by Randi Darren
It was Imp-Two as she led the group around. They were currently standing around discussing what looked like a warehouse.
The spot where Sam’s persona was supposed to be working, but which he wouldn’t be.
Lifting a hand, the woman began to count each person she could see in frame.
Mm. So she’s noticed it then.
Laying his hand to the woman’s neck, Sam smashed the additional piece of his new brand onto the old one.
Locking up in place, the woman couldn’t even breathe.
Though she’d made no sound. Looking for all the world like she was just focusing in on something she had on her screen.
Leaning down, Sam pressed his mouth to her ear.
“Your designation is Imp-Three,” Sam murmured softly, his lips brushing against her ear. “You will report to Inese at your earliest convenience.”
Imp-Three let out a shuddering breath, her hand moving back down to the desk she was sitting at.
“Do you understand?” Sam asked.
Imp-Three nodded her head.
“Do you know who Inese is?” he prodded. He needed to make sure he covered his bases.
Imp-Three once more nodded.
“Good. For now… don’t report that someone is missing from the group. In fact, I need you to pretend that that new hire group is exactly what anyone would expect it to be. That it’s nothing out of the ordinary in any way,” Sam commanded, his hand still tight to Imp-Three’s neck. He was pushing on her brand right now to put the importance of his words into her psyche. “Do you understand your orders?”
For a third time, Imp-Three nodded.
“Good. Is there a way for you to access the security system from elsewhere?” pushed Sam.
Imp-Three shook her head minutely.
“Anyone who might? Your boss?” Sam murmured, looking around the room as he spoke into Imp-Three’s ear. No one had noticed anything had changed. “Their boss? Someone?”
Imp-Three nodded her head.
“My boss,” she said in a soft whisper.
“Great. Can you lead me to them? Can you go on break? Anything like that?” asked Sam.
Imp-Three shook her head to that question. Then she lifted a hand and pointed at the door on the left behind herself without looking.
“There,” whispered the Imp. “That door.”
“Great. When you report to Inese, tell her I sent you and I’d like to be there when you’re questioned,” Sam said, releasing the Imp.
Groaning, Imp-Three nodded, and then leaned forward, away from Sam.
Smiling, Sam was quite happy.
The more Jenaphila used Imps like this, the easier it was for him to take over things.
We just can’t brand everyone though. If she ever came to inspect the place, she’d notice it instantly I imagine. Too many people to hide in plain sight like that.
Maybe… one or two more? That’d be okay, wouldn’t it?
Sam let his thoughts trail after Imp-Three’s boss. If they had access to the security system outside of this room, that made them a must-have.
Patting Imp-Three on the shoulder once, Sam started wandering over to the door.
Glancing over his shoulder, he saw that everyone was preoccupied with the fact that the machine-gunner had let loose on nothing, the new recruit tour, or the holding facilities.
Judging this as an okay time to make his move, Sam opened the door slightly, stepped inside, and let it close behind himself.
In front of him was a small hallway with offices on each side, and one at the very end.
Hmmm. She was a monitor monkey. Which means she’s likely reporting to someone in the middle. And they likely report to the one on the end.
So… let’s skip the ‘middle-man’ as it were.
Smiling, putting his hands behind his back, Sam casually strolled down the hall.
Looking into each office as he went, he found more than half were empty, and those that had people in them, were all busily talking into phones.
Yelling at someone for information, demanding for something to happen, or assuring someone that everything was fine.
It would seem my little mishap with the ammo is working to my advantage.
Making it to the office at the end of the hall, Sam was surprised when it jerked open. Two men were standing inside, one arguing with the other.
“—don’t care. I really don’t,” said the man holding the door. He looked to be about five foot ten, had brown hair, and was definitely on the more athletic side of things. “So fuck you, and fuck the horse you rode in on, Zach.”
