Demon Rogue (The Half-Demon Rogue Book 1)

by Erikson, D. N.

  “And the one out in the wild?”

  “A litter was stolen,” Diana said. “We’d like to find out who kidnapped them.”

  “And what do you have in store for the unlucky bastard?”

  “That’s a private matter,” Diana said, clearly uncomfortable about the connotations. You can’t purport to be the good guys and then string someone up by their nutsack. But I’d known the Sol Council to do worse things. “You have everything you require?”

  “Yeah,” I said, watching her walk away. Her wings disappeared, cloaked again. “Thanks for getting Argos down.”

  He barked his approval, although it was somewhat less enthusiastic after he’d heard about her being a conniving bitch.

  “Next time we meet, I pray you’ll have found whoever is behind this. The winds are rife with dissonance and chaos.”

  “One other thing your people should know,” I called after her. She stopped. “Athena the Goddess Killer paid me a visit.”

  “Oh?” Diana tried hard to sound disinterested, but it was a lame attempt.

  “She’s gonna kill me in three days if I stick around,” I said. “So if you guys know something you’re not telling me, it’d be in everyone’s best interest to share.”

  “I’ll keep that in mind.”

  I watched as she trotted off. Argos walked up beside me and growled.

  “I don’t want to move again,” he said. “I like it here.”

  “Inonda’s not a bad place, buddy.” I scratched his ears and he didn’t protest. “But some things are out of our control.”

  After all, I’d been running for years.

  Why stop now?

  9

  With Charon smelling less than roses on the couch and snoring like a broken belt saw, I decided to head to the office. I needed to retrieve the Remkah Talisman—not wearing it was getting me into too much trouble—and try to figure out my next move. Plus, I needed a little work done on the blood drug. The kind of chemical analysis that Gunnar couldn’t perform.

  Argos rode with me in the Cutlass. No dogs allowed on the premises, but at night it wouldn’t be a problem.

  We headed up the stairs, taking them two at a time.

  “Nice addition,” Argos said when we reached the steel door. “This what Diana was talking about?”

  I flicked my fingers skyward, and the steel retreated into the ceiling. “Scott.”

  Argos hacked and shook his black and white head. “That guy’s relentless.”

  “It’d be funny if I hadn’t shot Isabella two minutes before he showed up.”

  “You shot her?” Argos darted into the office, cocking his head at the missing door. “I smell bleach.”

  “Crazy as ever, I assure you.”

  “Too much to ask for a headshot?”

  “She survived.”

  I followed him into the office. He sat down, ears perked up and expectant. He laid down and gazed up at me with soulful eyes.

  “Knew it was too much to ask for.”

  “It’s a complicated relationship,” I said.

  “Just follow my instructions during the analysis,” Argos said. “I don’t want to hear about her.”

  I set up his beakers, test tubes and burners on the desk. Argos was a brilliant scientist, but the opposable thumbs issue meant I had to play lab tech. The iPad had been a real boon for his reading—before, turning pages had been an exercise in frustration. There were more than a few chewed up spines littered around the apartment.

  Dates I had brought back just figured I had a really, really bad dog.

  They had no idea.

  I flicked on the burner and stepped around the desk.

  “You can’t just leave that unattended,” Argos said.

  “I need the talisman,” I said.

  “You never wear that thing.”

  “I’m beginning to think that was a serious lapse in judgment.”

  “Since when did you use that?”

  “Funny,” I said.

  I rooted through the broken chunks of door and the papers I had piled behind the desk, eventually finding it amidst the rubble. Argos was right. The trouble that I had gone through to get this thing, and I never used it.

  I unclasped the bronze chain and felt the heavy emerald pendant thud against my chest as I brought it up to my neck. The talisman’s aura permeated the air when it touched my skin. Its magic was strong.

  “Cleanus optimus,” I whispered, for a little test.

