by Amy Sumida
“Hello, my vicious,” Lucifer said in a soft, satisfied tone. “It's my pleasure to help.”
I rolled my eyes at Torin, and he pressed his lips together to keep from laughing.
“Hey, Luke,” I said. “Look after my boy, okay?”
“Cerberus and I make an excellent team. Don't concern yourself with us. If those satyrs are stupid enough to attack us, we will gleefully rend the flesh from their bones.”
Cerberus chortled as I gaped at the phone.
“And you call me vicious,” I finally said.
“I'm merely speaking of self-defense,” Lucifer protested.
“I think I've got a new fighting buddy,” Cerberus declared. “Now that he isn't all devily anymore, he's kinda fun.”
“Great,” I muttered. “I'm so glad you two are getting along.”
“Hey, you were the one who said you were relieved that he's here with me,” Cer pointed out. “I'll call you when we get anything interesting. For now, take a break, El. You've earned it.”
“Stay out of trouble, Cer,” I admonished him. “And pick a new look, Lucifer. Lucas Raven is dead, but we still don't want the God of the Angels flying around the Bazaar like an exotic bird.”
Cerberus burst into laughter again. “Now there's some imagery.”
“It's already done, my vicious,” Lucifer announced. “I'm posing as a demon from Styx, one of Cerberus' old friends.”
“Perfect,” Torin murmured. “The God of the Angels is masquerading as a demon.”
“I noted the irony of it as well,” Lucifer said in a pleased tone. “Goodbye for now. We shall speak soon.”
“Catcha later, El,” Cer added and ended the connection.
“Why do I have the feeling that those two are going to make more trouble than the satyrs?” I asked Torin dryly.
“Because they will,” Torin laid his head back down on my chest. “Now, put the phone away. It appears that we have the day to ourselves.”
“Hmm.” I shimmied further down the bed beneath him. “Whatever shall we do?”
“I've got a few ideas I'd like to run into you.”
“You mean; run by me,” I corrected him.
“No. I don't.”
I squealed as Torin ran his first idea into me.
Chapter Twenty
It took only three days for the Demos Family to take up where their late kerata had left off.
I was curled up with Gage in his massive, bowl-like nest of a bed in his Kyanite tower when my contact charm chimed. I scrambled up the padded side to the platform around the rim and snatched the chain that held the charm and my travel stone. Then I slid down the side as I slipped the stone in my ear. Gage chuckled as he caught me.
“Yeah,” I answered, slightly out of breath.
“Do not tell me that you were having sex again,” Cerberus huffed. “How many times a day do you fuck, Elaria?”
“I make love to my husbands, mate, and boyfriend whenever the mood strikes us,” I emphasized the correct terminology. “And when you have six lovers, the mood strikes often.”
“Fair enough.” He snorted.
“What's up? Did Lucifer and you get into trouble?”
“No, trouble found us,” Cer's voice went grim. “We've had word from my contact at the Bazaar Portals.”
“Already?” I gaped at Gage. “How did they catch the nymphs so fast?”
“It's probably not all that difficult,” Cer muttered. “It doesn't matter. They're due to arrive in—” he paused as if he were checking his watch “—fifteen minutes. I need you to get your ass down here and bring as many of your men as you can.”
“We're not going to attack them at the Portals, are we?”
“No, I sent Grace to the Portals to keep watch. My contact set her up outside a backdoor that the Demos Family uses to transport their cargo. She'll follow them and report back to me with their final location. But we'll need as much help as we can get to wrangle those nymphs; I don't know if they'll be broken yet.”
“Should I bring soldiers?”
“Maybe not that much help,” he amended. “We don't want to draw attention to ourselves.”
“We'll be fleeing a Demos house with a bunch of nymphs,” I pointed out. “People will notice.”
“That's on the way out and it can't be helped, but we can be less conspicuous on the way there.”
“All right. We'll meet you at your office as soon as we can.” I slipped the stone out of my ear as I moved away from Gage. “We gotta go, lover.”
Gage and I crawled out of bed and hurried down the steps of the nest, collecting our scattered clothing along the way. As soon as we were dressed, we headed back to my tower and called for Darc on the castle intercom—a low-range version of a contact charm that was set into the wall of my suite. Darc was busy meeting with William so Sara, my Shining One bestie, answered for him.
“Tell my husband to get his ass up to the tower immediately,” I said and ended the call.
Sara would give me hell for my abruptness later, but I didn't have time to worry about it now. I contacted Torin next and then Declan, asking them to meet us at the Beneather Bazaar entrance. Finally, I contacted Banning and Slate and asked them to meet me in Kyanite. Since they were already on Earth, they'd need to come through the Veil before they could travel to Istanbul. So, I figured we'd all go together.
Banning arrived first, then Slate appeared, dressed casually for once, in jeans, T-shirt, and a leather jacket. He was kissing me hello when Darc strode in.
“If you called me up here for a foursome, I'm leaving,” Darc announced in irritation.
