The Incubus Job

by Diana Pharaoh Francis

  “I don’t think so, but I also don’t know that you can. For one, you’ve decided you’re anti killing. All well and good, but that handicaps you whether you like it or not. For two—” He broke off.

  I waited, chin jutting stubbornly. He didn’t continue.

  “That’s it? I don’t kill so I’m doomed to fail? That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.” This time I succeeded in pushing out of his grasp. “Good thing I broke our partnership up when I did. I knew you wouldn’t trust me to guard your back anymore.”

  Saying that out loud lanced a hurt I’d been hiding from for years. The same reason I was content to work solo. I only risked my own life now. What if he was right? What if my unwillingness to kill an enemy got him killed? My life was my own to pay but his? Even now the thought of his getting hurt or worse because I failed to kill an enemy sent a shiver of horror down my spine.

  “I trust you with my life,” he said. “But what if the only way to handle this thing is to burn it? Behead it? Tear its heart out? It’s not human; you can bet your life on that. You can’t just shoot it in the knee or knock it on the head. Demons don’t work that way, and it’s a damned good bet this is a demon. It enjoys the kill. It enjoys suffering. Tell me what you’ll do if you end up face-to-face with it. Punch it in the jaw?” He grabbed my purse and opened it, pulling out the brass knuckles. “I see you’re still carrying these.” He tossed them aside scornfully. “It would be like a mosquito biting a rhino.”

  It took all I had not to slam him onto his ass. I hadn’t spent the past six years wringing my hands about my self-determined limitations. I’d developed new ways to fight and defend myself, plus working up a myriad of spells for capturing and containing opponents. I’d even gone old school and inscribed a bunch of them on my flesh using an inkless tattoo gun. Once inscribed, I invoked them and pulled them inside me, where they became a part of my body, blood and bone.

  I didn’t trust my memory in emergencies.

  Law had always been good at keeping his spells ready in his mind. He could visualize and invoke them in the blink of an eye. When we were partners, he’d made me practice doing the same over and over until I could call up spells in my sleep.

  I got obsessed with practicing. I never trusted that I would get them right in the middle of a firefight. Forget even a bit of a spell, and the results could be explosive, not to mention fatal.

  That’s when I’d gone old school. In the way back when, witches and druids had cut their spells into their skin with knives. That way they couldn’t forget them. Doing it that way was painful at best, and a whole lot of dangerous. It was easy to pass out during the cutting and lose control of the ritual. On top of that, feeding that kind of magic into the body made the sorcerer a target for black market magic harvesters. I’d done it anyway. I liked knowing the spells were always ready, like coins in my pocket. Pick one and go. I didn’t even have to remember a name for the spell. All I had to do was think of the one I wanted, and it would be there. I couldn’t forget them even if I wanted to.

  If Law found out, he’d read me the riot act. I’d committed one of the ultimate stupidities in his book. Two of them, if you count not killing ghosts.

  Speaking of the devil, he was still fuming at me, his eyes glittering fire.

  I deliberately bent and picked up the brass knuckles, gritting my teeth at the way the dress gaped open. Before it had been sexy; now it was just pathetic. “Believe it or not, I’m not an idiot,” I said. “I’ve prepared for what might happen.”

  He barely let me finish. “Not enough,” he retorted. “Once you start refusing to go take your enemy down, you show your own Achilles’ heel. He knows he can take risks because you won’t kill him. That gives any opponent a huge advantage.”

  “Your faith in my abilities is overwhelming,” I said as I straightened up. “I don’t know if my poor heart can take such praise.”

  “I just tell it like I see it,” Law said.

  “Well, that answers that question,” I said, tucking the brass knuckles back in my purse. I don’t know if I was more angry or hurt. I was good at my job. Damned good.

  “What question?”

  “The odds of us ever being partners again,” I said. “Zero to none.”

  He jerked back like I’d slapped him, and something that could have been fear flashed in his eyes.

  Not likely. Law didn’t know the word fear. My lips tightened into a flat smile. “Partners or not, we’ve got a killer to track down. Let’s get back to work.”

