by Lizzy Ford
Zoey nibbled on a protein bar, too busy to have eaten real food all day or to bother sleeping in over thirty hours. She climbed into the back of the van awaiting her on the street. Chrissy sat in back with her while Ginny drove. Two body bags were in back of the van, one belonging to the Halfling and the other to the succubus who burnt down her warehouse. She wanted to bury the Halfling somewhere off the grid but hadn’t been able to.
“Isn’t there a saying about being late?” Chrissy asked, tugging at the band around her arm.
“I think it’s what fashionable people do,” Ginny replied.
Zoey half-listened, focused on double-checking her weapons rather than her daunting task. Anger about the warehouse fueled her, present despite her exhaustion. She didn’t care at all that she was about to face off with the members of the Sucubatti and Incubatti Councils. Vikki had discreetly reported that the Enforcers weren’t pleased and the Cambions thrilled that Team Rogue was about to get itself annihilated by both societies.
“Stop messing with that, Chrissy. We have to give it back to Grant,” Zoey said with a glance at the agitated human in their midst. “Is it working?”
“Yes, I think so,” Chrissy said, tilting her head. “It feels like I’m outside right before a storm. You know how charged the air gets?”
“As long as you’re not struck by lightning,” Ginny quipped. “How’d you get him to give it up, Zoey?”
“How do you think?” Zoey replied with a shrug. “I told him he could voluntarily turn it over or I could take his arm off while he slept. He was happy to volunteer it.”
“I tested it today. It can hide the wearer from detection as well,” Chrissy reported. “It’s amazing technology.”
“Good to know. How is the device you planted in our friend here?” Zoey nudged the body bag closest to her, the one belonging to the succubus.
“Electromagnetic pulse bomb. I told you, it’s fifty-fifty at best,” Chrissy reminded her. “I set it to go off in twenty-four hours.”
“I’ll take those odds,” Zoey said firmly. “That gives us twenty-four hours to find Olivia’s lab.”
“No pressure.” Ginny gave a tight smile.
“I hope it works,” Chrissy murmured.
“You’re brilliant, Chrissy,” Zoey told her. “Everything you touch turns to magic.”
Chrissy’s expression softened. The strain of the past several weeks was clear on her face, and Zoey felt responsible for the stress they were all under. Without sex magic to help sustain her, Chrissy was the worst off and in dire need of a vacation.
“After this, you can take a real break,” Zoey promised her.
“I don’t need a break,” Chrissy replied. “I’m proud to serve with you, Zoey.”
“Tell me that when tonight’s over.” Zoey shrugged her shoulders to loosen them and drew a deep breath.
They drove in silence for half an hour, leaving the bright lights of DC for the darker forests of Maryland to the north. Ginny pulled into an abandoned parking lot. The meeting with the Councilmembers was being held on neutral territory in Rockville, Maryland, about twenty miles north of DC, in an isolated area at a campground chosen by Zoey because it was far enough away from both societies’ operations centers.
“You ready?” Ginny asked, meeting her gaze in the rearview mirror.
“As much as possible.”
“Thank god. That body’s been in the van for a day now,” Ginny said and opened the driver’s side door.
Zoey opened the sliding door and stepped from the van into the warm night.
“Here.” Chrissy handed her the armband. “I’ll keep the van running.” She moved up to the driver’s seat.
Zoey secured the band around her forearm and pulled down her sleeve to cover it. She helped Ginny heft the dead succubus over one shoulder then struck off through the parking lot to the open field where the meeting was taking place. She sensed rather than saw the sex magic from succubae and incubuses around them, a sign the societies had thought to secure the perimeter with no less than a dozen of their people.
She felt Declan’s presence long before she saw him. Despite the armband, her blood lit on fire at the idea of seeing him again. Already, the magic that drew her to him initially, that bound them as soul-mates, was stronger than last time, a reminder of how powerful he was. The armband was working but he was potent enough for the magic to creep into her system anyway.
