Corruption

by Jennifer Blackstream

  “And not just while she’s demon-bound,” Paul clarified. “Even if the exorcism had been successful, Lorelei is not the demon she was.”

  “You don’t think she’s immortal anymore,” I said, my voice breathy with the realization.

  Paul’s eyes glittered with the pleasure that had been absent during Lorelei’s erotic attentions. “Demon-bound are rare. I’ve been turning over how to kill one for a long time, ever since a priest near the Vatican told me it couldn’t be done. I’ve been studying them, learning everything I can. And I found out the church’s dirty secret about Laurie and Lorelei.”

  “What?”

  He leaned forward, his voice rising with his excitement. “When a paladin and demon are bound, there’s a great battle inside their psyches as each fights for dominance. But two forces on such opposite sides can’t coexist, not if they want to stay sane. And so they each change. And the demon, being ancient and immortal, has a distinct advantage over the faithful, but human paladin.”

  “You’re saying Laurie was corrupted,” I said softly.

  “Yes.” He scratched his chest beneath the toothy necklace. “A rambling, but perceptive priest once explained it this way. Say a good woman offers to let a friend stay at her house. The friend comes to stay, and while she’s there, her own house burns down. The good woman, being a good woman, lets her friend extend her stay. The visit goes on until it is clear that the friend doesn’t intend to find a new home. The good woman knows if she kicks her friend out, her friend will be homeless. Whose house is it now?”

  “It’s still Laurie’s body. She’s still—”

  “Dominant?” Paul snorted. “Not anymore. Not if she’s feeling ashamed, if she feels she’s failed God, become something dirty and unworthy of him.”

  “No wonder she wanted to die,” I whispered. “If you’re right, and her own people abandoned her, if the Ministry let her remain bound just to weaken an ancient one…”

  “A theory supported by Laurie’s own letters. I got hold of some of them, and she tells them her request for an exorcism stands, no matter what she says in the future. Suggesting that Laurie knew eventually she would be corrupted.”

  And if he was right about Lorelei changing too, becoming less evil for lack of a better phrase, then maybe she wasn’t as keen to go back to Hell as she’d let on.

  “You figured out how to kill them,” I said.

  Paul’s eyes shone with dark light. “I think Laurie’s mortality gave Lorelei vulnerability. She’d probably live forever, could heal most anything with the former paladin there to back her up when need be. But without the paladin…” He paused. “If you’ll forgive me another analogy, imagine that someone has a fish and two fishbowls. When one of the bowls is damaged, the person can put the fish in the other bowl while it’s being repaired. They have a back up. But suppose one of the bowls has a leak and the person doesn’t notice? They don’t notice the damage until the other bowl breaks and they attempt to save their fish by putting it in the leaking bowl.”

  “Your first analogy was better,” I said, my voice admittedly snippy.

  Paul shrugged. “As you will. But the comparison stands. Laurie is leaking. And when the crack is big enough, I’ll shatter Lorelei into a thousand pieces.” He grinned, a toothy expression that reminded me of a shark. “And the demon-bound will die.”

  Horror squeezed my chest. Bad analogy or not, he was right. Laurie was too weak to take over, even when Lorelei was willing to let her have control. How long before even a near-death injury wouldn’t be enough to push Laurie into consciousness?

  Paul cracked his knuckles. “Lorelei’s so happy with all the chaos going on, she won’t even notice how far gone Laurie is until it’s too late.” His gaze lingered on Lorelei’s naked breasts. “Demons do love to party. And I’m willing to make the sacrifice if it means keeping her occupied until I’m finished.”

  I swallowed hard. “She doesn’t look like she’s breathing.”

  “She’s not dead yet. This was the first shot of many. I need her to use her healing in layers. I’ll let her fight through this shot, then give her another. Each one will weaken her more. Until eventually, I can give her the push she needs over the edge, and into death.”

  The excitement in his voice turned my stomach. “She’ll figure it out before that happens. How many times do you think you can poison her?”