  The papers on the floor rustled around, organizing themselves into orderly stacks. The cabinets shut themselves, and the blinds even readjusted.

  I needed to use this thing more often.

  But there was something about being a demon and using magic that wasn’t all hellspawn and fire that didn’t feel right. Definitely would have saved me a piece of my soul this morning, had I searched the carnage properly.

  Then again, I never thought straight with Isabella around.

  My phone buzzed inside my pocket, turning my thoughts to more earthly concerns. I took the device out and read the screen.

  YOUR NEIGHBOR IS QUITE BEAUTIFUL

  “We have to leave,” I said, rushing toward the door.

  “We can’t leave the open flame.”

  I glanced back at the burner, then at my phone. The message didn’t come with a name, but there was only one brand of jealous crazy possibly responsible. And if Nadia got in the same room as Isabella, I didn’t exactly like my neighbor’s chances of surviving.

  “Can you run the test without me?” I asked.

  “I don’t have thumbs.”

  I spun around the room, trying to figure out how to multitask. Hurrying back behind the desk, I grabbed my chair and put it in front of the open flame.

  Then I put in a call to Gunnar.

  “Gunnar will help you. Just hop up here and watch until he comes.”

  “Gunnar?” Argos let out a small whimper. “He locked me in the cellar that one time.”

  “Again about the cellar,” I yelled, about to hit the roof. “Get over it.”

  “It was dark down there.”

  “Just tell Gunnar what to do,” I said, shooting off a text to the blond-haired vampire. “And be sure to get along. Otherwise we’re moving.”

  “I can’t do it.”

  “You survived the Underworld,” I said, stroking his ego. “You’re a legend.”

  There was a long pause. “Fine.”

  “Thanks,” I said, rechecking my phone when it buzzed. Just Gunnar, confirming that he would help out. “I gotta run.”

  “I hope you get laid,” Argos grumbled beneath his breath, half-bark, half-English.

  The phone buzzed.

  BRING ME WODEN’S SPEAR AND YOUR PROBLEMS DISAPPEAR. TICK TOCK KALOS

  Thousands of years, and you would think I’d learn.

  To always aim for the head.

  *

  I knew something was wrong when I pulled the old rustbucket up to my apartment complex. And it didn’t take any supernatural premonitions. One of the condos was on fire. It wasn’t mine.

  Nadia was outside, clutching her head while sitting on the curb. The paramedics were already on scene, giving her oxygen. Behind them, the fire department was putting out the remnants of a small blaze. Isabella glided out of the chaos, flashing a seductress’ smile. She walked with a slight limp, from where I’d shot her, but the wound was already healing nicely.

  The message was clear.

  She wasn’t going away without what she came for.

  I nodded, and she stopped. From across the lot, I saw her begin to taunt me, but I shot her a deadly look. A tiny chill whipped through the scene, making everyone pause to look around. That just didn’t happen in the middle of a Texas summer.

  It did happen when I
was pissed off.

  And I was about to turn this up to eleven, after Isabella tried to torch Nadia’s house.

  After a second, everyone shrugged it off as just one of those things. You know those weird moments, where nature doesn’t work quite right and your reaction makes no damn sense? Like pee shivers? That means some supernatural critter messed with something nearby.

  Maybe it was even me, if I passed through your neighborhood.

  The tiny aura burst had the intended effect. Isabella disappeared into the uniformed crowd and was gone. At least she kept a low profile. This was the battle I was waging—staying in the shadows, staying alive. No need to blow my cover and do this aspiring kingpin’s job for him.

  Or her.

  Even without Isabella making a scene—okay, a bigger scene—it was too earlier to rule her out as the mastermind behind the tainted blood drug.

  I heard Nadia groan. “Kal, you showed up. I still have a question—”

  Then she fainted.

  I started toward her, but thick fingers wrapped themselves around my forearm. The grip suggested that their owner meant business. Detective Scott jerked me backwards, away from Nadia. I watched helplessly as the paramedics loaded her up on a stretcher and put her in the back of the ambulance.