Standing on the other side of the office, at a height a few inches above six foot, was a man who looked like the type of person you didn’t curse at. His dark brown eyes were hard and angry, his light brown hair perfectly in place with a bit too much gel.
“Shut the door, shut your mouth, and sit back the fuck down before I just kill you,” growled the man called Zach. “Or did you want me to turn your wife into a widow? I could send some flowers to Mrs. Bailey for the loss of her son as well, instead of sending you home today, Joe.”
Both men were dressed in business suits and were somewhat out of place for the complex.
Glancing at the door placard, Sam saw the name of the office owner as Zach Hinkle. Moving into the room, Sam went to the corner.
“Well?” Zach asked. “There isn’t a lot we can do about this. It is what it is. Pisses me off, but… out of our control now.”
Joe huffed and then shut the door negligently, practically slamming it.
“Really Joe? Really? You really want to push my buttons? Cause right now I really—”
“Sorry, didn’t mean to slam it,” Joe said, shaking his head. Then he opened his hands and flexed them, Fire Essence flaring out of him, then going back into his palms. “Just a little heated.”
Fire Elemental.
“Clearly,” Zach said in a growl and then sat down in the chair behind what Sam assumed was his desk. “Now, sit down and let’s figure out how to fix this. Okay?”
Grumbling under his breath, Joe sat down heavily and then gestured at Zach.
“We write it off as a training exercise gone wrong. Give Diego a slap on the wrist, and then leave it at that,” Zach said and shrugged his shoulders. Sam got the impression this man was an Elemental as well, but he couldn’t quite determine if it was Earth or something else. “We send it up like we normally would, and act as if nothing were wrong. If we make it seem like it was less, then maybe everyone else will think it’s just that.”
“Zach… someone died,” Joe said with some incredulity. “Someone just died. Just now. Died. It wasn’t just a training exercise gone wrong.”
“Sure it was. It was a guard after all. We get those by the dozens when we ask,” Zach said with a flick of his hand. “We just list him as being part of the exercise and that’s that. It isn’t like we don’t lose a few here and there to a Succubus.”
Joe sighed, leaning his head back and looking up at the ceiling.
“It’s a little different when we use live rounds. Someone is going to come down here and fuck us. I know it,” complained Joe. “I know it. I just know it.”
“No, it’ll be fine. I think Mistress Jena is busy right now anyways,” Zach said. “We just… brush it under the rug and pretend like it’s just a normal loss. Just like the Suc—”
“Succubus losses, yeah, I heard you say it the first time. This isn’t the same thing though,” Joe countered. “Those are all people that got signed off on first before they even came here. This guy wasn’t. He was getting fast tracked.”
“Seriously. She’s distracted,” Zach said, ignoring everything Joe had just put forward. “Completely distracted. This’ll be the easiest thing in the world to get by her. To explain away. Barely an inconvenience.”
“Yeah?” Joe asked, sounding terribly unsure.
“No,” Sam said, reaching out with Essence to snatch both Elementals and chain them down in heavy Essenc
e chains. Both men were thankfully wearing his old brand. “This is going to be a terrible inconvenience for you two. Now… let’s talk about this facility, this security room, and what’s going on?
“Oh… by the way. My name is Sameerixis. And your brand? My brand. Jenaphila stole it from me.”
Sam punctuated his claim by branding both men.
“What’s the purpose of this facility?” Sam asked, looking at both men and pulling on the brand.
“Power generation and resources,” Zach said, panting hard.
“Yeah, yeah, that,” Joe agreed.
“Resources? What kind of resources?” Sam demanded.
“Babies! Imps made from Incubi and Succubi!” Joe screeched.
“Cambion?” Sam clarified. He wanted to know what exactly was meant by that.
“Yeah, some Cambion,” Zach answered. “Some are! Not all. Fifty percent are Imps, fifty percent are Cambion. The Cambion are almost always women though. The Imps have a normal gender split. Male baby Cambion get put up with the breed Imps to raise, then are put back into cages to breed more when they get old enough. The baby girl Cambion get put in the storage plane.”
