We looked around for some time, hoping for some sign of the Succubus we chased, or who operated here, but it was empty. By the thin layer of dust atop everything, it seemed as if this facility had not been used in a while. It looked like it was going to be a failed mission.
As we were leaving, Lyanne noticed something on the ground and bent to pick it up. She held up what appeared to be a bit of broken glass at first glance, though when I saw its reflective qualities in the light, I realized it must have come from a mirror.
“Whatch'ya got there?” I asked.
She held it up to get a better look in the lantern light. “Possibly nothing. Might be something.”
I knew not to push her, as she was clearly working through angles and possibilities. We moved on, leaving the horrific room behind us with a sense that we’d escaped something, even though it had been in disuse for some time.
We backtracked through the tunnel until we came back to the portal, still pulsing with malignant light. It was a moment of great relief for me when I picked the Night Flail back up and wrapped its chain back around my arm.
I felt whole again, though disappointed about coming up empty. “Guess this was a bust, huh?”
Lyanne held up the broken mirror shard to the light of the portal. “Maybe. Let's not worry about it now. How about we get into a bath, and you scrub all this junk off me?”
I tried not to smirk, and failed. Sometimes, failing doesn't feel so bad.
12
Lyanne decided to spend an extra day in New York. Apparently, she refused to get on another plane in the outfit Eve had provided her and wanted to go shopping for something that made her feel human again—preferably tasteful and expensive. I for one was eager to get back home and spend some time thinking over what we had learned, seeing if I could think of anything we’d heard or seen that might give us our next lead. The city was oppressive past a certain point, and my combat awareness could only stay at a high level for so long.
I was still stripping off the remnants of my Hot Topic nightmare when Eve came into my room to find me. “I have to say, very few people could pull off the 'Bad Boy Dracula' vibe, but you really have it down.”
“You picked it out,” I protested, but she dismissed my concern with a lopsided grin.
She picked up one of the discarded wristbands. “Well, anything for the mission, right? Did it help you blend in?”
“Kind of?” I remembered with embarrassment how quickly I had drawn all the attention in the club to myself. “I'm sure Lyanne will want to be here when we share the story with you. You know how dramatic she can be.”
“Dramatic?” Eve asked.
“Have you seen how she dresses? If I didn’t reign her in, she might wear a robe and stalk the halls at night. Yes, dramatic.”
“You might be right.” She furrowed her brow, then grinned again. “Okay, you are right. Although drama would be better than death by boredom.”
“Sorry you got left alone here,” I offered.
Eve came over and sat on my bed. “It was actually for the best. I needed some private time to think. This was quite a shift. For all of us, really.”
I had to focus to keep myself from being distracted by Eve being so close to me on the bed. She smelled of soap and something like flowers, and her hand brushed mine with a light touch. I considered having her, and what that would mean. Every aspect of a night with Eve seemed like a brilliant idea, and her smile only drove that point home. When UI saw her smile falter, mine did too.
“What did you need time to think about?” I asked, hoping she would open up.
“Being human.” Her face looked wistful. “It’s been a while. I was trying to remember what it was like.”
“Who were you?” I realized that I phrased that poorly. “I mean, before you became a Succubus. Who was Eve, the woman? The sister, the friend?”
Her eyes were a million miles away. “A traveler. I wanted to see the world, and I had succeeded in many regards. I had been all over Europe, Asia, the Americas. I hated being in any place for too long, so I never put down roots, only ever staying put long enough to earn enough money for my next trip. My next trip was supposed to be to Japan, but . . . well, Tandi had other ideas.”
The pain in her voice made my wince. Here was a woman who had the whole of the world as her domain. Being suddenly confined to one place, even a city as grand as New York, must have felt like being put in a gilded cage. “I guess that means you won't be staying with us long?”
