I practically heard the women sigh behind me like a bunch of schoolgirls, in a John Hughes rom-com, when the high school football star walked past them.
“Incubus,” I clarified my earlier guess.
“That’s me,” I gave him my best smile.
“You’re that child that got my nephew killed,” the man’s gorgeous face twisted with hate, as he took a step toward me.
“Uh oh,” I gulped.
Chapter 9
“Oh shit,” I backpedaled as big, tall, and handsome advanced on me.
Butters and Night had my back in the last fight. One tried to block bullets from tearing us to pieces, while the other fired a lance of flame that incinerated a dude’s heart. I should have known not to expect the same help in the face of an incubus. After all, they were still human women. I could practically hear them soaking through their panties as he approached.
I backed up through them, literally having to push them aside. A half-second later, when mister hot-stuff arrived, they parted like the Red Sea.
“Oh, come on,” all three women leaned in to smell him as he passed. “Focus!” I snapped at myself.
He’d said nephew, so that could only mean Xander. Despite being around the imp for several months, I didn’t know much about Xamira’s half-brother. We’d only had a few conversations, and never really spent any time alone. His job had been to take over for Dani and guard Lilith while the dwarf taught me how to fight. My most vivid memory of him was right after going balls deep in his sister.
I was lying on the floor of the gym, covered in my own cum, and in shock that Xamira had ravaged my dick to the point it looked wrong. Lilith had just smacked Xamira across the room for fucking her First, and Xander watched the whole thing with a sad sigh. I remembered meeting his eyes for a brief second, and him just shaking his head at me. That was the depth of our communication. The other times had been conversations about the weather and good spots for takeout.
All of that flashed through my head as the incubus made a grab for me. This might be a safehouse, and this dude might technically be Lilith’s older brother, but I wasn’t going to let anyone push me around. Anger flared inside me as I twisted and slapped his hand aside. There was a crack like a gunshot that seemed to break the spell he was laying on everyone. I also saw surprise and a flash of anger in his eyes.
“Yeah, that’s right,” my face split into a fuck-you smile. “You thought I was just going to lie down and take it,” I gave a mental laugh, and danced like a boxer taunting his opponent. “It you want me, you’re gonna have to put in some effort, asshole.”
There was only one little problem with my current plan: I knew jackshit about incubi. They were the male version of a succubus; everyone knew that. Aside from that, I drew a blank; but I could make some assumptions. First, he’d be fast and strong, that was a given. Lilith said she could work a little magic, but I’d never really seen anything other than her Fae gifts. Xamira had hit me with a horny haymaker back in the gym, but I wasn’t sure if the guy could hit me with his sex juju the same way.
I shuddered, because that was a big if. It would be more than a little embarrassing to fall to my knees in front of the big guy, while his magic told me I absolutely wanted, no needed, to suck his dick. Talk about awkward. Even if he could do it, I doubted he would. This guy was a child of Venus herself. He could be centuries old, and that kind of power lent itself to strength and speed that would be hard to match. Why magic someone who’d pissed you off when you could have the satisfaction of beating him to death with your bare hands?
“I’m still gonna make this asshole know he’s been in a fight,” I promised myself.
I didn’t know where Ser Fredrick fell on the power scale, or how old he was, but I’d stolen a chunk of his power; that had to be worth something. Peter the Pegasus had shown me the hard way I still wasn’t a heavyweight supernatural during our little rumble in the subterranean jungle back before Christmas. I also knew I wasn’t a lightweight.
“But . . .”
I remember the power that flooded through me back in the Winter palace. I remembered the fire and lightning surging unlike anything I’d ever experienced when the Trickster’s double tossed me that weapon. It had unlocked some deep, dark part of me. If I could only get that back.
I’d gone toe-to-toe with Aveena, a noble fucking Fae, and I was sure I could have beaten her if she wasn’t such a tricky bitch. If I had that power at my fingertips, I was positive I could wipe the floor with this smug son-of-a-bitch. Venus’s kid or not, under the right circumstances, I could throw down.