  “I’m guessing four. I’ll have to monitor her, make sure she doesn’t weaken too much too fast in a way that will make her wise. I have a gas chamber ready and waiting, so when we get to that point, I’ll lock her up and pump the poison in.” He looked down at Lorelei. “’Spose I should check how she’s doing, get a baseline for her reaction to the poison.

  He leaned over Lorelei’s still form, prying open one of her eyelids to study the cloudy haze over her irises.

  The pressure in the room changed, plugging my ears in that irritating way that happened during take-off on a plane. I blinked and started to open my mouth to equalize the pressure. Realization hit me a second before I parted my lips, and I froze.

  The circle.

  I closed my mouth, resisting the need to make my ears pop so I didn’t give myself away. When I was sure Paul was engrossed in his examination of Lorelei, I glanced down. The salt circle was broken. It took me a few moments to find the break, it wasn’t more than a few grains of salt displaced at the point closest to the bed. But the circle was definitely broken, so someone had touched it, disturbed the salt.

  Peasblossom.

  A pulse of satisfaction tickled my consciousness, confirmation from my familiar through our link. I made a mental note to give her three packets of honey—after dinner—and did my best to hide the hope from my face.

  I gathered my magic, swallowing a gasp of relief when it rose to my call. I curled bands of purple energy in a spool at my center, coiling it like a spring ready to release. My heart pounded as I waited. I couldn’t move my hands, and I was still groggy enough from the poison that omitting gestures from a spell that required them would be too risky. I had one shot.

  Paul nodded his satisfaction at Lorelei, and turned to me.

  “Cohibeo!”

  Purple light shot through the air between us and struck Paul between the eyes. He didn’t have time to resist, his mind still busy analyzing the poison’s effects on Lorelei. Violet bonds encircled him, restraining him, freezing him in place. The grunt of frustration cut off as his body stiffened, holding him too tightly for speech. I watched fury burn in his eyes as he found himself unable to move or speak.

  Peasblossom shot from under the bed, a streak of bright pink light. She attacked the knots holding me prisoner with a ferociousness that made me smile in a semi-hysterical way.

  “I don’t know what I’d do without you,” I told her, hissing in pain as my arms fell from the position they’d held for over an hour. The blood flowed back into the limbs on a tide of razor sharp needles, and for a second, the pain stole my breath.

  “You’d die, that’s what,” Peasblossom snapped. She hovered in front of me, vibrating with her temper, gossamer wings a blur. She drew the cocktail sword from the makeshift sheath at her side and straightened her spine as she twirled in midair to face the skinwalker. “I’ll put his eyes out.”

  “Not yet!”

  I almost fainted as I threw out my hand to stop her, and my body reminded me I was still regaining feeling in that limb. The pixie stopped an inch from Paul’s face, her thin metal sword a hair’s breadth from his eyeball. Paul didn’t have enough control over his muscles to manage a scared expression, but I liked to think he would have whimpered if he could have.

  “Watch him while I try to bring Lorelei around,” I said. “If he moves, then you can put his eye out.”

  “Both of them?” Peasblossom’s sword didn’t move, but her voice held a dangerous edge that belied her small stature.

  “If it pleases you,” I said graciously.

  Peasblossom’s grin widened. “Go ahead and
move, skin thief. Make my hour.”

  “It’s make my day,” I told her, cautiously approaching the bed. Lorelei still wasn’t moving, and no matter how hard I stared, I could detect no movement in her chest or the pulse in her neck.

  “I’m not giving him a whole day,” Peasblossom said vehemently. “He’s not worth it.”

  “Lorelei, can you hear me?”

  Nothing.

  I bit my lip. He’d poisoned her. I could try to use magic to get rid of it, but that was a difficult spell, and I wasn’t in the best shape. But I could slow the poison’s progression. Buy her time until I could find an antidote.

  I grabbed my phone out of the pouch around my waist and called Kylie.

  “Shade? Is that you?”

  “It’s me.”

  “What happened, why did you hang up?”

  “I was poisoned,” I said, giving Paul a dark look. “I’m fine now, but I need your help. My client has been poisoned again, and this time it’s not the paladin he was going for, it was the demon.”

  “Probably Lady’s Mantle,” Kylie said immediately. “Best poison for demons.”