Eve's eyes were uncertain. “I don't know. That seems like a different lifetime, and I don't know if that’s me anymore. Maybe I will go ahead with my plans for Japan. Maybe I'll revisit some of my favorite places in Greece and Italy, see if I can't reconnect with the person I used to be by reliving those memories. But it was all so long ago, and the world has changed even more than I have, if such a thing is possible. Will those locations from my memories be the same, or will I find myself in a strange place I have no connection to?”
“Then you make new memories.”
She didn’t seem reassured. “Is it that easy? I don't know who I am anymore. I'm no longer a Succubus, but I'm not sure if I'm the woman I used to be, either. Do I just start over, make new memories, as if the slate has been cleared?”
“The past is a different country, I heard someone say. When I had to leave the army, it became a memory—a different place, no longer where I was and not somewhere I could return to. I stumbled into this life as a hunter, and I knew it was like nothing I could ever fathom, but—her I am. Here you are. You’re a different version of that woman, though your core might be the same. What do you want to do about it?” I asked her.
Eve laughed and visibly relaxed. “When you say it like that, I believe it could be possible to find a version of me I can live with, despite my—well, despite my sins. My history. Either way, I'm not going anywhere until Tandi is dealt with. We still have unfinished business.”
She shifted and pressed her body closer to mine. “You know, there are many things about being human that I missed.”
I was terribly aware of the heat from her breath, the rise and fall of her chest, the curves of her lips. “Tell me.”
Her tone became playful. “Such as sex for desire's sake. As a Succubus, it’s about sustenance, necessity. But, if my human memories serve me, sex can be quite . . . pleasurable.”
My heart was beating out of my chest. “I'd be happy to remind you, if you'd like.”
She smiled and pulled me closer.
“Been a while?” I asked her as we leaned in to kiss. Her breath was sweet and warm.
“Too long. I feel- nervous? Seeing you so close makes me feel butterflies, because you’re a real man, not just something I need.” She touched my face, and it was gentle, but uncertain. We kissed, softly at first but gaining confidence as it went on, her head tilting to the left out of instinct. I sat on the bed and put her in my lap, our lips never breaking contact.
There must have been echoes of her ability, because my erections strained at my pants in seconds. Then again, it might have been simple biology—she was an exquisite woman, and I was man who knew what he was holding. With the ease of repetition, she unbuttoned my pants and pushed at them, pulling me out as she lifted her simple cotton skirt. The heat of her was close, real, and intense, and she was ready.
I was too.
She pushed down on me, eyes closed as she made room. She was a small woman, and it took a small series of thrusts to get all the inside her all the way. She stopped moving, her full lips parted and head thrown back.
“I’d forgotten about this,” she said in a low ripple of laughter, beginning to move on me again, up and down in a smooth motion that was natural as wind.
“Worth the wait?” I asked into her ear, my voice rough with need. As a Succubus, Eve had been lethal. As a woman, she was perfect.
“Worth it,” she said, then lowered herself to kiss me again before pulling back to make eye contact. There was a question
on her face.
“What is it?” I asked, but noticed that she never stopped moving. She put my hands on her breasts as I got rid of the rest of her clothes. I needed to see and touch all of her.
“Can you—can you do this more than once?” she asked.
I considered a snappy rejoinder, but since she clenched around me to the root, I decided against it. When you’re buried to the hilt in a beautiful woman, sometimes it’s just better to keeps things simple and honest.
“Yes. Will you have me again?” I asked.
“Yes. Can you shut up and come now? Because I’m going to, and IU don’t want to go alone,” she said as tremors raced across her face, eyelids flickering in delicious agony as her orgasm took her without mercy. She was so tight, it made me follow right along, coming in three hard bursts that lifted my hips and bounced her like she was on a dodgy carnival ride.
She slowed her pace, then lowered her eyes, opening them to regard me below sleepy lids.
“Like you remembered?” I asked.
She kissed me. “Better. No guilt, and—just better.”
Then she reached back and caressed my thighs, dragging her nails across the sensitive skin there. My reaction was instant, and we began moving as if we’d never stopped.
