“Clearly,” Adrian said. “What have you got?”
“So far it’s empty,” I said. “Are you coming, Marge?”
There was a huffing of breath. “Hold your horses.”
A shadow moved out of the corner of my eye, and I ducked down. A breeze ruffled the top of my head as a green, scaled hand swiped where my chest would have been seconds ago. I rolled back into the darkness and came up, pulling a knife from my boot as I shone the light on what attacked me. A being in rags glided forward. Its face was covered by a worn hood. I shifted to my second sight to see what sort of monster we were up against. The soul of the human who owned the body had been devoured by a demonic snake woman. A chill ran down my spine. I should have guessed from the scales and tail. A lamia. I had hunted one in Paris in the twenties with Dimitri Van Helsing, the boys’ great grandfather.
I gulped back the bile that rose in my throat and let my vision return to normal. This was ridiculous. The rag covered creature turned our direction, her clawed feet made a scraping sound against the grating. She stopped halfway at the intersection, its head turning at an angle impossible for a human. Green scales covered the creature’s hairless head and traveled down her body.
“Gabriella Di Luca, I thought you would look more formidable. After all, you killed my sister.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Was that a poor way of saying you thought I’d be taller?”
“I have waited over ninety years for this.”
“I take it you mean Lola,” I said.
“Was that what you called her? Must have been the human you killed with her,” the creature said.
“Is there a point to this?” I asked.
When she opened her mouth again, I flicked my wrist and flung my knife at her. She ducked to one side, and the knife bounced off the pole. It skittered across the walkway, over the edge, and hit the ground with a distant ping. She hissed at me, baring the long fangs.
I smirked at her. “The conversation was growing dull.”
The demon growled and came at me. I used one of the poles to swing around so that I came up behind her, then drew my sundang. The light reflected off the wavy blade. The lamia brought her talons in an upward rake to my chest. I hopped back and brought my blade up in a defensive stance. The metal grating shook beneath me, and I pulled back to the intersection to allow Marge to come and stand beside me.
“Hey, scaly bitch,” Marge said. “Are you Cambione?”
The demon paused and tilted her head to the side and her eyes narrowed to slits. “Who are you to know that name?”
“If you were Cambione, you’d know. We can do things the easy way or the hard way.” Marge cracked her knuckles. “Please say the hard way.”
The lamia gave a hissing laugh. “Come, human. I will rend your flesh from your bones.”
Marge grinned. “Hard way it is then.”
The lamia crouched and leapt at Marge with her arms outstretched and her claws flexed. She brought both hands down to attack Marge in two long crossing slashes, but the Cajun girl pulled back and raised her arms defensively with her hands in fists. I stepped on the rail, swung around a pole, and brought my sword across the demon’s back. She screeched and spun to face me.
“Gabby, what’s going on?” Esais asked from the ear bud.
“We’ve run into one of the demon hybrids,” I said.
“Do you need help?”
I looked from the lamia stumbling around to Marge, drawing her leg up in a kick. “No, we can handle this.”
Marge brought her foot down on the backwards joint of the lamia’s leg. She let out a shriek and turned, throwing its arm back to hit her. She slammed against the rail and the entire walkway wobbled. The demon flailed its arms to try to keep her balance. I stood and brought my blade across the creature’s stomach. She howled in pain as blood gushed from the wound, and light reflected off of her black claws as she raised a hand towards me. I ducked down, grabbed onto the railing, and half hung off of the side of the walkway. The demon took two steps back from me and clutched her stomach, but the blood ran through her fingers.
Marge jabbed her foot in the lamia’s wounded leg again, and the crack echoed through the building as the saint’s bones imbedded in her boots did their job. The demon screamed and leaped into the air, rearing both her arms back. One caught me in the abdomen, and my foot slipped, leaving me dangling over the edge. My sword slipped from my hand as I struggled to hang on. Marge stumbled back as she was hit by the other hand and went over the railing. There was a thud and a loud crack. The lamia latched onto the wall and scuttled out the widow we’d opened. I hooked my foot on the metal grating, scrambled up, and lay on my stomach, panting. Marge lay below me with one arm twisted in an odd angle below her.
“Marge?” I called.
She didn’t move.
“Damnit Marge, answer me.”
She only did with silence.
Chapter 12
I TOOK THE metal stairs to the first floor two at a time then kneeled in front of Marge’s motionless form. I breathed a sigh of relief when her chest rose and fell. Her forearm was bent backwards, and the flesh had torn at her elbow.
“Esais, we need Tres here, now.”
“What happened?” Esais asked.
“Marge is hurt.”
“Show me.”
I blinked. I didn’t remember Esais’s telepathic range being so broad. In Texas, he was able to reach us from a few miles, but now I was almost twenty miles away from the office. His presence filled my mind, accompanied by his choir. Their voices flowed through me, and my heart pounded with their cadence. Images of climbing into the window and scouting the warehouse came to the surface. My heart sped up as images of the fight replayed like one of Lucy’s movies. I came back to reality to find Esais and Adrian standing over me. Tres was already kneeling beside Marge.
I gaped at Esais. “What just happened?”
