Burning Bright (Ivy Granger) (19 page)

“No, I didn’t,” I said.  “We’ve got permission to enter, but
no funny business, or they’ll feed you to Humphrey here.  You too, Sparky.”

The gargoyle grinned from his perch, showing off a mouthful
of bone crushing teeth.  Forneus muttered something, but I didn’t quite catch
what he said.  I was too busy gaping at Sparky.

The little demon had reached up and placed his tiny hand in
mine.  I took a steadying breath and closed my hand over his.

“Okay, kiddo,” I said.  “But no touching my skin.  Got it?”

Sparky nodded, a serious look on his face.  I told myself
that holding his hand was a good way to keep the demon from getting into
trouble while we were inside The Emporium.  But who was I kidding?

Now that we’d already gotten the obligatory vision out of
the way—one that wasn’t all that bad as far as visions go—I didn’t have much to
worry about.  I knew I’d survive if we accidentally touched again, and his
presence was a comfort.

Sparky was a reminder of the one good thing I’d done today. 
At least, I hoped I’d been right to save him.  He was a demon, sure, but he was
also just a kid.  That had to count for something.

I squeezed his hand and crossed the threshold into The
Emporium.  I wasn’t looking forward to my chat with Arachne.  And if Kaye
showed up, I’d need all the comfort I could get.

“S
o,” I said,
dodging occult bric-a-brac.  “You learn anything else that might help us with
Jinx?”

Arachne may have given us permission to enter, but the magic
workings that Kaye had instilled in the place were making navigating the shop a
bitch.  Every time we headed toward the back of The Emporium, some freaking
display ended up in our way.  I had a nagging suspicion it had something to do
with my guests of the demonic persuasion.

Oh well, nothing for it now but to keep on trudging until we
found Kaye’s spell kitchen.  I sure as heck wasn’t going to force my way
through.  Arachne said we needed to be on our best behavior, and I was taking
the kid seriously.  The last thing we needed was for The Emporium to swallow us
whole.

I eyed a rack of grinning skeletons, keeping my free hand
close to my weapons, and turned left.  Again.  Yeah, there was no question
about it.  We were walking in circles.

At least the detour gave me time to catch Forneus up to
speed.  I filled him in on the day’s events—fire imps, vamp lords, and Hunters,
oh my—as we walked, but now I was trying to edge the conversation back to Jinx.

The skin around Forneus’ eyes tightened, as did his grip on
his fancy cane.  Apparently, the direction of my questions had pissed him off. 
Oh well, I was used to that.  Pissing people off was like my super power.

“Nothing of import,” he snapped.

“Come on, Forneus,” I said.  “Out with it.”

He let out a theatrical groan and I smiled.

“You are the most persistent, troublesome, vexatious…” he
said.

“Yeah, yeah, so what did you find out?” I asked.

He stopped, staring at his hands, though I was pretty sure
he didn’t really see them.  No, his mind was somewhere else entirely.

“Before I ventured to Hell, I visited with a few patrons of
Club Nexus,” he said.  I leaned closer, his voice so low I could barely make
out the words.  “My inquiries provided clearer insight as to how the incubus
lured Jinx from the club, nothing more.”

I swallowed hard.  Forneus may not want to talk about it,
heck I didn’t want to hear it, but we needed all the facts.

“What did he do to her?” I asked.

“That is just it, the culprit was not a ‘he’ at all,” he
said.  Well that was confusing as hell.  Jinx was fed on by an incubus, as in a
half-fae half-demon who was totally, completely male.  Forneus lifted a hand
and waved off the questions forming on my tongue.  “The incubus came later.”

Normally, I would have snorted at the double entendre, but
not this time.  No matter how much my mind tried to reject the idea, this was
Jinx we were talking about.

I tried to sort through what Forneus was saying and pieces
of the puzzle finally clicked into place.  Jinx may have made some bad choices
when it came to men in the past, but she was smart, and tough as all get out. 
She never would have willingly left the club with an incubus.  Even she knew
better than that.

But she might have left with someone she trusted.

“Who was it?” I asked.  “Who led Jinx out of the club?”

The words “like a lamb to the slaughter” hung in the air,
unspoken.  My mind raced with possibilities and I tried to prepare myself for
who might be a traitorous bitch, but when Forneus broke the silence he still
managed to surprise me.

