by R. J. Blain
Drawing a rune with one arm unavailable took more effort than I appreciated, but I drew the rune to create light, set the paper aside, and gave it a shake to activate it. The paper glowed with a pure white radiance.
“Oh, that was nicely done,” Diana complimented before taking the sheet of paper and pressing it to the scanner. “This scanner has a very interesting feature; it can judge the strength of a practitioner from a working.” After a moment, the machine beeped. “And that explains the strange brain activity; you’re probably fairly up there on the practitioner charts, so you’ll need to be trained if you haven’t done a lot of high-level, refined magic. Lycanthropy is essentially concentrated magic, so it doesn’t surprise me you’d become a rather strong practitioner following the infusion of blood you’ve been given. I’m also a practitioner, so my blood probably contributed.”
Somehow, I kept from giggling, and Jonas turned his head away from Diana under the guise of checking his phone, which was on the nightstand. To keep my amusement contained, I asked, “How is my reproductive system doing?”
“Ask Jonas. He’s your personal hormone therapy plan right now.”
“He keeps telling me no, but then wanders around and poses, and I think it’s really not fair.”
Diana rolled her eyes. “Jonas, what are you doing?”
“Keeping you from having to donate an extra unit or two a day due to her virus wanting to permanently tame me. Until you two aren’t coming back here every day for donations, we will just have to suffer through abstinence.”
“Suffering is the correct word to use. I suffer, significantly.” I heaved my most dramatic sigh. “He even gets into bed when I’m cold, but I have to behave. It’s cruel, Diana. Just look at him.”
“Yes, he is an incubus, and incubi are generally attractive.” Diana glanced at Darian with a grimace. “Sorry. It’s true.”
“The rule is look but don’t touch. You can look at the incubi all you want, but you have to come home and touch me,” Darian replied with a grin. “I really don’t mind when you get worked up because you had a bunch of incubi flouncing around you.”
“Flouncing is such a good word for it,” Jonas stated with a hint of good humor in his voice. “Would you like me to spread word that you would enjoy us flouncing around your woman, Darian?”
“I’ll even look the other way should your pranks target those in close proximity to me.”
Diana huffed, but after a few moments, she laughed. “You two are something else. Don’t mind them, Sandra.”
“I want to hear more about this flouncing.”
Jonas snickered. “It’s lewd.”
“That isn’t discouraging me.”
“Except you’re banned from extracurricular activities for at least another week. Lewd is a code word for frustration. Your frustration. It won’t bother me at all. Frustrated women are almost as delicious as virgin ones. Go ahead. Take the bait. I’ll enjoy myself in a week. I’m used to being patient.”
Diana giggled. “He’s got you there, Sandra. And he’s right about the week. Your hormone levels are still a mess. Are you going to be all right for a week, Jonas? You have to be hitting your limit with the amount of work you’ve been putting in. Lucifer wanted me to make sure you aren’t getting excessively hungry.”
“I’m fine. She’s bleeding off some serious energy from her generalized frustration and interest, so I’m getting enough to work with. Not as much as I’d like, but she’s got a strong sex drive. I’m doing all right.”
“You can really feed just from being near someone who wants sex?” I blurted.
“I can,” Jonas confirmed. “It won’t sustain a demon, but it takes the edge off. It delays having to feed, but it can’t replace feeding. I’m as good as it gets for being able to wait right now. A week won’t bother me.”
With narrowed eyes, Diana considered the incubus. “It’s been almost two months since you’ve fed, Jonas.”
“Unlike my sister, who is spoiled and has never had a reason to truly test her limits, I can go three months before Lucifer starts giving me the eye for not having fed. After six, I’m a mess, but two is nothing.”
“If you’re sure.”
“I’m sure, but thank you for asking. Has Lucifer given us our next errand list?”
“Yes, I have it with me. He promises that you won’t be dealing with another lab today, but he makes no promises you won’t have to keep an eye out.”
Something about Diana’s tone made Jonas tense. “What is he having us do?”
