She was on her feet in a second, Epée raised, Hanta focused in, power flowing to her limbs.
Then she froze.
Out of the darkness of the house came none other than Valeria, hands raised in preparation for a second attack.
The two women stared at each other.
Valeria stood before her, wearing a cloak, her long blond hair plaited down her back.
“Golden Silver, what on earth are you doing here? I know what you are doing in New Orleans, but how did you find her here? Find us?”
Denny brushed herself off and sheathed Epée. “I came to check on Peyton, but nobody in this accursed town would tell me where she might be, so I did my own digging and...here I am. What are you doing here?”
Valeria motioned for Denny to come into the house. “Come. It is not safe out here.”
When she did, Valeria turned to the back door and waved her hand at it. “It will need to be fixed immediately. There are forces...” she shook her head. “It is simply not safe for Peyton, nor is it safe for you to be here.”
“I...I had no—”
“Of course you didn’t.” Valeria pulled a phone from her robe and pressed it. “I’ve had an intruder and need the back door repaired right away. No, it’s fine. I...took care of it. Send someone immediately. Thank you.” Hanging up, she returned her deep blue, almost lavender, eyes to Denny. “Then you did not follow me here?”
“Follow you? Hell, I had no idea you were even in the state. Not for lack of trying. I’ve been asking everyone about you trying to get someone, anyone to tell me where you were, but no one knew. I have so many questions for you.”
Valeria held her hand up. “I understand, but now is not the time. Peyton is...” Valeria shook her head. “It is such a long story.”
“I came here to see if Peyton is okay. Is he? She. Sorry. I just discovered she’s a she. That was quite a shocker.” Denny pinched the bridge of her nose. “I apologize. This is...so unexpected.”
Valeria continued through the small kitchen and into a front room—modestly decorated but too dark to see much color, the shades being completely drawn. “Indeed it is for the both of us. I usually feel your energy before I see you. I must be overly tired. Please sit. I need to make sure your energy has not disrupted my security measures.”
Denny sat on a loveseat of soft leather and waited. The Hanta calmer now, she retuned Epée’s cylinder to her vest. A million questions pin-balled around in her brain, but none made the journey to her mouth. Cocking her head to one side, Denny listened. It was deathly quiet—preternaturally so. What other spells was Valeria using to keep Peyton safe?
As if she’d heard Denny’s most innermost thoughts, Valeria answered. “Believe me, Golden, there are many. It’s taken all of my powers to keep Peyton safe and alive.”
Denny rose. “So she is in trouble.”
“To put it mildly, yes. She lost a battle to a higher-level demon who exacted its pound of flesh and more. It nearly destroyed her. She is resting quietly for now, but for how much longer, I do not know.”
“For now? Valeria, what in the hell is going on here?”
Valeria sat across from Denny on the matching sofa. They remained in semi-darkness as Valeria arranged her robe around her. “Peyton is hanging on. She suffered contusions, abrasions, lacerations, a concussion, and some broken bones. Without witch magic, I’m certain we would have lost her.”
“Jesus, what got her?”
“A higher level Dybbuk. It seems they are waging some sort of war here and they targeted Peyton first.”
“They?”
“The Dybbuks.”
Denny moved to the edge of her seat. “Plural? There’s more than one in New Orleans?”
“How long have you been here?”
“Two days.”
“Of course. I’ve felt so much demonic energy it is no wonder yours was missed. I have not left the house in nearly five days, which is far longer than it should have been, but she is in no condition to be moved.”
“Oh my God, she’s that bad?”
“I’ve not seen a hunter take such a beating and survive. I cannot even believe they didn’t just kill her straight away. There are just so many.”
“No kidding. I’ve been a killing machine since I got here.”
“So you’ve seen—”
“The influx of demons? Oh hell yes. Yes I have. I didn’t realized there were other Dybbuks, though. I’d only heard of the one.”
Valeria leaned forward. “Other? Then you’ve come in contact with one?”