“Delilah, the succubus,” he said.

“Okay, that wasn’t who I was expecting,” I said.  It wasn’t
that I didn’t suspect that Delilah had the capability of deceit.  No, it was
that the succubus wasn’t exactly in our circle of friends.  Sure, she’d helped
me survive an
each uisge
attack, but that was while she was under orders
from The Green Lady to protect the carnival.  It wasn’t like we were best buds
or anything.  I mean, I hoped that Delilah would be an asset when I stormed the
carnival, but I didn’t count on it.  Something about this whole scenario was
hinky.  “Why would Jinx trust Delilah?”

“From what I could gather from my informants, I do not
believe her trust went so far as leaving the premises with the succubus,” he
said.

“But you said…” I argued.

“I know what I said, but listen,” he said.  “Jinx left with
Delilah after trusting the succubus in as far as having a drink with her.”

He watched my face, waiting for me to catch up.  When I did,
rage poured off me in waves of light, literally.  The Emporium seemed to
bristle and I took a deep, calming breath.  Kaye’s magic was not something I
wanted to tangle with, but damn I was pissed.

“Delilah slipped her Ice, didn’t she?” I asked.

It explained Jinx’s loss of memory.  It explained
everything.

“Yes, it would seem so,” he said with a curt nod.

Mab’s bloody freaking bones.  Ice was a nasty drug that had
recently made its way through Club Nexus, until I’d put a stop to Puck’s
depraved side business.  I’d assumed that with Puck out of the picture, Ice was
off the streets.  I’d been a fool.

The thing with Ice is that it made the perfect date rape
drug.  It was like a roofie on steroids.

And the succubus had given it to Jinx.

Delilah led a drugged Jinx out of the club, to her friend
the incubus, and patrons of Club Nexus wouldn’t have suspected a thing.  It
would have looked like two girls out having a good time—one just having a
little too much of a good time.

Now that we knew the how and the why, I guess all that was
left was to kick some ass.  I wasn’t going to negotiate—not with manipulative
pricks willing to slip my friend a date rape drug in order to force me to do
their bidding.  The Green Lady, the incubus, and Delilah were securely on my
shit list.

They were going to pay.

“She would be safer with me in her life,” Forneus said,
pulling me from my murderous thoughts.

Oberon, forgive me, but I was starting to agree with him.  I
couldn’t be in two places at once, and with my search for my father that meant
a lot of time out of the office and away from Jinx.

I gave a noncommittal shrug and turned my attention to
saving our asses in the present.  If we survived the future, I’d have to
consider making some changes in my life.  Finding someone else to watch Jinx’s
back was one of them.

I didn’t like that idea, not one bit, but I had to admit
that so far I hadn’t been able to keep my friend safe.  Hell, I wasn’t doing a
stand up job of surviving myself.

I blinked, surprised to see the door to Kaye’s spell kitchen
just ahead.  Now that we’d finally made it to the back of the shop, I was
questioning the wisdom of this visit.  I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to
ignore the rolling in my gut.

I was going to give an impressionable teenage witch advice? 
Yeah, that was bound to go well.

“U
m, hi,”
Arachne said, glancing at Forneus nervously.  “Here’s your tea, Ivy.  I made
some sandwiches too.  Thought you guys might be hungry.”

My stomach growled in reply, but I kept my eyes on the kid. 
She was babbling, overcompensating, and jumpy as hell—and it wasn’t because of
the demons in her kitchen.  Yeah, the kid and I needed to have that chat.

“Thanks,” I said.

I took the cup in both hands, heat leaking through my
gloves.  Oberon’s eyes, where to start?

A strangled utterance pulled my attention to Forneus.  He’d
stepped further into the room, the stone topped island no longer blocking his
view of the spell circle—and Jinx.  She lay there unmoving, and for a second I
feared the worst.

“Arachne, is Jinx okay?” I asked.

I jostled tea and set the mug down with a clatter.

“What?” she asked.  “Oh, yeah, she’s just sleeping.  By the
Goddess, Ivy, I would have called you if something happened!”

She sounded defensive, and more than a little angry.  Good,
she’d need that anger to give her strength.  At least, that’s how I cope.

“She…she is dying,” Forneus said.

I tried to ignore the tears in his eyes and turned to
Arachne.  But what I saw there wasn’t much better.  I sighed and ran a hand
over my face.

