Demon Seed

  That left Will. He didn’t come immediately, requiring Ryan to summon him twice more before he appeared. He had put on shorts and a T-shirt and looked very angry.

  “This better be good,” he growled. Then he saw the others. He looked at Ryan.

  Ryan nodded toward the empty chair on his right as he silently erected the barrier.

  Will sensed it, his eyes swinging toward the ceiling. “What the fuck?”

  “Please, Will. Sit.”

  Reluctantly, he did.

  Ryan nodded toward the glass in front of Will. “Trust me. Large swallows.”

  Will slowly reached out, took it, then finished half of it with a wince.

  Ryan took a deep breath as he looked at the men gathered around the table. Tosko personally stepped behind Will, the strongest, with the other Enforcers each taking a different man. Gery was seated on Will’s other side, so hopefully his presence would help keep Will there.

  Forcing his voice to stay low and calm, Ryan spoke. “What I have to say is very difficult. It will no doubt engender very strong and valid emotions. However, I must speak first and foremost as head of The Firm in this matter. As head of The Firm, I am commanding all of you to remain here until I release you from this meeting. Understood?”

  Everyone nodded. Will and Aidan nodded last after exchanging a concerned look across the table.

  Ryan continued. “I received some very upsetting news today. It answered quite a few questions and shed a lot of light on issues that some of you are aware of.” He turned his gaze on Will. “It also personally concerns you. And Aidan.”

  Will’s expression darkened. “What? What’s wrong? Are Kal and Jeff in danger?”

  “I think we are all in danger, but that’s not the worst issue at the moment.”

  Ryan started as far back as he knew, with what Cyadna had told him about Bera’s motives and joining forces with Boorman.

  Will studied his glass of bourbon, his knuckles white with tension as his fingers wrapped around it.

  “So,” Ryan continued, “Bera’s plan was to have Abby abducted and ransom her back to us.” Ryan reached out and grabbed Will’s arm, felt the tension flowing through him like an electric current. “According to the Selkie, Bera claimed she never meant for Abby to die. Bera was going to force you to impregnate her. She knew Abby wouldn’t call out to you for fear of your life. She never suspected Abby would call out to me for help. My appearance wasn’t in the plan. Bera’s hired hands apparently spooked.”

  “Holy shit,” Aidan whispered. He took another huge gulp of bourbon, his hands trembling so badly he had to use both of them to hold the glass steady. When he set the glass down, Purson refilled it for him.

  Will’s voice sounded tight with rage. “Bera is behind Abby’s murder? All so she can fucking get pregnant?”

  “Apparently,” Ryan said. “She thinks having a line heir will guarantee her status and give her a chance to take control of The Firm.” He sensed Will wasn’t going to try to leave. At least, not yet. He released his friend’s arm and leaned back in his chair. “As we all know, Tanukis are notorious for outrageously poor planning, although this by far exceeds anything ever undertaken in their race’s existence. Obviously Bera failed to realize a line heir doesn’t in any way guarantee her control of The Firm. Far from it.”

  Will’s gray eyes darkened to nearly black. “She murdered Abby,” he said.

  “Yes she was, it turns out, behind it. With this Boorman’s support or help.”

  After a long, uneasy moment, Will quietly spoke. “Promise me one thing, Ami.”

  “Anything, brother.”

  Will looked at Ryan. “I get to be the one to slit her throat and watch her die.”

  Ryan gripped his arm again. “On the River Styx, brother. I swear to you, she is yours.”

  “Not if I kill her first,” Aidan growled. Ryan looked at him. The normally gentle man’s face had flushed with anger, his butterscotch eyes darkening to a deep brown matching his tiger’s-eye amulet.

  Ryan hadn’t seen that look in Aidan’s eyes since…

  Since their days as Enforcers, in the years immediately following Chloe’s death.

  Aidan looked across the table at Will. “If I catch her before you, I will not promise to keep her alive until you get there. I’m killing the bitch where she stands. I’ll rip her head off her shoulders with my bare fucking hands.” Tears welled in his eyes. Ryan suspected he was close to revealing the secret he’d promised to keep.

