Harry
“ G o on then. What about Caleb?” said Father, his face blank. I felt his mood unexpectedly shift, which surprised me. There was tension in him; anger.
“He…” I paused, purposely collecting myself and putting my arms at my sides. “I was able to draw the succubus out. She used him, Father. She?—”
“You used an incubi cambion… my son … as bait… to capture one lowly fucking whore ?” He turned and glared at Jax across the table. “And you were stupid enough to let him?”
The words echoed in the round chamber like thunder. The vitriol in his voice shook me; rattled every ounce of bravado I’d been managing until that point. I took a step back without meaning to; nearly let the paper fly out of my hand.
“Sir,” Jax began, voice harrowed with exhaustion, “Is all of this really necessary? You yourself approved the team for this outing.”
I swallowed as Father’s orange eyes lit a deep, heinous red as he turned to look once more in my direction. “Perhaps… but the archdiocese never brought this idiot’s plans to use my child as bait to my attention, so were you entirely truthful when you created this scheme, Harrold? Or were you just hoping to get your brother killed?”
“Father,” I said calmly, praying that the wobble in my voice wasn’t as obvious as it seemed to me. I got the impression that he knew more than he was letting on, but wasn’t sure how. He always seemed to know exactly how to knock my certainty aside; it was maddening. “Any investigators who wish to undertake the challenge to capture the succubus Carmilla de Mornay are free to do so under the condition that one: They are aware they may only ever undertake the challenge a single time with approval from the archdiocese. And two: They must have a bishop overseeing their attempt. Bishop Knight signed off on the list after I received approval from all necessary parties to undertake this feat.”
The smile that slid across my father’s face suggested he wanted to choke the life out of me and was fighting with himself not to.
“So he did,” he agreed reluctantly, rolling his hand toward me. “Let me hear it then, hmm? This ‘fantastic’ plan of yours and how it succeeded. Where is my Carmilla, then, if you were so victorious?”
I knew he was goading me, and I fought hard not rise to the sneer in his voice.
It won’t be too long now, I reminded myself. You finish this, and the archbishopship is yours. He will have to follow his word because he knows without the sacred rules he created, all we are is a bunch of demons. Not honoring it would threaten the very organization he built.
“We don’t have her just yet, but?—”
“I see,” he interrupted.
My face went hot as I continued. “We instructed several agents to stake out the doctor’s known locations and gave them strict instructions not to go anywhere near Dr. Lowe—the alias she’s using this time—and to look for evidence of demonic activity. None of the men were informed that they were watching a succubus.”
Father leaned back in his chair. The color was fading from his eyes again, but still wasn’t that same dull orange color it had been before.
“We placed Caleb near her office with a telephoto lens on a camera and made him watch her. My plan was to have him be near enough that she would be able to sense him, but not so near that he could fall into her aura.”
I paused, waiting for something—anything—other than that blank glare.
“Go on,” he said.
“While we knew that she would be aware she was being surveilled, what she didn’t suspect was that we were also surveilling our own agents. She spotted him, probably immediately, but didn’t act right away.”
I wasn’t about to tell him that I’d only ordered that Caleb be watched, since I was so sure she’d finally bite when it came to him. I also wasn’t about to tell Father that we’d ordered Agent Banks on three separate occasions not to inform Caleb that she’d left her home and driven to the apartment building he was hiding out in, where she would sit and watch him from her car. Two times, she’d shapeshifted into an old woman and followed him through a store—the last of which, she finally made contact with him.
Agents who’d recovered the beer case from his rental apartment said it hadn’t contained beer at all… it was some kind of medicinal or herbal supplement she’d spelled with something they hadn’t been able to figure out quite yet. All of the ingredients seemed to suggest it had been for enhancing a man’s virility. None of these finite details would matter to Father though, so I left most of them out.
When he said nothing, I continued.
“On Friday night, my agents witnessed the demon interacting with Caleb Knight and leaving behind a strange package of beer. She left, and then five minutes later, Caleb Knight was witnessed drinking as he returned to his stakeout location, clearly addled.
“The following afternoon, Caleb called Agent Banks, a secondary recon member, in a frenzy, telling him that he’d spotted a young girl going into the office building and was concerned that she was going to be attacked by the demon. He then told Banks that he’d been burned and that he was going after the succubus, but wasn’t in the building when our agents went inside.