  “I don’t have time for this, Officer.”

  “Detective.”

  “Get out of my way,” I said, shaking loose from his grip. The ambulance pulled away. I watched from the corner of my eye as the firemen began to pack up. The smell of burnt wood and melted plastic clung to the night air.

  “We have a few questions for you,” Detective Scott said, a sneer on his lips, “Isn’t that right, Dom?”

  Dominic Rodriguez, Scott’s reluctant partner, just gave him a shrug.

  “He doesn’t say much,” Scott said, undeterred by his partner’s lack of enthusiasm, “but he knows you’re a cocksucker, Aeon. Every place you go, it starts to stink like shit.”

  “It was three years ago,” I said. “I was cleared. Time to let it go.”

  “I’ve been doing a little digging,” Scott said, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out a USB thumb drive. That’s never good. That meant a lot of evidence, far too much to put into a paper file. “You know, you’ve been a busy man.”

  I didn’t like where this was going, and I didn’t have time for games. But punching his lights out in front of two dozen witnesses wasn’t going to do me any favors.

  “Send the questions to my lawyer,” I said, pushing past him to head back to my house.

  “People are gonna die, you keep hanging around Aeon. You know that, don’t you?” He spit on the ground. “If you got a heart, you’d leave.”

  “If that’s your question,” I said, resisting the intense urge to wheel around and blow a gaping hole in his chest, “then I’ll have to plead the fifth.”

  “I’m watching you, Aeon,” he yelled as I went into my apartment.

  I didn’t have time for this shit.

  But then, magical salvage was never easy.

  10

  Other plans be damned. After the day and night I’d had, I hit the mattress on the floor hard. It felt like I’d only been under for a couple minutes. But when the morning light drifted through the window, I groggily rolled out from beneath the sheets.

  The apartment was quiet. Stale smoke from the previous night’s fire hung in the air, along with the acrid scent of puke.

  “Charon?” I stumbled from the bed room into the living room. He was already gone. Better that way. One more thing on today’s itinerary, and I think I’d about explode. I headed into the kitchen, smelled the milk from the fridge, and dumped it out. When I closed the door, I saw a note from Charon.

  Sorry about the couch. I’ll figure something out. – C

  No mention of the Crimson Conclave or any hare-brained plans. That was good for me. I knew how badly he wanted to get back in good with them, but it usually only came after a heavy night of drinking. Him laying off was a minor miracle, given the circumstances.

  He still owed me a new couch, though. That shit smelled vile.

  Holding my breath, I walked into the living room. Despite the endless list of things to do, my day was pretty much wide open. I pulled up a chair and stretched, weighing the events of the past twenty-four hours. Choosing which metaphorical fire to put out first was going to be tricky.

  The way I saw it, I had to figure out who had stolen the Sol Council’s illicit puppies, chopped them up, and started selling their poisoned blood on the streets—or else Diana and the Council were going to revoke my free pass above ground. That wasn’t an idle threat. Demons roaming the earth made everyone nervous.

  Probably why I had so few friends.

  On the other hand, if I didn’t clear out of Inonda in about sixty hours, I was gonna bear the full brunt of the Goddess Killer’s wrath. And more immediate retribution would come if I kept investigating.

  Thus, the proverbial rock and hard place.

  It seemed both the Council and the Conclave wanted to keep things under wraps. I had little doubt they possessed different motives, but that wasn’t really my concern. I just salvaged things, picked up magical scraps that were left behind. No one goes after the small fish.

  At least not until now, when I’d suddenly become a hot commodity. Then again, I was being modest. After all, Athena herself had declared I had a storied reputation.

  Easy, Kal. Focus on the problems.

  All that was to say nothing about the sudden emergence of Isabella and Marrack. What their role in this entire mess was, it was impossible to say. But someone had gone to a lot of trouble to break them out of their eternal prisons.

