A Despair of Demons (Travelers, Book 1)

by Cassy Campbell

  “Oh boy.”

  “Mmm, I like the sound of that.”

  “No. It’s bad. So bad. I slept with Jordan.”

  Leslie squealed at the other end of the line. “The hot amazing hottie partner from work?”

  “Yes, that would be him.”

  More squeals. “I need details! Tell me everything.”

  Liv recited a highly edited version of the story.

  “What is wrong with you?” Leslie asked.

  “What?”

  “Why would you leave the bed of a gorgeous man who’s wanted you since you met?”

  “Because we can’t just waltz into work together! Why not just hang signs around our necks? ‘Sleeping together. We’re sleeping together here.’” She shook her head disgustedly.

  “Oh, come on, Liv! And by the way, I can hear you shaking your head at me. But who gives a shit? Why does it matter who knows?”

  Liv sighed. “He doesn’t love me.”

  “So?”

  “So, I love him.”

  A gasp from the other end of the line. “Olivia Jane! You kept that one awfully close!”

  “Yeah. Because something will happen. Something always does. You know what happened with Nathan.”

  “Hmm. I suspect you learned a little bit about decency and taste since that bastard. He wasn’t worth the dirt that sticks to your shoes, Liv, and you know it. The way you talk about Jordan, I know that isn’t the case with him.”

  Liv sighed. “Maybe. It’s too late now, so I guess we’ll see.”

  “Did you tell him you love him?”

  “No, Leslie! Geez! What do you take me for? Besides, I only recently figured it out myself.”

  Leslie snorted. “You are so blind. Only you wouldn’t know you were in love with a guy for a year. But if you didn’t say it, you can’t hold it against him if he didn’t.”

  “He didn’t say it because he doesn’t.” Liv sighed.

  “Well, you’ve got time. If you can do whatever top-secret things you do out in the middle of Nowhere, Nevada, then I’m sure you can get the guy to admit he loves you. And then you won’t have to worry about your team knowing.”

  Her stomach clenched. “What am I gonna do if they can tell? Oh my Lord, they’re gonna be able to tell.”

  She heard the South come into her voice, but she couldn’t help it. Talking with Leslie, or anyone in her family, tended to draw out her accent, especially if she was upset.

  “Oh calm down. If they know, they know. It doesn’t make any difference. What are you going to say to him?”

  Her stomach clenched harder. “Oh, no, what am I going to say to him?”

  Leslie laughed. “You’ll figure it out. If he knows you half as well as it sounds like he does, he’ll understand.”

  “What? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Leslie laughed again. “Have fun at work today. Call me.”

  “But Les—”

  “Bye Liv! Be careful.”

  “I was!”

  “At work, you perv.”

  “Oh.” Liv laughed. “Right, I will. Love you.”

  “Love you too, baby sis.”

  * * *

  Liv typed up the Blue Beach fiasco Travel experiment data, which she’d put on a back burner since she’d been trying to figure out how to mimic Elachai’s power. She finally had a little spare time to finish the official report to General Mace.

  She was just writing up the final conclusion when Gin bounced into her office. “General Mace wants us in the briefing room at 0800 hours.”

  Liv’s stomach jumped, and she stomped on her instant surge of guilt. This was not about sleeping with a coworker. “Why?”

  “I don’t know. I think something must have happened.”

  Liv saved her report and glanced at the clock: 07:45. “I guess we’d better get over there now. Does everyone else know?”

  “Yeah, Connor ran into Jordan and Ben already this morning. He’s hunting Trent down right now.”

  Liv’s heart gave a jump at Jordan’s name, but she managed a passable grin. “Very mysterious.”

  Gin laughed. “I know. I love this job.”

  They headed out of the office together and walked to the briefing room.

  Liv tried to slow to match Gin’s pace, which, with her six-inch taller frame and much longer stride, was almost unbearably difficult. She realized she was in a hurry to see Jordan again. Excited and nervous butterflies warred in her stomach.

  What would she say?

