Succubi Are Forever (22 page)

The bartender came by, and I ordered a drink just so he’d go away. Luc ordered one as well, and we waited in silence as the bartender poured our drinks, then moved away again.

When he was gone, I put my hand on my glass and tugged it closer. Time to skip all the bullshit. “Your vampire master is dead, isn’t he?”

Luc’s expression didn’t change. He was too good at hiding his emotions for that sort of thing. But he hesitated, then knocked back his drink. “And were you his assassin,
ma belle
?”

Not grief, not anger. Just mild curiosity. Good. That was the reaction I could handle easiest.

“Not his assassin,” I told him. “I witnessed the queen’s death.”

Luc stilled. His gaze searched mine, as if seeking the truth. “All the vampires?”

“All of them,” I said softly. I explained what had happened, while glossing over my deal with Gabriel. I told him about Phryne, the halo Mae had absorbed, and the queen’s death.

He looked grim at my words. “I hate that demon.”

“Me too,” I said, and when he gave me a sneering look, I raised a hand. “I’ve learned my lesson by harming you. I’m suffering the consequences.” My voice hitched on the words. “I wanted to let you know that if I get another halo, the angel Gabriel has promised me a boon. And if I get that boon, I’m going to bring the vampires back.”

He laughed, the sound low and smooth. “And how does that help me?”

I turned my drink, not even sipping it, just letting the ice clink against the edges of the glass. “I think you want your vampire master alive.”

“And why would I want that?”

“Because now that he’s gone, you can’t kill Ariel. If he’s back…” I shrugged. “You have one disposable master, do you not?”

His eyes gleamed at my suggestion, and he laughed. “You play a dangerous game, little sister. You’ve learned much since I saw you last. I almost like this side of you.”

I hated this side of me. But it was necessary. “So you’ll help me?”

“I will make you a ring,” he said slowly. “If nothing else, so you can ensure that the demon is put in her place.”

“That is agenda item number one,” I assured him. “She’s going to pay for what she’s done.”

“I feel I must warn you, though,” he said slowly. “Which succubus did you say you were chasing for the second halo?”

“Phryne.”

“Ah, Phryne. My sister in servitude to Ariel.” His mouth twisted. “He is not a good man to serve.”

I knew he wasn’t. “Phryne has… information that I need.”

And a head I wanted to chop off her shoulders.

“She is dangerous. You would be best avoiding her entirely. Take that as a friendly warning from a brother.”

Some brother. He’d tried to rape me and then kill me, once upon a time. Of course, I’d given him to a demon, so fair was fair. “You told her about my promise to the demon, didn’t you? You sold me out.”

“I did not sell you out,” he said, his smile all white dazzling teeth. “You and I have never been on the same side… until now.”

“And what makes it different now?” I had to ask. I’d been the one to approach him, but I had to know I could trust what he offered.

“Because,
ma belle,
Phryne and I may share a master, but we do not work together. That one has not sought to include me in her plans. In making her choices, she has eliminated mine.” That smile took on a more feral cast. “I do not like being left with no options. And so because she has made a selfish choice, I shall make a selfish choice of my own.”

“Then tell me where I can find her,” I said. “She has a document that she stole from me that is critical to this plan.”

The plan that I had that was basically looking like: 1) Find halo. 2) Kill all the sons of bitches standing in my way. 3) Get Zane back. I’d fill in the details later.

“She cannot be found if she does not want to be found. I imagine her house is empty right about now, and will be until she is satisfied that you are either neutralized, dead, or simply do not matter any longer. If she knows you are on her trail, she will try to lead you on a merry chase. Phryne is several thousand years old,” Luc said, leaning an elbow on the bar and smiling at me. “And she values her own skin above all things. If you meet her, the element of surprise is your only hope.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said. “Thank you.”

He inclined his head at me, acknowledging my polite response. “And you think you have a chance at getting this second halo and defeating the demon?”

“If it takes me a hundred years to find that halo, I’ll do it. I have nothing but time. And once I get it, I’ll be able to stand toe-to-toe with her.”

Luc shook his head at me. “While it is true that you will be able to stand toe-to-toe with her, I think you are underestimating things, little sister.”

