Then Raia said one more thing I didn’t want to hear. “There is also one more item we will need. Someone will have to obtain the key to relock it.”
JESS USE KEY
Never mind the emotion-dampening charms I had, I was positive every pred in the room noticed how my blood had just turned cold.
JESS USE KEY
Those words had been scratched onto Olef’s apartment wall with his own blood. His last message, a directive to me. I swallowed. “The key was supposedly left inside the prison. How are we going to obtain it?”
Raia’s face was expressionless as she considered me. “Someone will have to enter the prison and bring it out, obviously.”
I laughed, or tried to. The sound was ugly and didn’t suggest amusement. “Go inside? What’s that proverb about letting slumbering demons lie? Why can’t we make a new key? That’s got to be easier than making a whole new prison.”
Was it my imagination, or did Raia not look particularly pleased about this development herself? “Presumably the key fits this magical lock. If we started anew, we would have a new key. If we’re rebuilding from the old prison’s magical bones, we need the old key.”
I swore under my breath, and I wasn’t the only one. Several of the Le Confrérie members in attendance turned a bit green. Like me, they must have been imagining themselves being volunteered for this mission.
Tom put his pen down, his face strained. “Do we have any idea what we might find inside the Pit?”
The Gryphons looked at the magi who looked at the satyrs who looked at the goblins who looked right back at Tom.
“No,” said the same magi who’d spoken earlier. “There are no records of it for obvious reasons. All we can do is speculate. We can’t even say for certain what the key will look like.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I whispered into the heavy silence.
Tom dropped his pen. “What?”
Oops. “I said, how do we possibly prepare for this sort of thing, and how can we possibly decide who has the skills to go in and search?”
Claudius cleared his throat, and the asshole smiled at me. “How many people we send in will have to be determined, but the last question is simple. You are supposed to have the skills. The Gryphons might not have realized it at the time, but this is certainly why you were created. You and your half-breed friends must go in.”
A couple feet away, Lucen’s hand crushed his paper coffee cup, and next to me, Mitch’s fear burst in my mouth like lemon sherbet. I could almost hear them both silently yelling and protesting. Of course, so was I.
Instead of showing my fear, however, I let my annoyance seep into my voice. I matched Claudius’s fake smile with one of my own. “You would say that. Any reason to get rid of us half-breeds you find so offensive.”
Tom waited for the room to settle down. “According to the prophecies, only warriors who are unlike the typical races might be able to defeat the originals—the demons.”
“The others,” I said dryly. “Half-breeds. Abominations. Rare subspecies. I’ve been called them all, but I’ve never been called a warrior. That could be a problem.”
Raia turned my way. “This will not be about how well you can wield a sword, though that might help. This will be about how well you can manage your gift. How much power you can channel and control. I’ve been made aware of your kind’s unique abilities, and I am in agreement with Agent Blecher.” She nodded toward Ingrid. “The three of you might be the only ones on Earth who can keep the demons out of your heads long enough to accomplish what must be done.”
“Wait, you can’t? Preds can’t addict other preds.”
Claudius scowled, but Raia answered my question despite his disapproval. “That is true, but by now you must have noticed that furies are different from the rest of us. It is far more difficult for them to bind even the least powerful of us than it is for them to bind a human, but it can happen. And the demons trapped in the Pit are incredibly more powerful than your average fury.”
Well, shit. So that explained a good deal about why Gunthra and all these powerful satyrs, goblins and more were willing to expose their secrets and stores of information with the Gryphons. They were as scared shitless as the rest of us.
The stunned silence in the room was so loud that I almost missed hearing Claudius say he was going to train me.
Chapter Eleven
I didn’t have much more to say after that.
Okay, that wasn’t entirely true. I had a lot more to say after the news that I’d need to work with Claudius and that I’d need to be the one to face down an army of fury-like demons. It was just that very little of what I wanted to say was something other than incoherent babbling. By the end of the night, I might yet end up rocking back and forth in a corner, sucking my thumb.