  She tried to have a normal conversation with Gin, but she couldn’t remember anything they’d said since they’d been in her office.

  Her inattention was interrupted when Jordan walked out of a connecting hallway and almost ran into them.

  He gave Liv a look that both cut her to the bone and warmed her to her toes. It seemed to last forever, but Gin didn’t act like she noticed anything out of the ordinary.

  Liv was afraid Jordan would question her, but he only said, “Oh, sorry guys, I wasn’t paying attention. What’s the briefing about?”

  “Don’t know,” Gin said.

  Liv had to clear her throat before she could speak. “Gin thinks something’s happened.”

  “I guess we’ll find out. After you.” He gave Liv another barbed look as she and Gin walked past before following them to the briefing room.

  This is already terrible, she thought as she followed Gin into the briefing room. Just think how bad it will be if he breaks your heart.

  Connor sketched them a jaunty wave from his chair, and Trent, sitting to his right, nodded hello. Liv sat, and Jordan sat next to her, but turned away and started talking with Trent.

  She shoved all her feelings down into a box in her mind, but it was much harder than usual.

  Ben walked in. “I just made a quick stop at the cafeteria,” he said with a wave of the half-donut he held.

  “What a surprise,” Liv growled. She deserved a donut with all this turmoil in her head.

  General Mace arrived and sat in his usual chair. “Good morning, everyone. As you know, demons have been attacking Trench World—X-1763Z—for some time now. T55 informed me yesterday that Trench World’s king has decided that it would be in the best interest of his people to meet with the demon leaders. He wants to try to resolve their disputes and stop the raids.”

  “WHAT?” Jordan roared over the general clamor from the others.

  General Mace gave Jordan a surprised look. “Dr. Jameson, I thought that with your peace-loving belief in negotiation you’d be all for this idea.”

  “But this isn’t some territorial dispute. Sir, these are demons. You can’t negotiate with them. Their only directive in the whole world is to rape and steal and cheat their way through the multiverse.”

  Without thinking, Liv laid a calming hand on Jordan’s arm, but instantly jerked it back as if from a hot stove. She tried to cover the moment by asking, “Sir, how can we stop this?”

  “We can’t.”

  Trent frowned. “But sir, we can’t let the demons get a foothold in an allied world. We may be compromised as well.”

  “Trench World is already compromised, and the king doesn’t possess Home World intelligence that the demons could use to harm us.”

  Jordan protested, “Sir, we should be fighting the demons and freeing Trench World, not helping them surrender.”

  “We have no authority in other worlds, as you well know, Dr. Jameson,” General Mace said. “They’ve asked for our help. Our only options are to give it, or not.”

  “Even if they wanted to fight, they don’t stand a chance, Jordan,” Connor said, resigned. “Trench World doesn’t have advanced defensive technology. Or offensive technology. Even if we could kill demons, we’d still need more weaponry than we could ever carry through just to try. We’d need a constant military presence to enforce our will, and we’d almost certainly bring the demons down on our own heads.”

  Jordan nodded reluctantly.

  “The king has
decided this is the best thing for his people. Therefore, we’ll use the situation to our advantage.” General Mace looked at each of them in turn. When he was met with silence instead of dissent, he continued, “Dr. Greenwood, you and Dr. Jameson will be planted as advisors to the king. You’ll have to stay outside of the meeting chamber due to the king’s no-female rule. The lower demon aides will also be outside, because of space restriction if for no other reason. Find out as much as you can about their plans.”

  Liv dared a quick glance at Jordan and found him staring at her, one side of his mouth quirked.

  “Commander Bryant, you and Petty Officer Nagano will be assigned as body guards to the king. You will be in a position to hear the whole negotiation. You’re there simply to listen. Keep the negotiation peaceful if necessary, protect the king if you’re forced to. Don’t let the demons know you don’t belong there if you can at all avoid it. As you know, there are no ballistic weapons in Trench World.”

  Connor nodded.

  “Ms. Karelli, you and Lieutenant Farthing will be posted on the nearby rooftops as sharpshooters with a clear sightline into the meeting chamber. You are to shoot only in dire necessity.

