Incubus Inc. 3

by Randi Darren

  “Mm, mm, makes sense. The few individuals of your race I’ve met were quick to boast, or decline, about their age,” Caleb said with a sniff.

  Sam smiled at that and nodded his head.

  “Well, could you tell me what you’re doing here?” asked Caleb. Apparently, he’d realized Sam was going to be uncooperative when it came to information.

  “Looking to make a few deals. Set up some contracts,” confessed Sam. It was actually the truth, just not quite in the way that Caleb would take it. “Same as ever.”

  Caleb watched him for a second before smiling at that, then chuckled.

  “I mean, that’s certainly what I’d be doing if I was an Incubus,” Caleb said with a full sigh. “Traveling, meeting young women, making contracts and deals. I think I’d never let that end.

  “So, who’d you come here with? Or did you come alone?”

  “I brought my wife, Irma, and one of her people,” Sam once again said honestly. There was the distinct possibility that someone had seen them running from the scene. Getting caught in any sort of lie here and now would only lead to trouble later. “Last I saw them, they were running away from the scene after I was opened up on. I assume you didn’t round them up or find them in the immediate area?”

  “No, we didn’t. I see. Well. If possible, we’ll try to notify them that you’re safe, I’m sure they’re very worried,” offered Caleb.

  “I imagine not. They know I’m pretty hearty, you know,” laughed Sam and then leaned back in his chair. He was feeling confident and comfortable. Likely where Caleb wanted him to be.

  There was no reason to give him an impression of anything else.

  “Right, right. Could you tell me about the contracts you were working on?” asked Caleb.

  “Nope. Because I haven’t made any yet. I literally just arrived today,” Sam said. “Didn’t even have time to book a hotel.

  “Speaking of, you wouldn’t happen to be able to recommend any, could you? Looking for one that has a number of bars nearby.”

  “Ah, afraid not. I haven’t visited a bar in years,” apologized Caleb. “You know, you’re taking this rather easy for someone who just had an attempt made on their life.”

  “It’s not the first time, and probably not the last,” explained Sam with a short and violent sigh. “Mortals take sex quite seriously, you know. Ex-husbands or ex-boyfriends always seem to cause problems despite no longer being in the picture.”

  “Considering that, is there anyone you could think of who would want to try and harm you?” asked Caleb.

  “Oh, of course. Quite a few, in fact. But I couldn’t give you their names. I’m afraid they’re not really part of mortal society,” Sam said sincerely. “Just mentioning them would cause me more problems, even if they weren’t involved.

  “And please… don’t try the ‘we can protect you’ or ‘investigate it without them knowing’ lines. Because that isn’t the truth at all. I’m fairly certain the Fed can’t go to Hell nor would it want to.”

  Caleb blinked at that. There was a clear pause in his thoughts as he rolled around what’d just been said.

  “What, are you going to tell me that you can protect me from a Pit Demon? Or an Abyssal Overlord? Because I’d love to see how you’d manage that,” said Sam with a dark chuckle. “Or a Titanic Observer. Pick up this little Fed building and use it like a butt plug for the sheer pleasure of crushing mortals with its asshole.

  “But hey, maybe I’m wrong. I’d love to hear I’m wrong. Where’s the Fed building in Hell, by the way?”

  Chewing at the inside of his cheek, Caleb just stared at him. Saying nothing at all. The man was clearly experienced at this sort of thing.

  “Honestly… I’m happy to answer what questions you have, but I’m starting to wonder if there’s anything else I can actually answer,” said Sam. “I don’t know who was behind the attack, I have no idea why they blew up a building on top of that, I didn’t recognize the Fire Elemental or the Imps, and I can’t even begin to think who would know I was coming here.

  “It was a spur-of-the-moment decision. I decided to come here in the span of less than twenty-four hours.”

  Still not saying anything, Caleb continued to watch Sam.

