Risky Business

by J B Trepagnier

  I hoped this was the last of the plots. Zepar used Eiltan in a plot to overthrow Hell. Skinner used Scorchwood to experiment on prisoners to gain power. Skinner was about to get taken. Zepar would end up in Bael’s dungeon. The Nightshade Circle would follow.

  “You’re the High Priestess, Luciana, but I wish you would listen. This will blow up in our faces just like it blew up when Rathmore was High Priest. He didn’t bring the rest of us down with him. Make sure we don’t go down when Eiltan Sunshadow comes for you if you hurt his daughter.”

  “I can handle the Fae prince. Get back to work and find me a replacement for Rathmore. Eiltan may think we have stopped trying to make a hybrid baby in Scorchwood, but that’s what I want him to think.”

  I nodded to Solron when Skinner started blowing out candles. Our eyes were both glowing violet when we stepped out of the shadows. I hadn’t shifted into my demonic form, but we were both calling on all our demonic power. Skinner started scooting back when she realized I was in her office.

  “Remember me?” I growled. “The entire board is aware you’ve been stealing from Scorchwood and not doing the upgrades. By now, the entire supernatural community is angry with you, but you’ve especially pissed off some significant people in the Fae realm and Hell. It was almost a unanimous vote that Hell gets to carry out your punishment. I’ve got the name of your coven now too. You’ll give us their names and locations after we’ve tortured you a bit.”

  “What do you want? Money? I can pay you well to let me go.”

  “You’re broke, bitch. They froze your bank account.”

  “I know forbidden magic. My coven can do things for you that other witches and warlocks won’t.”

  “Can I hit her, boss?” Solron asked.

  “Yes, you can play, Solron. Just remember, she’s committed crimes against three realms, and Bael wants her alive. The Fae say they don’t torture, but they might want a go at her too.”

  I just sat there laughing like a madman as Skinner shrieked while Solron flew at her. I kept laughing until her screams stopped. Once she was out cold, I scooped her up and threw her over my shoulder like a cut of meat.

  I wasn’t worried about being seen anymore, so I opened a portal and brought her straight to Bael’s dungeon.

  Chapter 10

  Roman

  H

  ell torture dungeons were something else. I was expecting something a little more dungeon-like. This was better digs than Scorchwood was. We were all waiting for Amduscias and Solron to get back with Warden Skinner, and we had no idea what was taking so long. Eiltan and Ior had already left. Ior was gathering an army in the Fae realm, and Eiltan was putting things in order to snare Zepar.

  I was wandering around this dungeon, wondering why there was a bed in here. There were also sex toys like the ones we had used on Serafina. Surely, Bael wasn’t planning on pleasuring Warden Skinner sexually. That would just be weird. Everything about this place was strange.

  Serafina was pointing at things and asking what they were, but she avoided asking about the bed and particular objects. Skoll just looked uncomfortable. He looked like he would kill Bael if he said anything inappropriate to her.

  We seemed to be waiting forever before a portal opened, and Amduscias and Solron hopped through. I only remembered Warden Skinner from my nightmares. I remembered her from when Rathmore tortured me, but I didn’t know she was the warden until Amduscias heaved her on a slab in the dungeon.

  “What took so long?” Bael asked. “I see Solron got to play, but you should have been back by now.”

  “Eavesdropping. Warden Skinner and Rathmore weren’t working alone. They were part of a coven trying to create a perfect race. They had their own reasons for wanting a hybrid baby. I think the fact that the women had to be Dark Fae and the men pure was all her and Rathmore. They found a way to steal magic, and they planned on killing the babies. Skinner really wants to kill Serafina.”

  “Bitch can try,” Serafina said.

  “Does the Nightshade Circle ring a bell? There’s an entire coven of them. I heard a few first names. There’s unrest because they think she should give up on using the prison. They don’t want to be exposed.”

  Bael just laughed.

  “Oh, they will be exposed. And killed. Hell has a gigantic problem with hurting children.”