“There is one poking around. Look, Valeria I don’t know what’s going on here, but I’d really like to see Peyton myself. Making sure she is okay is the only reason I came to New Orleans. Now...you find that you are somehow involved––”
“You’re angry.”
“Damn right I’m angry. In Savannah, I look all over for you, I ask for help and I get nothing. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Nada. The big, fat goose egg. Then I come here, wishing to help Peyton, and I receive the same warm and fuzzy welcome. Now I find you here and you tell me that the questions I need answers to have to wait until whatever the hell this is blows over, so excuse me if I’m a bit edgy.”
Valeria studied Denny a moment. “While I do understand your desire for answers from me, right now, it is Peyton’s health and wellbeing that is on the line. Can we agree to table your questions about your mother for the time-being and keep our focus on the present?”
Denny nodded. The Hanta was pissed as well. “It’s not like I have a choice.” Rising, she waited. “But I’m going to see Peyton right now even if I have to tear this whole house down.”
Valeria rose and stood in front of Denny. As tall as Denny was, Valeria was slightly taller and held herself with regal bearing. “You are so like your mother in so many ways, rushing headlong into the fray without a care for your own safety, without knowing just what it is you are up against.”
“Can we also agree not to talk about her right now? That’s all I keep hearing is how much like her I am and it adds more salt to my wounds.”
“It was intended as a compliment, Golden. Your mother was a first-rate hunter.” Valeria smiled lightly. “But, yes, I can agree to not talk about her. Just know, we will have the talk you wish to have and I will avail myself to you for the answers.”
“Thank you. Now, Peyton?”
Valeria headed towards the stairs. “Stay close to me. Nothing in the house is as it seems.”
Denny got right up behind her, and as they mounted the stairs, they were suddenly walking down and not up.
“Whoa. What the fuck?”
“The house is enchanted. It is a safe house of sorts. Not only is nothing as it seems, the house is a maze filled with deadly dead ends. Are you wearing your triquetra?”
Denny grabbed her demon necklace. “Never take it off.”
“Good. The triquetra is the key to seeing through the enchantments in order to navigate the house. There is far more to the necklace than you might realize.”
The triquetra was the key to turning the cylinders on that housed her weapons. She had put it on when all of this demon possession went down and never took it off.
Denny realized they were, in fact, walking up the stairs again. She released the necklace so her hands would be free if needed.
At the top of the stairwell, Valeria went right through a wall where several family photos hung. Denny grabbed the Celtic necklace once more and she, too, walked through the wall.
All totaled, the maze had several barking Rottweilers, three false walls, two locked doors and at least five trap doors. There may have been more, so Denny decided to keep hold of her triquetra.
Just in case.
“I had no idea the triquetra had such power,” she whispered.
“Oh, my dear, there is much you need to know about the necklace and the power it contains.”
“Yet one more thing on my growing list to learn about.”
Valeria came to a pai
r of doors. “One shoots you back to the street, the other takes you to Peyton. Hold your triquetra tightly.
Denny did.
Nothing.
“Touch the knob.”
When Denny touched the knob with her free hand, it felt cool to the touch.
“The cooler ones always eject you. The warm ones will be the doors through which you can go.”
“So, once I get this far in the house, it’s a fifty-fifty chance I’d get to Peyton.”
Valeria opened the door. “Enchanted, Golden. Even as we speak the house is resetting itself to a completely different configuration, which it does every time someone makes it to this point. Please follow, but keep your voice down. I wish not to wake her. She needs all the rest she can get.”
Denny followed Valeria into a windowless closet of a room no bigger than a dorm room. Lying in a double bed was a woman with a boyish haircut that looked like a blind hairdresser had cut it. Her bangs were all catawampus and the sides were slightly uneven. Her face was bruised and swollen; a cut above her eye held together by butterfly bandages. Her nose was swollen as if recently broken and her chin had several lacerations.
“Jesus...”