  Ryan couldn’t blame him. Knowing Abby had been Chloe changed the entire situation for Aidan. To Aidan, his sister hadn’t been murdered once, but twice. Then to realize the woman responsible for Abby’s murder had actually laid her hands on his love…

  Aidan viciously shook his head. “I’ll fucking kill her!” he screamed as he jumped from his seat and reached for his amulet.

  “Stop him!” Ryan ordered.

  Two Enforcers grabbed Aidan as Ryan lunged and caught his arm, forcing Aidan to look at him.

  Aidan wept, screaming, “She killed her! That fucking bitch killed her, Ami! You’ve got to let me take her out!”

  Stunned, Will stared across the table. This was unexpected. Ryan had thought Will would be the one trying to go, and Aidan helping keep him there.

  It took Purson’s help to calm Aidan. Ryan leaned in close once Aidan was back in his chair and grabbed his face with both hands.

  He stared into Aidan’s eyes and silently reminded him, “You cannot say it. Not in front of Will. Especially not like this. You cannot tell him Abby was Chloe. He cannot know. It might taint his bond with Kal. If you love them, you cannot tell them.”

  Like cold water, it snapped Aidan out of his fury and left him sobbing. Ryan hugged him tightly as Aidan sobbed. “She…could have killed Jeff, or Kal that day… She took… she took… her… Abby…away from us…”

  Apparently still in shock, Will numbly stood. He rounded the table and wrapped his arms around Aidan and Ryan. “It’s okay, Aid,” he whispered. “It’s okay, buddy. You and me together, we’ll take her out. You and me.”

  “And me,” Ryan whispered.

  Will closed his eyes as a single tear slid down his face. “And you. My brothers.”

  They pulled themselves together and returned to their seats, Aidan now wiping his tears and blowing his nose into a dishrag Ryan brought from the kitchen. Ryan finished the story as he knew it, added a few of his suppositions into the mix, and opened the floor for discussion.

  Purson fingered his amulet and thoughtfully shook his head. “This doesn’t sound right. If the guy is so fucking smart, why’s he using a Tanuki half-breed? Especially Bera? He’s planning a war in his own realm and taking over the Earth at the same time? This…there’s something we’re missing here.”

  Purson looked around the table. “You don’t fucking fight two huge-ass battles at the same time, especially if one is in a realm where you lose your damn powers and can get your ass handed back to you on a silver platter. And doubly especially when we can cross over and kick their asses there. From what I understand, native Tavarian powers are about the same as ours when we cross, and they’re powerless over here. So it’s not like they have a supernatural advantage over us on their home turf. We’re missing something big.”

  “I agree,” Ryan said. “Our job now is to find out what that something is, and quickly.” He leaned back in his chair and held his own amulet. “I’d be willing to bet that something is a secret Boorman has withheld from Bera. I suspect she is merely a pawn in a larger plan he has formulated, but she doesn’t realize it.”

  Purson continued to finger his amulet, his eyes glazed over in contemplation. “Those fuckers that day at Will’s, the bodies. The ones you killed after they got Abby. Those weren’t Tavarians. I don’t know what they were, they might have crossed from Tavares, but they weren’t native to that realm. I’ve never seen anything like them before. Do we even know what this asshole Boorman is? We might be under a false assumpti
on that he’s a native there.”

  Gery broke his silence. “We need to protect them.” Everyone looked at him. “Kal and Jeff,” he clarified. “Bera might try again to go through them. Where are they now?”

  “They are safe,” Tosko said. “I already have others standing guard.”

  “Gentlemen, here’s the dilemma,” Ryan said. “We cannot worry Jeff and Kal. Especially not Kal this close to her father’s death. She is still emotionally fragile.” He looked at Will. “Would you agree?”

  Will nodded but didn’t speak.

  Ryan sighed. “I am truly sorry to dump this matter in your laps, as it were, but you know my position. I will not tolerate this kind of situation, especially treachery from within resulting in the death of one of our own. Harming the family, especially the soul mate, of one of us is equal to attacking us personally.” His face darkened considerably. “We will have our revenge, we will eliminate Bera once and for all, and we will prevail over whoever this Boorman is.”