“He thinks he has a lead on a corporation working with the labs, and he wants Sandra to inquire on their available cancer treatments while showing off Lucille, wanting them to believe she’s an ultra-wealthy possible client they might be able to manipulate. You’re to go with her as her escort, posing as a secretary or servant of some sort. I have the clothes required to dress her up, I have one of Lucifer’s suits for you, and an address. Sandra, we’re hoping to get an information package for their potential treatments, which we think might be linked to the studies they’ve been doing in some of their labs. Jonas, feel free to abuse your ability to teleport, but only do so if you’re confident of Sandra’s safety.”
“But why would I be going there?” I asked.
“A friend tipped you off, and if asked about who tipped you off, you’re unwilling to breach confidentiality.” Diana set the meter on the dresser and went to her purse, retrieving a tablet. “This has all of our current notes on the operation. Go through it, take a look at the pictures of those we believe to be involved, and keep your eyes open.”
I took the tablet in my free hand and eyed it warily. “If I get used as a lab experiment, I’m making the Devil pay for all eternity, Diana.”
“There’s a line, but I’ll let you skip in front of me if it backfires like that. Lucifer’s ruthless, but he doesn’t intentionally endanger his people. Sure, there’s danger and risk, but he won’t deliberately put someone into such a position without giving a complete disclosure of those risks. This should be safe enough.”
“He didn’t warn me those ‘kittens’ were hungry and would be happy to eat me,” I muttered.
“He likely peeked into the future and saw how your adventure into that house would play out. That said, I’ve made a new policy to be very wary if Lucifer asks me to go retrieve any kittens. Your new otters are adorable, though. When I left the manor this morning, they were heading out to build their habitat and add an expansion to your new house. It’s amazing how hard fucking assholes will work to dodge time in the dungeon. And the fucking assholes who have been behaving get to do jobs they actually like.”
With some help from Jonas, I sat up, careful to keep from jarring the line pumping me full of Darian’s blood. Once situated, I put the tablet on my lap and began scrolling through the data. The note describing the company as an off-shoot of Wishing Well worried me. “We’re not going to run into yet another zombie apocalypse doomed to wipe out more cities in Georgia, are we?”
“The idea is to avoid that. Right now, we think we’ve eliminated the labs that were toeing the line. As long as we keep them from crossing the line, the conditions for the End of Days will remain unmet. But yes, it’s a concern. I doubt you’ll encounter many undead on this adventure.”
“Many does not mean none, Diana.” I glared at the woman, scrolling through in search of any information on the potential undead I might encounter. Sure enough, deep within the file’s depths, I found a summarization of the various undead types created by Wishing Well, how to cope with them if I ran into them, and some names and examples of people who’d survived the general purge. “Why weren’t all of the undead destroyed when Atlanta and the other cities were razed?”
“Some of their undead were created through bargains with Lucifer, demons, or devils, so they abided by the universal rules on their creation. Wishing Well attempted to circumvent those rules, which led to conditions for the End of Days being met. The ones Lucifer is responsible f
or survived. The ones made by other demons or devils were eradicated along with the ones created by other practitioners. The ones Lucifer created are tracked, as we want to see what they’re up to. They will not have a good time once they perish.” Diana wrinkled her nose, went to Darian, and pressed her fingers to his throat to check his pulse. “How are you holding up?”
“My virus is spiking again,” he complained.
“Oh, how I pity you,” the woman replied, and she smirked. “I am so sad I will have to work with you and a spiking virus. I am so terribly saddened by knowing I will have to take you home with a spiked virus.”
Darian burst into laughter. “You say that now, but will you be saying that when I make you miss at least half a day of work?”
“That better not be all talk,” she warned.
“And now that I know too much about what you two will be doing later, how long do we have left before I can be freed from the transfusion line?”
