Chapter 24 #2
“Is there something you think I can do about this issue?” she asked, as if she’d slipped back into healer mode and could prescribe him something to cure him from being a giant, red, murderous nightmare.
“Yes,” he said roughly. “A potion that makes me look more like…more like the males with you. That could work.”
“You want to appear less…demonic?”
“Yes,” he said.
“May I ask why?” Temp asked.
“I wish to speak to a female, and I don’t wish to frighten her.”
Tempest made a hmm sound.
“I thought you were alone besides Tregan?”
“I am,” he said gruffly. “The potion would need to work through my laptop. She would be talking to me as you are.”
This was about sex. The male wanted to engage in cybersex with some unlucky female online.
War slugged my arm. He’d obviously come to the same conclusion as me and looked close to bursting a blood vessel. I couldn’t tell if he was stunned and trying to stop himself from saying something he shouldn’t, or trying not to bust a gut laughing.
“Can you create a potion like that?” he asked when Tempest didn’t respond straight away.
She cleared her throat. “I can, yes.”
“I would like some,” he rushed out.
“Now, this potion works in a way that is not obvious to the user,” Tempest said.
I wasn’t sure if a potion like that existed or if she was lying to make the deal. We needed the weapons, and either way we needed the information.
“How does it work?” he asked.
“You will take a dose of the potion, and only the person you are…um, talking to, will see you in your altered form.”
He was silent a moment. “Are you attempting to deceive me, female?”
She was quiet a beat. “There is a saying here above ground…beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The potion works like that, only instead of seeing you as you are, the object of your desire sees you the way they want you to be, in a way they find the most alluring. Which means it’s impossible for you to see yourself the way they do. ”
He said nothing for several seconds, then, “I would like several bottles.”
“I can arrange that.” Tempest didn’t miss a beat. “How do we get it to you?”
“Will it travel well?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“Have Warrick take it to a demon named Moza. He resides in the upper levels. He isn’t hard to find. He will get it to me.”
“And for this, you will give us the information we need?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you,” she said and stepped back.
“Now, will you tell us what we need to know?” War said.
Garan dipped his chin and turned. His cloak billowed out around him as he crossed the room and exited through a door. Everything went silent, and we waited.
Ten minutes passed. “Do you think he’s forgotten we’re here?” Warrick said.
The room on his side of the screen shook and the sound went in and out, as if something loud was distorting the laptop’s speakers. What did come through was earsplitting, and fucking bloodcurdling.
Five more minutes passed, then Garan was striding back toward us. His cloak flew out behind him as he walked, and his red skin glistened with sweat. He carried a metal bowl, gold or brass it was hard to tell, and fire danced inside it.
He placed the bowl on the table in front of the computer. “The answers you seek reside in Tregan’s fire.”
Had he just gone and gotten that from Tregan? Holy fuck. He had, hadn’t he?
“How does it work?” War asked.
“I ask the fire if it has the answers you seek. If it does, it will tell me,” he said.
His head tilted down and, though we couldn’t see his eyes, I could tell he was looking into the fire. He barked out words using a harsh ancient language spoken only in Hell.
“What did he say?” Tempest asked me.
“Fire, reveal your secrets to me.”
She watched rapt as Garan spun the bowl. As it spun, the weird shapes and designs on the outside of the bowl became a moving image. A great beast, opening its mouth wide and expelling a blast of fire. An eerie whirring noise came through the speakers, growing louder and louder.
Garan said something else, but I couldn’t hear him over the odd sound that seemed to have a rhythmic ebb and flow, like strange music.
Garan shoved back his hood, the movement so fast that I only got a flash of red eyes and black, glossy horns before he buried his face in the bowl of fire.
Tempest gasped and pushed back against me.
I kept my arm locked around her. “It’s not hurting him,” I said, but I wasn’t really sure. Hellfire didn’t hurt us, but I had no idea about Tregan’s fire.
Garan lifted his head, and the flames grew higher, his face again concealed.
“The weapons you seek are in a realm where lush and deadly flora and fauna bloom. Where strange creatures roam, hungering for fresh meat and sexual release. You will find the weapons inside a rock that looks like a hard cock thrusting up from the earth.”
Warrick’s face screwed up. “Do you know the name of this realm?”
“No.”
“Any other descriptives other than a cock-shaped rock?”
“The land is one of music and lust.”
Fucking hell. “Anything else?” I asked.
“The ruler has the legs and hooves of a goat.”
“The god Pan,” Tempest said. “It has to be him.”
“I have given you what you asked for. Now you must fulfill your part of the bargain,” he said to her.
“Thank you for your assistance, Garan. I will make your potion as soon as possible and have it delivered to you as you instructed.”
He grunted. Then the screen went dark and he was gone.
War blew out a long breath. “Any idea where this realm is? I’ve heard nothing of Pan in centuries.”
“Death may know?” I said.
War nodded. “I’ll have Willow get hold of Zinnia.
Probably better to have Death’s mate ask him.
The male can be prickly and uncooperative.
” His golden gaze went to Temp. “I appreciate your help with this, Tempest. If you get the potion to me, I’ll ensure it’s delivered to Garan.
” Then to me, he said, “I’ll let you know what Death shares as soon as I hear.
” He dragged a hand over his eyes and walked out.
“It would’ve saved us a lot of time if we’d known we could go straight to Garan, but I’d had no idea we could talk to him like that,” I said, still stunned that Lucifer had given the murderous demon a means to speak to the outside world.
“If we’d come straight to Garan, we wouldn’t already know about Disease or found Brigid’s remains,” Tempest said. “No, it was better this way.”
I shoved my fingers through my hair. “Yeah, you’re right.”
“How long do you think it will take to hear back from Death?” Tempest asked me.
“I’m not sure. We can wait in my quarters.” I took her hand and led her back through the dens.
When we walked in, she headed to the other side of the room, and when she turned back to me, there was something in her eyes: pain, I realized. “Temp—”
“Kiss me,” she rasped. “Will you kiss me, Fender?”
I crossed the room in a moment and pulled her into my arms. “Something’s wrong—”
She pressed her fingers to my lips and shook her head. “Please, I need my lover to kiss me,” she whispered.
Whatever was causing her pain, she wasn’t going to share it with me and, fuck, that stung.
It was my job to heal, to protect, to love her.
She wouldn’t let me do any of those things.
Every one of her secrets were still locked away from me, and she wasn’t going to share, not with me, anyway. Not yet.
Taking the side of her face in my hand, I leaned in.
“I’ll give you whatever you want, peaches.
Whatever you need. You can trust me, yeah?
With anything, everything. Never forget what I told you because it’s true.
You hold all the power here, baby.” I kissed her gently, just a brush of lips, and she shivered against me. “All of it.”