Succubus Rescue (The Accidental Necromancer Book 3)

by JG Jerome

  Viktorija says, “I cancelled tonight’s festivities. I got some pushback until I explained that Bernadette had been murdered. Then I got four offers to comfort me tonight. A certain weather girl called me three times after I hung up with her.”

  I chuckle. “You are very special, Precious. I can understand her obsession. I’ll be by with a couple of security guys tomorrow. I want them to take over your protection and ride along when you have to leave the salon. Is 10:00 okay?”

  “Yes, Lord,” she murmurs. After a moment she says, “Will, I need you. I really want to fall asleep in your arms.”

  “I need you too, Tori. I don’t know if I can get down there tonight or not,” I tell her. “If I do, I might have to bring the entire bed-full.”

  “I’m fine with that, Will. You know I love them,” she responds.

  “I have some news,” I tell her. “Susan freaked out last night and went home, but she’s back today. Carla married me last night, and she dragged me out for a ‘honeymoon run’ this morning along Lake Michigan.” Viktorija laughs at that. I let her laughter dwindle before I drop the bomb. “The final news is that Rebecca is pregnant.”

  Viktorija gasps, and the line is silent for a moment. “Ohmigod! I’ve got to call her. I’ll talk to you soon, Love.”

  I chuckle, “I’ll let you know if we can make it tonight. Either way, I’ll be there tomorrow. Cuddle up with Vanessa and take a nap, Beloved.”

  “Good idea,” Viktorija agrees. “After I call Rebecca. I love you, Will.”

  “I love you too, Precious. Bye for now,” I tell her and kiss into the phone. I disconnect and look around. I don’t see Rebecca, so I guess she’s inside.

  I send a text to Raul as Leonore calls all the elves together. Leonore talks to the assembled group for a bit in their native language. I tell Raul to meet me at the salon’s address tomorrow at 10am. Clarice slides up for a hug from her daddy as I walk in to listen to the narrative in the musical language flow from Leonore. Susan is standing behind Leonore with the pad. She winks at me, and I give her a moué in return. Carla and Marissa are side hugging each other nearby. Lara joins Clarice and me, hugging my waist and leaning on my arm as I rest my lips in Clarice’s hair. I rest one arm around Lara’s shoulders as Leonore talks to her charges.

  I watch the expressions of the elves as Leonore talks. At first I see a variety of expressions varying from fear to cynicism. Slowly, Leonore draws them in. The cynicism fades. The fear fades. Smiles appear here and there. Others lean in, whether from eagerness or hope I really can’t say. Others hug each other and nod their heads. Leonore has more power than her ability to heal. She can inspire.

  Leonore gestures to Susan before she ticks off her fingers, I’m guessing talking about opportunities. Leonore folds her hands in front of her and makes one more statement. Slowly hands starts to rise. Leonore recognizes a young elven maiden. She says something, and her face and body language convey fear or apprehension.

  Lara murmurs, “She asking if it’s true that they don’t have to be sex slaves any longer. Leonore confirmed it.”

  Leonore acknowledges another young lady. Lara translates with a giggle. “She’s asking if she can be the Lord’s concubine.” Leonore looks at me.

  I chuckle, “I’m honored she would ask. I am not planning to take any concubines. I have five wives and three more waiting to join me soon. I think that should be enough love for any man. Don’t you?”

  Leonore starts to translate when a familiar strawberry-blond stands and exclaims, “No, Lord. Me. You need me.”

  I start to reply, but Leonore holds up her hand. I smile and bow in her direction, and Leonore addresses the question and the interruption.

  Zenia smiles and nods. She responds in Elvish and sits. I notice a couple of other excited looks. I ask Lara, “What did she say?”

  Lara looks up at me and says, “I’m sorry, Lord. I missed it.” She won’t look at me, but I see the ghost of a smile on her lips.

  “Are you playing me, Lara?” I ask. Clarice laughs.

  Lara says, “I’m a zombie, Lord. I don’t know how to play.” Again with the almost-smile.

  “Lara, I’m more than willing to spank your naked ass in front of all of them if it will help you concentrate,” I cock an eyebrow and smirk at her.