“He broke contact until early Sunday morning, while the succubus led our teams on a wild goose chase for more than four hours before they lost her. We presumed they’d met up somewhere together after the escape.”
“That so?” Father reached into his desk drawer, pulled out a cigarette case and lighter, and lit the horrid-smelling thing. “Not bad stamina, if he was using the succubus properly that whole time.”
I ignored his remark. “When we brought Caleb in, he appeared disheveled; confused. We discovered claw marks on his back, and then, he later confessed to Bishop Knight that he had been charmed by a succubus and slept with her.”
Jax’s head snapped toward me, and I stifled a small smile. It had been hard to make out anything in the room Jax had taken Caleb into that night, but I’d made out enough to know Caleb definitely did something with the succubus.
“The bishop recommended he fast and pray; instead, he stole the bishop’s keycard and fled, to return to his new mistress—which he also admitted to the bishop was his plan to do.”
“It’s an interesting story you’ve told,” said Father, taking a long drag, then shoving the tablet over toward me. “Can you explain this part of the evening to me?”
I stalled, stared down at the tablet like it was going to bite me—the one I’d watched Jax get from that stupid fat monk. I’d figured it had something to do with Caleb, but I never thought Jax would actually show my father. I looked to him, but he wouldn’t meet my gaze. I went over and pressed play. I forced my face to be still as I watched the bank’s camera footage. By the time I saw myself raising the gun at Caleb, I shoved it back to Father.
“We received authorization?—”
“Tell me, Harrold, who sets the precedents for when live rounds are allowed on a mission?” Father took a long pull of his cigarette until the entire thing was ash, then opened a small drawer and stubbed it out. He blew the smoke at me.
I looked up in irritation at the corner of the nearest bookshelf. “The special investigator in charge,” I replied.
“So just to clarify,” he continued. “You authorized the use of live rounds in the event of not being able to successfully subdue my son , then had the operators initiate that authorize after you also withdrew some things from our armaments that you never should have…”
Father reached into another drawer, then pulled a paper out and slid it across the desk at me with his long claws. My weapons requisitions sheet.
Fuck.
“Whose signature is that at the bottom,” he spat, “authorizing a prototype weapon not even known to the archdiocese, as well as a holy water dispersal bomb? Read it!”
My jaw clenched, as if threatening to rebel, but I pulled the paper closer, stared at my name written neatly; assuredly, at the bottom. “S.I. Harrold Benedict.”
“Do you have any idea what you could have done?!” Father screamed, slamming his hands on the desk. His spittle flecked over me, and the shout forced me to rock back onto my heels, nearly losing my footing. “Because you had your head so far up your fucking ass, you nearly fucked plans I’ve been making since before you were goddamn born!”
I didn’t meet his gaze, just stared down at the paper. “Father, the succubus?—”
“Bah,” Father interjected, settling back into his seat. “I can retrieve her any time I like.”
At this, I finally snapped my head over to him. “Then why has she been free for all of these decades, if you were so capable?—”
“Because I needed her right where she was. Just like Caleb.”
I scoffed at him. “I selected Caleb?—”
“You choose him for every mission that could get him killed, you simpering asshole,” Father snapped. “You think I haven’t figured that out yet?”
The blood draining from my face, I shook my head. “That’s not true. He was perfect for this role, which is why I?—”
“Which is why I selected him for it,” Father interjected, voice oddly calm. “Thank God Himself at least one of my children is capable.”
I couldn’t find anything to say to this; I knew my face would show my irritation; my fury.
“Sir,” Jax tried, but I raised my hand to silence him.
“You yourself told us, Father,” I snapped, “that if we are not useful to the organization—to the Church—that we are only useful as examples, correct? Even had Jax give us that ghoulish demonstration in the chapel before our graduation. You yourself issued the edict that we were to hunt and trap the succubus Carmilla de Mornay. You gave no rules as to how you wanted it done, apart from the fact that it was one shot, and one shot only. Caleb was the ideal bait, and as a failed cambion , whether or not he is your child, he has proved that he was not worthy of the dark gift you and I share. Therefore, he is only fit to serve as an example . So, I used him to do the only thing he’s ever been good at in his life: Being a reckless fuck boy.”