I could see the incubus considering his options as he pushed past the girls. Night tried to grab his ass, but missed. Butters just stared, slack-jawed, and Skella probably looked the best she had all day lusting after him.
“Come at me bro!”
Of course, to even try to call my Aesir power, which I wasn’t even sure I could conjure in the first place, I’d have to drop my Fae gifts. If I did that, a slap from this guy would snap my spine and twist my head one hundred and eighty degrees like that girl in the Exorcist.
That was a risk I wasn’t willing to take. So, I planted my feet, raised my fists, and prepared to defend myself.
“I’ll just have to adapt and overcome,” I fell back on the Marine catchphrase . . . or was it the Army’s . . . fuck if I knew, or cared.
I stood there ready, poised to counter whatever the beautiful man threw at me. Even ready for the strike, his fist moved in a blur so fast I barely even tracked it, much less dodged it.
“Thomas?” a voice interrupted the fight. The incubus’s fist was a hair from smashing my nose into my brain.
A drop of pee might have escaped me at how close I’d come to getting hammered.
“Thomas? What’s going on?” the voice asked again, and a woman appeared in the welcome area.
My guess was that she was in her early fifties, but told people she was in her thirties. She probably had as much plastic in her as natural flesh, but whoever did the work did it well. She was also one of the people definitely here for a different type of cardio. I could tell because no one wore makeup and diamond earrings to the gym unless they had something else on their mind.
Ms. Botox had probably just saved my life, or at least saved me from some expensive dental work. I made a mental note to thank her for avoiding the sudden spike in my insurance premium, but something about her grated on my nerves. It was probably her nasally voice, or that she pronounced Thomas as Toe-mas. It reeked of trying too hard to be part of the rich and famous crowd. Hell, she might be the Mexican Melinda Gates, I didn’t know her one bit. Who was I to throw stones?
“Gloria,” Thomas shut his eyes and took a deep breath. When he opened them, the rage was gone, replaced by a smile that made me a little weak in the knees.
He turned his back to me, like I wasn’t even a threat, and walked over to the woman. The pout Gloria had worn evaporated when she saw his smile. “Belle â me,” he replied, and the woman was putty in his hands.
I shook off the pulse of power that accompanied the words, rearranged my shorts, and was about to figure out my next move when . . . crack. I dove to the ground, expecting shards of glass to rain down around me. A full half-second later, I heard the boom of the gun. I could care less about the disconnect between the crack and boom from where I was huddled on the ground with my arms protecting my head.
It was mildly embarrassing for me that nothing happened. The glass didn’t shatter, and a bullet didn’t plow into the receptionist’s desk; but everyone’s eyes were locked on the window I’d been standing in front of a moment before. On the bright side, the cacophony was enough to break Thomas’s spell on my women. Butters and Night visibly shook off his power, while Skella wobbled on her feet and had to be propped up by Butters.
I looked over my shoulder as I slowly got to my feet, and saw a ward glowing gold against the midday sun; along with a giant hole in the glass, and spiderweb cracks going about a foot in eve
ry direction. I’m not an expert on guns, but that was a big fucking hole. Did guns even make bullets that big?
“Ariana,” Thomas said calmly as he put a hand on Gloria’s forearm. I saw the full body shudder, her cheeks flush, and the slight intake of breath as he worked his incubus magic on Ms. Botox.
“Never let them touch you,” I observed.
If Thomas could have thrown power at me, he would have. He was that pissed over Xander’s demise. That rationale told me that succubae and incubi likely didn’t have ranged attacks; unless they had a little something extra in them. Lilith could throw fire thanks to her Fae daddy, and a little glamour, but I’d bet my pearly whites Thomas didn’t have those same abilities. He seemed like a pureblooded sex creature. That meant I stood a chance against him as long as I could stay out of reach.
There was an itch in the back of my mind; like I knew something, but couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Whatever it was, it told me that if Thomas had gotten his hands on me, that was game, set, match. Whether it was my gut, intuition, or experience, I filed that lit tidbit away for any future altercations.
