Night Lurks (8 page)

A man walks into the room and sneaks up behind her. She screams and giggles, turning around to face him. It looks like they have a conversation, but I cannot hear that part of it. The scene quickly changes to one of a little girl running to catch up to the woman. The woman picks her up and twirls her around. They look so happy together.

Another sight appears and it is the three of them altogether playing in a snowstorm. The dad and girl are teaming up to throw snowballs at the mom. The joy of the situation is a little overwhelming. I seem to be picking up outside emotions that I hope the ghoul is giving off because they are unnatural to me.

The next thing I see is not happiness and my emotions do a flip flop into darkness. I see the man from the previous visions covered in blood. It looks like someone slit his throat. He is lying across a bed and another man is closing in on the woman who is hiding in a corner. The little girl, now maybe in her mid-teens, walks in the room and appears to start screaming. The man looks at her and a smile I never want to see appears on his face. The woman screams something that looks like run and the little girl takes off.

The man focuses back in on the woman. He gives her a long, forced kiss on the lips before he stabs her in the stomach. I see her try to fight even harder to get away from him, but he continues stabbing her in different locations. It doesn't take long for her to go limp and he tosses her to the ground.

He turns to the door, probably hopeful to find the girl back. She isn't there and I really hope she found a good hiding place or ran to get the cops. The man walks past my viewing position and I see that last hope may have been in vain. A nice shiny sheriff badge catches my eye.

“I have always hoped that he didn't find her. He was a very bad man,” a voice says back in the present and I snap my eyes open. The ghoul that was touching me is no longer very ghouly. She is the woman from the vision and has her eyes and everything. “I was hoping I could stay behind and protect her, but something went wrong. I ended up here and I couldn't leave.”

No one in my group is saying a word. I think I have swallowed my tongue because I too am speechless. The ghouls have touched me before, but I have never had an outcome like this one. I usually just get an overwhelming feeling of disappointment when my encounters are done.

“I am able to see now that Katherine ended up getting away and lived a very long life with a man she loved. It is finally time that I join her and my husband. Thank you so much for sharing your gift with me and forgiving me for wanting to remain behind.”

I have no idea what the woman is talking about and I don't think I will get a chance to ask because she is getting awfully transparent with a quickness. That seems about normal. I find I have questions and the person that is possibly capable of answering them just disappears.

“May your life be as full of love as mine was,” she says and is gone.

“That was either the weirdest or coolest thing I have ever seen,” Will says interrupting the silence that the moment seemed to need. I will have to ask later what they saw during the weird event.

“We better get a move on it. I really hope no one witnessed that little display. If someone did, we might be screwed,” Ben says and rushes to grab my arm and get everyone moving.

“Do you have any idea what just happened?” I ask sure that he is the only one in the group that has a clue.

“Sure. You are growing up. Weird stuff like that is going to be a common occurrence in your life from now on. I would just prefer it not happen on the sidewalk leading up to Firebreath's, at least not while we are hoping to get information from the people inside the building.”

“I hate to break it to you, but I have been grown-up for a while now. I know when I activated my genes weird abilities started happening, but that experience cannot be explained away by one of those abilities.”

“We should probably discuss it later, Nyx,” Alex says hurrying to reach my side and extract me from the demon. “Too many ears could be listening in.”

He is right, but I don't see how they can expect me to just let what happened slide. It looked to me like I somehow helped a woman find some kind of peace to cross over to whatever was awaiting her in the afterlife. That isn't something that happens every day and I am going to go out on a limb and claim that it doesn't happen to normal people ever.

There have been a few times over the past months that I wish I could go back to believing I was just a human. This one has jumped to the top of that list of times. Ben indicated more things like this might start happening and I am not looking forward to any of them.

“You guys should probably brace yourself for what you are about to experience. Do what I do,” Ben says and then waves his hand so what looks to be a portal of some kind opens in the ground in front of a headstone. He quickly hops into it and we take a second to look around at each other prior to us doing the same.