The meeting dissolved about half an hour after my wits fled. Between the Brotherhood’s research, plus what the magi and the satyrs shared, it turned out we knew a lot more than I thought we did. But knowing things was only helpful in the theoretical sense. The more we knew, the more work we knew had to be done.
None of the work involved me anymore, nor Mitch or Grace. Until further notice, our training regime had changed. We were to focus predominantly on drawing power, the behavior I thought of as reversing the pred-addict bond. The two terms meant essentially the same thing to the preds, but it didn’t matter what anyone called it. It was going to suck, especially the part about working with Claudius.
While everyone split up to get back to work, I returned to Shadowtown with Lucen. Grace was refusing to participate, and Mitch was overwhelmed, so we’d begin our sessions with Claudius tomorrow. That way Mitch and I would be better rested, and maybe Grace would be more cooperative.
Lucen didn’t say much on the ride back to The Lair. From the set of his jaw, he was no more excited about me and Claudius sharing space—never mind a bond—than I was. What Claudius had done last time was all too fresh for both of us.
Paulius, one of Lucen’s bartenders, had already opened The Lair by the time we arrived, and a surprising number of patrons had crowded inside. It only took me a minute of overheard conversations to figure out why. Satyrs and harpies had gathered to fume over the HELP Act. A few goblins had also joined the crowd, suggesting their preferred hangout was closed.
“I should go home,” I said, ignoring my better judgment and taking a seat at the bar.
Lucen tossed off his jacket and grabbed us beers. “No, you shouldn’t. It’s not safe. You should stay here tonight.”
“It’s not safe to sleep alone? Talk about your end-of-the-world pick-up lines.”
Lucen popped the cap off my bottle and handed it to me. “I wasn’t going there, but you’re right. Damn, I excel at these sorts of things, don’t I?”
“And you’re ever so humble to boot.”
“Please. Humility is just a consolation prize for people who are lacking in awesome.”
I choked on my beer as he grinned. “I’ve seen your awesome, and I don’t think the health department would approve of you flaunting it around foodstuffs.”
“This is why I love you, little siren.”
After the kind of day I’d had, I didn’t understand how Lucen could make me laugh and relax, but damn. I was stressed as hell, but my muscles loosened and I was genuinely smiling. “Yeah, I know. Speaking of which, I might have accidentally let something about us slip in front of Mitch and Grace today. One might even say I ranted a touch.”
“Do go on.”
I gave Lucen a summary of the conversation while he poured drinks for a couple harpies. His cheesy grin had somehow managed to expand by the time I finished.
“You truly are maturing,” he said. “First, you stop being ashamed of our relationship. Next, you let yourself be scolded by Xander and Claudius for the good of humanity at the meeting. I’m impressed. You wouldn’t have
tolerated that not so long ago. Maybe you are destined to be humanity’s savior.”
“Bah. The relationship stuff came out by accident, and their reactions put me on the defensive. Not to mention I cursed at Claudius and Xander way too much in my head to be considered anyone’s savior.”
“But you loosed your tongue in one situation and held it in the other. Appropriately, I might add. It’s progress.”
I tossed a peanut at his head. “I’ve never been ashamed of our relationship, so you know. It’s dealing with everyone else’s reactions that bug me.”
“Don’t give in to the haters. Besides, most people are probably just jealous.”
“Because you’re awesome?”
“Exactly.”
I snorted into my beer bottle. “Either your ego is getting out of control, or you’re doing a very good job of not letting me think about what was discussed at the meeting.”
The smile slid from Lucen’s face. “Not that good obviously since you brought it up.” He leaned over the bar toward me, lowering his voice. “I’m not any more excited about what happened than you are, but I’m afraid Claudius and the magi are right. You, and maybe Mitch, might be the only ones who can keep the demons out of your heads long enough to get your hands on the key. But I promise you won’t have to try it alone.”