  I felt the same way. Who’d hurt a cute little baby just to get power? That was just gross. I really wanted to sink my fangs into Warden Skinner’s neck and rip a chunk out of her carotid. Her blood smelled like it would have tasted bad, but I still wanted to kill her.

  I had to resist the urge because I knew something big was coming. Bael would torture her, and Serafina had her own questions. Plus, I knew torture meant a lot to Amduscias, and I wanted to see him in his element. He was so proud of his torture dungeons. He gave us a tour of his after he popped down for sex toys, and his voice was filled with pride as he showed off all his toys. Amduscias had a bed in his too. Odd.

  “Should we wake Sleeping Beauty?” Amduscias asked.

  “I did a number on her,” Solron bragged.

  “So I see. I think you knocked out a tooth.”

  Bael was looking at Solron like he was turned on. Were the two of them lovers? He hadn’t introduced us to any type of queen or wife. He kept Solron close during this entire investigation, and it seemed like he trusted her. It looked like he thought it was sexy that she beat the shit out of Warden Skinner.

  Skinner was strapped to a table, but her scent was bothering me. Her blood didn’t smell right. I needed to get closer.

  “Don’t wake her yet. She smells funny.”

  “Yeah, she’s hosed down in crap perfume,” Serafina said.

  “No, underneath that. She’s wearing the perfume to hide something,” Skoll said.

  So Skoll smelled it too. I was sure we looked weird standing over Warden Skinner, sniffing her beaten body chained to a slab, but it was hard to get a read on her scent with all the perfume she was wearing.

  “She’s more than just a witch. I know what witch smells like. She smells like a Vampire and an Earth elemental too. That shouldn’t be possible.”

  “She smells like dirt, magic, and blood, but her blood isn’t right. She’s not supposed to be anything but a witch. Her blood has been manipulated.”

  “It’s because the Nightshade Circle has found a way to steal magic from hybrid children,” Amduscias said. “They were going to kill all the children because they needed their blood. I thought they hadn’t succeeded yet, but clearly not.”

  Warden Skinner was an evil woman if she killed little babies. There was something about her blood, though. She’d taken the powers of a Vampire and an elemental, but it wasn’t mixing well with her blood and powers. She hadn’t figured out how to tap into these powers because they weren’t natural.

  “I don’t think she can access her stolen magic.”

  Solron didn’t hesitate. We all had to jump back as she sprayed a giant water hose on Warden Skinner.

  “Well, let’s wake the bitch up and ask her.”

  Skinner started sputtering and choking on the water. She was awake, but Solron didn’t turn the hose off right away. She aimed it directly at Skinner’s face so the water would go straight up her nose.

  “That’s enough, Solron,” Bael said. “Contrary to old human beliefs, witches do drown.”

  Solron pouted but turned the water off.

  “I was just playing with her.”

  “You’ll get a turn. Like I could ever leave you out. You know how I love watching you work.”

  Yeah, those two were definitely lovers. I guess they bonded over torture. That wasn’t my thing, but I would not judge them. Honestly, I was wondering if I had the stomach to sit through this. I sometimes still had nightmares from when Rathmore tortured me and what I did to people in prison when I was under his spell.

  Sure, Warden Skinner probably deserved it, but that didn’t mean I could sit through it with front row seats. I’d ha
ve to because I needed to be here for Serafina and Amduscias. Maybe I needed to hear what she had to say too. I lived in those shitty prison conditions, and she had Rathmore torture me. I wanted to know why. I needed to understand why.

  I saw a different side of Bael come out as he approached the table Skinner was strapped to. He had this nasty, sharp thing in his hand.

  Bael got right in her face and aimed it at her eye.

  “Do you want to play nice or play rough? There’s several of us here that like it rough. Oh, that’s cute. Are you trying to do a spell to fight back? They ward hell dungeons against all manner of creatures. Sorry, Serafina. It’s warded against you too, so you can’t burn her.”

  “Fergus is still with me.”

  Bael just laughed. “Of course, he is. Not only do we not know that ward, but there’s no feasible way we could capture a Fae with a guardian, no matter how cunning or strong the demon. We would have turned that person over to the Fae for justice. Plus, we’ve never had a Fae in one of our dungeons before.”