Thinking on that with a frown, Sam couldn’t quite explain why there were more female than males.
“The Cambion are bred with Succubi and Incubi?” Sam asked.
“Yeah. The babies with the Imps don’t make it to term that often,” Joe said. “So we stopped trying years and years ago.”
“And where are these hordes of Cambion and Imps? Where is this ‘storage plane’ you mentioned?” Sam asked.
“The Cambion are on a private plane. It’s where they live, really. Imps are raised and put in the field,” Zach answered.
“Great… so… where can I get to this plane filled with Cambion?” Sam asked with a smile. “I’d very much like to meet them.”
And put them on my plane instead.
Thirty-Two - Needs -
Following along behind Zach, Sam was looking like a very scared and very anxious employee. If people looked at him and thought he was in trouble, he’d be thrown from their memories fairly quickly.
Especially considering how large Zach was. Who had turned out to be an Earth Elemental.
Their goal right now was to make it to a sub-section in the B side of the building. Where a few portals were kept. They were almost entirely offline at all times, but opened up to hand off babies or other minor resources as needed.
I wonder whose plane it was before Jenaphila stole it and converted it.
Or is it something like Jes? She made a Succubus Planar Lord, then converted them into a plane holder. Just wanting them for that reason alone.
Or maybe that was the goal for Jes as well. Turned into little better than a sex-pet with a plane.
Zach walked right into a security checkpoint along a yellow line. Stepping to one side, he started talking to someone sitting behind a desk. The three male Imps all stared at Sam.
Shrinking into himself, Sam tried to look small and unassuming. Like he was nothing to bother with and didn’t need to be looked at.
“Resource quality control?” asked one of the guards speaking to Zach.
“Yeah. Got assigned today with the new hire group,” Zach agreed.
I wonder what that means. Resource quality control.
Is that someone they feed to a Succubus or an Incubus? Because it sounds like they dump a few people in to have their actual life-force drained.
Sam had actual experience with that. In his worst moments, before he’d become as he was today, he’d drained women even as they orgasmed beneath him.
Drained them dry and left them dead.
If they fouled their contract in some way, he’d find the loophole and drink them down like a soda and toss the can when he was done.
Something he hadn’t done in an extremely long time. Right up until he’d felt like he’d had no other choice and he’d drank from Carissa directly.
To paralyze her and drag her into the car.
It’d been brief, and stupid to do it, but he’d tasted of her in a way he’d only dreamed about for centuries.
Since then, he’d been fighting the impulse to do it again.
“Alright,” said one of the other guards as he gave Sam a pat down. He found absolutely nothing. Because Sam didn’t actually have anything on him. “Thank you for your cooperation.”
The man took a step to the side, clearing the way for Sam.
“Come on then, timetables to keep,” Zach said dismissively and with some scorn. He said it so naturally and so easily that Sam had to wonder if it was actually acting.
“Yes. Yes, sir,” squeaked Sam, falling in line behind Zach.
Moving once again, they went through a door, passing out of the security checkpoint and into a rather long hallway.
As soon as the door clicked, Sam considered if he even wanted to ask.
“You feed people to the Succubi and Incubi?” he inquired, deciding he needed to know.
“Sometimes,” Zach said. “They’re noted as those to be disposed of when they arrive. Typically by Mistress Jena or one of the state mistresses.
“A lot fewer state mistresses in charge lately though. Ever since the Alpha generator was freed. Mistress Jena’s been… uh… demoting… Imps. Anyone and everyone she thinks is a problem.”
“And putting Elementals like you in charge,” Sam said, going back to his earlier conversation with Imp-One, Two, and their boss.
“Yeah. More and more, actually,” Zach murmured.
“Anything else you’ve noticed about your mistress lately?” Sam asked. This man seemed quite a bit closer to Jena than he’d expected.