“Gentleman and ladies,” Ariana’s voice sent a fog through my mind. If it was a lipstick color, it would have been called sex kitten. “Please follow me.”
“Focus,” I shook the effects off, but I could feel blue balls coming on strong. Today was going to be a long day.
Butters, Night, and Skella started to move along with the rest of the group, but I grabbed them. Trying to separate me from my allies was the first thing I’d do if I wanted to take me down. It hadn’t escaped my notice that the hole in the glass was lined up directly with where I’d been standing. It would have rearranged my face so the back of my head became the front.
“Ugh,” that was an ugly mental picture.
I don’t know if Thomas knew that whoever was shooting had shot at me, but until I was confident I wasn’t fighting two enemies instead of one, I wanted all my allies close.
“Gods,” Butters moaned as she ran her hand down her neck and over her chest. “That’s . . .” she shook her head, trying to dislodge the foreign influence, and my approval of her rose a few notches.
It was always easier to give in, but Butters was a fighter. Snapping out of it also helped me stop Skella and Night, who didn’t possess the same intestinal fortitude. Slowly, the members/Johns disappeared into the back of the building, and the staff began to congregate in the welcome section. Last to arrive was Thomas, and although he gave me the stink eye, his focus was on his people and the bullet that had smashed through several layers of ballistic glass before being stopped by magic.
“Barrett, fifty caliber, close range,” he walked right up to the glass and pressed his hand to the ward. It glowed again, and I could see him putting power back into it. It was kind of like watching someone fill up a water bottle at the water fountain; except the person was the fountain. The brief glimpse of power showed me Thomas had a lot to give. His magical pool was pretty deep. That meant old, which translated to me being fucked if things went sideways. As if him nearly pulverizing me before wasn’t enough of a hint.
The brief glimpse into the mechanics of the underlying forces of creation, and the universe, made my head hurt; but I felt Butter’s comforting hand on my shoulder. I could tell she sensed what was happening.
“It gets easier,” she whispered, and I hoped she was right.
“Fifty caliber? I thought that was only for military-grade machine guns,” I couldn’t help but speak up.
Allowing Thomas to take charge made him the boss, and I instinctually didn’t like that. I’m not sure why. He was certainly older, definitely stronger, and more than likely smarter; but something in me told me I couldn’t back down. Of course, when you speak with authority on a subject you know nothing about, you look like a dumbass. Everyone turned to look at me, even Butters.
“Cam, have you never played Call of Duty?” she asked.
I hadn’t. I was too busy making money. I remained silent and stubborn; crossing my arms and engaging in a staring contest with Thomas.
“It’s an extremely powerful sniper rifle,” he explained. “It can kill targets for several kilometers.”
“Kilometers?” I asked.
“Americans,” he sighed. “Someone could have taken that shot from a mile and a half away and still punched a hole in you. My guess, this was fired from a couple hundred yards at most, and probably used a depleted-uranium round. It would need that kind of oomph to punch through the glass and activate the ward.” He stepped away from the fully-charged ward as it faded into invisibility. “
I already knew that, but I didn’t like having my suspicions confirmed.
“The real question, Mr. Dupree, is who the hell have you pissed off enough for them to take a shot at you in my establishment?”
His stare was intense, so I shifted his attention off me. “Butters, do you want to take this one?”
The woman blushed scarlet, but she sucked it up and laid it out for the incubus. He shot a glare at Night, and all her bravado vanished as she curled up defensively. He followed that up with a concerned look at Skella, and some unspoken gesture to Ariana. The imp disappeared and reappeared with a vile of something.
“This is an antidote to the Nosferatu’s saliva,” Thomas explained as he tipped it into Skella’s mouth. A full body convulsion went through her, and I wasn’t sure if it was the antivenom or his fingers on her chin. “It’ll take a minute to take effect.”
Sure enough, a couple minutes later, and Skella was back in all her throw-people-under-the-bus glory. “I am not a part of this . . . I am getting out of here . . . call me a cab or I’m calling the police.”