  He thrust his hands through his hair. “Mal—”

  I didn’t want to hear it. I started walking away.

  “You aren’t being fair,” he said. “You didn’t give me a chance six years ago, and you’re not giving me one now.”

  I whirled around. “You don’t need a chance. Shit, you don’t want one. Not really. Not with me. You want some imaginary woman who fits into this idea of what she should be. It’s not me. It’s never going to be me.”

  “I want you,” he said fiercely.

  “I’m not a pizza. You can’t just pick off all the bits you don’t like,” I said.

  “That’s not what I want to do.”

  “Could have fooled me.”

  He grimaced. “You need to give me a chance. You owe me that much.”

  I rubbed my forehead. “Let’s just focus on finding the killer.”

  He swore. “Give me a fucking break, Mal. Stop running away.”

  “I’m not running. But I’m also not going to stand around while you try to fix me. I’m not broken. I’ve changed and I’m never going back to being the girl who partnered up with you.”

  “I’ll take that as a promise that you’ll not vanish on me again,” he said, green eyes glittering challenge.

  “No promises. I’m going to do my job,” I said. “That means getting that box. If it leaves here with the killer, then I’m going after it.”

  “It’s not leaving. Not through my shields,” he declared.

  Neither was I. He didn’t say it, but I got the message loud and clear.

  “Should we go check out the incubus’s room now?”

  He let me change the subject. “I want to talk your ghost first—Tabitha.”

  I’d forgotten. “Talk away.”

  He scowled. “Can you ask her to come out so I can see her?”

  “She’s not likely to listen,” I warned, then, “Tabitha, Law wants to ask you about what made you so afraid.” I didn’t say she could trust him. I didn’t know if she could.

  I felt her clench tightly to me, and to my amazement, her grip loosened and she fluttered free. At first she remained invisible then slowly shimmered into sight. She stood beside me on the floor. Or rather, an inch off the floor. She wore a plaid dress with dark tights and a white button-up shirt underneath with a rounded collar. Her curly blond hair hung to the middle of her back and two clips held it back from her face. A pair of leather sandals clasped her otherwise bare feet and a silver unicorn ring circled one finger.

  She stared defiantly at Law from beneath her brows. I was surprised when he squatted before her. Tabitha was only about five feet tall. Her eyes widened as he dropped down.

  I shifted uneasily.

  “Hi, Tabitha,” he said in his whiskey-rough voice. “I’m Lawrence.”

  She gave a faint nod.

  “Something scared you about coming into Effrayant, didn’t it?”

  Another nod, more emphatic. Her hair started to lift from her shoulders, and the air around us started to swirl. She was still agitated.

  “Do you know what scared you?”

  She gave him a scathing look, her nose wrinkling, then gave another sharp nod. I could almost hear the no, duh, that accompanied it. I smiled. I could remember being a lot like her when I was a teenager. Full of piss and vinegar, as my grampa used to say.

  “Can you tell me?”

  She covered her mouth with both hands and shook her head fiercely.

  Law glanced at
me, his brows raised. I shook my head.

  “I told you. She doesn’t talk.”

  Her gaze flicked from Law to me then back, following our conversation. All of a sudden, Edna peeled away from me and appeared behind her, settling a hand on Tabitha’s shoulder. I thought she would jerk away, but she didn’t seem to notice Edna’s reassuring touch. Glenda, Sam, and Michael all came next. They crowded behind Tabitha as if to let her know she wasn’t alone.

  Law never looked away from her. “Do any of the others know what scared her?” He was talking to all my ghosts as much as he was to me.

  “I don’t think so.”

  Law rose slowly and stepped back. He looked like he wanted to pry Tabitha open and dig the information out with a spoon.

  “Maybe she doesn’t really know anything.” He shrugged. “All right. Let’s get going, then.”

  Tabitha’s hands pulled from her mouth and balled into fists. Her arms rammed straight down at her sides and she stomped forward, her mouth tight with fury. A frigid wind buffeted Law and me. I definitely wasn’t dressed for it. I shivered.