“That’s correct,” Father agreed. “Your argument is salient, calm, and rational. Very well put, Harrold. It’s probably the most insightful thing you’ve ever said.”
I straightened in surprise, breathing hard. I had never heard anything even remotely close to a compliment and quite frankly, didn’t know what to do with it.
With a savage grin, he said, “But you’re still an ignorant little know-nothing shit. Where is the girl? The one he spotted outside the doctor’s office?”
I struggled to speak for a moment, jaw wagging open and closed before I shouted, “The girl?! There was no girl! It was a hallucination—a trick of the demon—are you quite mad?!”
“Oh, I don’t know, let’s use our heads for a moment, shall we? What’s more likely? That the demon was able to conjure an image real enough to inspire Caleb—one of the best hunters the organization has ever created—to put the entire operation at risk, or that Carmilla drew him there by using a real girl? Caleb would have only acted if he sensed a real threat because he knows how to do his fucking job and does it right—and that is why you will never surpass him.”
I looked back at Jax, my mouth open. Could there have been… an actual girl? Had I overlooked the possibility and been wrong about it? We knew she’d drugged his beer, but we didn’t know what it might do to him?—
Slam!
I jumped and looked up to find Father’s open palm against the wood of his desk.
“You’re the agent who came up with this scheme, correct? The one in charge of executing it? If so, don’t look to him; look to me and answer, child .”
I stuck my chin up; I was so livid I knew the red in my own eyes would be showing. “She was a hallucination. Mercy confirmed that he’d lain with a succubus—not a human woman.”
“You are as blind as you are stupid. The nun—bring her to me.”
I reached out with the speed and ferocity of a snake and grabbed hold of Mercy by the upper arm and flung her at his desk. She stumbled across the divide and sprawled on top of the solid wood top. Father grabbed her and flipped her onto her back, then pulled her veil up over her head. He looked at the bindings over her eyes and mouth and clicked his tongue at me in dismay.
“Oh Harrold. This is just… look at her! You’ve been starving this girl. If you have to resort to binding her with holy water-soaked thread to keep control, then perhaps we need to have a conversation about whether or not you should be issued one at all.”
I bristled, knowing that although I had come into this room with the upper hand literally in my grasp, Father had turned things around on me so skillfully that I was trembling to keep myself from fully devolving into my demonic form. The last thing I needed was to reveal just how much he’d gotten under my skin.
“She is a weak creature. It’s for her own sake,” I said.
The look in my father’s face left no doubt as to whom he was referring when he replied, “It is a matter of weakness, certainly… but whose weakness, exactly, remains to be seen.”
He took a long, sharp nail and sliced the threads from Mercy’s lips, then bent forward and took her mouth with his. Mercy shuddered and gasped, writhing like a hooked fish. She practically scrambled upright on the desk to kiss him, absorbing more of my father’s energy, practically sticking her tongue down his throat.
Perhaps I had let her go hungry for too long, but this display was infuriating—and he knew it. I forced myself to watch, unable to show how much anger raged through me as Father yanked Mercy across the desk onto his lap, scattering his papers and knocking a lamp to floor in the process. He sat back, letting her touch him; kiss him; steal his energy.
“Should I show you how to properly satisfy a woman so that she behaves without these barbaric restraints?” he asked me, sliding his hand up her skirt and tugging her dress upward so that I could see her bare bottom poised right over his erection.
I felt my teeth shifting, my horns sprouting, and I finally had to look away. If he tried to take my succubus… I was weak from not feeding on her as much as she was weak from not feeding with me, but Father would always be stronger either way; he would be able to whip me soundly in a fight.
His laughter rang out as he threw Mercy to the floor. She panted heavily, then crawled on her hands and knees back over to me. I shoved her aside with my foot—perhaps harder than was necessary—and she tumbled against the couch before righting herself and taking a seat on it. She covered her face with the veil, fingers shaking, and then clasped her hands in her lap, silent but for the pounding of her heart, which echoed in the room like a drum.
“You are correct on exactly one count: Carmilla has been in contact with Caleb,” Father said.