  “Do you have an antidote?”

  “Yeah. Where are you?”

  I searched the room for something with the motel’s name on it. In the drawer, I found the mandatory Bible. There was a sticker with the motel’s name and address. I read it to Kylie.

  “Got it. We’re on our way.”

  I hung up the phone. Before I could return to the bed, Peasblossom shrieked a warning. I spun, eyes widening as I saw Lorelei rise from the bed, reaching toward the desk. A gun swept through the air into the demon’s hand—Paul’s gun.

  “Wait! Let me explain!”

  Lorelei’s brown hair fell in disarray around her face, framing her wild hazel eyes as she aimed the gun at me. “You have ten seconds. If your hands move, if I hear anything even resembling a spell, I’ll kill you.”

  “Paul poisoned you. He stabbed you with that hypodermic needle.” I looked down at the bed. The needle was gone. “It must be in the sheets.”

  “That is the most pathetic attempt at a distraction I’ve ever experienced,” Lorelei said evenly. “And I think it is much more likely that your familiar stabbed me with her sword. Perhaps laced with poison?”

  “Paul collects rare kills, and demon-bound are very, very rare.” I was talking too fast, but I didn’t trust Lorelei not to shoot me and ask questions later. “He didn’t come here to help the twins, he came here to kill you. That shot at the church wasn’t the kelpies, that was him, and he meant to hit you. He’s trying to weaken Laurie so when he attacks you, she won’t be there to survive long enough for you to heal yourself.”

  Lorelei frowned and glanced at Paul.

  “That’s his gun, right?” I asked. “I’ll bet those bullets are coated with Lady’s Mantle.”

  Lorelei tightened her grip on the gun. “Why do you care if he kills me?”

  “Putting aside the fact there’s an Ebay auction ticking down to find me a new master?” I said bitterly. “And the fact he shot Andy?”

  Lorelei hesitated. “What do you have to say for yourself?” she asked Paul.

  Paul didn’t move, didn’t speak.

  “The spell won’t let him answer you,” I told her. “But try to feel for Laurie. You can’t feel her can you? That’s because she’s dying.”

  Lorelei gritted her teeth.

  I tugged on my magic, readying a spell. After my initial encounter with kidnappers at Suite Dreams, I’d dedicated a significant amount of time to casting fire spells with a look—no gestures required. It wouldn’t be pretty, but my choices were limited. Lorelei had a dual psyche, however weak one of them was. A mind control spell wouldn’t work on her.

  Lorelei lifted her chin. “Well, there are other ways to find out. If I even get the sensation you’re thinking about attacking me, I’ll shoot. Understood?”

  It said something about how concerned she was that she was willing to take her attention off me even for a moment. “Understood.”

  Lorelei kept the gun aimed at me, but turned her gaze on Paul. “Let’s have a peek at those thoughts, shall we? Who shot me at the church?”

  Paul didn’t move or make a sound, but there was a look in his eyes that suggested he wasn’t the sort to give in, no matter the odds. Lorelei’s stare intensified, but the tightness in her jaw said she wasn’t getting any answers.

  “He’s using naughty thoughts to keep me from my answers,” she murmured. “As I am no longer in the mood, I find that very, very irritating.”

  She swung the gun to face Paul. “Let’s see what we can do about breaking your concentration.”

  “No! If you shoot him, all he’ll be thinking about is pain and anger, and you’ll never read his mind when he’s in that state.”

  A scowl twisted her mouth. “I suppose you have a better way?”

  I hesitated, but only for a second. “I can weaken his resistance.”

  Lorelei glanced at me. “How?”

  “I’m a witch,” I said simply.

  “Do it then.”

  I clenched my teeth. “First, give me your word you won’t shoot him.”

  “I won’t shoot him.”

  I pressed my lips together. “Swear it.”

  Lorelei rolled her eyes. “I’ll do no such thing. Unlike some people, I don’t go around giving my oath willy nilly. Circumstances may come to pass that require me to shoot him to save my life. I won’t risk myself so you can feel better about his safety.”

  “You can shoot him to save your life, but give your oath you won’t shoot him unless you have to,” I insisted.

