Fire in the Blood (13 page)

“You can’t—” Kris began to taunt, and I punched him in the throat.

He stumbled away, gasping and choking for air, and I used his distraction to sweep his feet out from under him. Snarling and cursing, I leapt on him, and I grabbed a handful of his filmy shadow-hair and banged his head against the floor over and over until he stopped moving.

“Let me finish it,” Faust said.

I looked up and met his pretty eyes, and did the thing I’d dreaded since I’d learned his True Name—I used it to control him.

“Liam, don’t move. Stay right where you are.”

Magic rocketed through me like a rush of turbo-charged adrenaline, and it was a terribly addictive feeling. I would’ve smiled, if not for the anguish in my lover’s eyes. He’d trusted me, and I betrayed him. He knew what I was about to do, and he was powerless to stop it.

I stumbled to my feet, wincing at the pain in my broken arm. At least I only needed one good hand to use the dagger on Kris. I paused in front of Faust—Liam—who was frozen like a marble statue. I’d rehearsed all the things I wanted to say, and I couldn’t remember a single word.

“I’m sorry,” I started, and then hiccupped a sob. I didn’t cry often, because I was of the opinion that tears don’t solve anything, but considering that these were my last words as a human I figured a few tears were allowed. “I’m so sorry, babe, but I can’t let you do this. I couldn’t live with myself if I let you infect your soul on my behalf. You’re not evil. But I am.” I smiled weakly. “I’ve had this coming for a while now. That’s why it has to be me. I love you, Liam. Maybe we’ll meet again in another life.”

I pried the knife from his hand and stepped away, and I turned my attention to Harvey. Much to my surprise, Harvey hugged me. “It’s been an honor serving you, Mistress. I’ll take good care of George for you.”

“You’ve been a good servant, Harv. And a good friend.”

He smiled his bucktoothed pooka smile. “I’ll never tell a soul.”

I smiled and nodded. Harvey would be all right without me. I was too heartbroken to look at Faust again, and I stared down at Kris’s lifeless body.

“Well, Kris, I guess I’ll see you in hell,” I muttered.

I plunged the dagger into his chest, right where his black heart should be, and magic poured through me and into him. He recovered consciousness long enough to scream in agony, and then his body dissolved into an oily puddle on the library floor. Overwhelming pain exploded through me as a cosmic switch flipped in my soul, and the force of it flung me up, up and away. I crashed through several of Kris’s towering bookcases, and as the pain consumed me I prayed for a quick death instead of a new life as a demon.

Chapter Nine

“She’s got wings!”

My fuzzy thoughts seized hold of the word
wings
and I groaned. Lord and Lady, I was a damn succubus. How was that possible? Sure I’d had a few lovers in my time, and I was a fan of sex, but not so much that it made sense for me to become a succubus. Why couldn’t I have been transformed into something cool, like a vengeance demon? They were always fun at parties.

“Mistress, can you hear me?”

Frowning, I tried to blink the darkness away. It sounded like Harvey, but not. The voice was too smooth, like he’d gotten hold of a magical cough drop and it cleared up what ailed him. Plus that didn’t make any sense. If I was a succubus I shouldn’t still be in the shadow realm, because succubae were native to another hell entirely.

“Patience, darling, we can’t linger here,” Faust warned.

That startled me enough that I finally opened my eyes, and I spotted two figures crouched a few feet away from me. One I recognized as my sweetie, but the other was tall, platinum blond and naked except for a black nylon messenger bag strategically placed in front of his naughty bits. My frown deepened.

“Mistress?” he said.

Then I spotted the ears—the impossibly long, pointed ears. “Harvey?” He nodded. “You’re…”

“An elf,” he replied with a wide grin. “And you appear to be a faerie.”

That was a thing that could not be. To prove him wrong, I looked down at myself. I’d crash landed in an awkward heap at the foot of another bookcase, covered in moldy, ancient texts. My flames were out, but I didn’t see any obvious differences in my body. My broken arm had healed, but my hands appeared the same. Of course with my fireproof suit on there wasn’t much to see of me other than black fabric. Succubae had cloven feet, and I was relieved to see that mine were still human-shaped.

“Come here, and I’ll take us home.” Faust held a hand out to me, and though I had no idea what was going on, I trusted him.

I continued to feel strange as I wobbled upright and stumbled over to him. He caught my hands and held them, and the three of us vanished from Kris’s library and reappeared in our suite at the Drake.

“Harvey needs clothes,” I blurted.

Not much was making sense, but nakedness was an easily solved problem. Plus it was seriously distracting. I’d gotten used to his skinless state, and I’d never thought of the fact that he didn’t wear any clothing. Modesty was a human trait, and though I knew he was male, as a demon Harvey didn’t have any dangly bits to cover. I didn’t want to see if the same was true as an elf.

“Of course.” Faust nodded, and a suitcase appeared next to nude-and-improved Harvey. “If you would be so kind as to give us some time alone?”

“Sure. Just keep the volume down for once.” Harvey picked up his suitcase and turned to leave for his adjoining suite, mooning us both in the process. Devoted as I was to my honey, I did note that he had a nice ass, and then felt guilty for having looked.

“Why is he not a demon?” I asked.

“I assume it has something to do with your transformation, and the connection between you,” Faust replied.

“How so? I’m supposed to be a demon now too.”

He took my hand and led me into the bathroom, and I got my first look at my new self in the mirror. I did indeed have wings. Enormous, flaming butterfly wings. Fiera wings, just like my faerie relatives.

“Holy shit!”

I pulled my specs off to get a better look, and instead of glowing yellow eyes, I found that my eyes had returned to their original light green. Curious, I stripped off my suit and discovered that all of my ink was gone. All of my favors, wards and whatnot had vanished, leaving skin as blank as the day I was born.