My stomach squirmed uncomfortably with the thought of Lucen risking his life next to mine in some creepy magical prison. This wasn’t the time to bring it up though. If he insisted on coming with me, I wouldn’t—and couldn’t—stop him. I’d learned my lesson in France.
“I’m not happy about Claudius being the one to work with you either,” Lucen said. “I’m not sure why he’s more qualified than anyone else, but he’d better deal with the idea of me being present. There’s no way I’m leaving you alone with him.”
“Thank you.”
Lucen straightened and signaled to someone over my shoulder. “Wow, no glaring at me for my overprotectiveness?”
“Huh, you’re right. Guess I really have matured. Or it could be that I’m simply determined to make you suffer his Supreme Upper Assholeness with me.”
“Is that what you’ve been calling him?” Dezzi’s voice had me spinning around on my stool. Luckily, the only person with her was Sonya, the newest addition to Dezzi’s inner triad—AKA, her top three advisors.
I settled back and pretended the Dom hadn’t startled the crap out of me. “I admit nothing.”
“No one of reason would hold it against you if you did,” Sonya said. The black-haired satyr was usually even quieter than Dezzi, and she rarely spoke to me at all. I was unsure whether she liked me, and while I didn’t exactly care if she didn’t, it was nice to hear something that sounded like approval from her.
More true to her style, Sonya pointed to something behind the bar rather than ask for a drink. I had no clue what it was, but Lucen apparently understood.
He set a glass down in front of Sonya and got to work. “Dez, why can’t someone else work with Jess?”
Dezzi brushed her braids over her shoulder. “Because if Jessica is to have a chance of holding her own against the demons, she must first be able to handle Claudius. That said, she is not ready to take him on yet.”
I grimaced into my beer. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, but if I can’t, there’s no way Mitch can.” I didn’t bother mentioning Grace since that was obvious.
“No, he cannot either. Which is why, after you left, I proposed that you do not begin practicing with Claudius. Tomorrow, you’ll work with me. Mitch will work with Lucen. When the two of you are ready, then Claudius gets his turn. Raia agrees with me, as does Agent Kassin.”
Lucen banged the wine bottle he’d opened for Dezzi against the bar in surprise. “That actually makes sense.”
Dezzi made a noise like he’d wounded her. “Of course it does. It was my idea.”
“Yes, Mother.” He bowed as best he could with the bar between them, and Dezzi sighed.
“Mitch is too jittery to enter Shadowtown,” she said, “so we will meet at the Gryphon building tomorrow. It’s not my preferred arrangement, but it will do for now. Mitch needs to concentrate, not be distracted by additional anxiety.”
I blamed it on the temporary relief Dezzi had given me, but I laughed. “There you go being damned reasonable again. Why aren’t you on the Upper Council instead of Claudius?”
Dezzi’s face pinched, and for a second I worried I’d hit a nerve. Then she took a long, blissful sip from the wine Lucen had poured her. “Why would I want to be? Here I am in charge, and normally, the Upper Council ignores us because we are a well-behaved domus. If I were on the Upper Council, my power would be split. My decisions would have to be approved by committee, and I would have to deal with more people like Claudius. Besides, look at my face. Do I look old enough to be considered an elder?” Winking at Lucen, she grabbed her glass and strolled over to a table of satyrs.
Sonya left a few minutes later as well, and I twirled my mostly empty beer bottle around on the condensation. “I like Dezzi. I’m not sure I want her in my head, but I guess I’d rather it be her than Claudius. Is she going to have to drop an addict to make this work?”
“I doubt it.” Lucen swiped my bottle from me. “Dezzi likely has a bit of reserved power. Not enough to hold you as an addict indefinitely, but temporarily she should be fine. Speaking of which, if Claudius gets to bond with you, and Dezzi gets to bond with you, I’m starting to feel left out.”
“Tell me you’re joking. I’ve had furies and sylphs in my head too, you know. It’s not a gift I grant people.”