  “I will not bargain here, witch,” Lorelei snarled. “If you can weaken his resistance, then do it.” Suddenly, she paused. A smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. “Weaken his resistance, and I’ll find out where Andy is.”

  I froze. Andy. If Paul knew where he was, if he could give me any clue that might help me find him sooner…

  She’s going to kill him.

  I took a deep breath. “Give me your oath you will ask where Andy is first.”

  Lorelei grinned. “I give you my oath I will ask where Andy is first.”

  It would be stupid to trust her. Dybbuks were never trustworthy. Ever. My mind churned in a chaotic mess of images, all the horrible things the kelpies could be doing to Andy right now. “Fine.”

  I pulled on my magic, letting it fill my eyes. I didn’t say anything, I didn’t have to. It was a witchy look, with more kick. Disappointment, anger, and frustration. I stared at Paul as if he’d let me down, as if he always let me down. More magic poured into it. Paul’s eyes clouded, doubt filling him from the depths of his psyche.

  “Ask him,” I told Lorelei.

  “Where is Andy and who shot me at the church?” Lorelei demanded.

  I cursed, holding tight to the spell I’d readied. I’d planned to hit her as soon as she had Andy’s whereabouts. I couldn’t let her kill Paul. The law would punish him. But she’d asked both questions, and now I had to wait until I knew she had the information.

  She stared at him intently. Then nodded.

  “Did he tell you where Andy is?” I demanded.

  Lorelei swung the gun around. Before I could speak, before I could react, she pulled the trigger.

  Chapter 14

  Blood and brain matter splattered the wall behind the bounty hunter. My protest was still on my lips, the words to make Lorelei stop tripping over the tip of my tongue. The body hit the floor with a sickening thud, barely audible over my pulse pounding in my ears. An image burned in my mind, Paul’s wide eyes as I pitted my will against his, forced doubt to make him falter, make him vulnerable to Lorelei’s telepathic probe. It was my spell that held him. It was my will that bent him to Lorelei’s wishes.

  It was my fault he was dead.

  Magic spiraled from my core in a slow churn, thick and hot and expanding as it rose until I fought to breathe through the pressure. I fixed my
gaze on the demon. “You,” I rasped.

  Lorelei smiled, red light shimmering in her eyes. “Me,” she agreed, sounding for all the world like a fifties actress being praised for her performance.

  Four deaths in one day. She’d pushed Patrick into suicide, shot Paul, and if the bounty hunter had been right—if Lorelei had realized her reputation suffered with a millennium free of the greatest mortal sins—then it was possible she’d arranged the twins’ murders as well.

  How many charisma points did four murders in one day earn a demon among her kind? Including two minotaurs and a skinwalker?

  “You said you wouldn’t kill him.” I hated myself for saying it, hated the note of betrayal in my tone. I’d known she would. And I’d helped her anyway.

  “I lied,” Lorelei said, raising one naked shoulder in a shrug.

  Despite her bored tone, pleasure lingered at the corners of her mouth. Her nipples tightened, and I had the disgusted thought that killing Paul had aroused her.

  I clenched and unclenched my fists. I should stop her now. I couldn’t hold her as I had Paul, but I had other spells. Spells that would make sure she never killed anyone again. My power pulsed in every fiber of my being, ready and waiting to be released. I had the power to hurt her. To stop her.

  My thoughts must have shown on my face. Lorelei reined in her good mood, did her best to put on what I assumed she thought was a face of reason and practicality.

  “I have the license plate number of the car the kelpies used,” she tempted me. “We can use it to track the car, find the address of its owner.”

  “There’s no guarantee they took him to the address the car is registered to,” I argued, my voice hoarse as my desire to find my partner warred with the desire to stop the demon. “It’s just as likely he stole the car.”

  “But shouldn’t we take a chance?” Lorelei said, her tone low and soothing. “After all, there’s always a chance a traffic camera caught the vehicle. Cleveland is lousy with them, you know.” She didn’t put the gun down, but she got off the bed with the slow, cautious movements of someone realizing the precarious situation she was in. “Call your technomancer friend. I’m sure he can find the car.”