I remained calm, toyed with my still-full glass. “Oh? How so?”

He gave me a roguish smile. “I do not think the current owner of the halo is all that interested in giving it up.”

My heart pounded in my chest. “Current owner?”

Someone had gotten there before me? Already?

Luc reached over and plucked my drink off my napkin, drank half, and then set it back down on his side of the bar, not even bothering to ask permission. A little proprietary, but if he got me the ring, I’d forgive him for it. “Do you know whose halo it is you seek,
ma belle
?”

“No,” I said bluntly. “Do you?”

“His name is Camael,” Luc said, and his mouth twisted in a grimace. “An old friend of Ariel’s. And he is very much alive.”

The archangel lived? That definitely put a kink into the plans. “Where is he?”

“Missing. Gone. Has not been seen in centuries,” Luc said, lifting my drink and downing the rest of it. After he swallowed, he looked over at me and grinned. “Still feeling your bravado, little sister?”

“My plans haven’t changed,” I said stubbornly.

“And what will you do if Camael does not wish to give his halo to a stone-eyed little succubus? Will you cut him into a hundred pieces and burn his corpse so you can drag his halo from the ashes?”

I thought of Zane. His hand reaching out to me. The bloody feather I carried in my pocket still. “If I have to,” I said, setting my jaw. “If he stands in my way.”

“You need to have an exit plan for this line of work, or you’re going to end up with a vagina like a pothole. No one wants that.”—
“Hard” Truths,
by Remy Summore

~*~

Somewhere in the Upper Xingu, the Amazon, Brazil

Eighteen Months Later

Night.

I felt a surge of success when our small rowboat pushed past the thick jungle on the right bank and in the distance, the smooth sides of a chartered boat came into view. The
White Queen
was anchored near the bank a short distance away, the thick canopy hanging overhead. Calm. Unaware.

Good.

“It’s there,” Remy said a bit too loudly. “You were right, I was wrong. Can we go back now?”

“Shhh,” I told her and dug my paddle into the water. “I just want to get closer so we can investigate things.”

“Jackie, that’s not the plan,” Remy said. “We’ve found the boat. That’s awesome. Now we need to make sure that we don’t lose her again. As soon as she goes to shore, we can follow her then.”

“I just want to see what things look like on deck,” I said stubbornly and paddled a bit more.

Remy sighed hugely and dug hers into the water too.

When we pulled up next to the larger boat, I laid my paddle down and stood carefully. I reached for the iron ladder rungs that crawled up the side of the boat and pulled out my knife. Remy and Ethan sat in the back of the small boat, clutching paddles and watching me with dubious gazes.

“Wait here,” I whispered. “I won’t be long.”

“Jackie, I’m not so sure this is a good idea,” Remy began, but I was already climbing up the ladder, knife held in my teeth. I heard her sigh of annoyance as I disappeared onto the deck.

The
White Queen
was much like our own boat, the
Angel of the Amazon
. The deck was silent as it was the dead of night, but one of the cabins had a light on. I carefully took my shoes off and headed toward it, my bare feet quiet on the decking. There was no sound but the creaking of wood, the slap of water against the sides of the boat, and the faint hum of music coming from one of the rooms.

Well now, that’d make things easier.

I approached the lit cabin on the far side of the deck. There was a window that allowed the passenger to look out, but the blinds were pulled tight. Light leaked from behind them, and music pulsed in the air, the heavy beat of a dance song drowning out the snores of the crew.

I put my hand on the handle of the door. Locked. Undeterred, I pulled out the credit card I’d brought for such an issue and slipped it between the doorjamb and door, sliding it down. The lock was cheap, and I jiggled the handle until the tumbler snicked into place, and then the door was mine.

I eased it open a hair as the music swelled, peering in through the crack.

There she was. Golden-peach hair falling down her perfect back in a cascade, wearing nothing but a T-shirt and panties as she bent over a table, swaying her hips to the beat of the music. Nearby, a man’s broad, tanned back was evident in bed, but he remained still, his back rising and falling in the rhythm of sleep.