“But it would be a gift if you let me in. Since you’re staying here tonight, maybe we should practice so you can impress everyone tomorrow.”
I rested my head in my hands. Nope. I still couldn’t tell if he was joking. “I’m not sure I need more practice.”
Lucen wore a faint smile, but his eyes were serious. “You’ve cast out people of average ability, or less than average. You struggled with Raj. We can’t say how you’ll fare against Dezzi. Practice wouldn’t hurt seeing as we don’t have a lot of time for you to become proficient at this.”
I peered up at him through my fingers. “You’re totally serious, aren’t you? This isn’t an excuse to rope me into some mental bondage just for kicks.”
“Oh, it might be fun, but yes. I’m serious. Consider me a step up between the fury you subdued once and Dezzi.”
“You know this for sure?”
“I know who the members of Raj’s council are, or were at the time of the event. And those sylphs who attacked you—Assym wouldn’t have sent them to do grunt work if they were more important. So yeah, it’s a safe bet.”
Groaning, I pointed at a clean shot glass. “You disappoint me. I was assuming your reasoning would lead back to how awesome you are. If I’m going to willingly let you torment me, I need another drink.”
Proving how well he got me, Lucen placed the bottle of Jameson next to a glass. “Don’t worry, little siren. You will become well acquainted with how awesome I am later.”
* * * * *
Lucen was right, not just about being awesome, but also about how he would prove to be more of a challenge than the fury and the sylph I’d mentally wrestled with in the past. Nonetheless, it didn’t take too many tries before I could reverse our bond with ease.
Since our relationship wasn’t hostile, and since I was a kind of satyr myself, I’d thought the experience of reversing a bond with him might be different than it had been with others. As usual, I was wrong.
Certainly, having him addict me was a different experience. Magically induced lust for a guy I already lusted after was, in some ways, better than being filled with magically induced rage or self-doubt. Unfortunately, in other ways, it reminded me too much of what it had been like the one time I’d been cursed and drugged with F, an illegal aph
rodisiac. My sexual tension couldn’t be sated until I managed to reverse the bond with Lucen.
While the experience didn’t fill me with sexual ecstasy or even joy, it did make me a touch more confident about what was to come. I got up the next day around noon and prepared a giant breakfast while Lucen showered. If I was going to face down Dezzi and possibly Claudius later, I needed my nourishment.
My phone began playing “Bad Moon Rising” as I cracked a fourth egg into a frying pan, suggesting Lucen had changed my ringtone yet again while I was sleeping. Wiping my hands on my jeans, I answered it without checking the ID, assuming it was the Gryphons. “Yeah?”
“Jess! Seriously, this is how you answer your phone these days? ‘Yeah’?” Steph’s voice crackled with amusement. “Are you that important now?”
“Duh.” I grabbed a spatula and began stirring up the eggs. “How are you holding up?”
Steph groaned. “Been better, but I haven’t lost my shit like everyone else is doing. Speaking of which, did you read about those people in Texas yet? All the members of some church poisoned themselves and their families last night because they believed it’s the end times.”
Closing my eyes, I inhaled deeply of the scent of scrambled eggs cooking in bacon grease. Suicide cults or pacts. Wonderful. The juxtaposition between my role and current activities versus the rest of the world’s increasingly erratic behavior had never felt more stark.
“I’ll spare myself the details and take your word for it.” I consoled myself by taking a bite from one of the bacon strips.
“The details aren’t that exciting anyway. The reason I called was to see if you could spare an hour this afternoon for your best friend.”
I switched off the burner and put a lid on the pan to keep the eggs warm. The Gryphons would tell me I shouldn’t spare an hour today, tomorrow or any time until our mission was complete. Yet my own common sense warned me I might be dead by then, and Steph was my best friend. She was the only other person I knew who’d had my back for ten years. She’d never failed to help me when I needed it, and if I explained what was going on and why I couldn’t give her an hour later today, she’d understand. The seriousness of what we faced was evident.
Misery Happens Page 10