  “I’ll leave the torture to the demons, but I have questions for her.”

  “Yes, I think every single person in this room has questions for her. Now, Luciana Skinner, how do you want to play this game?”

  Chapter 11

  Serafina

  I

  rarely played with my food when I brought Elemental Batwoman out to play. I collected all the evidence I needed until I was sure of their guilt before I made my move. I didn’t give some great State of the Union when I killed them either. The goal was not to get caught, and getting close to someone long enough to burn them without being seen was hard enough as it was. Like I needed someone to overhear me giving this big speech about why I was killing them so they could testify against me.

  But we needed answers from Warden Skinner, and it wasn’t like I would feel bad if Amduscias, Bael, and Solron tortured them out of her. I lived in the prison she stole funds from instead of making it a semi-decent place. She had a warlock experiment on me and torture Roman. Not only did we need answers, but I also wouldn’t mind roughing her up a bit either.

  “Please, you can’t do this. There are laws. I want my lawyer. Everyone gets a trial.”

  Bael sneered in her face.

  “You committed a good bit of your crimes in Hell. This is my domain, and justice works a little differently here. You also committed crimes against the Fae who agreed to turn you over to Hell. The entire board of Scorchwood knows what you did, and your crimes are making them look bad. A long, drawn out trial would make them look even worse. They just want you to disappear. They agreed to let Hell take you too.”

  “The witches and warlocks won’t stand for this. If I disappear, they will ask questions.”

  Amduscias strolled over to the table and glared down at her.

  “Not all witches and warlocks are corrupt like you. When they find out what you did in Scorchwood and what you’ve been doing to the supernatural community, they will drop you like a hot stone. Despite all that perfume you are wearing to mask it, we know you’ve stolen magic from other supernaturals.”

  “Just kill me. You’re going to do it anyway. I won’t tell you a single thing.”

  Bael trailed the sharp object in his hand down her cheek with just enough pressure that a line of blood appeared. He got close enough to kiss her.

  “That’s not how things work in Hell, sweetie. You don’t just die down here. We can keep you alive for years wishing you were dead. I can make it last as long as I like.”

  “I want to make a deal. I’ll tell you everything, and you make it quick and merciful.”

  Every single demon in the room started laughing. Wasn’t that what we wanted? We got the information, and she died for her crimes. That was how Fergus and I always worked. We got all the information we needed to help right our perp’s wrong, and then we killed them. I wanted the bitch to suffer like she made everyone in Scorchwood suffer, but her death would mean it was over.

  “That’s not how it works here. You’ll tell us one way or another. You let a Duke of Hell live in deplorable conditions. You tortured the man he loves, and you experimented on the woman he loves. That’s just the tip of the iceberg. I’ve got five elementals here in Hell you were playing games with. All for what? More power?” Amduscias asked.

  “It was groundbreaking magic and science!” Skinner hissed. “We were so close. Something about Dark Fae blood reacts well with the spell we spent centuries developing. With the right ingredients and incantation, we can use blood to transfer gifts. We just haven’t figured out how to activate them once we transfer them. We thought the elementals were too far removed from their Fae ancestors. We thought we hit the jackpot when a halfling ended up in Scorchwood. It was just going to be tricky fooling Eiltan since he knew she was his daughter. We would have given him the demon hybrid, but we wanted more babies from her to test our spell on.”

  Now I was standing over the table sneering at her. I wanted to punch her, but Solron already did a number on her face.

  “I haven’t been in prison for hundreds of years. You talked about laws and wanting a trial. You still need consent for medical tests, even in prison, and you know I didn’t embezzle a single dime. None of the elementals you framed were guilty, and even if they were, they shouldn’t have ended up in up in Scorchwood for a white-collar crime.”

  “We were doing magnificent work. We would have changed the entire supernatural community. You were a necessary casualty. You would have eventually gotten out of Scorchwood, and Rathmore would have made sure you remembered nothing if you hadn’t killed him. He was a great High Priest until they arrested him. You have to be some kind of monster to kill an amazing man like that.”