Three Councilmembers – two Incubatti, one Sucubatti – stood in the middle of the field beneath floodlights. They were flanked by the respective heads of their security arms, along with personal guards for each Councilmember and foot soldiers.
Bred and trained to kill Cambions, Zoey’s and Ginny’s eyes were drawn to the Cambion member of the Incubatti Council and the four members of his personal guard he brought with him. The urge to fight and kill her sworn enemy was strong. Zoey forced her attention away from them, knowing she had a much more important mission this night.
She avoided looking in the direction of Declan. His presence made her stomach flutter and her pulse race in anticipation of the kiss, the touch, that would never come.
The Sucubatti Councilmember was a powerful, older women whose name, Eleanor, Zoey had heard whispered in reverent tones among the lower-level Hunters and their trainers. Looking the seasoned woman over, she was almost surprised to find her a normal succubus – and not some sort of mythical creature that sat on high judging everyone else in the society.
Olivia stood to one side, Heidi beside her.
Zoey glared at the woman Declan cheated on her with, Heidi’s presence reminding her of why she needed to hate her soul-mate.
The Incubatti Councilmembers were strong men in their prime, Paul and her father-in-law, Ethan. Declan stood to the side of his father, his Enforcer mask on. Several other super-incubus brothers were nearby, to include Ginny’s soul-mate, the largest man Zoey had ever seen, named Tommy.
Zoey stopped as close as she cared to and waited. Chrissy was right about it feeling like electricity filled the air before a storm. The power swirling around her was incredible, a reminder that she’d gone from a disposable Halfling no one thought twice about to the big leagues in record time.
“The mighty Zoey,” said Paul, the Cambion member of the Incubatti Council. “A pleasure.”
She nodded curtly, curtailing the urge to whip out the small arsenal she carried to chop off the head of the leader of the Cambions.
“This is the extent of Team Rogue?” The Sucubatti Councilmember asked with a glance at Olivia. “This is who has caused so much damage to our societies?”
“There were five of us originally,” Zoey replied. “Along with a few dozen Halflings that hadn’t been put down by the IAB yet.”
Councilmember Eleanor didn’t flinch, a sign she’d known all along what happened to a Halfling that turned twenty two. The silent acknowledgement dashed any hope Zoey had of playing on the sympathies of the Sucubatti, of giving them a chance to convince her maybe there really was some greater purpose to the society, a reason to give them the benefit of the doubt.
They are my enemies. All of them. Her gaze swept to the Incubatti Councilmembers.
“You requested my presence,” she said, uncertain what they wanted from her.
“You came alone. A foolish decision,” Paul said with a smile.
“I have nothing to fear from anyone here,” she replied.
“You are quick to dismiss the strongest members of your society, young lady,” Councilmember Eleanor chided.
“I’m a lab experiment, a half breed with the strength of two succubae, bred and taught to kill the enemies of the Sucubatti. My team has gotten rid of five times the amount of Cambion scum in eight weeks than your operation does in a year. But I am not one of you. You have made that clear.” She motioned to Ginny, who grew nearer the Sucubatti Councilmember and slung down the body bag. “I, however, have the decency to return a member of your society to you, even after she killed one of my own and
burnt down our home.”
The silence that followed her statement was cold. None of the Councilmembers looked at the body, as if to do so was acknowledgement of their involvement.
“No Halfling has ever opposed her soul-mate,” Paul said. “Either he is weak or you are using him.”
Zoey pulled up her sleeve. “Or, I’m wearing a toy I borrowed from Grant Brown that allows a normal human to operate in both societies without falling prey to either.”
“You hurt our liaison?”
“He gladly volunteered it. I can be persuasive when I need to be.”
Paul glanced at Declan, as if hoping to catch the Enforcer Chief off guard.
“Intriguing technology, no doubt one of the Incubatti’s toys.” Olivia purred, face lighting up with interest as she continued stare at Zoey’s forearm. “Tell me, Zoey, is it smart to come here alone as you did? Both Councils have issued warrants for your detainment. The only challenge tonight is who gets you first.”