  “Right. I’m just going to be going now unless you’re charging me with something,” said Sam with a gesture at the door. “Because let’s be honest here, I didn’t actually do anything other than get attacked. I didn’t even defend myself, I ran away.”

  “Uh-huh. Right,” Caleb said, contemplating the situation. “Right. Well. Let me go talk to a few people to make sure we have all the details down. Then we’ll let you go.

  “In the meantime, you can just remain here. I’ll have your possessions brought to you.”

  “Great, thanks. Hey, any possibility of you telling Ezzie I’m in here and would love to talk to her about going out to dinner?” asked Sam, leaning into what people would expect of an Incubus.

  “Maybe she could be my contact for how the case goes? Because I’m clearly pressing charges against whoever tried to kill me. Definitely need to see them locked up.”

  Smiling, Caleb nodded his head and left the room. Taking his things with him, he left Sam there alone.

  Well. I think that went about as well as it could. There really wasn’t much that I told him in the end.

  It probably wasn’t anything at all what he wanted, either.

  They’ll clearly know I have things to hide, that while I do want them to find out who attacked me, I won’t be cooperating either.

  That’s fine, they’ll probably dig into my organization from what they can see on the outside. But we don’t have anything to actually hide there. Everything really is on the up and up.

  Only my own actions that interfered with the minds of mortals would be questionable. It’s been long enough though that they probably wouldn’t be able to even tell I did something. All my glamours are made to fade as quickly as possible, after all.

  Drumming his fingers along the table, Sam leaned his head back and looked to the ceiling above him.

  “Ezzie, huh?” he asked no one with a grin. He couldn’t deny he was somewhat interested in the priestess. She’d been rather fun and flirty.

  Decima could use a priestess on her team, couldn’t she? I bet she could.

  They wouldn’t fault me at all for recruiting her. They’d thank me. Thank me and tell me what a great job I did.

  Letting his thoughts carry him away, Sam sat there and waited.

  ***

  Unfortunately, Caleb hadn’t been quite right. They didn’t release Sam immediately. They kept him in that room for the better part of three hours.

  Sitting there alone, he entertained himself as best as he could. Though at one point he did start to doze in the chair with his head leaning against the top of the headrest.

  “Again, I’m really sorry about the wait,” said Agent Dresch. She was currently walking him toward the exit of the Fed building.

  “Right. It isn’t that big a problem in the end. Though I’m curious, why the delay? Can you tell me?” Sam asked.

  “Honestly, it wasn’t even related to you in the end,” the Siren said under her breath. “Other things were going on that were urgent. Everyone was more involved in that than trying to get everything ready for you.”

  “That’s just silly,” Sam said with a chortle. “It wasn’t as if there was anything to get ready for me. Shouldn’t it have been as simple as doing what you are now? Walking me to the door?”

  Agent Dresch said nothing to that, but it looked like she wanted to. For whatever reason, Sam got the impression the Siren didn’t find him amusing.

  Or attractive.

  Which was quite odd, if he was being honest with himself. There were very few women who didn’t have an interest in him.

  “Anyway. Someone will be in touch with you about the case,” said the Siren. “Until then, be safe. It’s obvious someone meant you quite a great deal of harm.”


  “Thank you, I’ll do that. Oh, and uh… Ezzie?” asked Sam, turning to look the Siren full in the eye.

  He wanted an honest answer out of the woman. He wanted to make sure someone had at least told the priestess he was interested.

  If the priestess didn’t want to be pursued, that was an entirely different issue, however. Sam would let it drop at that point.

  “I… talked to her briefly,” said Agent Dresch. “She has the number that you listed in the report.”

  “Great. Thanks for that. Have a nice day, agent,” Sam said, then turned and opened the front door.

  Marching out of the Fed building, he felt rather good. They’d managed to dodge the situation entirely with the agency.

  The last thing Sam needed was them getting overly involved with him.

  Because right now, he had a big enough problem by the name of Jenaphila. The fact that she knew he was alive and around was something he really didn’t like.

