Chapter Eighteen #2
“You’re an asshole.” I shake my head but can’t hide the small chuckle as I put him in a head lock and bring him down so he’s bent at the knees. When I release him, he’s laughing like our lives are carefree and full of good times.
We wish.
“Come on, say goodbye to Sleeping Beauty and let’s go.” When he runs up to his floor, taking two steps at a time, I walk into my bedroom and stand at the side of my bed.
Sage’s skin has lost its pallor, the pinkish color coming back, and that has to be a good sign. I want to wake her and tell her we’re off to get some information but I know her, soul deep. She’ll fight herself to come with us and I can’t have that.
Problem is, if she wakes up while I’m not here, who’s going to make sure she doesn't walk out of here like she owns The Shade?
“I’ll stay with her.”
I jump like a cat with fireworks under his ass.
“What the fuck, Slay? Will you stop with the ghost walk?”
Of course, he doesn’t answer, he’s already filled his quota of words today so he sits on the same high-back chair I fell asleep on earlier and stares at my chosen.
For reasons I’ll never understand, my possessiveness and jealousy never activate when Slay is around Sage.
This life or any other. Slay’s internal demons are like an armor against feelings.
The deep ones, anyway, the important ones.
Our brotherhood is the most love he’ll ever show and that’s always in the form of food. There are worse things.
“Thanks. We shouldn’t be long.” I bend at the waist and kiss Sage on the forehead, lingering long enough to inhale her rain-touched magnolia fragrance.
Pierce jogs down his steps wearing his sword in a baldric and looking like he’s auditioning for the next role as The Witcher. I meet him at the front door.
“Don’t worry, Hack, I won’t steal your chosen.” I growl, full on with bare teeth and a snarl. “Fuck, sometimes it’s just too easy.”
“You’re begging for it, brother. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.” There’s zero venom in my tone, the banter is as old as time.
“Beggin’, huh? Didn’t know you were into that. Figured that was more Slash’s kink.”
I shake my head at his jab as I adjust the strap of my quiver, which sits across my chest, my fingers wrapped around the grip of my bow. We’re both in demon form because it’s the easiest way to get what we need out of this meeting.
“Come on, let’s get this shit done so I can get back to my chosen.” I chuckle as we pick up the pace toward the Great Library where our portal to Kohrye awaits.
By the time we make it to the dark depths of South Kohrye, we head straight for Pholryn’s cabin located on the edge of the Heyl lava river. The suffocating scent of sulfur and the heat that clogs your pores within seconds is just one of the many reasons I hate coming here.
Technically, this is supposed to be our home.
The demons and the lost souls live a life of repetition and regret.
That being said, our neighbors in Velmore and Drakethorne make sure we know that they’re somehow above us on the pecking order.
It’s no secret that vampyres, dragons, and phoenixes have been raised to believe they are the superior beings no matter what reality tells them.
We’re not masochists, so living here comes with zero advantages and since our anthros appearance allows the privilege of living anywhere we want, we choose Georgia.
“We’re here. Now, listen to me.” I’m about to get the Pierce Special where the warning is longer than the actual torture.
“I know, don’t kill him until we get all the information out of him.” I raise a brow as though asking him if he’s happy with my response but he’s having none of that.
“No, no killing. We don’t have time to explain that shit to Dei Samhain.”
“I’m not promising anything.” I can’t. If this asshole doesn’t give me the information I want and need, his use to me takes an immediate nosedive.
“You’re insufferable.”
I shrug because his insult holds no value when it’s the truth.
Pierce punches the buzzer at the entrance of the cottage, and this feels all too much like a television series where the cops are waiting for the perp to give them permission to enter the home.
“Fuck this.” I don’t have time for this asshole to shuffle on over here. Reaching down, I twist open the door handle and let loose my vines so they can destroy the hinges and give us access to the demon we need.
“Aw, c’mon! I just got that fixed last week,” a high-pitched, whiny voice cries out when I punch the door for good measure, watching it fall to the ground and kick up dust all around him.
“Next time, open faster.” I push past him and make sure he’s alone in the cabin. The heat is suffocating, like Florida and Louisiana had a baby and its homebase is right the fuck here.
“I didn’t do nothing. Wh-why are you here?”
“The fuck is wrong with your voice?” I won’t be able to deal with it for very long.
“I have a deviated septum, ain’t no need to be mean about it.” I’d feel bad for being an asshole but I don’t give a shit about anything except finding Danika so I can make my chosen happy.
“We just want to ask you a couple of questions, that’s all. You’re not in trouble.” Pierce, the diplomat, is doing his best to soothe the demon while I’m preparing my bad cop routine.
“Yet.” The demon’s head whips around to stare at me with fear screaming in his eyes. I just grin and cock my head like a fucking lunatic. It’s all part of the act. Or is it?
“I don’t know nothing.” He pronounces every syllable with caution and his hesitation tells me the opposite of what his mouth is saying.
“Well, he knows nothing. We should leave then?” I speak to Pierce, who’s nodding as if that’s even an option.
“Yeah, I ain’t got nothing to say. I just go to work and come home. Stay out of people’s business, ya know?” Wow, now he’s just making shit up.
“What kind of work, Pholryn?” Pierce is being calm and trusting again while I take a look around the cabin.
It’s compact, like most of the homes here, with one bedroom, bathroom, and a kitchen that turns right into a small living room.
There are only a couple of windows to reduce the heat from the lava river, but there’s no escaping that or the overwhelming stench of it.
