Succubus Rescue (The Accidental Necromancer Book 3)

by JG Jerome

  I kiss her forehead. “Yes, ma’am.”

  The other ladies kiss me as I help them into the vehicles. Clarice and Marissa ride with Jack and Monty. Carla and Lara ride with Luis and myself. The critters are piled into the backs of both SUVs like packs of puppies.

  I got a message from Viktorija as we passed 32nd Street that cameras are disabled, and two more owls are dead. She is sending the drone home, but there are two more owls flying out there. We turn left on 24th street and stop about a half-block south of Camelback. I get out and walk to the front of the building on Camelback while the trucks pull south to enter the parking lot from Highland.

  I walk in the reception area to be met by a lean, fit, dark-skinned black guy and a burly white guy, both in blue navy blazers that don’t do anything to hide their shoulder holsters.

  I ask, “Is this the Esplanade?”

  The black guy says, “Yes sir, it is. We are not entertaining guests at this time, so I’ll have to ask you to return another day.”

  I’m curious, “What are visiting hours?”

  The guy starts to answer when the burly white guy says, “Don’t worry about it. Just leave.”

  I pull his soul out and absorb it into my well. I try it on the black guy, but his soul fights back.”

  I think we’re both caught by surprise. “Valya gave you a collar? She must like you a lot.”

  He gives me an evil smirk and winds up a punch. The collar makes it harder, but I know from experience that it isn’t impossible. I give his soul a sharp tug, and it pops out. The collar opens immediately as I absorb the soul energy. I catch him before he hits the floor and pull the collar off him. I animate him as I slowly drop him and scribe my glyph on the base of his skull.

  “Who am I?” I ask.

  “Master,” he responds. He seems to be struggling with the idea.

  “Would you prefer ‘Boss’ instead?” I ask.

  He nods. “Yes, please.”

  “Okay, I’m your new boss. What’s your name?” I ask.

  “Darius,” he replies. I help him to his feet.

  “I’m William. Darius, I need you to hold the fort here. If any elves come in, kill them and hide their bodies in the back. How many people are here from your security team?”

  “There are twelve total. The supervisor is off shift, but the boss lady said everyone had to be on site today for the next week.” He points to a door towards the back on the other side of the elevators.

  I reach over and reanimate the burly lunk. “How many are actively guarding in there?”

  Darius shrugs, “It depends on whether they are actually watching the camera on the desk. They’re usually watching porn on the monitor.”

  “Okay, Darius. The front door is yours until I relieve you from duty,” I tell him.

  He snaps a salute, “Aye, aye, sir.”

  I roll my eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re a jar-head, Darius.”

  “Corporal Darius Fields, Force Recon, sir.” He almost smiled. I guess I make a better class of zombie.

  I tease him, “Too bad you couldn’t hang in the military, Marine.” He snorts in response. Operant conditioning at work. “I’ll be back shortly, Darius.”

  I turn to the lunk. “What’s your name?”

  “Alan Caldwell, Master,” he responds.

  “Lead me to the barracks, Alan.” He leads me to the door Darius indicated and walks in. I follow behind him and suck the souls out of all of them. A muscle-bound Hispanic guy also has a collar, but they are all dead in under thirty seconds. Alan lets my team in through the back door, and I go with him to disable the glyphs. My caution was unnecessary as opening the door apparently disables the glyphs. I look at the door with my second sight and wish I had more time to study the glyphs that powered that reaction. My team enters, and I return to raise the Hispanic guy. I have him take me on a tour of the first floor. I figure I should check in case they have the guards watching Bernadette. They don’t.

  As I guessed from the collar, the Hispanic guy is the supervisor. His name is Raul Contreras, and he shows me five crates in the storage room. I look for glyphs or anything dangerous, but don’t see any. One of the crates has a lid sitting slightly ajar. I lift the lid to see twenty-four of the most futuristic weapons I’ve ever seen. The barrels are very long with a receiver about the same size as an M-16, but with lights on it.

  We will be taking these with us.