There she was. Phryne. The bitch I hated more than I thought I could ever hate someone. The black hole that was my heart grew a little darker at the sight of her, books and maps spread open. She turned the page of another book, her back to the door, and appeared to be making notes. For eighteen months I’d chased after her, over continents and cities and oceans. I’d come so close over and over again, only to have her disappear on me.

For eighteen months, I’d been forced to live without Zane, and it was because of her. I glared at her back, filled with a cold, black anger. So arrogant. So careless. Too bad for her. I let the door fall open and stepped in, tiptoeing in behind her. My shadow fell over the table and she stiffened.

Before she could turn, I reached out, put my hands on the sides of her head, and twisted hard. There was a brutal snap and then she fell to the ground, lifeless, the thump of her body masked by the music.

I waited a moment.

She lay still at my feet, eyes closed, a string of drool forming on one side of her perfect mouth. Good. She was out for at least a few days, then. I kicked her aside, stepping to the table.

The man in bed stirred, rolling over and mumbling something in Portuguese. I moved quickly to his side and brushed my fingertips over his temples, putting him into a deeper sleep. His thoughts were entirely of Phryne, and I picked through a few of their sex memories with distaste, looking for bits of information I could use, but she hadn’t shared her plans with him. He just knew that whatever she wanted, he’d give to her. Like a devoted dog.

I tied him up with the bedsheets, gagged him, and then tugged the pillowcase over his head so he couldn’t see me. Then I released my sleep hold and let him wake up. He could only wake up again from my touch, so it was either now or never. And I was ice to my core, but even I hesitated at letting a man wither away in his sleep.

He struggled on the bed, clearly alarmed, but I left him there. “If you get up, I’m afraid I’m going to have to shoot you,” I told him, not an ounce of pity in my voice.

He stopped struggling.

“That’s better.” I moved to the table, eyeing the stack of marked books, post-its flagged in multiple locations of each one. I couldn’t take the library with me. So I scooped up the map that Phryne had been scribbling on, the laminated copy of the page—
my
page—and her journal. I paused over one stack. It looked like newspaper clippings. I pulled the first one out, curious.

Gunman tormented by inner demons kills twenty before turning gun on self.
I flipped to the next one.
Man commits murder-suicide while on family vacation
. The next in the stack was a school shooting. Then a hostage situation that had ended badly. Then, a doctor who had poisoned thirteen babies in a nursery ward…

I dropped the stack, repulsed. The articles were arranged by date, and I noticed that at the back of the stack, there was a map that had been carefully marked. Was she… tracking the demon? I examined the stack of articles again, but the last one dated from several months ago. Damn.

Folding it all tightly, I tucked it into the inner pocket of my long, leather duster and examined the room one more time.

There were guns in the corner. Automatic rifles. That might make things tricky if they came after us. I grabbed them and tucked them under my arm, then left the room, relocking the door behind me. I paused at the side of the boat and dropped the guns into the moonlit waters of the Amazon, then rejoined Remy and Ethan in the rowboat.

Remy was clutching her paddle close, her eyes wide as she stared at me. “Can we get out of here? I’m pretty sure I just saw the world’s biggest crocodile swim past.”

“Let’s go,” I said, picking up my paddle as well. “Mission accomplished.”

“That didn’t take long,” Remy said. “What’d you do? Tranquilize her?”

“I snuck up behind her, broke her neck, and tied up her boyfriend,” I said calmly. “And then I stole her research. By the time she recovers, we’ll have the halo in hand.”

Ethan and Remy exchanged a glance, but said nothing. That was fine—they didn’t have to like this. As long as it got me from Point A to Point B, I didn’t care who approved or not.

I dug my oar into the water, waiting to feel it. The triumph that I’d pulled one over on Phryne. The rush of pleasure I’d been anticipating after eighteen long months of chase. I’d snapped her neck in cold blood. Killed her ass. She’d come back in a few days—unless her lover knew to heal her with sex—and she’d be spitting mad. It’d be too late for her, though. We’d be long gone, the halo mine. She’d led us on a merry chase but I finally had her right where I wanted her.

Zane was that much closer to me. I should have felt satisfied. Instead, all I felt was even more lonely. The leather duster he’d given me that day was my constant companion, and I tugged it closer to my body. It no longer smelled of him. It just smelled like me. My heart still ached with his loss.