“Uh… no? Just the Imp thing,” Zach said. “Everything else is mostly exactly like it used to be. Business as usual.”
“No? Hm. Alright,” Sam said, feeling a bit better. If Jenaphila didn’t have any idea it was him, or that he was involved, he was more willing to at least consider staying on the plane.
The Silent One might be in charge of everything, but even he was limited in what he could do.
“No one’s ever in this section by the way,” Zach said. “Just that security checkpoint we passed. Nothing gets past that point in either direction.”
“Right,” Sam said, wondering if perhaps he had an answer Sam’d been wondering about for a while. They started going down a very long staircase that didn’t seem to have a foreseeable end. “By the way, how are portals blocked here?”
“Huh? Oh. Every portal here was established by Mistress Jena herself. There’s also four other facilities in every direction. Everything in between the four points is blocked by portal entry. It’s that way for most facilities,” Zach said. “Usually an Elemental Planar-Assistant.”
Like that woman I killed when we freed Aster? Hm.
“And no, you can’t get to those facilities. They’re all connected back to Jena’s plane. There’s no way to get to them,” Zach said as they walked into a small empty warehouse-like room at the bottom of the long staircase. “Unless you’re looking to get yourself castrated and killed. People don’t come back from her plane. Even her daughters don’t like going there.”
Daughters?
Huh.
“Alright. We’re here. I’m going to pop open the Cambion plane. Just to be sure, you want this? It isn’t as bad as being sent to Jena’s realm or a few others but… the Cambion here are… well they got left here,” Zach explained, sounding like he wanted to do anything but what he was about to do. Standing next to a small stone column, he’d laid his hand to the top of it. “I mean, the plane is good enough to survive on but just barely. They have to fight for their lives and that shows in how they deal with people.”
“That’s fine. That’s how to raise a Cambion child anyway,” Sam said dismissively. “Open it up. Then get back to whatever. Start working at whatever it is you need to do.”
Zach shrugged his shoulders and Sam felt a jolt of Earth Essence zip into the column.
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“I don’t normally open this one up. I usually send someone else,” Zach said as the portal appeared and began to unzip itself. “To be fair, it’s just not something I should b—”
A long spear jabbed out from the portal and skewered Zach through the chest.
It was followed quickly by three more, each one stabbing into the man’s torso.
Slumping to the ground, Zach had a moment to take in a breath before a fourth spear shot free of the still opening portal and caught him in the throat.
Going limp against the spears, Zach took them to the ground with him.
Stepping in front of the portal, Sam held up his left hand, a thick Essence shield building itself around the portal.
As soon as the portal opened enough that those on the other side could likely see him, spears began jabbing out at him. Deflecting harmlessly off his shield. Sliding across it as if it were an ice rink and the spear a skate.
“Well, you can keep trying,” Sam said aloud. “Or you can listen to my offer.”
Several more spears all slammed into the space where Sam’s head was.
“Right, okay, we’ll just wait till you’re tired then,” Sam said as the portal finished opening.
On the other side, he could see an endless swarm of Cambion all lined up and waiting. They had shields and spears made of wood and sharpened rocks. Their clothes, from what he could see, looked to be little better than rough leather.
They continued to attack him unceasingly. Their spear tips hitting the shield and glancing off over and over.
After a full two minutes of this, Sam was getting bored.
Bored and annoyed.
Glowing Cambion eyes regarded him between shields and from under leather helmets. The red fog of their breath wafted up in short puffs.
They’ll never give up.
“Look. This is enough. Don’t you get it? You can’t hurt me,” Sam yelled at them. “And you killed Zach. He was actually rather useful. Now I’m going to have to dump his corpse somewhere and make it look like he fled.”
As he spoke, spears continued to stab out at his face.
He was beginning to genuinely lose his temper. Opening his hands and closing them once, Sam let out a shuddering breath as yet another spear slammed into the space next to his face.
