Climax number one came, and with that set free a pair of succubus wings sprouting from my back, stretching out. It happened again, and I didn’t care. I wasn’t Reika the demon girl anymore, I was Reika the hungry succubus. And for the first time in weeks, I was feeding off a target that wasn’t going to die when he came. To hell with those Umbral pills my other half thought she could quell me with, I’ll always find a way to come out and play.
My hands stroked his face, as I smiled down and laughed at him like a witch. His face had grown pale, almost lifeless, I was consuming his aroused soul. With a snap of my fingers, I forced him to release his seed into me on cue. He roared like a furious beast, and I replied with a moan in ecstasy, shutting eyes. My left fingers slipped into my mouth, my right hand played my right nipple while I took in a bit of his soul with one gulp, the best time to consume a man, mid-orgasm.
His hands holding my hips came crashing to the mattress, and his body became limp, save for his dick still inside me. The succubus wings on my back fluttered as I went to move my hips. He might have been done, but I wasn’t. My third orgasmic surge hit, and it nearly threw me off his body.
Something seemed off as I lay with him on the bed. I couldn’t feel the Umbral energy flowing in me, which was kind of the point of feeding on him. My wings started to fade afterward. They didn’t retreat back into my body like the last time, they simply turned to a plume of miasma and faded from existence, my succubus talents faded as well. I was undergoing a change, a metamorphosis. My reserves of Umbral energy had been replaced with Lux. I was becoming a fae, I absorbed his abilities.
I rolled to Giovanni to tell him the news, only to realize he was still looking up to the ceiling. There was no movement on his chest, and his skin was cold to the touch. I killed him. That wasn’t possible, only humans died from this, not fae or demons.
The lust that was within me turn to panic. Giovanni was the man I was supposed to rescue, the man I tied up to interrogate when it was discovered he was part of the problem the city was facing.
And now he lay dead in my bed, somehow.
Chapter Twenty-Three
I looked at the clock sitting on the nightstand, Emily would be back soon. I’d blame my inner succubus for this, but the truth was my talents forged a split personality with me, the wild and playful succubus, and the vengeful sociopathic demon girl. In the end, it was still me; just I had two different states of minds that fought for the driver’s seat.
Giovanni was stuffed in my closet for the time being. Here’s hoping Emily didn’t go searching through it. If so, then this might be the day our friendship ends, this might be the day I join the ranks of demons terrorizing people in the city. I had to feed; I can’t sustain myself without it. I was starting to understand the chaotic nature of demons. It’s just natural to do what you want when you want and not give a fuck. So much for those Umbral pills helping me out.
The clanking sound of the front door unlocking was heard. Emily was back, and I was still naked and wet in a room that smelt like dirty sex, with a dead fae stuffed in my closet.
“Reika?” Emily called out.
“Uh … yeah?” I tried to keep my voice sounding haggard and exhausted like I had been asleep.
“Why are the lights out?”
“Crashing for the night,” I said with my fake tired voice while reaching for a nightgown.
Emily walked into my room without knocking as usual. I kept my distance from her, there was still Lux energy flowing in me after all, she might take notice that I accidentally started playing for the other team.
“Where’s our hostage?” Emily asked, her head shifting about.
“He escaped when my back was turned.”
Her feline eyes narrowed. “Fuck off, seriously?”
I shot her an evil grin. “He’s a fae remember? Guess he had a trick up his sleeve.”
“You seem pretty calm about this,” she said. “Aren’t we supposed to bring him back for our client?”
“Our client was Alice. It’s pretty clear we aren’t getting any reward for this, this was a set up from the start,” I said, surprised I didn’t trip over my own words. I was still in panic mode and lying like a crazy bitch. “I’ll take care of this when I find where he ran off to, don’t worry.”