“I was just saying hello,” I huffed as I pulled away from Slate. “Cerberus called; we need to get to the Bazaar. A new shipment of nymphs is due any minute.”
“Very well.” Darc undid his belt and then shrugged out of his tunic. “Give me a moment to put on something more appropriate.”
Gage was already in his usual outfit of jeans and a band shirt. He used to wear fighting leathers a lot, but he'd slowly learned the appeal of human clothing and now, only wore his Griffin clothes into battle. This wasn't a battle yet so he stayed as he was while Darc slid on his version of casual clothing; beige cotton trousers and a deep green, long-sleeve, knit shirt. I shook my head; I had to get that man in jeans. I was betting his ass would look phenomenal in them. The problem wasn't that Darc wasn't willing to wear jeans, it was trying to find a pair in extra-long ex-god size. I made a mental note to ask Cerberus where he got his jeans.
We traveled to Istanbul together, arriving in an alley just outside the Bazaar, to find Declan and Torin already waiting for us. They had dressed for work as well. Declan even had his shoulder-length hair braided back. All of the men also wore grim expressions as we made our way through the human Grand Bazaar to Beneath Your Feet, the rug shop with an entrance to the Beneather Bazaar in back.
I said a quick hello to Baris, the Jinn who owned the shop, and then slipped through the backdoor and into the Bazaar. As it did every time, the sights, smells, and sounds of the Beneather Bazaar slapped me in the face and made my whole body come alive. I breathed in deeply and led the way to the left and then through an alley. We strode beneath Middle Eastern arches to another street then went left again. There, a bunch of cats pounced into our path and circled our group before setting into a stride before us, leading the way to Cerberus Security.
“We seem to have acquired an escort,” Slate noted.
“It's Kosmos and his kin,” I said. “They probably heard about the shipment.”
A pure white longhair cat with midnight eyes so dark that I couldn't make out their pupils, meowed at us in the affirmative.
“Kosmos, I presume,” Gage said gleefully.
“That would be him,” I confirmed as we followed the kitty parade up the stone steps to the second level of the Bazaar which aligned with the third floor of the stone buildings.
The cats ran ahead, little paws pumping. Several of them jumped up onto the wid
e stone railings that bordered the walkways so they didn't have to deal with the pedestrians. The other kitties, including Kosmos, rushed boldly forward on the ground, pushing beneathers out of their way with their impressive feline presence. I laughed under my breath as I watched people jerk back as Kosmos approached. No one wanted to get on that cat's bad side.
The cats were waiting at Cer's door when we got there, and I had to carefully wade through the furry tide to open it for them. Tails swished out of my way as I moved forward and then they rushed through the opening. The rest of us followed them past the empty reception desk and into the back room.
“Good, you're here,” I heard Cer say to the cats before I walked in... and stopped short.
“Lucifer, is that you?” I asked as I blinked at the demon sitting beside Cerberus.
Mottled gray skin covered a thick, squat body. The face that looked up at me had strange angles to it; cheekbones too wide and prominent, nose too long, and eyebrows accented by tiny horns. Ebony hair hid the base of several more pairs of yellowed horns and all of those neutral colors made a perfect background for the Demon's searing yellow eyes. His wide mouth spread even wider into a smile.
“It is I,” Lucifer confirmed. “I went with a relatively drab countenance better suited to espionage.”
“Good call,” Gage said then nodded to Grace, who stood at Cer's shoulder. “Did you get the location?”
“Yeah, we got it,” Cer answered for Grace as he passed the swan-shifter a wad of cash. “Make yourself scarce, Grace. Shit's about to get real.”
“You don't have to tell me twice.” Grace skirted the cats and hurried out the door. “I think it's a good time to visit Paris.”
“Kos, we'll need you and your crew to enter the building first and scope the scene. Hopefully, they won't suspect an attack this soon, and we're going to use that to our advantage. As soon as the delivery team leaves, we'll move in. There's likely to be just a few guards on duty, but I want you to confirm that before Elaria goes in.”
Kosmos gave a sharp cry.
“El, I want you to go in next and sing the guards to sleep,” Cer said. “As much as I want these fuckers dead, a silent escape is more important.”
“I can sing them into a quiet death, Cer. You know that.”
“Can you?” He asked warily. “Can you do it without losing your shit?”
“Yes, Cerberus, I can,” I growled. “Unless the guards start breaking the nymphs in front of me, I should be fine.”
Cerberus looked at Lucifer. Lucifer nodded subtly, and I grimaced.
“You're seriously taking Lucifer's word over mine?” I snapped.
Cerberus winced. “Sorry, I just wanted a second opinion. Since you're so confident, go ahead and kill those motherfuckers, El. In fact, if that's our new plan, we don't have to wait for a lean crew. We'll have the cats scope a good position for you to set yourself up in and then you can go in and kill as many of them as you can get.”
“I like this plan.” I smiled wickedly.