  I give Raul his marching orders as I raise the rest of his staff. Two zombies will cover the front door, and two go on the back. Eight follow along with me. They are to subdue with the Tasers and clubs that are apparently part of the standard uniform. Firearms don’t appear to be part of their equipment.

  I call Viktorija to check in before I send one of the new zombies up first to let the critters in the door. The eighteen little monsters run inside quietly. Marissa hands me her jo since she will have her hands full with the MP5. We follow, leaving two guards on the stairwell. I think the floor plan was originally four condo units per floor. I can’t imagine two hundred people in four condos - I don’t care how small they are. That changes as we come out of the stairwell.

  It looks like the walls were knocked out to make bigger open spaces. I see cabinets full of weapons just outside the stairwell. Just past the weapons racks, all of the units are wide open, the field of view broken only by concrete pillars and fixtures. The area to my left is wide open with racks of body armor, helmets, and shields. There are three rows of lunchroom tables in the corridor. The bathrooms have been gutted and metal troughs have been installed as urinals and sinks. Four-bunk beds and footlockers appear to be arranged in every available space. There are small drill and recreation areas between the bunks.

  Throughout the open floor are scattered the two hundred or more elves billeted on this floor. All of them are staring in horror at the quietly growling imps. Some of the elves run away, some pull daggers. One, in a breechclout of all things is wearing a familiar metal collar around his neck. He looks at us and coils himself to run. I test my idea by throwing a thin horizontal blade of power across the short corridor in front of us when he disappears and then explodes as he cuts himself in half on my energy construct. I hold the energy blade in front of us and start walking forward, sucking souls out of the elves as we go. Unbelievably, the imps have already reduced the number of living elves by at least a quarter, and we’ve been here for less than a minute. I start by pulling out the souls from those that are still standing or cowering - ten at a time. Jack explains about the collars, so he and Monty entertain themselves by competing to count how many collars they can collect from headshots. Clarice and Lara shoot any elves that come close before I drain them. The imps diligently take a bite out of each throat, and I ensure there are no elven souls remaining. We collect all of the collars.

  My well feels full at first, but just like when I absorbed the first zombie - my well adjusts to accommodate it. I point upstairs, and the imps dash to the stairs.

  We work through floors three through seven in this manner without a problem. Heading upstairs to the eighth floor, we encounter six elven soldiers strutting down the stairs from the brothel, laughing and joking in their native language in the relaxed, cocky manner of soldiers on leave.

  “Imps,” I whisper quietly. The zombies catch two of them with tasers, and the critters take off after the rest. I should have just soul drained them when they were standing there in shock, but I didn’t think of it before the elves dashed. I get one of the slowest of the escapees and the two taser victims, but the imps have to get the other three.

  Imps are incredibly fast, but one of the elves apparently has a collar. He screams an alarm as he runs up the stairs. The imps throw a large ball of chaos energy to the top of the stairwell, and it bounces off the ceiling and manages to hit him as he grabs the door handle at the top floor. That allows the imps to catch him before he can open the door. They tear his throat out repeatedly as he spasms from the chaos ball - the healing of the collar can’t
keep up with the ravenous imps. They eventually drag his corpse down the stairs. One of the imps is carrying his collar hanging it around its neck. I grab it before one of its mates decides to snap it closed.

  I’m sure someone on floors nine through fourteen heard the alarm, but we have to deal with the two hundred soldiers on this floor before getting busy with the higher floors. I put two more zombies on stairwell coverage and loose the imps onto the eighth floor.

  That’s when we get lucky. Guessing from the uniforms arrayed before us, Valya’s commanding general, his staff, the Court Magician, and a couple of his sycophants are inspecting the troops on the eighth floor with their backs to us. The imps swarm them and all eight of them are dead in an instant. I grab the souls of the elves standing at attention at the front of the formation as the leaders fall. We roll through them so quickly that the elves don’t even break formation. We clear the floor, and move to the ninth.