“I-I do mining.” He’s answering Pierce but looking at me, and every move he makes looks guilty as fuck.
“Do you now?” I’m back by his side, one hand on his hunched over shoulder, pushing him down until he’s sitting on one of the two chairs in the room. “Ever go to the pub, Pholryn?”
He nods so hard I’m worried his neck will snap in two. “Now we’re getting somewhere.” I grab him by the scraggly hair between his two large ears and pull back so he can look into my empty pumpkin eye sockets.
“After work. I grab a drink after work.” When he whines out his words, I bend at the waist and make sure he sees the void in the holes that should be eyes.
“Where is Danika?” I’m tired of fucking around. I’ve got a beautiful chosen just waiting for me to take care of her. Okay, that’s a stretch. She’ll probably knee me in the balls and try to run away, but even if she doesn’t want my help, she’s going to get it.
“I don-I don’t know no Danika.” Pholryn’s brows are drawn together, his confusion unmistakable, so I try again.
“The vampyre princess. Where is she? You were heard bragging about kidnapping her, now you pay the price.” The sooner he gives us valuable information, the sooner we’re getting the fuck out of here.
“We just need an address, possibly a name, and we’ll be out of your…” Pierce is about to say hair but changes his mind mid-sentence and I have to fight the urge to laugh. “Cabin.” Poor guy should just shave his head at this point.
“Look, I don’t know—”
I punch him in the face then step back. “Try again.”
“But I don’t—”
I slam his face into the table before lifting it so far back he has to fight to stay seated. “Again.”
“Fuck, you broke my nose!” Like I give a fuck.
“Good, maybe now your voice won’t annoy me.” This is taking way too much fucking time.
“I swear, I didn’t do nothing—” With both of my hands on his head, I twist and with little effort, break his neck.
“Damn it, Hack! Now we have to wait around for him to grow his spinal cord back.”
I cock my head to the side like I don’t give a shit.
“Maybe this way he’ll understand that we’re serious.” Coming back to life hurts like hell so maybe he’ll be more pliant.
It takes him almost thirty minutes to shake off the snapped neck. Meanwhile, Pierce and I pass the time by picking through this guy’s cupboards for something to eat.
“This is why I can’t live here.” Pierce’s face scrunches up with disgust as he holds out a plate of rotting…
“What is that?” My guess is a variant of a rat or imported anthros.
Pierce sniffs at it and recoils. “Charred mermaid.”
“Damn, that’s expensive.” Not to mention forbidden by the laws of the Moirai.
“And cruel. They’re such gentle creatures.” Pierce is a foodie and a softie.
“All right, Mother Teresa, less anthros, more demon.” He does have a point, though. Who the fuck eats mermaids in this day and age?
Our snooping comes to an end when Pholryn regains consciousness, in tears from the pain.
“Stop being a pussy and tell us about Danika. Now. Or I’ll break every fucking bone in your body, one at a time.” It’s not just a threat and he knows it.
“Okay, okay. Just…listen.” At his whiny request—breaking his nose solved nothing—I let my vines reach out from my arms and wrap around his entire body.
Starting at his waist and going round and round until his airways are in danger of shutting down.
I look him right in the eyes and wait for him to give me something. Anything.
“Where. Is. Danika?” Pierce enunciates each word and every syllable is a detonated bomb.
“I was paid to go to the pub. They told me to talk about some kidnapping in the North American territory. Something about a lamia and a banshee.” I squeeze and Pholryn panics.
“Who paid you?” Pierce is now sitting down so he’s eye to eye with this demon while my boredom takes on a life of its own.
“Some regular there, a djinn. She’s got a bum eye like something tried to scratch it out. She said all I needed to do was brag a little and when I left she gave me a bag full of gold coins. That’s it, I swear.” I meet Pierce’s eyes from above the demon’s head.
“Since when do lamia, banshees, and djinns work together?” At my question, Pierce just shakes his head because he’s at a loss too. Even though I’m guessing this guy knows nothing, I repeat myself.
“I ain’t got no idea. Like I said, the djinn gave me coins. That’s it. That’s all I know.”
Out of sheer frustration, I squeeze my vines tighter and tighter until his neck breaks in half all over again. It’s still attached, so he’ll be fine, and it made me feel better about the big fucking waste of time this was.
“That was unnecessary.” Pierce uses his commanding father-figure voice and chastises me, even though he doesn’t give a fuck either way.
“But it felt good.” I shrug as we walk out of the cabin and head for the portal. “He was a pawn and now we’ve got jack shit to show for this trip.”
“We’ve got a djinn with a scratched out eye who’s a regular at The Shade pub. It’s not much but it’s more than we had an hour ago.” He’s not wrong, but I have a feeling this is all a wild ride to nowhere.
When we arrive back in The Shade, we change to our anthros forms, mostly to leave the stench of Kohrye behind. Although, we’ll both need a shower before we do anything else.
“I fucking hate Heyl, I’m glad we’re in Oconee,” Pierce mumbles. “At least it doesn’t smell like sulfur.”
“The Devil went down to Georgia for a reason, brother.” Our chuckles die in our throats when a low, emotionless voice beckons our attention just as we’re walking away from the portal station. We both turn as one, our senses on high alert.
Dressed in his tweed robe with a hood that hides all details of his face, the voice utters the words no kyn wants to hear.
“Liege Hack. You’ve been summoned to the Great Library.”