  “Rathmore was a butcher and a baby killer. He tortured Roman. He got off light. If he had ended up in Hell, it would have been worse for him. Be glad he died quickly,” Amduscias growled.

  “Your little lovers and those elementals wouldn’t have been harmed. We would have kept them until we got a few children out of them, then we would have let them out of Scorchwood none the wiser. I even had the other elementals moved to better facilities. If I had known you would cause so much trouble, I would have moved you somewhere that had wards everywhere.”

  Amduscias strolled over to a rack of torture devices and seemed to be deciding on the right one.

  “She had help, you know. I killed several of those guards too, and we all destroyed Rathmore’s research. We all helped.”

  “You destroyed nothing. Rathmore just found test subjects and made sure the women were able to get pregnant. I took over as High Priestess when he was arrested. I was the one who controlled Rathmore, and he was following my orders. I had all of his research, and I made the ultimate decision on test subjects.”

  Amduscias picked a pair of pliers off the wall.

  “You really want to be bragging about that now? You’re strapped to that slab at our mercy. Do you really want to take all the blame?”

  “You’re going to torture me and kill me no matter what I say. I might as well talk about my accomplishments before I go.”

  “Why don’t you do a little more bragging, and I won’t rip off all your fingernails just yet?”

  Skinner paled. She looked like she took a lot of care with her fingernails. They were long and manicured. It probably hurt like fuck to have them ripped off too.

  “Did you order Roman tortured?” Amduscias demanded.

  “Rathmore wanted to blow off some steam, so I allowed him when he asked me if he could. We had both decided to eliminate Jasmine’s previous lovers, and Roman fell into our hands when he tried to escape. By all reports, Jasmine should have been fertile. Rathmore ran many tests on her, and she had the motive to succeed. Testing the men was much more difficult.

  “We were starting to think the men were the problem. They were either shooting blanks or not willing to finish inside her so she had a chance of conceiving. We didn’t want her going back or picking favorites. They wer
e of no use to us anymore. They were lifers anyway, and no one would miss them. If they had been arrested at different times, they probably would have been sentenced to death instead of Scorchwood.”

  “Did you think I would fuck Jasmine just because you stuck her in my cell? The woman was repulsive, and I have standards.”

  “We thought you would crack eventually. Everyone in Scorchwood has sex eventually. When Jasmine seemed to fail at her task, I decided to bring more elementals in. I thought it was my lucky day finding a fire elemental I could get my hands on. I thought we lucked out finding a halfling. I was cursed the day I decided to frame that girl. None of this would be happening if I hadn’t wanted a fire elemental so badly.”

  I threw back my head and cracked up laughing. I crawled on the table and straddled her waist. I got right up in her face.

  “You really have no idea what you let into your prison when you framed me. I’m a little psycho, you know. I’ve never tortured anyone before, but I’m eager to see Amduscias at work. Maybe he’ll teach me and let me practice on you.”

  Skinner tried to draw away from me, but she couldn’t go anywhere.

  “Get her away from me. She’s crazy. I haven’t forgotten the scene in Rathmore’s room or the burned bodies she left behind. I don’t want her torturing me. If you’re going to torture me, I want it to be anyone but her.”

  Amduscias pulled me off the table and yanked me into a passionate kiss. He kept me pressed to his chest and scowled down at Skinner.

  “It would be hugely erotic for me to watch her torture you. I’d probably whisk her back to my estate and make passionate love to her. I wouldn’t even give her the chance to wash your blood off.”

  “Please, I’ll tell you anything as long as it’s not her.”

  “The names of everyone in your coven and who else knows what you are doing.”

  “No one knows outside of the Nightshade Circle, and we don’t let just anyone in the coven. We have a strict vetting process because of our mission. There are twenty people in the Nightshade Circle. We haven’t let a new member in since Rathmore was arrested. It was a new initiate that was responsible for his arrest. We have some parents and children in the coven, but we stopped letting children in after Rathmore. It was the son of a high-ranking coven member that betrayed Rathmore. We couldn’t take any more risks. We all could have gone down with Rathmore.”