Still smirking, Diana got out her scanner and jabbed my finger with it. After a few moments, the machine beeped. “Your blood pressure is back to where it needs to be, so I’ll free you from my fiancé’s wicked clutches. Leave the bandage in place for a few hours. Your attire has long sleeves, so it’ll be hidden, although once you tell them you are seeking cancer treatments, they’ll make assumptions. Take your time reading the notes I gave you and have Jonas drive. Also, Lucifer had new glasses made for you. Jonas knows where they’re at. You’re to have your eyes checked once a week, and I think Lucifer intends for one of his brothers to do the work. Raguel came in while you were napping and did your first examination last night.”
“Raguel?”
“My father,” Darian answered, holding still while Diana extracted the transfusion line and bandaged his arm. “Lucifer is being flighty and overprotective, and my father is pretty good about not tripping any triggers, so he came over and handled the work. You need to be able to see without squinting.”
“I think that’s a myth. Can people actually see without squinting?”
Darian snorted. “With the correct glasses, yes.”
Diana took her time extracting the line from my arm, careful to leave some blood in the line so no potentially lethal air bubbles could sneak in and put an end to my life. Once done, she hauled the tubing and needles to the bathroom to wash them, leaving Jonas and Darian to bandage my arm so I wouldn’t leave lycanthropy-infected blood in the hotel room.
The cloths used to clean up the excess drops of blood went into a bag marked with a biohazard label. Once Diana had the tubing and needles cleaned, she put them away in her briefcase. “Jonas, if her blood pressure drops, give us a call. I’m going to take Mr. Spiking here home so he can make me miss work. Sandra, try not to need us until after we’ve missed work.”
“I will do my best not to interrupt your truancy,” I promised.
Diana pointed at the room’s closet. “Your clothes are in there, the errand list is on the dresser, and try not to drive Jonas too crazy with your displays of interest. He’s trying so hard to be a good little incubus, but he’s really not skilled at being good or at being an incubus.”
“Hey! I’m an excellent incubus. I’m just really not good at sharing or relationships. But I’m a very skilled incubus, thank you very much.”
“And on that note, we’ll leave you to your hunt,” Diana said before herding Darian out of the room. At the door, she paused and added, “At least try to be careful. If Lucifer has to rescue you two, his reputation will be thoroughly destroyed, and the whining would be even worse than it already is in that damned house.”
Once they were gone, I asked, “What whining?”
Jonas grinned. “Lucifer was whining because Kanika and Malcolm took him seriously and went to make friends with your parents and the entire neighborhood. He was given exactly one piece of cornbread and one piece of pecan pie. This has created a certain amount of tension in the family, as he now wants another piece of pecan pie, and Kanika has marked the entire neighborhood as her territory. We will get an entire pie, by the way. We have been asked if we want an entire pan of cornbread, and if we wanted it spicy or sweet. We can get a pan of spicy and sweet if we are voracious cornbread fans. You’re apparently well-liked in the neighborhood. I’m disturbed I have to behave because you’re liked, and I need to maintain your pristine reputation.”
“My what reputation?”
“Pristine.”
“Jonas, I painted my swing set the one true color because it wasn’t the right color. I probably stole the neighbor’s paint and brush to do it. I was a fiend as a child.”
“But according to everyone who has talked about it, you were an adorable fiend with good manners when you weren’t doing things like stealing paint.”
Goodness gracious. What had my family been telling the Devil? Worse, what had the neighbors been telling Kanika and her husband? “I’m never going to be able to go home again, am I? The embarrassment will kill me if I ever return home.”
“I’m sure you’ll be fine.”
Twelve
Lucille is fun to drive.
While I wanted to drive, Jonas insisted, claiming that a pampered, wealthy woman wouldn’t risk breaking a nail, especially when already in poor health. It annoyed me I understood his logic, although I questioned how the wealthy got through day-to-day life.
As such, I filled the time with reading on the way to our target, an office building located on the outskirts of Savannah. Before the razing, the place had been a warehouse located a few miles outside of the city limits. The razing had ended in the building’s back yard, and according to Diana’s tablet, she believed a few surviving employees of the organization, who’d been out of town at the time, had taken up the corporation’s banner, moving their efforts from bargaining to the corruption of the lycanthropy virus.