“Give it to me straight, kid,” I said.  “She’s slipping,
isn’t she?”

Arachne had grabbed a towel to mop up the sloshed tea and
now wrung it in her hands.

“My circle isn’t as strong as Kaye’s,” she said.  “I’m
keeping Jinx comfortable, but the incubus is still feeding from her.  I’m
blocking m-m-most of it.”

“But not all,” I said quietly.

“No, not all,” she said, lip quavering.

Shit, I did not need everyone to start crying.  Not now.

“It’s alright,” I said, forcing a smile.  “You’ve done good,
kid.  Leave the rest to me.”

I pulled out a chair and starting dishing out sandwiches.  I
set Sparky’s on the bench next to me and he dug into it with glee.  At least
someone was happy.

“Come on Forneus,” I said, slapping a hand on the chair. 
“We have a battle to plan.”

He pulled himself away from the spell circle and dropped
into the chair, but kept his gaze on Jinx.

“Where’s Hob?” I asked.

Not that I was disappointed that the brownie hadn’t greeted
us on arrival, but it was odd he wasn’t out here demanding his gift.  I was
worried that I didn’t have a gift suitable for this visit.  What do you give a
grumpy brownie for defiling his home with two demons?  I eyed the hearth, skin
already beginning to itch in anticipation.  I hated being pixed.

“He left right after Kaye, singing something about pie,” she
said, rolling her eyes.

I snorted.  Pie?  Hob must be off to visit Olga, the female
gnome he was crushing on.  What was it with everybody lately?  I was surrounded
by lovesick puppies.  Was there something in the air?

I shook my head.  At least Hob was safe in the suburbs, and
I was off the hook as far as the proper gift went.  Maybe Fate wasn’t such a
bitch after all.

I narrowed my eyes at Arachne, and around a mouthful of
sandwich, asked, “So, how’d you break Kaye’s demon vessel?”

The witch choked on her tea, sputtering and gasping for
breath.  But she wasn’t getting off that easy.  Even Forneus broke his vigil
long enough to turn a questioning eye her way.

“Yes, witch, just how did you release a plague of fire imps
on this city?” he asked.

“I d-d-didn’t,” she stuttered.

I cocked an eyebrow at her over my sandwich.

“Come on, how else would you know about that artifact?” I
asked.  “Seems like way too much of a coincidence.”

I’d come to learn that coincidence usually just meant that
there was a piece of the puzzle that needed putting into place—and there was a
witch sized piece sitting across the table from me.  Plus, I had seen the kid
in the fire imp’s memories.

I waited while Arachne picked at her sandwich, covering her
plate in bread confetti.  She’d break, I just had to be patient.

I was giving her the eye, so was Forneus.  Heck, Sparky had
finished his snack and was peering over the table at her—though he could have
been eyeing her sandwich.  I wasn’t keen on the mayo and mustard sandwiches,
but judging by how fast Sparky ate his, he sure liked them.  Damn the little
guy could pack away the food.

Arachne pushed her plate away and folded her arms across her
chest.  Sparky pointed at the plate and then at his chest and I nodded.

“It wasn’t on purpose,” Arachne said, scowling.

“I never said it was,” I said.

She flicked her eyes to Forneus and then down at her lap.  Her
face flushed and I realized that the kid was embarrassed.  Crap, I couldn’t
deal with another friend having a crush on the demon.  One was bad enough.

At least Jinx was likely to ram him through with a letter
opener now and then.

Forneus, to his credit, hadn’t even noticed.  He was too
busy watching Jinx, as if mesmerized by the rise and fall of her chest.

“Look, this can go one of two ways,” I said.  “You can tell
us, like an adult.  Or you can keep it to yourself and live with the fact that
not telling us might put us all in danger.”

Her eyes widened, but she nodded, finally making eye
contact.

“I never meant to hurt anyone, Ivy, I swear,” she said.

“I don’t doubt that,” I said.  “But one thing you learn in
our world is that we’re bound to hurt someone someday.  It’s part of growing
up.  What matters is how we handle the fallout.”

She swallowed hard, and placed her hands flat on the table. 
Yeah, she was growing up alright.  There was a darkness in her eyes that hadn’t
been there before today—a shadow of pain that would never fully go away.