  I steel my nerves to face the elven bordello. I have no problem with soldiers using professional women that decide to sell their charms. I have a real problem with sex slaves. I suppose some might think that ironic given my unusual marriage, but it’s worth noting that all of my ladies are strong, intelligent, and free to choose. They choose to be with me. Tying women to a post to service all comers, pardon the pun, is a grave injustice. So, the grave they will have.

  Before the lead zombie opens the door, I order “hold!” I look down at Lara. “How many of the women are likely to fight?”

  She shakes her head. “Like I said, I don’t expect many.”

  I nod, “Males first and any females that attack. Go.”

  The stench of dead bodies and sex pours out the doorway as it opens. We rush in and see roughly sixty elves standing in line, and thirty or so are standing in front of pillars thrusting into their chosen victim - elven women tied suspended from posts. The imps jump on the thrusting males and gnaw their necks until their heads pop off. I drain the souls from all the predators waiting a turn. I tell the zombies to cut the ladies down while I follow my nose. Behind the posts in the back right corner is a pile of dead bodies. Most of them are women who appear to have their throats cut, but also I see Rallent’or Nix’s face sticking out the bottom of the pile.

  I ask one of the elven ladies, “What happened?” She cops an attitude and starts jabbering at me in her native tongue.

  Lara runs up and stabs her in the heart. Then she stands on the chest of the dying woman calling out in elvish. Nearly a hundred exhausted, naked elven women cluster around her - short slender bodies with slender waists and small breasts, long slender necks, eyes that are slightly larger in proportion than human, and pointed ears of differing lengths. Lara continues to address them in her native tongue. I have no idea what she is saying, but she is brooking no argument. She points at me. She wags her finger at them, and finally makes a loud declaration and waits for a response.

  Up front, one of the ladies explains. Lara nods as she speaks. When the elven woman finishes. Lara speaks quietly to them. They murmur, turn around, and leave.

  Lara turns to me. “When Valya killed my sister, all the girls on duty threw a fit. Valya started cutting throats until they shut up. Thirty-seven girls died in solidarity with my sister.” She wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. “I told them you would save them or send them to the Summerlands. I suspect you will get volunteers in both directions.”

  “They don’t speak English?” I ask.

  Lara nods, “Not much. They are all learning Earth languages, but they don’t have much opportunity to study or practice. Plus, some are learning languages for other countries. Many are not fans of humans because we view them as an obstacle to living.” She looks up at me and places her hand on my heart. “You are the bringer of death, but you are also the bringer of life and defender of the defenseless. I worship you, Master.”

  I kiss her helmet and murmur, “Lara, I’m not worthy of that level of adoration, but I appreciate you nonetheless.” She hugs me. I tell her, “I can’t raise your sister. It’s been too long. Her brain wouldn’t function. You can try to call her soul. If she is still here, we can capture her and raise her into a new body. After a week, it’s not likely that she is still here unless she ghosted.”

  Lara says, “I will call her, Master. I agree it’s not likely.”

  She walks around the room calling out in her musical native language. ‘Maliar’en’ is the only word I understand. I don’t sense anyone reaching out. Lara returns to stand next to me.

  I wrap my arms loosely around her shoulders. “Tell her you love her and will always carry her with you.”

  Lara nods, “I did, Master. That is exactly what I told her. Let’s go save the Mistress and let Valya know what we really think of her.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” I respond. “Critters, next floor. You and you…” I point at two of the zombie guards. Stand guard outside that door, and let only me or one of my ladies in. We need to give them a break from testosterone.” Lara translates my instructions to the few ladies that didn’t crawl off to rest.

  We clear the admin staff from the tenth floor. We quickly clear the junior army staff from the eleventh floor and the remainder of the senior army staff from the twelfth.

  I marshall the troops after the twelfth floor. I ask the zombie guards, “The elevator still works?”

  They nod vigorously.

  Lara describes the portal and the healer staff. I give direction to the crew, and everyone takes their positions.

  The last two zombies go down to the tenth floor with the imps. They ride the elevator up to thirteen while I push a wave of entropy energy under the door to erode any glyphs on the floor.