“I encourage you to try,” Zoey growled in response.
“It would not be a fair fight. Declan needs only to touch you once and you would fold,” Paul said mockingly.
“Is this the purpose behind this meeting? To capture me?” she asked.
“Not entirely,” said Councilmember Eleanor. “We wish first to appeal to your reason and encourage you to take your place in our society.”
“Or with your soul-mate,” Ethan added.
“I will not do either. The Incubatti protect the Cambions that kill innocent humans. The Sucubatti refuse to act to stop the violence,” she said.
“Then you leave us little choice, Zoey,” Councilmember Eleanor said. “We negotiated a deal with the Incubatti. If you chose one society, the other agreed to let you go, so long as the violence stopped. You chose neither, which means we have no choice but to take you in.”
“I have an insurance policy,” Zoey replied. “I came alone because I sent my teams to the homes of every one of the Councilmembers and in ambush positions outside Sites X and Z with instructions to destroy anyone there as of midnight tonight.” She made a show of checking her watch. “Which is in an hour. Enough time for most of you to make it back. Once I leave here, I call them off. If I don’t check in within an hour …” She shrugged.
“Bullshit,” Paul snapped. “Their locations are highly classified secrets.”
Zoey held out her hand, and Ginny placed a tablet in it. “The address for Councilmember Tanya Lambert is 537 South Craycroft, Bowie, Maryland. Councilmember Joseph D. Hawkins lives at …” She rattled off four names, two from each society, before anyone spoke.
“Enough,” Ethan said, his sharp tone drawing her gaze. “Tonight was merely one window of opportunity. There will be many more. Are you certain you are turning your back on both societies?”
Silence fell, and the predators around her waited.
“Absolutely,” Zoey said.
“I believe the intention is more along the lines of establishing a third society, independent of the existing two,” Declan spoke quietly.
“I don’t care how you sugar-coat it,” Zoey replied with more heat than she intended. “It is what it is. You can’t pretend it’s not happening, that we don’t exist.”
Declan ignored the reference to his indiscretion, his features calm. “The difference is that one maintains diplomatic relations, an open channel among equals, as opposed to a never ending manhunt.”
“True,” his father seconded. “If you are applying for recognition to the Councilmembers, it’s an entirely different standing.”
Zoey shifted. Every fiber of her being wanted to tell them to fuck off and walk away. The only part of her that hesitated: the one that innately understood how hard it was to defend her people against two societies with the motivation and power to crush her before she even got started. Without Declan’s funding, she had no way to help her team, and the moment Olivia decided to overtake her body and never return her self-control …
“Why would you even consider such a petition?” Paul asked of his fellow Councilmember.
“It’d be the first time since The War, when the two societies split,” the Sucubatti Councilmember added. “There is no process for such recognition of a new society.”
“The Incubatti did it for Paul and his scum,” Zoey spat. “They put a half breed on the Council.”
“If you think I’ll lift the warrant on your head, think again, Halfling,” Olivia stated.
“I do not fear any of you,” Zoey responded. “At all. In any way.”
The Councilmembers exchanged looks, indicating they’d come to some terms already about her before the meeting. Zoey sensed a thaw in their stances and almost laughed. Did they truly think she cared for formal recognition?
Their silence stretched on. Astonished they were considering it after declaring war on her earlier, she risked a glance at Declan.
He was watching her, unreadable, his hazel eyes almost gold in the spotlights.
The man she wanted to hate had given her breathing room, which she desperately needed. It was as coolly brilliant as he was, an option no one considered. It gave the bureaucratic societies who were unwilling to risk all out war a reason to stall.
“We can consider the motion,” the Sucubatti Councilmember said. “But until the Council makes a decision, our stance on Team Rogue remains.”
“We will await your decision,” Ethan said on behalf of the Incubatti. “And upgrade our warrant from dead-or-alive to alive, out of respect for our sister Council.”