  “I don’t need to remind any of you that information may be the only way for us to avoid Trench World’s fate. The demons already have too much knowledge of that world. We have to find a way to protect this one.”

  “It’s that decuple-damned Woolfe!” Liv burst out. “How does he know so much? His demons attack at will and our allies pay the price.”

  “So do your job,” General Mace said. “Infiltrate the demon contingent.”

  Ben held up his hands in a timeout signal. “I’m sorry—awesome rant, Liv—but ‘decuple?’ Am I the only one who doesn’t know what that even means?”

  Liv stared, nonplussed. She looked around the table as everyone shook their heads.

  Jordan sighed. “It’s from Latin. It means ten times.” He smiled at Liv. “It was a good curse.”

  Liv sat back, Jordan’s quiet understanding and support steadying her. And confusing her. It was harder to believe things would go wrong when she sat next to him feeling understood and loved, but just look at Nathan. Just because she felt understood and loved did not mean she was.

  Gin sat forward. “Sir, if we could just go after Woolfe…”

  General Mace answered, “Out of the question, Ms. Karelli. We’ve been through this before. The Joint Chiefs will not authorize it. I know you’d rather act than sit by and do nothing, but this time I agree with them. I won’t send my people on a suicide mission to Hell.

  “Don’t do anything to compromise yourselves. Any of you. Your safety is more important than any piece of information, or the lives of our allies. You are forbidden to Travel to Hell. Do I make myself clear?”

  “Yes,” and “Yes, sir,” echoed through the room.

  “We’ll brief at 0730 tomorrow, then you’ll go directly to Trench World. Dismissed.”

  They rose to leave, and milled out the door.

  Connor said to Trent, “We’d better get started setting up some tactical plans.”

  “Count me in,” Gin said.

  Jordan kept walking down the hallway. “I have some research to get done. See you guys at lunch, okay?”

  Liv said, “I’ve got work too. Later.”

  Liv was grateful to escape to her office, but she’d barely buried herself in algorithmic analysis of brainwave patterns when she was interrupted by a knock at her door. She lifted her head to see Jordan standing there.

  “Can I come in?”

  “Sure.”

  He stepped into her office and closed the door. “So?”

  “So?”

  “Why did you leave last night?”

  She frowned. “I needed to get ready for work. I couldn’t wear the same clothes I had on yesterday, especially if I followed you in.”

  “What you mean is, you didn’t want anyone to know what happened between us.”

  She squirmed in her chair. “Well, yeah.”

  He clenched his teeth so that a muscle bulged in his cheek. “I see. So how long do we keep us a secret? Or is there an us?”

  “I don’t know, Jordan. Is there?”

  He looked at the ceiling as if praying for patience before turning his eyes on her. “Yes, Liv. I thought so.”

  “Well then, good. But don’t go shouting about it to anyone.”

  “What, you’re ashamed of me?”

  Liv shook her head, bewildered. “N—what? No! Why would you think that?”

  “Oh I don’t know. Maybe because you’re too ashamed to tell any of our friends we’re dating.”

  “Well, we’re not exactly dating, are we? We slept together. Once! That’s not a relationship, Jordan, and I, for one, wouldn’t tell anyone if we were in a relationship until I knew it wouldn’t suddenly end.”

  “End? Look, Liv, I know I haven’t taken you out, and we didn’t do the whole dancing and dinner and movies thing first, but we’ve been together for a year as far as I’m concerned. I didn’t see you asking me out to dinner when you threw yourself at me last night!”

  “Threw myself at you? You’re the one who came and started making out with me while I was working in my office!”

  “And how do you know that my next step wasn’t going to be to ask you to dinner? You’re the one who came and started having sex with me while I was relaxing in the comfort of my own home!”

  She couldn’t help it. She laughed, her anger blown out like a candle. “Were you going to ask me to dinner?”

  Jordan smiled. “Guess you’ll never know. Want to have dinner with me?”