“I would recommend . . .” she even cut Thomas off.
I could see the fear in her eyes, and fear was a hell of a motivator; sometimes better than sex.
“Very well,” he reached behind the desk for a phone, held it up, and froze. There was no dial tone. “Cell phone,” he commanded.
Phones came out, but all of them had no signal.
“That’s not good,” I gulped.
“Ariana,” he nodded his head toward the back, before walking to the front door.
He flipped up a hidden panel on the wall, opened up a protective, plastic sleeve, and pressed a button. There was a loud thunk from the direction of the door, and I felt a spike of claustrophobia. I was trapped in here with an apex sexual predator. In addition to locking the door, steel curtains began to fall in front of the windows. It added another layer of protection, and also obscured the inside from view.
“Smart,” no one would be able to take a shot at me again without getting inside first.
“Dupree,” Thomas curled his finger in a “come here” gesture, and set off toward the back.
I wasn’t sensing any of the rage he’d been giving off like a bonfire earlier, and I hoped this was an enemy-of-my-enemy situation. Plus, my pride told me to follow him to tell him I wasn’t afraid to be alone with him in his territory.
“Territory?” that was a weird, but completely accurate way, to think of the brothel.
“Watch them,” I told Butters. She nodded, and steered Night and Skella to chairs in the welcome section.
I did my best to strut after Thomas. Fake it until you make it applied just as well in this situation as any others I could think of. I needed to be confident. You didn’t show other predators weakness, and I was keenly aware that Thomas was a predator; as were the two imps that fell in behind me.
A long hallway stretched along the length of the gym, past standard-looking locker rooms, and more private miscellaneous rooms. One of the room’s doors was open, and I saw what amounted to a massage table, a table with various scented oils, and a box of condoms. My brain itched again at something just beyond my reach, but I ignored it. More important things and all.
Of course, Thomas and company couldn’t just fuck their clients out on the gym floor. The old dudes – who were probably big-time business guys, g
overnment representatives, and maybe even some cartel bigwigs – couldn’t just fuck their tight-ass trainers out in the open. Where was the fun in that? Unless you were into that kind of thing.
My brain responded with a vivid fantasy of Butters, naked, and bent over the squat press. Her hands were on the racked bar for support, while her more-important rack swung back and forth as I pounded into her. My hands gripped her muscular hips, I slapped her well-toned ass, and reached around to grab her . . .
“Gods, get a hold of yourself, man,” I shook my head violently back and forth to dispel the image.
Both the imps were looking at me like I was a medium rare filet mignon. Even Thomas had turned his head and raised eyebrow.
“Whatever the fuck you’re doing, stop!” I gave him a warning.
“I have cast no such spell on you,” he answered calmly, completely ignoring my threat.
I wanted to tell him off, but we reached our destination, and stepped inside a room that looked more like the bridge of the starship Enterprise, than a brothel’s storage room.
“Well, shit,” I whistled, as the imps walked past me to join Ariana, who was busy manipulating toggles at a station.
My gaze shifted around the room. I didn’t know what half the shit was. Most of it looked like tech, but there were definitely some inlaid circles pulsing with magical feedback. What I did recognize was surveillance video from two dozen cameras placed throughout the gym, strip mall, and even the neighborhood surrounding us. It gave us three-hundred-and-sixty-degree coverage for a few blocks in every direction. It was one hell of a security station, and that didn’t even cover the small armory of assault rifles locked against the back wall; or the fact that the door we’d just come through was made of steel and about two inches thick.
“Dupree, be known to my daughters: Ariana, Ivanna, and Lucia,” Thomas made the introductions.
“Um . . . hey,” I lamely waved back.
All three of the imps were what you’d expect from half succubae; playmate of the year good looks, dripping sex, with an undertone of lethality that someone could see if they knew what to look for. I’d try to remember names, but if I needed to identify them in a pinch; Ariana was the brunette, Ivanna was blonde, and Lucia had dark black curls.
Courts and Cabals 3 Page 16