She leaned to my ear, flicking her tongue across the edge. “Definitely again.”
Lyanne returned from New York early in the morning and found Eve and I in bed, wrapped up in covers and each other in that dreamless slumber that only good sex can bring. I had that momentary flare of concern brought on by years of a life that meant one woman in my bed at once. Judging by Lyanne’s smile, those days were gone, though she did give me a mock glare for beating her to the punch with Eve.
“Seems like you had a busy night. Well, it's time for you both get dressed. We have things we must discuss, despite how. . .appetizing your morning must be,” Lyanne said.
Eve and I dressed and regrouped with Lyanne in the living room. She was calmly sipping wine and had two more glasses poured for us. I thought it was early for drinking, but when Lyanne started in on the story of our time at the club I quickly drained my glass. Eve sounded amused at our misadventures, breaking out into uncontrolled laughter when I recounted how the Night Flail had come to me unbidden and rang the bell of danger for every immortal in the place.
Wiping tears from her eyes, she offered a word of consolation. “They probably would have noticed you eventually, with your smell. But this is much funnier. I like the idea of you instantly going to arms. It’s almost medieval.”
We continued the story through the Succubus's phone conversation, the chase through the portal, and the conversion dungeon we discovered in the abandoned subway tunnel. When I mentioned the broken mirror shard that Lyanne had found, Eve's eyes lit up.
I stopped mid-sentence when I saw the look. “You know what the mirror shard is?”
Eve smiled knowingly. “Possibly. Would you allow me to see it, Lyanne?”
Lyanne already had the shard in hand. “I was hoping you would ask.”
Eve spent some time looking the piece of mirror over, running her fingertips over the surface as if she was reading braille. She gave it a final, decisive swipe with her thumb, then titled her head in thought.
“What is it?” I was impatient. She knew something.
She tsked. “Give me a second. I've only used one of these once before, because I wasn't high enough ranking to get my own. But if I remember the combination right . . .”
To my surprise, the mirror started ringing. Like a phone. The surface flashed blue and white a few times, then a woman's face that was decidedly not Eve's was reflected back at her.
The woman in the mirror blinked in confusion. “Eve? Is that you? I thought you were dead! Where are you?”
Eve’s smile was full of venom, and it was a new side of her that meant she was a true fighter. “I'm staying with a friend, Tandi. Don't worry about me.” She pretended to think for a second, then added, “actually, he’d like to speak to you. I think you should.”
She handed the mirror shard to me, and for the first time I came face-to-face, so to speak, with Tandi Goren.
Tandi had olive skin, the color of the people of the Mediterranean, or perhaps the Middle East. Her eyes were crystalline blue, leaping out from her dark skin, and her hair was ginger red, flowing in natural curls. Under her small nose were full, red lips that commanded my attention, parted to reveal even white teeth better than any money could buy. Of course, she was evil, but I allowed myself a natural flash of lust at her perfection because she was a Succubus, and knowing my enemy was part of the battle.
It was also, in this case, reason enough to look two times.
Her expression was neutral as she looked at me. “You must be the one I've been hearing so much about. The—man, let’s say—who’s been irritating my servants.”
“I wouldn't say I’m an irritation,” I replied lightly. “Hunting. Hunting is a better word.”
Not the slightest quiver of her lips. “And why, may I ask, are you hunting my servants?”
I gave an exaggerated shrug. “It seemed like a thing to do. You know, a way to kill a Friday night. Life can be terribly boring without a little excitement, and your servants, as you call them, are quite the distraction.”
Still, she didn’t rise to my bait, choosing to give me a small sigh of resignation, like a parent to a child. “I do wish you would find another way to occupy your time, dear Hunter. Your reckless actions have been hurting my business.”
For my part, I tried to sound apologetic. “Sorry. I'm sure your stockholders must be devastated.”