  Marrack, most of all, was the wild card. Because as bad as the Planes of Eternal Woe were, where the Demon King had ended up in that fateful year of 979 A.D. was far worse. An unspeakable prison of torment.

  Knowing that sick fuck, he probably got off on it.

  But it would figure, when the most excitement I’d experienced since the Inquisition fiasco rolled into town like a Texas flood, that those two assholes would resurface and start sniffing around for Woden’s Spear again.

  I had half a mind to use it. But they weren’t the only ones who coveted the spear. Bringing that out in a place like Inonda was like strapping flank steaks to your face and walking through a werewolf’s den.

  I wasn’t quite that desperate.

  Or stupid.

  Drumming my fingers on the table, I made the human decision. I’d go visit Nadia in the hospital. Her unasked question had been bugging me, and even though there wasn’t any pressing need for me to see her, that would at least be pleasant. Unlike everything else on the to-do list.

  As I rose from my seat to get dressed, my eyes fell on the package in the corner. The plain box stared back at me, unassuming. I hadn’t ordered anything. In the blur of events the day before, its arrival hadn’t raised any questions.

  But now, it was out of place.

  I took a few cautious steps forward, like it was suddenly a bomb.

  The grandfather clock in the living room chimed, announcing it was ten, and I jumped.

  “Pull it together, man,” I whispered. With an angry swipe at the ground, I picked up the package. It didn’t rattle. Whoever had sent it had done a nice packaging job. I read the postage. Overnighted. No return label.

  Someone had gone to some trouble to get this box here in a hurry. The least I could do was open it.

  Without bothering to sit down, I tore into the flaps. Brown packing paper and bubble wrap floated to the floor. I dug my fingers across the bottom, hitting a metallic object about the length of a thermometer.

  Pulling it out with some trepidation, my eyebrows raised as I saw what I held in my palm.

  It was a thermometer. But not quite. There was no reading for Celsius or Farhenheit,
or any other standard measurements. The only text on the side, alongside a number of hand carved notches, were the lower case letters ess. scratched into the metal in a clean script. Some sort of fluid that resembled a cross between molten gold and silver swam at the bottom.

  At the top, there was a little spike, similar to a needle point.

  I flipped the device over, to see if it came with instructions. But the back was smooth and unmarked.

  Maybe Argos could tell me what this thing did.

  Reaching back into the box, my fingers brushed up against a leather bound journal. I was just about to dig it out when my phone began buzzing.

  Abandoning my current project, I rushed into the bedroom. Could be news of Nadia.

  “Hello?”

  “The results are in,” Gunnar said. “The dog is not very pleased.”

  There was a bark in the background. At least they agreed on something. And had survived the night together. But my heart sank a little. I don’t know why I thought it might be Nadia. The hospital wouldn’t call her neighbor. Maybe Isabella had reason to be jealous.

  But she’d been cavorting with Marrack for centuries before 979 A.D. You’d think she’d have gotten over it.

  “Give me the short version,” I said, struggling to pull on my jeans with the phone up to my ear. Finally I gave up and just put it on speaker.

  “Are you just waking?”

  “Yes,” I said, yanking a shirt over my head. “Isn’t it a little past your bedtime?”

  “Anything for an old friend.”

  “You brought Argos to Lux?”

  “He likes it here,” Gunnar said. “Many pretty women.”

  “Tell me what you found.”

  “So impatient,” Gunnar said in a reprimanding tone. “I pity the woman who meets with you.”

  “Talk to Isabella about my impatience,” I said. “You guys could fill a book with it.”

  “I would rather not,” Gunnar said, sniffling and yawning. “In any event, I believe we have made a—what would the Americans call it? Breaking through?”

  “A breakthrough.”

  “Precisely.” I heard Argos say something in the background, but it was muffled. “The dog says it is a game changer. I am unfamiliar with this terminology.”