He smiled mysteriously. “Time is a tricky thing with memories.”
I got to my feet and glared at him. “In other words, you kept my mind occupied until you arrived. You can’t just go in my head and do that without me knowing.”
He raised his brows. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know it was such a problem.”
Adrian’s gaze met mine. “Slippery slope.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Esais asked.
“All gifts have prices. I wonder what yours will be, and how far will it drag you down?”
Esais’s face went white. “For the love of God, I’ve read her mind before. I didn’t think it was a big deal.”
“I let you before,” I said as a chill crawled up my spine. “Have you done it without me knowing?”
Tres cleared his throat. “Have you done it to us?”
Esais’s eyes widened, and his jaw stiffened. “Of course not!”
“Not yet anyway,” Adrian said. “But will the time come when you decide it’s necessary?”
Esais’s narrowed his eyes as he glared at his brother. Adrian met his glare straight on with a mask of arrogance. If he pushed any harder, he might have been the first to find out what Esais’s breaking point was, but maybe that was what he wanted. Tres gaped at both of them with his mouth open as his hands hovered over Marge’s unconscious form.
I nodded to her. “How is she?”
“Multiple broken ribs, broken arm. She got lucky, though. There’s no internal bleeding. I can heal it, but only if I get some action. This is building up.” He held up his right hand.
Esais broke his stare and looked down at Marge and his brother. “Heal her so we can leave. I’m going to have a look around.” He walked off without another glance at Adrian or me.
“I will take upstairs,” Adrian said.
He walked off with an almost self-satisfied look on his face. Tres ran his left hand from Marge’s shoulder down her arm as he straightened it out. The bone of the elbow shifted under his skin until it looked normal and the ripped skin smoothed together like putty. He stepped b
ack, shaking his right hand as he massaged his forearm. In Texas, he had plenty of opportunities to use his power. I’d even seen him cause someone’s flesh to tear open by itself. Ever since we arrived in New York, he’d been playing more than looking to his duty. I hadn’t seen him heal anything life-threatening, nor had I seen how long he could wait until ill repercussions started. With the problems we had already, it was better to keep this one under control.
“How bad is it?” I asked.
“Not bad. Just a strong itch I need to scratch.”
“We’ll make sure that happens,” I said.
“What happens?” Adrian returned with my sundang in his hand.
Esais came up behind him with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed. His brooding expression looked a lot like I’d seen from Tres on many an occasion. For Esais it looked odd. I guess he didn’t like being called out for something he didn’t believe wrong. Adrian handed my sword back to me.
“Grazie,” I said. “Your brother needs some relief.”
“I thought that’s what the redhead you left with earlier was for,” Adrian said.
“Well, I was interrupted,” Tres said. “She’s probably found someone else now.”
Adrian scoffed. “Oh, the sacrifices you have to make for the family cause.”
“Like you know anything about it.” Tres wrinkled his nose and gave him a sour smile.
“Enough!” Esais said. “We have other things to deal with. What was this thing you fought?”
“A lamia hybrid. Lamias like to eat children and search for a mate to breed their own children. It never really happens, though. It’s like some sort of curse for that line of demons,” I said.
“I’m guessing they’re from the Throne of Lust?” Esais asked.
I nodded, frowning. More demons from that throne. They were making a major play, and I seemed to have gotten caught up in the middle of it. Lust always plagued me, but was it any wonder. Allegra, the very demon who cursed me, belonged to it, and her master constantly tempted me into succumbing to them.
Esais rubbed his forehead. “And it got away with no way for us to find it.”
I glanced down at the congealing blood on my sword. “Not true. Is Lucy back yet?”
“Tomorrow,” Esais said.
I held my hand out to Adrian. “Give me a napkin or piece of cloth.”
“And I would have that because?” he asked.
“You have tiny robots that make things,” I said. “Come on.”
He sighed, removed out a piece of paper from his jacket pocket, and held it in the palm of his hand. The edges disappeared as if being eaten by an invisible fire. It grew smaller and smaller until it disappeared into nothing. A small white dot formed in the center of his palm. The white spiraled out into a cloth handkerchief. I shook my head. Modern Science couldn’t explain that. I took the handkerchief and wiped my blade. I rubbed the cloth together, making sure all the blood soaked in.
“Lucy may be able to track the lamia with some of her blood,” I said. “We just need to be patient.”
“We are the picture of patience.” Esais sighed and looked at Adrian. “What about you? Do you have anything yet?”
“No,” Adrian said.
“What is taking so long?” Tres asked.
Adrian stared him down. “Infiltrating a corporate network takes time.”
“In the meantime, we’re stuck sitting on nothing while the demons run the city,” Esais said.
My breath caught in my throat, and I sputtered. Once again, an artic presence washed over my mind, numbing me from the inside out. My hand shook so hard my sword slipped, and I had to catch myself before dropping it. The pressure in my head grew, and I stumbled, grabbing onto Adrian for balance. I scanned the walkway above us, looking for any signs of my attacker.
“What is it?” Esais’s gaze followed mine. “Is the creature back?”
The presence vanished.
I stared at him as I rubbed my arms. “Was that you in my head just now?”