She nodded her head.
Zoey said nothing, uncertain if she should be amused or horrified by being drawn into the bureaucracy of her ex-society. The meeting wasn’t going as planned – and she didn’t know what to make of it.
“Formal recognition requires liaisons with other societies,” Olivia said. “Are you considering this?”
Aside from the spy you have in my ranks? Zoey bit her tongue instead of smarting off. Her eyes fell to Heidi. “You know what? Sure. If the powers-that-be decide to formalize this, I’d be happy for Heidi to join us.”
Heidi did not appear anywhere near as eager. It was the first time Zoey had managed to put the woman in an uncomfortable position. She enjoyed it briefly before realizing it was stupid to invite someone as smart as Heidi into her midst. The operations office for Olivia was shrewd, relentless and loyal to the IAB inside and out, with a special hatred for Zoey, who claimed Declan after Heidi spent months trying to seduce him for intel at Olivia’s direction.
“Who would you consider from our society?” Declan asked.
“Alexander,” she replied without a second thought, the name of her long time mentor rarely far from her thoughts. She’d heard nothing about him since turning him over to the Incubatti. Knowing Declan would protect him, she nonetheless worried about her friend.
“He is too elderly to live your lifestyle,” Ethan replied.
“If you think I’d ever let anything happen to him, then you underestimate me,” she responded coldly. “Heidi and Alexander. No substitutions and no fucking Cambions.”
“The Council decides what –” Councilmember Eleanor started.
At her limit with the posturing and bullshit, Zoey turned and strode away, skin tingling from her awareness of Declan and the inability to prevent her body’s reaction to his presence.
Up until several weeks ago, she had never doubted her instincts, her actions or her motivation. After assuming responsibility for so many lives, she second guessed every decision out of fear for putting someone else’s life in danger or failing to provide the food and weapons her team needed. That more and more of her Halflings were falling prey to whatever Olivia did to them made her desperate for the time and maneuver room she needed to find a cure, whether by outfitting Chrissy with a lab or breaking into Olivia’s.
She wasn’t about to read the book Declan sent her, mainly because it was from him. Alexander would know what to do. He had always guided her. While scoffing the
idea of formal recognition to people she had no reason to respect, she also understood the wisdom of not facing a war on two fronts. The Cambions would always be her primary mission, one that was going to prove difficult to execute, if her people began dropping dead.
A distant throb lit up the back of her head, escalating fast.
“What douches,” Ginny murmured, joining her in the march back towards their van. “You okay?”
“I think so.” Zoey shook her head to clear it of the persistent, buzzing thoughts.
They reached the far side of the van, and she leaned against it.
“The band not work?” Ginny asked.
“It did.”
“You look like shit.”
“My … head …” Zoey gripped it with her hands. Sunspots began to appear in her vision, blocking her ability to see straight, while the buzzing became louder. “Shit. Olivia … did something. Ginny, get the fuck out of here. I can’t control the blackouts.”
“What?” Ginny drew nearer.
Zoey stumbled away. “Now, Ginny! I almost killed a super incubus. I won’t put you in danger!”
“Zoey, wait!”
Her vision growing darker, Zoey whirled and ran blindly towards the forest. The sense of sliding out of her body grew stronger, and she willed the blackout away, terrified of harming one of her closest friends.
She caught herself against a tree, the staggering weight of her internal battle immobilizing her. The sound of her ragged breathing was in her ears, and she closed her eyes, no longer able to see straight. While not painful, the blackouts were terrifying, for she had no control of her body, her actions, her thoughts.
“Zoey.”
Unable to tell if the whisper was real or part of the buzzing in her skull, she didn’t bother moving. There was no doubt in her mind Olivia was behind this; the shady leader of the IAB had admitted as much.
“My little Zoey.” This time, the voice was accompanied by a touch on her forearm.
I love that. Declan’s magic was too strong for her not to recognize it, even if she hadn’t heard her favorite three words softly spoken in with his heavy Southern accent.