  Lara’s surprise is evident, but she recovers quickly. “Lord, if you think it will help, I will strip now.” Then the little minx grins at me. Clarice roars with laughter.

  I release Clarice and scoop Lara up and throw her over my shoulder. I spank her ass as I walk back towards the house. She squeals and laughs. I spank her again and tell her, “It’s good to hear you laugh, Lara.” I pick her up by the waist and set her on her feet. “So good.”

  She looks at me and throws herself against me wrapping her arms tightly around my torso. “I think you didn’t make me right. Ever since I learned about Maliar’en, I’ve been flooded with emotions. I’m not a very good zombie.”

  I wrap my arms around her shoulders and kiss the crown of her head. “I’ve noticed, Lara. I don’t have a good explanation. Vanessa is pretty emotional too, and the zombie guards all seem to have more personality than the other zombies I’ve met. There’s a reason, I just don’t know what it is. Do you mind?”

  Lara shakes her head in my chest and squeezes me tighter. She looks up at me. “Lord, when you find the Mistress will you marry her?”

  I nod, “If she will have me.”

  Lara says, “Then I would like to serve your family. In your home. You and your wives and your children.”

  I tell her, “I may need you to split your time, Lara. Either way, yes. You are my trusted advisor. You are the protector of my family. Of course, dear. I insist on you joining us.”

  Lara reaches up to hold my face to brush a light kiss across my lips. Her large eyes glisten. “Thank you, my Lord.”

  “Let’s go see how things are going with Audrey,” I tell her.

  Carla, Marissa, Susan, and Clarice walk by as Lara pulls back. Carla stage whispers, “There’s number nine, ladies.”

  Lara smirks and runs over to join them. She tells Carla, “I guess I better get over here with the wives and fiancés.” They all laugh and wave at me.

  I chuckle and follow the crowd of fine female flesh hurrying to the house.

  I walk into the house and join the magicians at the table.

  They are discussing various objects and strategies to get accurate location information, teleportation, leveraging portals or passages depending on who is talking. It doesn’t sound like they’ve gotten any farther than we were all when we gathered around my vehicle.

  I interrupt the conversation. “Hey, folks. I manage software and organizational change projects for a living. It doesn’t appear that we’re making any progress. When I see software teams in this state, I tell them they are admiring the problem. We’re not really moving forward. Am I wrong?”

  Their sheepish looks tell me that I’ve hit pretty close to the target. None of them say a word.

  I ask, “What is the problem we’re trying to solve?” Susan is leaning on the counter smiling. She’s heard me do this many times before. Carla sits on the counter next to her and wraps an arm around her. Marissa leans back onto Carla. Clarice leans on the counter on the other side of Susan. I don’t see Lara.

  I hear the magicians respond with ‘teleporting,’ ‘passages, and ‘location for portals.’ Finally, Mica says, “Transportation.”

  I nod, “Mica is closest to how I see it. I think the problem is that I need to find and retrieve my lady safely. An ideal solution would allow me to quickly retrieve Alöise, and to put Shryl in front of her queen long before the Archduchess Gabrielle can get there with whatever story she is concocting.”

  The team immediately erupts in a chorus of all the considerations to get me in front of Alöise - teleporting, power for portals, passages, different spells, the device on Alöise’s arm, Alöise’s location, Queen Alafair’s location, etcetera. I raise m
y hand, and the comments taper off.

  I say, “Shryl is here. What happens if we banish her?”

  T’os says, “She goes back to her planet.” Chiara, Carla, and Mica nod.

  “Where on her planet?” I ask.

  Carla says, “From wherever she was summoned.”

  I look at Shryl. “We summoned you from your cell, right?” She nods.

  Then I ask, “What happens if Shryl has her arms wrapped around me?”

  Carla gasps. “You can go with her if we do the banishment correctly.”

  I nod. I had hoped, but I wasn’t confident by any stretch of the imagination. I respond, “Good. I wasn’t certain. Assume I have weapons and a small portal with me. Do those go with me?”

