die, but I imagine that most of the creature’s victims would prefer to live.”
I took a long, appreciative swig of tea and whiskey. “Is there any way to get rid of this demon, or will it keep feeding indefinitely?”
“I don’t know. I was about to do a search on magematrix.net when you thundered in here.”
“Good idea.” I took my mug and the plate of scones and followed her to her desk.
She opened her laptop and used her fingerprint ID to enter magematrix.net. The site is a very, very private database and social network for Guardians, who are spread all over the world these days. I don’t think there is a better source of information on magic and impossible events anywhere—though I’m not sure. Any equivalent stash of knowledge would be just as secret.
Lady Beth typed “succubus” into the search engine, then scrolled through the results. “Not a very large entry,” she murmured. “Some of this data goes back centuries.”
I peered over her shoulder to read. The oldest entries had been translated into modern English, with links to the original text if someone wanted to consult that. “So these demons steal human life force through dream sex until they become powerful enough to acquire physical bodies.”
She clicked through to a section of original text. “This seventeenth-century report claims that sex demons are escapees from hell. They long to acquire human bodies because that makes the pleasure of their wickedness so much more powerful.”
“How do we get rid of this one?”
“A sufficiently powerful mage might be able to dismiss a sex demon from the body it’s taken over, but there are no details.” Bethany started clicking links at the bottom of the page to see if they led anywhere interesting.
“So maybe we could do an exorcism, if we knew how. This is beginning to sound like a low-rent horror film.”
“Truth is stranger than fiction,” she murmured. “The earliest account says that when the demon is dismissed from the body it inhabits, it’s sucked down to hell forever.”
“No way of checking that part, of course.”
Lady Beth leaned back in her computer chair and eyed the computer thoughtfully. “Our ancestors were happy to assume that demons came from hell, but today we want different explanations. These beings are quite rare. Are they space aliens? From another dimension that lies alongside this one? Or have we been watching too much
“Probably,” I said pragmatically. “A parallel dimension is just as much jargon as saying that these critters are from hell. Let’s bag this one before we worry about tagging it.”
Her silver brows arched. “Time to scout out the demon?”
“The sooner the better,” I agreed.
Bethany nodded and swiveled her chair to face me so we could hold hands. We always did this for particularly difficult cases. As I touched her thin, slightly arthritic fingers with mine, I felt energy spark between us. It’s been amazing to work with Lady Beth. Certain Guardian talents follow gender, and most hunters are male. But Bethany could hunt with the best of us.
I closed my eyes and visualized a map of the city. The mental image was like an aerial photo, enhanced by my own experience of many of those streets. When I had visited the scenes of the suspicious deaths, I’d picked up traces of disturbing energy, and with Bethany’s help, that came sharply into focus. “There’s a nasty, twisted red energy spike not far away. Can you feel it?”
“That’s our demon,” Lady Beth said, all cool, focused hunter. “And she’s become very powerful. Let me see if I can learn more…”
I felt my partner’s energy stretch out as delicately as a budding flower—and faster than thought, her probe was seized like a swimmer chomped by a killer crocodile. Lady Beth tried to yank free, but the scarlet energy roared hungrily along the trail and stabbed into us like a lightning bolt. Bethany screamed and I blacked out, every cell in my body shocked, as if I were being electrocuted.
I regained awareness to find that we’d both been blasted to the floor. Bethany lay beside me, her face paper white and blood splashed around her. “Lady Beth!”
As I scrambled up, I saw that the blood was pouring from a vicious slash in her left arm. I grabbed a tea towel and turned it into an impromptu tourniquet. At the same time, I gave a furious mental shout.
My younger brother, Charlie, is my best friend, except for Lady Beth. He’s also the most powerful Guardian healer in New York, and he works as an ER resident in a hospital only a few blocks away.
My mind touched his and I felt his fatigue. He was just leaving work after a twenty-four-hour shift, and more than ready to get home to his apartment and his gorgeous Guardian fiancee. But he came alert when we connected. Sensing his question, I shot back,
It wasn’t really telepathy, and not really words, but we knew each other so well that he understood the gist of it.
Most Guardians have at least a little healing power, and I’m no exception. I used what talent I had while desperately trying to staunch the flow of blood. Bethany was cold and shocky, and it looked like a sizable chunk of flesh had been torn out of her arm. Was the demon an eater of human flesh?
Her lashes fluttered up. She looked so damnably frail. “Don’t worry, David,” she whispered, her voice scarcely audible. “I’ve had a good life.” It sounded perilously like dying words. “We’ve made a good team.”
“Damn it, you can’t die on me, Bethany Sterling,” I swore. “Don’t you
Luckily, Charlie arrived then. Like me, he had a key to Bethany’s house since we’re the closest thing she has to family in New York. He’d brought a backpack of first aid supplies with him, but his first move was to drop to his knees by Lady Beth and put one hand on her wounded arm and the other on her forehead.
I could feel the healing energy like a tidal wave of white light. At first it was a struggle, light against dark. I sensed the moment when his healing drove off the shadow of death. He gave a ragged sigh and sat back on his heels as he reached for his backpack. “What happened?”
I gave him a quick rundown of the situation while he cleaned and bandaged the wound. “Nasty,” he said. “We’re lucky Lady Beth is still with us. I want to check her into the hospital overnight at least. At her age, this is a dangerous injury.”
“Nonsense, Charles,” Bethany said in a surprisingly strong voice. “Hospitals make me ill. I’ll stay here, thank you very much. A cup of tea will fix me up quite nicely.”
I put an arm around her shoulders to gently help her to a sitting position. Her bones were as delicate as a songbird’s. “Maybe we should take you there, just in case.”
There was nothing wrong with her willpower. She fixed my brother with a basilisk stare. “I’m in better shape than you, Charles. You saved my life, for which I’m suitably grateful, but you’re so tired you’re a menace to society until you get at least twelve hours’ sleep. Now give me some nice drug to dull the pain and go home.”
Unlike me, Charlie knows when argument is pointless. “Yes, ma’am,” he said meekly. “But I want you to stay with her tonight, Dave. Just in case.”
“Will do.” Not that he needed to ask. No way would I leave Bethany alone after an attack by a demon.
Charlie zipped up his first aid gear. His scrubs were bloody, and not just from Lady Beth’s injury. Wearily he got to his feet, almost falling. I caught his arm. “I’ll call you a cab.” He didn’t argue about that, either.
I helped Bethany onto the sofa and refilled the electric teakettle. Since Charlie was gray with fatigue, I carried his backpack outside. “Thanks for coming,” I said as we reached the sidewalk. “I’ve never been so scared in my life.”
“Lady Beth won’t be with us forever, Dave,” my brother said quietly. “She’s very old. If you hadn’t bandaged her up and called me, we could have lost her tonight.”
“I know,” I said brusquely, not wanting to think of a world where there wasn’t a Bethany Sterling to laugh with. I’d had my share of age-appropriate girlfriends, but none were as easy to be with as Lady Beth. Or as much fun. “But this wasn’t her time.”
“For which I’m glad. But her time can’t be too far off.”
I knew that, just as I knew that her inevitable death would devastate me. But pain was better than not caring.