Damn, you have no idea how shitty this feels. I was like a drug addict trying to hide her secret from friends and family, stringing together a complex web of lies and deceptions over and over. The scary thing was, one day I was going trip and get stuck in that web. And you know who’s going to have to pull me out? The people I was lying too, like Emily, and I’m pretty sure she wasn’t buying it.
It was time for a change of subject. “What took you so long, Emily?”
“Lot of FBI at Central Park,” she said. “I tried texting you, but you didn’t pick up.”
She wasn’t kidding about that. I found my phone on the floor, its screen showing a bunch of unread text messages all sent from Emily a few minutes ago. I was too busy having sex and feeding on Giovanni’s soul to take notice.
Breaking news headlines were plastered on every New York news station or website. The FBI had taken control of Central Park advising the population to stay away from it, while they conducted a search of it. Of course, none of the news stations said what the FBI was searching for, probably because it was paranormal related, stuff the general public needed to not know about.
“Didn’t that greenhouse say they supplied flowers to the park?” Emily asked.
I nodded, crossing my arms as I looked at the TV screen showing the images of FBI vans blocking off every exit to Central Park. “Yeah, they did.”
The windows in our office gave us a nice look at Central Park not far from us. That’s where our eyes should have been looking if we wanted answers. Apart from the red and blue flashing lights in the darkness, the park looked normal. I sensed an abundance of Lux energy pouring out from it like a white mist, my new altered state made it easy to pick up on that.
This had to be the work of the flowers sent to Central Park. Alice and the fae were putting their plans in motion.
“I wanna check it out,” Emily said.
“I wanted to sleep,” I snorted.
“Then sleep,” Emily waved me off, walking to the front door. “I’ll do it.”
“Not alone you’re not.”
She cocked a finger at my nightgown. “Dressed like that?”
All right, she had a point. “Give me a few.”
“Look, I’ll go on ahead, and we’ll meet up,” Emily said, reaching for the doorknob. “I’ll text you if I see anything.”
Emily didn’t just leave when she passed through and shut the door behind, she left me conflicted. Emily had been treating our PI business more seriously than I was. She was the one finding the clients and screening them. Pulling my hungover ass out of bed, and slapping me around, reminding me we had a job to do. And what was I doing? Looking for victims to feed on.
I had become the enemy, a demon that spent their nights looking for trouble. My code of ethics only blinded me from the truth. I was no protector of New York, just a succubus using that as an excuse to create victims that people wouldn’t care about when bodies get pulled out of the ditches, dumpsters, or rivers I left them in. I had to fix this. I had to lay off my new addiction, get back onto those meds to keep me sustained.
I was in my room, getting changed, slipping into some jeans and a black sleeve shirt—
The dead body in my closet came to life, kicking in the door, leaping at me from behind. Giovanni had changed, now he was the one with Umbral energy, heckling and laughing at me like he was … He was a demon, he got possessed. I contaminated his soul.
I’d say that’s impossible, but that’s exactly what happened to Donovan when a succubus charmed him. A couple of new ideas popped into my head, all of them getting shoved aside. The demon that possessed Giovanni had me in a headlock. And with the Lux energy still in me, I couldn’t access my magical talents, it was l
ike they were replaced with fae talents, none of which I knew how to use correctly.
I had to shank him with my enchanted dagger, resting somewhere inside my nightstand drawer. I pulled and pulled, extending my hands to the drawer, the feeling of my air supply getting low fucked with my vision. I felt a surge of heat erupt. The demon was dousing his body in a coat of flames. I had seconds to do something before my room caught on fire.
I got the drawer open. Making a last-ditch effort, I grabbed the dagger then plunged it back, thrusting it into his face from behind. The glow of the flames vanished, then came the feeling of his grip around my head weakening.
Possessed Giovanni’s body dropped to the floor, so I dropped a few more stabs with my enchanted dagger into his chest, to make sure the demon that possessed him, somehow, didn’t survive my assault. I didn’t care about the blood that splashed up over me, I was dressed in black, and it was easy to wash that out quickly without anyone noticing.