“This makes no sense,” I said, shaking my head.

Faust cleared his throat—judging by his flushed face he must’ve been distracted by my sudden nakedness—and he unbuttoned his shirt collar. “I think I may know what happened.”

“Can I fly with these?” I asked. It was off the subject, but—wings!

“Yes, and I will teach you later, but first, I’ll explain what happened, and then you’re going to explain why you broke our agreement.”

He pointed an accusing finger at me, and I nodded dutifully. Then I leapt on him and kissed him, filled with joy and passion and general gratefulness to be alive and not a demon. He smiled and held me close. I was willing to bet he had previous experience in making out with a girl with wings.

“I love you,” I said.

“I love you too. Now pay attention,” he scolded. I nodded again, but was then distracted by the realization that my taste buds had probably been cured along with the rest of me.

“Wait! Food!” I gasped. “I bet I can taste food again. Quick, conjure something chocolate. Wait, champagne! And strawberries!” After all, this deserved a celebration, didn’t it? I’d always wondered what champagne tasted like.

Though exasperated, he obliged me. Faust conjured a silver plate with two glasses of champagne surrounded by chocolate-covered strawberries, and I descended upon it like a starving woman. The first bite was cold and sweet—pure heaven. While I indulged in the blissfulness of it, he used my distraction to continue his explanation.

“You’re my soul mate, and you’re faerie blooded. When you sacrificed that bit of soul, you didn’t become a demon because there was more faerie in you than human or demon, because of your connection to me.”

“And Harvey came along for the ride?” I asked.

“It would appear so. I assume because you didn’t become a demon, it altered your connection, and restored him to his elven state.”

I’d made the elves unextinct. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that…I wondered how Harvey felt about it. He’d still be lonely as before, and I doubted we’d be able to unextinct a female for him, but like faeries, elves could breed with humans. If we didn’t keep an eye on him we could have a gaggle of half-elves running around.

Kids…aww, hell.

“So I’m one hundred percent faerie now?”

“Quite.”

“But that means we can’t have children,” I pointed out, though it pained me to do so.

Faust pondered that silently while I eased the pain by gorging on chocolate-covered strawberries. Aside from the sterility problem, this was an amazing gift. It was like being reborn—I’d been given a second chance.

“I think we might be able to,” he said when he finally spoke up.

“How?”

His brow rose. “You do know where children come from, don’t you?”

I whapped his arm and he grinned mischievously. “That’s not what I meant.”

“Of course. You’re not a born faerie, and you weren’t involved in the formation of Faerie, so you shouldn’t be affected by the curse,” he explained.

“But aren’t you affected?”

“I’ve never had a problem fathering children.”

Right…Lord and Lady, I really was going to be Simon St. Jerome’s step-mom.
Wrong.
So very wrong. I shuddered at the thought, and forced my mind away from it, concentrating on the giddy idea that I would be able to live happily ever after with my soul mate. As long as the apocalypse didn’t happen.

“Can I still use my summoner magic?” I asked.

“Possibly?” he guessed.

Hmm. If I had super-powered warding spells, I could keep the demons out of our territory and not exhaust myself in the process. We’d have to try that later. I leaned close and nuzzled his neck.
Much later…

“Patience,” he said, his tone scolding. “We agreed that I would kill the shadow demon.”

“I couldn’t let you. I couldn’t let you poison your soul like that. You’re not evil. I am.”

“Not anymore,” he pointed out.

“True. So this is what we’re going to do. First, you have to teach me how to turn these wings off before I burn the hotel down. Second, I’m going to need a dress. A white dress.”

“A white dress?” he repeated, confused.

“Yes. You promised to marry me, remember?” I reminded. “And then I promised that if we lived through this, we’d get married in Vegas. Harvey can be our witness.”

Faust grinned. “Then we had best get started.”

Epilogue

My honey and I popped into the room, and I had to admit that Zachary Harrison’s office was much more old-fashioned than I expected. Of course he had many offices, and this one was in his mansion in Oak Brook, one of his few buildings that didn’t have a faerie ward around it. Faerie wards were on my list of new least favorite things.

“This place doesn’t seem you. Have you thought of redecorating?” I asked.

Harrison’s blond head rose as he looked up from his computer screen, and he stared at me. “How did you get in here?”

“Flew,” I said, motioning at my wings. Faust snickered.

“Patience?” Harrison’s jaw dropped. I was getting that a lot lately.

“That’s Auntie Patience to you, buddy.”

I held up my left hand and showed off my blingtastic engagement ring and wedding band. They were very sparkly, and sparkly was on my list of new most favorite things. I had a lot of new favorite things. Becoming a faerie had damaged my brain and now my thoughts ran at warp speed, but for the most part it was positive change. I hoped.

Faust approached his nephew’s desk. “What my blushing bride is attempting to say is that Patience and I are soul mates, and now husband and wife, and that makes her your kin. If you don’t call off your assassins, you will become a kinslayer.”

The vampire scowled. “Is that all?”

“No. I need a new office. You should be able to handle that, being a real estate mogul and all. I’m thinking something with a view of the lake,” I suggested, and his scowl deepened.

“I encourage you to leave your other targets alone as well, because we should be focused on fighting our enemies, and not each other,” Faust added.

“Right. I’ve got the wards covered for now, but we still have a hunter problem,” I said. With my new faerie superpowers I could maintain the wards with greater ease and banish more demons, but I was still a one-woman army. As long as the Prometheans were out there, all magicians continued to be at risk.

“Your concerns are noted,” Harrison said, his voice a low growl. His attention returned to his computer screen as though Faust and I had ceased to exist.

That didn’t sound very cooperative. I began eyeing the office for something flammable.

Faust sighed. “You’re being stubborn, Zachary.”

“That runs in the family,” he replied dryly.