I nodded. “Yeah, I remember.”
“Well, the answer to that question, is not much. Kirsten’s magik is far closer to that of the Fae than anything you’ve manifested. But the question you just asked tells me that my little girl has grown up.”
“Mom, I’m thirty-five years old.”
“I know, and it’s about time you started asking adult questions. Dani, one of the inherent gifts or talents of the elves is empathy. We feel not just ourselves but the world around us and other creatures. Personally, I’ve always thought that is why you became a cop. Even when you were very young, you wanted to help people and animals in need. You always got so indignant when you thought someone had been wronged, and you wanted to fix it. You almost never get angry—I mean truly angry—when someone hurts you or does something mean to you, but if someone weak or helpless gets hurt, it sends you into a rage.”
She let that sink in, then asked, “So, who told you that? Why are you asking?”
“Uh, do you know anything about demons? Specifically, lust demons?”
She chuckled and took a sip of her tea. “Lust demons, or more powerful demons using lust as a weapon? Because minor lust demons and sex demons don’t have enough power to influence mages. Certainly not enough to influence you.”
“More powerful demons, I guess. Like a major fire demon or demon lord.”
Her head jerked up. “Demon lord? Have you been playing games with one?”
I felt embarrassed, but the way she was staring at me, I didn’t have any choice but to answer her. “I guess I have. It’s part of an investigation, and, well, he seems to have a thing for me.”
“I’ll bet he does. And how he makes you feel has you frightened out of your mind.”
I nodded.
She sighed again. “Dani, a couple of years after your dad left us, I was feeling lonely and made the mistake of getting involved with a demon lord. I kept telling myself it was a mistake, but I kept going back again and again. I finally managed to break it off, but it’s a kind of addiction.” She never referred to Dad being dead. More than twenty years later, she still held out hope that he lived.
“How long did it last?”
“Two years. Every time I saw him, I’d swear afterward that was the last time. But three, four weeks later, I’d find myself back there.”
“Is the demon lord still around?”
“Oh, sure he is. He runs that club, Lucifer’s Lair, down by the harbor.”
Oh, shit. One thing you never want in your mind is the image of your mother having orgasmic sex with anyone, let alone a demon. But that was exactly the picture that popped up.
“You, I mean, did you ever… uh, I mean you didn’t really have sex with him—you know, sex-sex, did you?”
“Have actual sex with him? Oh, hell no. I’m still alive. Dani, they feed off strong emotions. The lust, the pleasure. When a demon has actual penetrative sex with a human, they do it so they can feed off the terror and pain as the human dies. Your demon can do that with any human, so I doubt he’d do it to you unless you enraged him.”
A thought struck me. “Remember me telling you about that missing girl, Sarah Benning? She’s an empathic projector.”
Mom snorted. “I’m sure there’s a huge market among upper-level demons for that talent. And if humans consider her pretty, that would only enhance her value.”
We talked for another hour, and she told me what she’d done to break the cycle with Ashvial. Nothing earth shaking or particularly magikal, just some common sense things. Among other things, she found a boyfriend who lasted for a few years. I remembered Joe, and he was a nice guy. He finally got tired of waiting for her to make a commitment and married a nice girl and had a bunch of babies.
Chapter 38
After that eye-0pening conversation, I collected my guard detail and rode over to Findlay House. Usually, the route I took to the estate was from the city in the south, but from Mom’s house, it was closer to take back roads going west.
The weather was fairly nice, and I was distracted—thinking about what my mom had told me—when the world suddenly shook. It sounded like thunder from a lightning strike right next to me, but with a clear sky I figured it must have been a massive explosion. I managed to control the bike and slowed down, looking around and expecting to spot smoke somewhere close.
The guardian riding with me yelled, “That was magik!”
I slowed down even more. We came around a bend and saw a large SUV burning in the middle of the road. Behind it was a luxury limousine and then another SUV. The occupants of the vehicles were either hiding behind their cars or seeking shelter in the trees lining the road. All except for one.
My grandmother stood beside her limo with her arms raised, dressed to go to afternoon tea. Flickers of electric energy crackled around her. Fireballs, lightning, and energy beams flashed back and forth between her guardians and people hiding in the woods, but she didn’t flinch. As we approached, Olivia brought her fists down in an emphatic, pounding gesture. A huge bolt of lightning flashed out of a clear sky and crashed into the woods across the road from her. The thunder was deafening, and the world shook again.
All the magikal activity on that side of the road ceased. Olivia leaned back against her car and folded her arms. She said something, but I couldn’t hear what, and her guardians raced toward the woods.
The guardian riding with me was speaking into his phone. We slowed and stopped in front of her.
“Are you the cavalry?” Olivia asked me, a crooked grin on her face. “You’re late.”
I