  Looking around, Sam found exactly what he expected. Carissa and Irma were not far off enjoying a cup of coffee together, while each also had a hot dog.

  Unable to fight the smirk on his face, Sam started to walk over to them.

  Hm. Rather hungry myself.

  That little fake-Essence brick they gave me wasn’t really that filling. Though it did take the edge off.

  I wonder if I could get a large order of those and start handing them out to all the Imps suffering from a lack of Essence.

  Might help.

  Then again… who made them to begin with? And why?

  Probably a company owned or financed by Jenaphila.

  Irma and Carissa were watching him now. Both were smiling and clearly curious about what was going on.

  Coming to a stop next to them, Sam felt it too late.

  There was a speck of Essence attached to Irma’s back. It was just enough that the person who put it there would know where she was at all times.

  Which meant they were being watched right now.

  Opening his mouth, he had a split second of realization as a portal slammed down over them. Casting them out into the Void of nothingness that was between the planes.

  Six - Couch Cushions -

  Struggling with the suddenness of it, Sam wasn’t sure what to do. He could feel his body rapidly begin to suffer from the Void.

  His skin was instantly attacked. The extreme cold of the Void ripped the heat right out of him just from him simply being there.

  The only heat he could feel was coming in from the closing portal that led back to the prime material plane. That included what little light shone into this space.

  As soon as the portal was shut, it would eliminate any ability for them to get back home. Sam could likely survive here for ten or twenty minutes.

  Irma and Carissa had about as much time as they could hold their breath for, he imagined. While it wasn’t a vacuum here, the air wasn’t breathable.

  Sam could feel a very large spell forming. The magnitude of it was colossal. Something that Sam couldn’t even begin to believe was actually possible.

  Then it shot forward through the closing portal exit and slammed down around him. Enveloping him in it completely. A second later and the portal slid shut, leaving Sam, Irma, and Carissa into utter darkness.

  The absolute nothing of the Void.

  It was where everything that was lost between planes ended up. Drifting endlessly.

  In the dark emptiness.

  Unfortunately, the spell that’d smothered him was one that prevented him from reaching out to the planes. Quite literally, it had removed his ability to sense any of the planes at all. They were all cut off from him.

  There was no way for Sam to open a portal back to anywhere.

  On top of that, he couldn’t feed from his plane anymore. With the portal to the prime material plane shut, he no longer could feel it.

  In the Void that was nowhere and everywhere, Irma, Carissa, and Sam were lost. Having slipped away down between the couch cushions and vanished.

  A few beats of his heart passed before he felt something else. Even as everything around him rapidly cooled and his skin became cold and rough, He could feel a speck of absolute heat.

  Something that was always a part of him, regardless of him ever wanting to admit it. A place he could never truly fully escape.

  Not hesitating, Sam reached out for that plane. That space. That end.

  Clawing at it with the Essence he still had available, Sam tore open a portal to Hell. Dropping himself, Carissa, and Irma straight through it.

  As soon as they passed through to the other side, the portal slammed shut, and Sam could breathe again.

  They all hit the ground with a thump, the three of them sprawled out in a small space. The ground and the air around him were incredibly hot. As if he were sitting in the bright noonday sun in a desert.

  He was also warming up by the very second which felt great compared to the cold where he’d just been.

  “What— where—how— what’s going on?” asked Irma.

  “We were attacked,” clarified Carissa. “Sam just pushed us somewhere else, after we were stranded there in… whatever that was.”

  “The Void,” Sam replied and then coughed. Opening his eyes, he found he was staring up into the red sky of Hell. There was no sun, nor were there clouds. It was a sight he hadn’t seen since he became a Planar Lord, in truth. “We were in the Void. Now we’re in Hell. The actual plane of Hell, mind you. Not the afterlife belief of it. The material plane.

  “This is where I was born and where I’m always connected to. Just as you’re permanently connected to the prime material plane. It was the only option available to me.”