  He looked at Purson. “Your job is to find out as much about him as you can. Origin. Purpose. Strengths and weaknesses.” He set his jaw. “Family even. It’s personal at this point. Unless proven otherwise, there are no innocents where Boorman is concerned. I’ll help you cross so you can speak with Cyadna personally.”

  Osmond smirked. “Slash and burn, baby.” He took a swig of his bourbon. “Back to the old days and the old ways.” He took another deep swallow, grimaced, and looked around the table. “Can’t say I’m glad we’re here but you can count on me.”

  Nods and noises of agreement echoed around the table.

  Ryan eyed his men. “Yes. All of you are well aware of the past and how leadership in The Firm has evolved. As threats have decreased, we’ve been able to move away from that kind of enforcement and turn to more practical, diplomatic solutions to ensure peace here in this realm. However, I am not exaggerating when I say we are now under a return of our former scorched-earth policy, as it were.”

  Aidan spoke, his voice low and harsh, his eyes still dark and angry. “The dark and crazy days are back with a vengeance,” he muttered.

  “Absolutely,” Ryan agreed, his green eyes darkening to the shade of bloodstone. “With complete and utter vengeance.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Feeling bone weary, Kal settled back in her chair in front of the bank of monitors and closed her eyes. It’d been a long drive to South Dakota, the first of five stops in a jaunt through western haunts the Otherworlds show would feature. It was nice getting back out here to revisit some places they’d seen on their honeymoon.

  There’d been an early morning meeting at Ryan’s a few weeks before, with all the boys in attendance. Well, the archdemon boys. Since then, Kal sensed a hidden heaviness among all of them, including Purs and Gery. When she questioned them about it, they all denied anything was wrong.

  Strange.

  They assured her it was simply routine business for The Firm. Somehow, she didn’t quite believe them, although she didn’t want to accuse them of lying to her.

  She sent her mind out, knew Will was with Aidan on the top floor of the old three-story hotel, going over final arrangements for the night with the network film crew. Purs and Gery were taking a break outside. They hadn’t gone dark yet, but soon would.

  She sensed rather than heard Jeff walk into the room, alone.

  “Hey, Jeff,” she said.

  He softly chuckled. “That’s spooky.” He sat next to her.

  She grinned, finally opening her eyes and looking at him. “Yeah, tell me about it.” She patted his thigh. “Hopefully, one day soon, you, too, shall experience the joys of soul mate supersensory perception.”

  Jeff laughed, then blushed. His voice dropped. “Um, yeah. Can I ask you a personal question along those lines?”

  Kal sensed his nervousness. She sat up straight. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing’s wrong. I guess.” He met her gaze. “Do you hear Will’s thoughts?”

  She nodded. “If I’m actively listening to him, especially if he’s trying to speak to me.” There was more to his question. “Why?”

  He shrugged. “What about random stuff? Like if he’s not really thinking to you, do you pick up stuff sometimes?”

  She nodded again. “Yeah. If he’s not guarding his thoughts I do. Why?”

  He took a deep breath, reddening even further. “When you first got together… Did it feel like you couldn’t keep your hands off each other?”

  She smiled. “Ohhh yeah.”

  He wasn’t finished. She waited him out. “What else happened? Like better hearing and stuff?”

  “Yeah. I can hear things now I never could before, sense things. Ryan told me everyone’s different though. It depends on their soul mate’s strengths and their own latent abilities. Why?”

  He shrugged. “If I ask you something else, will you promise not to say anything to anyone?”

  “Of course.”

  “I feel all that now, with Aidan. Since… Ever since the first night we slept together. I feel different. Like I’m changed. How will I know when we become soul mates if I feel like that now and we’re just living together?” He picked at his fingernails. “What if he decides he can’t go through with it and do it? What if he won’t take me after all? I think it’d kill me, Kal. Just the thought of ever losing him is a physical pain, like a knife stabbing me in the heart. I’ve never felt like this before.”