  The wind slammed Law against the wall. Tabitha followed, stopping at arm’s length, her eyes starting to turn milky white. Maybe she wasn’t willing to speak to Law, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t going to let him know how she felt.

  I stepped between them. “Tabitha, you need to calm down.” At the same time, I pushed shields out around her, just in case Law decided to teach her lesson.

  She felt it and instantly her eyes emptied of the white, turning a faint blue. She looked lost. She blinked at me, and her gaze slid behind me to Law. Abruptly she whirled and floated away to the blood congealing in the copper firepot. She looked back at us to make sure we’d followed.

  A word scrawled in the blood: So’la.

  I frowned and glanced at Law. “Is that the killer’s name?”

  “No idea. It sounds familiar. I’m sure I’ve run across the name somewhere in my research. With a little time, I might be able to dig something up.”

  He had an expansive library of materials from all over the world on every aspect of magic and many discussing the endless variety of supernatural creatures inhabiting the world and crossing over from other realms.

  “Can you tell us anything else, Tabitha?”

  She glared at me and thrust her hands toward the bloody spectacle of the murder scene as if to say, what else do you need to know?

  “I guess that’s all we’re going to get. Unless you want to ask something else?” I asked Law.

  “I’d sure like to know where she ran into her knowledge of this So’la and what it’s capable of.”

  As soon as he said it, Tabitha’s expression shuttered. Her eyes went blank, and a second later she vanished. She didn’t return to me but remained inside my shields. The other ghosts followed suit.

  “Was it something I said?” Law asked dryly.

  “Clearly she’s not a fan of this creature,” I said. “Are we done here?”

  He went still, a muscle in his jaw twitching. “We’re done,” he said. “Here, anyway. You and I most definitely are not done.”

  “I can’t imagine there’s a lot left to say,” I said as I followed him out.

  “Then your imagination sucks.”

  If I weren’t still so irritated, I might have laughed. As it was, I thought about his own lack of imagination when it came to my skills and abilities. “Right back at you,” I murmured with no little bitterness.

  Chapter 5

  We returned to the long corridor and went up a different stairwell, coming out in a little nook beside the lobby. LeeAnne stood out in front of the main counter, talking with several agitated customers. She saw us and waved for us to stop. While we waited, I looked around. Most of the evidence of Tabitha’s tantrum was gone, except for some bullet holes in the walls and furniture. A curtain of magic shimmered along the doors and outer walls, courtesy of the shutdown shields.

  At last LeeAnne managed to excuse herself and joined us. Her eyes about bulged out of her head as she took in my dress and bare feet. I didn’t look at all like the woman she’d checked in earlier. I resisted the urge to smooth my sex-tousled hair. Neither did I cross my arms over my chest to hide myself.

  “What happened?” she said, pretending I wasn’t there. “Why did you trigger the shields?”

  Well, that answered that question.

  “I didn’t,” he said.

  “Then who? Why?”

  “I don’t know. I have to sort out this murder. It’s likely the two are related.”

  She flinched at the word “murder.” “Shh! We don’t need a panic. What do you know so far? What is she doing here?”

  “Working,” I said unhelpfully. Something about the woman grated on me. More so now than before. Or maybe it was just the situation and the fact that I was tired and annoyed and now that she wasn’t ignoring me, she was looking at me as if I had lice.

  Her brows arched nearly to her hairline. “Oh?” She looked me over from head to toe again. “Just what is it that you do, Ms. Carson?”

  “I’m a Jill of many trades,” I said.

  Her lips twitched into a contemptuous sneer. “I’m sure you are.”

  She turned her attention back to Law. “How long before you lift the shields? The guests are getting restless.”

  “No idea,” he said. “Not until I find out what triggered them.”

  His glance at me added an unspoken warning that it would also be after we had our conversation.

  “That’s unacceptable. I’ll give you an hour.”

  I covered my snort with my hand. Law did not take getting bossed around very well.