His forehead scrunched up as he frowned. “No.”
“Well, something was.” I scanned the building with a shiver. “It was so cold.”
He paled and swallowed hard. “Are you suffering any headaches?”
“No, it was just nosy,” I said. “I thought you were looking into this thing.”
“I am, but it seems to be interested in you. No one else has said anything.” He looked to his brothers. “Maybe you’re imagining it.”
“I’m not imagining this.”
“This past week has been pretty stressful. Maybe you should take some time off while we wait for Lucy,” Esais said.
“I’ve been dealing with stress all my life and haven’t had an issue,” I crossed my arms and glared at him.
“Except in Texas,” Adrian said.
I shook my head. “That was supernatural influence. This is probably the same.”
“Either way, you can take a couple of days off. Visit John or something,” Esais said. “We’ll call you if the world ends or we find a lead.”
I pressed my lips together in a thin line. “We got what we came here for. Let’s get out of here.”
“That may be the smartest thing you’ve said today,” Adrian said.
I gave him a withering look and headed up the stairs. I was not going crazy, not like in Texas. Maybe it was some demon playing with me, like Faust. Just because I couldn’t touch this threat, didn’t mean it wasn’t there.
Chapter 13
JOHN WAITED FOR me at the edge of the pier that overlooked the Hudson River. Snow crunched under my boots as I walked to him, rubbing my arms as the cold seeped through my wool coat. He grinned at me with his nose slightly red.
“When I called, I expected to meet you back at your apartment,” I said. “Not out in the middle of a frozen park.”
“You sounded like you needed something more comforting.” He pulled me close for a warm hug.
I inhaled his aftershave and felt warmed in a different kind of way. He took my arm and pulled me to the end of the pier to a telescope sitting in the middle. I looked at him with raised eyebrows.
“You said you couldn’t find a place to see the stars,” he said. “Well, I give you the stars.”
A smile crept on my lips. “So this is why you brought me here?”
“Well, I do have a little information about the demons.” He pushed me to the telescope. “First, enjoy.”
I leaned forward and placed my eye in the viewer. A group of stars shone brightly and so close against the deep black. I reached my hand out, even though I knew I was still thousands of years away. A sense of longing filled me, an emptiness I couldn’t explain. I wanted to join them in that vast emptiness.
“That’s Canis Major. It holds Sirius, the brightest star in the sky,” I murmured.
“I thought you might appreciate it,” John said.
He moved closer to me, to where his chest brushed against my back and his breath warmed my cheek. It tingled along my chilled skin and spread through my body, causing a light fluttering feeling in my chest. My nipples hardened, rubbing against my bra. My lips parted as I drew in a ragged breath and pressed my hands against his warm chest. The stars were lifetimes away, but John was here with me now, so close his spicy aftershave filled my nose.
“It’s . . . beautiful.” I cleared my throat and turned back to gazing through the eyepiece. “So, what information do you have for me?”
“Well, I dug up a little more on Faust. Apparently, those he possesses do become him, and all have his ambition.”
“I don’t see much difference from other demons. Well, other than the ability to possess other demons.”
“How about the fact he can possess multiple victims at once? Humans, demons, and God knows what else.”
I tilted my head. “What?”
“From what I can understand, and you are much better at this demon stuff than I am, he can leave pieces of his essence in others. It gives him control over the
m.”
“Wouldn’t that weaken him? How the hell does he control more than one at the same time?”
John shrugged with his hands at the level of his shoulders, his mouth drooped open in a half-lost look. “You got me. I guess he doesn’t have complete control. Like they have minds of their own? Apparently his puppets, not really sure what to call them, have been known to kill one another to gather more Faustian power.”
I blinked. “Wouldn’t that be counterproductive for him?”
“Hey, I’m only giving you what I know. I’ll leave your brilliant mind to figure it out.”
“That’s . . . interesting.” I stared into the sky, trying to digest this new information. “So, any idea what he wants with this drug? Is he looking for more demons to possess?”
John sighed and stuck his hands in his pocket. “No, but I think this Cambione is one of him. At least from what information I could get.”
“That makes Faust the ringleader in this,” I said. “I wonder if he has Marge’s contract.”
John shook his head. “Cambione probably still holds it. He’s the one who claimed it.”
“I still haven’t found him. My leads have been taking me everywhere else,” I said.
“Where have you been looking?”
I snorted. “Well, I’m sure you read about the weird purple fire in Brooklyn?”
He chuckled and shook his head. “Wrong place. Cambione is operating on a richer scale. He has someone as a go between for the lower end.”
“The lamia,” I said. “She’s constantly on the move.”
“He also has several runners in the club scene. You might try there if you can’t find her.”
I sat on the pier, wrapped my hands around my knees, and stared up at the night sky. There weren’t any clouds. John had really chosen the perfect night to pull this off. He knew me so well and went to great lengths to try and bring me small bits of happiness. John sat and leaned in close to me. He rested his hand on my chin, turned my face toward him, and studied me for several moments. What could he possibly see? My face had to be as shadowed as his.
His voice was soft with concern. “You sounded really upset earlier.”
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