A note in the file proclaimed Diana and Darian to be at high risk due to being the first infected with the adjusted virus, and that the corporation, now known as Modern Miracles Pharmaceuticals, funded and helped operate a collection of legal and illegal labs. Worse, the company sought out illegal animal breeders to stock their labs with test subjects, using their legal activities to cover their general practices.
I grumbled curses. “Lucifer is likely going to have me organize everything so it might be turned into a court case, and the more of this summary I read, the less I like this whole thing.”
“Nobody with a scrap of morality likes this mess,” Jonas replied. “And yes, I know you wanted to drive, but it’s almost four hours to get to Savannah, and with the traffic and reconstruction, it could take us five. I can afford to be a little tired when we get there, but you need to be sharp—and you can’t really afford to strain your virus right now.”
“While I understand that, Lucille is fun to drive.”
Chuckling, the incubus acknowledged my point with a nod. “She really is. Lucifer wants to take down the entire operation, from the parent company down to every supplier knowingly involved. That’s why he wanted an intern with legal skills. You can help gather the paperwork the lawyers will need to make a good case. We need a strong case because Georgia allows private prosecution but only if sufficient evidence can beat the defendant’s claims on why he or she should not be charged. This would allow Lucifer to be the lead attorney for the case. If Lucifer is handling the prosecution for the case, it has a strong chance of making it through the courts. The defense would have to choose between using angels or doing it on their own—and that’s where Lucifer wins. If angels are refused, guilt is essentially confirmed. But we need a strong enough case to make it through the first stage of court.”
While aware of the private prosecution laws in our state, I hadn’t put much thought into it, as getting a case opened often counted as a living nightmare. Without sufficient admissible evidence, judges tossed the cases. “Why isn’t Lucifer using the state’s prosecution?”
“We’re in the south. The prosecution might be bought out. We’re going
to be looking into that, too. Awhile back, one of Lucifer’s precious unicorns caught himself a stolen succubus, and the court system had been responsible for her captivity. Now that she’s safely recovered and is sporting hooves due to being bonded with her unicorn, Lucifer wants to bring down operations like that. He’s starting in Georgia, but he’ll be headed to where his succubus was held to finish general cleanup there. He’s probably hoping you’ll have your JD in time for that work, as that one is personal.”
“So unicorns really can seduce and keep demons like yourself?”
“She won’t be going anywhere until her stallion’s lifespan comes to its natural conclusion. You’ll have to give me a week or two to come to terms with captivity. But, she’s well-fed, and there’s something to be said about being well-fed.”
I grinned at the thought of Jonas having to come to terms with being a well-fed captive. “You don’t have to be my bed buddy unless you want to. If captivity is too much for you.”
“I resent how well Lucifer likely planned this. First, you’re a virgin, and there is a reason we incubi get really hungry around virgins. Then you’re a bold virgin with a frightening amount of drive to catch yourself an incubus. Then, to complicate matters for me, you’re naturally monogamous, which works well with my nature, thanks to Lucifer’s meddling. Free will isn’t so free when the deck is completely stacked in such a way to make something almost inevitable. I’m hungry, you’re interested, and fuck cancer anyway.”
“If being near aroused people helps you take the edge off, we could park near a brothel for a while or something. That would help, wouldn’t it?”
“However much being hungry is annoying, I’m really okay. I didn’t lie to Diana, although I’m known to lie. I don’t joke around about my hunger levels, because a hungry incubus is a dangerous incubus. Of course, you’re a hungry spicy pony with bite, and I’m willing to bet your second nature is kicking into overdrive, and He likely made you the match of unicorns knowing you’re after an incubus. It wouldn’t surprise me if you’re a conversion species, too. If you can convert me, then we’d have children of your species as a guarantee rather than having a chance for a demon or devil, depending on the conception and gestation period. Making devils and demons is a bit more complex than just having sex. And since I’m an incubus, conversion is temporary, although ensnared demons and devils tend to let the conversion stick. We’re suckers for punishment.”