  Carla nods, “Again, if we do it correctly, you can go fully armed and equipped. We just need to include the correct subclauses in the banishment. Same applies to summoning.”

  I look at the succubus sitting quietly at the table. “Shryl, describe your cell.”

  She says, “It’s an open room with bars across the front of the corridor. There's a bucket for waste and another with a ladle with clean water. The door is in the center of the wall with bars. There is a lock built into the left-hand side of the door.”

  “Great,” I encourage her. “Where are the hinges? “

  She looks up and purses her lips before answering. “On the outside, to my right.”

  “Where is Bernadette’s … er … Alöise’s cell?” I ask.

  “Directly across from mine,” she answers.

  “Is it the same structure as yours?” I ask.

  Shryl closes her eyes. “It mirrors mine. In addition to the lock, there is a chain with a lock securing the door.”

  I grab a blank piece of paper and draw a corridor. “Where is the entrance into the jail?”

  “Dungeon,” Shryl says. “It’s not expected that you will leave alive once you go in. The entrance is to my left. I’m in the last cell on my side.” She’s picking up on what I’m trying to do. I sketch in details as she talks. “The Mistress is in the last one on her side. There is a table with a water urn to my right that the guards use to refill our water buckets. The guards are generally stationed at the entrance to the left. However, they have a bed in the cell next to the Mistress’ cell, so they can feed her. Sadly they hadn’t started yet when you summoned me. I was starving.”

  “How are they armed, dear?”

  Shryl smiles at the pet name. “They are armed with truncheons and daggers. The guard captain is a royal incubus, the others are standards - two incubae and six succubae in addition to the captain.”

  I ask her, “What does that mean? Royal incubus.”

  Shryl says, “It’s a male of my people with feathers on his wings - generally black feathers. Royals are a little bigger and stronger from their angelic blood.”

  My head pops back in surprise. “Wait a minute. Royal succubae are angelic hybrids?”

  Shryl nods. “Yes. The legend is that an angel arrived to find a succubus alone in the desert going insane from hunger. The angel took pity on her and made love to her for three days. The succubus was in heat, which made her hunger worse. By the time the angel left, she was pregnant. The first royal succubus was born 24 months later. That first child established the Luxure Empire of seven planets. The angelic features - size and feathered wings, were passed to her offspring, and they eventually became the first planetary queens.”

  “Interesting,” I say. “Where do the guards sleep?”

  “Their barracks,” Shryl says.

  I voice my understanding of the threat, “Other than daggers and truncheons, I don’t have to worry about weapons.”

  Shryl says, “Don’t forget their tails.” Her tail curls up over her shoulder and the sheath pulls back to reveal an eight-inch long spike that is glistening with moisture. Shryl says, “The venom on the spike will drive you to insane levels of lust that can persist for twenty-four to forty-eight hours. The victim rarely survives. It's a survival mechanism that evolved over millennia - cause prey to generate lust to feed from. Plus, given the length of the spike, a stab wound could be fatal on its own. I wouldn’t be surprised if they tried to stab you with their tails first to feed off you.”

  “I’m guessing killing the royal will be frowned on,” I observe.

  Shryl says, “Killing any of them would be, but royals in particular. Our population is sparse - only about two million planet-wide. They don’t like Archduchess Gabrielle much, so it would be a shame and a waste to kill them. We heal pretty well, so injury is okay.”

  I nod. “I better take a sword. Maybe a wakizashi or gladius and a jo staff. Ideally we go in, get Alöise, and Shryl goes to address the Queen as we come home.”

  Josie says, “Shryl comes back here. We have a reference for the throne room for Queen Alafair. We can send her through the elf portal.”

  Shryl nods, “Otherwise, it would take me many dimension hops to get there. Her Grace Gabrielle can do it in fewer because she’s royal and she knows the way better than I do. Coming back here is really my only chance to get there first.”

  I ask, “Do we know what this device is on Alöise’ arm?”

  T’os says, “I suspect it’s a standard torture device. It is most often used for behavior modification. I don’t know how they have it connected to a teleportation detector. I’ve never heard of such a thing.”