I felt my stomach leap into my throat.
“I can taste the traces of Carmilla’s energy on Mercy; your nun absorbed some of it from him in her investigation of his body… However, Carmilla is not the succubus who claimed him. That one…” He stood, purposely letting the robe drop. Beside me, Jax cursed and turned his gaze away. “…was much younger. Much more powerful—and right in front of your face when you let her get away from you.”
“Bullshit!” I said, slamming my hands on top of the desk much as my father had done moments before. “My men would have seen if there were two succubi. There was only one?—”
Father strode over to the bedroom door and stopped, his hand on the knob. “Harrold, every time you open your mouth, you only serve to further convince me you’re not capable of taking on the role as the head of this organization. Why do you think I allowed Caleb on this mission? It was too important for you to mess up, so I had to make sure someone would do what was necessary.”
I was brimming with so much fury I very nearly couldn’t see straight. “Carmilla was never the target,” I whispered.
“Look at that!” Father extended his hand toward me, palm up, before feigning applause. “The boy does have a brain after all—note the date, Jax! We should add it to the calendar as a holiday to commemorate the day Harrold finally got a fucking clue! Of course, I wasn’t after the succubus! Do you truly think I would have let her go on this long if I didn’t need her out there, making her monstrous unions? Unions that by now, have increased demon numbers the world over?”
I met his eyes, snarling. “You used the only chance I had to attain the archbishopship to what, set up a date for your whore spawn?—”
“You are certainly not one to speak,” Father growled back. “You merely presented me with the opportunity I needed, but in doing so, yes, you failed because you didn’t recognize the greater gift when she was sitting right in front of you—but Caleb did.”
“Caleb did nothing,” I spat. “He failed. ”
“He did not fail in his duty—he was sent to awaken a lilin, and he did . You were on a mission to capture a succubus, and yet…” He leaned forward. “…I don’t see her in custody. Do you?”
I stared at Jax; his face was impossible to read, but he looked studiously down at the ground.
“Father told you, didn’t he?” I asked him.
“I told no one,” Father grinned. “He only found out a little while ago himself. I wanted to make sure to be the one to tell you in person, so I forbade him from discussing it. Caleb performed his duties admirably; you did not. You know the rules of the game, Harrold: you have lost. ”
I knew the words coming next, and I had to fight every instinct within me to throttle him.
“You will never become archbishop.”
“No. No!” I screamed at him. “There was no other succubus! Carmilla was there. She’s the only one who could have?—”
“I know the feeling of that woman’s power better than anyone, and I can tell you now… She may have touched him; may have even tasted him, used her power to control him, but she never slept with him . Caleb is probably even now helping awaken and empower the Daughter of Lilith Carmilla unwittingly lured into her trap alongside him—the one I placed directly in her path.”
I gaped at him; at Jax. “What…”
“Carmilla guides incubi and succubi cambions together to help them awaken,” Father said. “We have known this for years, but allowed it to continue, as she has a masterful eye for gauging compatibility; she always did.”
“You never told me,” I seethed. “You claimed it was a mystery how she was creating new succubi!”
“Jax, explain to the boy,” said Father breezily. “Since he is too stupid to grasp this concept on his own.”
“Your father was hiding the real goal all along,” Jax said quietly, wiping at his damp forehead. “It was a ruse. He has known what she’s been doing for decades, but pretended not to know what she was getting up to.”
“You were lulling her into a false sense of security,” I whispered, narrowing my eyes at him. “But then Caleb?—”
“Carmilla has been running amok for years, playing her little matchmaker games. It has been beneficial for us, so I allowed it. This time, however, she just ‘happened’ to discover a succubus cambion on the verge of starvation while also having what appeared to be an awakened incubus cambion agent dangled in her face. Thanks to your attempts to destroy your brother out of jealousy, you put Caleb directly into her path so that she could match him to a lilin in desperate need of feeding—thanks to years of her guardians ensuring she was deprived of almost any and all sustenance.”
“No,” I repeated, uncertain what I was disagreeing with.