  She laughed again. “Maybe. I have a lot of work to catch up on since someone interrupted me last night.”

  “How about lunch then?”

  She eyed him, looking for a trap. “Okay.”

  “Let’s go.”

  “Now?”

  “Now. It’s lunchtime.”

  “Fine. But nothing’s changed, Jordan.”

  “Fine. I won’t say a word. Yet.”

  In the elevator, Jordan turned to her with studied casualness. “Why are you so set against anyone knowing you’re with me?”

  She sighed. “I don’t want to be scrutinized by the rest of the team.”

  “You mean, you think they’re going to nose into your business and ask you why you’re doing things and generally make your life messy.”

  “Well, yeah. That’s what friends do. And when it’s over, it’ll be horrible having to pretend—”

  “What do you mean, ‘when it’s over?’ You planning on loving and leaving?”

  “No.”

  “Well, neither am I.”

  She sighed again. “You don’t know that, Jordan. Something always happens.”

  Another ah-hah expression flashed across his face. The man and his intuitive leaps, seriously. Now what did he think he’d figured out?

  The elevator dinged on level two, and the smell of green beans and meatloaf wafted into the car. Jordan stepped out into the hall, and Liv matched his pace, trying to think of something to say. Jordan was lost in thought until they reached the cafeteria, a comfortable room with round tables scattered throughout and a buffet counter along the far wall.

  Liv picked up the least unappetizing sandwich and followed Jordan to the table where the rest of their team already sat. When they got within earshot, Ben said, “This is huge. They’re negotiating with demons!”

  “It won’t be much of a negotiation,” Jordan said as he threw his tray down on the table and sat. “Demons only want one thing—domination. They’ll take whatever they want whenever they want starting the minute the deal is made. I can’t believe we’re letting them make a deal with demons!”

  Connor laughed bleakly, put his head in his hands and scrubbed his fingers through his hair. “We get a day to set up and plan the details.”

  Trent watched him until he lifted his head again. “You have to admit, there’s not much to plan. We onl
y get to go and watch.”

  Connor glared at Trent.

  Trent shrugged, unperturbed.

  “It sucks,” Ben said.

  “What can they possibly think we’ll hear?” Liv wondered.

  Connor’s expression was troubled. “There’s more fear at the higher levels than they’re letting on. We’d be sitting ducks if the demons decided to raid Home World. Any idea why they haven’t yet?”

  He was looking at Jordan, who shook his head.

  Connor said, “No. Neither does anyone else. Not to mention that the DEPOT would be blown out of the water—it’d be hard to keep Travelers secret if hostile scary not-humans pop out of thin air in the middle of afternoon picnics in the park.”

  “We’re going to have to sit in a room with demons,” Jordan said. “The smell alone is going to be terrible.”

  “As long as the Wolf’s not there.” Liv shuddered. “I think I’m done eating,” she said, and stood abruptly. She dumped her mostly uneaten lunch in the trash on the way out the door.

  * * *

  Jordan stared after her and then turned to the rest of the team.

  Ben answered his unspoken question. “She was a witness in the Home World Wolf case. She was at the beach where he killed those kids. She wasn’t armed and had to run to her vehicle for her personal sidearm. By the time she got back on scene, he had disappeared. The police didn’t find him until he went to a school playground and opened fire there. Liv thinks she should have somehow been able to stop that from ever happening.”

  Gin’s expression was horrified. “How? How can she possibly blame herself?”

  Ben shrugged. “I probably would too. She was there, she’s got black ops military training, but he escaped and more kids died.”

  “You’re blaming her?” Jordan asked with a bite in his voice.

  “Hell no. Everybody knows there was nothing she could do, but she still can’t stop blaming herself.”

  Connor asked, “Is she going to be okay with this mission? We’ll probably run into Woolfe sooner or later.”

  “She’ll be okay,” Ben said with confidence. “She wants payback. She won’t fold. But it’s probably best she’ll be outside of the meeting room. If he’s there, she might want to kill this Woolfe to atone for missing her chance with the last one.”