up with her, we will be having succubus fricassee. Her end goal in this kidnapping is going to be to kill me. You have mentioned that for procreation purposes you don't want that to happen, so you better get on the same page,” I tell him wishing my eyes could change colors as well. It would be an easy way for my different moods to be portrayed. For now, I just settle for my glares. They tend to get the point across.

“I will assist in helping to find her, but giving you the knowledge of how to kill a demon is something I will be keeping to myself, if only for self-preservation reasons. Why don't I go use my contacts to try to find you a location? When I know more, we can reconvene,” he suggests and I understand that it is probably best he does this part of the investigation on his own. Being around even more demons does not give me warm and fuzzy feelings.

“Fine. Try not to take all day. Time is wasting, and the more time that does, the more chances Candace has to try to torture Sebastian. Anyone who has met the two of us knows that isn't something I am going to allow to happen.”

“I will be back with a progress update in an hour or so. Try not to go on a killing spree before I get back,” Ben says and then bleeps out. He doesn't bother with the smoke effect he has been using lately.

“I don't trust that he is on our side for this,” Alex says leaning closer to rest his head on mine. “I don't like that he has a history with our target.”

“He isn't on our side, on this or anything we are involved in. He is a demon and can only think about himself. I will use him if he can help find her. How to handle her once we meet face-to-face is something we are going to have to investigate on our own. Does anyone have any ideas on how to kill them?” I ask not really believing I will get a good answer.

“The only thing I have ever heard of, which might do the job, is the Panoptic knife. Rumor is it will kill anything you want dead. Whether demons are covered under that umbrella has never been proven as far as I know,” Marcus supplies. “Sebastian has looked for it for years, but he knows based on the lore he won't be able to find it.”

“Why not?”

“It is only available to those pure of heart, or so the story goes. The texts we have found it mentioned in have a little rhyme that goes with it.
Only those pure of heart, will know the exact location to start; If your need is that great; leave it all up to Fate; She will guide the way; just in time for you to save the day.
I have always thought it was some big joke,” he explains.

It sounds that way to me. I have found anything that has a silly rhyme is probably too much trouble for what it is worth. The fact that it probably started out in another language and someone translated it to English in rhyme form only makes it worse.

“The whole pure of heart deal puts us all out of the running. It is too bad because a knife capable of killing anything would come in really handy,” I muse as I try to break into Sebastian's head again. I would really like to know what is going on over there and the fact that I am not able to find out is getting me riled up again.

“I think when we return home I am going to have to give you a little present before you are allowed to question Alan,” Alex says. “You are too irritated and you won't be able to keep yourself calm enough to do a proper job.”

“I don't think anything you can give me will help. Even a giant anti-anxiety, anti-depressant, anti-anger pill will not do the job right now.”

“I know that. What I have in mind will. It is past time for it to happen anyway,” he replies. He has piqued my interest and I am excited that we are now starting to descend. Alex knows me well enough to know I don't like jewelry or chocolates as presents. Maybe it is a cannon or something. If I cannot kill the succubus, perhaps I can blow a giant hole in her chest. It has possibilities.

Chapter 3

An end to an era

After a quick ride home from the airport, I watch as Dante and Marcus escort our visitor down into the dungeon while I wait with Alex for my surprise. I have managed to amp myself up even more in the last twenty minutes. There are so many big artillery weapons that may be offered to me that I am giddy.

“So where is it?” I ask ready to test it out.