“Carmilla watched them both. She was looking for an incubus strong enough to give the lilin enough energy to awaken her, because it takes an enormous amount of power to awaken such an exquisite beast… All the while she did this, you were right there within her area of awareness alongside your brother, but she didn’t choose you , did she? She chose him . Once he inevitably deflowered the girl, he set them both on the path I have been trying to set this organization on for centuries . You don’t even realize the irony—you were both cambions made for the task, but she still chose him over you!” His laugh rang in my ears like a striking hammer. “If you’d been strong enough, she’d have selected you instead!”
“You tricked me,” I snapped. “This was never about capturing Carmilla, was it?”
“Of course I want the bitch!” Father laughed. “She belongs to me, Harrold. She is my wife, after all. We were joined in the eyes of God—and the vows we made were ’til death. However, the lilin’s health was beginning to fail, and given the girl’s imminent blossoming, I only have a short while now to wait before I’ll collect them myself.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me?” I yelled. “Why would you try to set me up like this?—”
“Because I knew you would fail!” Father screamed. “Caleb was the only one powerful enough to awaken a Daughter of Lilith. Carmilla could have picked you, but she didn’t because you lack the strength; you always have. Once Caleb awakens, he will become the new head of my special investigators’ unit.”
I shook with rage. “That’s my title.”
“It won’t be for much longer, Harrold.” Father touched his chest and offered a small bow. “I’m sure I’ll find something suitable for you; perhaps low-level field work?—”
“Do you think, after everything the organization has done to him, that he’ll just come running back? He fled, Father—or do you not recall?—”
“You saw that video, did you not? He’s already stronger than you could ever be. Even now, the surveillance team is tracking them, and once we’re ready… it will be an easy matter to bend both Caleb and the lilin to my will.”
“Easy?” I said, barking laughter at him. “You can’t even bend me to your will, and you claim I’m weaker than he is.”
Father shook his head, sighing. “I gave up trying to deal with you ages ago.”
“Well, have fun trying to convince your bastard to do what you want.” I balled up the paper in my hand and threw it at him. I’d almost completely forgotten about it in my anger. “Because I won’t accept this. I know where the asshole is, and if he’s there with the succubi, I’ll bring you back your little pet and I’ll claim the lilin for myself .”
Father looked amused at that, and picked the wadded-up ball of paper and unfolded it. “Will you, now? Unlikely, given that they have probably?—”
He scanned the info on the page: Caleb’s chip ID and some of the data—but not his location. I’d carefully elected to leave that part of it off and then erased it from the system.
“What is the meaning of this?” Father asked, looking at me with true concern in his angry eyes. He turned to Jax. “Why does Caleb have a standard chip ID? I specifically told you to?—”
I stepped forward, intent on answering him myself. “ I told the bishops he had to get the branding when the organization adopted him.” I rolled up my sleeve, showing the star-marked scar on my forearm. “I wasn’t about to abide your preferential treatment bullshit. You were going to have them skip burning his flesh, but not me? Never . If I have to bear this mark like all the other agents, then so does he!”
Father was so still, he appeared to be a gargoyle.
“!” Jax demanded. “Heaven above, child, why didn’t you mention this sooner?”
“I’m the only one who knows his whereabouts now,” I continued, unphased. “I got the snapshots of his biometric data and location off his tracker. Caleb’s awakening has begun—and that means the lilin’s has, too. I’m going to?—”
“You imbecile,” whispered Father, a black look coming over his face. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
“I’ve found a way to track the most elusive demon we’ve ever hunted,” I sneered. “I found a way to bring in Carmilla de Mornay and win my rightful title as the next archbishop of this organization. I?—”
“You tell him Jax!” shouted Father, throwing the paper down once more. “I can’t bear to, or I might have to rip the idiot head from his idiot shoulders!”
I was sweating; shaking with confusion and the torment of impending doom. I should have succeeded, but… from the very start, I’d never been meant to.
It had all been for Caleb. Again.
“,” Jax spat, “you were given a different chip than the general agents are! Caleb wasn’t going to be skipped—we were waiting for the brother to finish the damn thing! When he told me the brand was done already, I had no idea he meant Caleb had already been given a standard one!”
“What—” I tried, but Jax shook his finger at me.