“I don't know about this.” Darc gave me a worried look. “I don't think it's a good idea for you to go in there alone.”
“I will make myself invisible and attend her,” Lucifer offered. “I'd suggest she cloak herself as well, but I'm assuming that Elaria can only hold one spell at a time.”
“No, I can keep multiple spells going but it takes more concentration, and I'd rather keep focused,” I explained. “So, I won't waste my time with invisibility.”
“I'm with Darc,” Declan said. “I think we should be more careful with your spellsinging, Elaria.”
“Lucifer just said that he'll go with me,” I tried to keep a calm, reasonable tone. “And I know what to look out for now. If I start getting too angry, I'll retreat. Okay?”
My men looked at each other, exchanging worried glances.
“We could all go with you,” Declan suggested. “I can cover everyone in an illusion, and I can help rein in any satyrs that try to get away.”
“And the rest of us can guard the exit,” Torin added.
“How are we going to sneak an invisible parade into a closely guarded bazaar building?” I asked. “They'll see the door staying open for longer than it should.”
“Fine, I'll go in with Lucifer and you, kill anyone who lingers near the door, and then let the others in,” Declan said.
I thought about it. “Yeah, okay. That'll work.”
“We good?” Cerberus looked at everyone as he stood, and we nodded. “Good. Let's go, people. We can't walk through the Bazaar invisible so keep as low a profile as possible on the way there.” He looked pointedly at Lucifer. “No fighting.”
“Fighting?” I lifted a brow at Cerberus and then at Lucifer.
“Long story,” Cer said evasively. “I'll tell you later.”
Lucifer gave me a devilish smile as he strode past.
Chapter Twenty-One
The nymphs were being held in a building off the Harpy Stretch; a neighborhood that rarely knew a moment's quiet. A perfect place to keep prisoners, no one would hear them. The nymphs weren't broken yet, but they didn't scream or cry out for help. They huddled together in a large cage that took up most of the second floor. The second floor; another good choice. Buildings in the Bazaar were segregated horizontally as well as vertically. In other words, the first two floors of a building were connected but were separate from the top two. That's why the bridges had been constructed at the third-floor level; that's where the entrances to the top floors were. What this meant for the nymphs was that in order to escape they would have to make it down to the first floor and past all of the guards before they reached the relative safety of the street.
I crouched behind a crate with Lucifer. The cats had gone in first, gotten the lay of the land, and took out the security cameras for us. Then Declan had made everyone but Lucifer and me invisible while Lucifer handled his own illusion, and I cloaked myself with a song. Lucifer and I would be out of Declan's line of sight and that would interfere with his magic so we had to take care of ourselves. Once covered by magic, Declan, Lucifer, and I walked in the front door, creeping in behind a satyr. Declan remained downstairs, where he would quietly dispatch any guards on the first floor before he let in the other men while Lucifer and I had followed a couple of satyrs up to the second floor.
Safely hidden behind the crates, I let go of my illusion and focused on a new song. I had a moment of doubt, looking at all of the men I intended to kill. Did they deserve this? Who was I to be their judge and jury? They were only following orders. Maybe I should just render them unconscious. But in my crisis of conscience, I'd forgotten that these were thugs who had willingly joined the Demos Family knowing full well what they did. This fact was brought home to me when the satyrs started looking over the nymphs, discussing each one's attributes with each other while trying to decide on who they'd rape first.
“I'm going to kill them all,” I hissed.
“They're completely distracted,” Lucifer whispered. He was the lookout since he was still invisible. “Sing, my vicious. I'm here if you need me.”
Kyanite was prepared and as soon as I decided to start, soft music trickled into the air around me. “Weight of Everything” by Ill Factor and Katie Garfield began gently, just a hesitant flicker of sound lost beneath satyr laughter. I whispered the opening lines with it, going straight into the strike. I sang about the challenges and tragedies of life but the words themselves were about suffocation. Penned in by fire. All air consumed by the heat until breath became flames. The satyrs fell as one, gasping for breath as fire licked the floor around them to form another cage in the room, this one around the captors.
The nymphs went still, eyes wide in amazement, and then slowly got to their feet. They pressed against the wall of their cell, as far from the violence as they could get, but they didn't close their eyes to it; they eagerly watched as their oppressors were vanquished. The satyrs struggled to rise but my words pushed them back down, an unseen weight upon them
. Strangling them. Searing their skin. Shoving fire down their throats and feeding it with the air in their lungs. It was a risk for me, this scorching song, but I wanted to know if I could handle it. And I did. I kept my emotions in check, the soft roll of the music helping to keep my heartbeat steady and my focus true.
I got to my feet and strode around the crates as I dropped the wall of flames that penned in the satyrs, revealing my men. They stood there waiting for me, visible again so I could see the confidence in their faces. On the other side of the room, the nymphs rushed to the bars of their cell and called out to me urgently, but I kept my attention on their tormentors; all eight of them. And that didn't include the satyrs my men had killed downstairs. It looked as if we'd caught a full crew.