  “I’ll take Hell any day of the year over being dead,” Irma said, then coughed twice. “Though it’s about as dry as sand here.”

  “Yes, well, water isn’t exactly a normally occurring thing here,” Sam said and sat himself up. “We’ll have to use Essence magic to get it.

  “By the way, that spell Jena dumped on me at the end? Still there. It’s preventing me from tearing open a portal back to our own plane. She put so much power into the damn thing that I can’t really get beyond it right now.”

  “That’s possible?” Irma asked, getting to a standing position not far off. “I can’t… I can’t feel any other planes, either. It’s like they’re behind a wall.”

  “Yeah, welcome to Hell,” Sam grumbled, slowly getting to his feet as well. “Only a Planar Lord can leave Hell. Or if you’re summoned out of it. Same rules apply for the Void.

  “Which is why she flung that spell on me, I suppose. With as much power as she put on it… it’s probably going to last a few months from what I can tell. It’ll bleed off eventually, though, even if I didn’t do anything.”

  “Oh? Does that mean you can counteract it?” asked Carissa. Her head was slowly turning as she scanned the surroundings and horizon.

  “Up to a point, yes. Of course, the problem is that she used her own Essence, not my old brand. On top of that,” Sam said as he brushed his hands against his bottom to shake loose the red dirt. “I only have whatever Essence I have with me. We’ll need most of that to survive out here, I would think. Anything I generate will likely be used for survival as well. Whatever I have leftover, I could use to shave power off this ridiculous spell.

  “Hope you two are ready to be Essence generators for me. Because there aren’t many Demons around who I would trust enough to feed on.”

  “I imagine not,” drawled Irma. “Most of your kind would turn Carissa and I into a meal, wouldn’t they?”

  “Indeed. Mortals are little better than cattle here. Most would eat you as you are,” agreed Sam. “Some would imprison you and feed off you until you died in a few years.

  “I must confess that there are a number of mortals on this plane that are bred simply to be food. It’s just how it’s always been. No different than sheep or cows.”

  “Delightful. I’d like to pass on that, thank y
ou,” declared Irma. “Now, what do I need to know to survive here? Are there… cities in Hell? Villages? Mega-cities?”

  “Ah, no. Think of it more like animals. Territories are divided up into groups and they just roam about them,” Sam said and then let his hold over his appearance drop. His skin turned red, black horns grew from his head, and his wings shot out. There was no reason to hide what he was here. He’d actually stand out more by hiding it all. “I have no idea where we are, before you ask. Most of Hell is either all plains or all forest. There isn’t much in between.”

  Carissa clicked her tongue and then looked back at Sam.

  “So… what do we do then? You grew up here,” she asked. “Because we’re going to need to find cover or shelter. This… we can’t stay out in this.”

  At the same time that Carissa was speaking, Irma had already started shedding clothes. Her jacket came off, as well as her skirt, leaving her in her leggings, blouse, and heels.

  “Figure out who owns this territory and figure out if we can even stay here. If we can stay here, can we barter with them, or just fight them?” Sam speculated with a sigh. “If we can barter, what can I actually trade with them? Should it come to fighting them, is it to the death, or until they surrender?”

  Irma grunted at that and pulled off her heels. Snapping off the actual heel portions, she flicked them off to one side.

  “Got your carry knife?” Irma asked, looking at Carissa.

  Without saying anything, Carissa pulled out a knife from inside her coat and handed it over. Then she started to do the same thing Irma had done, stripping out of her extra clothing.

  “Okay, that makes sense. So how do we do that?” Carissa asked. Next to her, Irma was using the knife to hack at her shoes. Apparently, she was adamant about turning them into some sort of flats.

  “We find a place where you two can hunker down, then I take to the sky and see what I can see,” said Sam simply. There really wasn’t another way to go about it.

  He could cover a lot of ground by himself.

  “Right,” Irma said, then handed the knife back to Carissa.