  I hear the ping of the elevator arrival. I envision the two zombies walking out toward the portal, Tasering anyone that tries to stop them. After two shots each, they’ll have to touch their targets. Imps stream out of the elevator ceiling and follow the zombie guards and attack anyone that attacks the guards.

  I lead the way in the door with Lara at my side once I hear the growling of the imps. Lara follows calling out in Elvish. She is supposed to be saying something like, “Lay down on the ground if you want to live. Lay down and put your hands on your head.” I put the energy blade up in a ring around us just in time for three elves to explode on it. Jack and Monty start their game.

  Carla points out where there are still active glyphs on the floor, and I use entropy on them until they pop. Keeping the pure energy blade up while doing so is fairly taxing, but it’s a good thing I do because we continue to catch exploding elves on it. Apparently the guard force here is two squads instead of one, all with collars. Marissa flexes at Jack’s request to join the game of ‘cap the collar.’

  One elf runs up with a sword and calls in English. “I challenge your champion.” Everything stops and the room goes quiet.

  Monty asks, “Who is our champion?”

  Jack responds, “I thought it was you.”

  Monty shrugs. “That works.” He puts a bullet through the elf’s eye. Chaos ensues.

  There are two magician’s holding shields up around the portal. Another is pressing glyphs on the portal. It reminds me of the Stargate from the television program but smaller. I fire off small bolts of energy to entertain the magicians holding the energy shields while I send a snake of entropy around the room. One of them watches as the dark energy snakes around the side of his shield and tries to adjust it. Jack shoots him in the back of the head when he does. The other gets the snake of entropy wrapped around his head.

  When the second shield drops, I release the band of energy and run to my two zombies. They’re both dead again, so I reanimate them. One’s head is a mess, but I pull him back together. It’s freaky to watch his head reform. The other has a gaping wound in his abdomen.

  Lara walks over to the portal, shoots the elf pressing the glyph on the portal with a short burst, and presses a glyph on the portal herself. It appears to power down. I hear a couple of ‘pew’ sounds as Monty,
Jack, Marissa, and Luis clear the floor. While they work, I throw a new iteration of the sharp energy blade across the entryway to protect our backs.

  The imps guard the prisoners. Apparently, ‘guard’ means ‘poke and growl until they scream and pee themselves.’

  I hear the calls of “Clear!” echoing throughout the space from Monty, Marissa, Luis, and Jack. Slowly they return to the center of the room.

  I walk over to the prisoners and bark, “Critters! Knock it off.”

  They cower. I point to a spot by the door. I order, “Squad leaders, form your squads to guard the door and elevator.” They run over the prone prisoners in their haste to obey, causing the prisoners to squeal, cry, holler, and scream.

  I watch them all run to the elevator. “Xerxes, Hermes, Argos! Anyone playing in the elevator will forfeit half their peanut butter!” They all stop short. I walk over to stand in the middle of them. “My critters, I know that guard duty is not something you are built for. You’ve managed to only take minor injuries, and we have only one more floor to clear. Just rest here in place. We will launch our final assault shortly.”

  I walk over to the prisoners. “Lara please ask them to sit. Hands on their heads.”

  Lara speaks in Elvish, and the prisoners slowly push themselves to the requested position.

  “Who is chief healer?” I ask. An elven matron raises her hand before Lara starts speaking. “You can understand me?” I ask.

  She says, “Yes. I speak some of your tongue.”

  I nod. “Please stand. What is your name?”

  “Leonore,” she answers.

  I respond, “Hello, Leonore. My name is William. I wish we had met under more pleasant circumstances.” She looks quizzically at me, so Lara interprets into Elvish.

  “Leonore, please have all your healing staff rise.”

  She asks, “Care staff, too?”

  I nod. “Just not the Court Magician’s staff.”

  She speaks in her native language and twenty-three additional people rise. They all are wearing an outfit similar to Lenore’s - it looks similar to a floor-length operating gown from the early 1900’s.