  “Very generous, I’m sure,” he drawled, taking my elbow. “But it won’t change anything. I don’t answer to you. I’m blood-bound to fulfill my contract. I’ll lift those shields when I’m damned well sure that Effrayant is safe.”

  “Blood-bound?” I repeated as he pulled me away, shock rocking me to the soles of my feet. I felt like someone had smashed my head between two trash can lids. “You can’t be serious?”

  “I am,” he said. His chin lifted and he looked arrogantly down his nose at me.

  “Now who’s making limiting choices?” I taunted.

  “I’ve got a comfortable life.”

  “So if I had called you when I was in trouble, you couldn’t have come and helped me anyhow. All that was bullshit.”

  I couldn’t help the accusation and betrayal that leeched into my voice. I didn’t have a right to either of them, but he’s the one who’d made a big deal of it, making it sound like I’d failed him somehow by not contacting him.

  The truth was he couldn’t go far from Effrayant, and he couldn’t stay away too long. He probably could go twenty or thirty miles. Usually binding terms said no more than twenty-four hours before he got reeled back in, faster if something happened at Effrayant. Law would have no choice but to obey. If anybody got in his way, he’d go rabid in his efforts to get back. A magician of his particular talent could level New York City if he wanted. The blood-binding guaranteed he’d want to.

  His expression went cold and austere, like stone in winter. “I signed it when I gave up on your coming back from you lich trip. It kept me on the sunny side of the dirt.”

  It took a moment for that to sink in. When it did, my mouth fell open. He watched me, his eyes glittering.

  “You can’t be serious,” I said.

  “Can’t I?” he asked then gave a caustic laugh. “What a tragedy, then, that I am entirely serious.”

  His confession was staggering. I locked my knees to keep from falling down. Could he have loved me the way I loved him? I shook my head. It wasn’t possible. I would have known. Wouldn’t I? The world started to spin drunkenly around me. Had I really misread his feelings so horribly six years ago? Could I have stayed with him?

  The horror of all that I might have thrown away rose around my throat like a noose. What had I done?

  Unforgiving h
onesty hit me like a blow. What drove me away had been my need to leave the extermination business. To not have to defend myself to Law. To not have him always judge me and find me wanting. Knowing he cared about me would have made me stay, and that would have destroyed me. I’d have ended up a corpse.

  “It doesn’t change anything,” I said quietly. “We don’t fit together.” Pain coiled brambles around my heart. Self-preservation demanded that I turn and run out the doors right now, barefooted and in this ridiculous dress. I’d left Law once, and it had nearly killed me. How was I going to do it again? How was I going to do it knowing that he actually had feelings for me?

  He went still. Feral savagery suffused his face, his green eyes narrowing to slits. He bent close to my ear, his breath brushing my skin. “Try to leave,” he crooned in a soft whisper. “Just try. See how far you get.”

  I shivered at the promise and threat twisting through those words. My soft, gooey center loved his Tarzan show of dominance. The rest of me was annoyed as hell that he’d try to push me around. Then again, why wouldn’t he? He’d always been the one to take charge, and I’d let him. I’d been the junior partner with a lot less experience.

  Not anymore. Not that I planned to fight with Law about it right now. Time for that when I finished the job.

  I was just about to ask where exactly the dead incubus had been staying and could we please get this over with when a sudden mob of Gwyllion faeries dropped down through the ceiling. There had to have been a dozen of them, along with at least at many pygmy goats.

  Each Gwyll measured about three and a half feet tall. They look a lot alike, with tangled black hair that fell to below their waists. They dressed in patchwork dresses of navy, charcoal, and green. Eyes glittered like obsidian from dried-apple faces below astonishing hats that looked like they’d been shopping for the Kentucky Derby. I blinked in awe at the display of outlandish color, feathers, and shapes. Their voices raised in a garble that sounded like the chitter and bark of woodland animals. The brown and black goats bleated and capered through the air and burrowed their heads beneath the Gwylls’ long skirts.

  As silly as they appeared, I wasn’t fooled into thinking they were harmless. Though Gwylls normally weren’t known for violence, that didn’t mean they weren’t capable of real damage.