Alex has a firm grip on my hand as we start falling into the hole that keeps getting hotter as we go. The temperature is a bit worrisome. The feeling of needing to upchuck isn't any better. Right before I hit the ground, I decide this was a really big mistake. When I shake my head free of the cobwebs and focus on my surroundings, I am certain of that decision.

Chapter 10

Live nude girls

“Welcome to Hell, Buttercup,” a voice that sure sounds like Ben says. The problem with that thought is that the seven foot tall goat/human/hawk looking thing before me looks nothing like Ben. The goat parts seem to be limited to his legs, the torso and arms look humanoid, and he has the face of a hawk. So creepy. I call things creepy a lot, but this really does take the cake.

“First things first, you said Hell. Please tell me you are joking,” I say as I continue to try to figure out what exactly the being in front of me is. Squinting and tilting my head a little doesn’t help.

“Where do you expect a club for demons to hang out in to be located? We are lucky that there was a portal to it as close as the one we entered.” Watching his beak move as he talks to top things off is really bizarre.

“Don't you think you should have mentioned that before?” Alex asks and I can tell he is pissed. I am not quite to that level of madness, but an excursion to Hell was not on my calendar. “I am pretty sure a trip to Hell is a little bit hazardous to anyone's health.”

“She will be fine, wolfy. We already fixed her up, remember?” Ben says and moves to take my hand. I move my hand back and stare at him.

“In a totally humanoid form you would be still pushing it with that move. As you stand now, don't be getting too close,” I grip Alex's hand tighter since he has refused to let go and I am thankful for that.

“Darn. Forgot about that little detail. Glamours aren't allowed in the bar. A lot of demons move through here and we like to know who we are talking to. If a glamour is good enough, some of the weaker demons can be confused. There have also been cases where demons have pretended to be other demons and the cleanup from those messes took at least a week.”

“I vote for hurrying this thing along. It is unnaturally warm and I would prefer to get back topside as soon as possible,” Jonas offers and I concur. I had always hoped to pick up some SPF 1000 before taking a trip down under.

“We shouldn't be more than an hour. The heat won't kill any of you and if you ask me, they seem to have the air conditioning turned on. Oh, and I did try to talk Nyx into coming down with just wolfy, so you guys have her to blame for any discomfort.”

Yeah, yeah, it is always my fault. Maybe if he mentioned where we were really going, we could have spared some of the guys the trip. Then again, bringing backup into Hell is probably a good idea.

“Can you please lead on? The scenery is a little boring at this point.” Looking around we are in some kind of chamber that if I had to guess, looks like the inside of a volcano. That may just be the fact that it feels like we are inside of a volcano talking, but I don't think my assumption is that far off.

“We are already at our location. I put us in a little bubble when we arrived because I knew you would probably have something to say and I didn't want any prying ears to listen in. Am I safe to assume there will be no talk revealing Buttercup's secrets from now on?”

“Let's get this over with,” I say and try to brace myself for the sights I am about to see.

“I think it is nice down here, Mommy. Do you think we can come back after you find the stinky vampire?”
Clyde asks and I am forced to roll my eyes. I shake my head not wanting to reply because I don't want to see Clyde pout. I know he can read my mind so he knows my answer, but if I don't actively respond it makes it better somehow.

Ben pokes his finger at something I don't think the rest of us can see. The second he is done, the boring volcanic looking walls disappear and red lights are flashing in my face.

A giant sign that says Firebreath's is flashing above a wide and tall doorway. I am guessing it has to be that large for some of the weird creatures that want a peek inside. Another sign flashes below the club's name that indicates live nude girls are working tonight and whippings happen every thirty minutes.

Oh joyous day. I am surprised I have made it through my day so far without seeing live nude girls.

I look over at Alex, who is looking back at me with a smile on his face. The smile isn't because he is excited about seeing naked chicks. His smile is at witnessing whatever shock is about to come over my face when I see the naked chicks and anything else we come across after we walk through the doors.