“The standard ID chips detect demonic DNA and release an antivenin that can slow the transformation in human beings until we can attempt to draw whatever venom has been detected, be it vampiric, lycanthropic, or any other type, but these are temporarily turned off the night each class goes out to the graduation party. When one of you becomes an incubus, we permanently deactivate the part of the chip—but as you Caleb are cambions, we had special chips made to only have biometric and tracking capabilities!”
“But…” I glanced at each of them, “you’re telling me?—”
“We are telling you,” Father said, his voice dangerously low, “that once Caleb passes the threshold into his full demonic form, the poison will increase in his system until it kills him.”
I felt myself go cold. How? How was it that no matter how many times I thought I’d figured out the way to finally get ahead, I ended up looking like a fool?
“That means we have time before he passes the threshold,” I suggested carefully. “I have enough time to recover this lilin and Carmilla, who I’m sure will be?—”
“No,” spat Father, staring up at me with fury. “This is too important for you to handle. I will deal with this on my own. Give me the location, now.”
“Father, this was my trial! I am the one who?—”
“Enough!” roared my father, his form deepening into a far more demonic stature. There was little left of his human form as it was these days, but seeing him like this, at his worst, was far more terrifying than I cared to admit. “There is a limited window to save Caleb’s life and take him into my care, and I should have begun training him years ago, but I wasted precious time on you instead.”
I took a step backward, running into the table. The words were like a physical blow. “What do you mean? Why have you always been so obsessed with him? He was a failure, his entire life—until now! Until I finally made him begin changing into the demon he was meant to be!”
“He is my seed ,” said Father, “and God knows what I would give to have a child I could actually be proud of—if my other idiot son hasn’t possibly killed him!”
I felt myself shrinking back into my human form. “ I am your child, Father. I deserve the chance to prove myself?—”
“I said a child I could be proud of,” he snapped. “Caleb’s potential exceeds your own by leagues . When he becomes a full incubus, his power may well even exceed my own—as a proper cambion should. I promise you this, Harrold—if he dies, if the lilin dies, if Carmilla dies… Any or all of them, I will kill you with my own hands and send you to meet your true maker in Hell with a smile on my face. Surely you must have been sent by the Devil himself to torment me!” With a dark look to Jax, he pointed a clawed finger at me and screamed, “ Fix it! Now! ”
He marched back to his room and turned the knob, opened the door, and then slammed it closed behind him. Within moments, a woman’s screams rang out from the chamber. I left the room at a quick pace, fighting everything inside of me to not go in and strangle him in his own bed with his own fucking robe. I’d bet the succubus he was fucking would gladly help me, too.
“!” called Jax from behind me. I didn’t slow. “, wait!”
I spun on him. “You knew,” I seethed once we were in the hall again. “You knew I was walking into a trap and didn’t tell me?”
’s fluffy white eyebrows drew together as he frowned. “I only just found out yesterday, and I was forbidden to tell you. You must tell me where they are right now; you have no idea what’s at stake for you both if?—”
“I don’t give a fuck if that pathetic worm chokes to death on his own vomit.” I poked a clawed finger into Jax’s shoulder. “I’m not letting anyone get in my way. The succubus—and the archbishopship—will be mine.”
“Please, see reason,” Jax said. “Caleb is your brother and he could die , ?—”
I felt the transformation tear through me so quickly that my body felt like it was on fire. I lifted the little bishop up by his collar; his cane clattered to the floor beneath his dangling legs. I pulled him close to my face, which I could see reflected back at me in the thick lenses of his glasses. I was horrifying.
Good , I thought.
“ Half -brother,” I sneered at him. “I will find Caleb, I will kill him if he resists me, and I will bring Carmilla back so I can have my archbishopship—and once I claim the lilin for myself, nothing—and I mean nothing —will stand in my way. Not you, not even my father.”
I let him fall to the ground. He cried out, grabbing his twisted leg, but I marched away, Mercy following dutifully on my heels like the obedient animal she should have been for the past few days.
“If you say a word to my father about this,” I called over my shoulder as I went, “I’ll gut you and hang you from the steeple with your own entrails.”
“—” Jax rasped. “, don’t?—”
I ignored his pleas and headed back to grab my kit to go and claim what was mine by right .
“Heaven help any man—or demon—who tries to stop me,” I hissed as I strode away.
To be continued