Valeria walked over to the bed and laid her hand on Peyton’s forehead. “She took quite a beating. It’s amazing she is alive at all.”
An IV was feeding Peyton from a stand, and the nightstand held gauze, tape and several bottle of pills Denny surmised were painkillers.
“I found her on the floor just outside her lair several days ago. She was smart enough not to pass out in there or I doubt I could have gotten to her in time. Even so, I was almost too late.”
Denny stood by the bed, gazing down at the battered woman. She looked like a pixie who’d gotten caught in a blender. “She’s a tiny thing. I thought...” she shook her head. “She’s so small.”
“Small body and a huge heart: The heart of a warrior for sure.”
Denny leaned closer and examined the full-sleeve tattoo—a beautifully rendered oak tree whose roots were wrapped around her wrist and whose branches encircled her biceps. “That’s beautiful.”
“Indeed. She is beautiful...and she is an amazing hunter. But you already know that or you wouldn’t be here.”
Denny felt Valeria next to her before she saw her. “I’ve been keeping up with her kills in the Kill Book. I am a little in awe over her kill rate. She has more than anyone else in the book.”
“Yes, she is quite an adept hunter. Why do you call it that? Kill Book? I thought you hunters called it the Black Book.”
“That feels too Wiccan for me. I mean, come on. We enter our kills in blood? Yeah, Kill Book.” Denny touched Peyton with one finger. To her surprise, Peyton moved. “So what happened here, Valeria?”
Valeria sighed as she gazed up Peyton. “I am not quite certain of all the facts yet, and until Peyton is out of danger, I care little for what those demons are doing to New Orleans.” Valeria took Peyton’s vitals, checked her eyes, inspected the IV and the small clipboard hanging from it, before pointing to two high-back chairs in the corner of the small room. “You have questions about Peyton, I can try to answer, but please keep them centered on her or New Orleans. Now is not the time to worry about the past or my role in your mother’s life.”
Denny took her seat and nodded. The chair was incredibly uncomfortable, as was she. She didn’t like being told what she could and couldn’t talk about. “You came to help her. Why? What is she to you?”
“Before you can understand that, you must understand our family’s histories.” Valeria sat down across from Denny. Her hair seemed to glow in the darkness. “Peyton comes from one of the most ancient line of legacy hunters there is. Further by far than your family’s legacy.”
Denny settled into the large chair.
“When her family was in its third generation of hunting, they crossed paths with a line of witches being hunted and burned. They were tortured in ways unimaginable. Their coven, one of the strongest in all of Europe, was nearly wiped out by the witch hunters.”
Denny leaned forward, transfixed by Valeria’s voice.
“The demon hunters rallied together and crushed the witch hunters. They sent them packing—those who were still alive, that is. That was the first time the demon hunters and the witches had made a pact. The reason almost every hunter has a witch now. The witches pledged their eternal loyalty to the hunters and their progeny and included this oath in a charter. Since that time, select witches have watched over the hunters and their families.”
Denny started to inquire about her mother, then stopped. “Is that why you came here then? Because of the charter?”
Valeria rose and straightened the IV bag. “No. I came because Peyton’s family and my own have been entwined for over two hundred years. When I suspected she was in trouble, I came right away.”
“How did you know?”
There was a slight pause before Valeria replied. “I am well-connected in the supernatural world, Golden. The moment Peyton was in physical danger, I was made aware.”
“I see.”
But she didn’t. Not really.
Valeria leaned forward. “No, Golden, I don’t believe you do. Peyton’s refusal to take on a witch has made her life, her work, that much more difficult here. I’ve been keeping an eye out on her since she first started hunting. It is what my family has done for two centuries.”
“She not care for witches? A part of me really gets that. Cassandra and her coven can make me crazy at times.”
A slight grin toyed at the corner of Valeria’s lips. “Au contraire. She cares too much, I believe.”
“I feel a love story coming on.”