I stood up from his naked and stabbed the fuck up body, the same way I did with my past victims I fucked, looking down at my work. The demon looked up at me, his wounds bubbling and glowing bright due to the enchanted dagger’s magic.
“Araya,” he said with a demonic laugh, and then spit up blood over his lips. “You’re on the wrong side …”
“Get fucked buddy.”
“I already did.”
“Twice, by me.”
“The fae will destroy us all.”
“Old fuckin’ news.”
“Your siding with Lilith won’t stop it.”
“Not on speaking terms with her,” I said, then pulled him by the arms, dragging his ass back to where I left him the first time I killed him. This time for good, there was no coming back from an enchanted weapon, unless you were Lilith, but that was a mystery for another book.
“All demons need … to … unite or Earth will be lost,” he said with his dying breath. “The fae will bring our war with them here. Stop hunting us … join us … make Lilith do the same—”
A fit of rage made me plunge the dagger into his heart, the impact making his head jerk up and red-coated lips open in shock.
“Hurry up and die, will you?” I pulled the dagger out. “I got shit to do.”
His body got all numb after that while the energy from the dagger continued to make his wounds glow and killed his demonic soul. He was gone, but I hadn’t forgotten about him, or his words. A Lux-Umbral war was raging in the city and it was going to be worse than Lucifer’s plan to cause a war with Earth almost a year ago.
And Central Park? That’s going the start of it. A decapitating strike the fae want to make.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Central Park was a no-fly zone all right, with every entrance blocked off by NYPD and FBI vehicles. There were enough law enforcement personnel walking about among the blue and red flashing lights to make you think that the world was about to come to an end. That’s because it probably was.
The whole scene was eerie and stupefying at once. Cars that drove past did it as slow as possible to watch. You better believe the traffic around Central Park was bad, even at this time of the night. On the sidewalks people stood as close as the FBI would let them, holding their phones up to the air, snapping pictures or recording everything. Because the news camera people weren’t enough to record what was going on, I guess. That was sarcasm by the way.
In the middle of it were Emily and I emerging from the crowd of lookers that were fishing for social media likes. None of them aware that Central Park was probably full of Mandragora and Dryads, ready to make their first strike to claim the city as theirs so demons can’t. It made me wonder what would happen if a Mandragora came running out fucking shit up. Would the people keep recording on their phones? Or start running? Don’t answer that, because I really don’t want to know.
Given the size of Central Park and the various ways you can enter it, Emily and I split up, seeking a way to pass the FBI and NYPD barricade. She sent me pictures via text at what she saw on the other side, which looked no different than what I saw. Traffic, FBI, and people pushed back with phones in hand. The whole park was sealed, nobody got in or out.
Why was something we couldn’t tell you. Looking ahead into the park, we saw nothing out of the normal. There was nobody in the park, not even the FBI. You’d think they’d be searching it like the news reporters said they were.
I got as close as I could to the scene but the angry looks the agents gave me said it all, fuck off. The best I could do was use my scanning talent. It was a lot easier to access now that the Lux energy in me diminished slightly as my Umbral energy started to return. The park was still full of Lux energy, lingering in the air like poison gas that didn’t affect anyone but demons.
I wanted to charm my way in, seduce a few FBI agents to let me pass the barricade, but the Lux energy still in my body made that impossible. Succubus mode was a no go until it completely ran its course through my veins. Fighting my way in wasn’t a good idea; I’d just be targeted as a paranormal threat and hunted. This was probably the FBI paranormal team too. Not a good way to make first impressions. And again, Lux energy in me meant my elemental talents were limited.
The texting ringtone of my phone beeped a new text message from Emily. She wanted to meet up. She had a plan, unlike me. Guess she was serious about earning her fifty percent.
Emily met up with me half an hour later, and we found a quiet spot on the sidewalk to talk, away from the ears of the FBI, NYPD, and curious onlookers.
“Hold this,” Emily said, handing her phone off to me.