“Not as devastated as you will be.” She let the implication of those words linger in the air. “You and I will talk again, Hunter. I believe you will find our next conversation to be less pleasant.”
“I'd love to have a talk with you sometime, in person. I've been trying to find you, actually, but you're a tough one to track. Maybe you'd like to arrange a meeting?”
Her mouth curled up into a smile, but her voice was fat with poison. “Oh, you shouldn’t worry about that little task, hunter. You might not be able to find me, but I can find you, and I assure you we will have words soon. It's been too long since I've been to the countryside, anyway.”
My bravado wavered as the meaning of her words hit me-- she knew where we were.
She saw the change in my expression and her voice purred with confidence. “You've knocked on my door. I think it's only proper that I knock on yours.”
The image disappeared and the mirror again reflected blue and white. I expected it to go dark and return functioning as a mirror, and I was about to ask Eve is there was any way we could use the shard to get more information, when another image appeared in the reflection—a dark room, lit only by small beams of red in the ceiling. A woman in chains, her eyes covered with a thick cloth, her mouth gagged. The scene changed, then-- a dusty room full of old books, lit by a row of candles. A woman curled up in a fetal position, rocking gently back and forth. Again, the scene changed, and this time it was a lavish apartment with a view of the city, the expensive furnishings covered in blood. A naked woman tied to the bed, her body covered in vivid welts. The scene returned to the first darkened room, but focused on a separate woman, this one unbound but motionless, staring blankly at the red lights above as if her soul was being deconstructed by the unseen torment she was enduring.
I could only watch in horror as the four scenes repeated themselves, rotating through the victims Tandi had captured and was twisting to her own dark purposes.
Eve was looking over my shoulder at the images now. Her face was set in stone, lips pressed in a grim line. “This is how she does it. How she converts women to Succubi. I can't believe she has this many at once. . . the power needed is unlike anything I’ve ever heard of.”
My eyes were still fixed on the disturbing sights. “This is happening right now? This is live?”
She growled her assent. “These women a
re in the late stages of being 'prepared.' She has them tortured until their will is nearly shattered, then she uses the curse. Then, they are tortured some more until every part of what made them human is gone and nothing remains but the monster; the husk, if you will, an empty vessel into which she pours the curse and its eternal hunger. Only the barest shred of my own humanity survived, but only because I ignored it . . . forgot about it, until you.”
It was clear she was having a tough time holding it together, and I wanted to tell her that she didn’t need to continue, but her information could be helpful to saving these women so I said nothing.
Lyanne gently asked the next question. “Tandi can turn that many Succubi? I know that some powerful ones can create more than one, but I thought only demons could create a legion like that.”
Eve's voice cracked up, and she had to try twice to speak her next sentence. “Yes. I wasn't important enough to get all the details, but it’s some kind of Blood Magic. It’s deeper than the simple theft of life. It’s at the building blocks of life, magic, and death, all braided together in an unholy alliance.
In the mirror shard, a new figure came into the scene in the penthouse. The figure was in dark robes and pale lace gloves, but the most notable feature was the mask, blank and devoid of any features, even eyeholes. It was made of a creamy white material. Ivory, and old, judging by the patina and cast to it.
As the masked figure approached the bed, the woman strapped to it began to struggle and scream. Mercifully, the scene changed before I had to witness what was about to happen.
Eve was shuddering, her breathing coming in rapid gulps. She was terrified. “The Sisters of Pain. Tandi's enforcers. I've heard they’re the result of the Succubus transformation gone wrong.”
Lyanne jumped to her feet. “Wait, a failed transformation? Doesn't that kill the woman?”
It took Eve a moment to calm down enough to explain. “Yes. I mean, usually. The Sisters exist in the twilight between life and death. Part of the Blood Magic used in the curse. They're stronger, faster, and completely immune to fear, because their minds are nearly completely gone. They exist only to fulfill Tandi's orders, and they feed their addiction to inflicting pain.”
Succubus Hunter Page 12