  “Oh, sweetie!” She enveloped him in a hug. “Don’t worry about that. Doofalicious is just a worrywart, that’s all. He loves you as much as you love him. There’s no way he’ll not keep you around forever, believe me.”

  “Yeah?”

  She sat back and smiled. “Yeah. Besides, it already feels like you’re one of the family. He’s just scared he’s going to hurt you, so he’s taking his sweet time talking himself into it, trying to prove to himself that he’s worthy enough of you. In a way, it’s kind of sweet.”

  “He’d never hurt me. I wish I could convince him of that.” His eyes flicked to the ceiling. “They’re on their way back down.”

  She frowned. “How do you know—” The two-way radio squawked, interrupting her.

  Aidan. “Hey, sweet cheeks. You awake?”

  She grabbed the radio. “Yeah, I’m here.” Jeff stood and left the room before she could stop him.

  “We’re on our way back down,” Aidan said. “We’re ready to go dark. Want to round up the troops?”

  She was going to do that, but noticed on one of the monitors that Jeff had stopped by the building’s front door and was motioning someone to come inside. Probably Purs and Gery.

  She couldn’t take her eyes from the monitor. “Yeah. We’ll get everyone together in the lobby.”

  “Aidan out.”

  She set the radio down and watched. Then Jeff looked at the camera, as if looking right at her. He smiled and shrugged.

  Kal laughed as she shook her head.

  The feed was silent, but she suspected he wasn’t speaking out loud anyway when he mouthed the words, “See, I told you so.”

  * * * *

  The old hotel did have some residual energy and one intelligent entity. It took Aidan and Purs working in tandem to coax the old cowboy’s spirit into materializing enough they could capture some EVPs and video with the FLIR camera.

  Unlike Bobby Martinez, this spirit was well aware of his state and perfectly happy to stay there. He’d been a cantankerous man in life, and proved more so in death. Apparently he enjoyed scaring the crap out of visitors even though he couldn’t physically touch or harm them.

  Jeff spent a lot of the investigation at base with Kal, where they silently exchanged smiles. A little before their first break of the night, Kal nudged him. “So what’re the Powerball numbers this weekend?”

  He laughed and shook his head. “I’m telling you, it’s freaky. My problem is like you, I’d never had a serious relationship before Aidan. I don’t know what’s normal and what’
s…demonic.” He laughed again. “Jeez, that sounds weird, doesn’t it?”

  “What?”

  “Using that word in a positive context.” He swapped out a DVD on one of the recording drives and labeled the full one with a marker. “If I’m feeling like this now, what’s it going to be like later?”

  “Fun,” Kal said.

  Jeff grinned. “Yeah. True dat.”

  * * * *

  Later, Kal was sitting alone at base, idly fingering her amulet. Every so often she swore she felt warm flashes from it. Maybe that was the answer to Jeff’s question. Maybe the talisman Jeff wore helped him tune in to Aidan, even if it wasn’t an amulet.

  She closed her eyes and suddenly, her mind drifted to Ryan. The amulet definitely warmed in her hand as a swirl of images rapidly swept through her mind, unbidden, like the dreams she’d had during her honeymoon.

  When she opened her eyes, Ryan was lounging against the far wall. Somehow his sudden appearance didn’t startle or surprise her.

  “Hello, love.” It’d been over a week since she’d last seen him. Now that he was here, she’d be lying if she said she hadn’t missed his company.

  “Hey. What are you doing here?”

  He shrugged and pushed off from the wall, walked over, and sat next to her. “I couldn’t sleep. I thought perhaps you could use some company.”

  She studied him, her fingers still playing with the amulet around her neck. Her thoughts had been of just that, she wished she could talk to him, simply shoot the breeze.

  “That’s plain…weird.”

  “Weird how, love? That I felt like saying hi?”

  She slowly shook her head. “That you showed up exactly when I was thinking…” Then it struck her. “Did I just summon you?”

  He playfully smiled. “Was that your intention?”

  Now she felt guilty. “Oh, man! I’m sorry, Ry. You weren’t asleep, were you?”

  * * * *

  He gently patted the back of her hand. “No, I was awake, truly.”