I don't imagine whatever is back there is any more shocking than the things I have witnessed at Sins. I have been there when it wasn't Beginner's Night and I have seen the whips and chains and icicle dildos. I have seen a lot worse than those things, but those instances are the only ones I will let my mind officially recall. The time I walked in on 'Who's Your Daddy' Night is still trying to be washed from my mind.

Crap. Just as Ben goes to open the door I look over at Will and see that someone was smart enough to put one of the charms Hilda gave me to protect against succubi on him. Good. He is going to learn the really dark parts of the paranorm world soon enough. I don't want him stuck in one of their thralls just yet, and since he seemed like a horny little human, I doubt his libido is going to cool down anytime soon now that he is a vampire.

Looking back through the open doors, the scene before me isn't all that shocking. The bar has a couple of humanoid looking girls dancing on it without clothes. The only reason I am kind of certain they are female is because of their knockers, at least I am guessing that is what those things are. They aren't round like I am used to seeing. They are kind of weird tube-like things that curve like bananas. I hope the theory of demon women not having offspring is true because a baby would have a great deal of problems trying to suckle on those things.

Aside from the weird alien looking women, I see most of the eyes in the bar are focused in on us. Must be that we came in as such a large group. There are all sorts of odd looking creatures filling the booths and bar stools. None of them could be confused as humans, even if the person making the determination was plastered.

“Benny, what are you doing slumming with the humanoids? We not good enough for you anymore?” a short evil elf looking thing asks. I am guessing it is a girl, but I wouldn't bet my life on it.

“Hey, Sherry. This is my good friend and loyal servant, Nyx, and she tends to travel with an entourage. I wanted to give her a little glimpse of how we demons have a good time,” Ben tells the thing. Loyal servant. What a comedian.

She squints at me with red eyes and her little pointy ears change from a pinkish tint to a blue one. I am not sure what it means, but I really don't want to find out.

“If you want any help breaking her in, let me know. I ordered a room already and I would love to give you a hand.” A snake-like forked tongue slithers out and she licks her lips. As if I didn't have enough guys interested in me already, I wasn't looking to gain female admirers. No matter what she can do with that tongue of hers, my motor only gets turned on by the male anatomy.

“Maybe with one of the guys, but Nyx is all mine. For now we are just going to look around and maybe talk to some people. You haven't seen Candy around by any chance. I was hoping to introduce the two of them.”

I am smart enough not to open my mouth. I may not be considered brilliant, but I am clever enough not to object to anything Ben says, at the moment.

“She was in yesterday all excited about something. She wouldn't tell anyone what was going on, but she did talk to Gore for a little while. I don't think your little cupcake is ready for Candy's kind of fun. Her skin looks just a little too unblemished.”

If she could see under my clothes she wouldn't make that assumption. I take solace in the fact that she doesn't appear to have X-ray vision. Like everything else around here, she is odd enough as it is.

“Believe me; Buttercup likes things a bit rough. I have tried her out and she couldn't get enough of my gentle touches,” Ben says and starts laughing. No part of that statement was amusing. We need to find a nice quiet corner where I can kick him in the boy parts for implying that we spend time in the bedroom together. “Does Gore happen to be in the house? I really would like to catch up to my rogue succubus.”

Sherry is busy giving me a speculative eye. I see a bit of lust when she meets my gaze, but she looks to have a lot of questions piling up behind that lust. Ben coughs and diverts her attention.

“He is back in his usual room with Phreddie. He took her back about an hour ago, so you should be safe to go knock.” She glances over at me again and I refuse to meet her eyes this time. “I wish I was able to overpower your mark, Ben. I really like this one. Call me if you ever change your mind about sharing. It would be enjoyable for all of us.”

“Thanks, Sherry. I will keep you in mind,” Ben says and then grabs my hand to drag me away. I allow it this time and pull Alex along. The rest of the room still seems to be focused in on us. I hope Sebastian realizes just how much I love him.