  Chiara says, “Maybe we’re overthinking it. They use brokers. Maybe they have a broker set up nearby. When a call comes in for Alöise, they just don’t pass on the signal and shock her instead.”

  Carla says, “There was some kind of circle that Valya used to ensure Bernadette got sent to Gabrielle.”

  Shryl says, “There’s no circle in her cell or around it. I wouldn’t put it past Gabrielle to just have someone shock her preemptively and tell her it’s from someone trying to summon her.”

  “How do I get it off her?” I ask.

  T’os says, “It’s usually a small lock - like your padlocks here.”

  Josie summarizes, “So you need a short sword, a short staff, a small passage, a Taser - might come in handy, a pistol in case you want to make noise, and silencer in case you don’t. We banish you and Shryl to the dungeon. You break Bernadette out of jail, and we summon the three of you home. Then we send Shryl through the elven portal to the Queen.”

  I nod. “Sounds right. Let's do this.”

  Shryl says, “We may want to wait until evening. The guards on duty will be feeding their hunger.”

  I frown. “Okay.”

  Audrey walks in and says, “Chrysilla would like to send Lleandra through tomorrow. Lara’s watching her. What can I tell her?”

  “In the afternoon? I need to be in Phoenix in the morning.”

  “Afternoon is good,” she acknowledges.

  “Okay. Let’s go with that,” I agree. “Maybe invite Chrysilla for an informal early dinner.”

  Josie resumes the discussion on solving problems. “I’ve got a cloth passage on stand-by in case you have problems getting home. In an emergency, we pass it through your small one and tear it after you’re home.”

  “What happens if I try to pull it through itself?” I ask.

  Josie says, “Same effect as tearing or breaking it. I tested it multiple times with cloth and heavy paper. It breaks the enchantment.”

  “I need to get a permanent passage to the salon in Phoenix. How long to gin one up like we talked about?” I ask.

  Josie waves her hand. “Done. I had the frames done last week before we had the first battle with Valya. The security doors arrived Wednesday, so I came back Thursday morning and put them together while you were busy impressing Susan with your professionalism.”

  Susan grins, “He never stops impressing me. I’m going to miss him at work when he decides he’s too busy saving the world to make a living.”

  I look around the room. “What else do we need to do here?” I ask. No one says anything. I tell them, “Good
work guys. Getting a new team productive quickly takes time. You all did well. I heard the seeds of a lot of good ideas and good thought processes. Don’t bin your ideas. Prototype, test, and learn. They may come in handy in the future.”

  Rebecca says, “I’ve got a couple pots of lentils stewing, brown rice simmering, and vegetables roasting in the oven. The girls are making naan as fast as they possibly can. Dinner should be ready shortly.”

  Marissa exclaims, “Shit! Mom and Dad!”

  I purse my lips in thought. “Go through the passage and bring them here. We’ll eat and catch them up. They might as well meet the elves.”

  Warren walks in the front door. “Darcie just called to say Jack’s meeting just finished. She said they’ll meet you at your house.”

  Marissa tells me, “I’ll bring them along.” She looks at Carla. “Wanna come with? I think you have a treat for me, right?”

  Carla grimaces, “It’s probably pretty nasty by now. I’ll go with you regardless.” She smiles at our ‘bad-ass warrior babe.’

  Susan sits on my lap and walks through her skills assessment on her legal pad. She says, “Basic soldiering and fucking seem to be their core skill sets. A handful said they had magic, but that it wasn’t considered strong enough for them to get an apprenticeship.”

  I look up at T’os and Chiara. “Excuse me.” The two elven magicians look at me. “How do you feel about training new apprentices? We have...how many, Susan?”

  “Nineteen,” she answers after referencing her worksheet.

  “We have nineteen of the pleasure slaves that were assessed with magical talent, but were judged too weak to train. I don’t think we have that luxury.”

  T’os looks at Chiara and shrugs. He says to her, “You and I can cover all of the basics. We will have some gaps in certain areas, but maybe Chrysilla can get reference materials.”

  Chiara says, “Maybe she can find a master that would be willing to join us.”

  I tell them, “My priority is to give them offensive and defensive skills they can use to protect all of us - elves and humans alike.”