Valeria folded her hands and looked down at them. “Very much so. Peyton was deeply in love with a warlock.”
Denny leaned closer. “A male witch?”
“They do exist, you know. We just don’t see them because they tend to avoid covens at all costs.”
Denny mumbled. “I totally get that.”
Valeria glanced up at Denny “I’m sure you do. You...well...you have your hands full, don’t you?”
“Or something. Please go on.”
“She and Nicholas were very deeply in love. They talked about marriage, having kids, but Peyton wanted to keep hunting. She was unwilling to give up her Hanta or the legacy and she was unwilling to have a family as long as she was possessed.”
“Ouch. Tough call.”
Valeria nodded. “You had the chance once before to rid yourself of yours and you chose the demon.”
“Yeah, I did, but I didn’t keep it because I am enamored with the hunting lifestyle. I kept it because...it just seemed like the right thing to do.” Denny thought for a moment. “I did have my chance, but not anymore. It’s my responsibility now—my duty. Hell, maybe even my purpose in life. I wouldn’t give it up.”
“Not even for love?”
Denny shook her head again. “Not even for love. Besides, I am pretty certain that ship has sailed.”
Valeria lightly touched Denny’s wrist. “Not likely. You are too young to give up on love.”
“Maybe, but love and this lifestyle...well...oil and vinegar have a better chance at success.”
“There you have it. So their plans for a normal life went down the drain. She broke it off with him.”
“That shit happens, Valeria. Going solo is part of the gig, right?”
“Yes, that...shit does happen, but then Nicholas disappeared.”
“To nurse his broken heart?”
“No. I mean...disappeared. Vanished.”
“Oh. Damn.”
“Yes. She looked everywhere for him. Nothing. Not one sign. No one saw him. No one knew what happened to him. He just vanished.”
“Double ouch.”
“So she threw herself into her hunting. Day and night for months on end.”
Denny looked at her own hands. “Been there.”
“Yes. Yes, you have. With almost the same disastrou
s results.”
Denny’s locked eyes with Valeria. “You knew?”
“There is little I do not know about the demon world of Savannah, Golden.” She reached over and put her hand on Denny’s wrist. “You have some very good people in your life. Peyton does not.”
“Maybe she should reconsider taking a witch.”
“Oh, she’ll never do that. You see, Nicholas wasn’t her only loss.”
Peyton stirred and Valeria jumped up to check on her. “I’m here. Easy. You’re safe. You’re going to be all right.”
Denny stood on the other side of the bed and watched as Valeria tended to her.
“Is she...is she going to be okay? Is she really safe here?”
“I hope so. As for her safety? I am using every bit of magic at my disposal to keep her hidden. How you managed to find her is nothing short of amazing.”
“Can I do anything?”
Valeria turned and moved away from the bed. “Just keep the demons away if you can, Golden. They are after her.”
“Then they must be surprised to find another legacy in their midst.”
“Oh, count on it. Legacies are not known for their bonding. Put your number in here so we can keep in contact.” Valeria handed Denny her phone.
“You really think they are coming after her? Why? Why her and why now? Is this about the cleansing?”
“I do not believe it is. I believe they have targeted her for some reason I am trying to ascertain. They won’t stop, and it’s only a matter of time before they discover this safe house. The problem is, we need to move her and I don’t think we can. It would not be wise given her weakened state.”
“I’ll do whatever I can to help, Valeria. Perhaps it might be best if I drew them away from here. You know, give them a different target.”
Valeria inhaled deeply. “Your mother would not be happy to know I am asking her daughter to act as bait.”
“My mother would be proud to know that I am finally looking beyond myself and my life, Valeria. She would understand. You know she would.”
“Perhaps, but I will have her to answer to when this is all over.”
“No. When this is all over, you’re going to have to answer to me.”
***
Denny didn’t get eight blocks away from her hotel when she felt the Hanta stir.
Blood of the Demon (The Silver Legacy Book 3) Page 9