I took it and looked at it with a grimace. “If your idea is to do something stupid, think of a better one.”
“Just like at the docks,” Emily said, looking back to the park. “I’ll go in. Give me a magical stick to fetch.”
“In there?” I pointed back at the park.
“What’s the worst that could happen? It’s the FBI; they aren’t going to shoot a stray cat.”
I didn’t like the idea of her running in when I had no idea what to expect. I didn’t like how she handed me her phone like she wasn’t going to be using it ever again.
“Well, Reika, you’re the boss,” Emily said while crouching behind a parked car next to us. “You have ten seconds to come up with a better plan.”
I slipped her phone into my trench coat pocket, telling myself she’ll be holding it again later tonight. “Give me a sec—”
“Ten.”
Emily was counting down.
“Seriously?” I snapped at her.
“Nine.”
“For fuck sakes Emily!”
“Three, two one.”
Ninjutsu hand gestures turned her into a tabby cat that leaped out of the pants and shirt that fell next to the parked car. I looked down at the cat she shifted into, sighing, and rubbing my forehead. She meowed at me.
“Emily, who the fuck told you how to count?” Seriously, she missed a bunch of numbers during that countdown.
Tabby cat Emily ran off, breaking past the police tape and FBI barricades. Her presence got the attention of uniformed FBI agents, all armed with rifles or pistols. She was about to find out the hard way if they would shoot a stray cat since they all started running after her.
Never in my life would I think to see the FBI radio in for backup because a stray cat ran into a crime scene. I didn’t know whether to laugh or take advantage of the lack of FBI patrolling the entrance to the park. Or consider the fact that what was going on in the park was so big that even a stray cat couldn’t be allowed to enter. Emily might have discovered something new.
Which of the three did I end up doing? All of them. I laughed first while walking to the park’s entrance she ran to, then crouched and moved with stealth, keeping my eyes sharp for any FBI agents that weren’t called in to chase a cat.
I found four agents standing near a path leading into the park. Their heads moved from side to side. I pulled back and hid behind a bench, then peered ar
ound it when they stopped scoping out their surroundings. The four agents entered the park and turned into a flash of white light and vanished. Come to think of it, Emily did too, as I didn’t see any cat running about in the park.
My window of opportunity was shutting fast. Four FBI agents vanishing from sight because they entered Central Park was a bizarre thing to witness. I made an all or nothing sprint to the park, the hairs on the back of my neck standing up straight. I was totally expecting someone to catch me in the act and put a bullet in my head.
A wall made of pure Lux energy was ahead as I neared the threshold to the park, right where the agents vanished. Since nobody caught me in the act yet, I came to a stop. Standing still, I gave the Lux wall a closer look, it was like it was creating an illusionary barrier. The outside of the barrier showed an empty Central Park under the cover of the night skies of the city. Looking closer at it I could see what was inside, it was like peering into a frost-coated window.
And what I saw was strange.
I saw people moving, some of them wore FBI jackets and hats, and others looked like naked people who were half-plant half-human. It was the Dryads, and they didn’t seem to mind the FBI agents moving about with their weapons drawn, searching for a cat.
It was time for me to join the fun. I took one step forward and felt a force knock me the fuck back. It was like a Mack truck came speeding ahead and hit me. Not sure what happened next, my vision went black real quick when my back hit the ground.
I opened my eyes to the sight of the crowd looking on at Central Park. It was still dark, meaning I wasn’t out that long. I was sitting on the road, my body lying against a car parked within a cluster of police cars. Someone got smart and dragged me over, and my money was on it not being an FBI agent.
Gabe stood above me a moment later, looking down at me, shaking his head. “Reika, what the fuck?”
“Sorry, Gabe, had to find out,” I said, standing up. The pain in my body was like the aftermath of someone sticking ten hot pokers through it. “This is all connected with my investigation, man.”
Deception of the Demon Girl Page 14
